West Virginia: Paranormal Gateway by Headline Books / Zoom Into Books

FRED SALUGA

Fred Saluga has been investigating Bigfoot, UFOs, and other paranormal phenomena for over 50 years. He is a licensed private investigator in the States of West Virginia, Florida, and Pennsylvania and a retired law enforcement officer and Chief of Police in Fayette County, PA. He currently serves as the State Director for the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) in WV and the Assistant State Director of MUFON in PA. Fred has investigated over 500 UFO cases and established MUFON’s Humanoid Research Group, which oversees the investigation of humanoid beings reported as UFO occupants. He is also concurrently serving as the Director of the West Virginia Center for Unexplained Events, an organization dedicated to investigating sightings of Bigfoot, cryptids, ghosts, and other anomalous entities. He is the Director of the Fayette County, PA Bigfoot Research Project, headquartered in Uniontown, PA.

WEST VIRGINIA: PARANORMAL GATEWAY

Readers of Fred Saluga’s West Virginia: Paranormal Gateway will quickly come to the realization that when one thinks of this beautiful “Almost Heaven” state, it can in no way be separated from the long-enduring legends of sundry phenomena that have occurred here, such as Bigfoot, cryptids, ghosts, monsters, UFOs, etc., dating all the way back to its Civil War battle-born statehood acquired on June 20, 1863. Renowned Ufologist and national award-winning author Dr. Raymond A. Keller is the contributing editor and authored the introduction of this well-researched collection of paranormal events in what some people call ‘spooky’ West Virginia.

FRED SALUGA

WEST VIRGINIA:

Paranormal Gateway FRED SALUGA CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

DR. RAYMOND KELLER

Headline Books Terra Alta, WV

Paranormal: West Virginia by Fred Saluga Contributing Editor: Dr. Raymond Keller copyright ©2023 Fred Saluga All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any other form or for any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage system, without written permission from Headline Books. To order additional copies of this book or for book publishing information, or to contact the author: Headline Books P.O. Box 52 Terra Alta, WV 26764 www.HeadlineBooks.com Email: mybook@headlinebooks.com

ISBN 13: 9781958914144 Library of Congress Control Number: 2023933667

P R I N T E D I N T H E U N I T E D S TAT E S O F A M E R I C A

This book is dedicated to all my family, friends, and fellow paranormal researchers who have stood with me throughout the years and without whose support this book would not have been possible.

TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction by Dr. Raymond A. Keller....................................................................7 Recurring Civil War Ghosts........................................................................................9 Super-Horse............................................................................................................... 12 Sea Serpent................................................................................................................. 15 Phantom Airship....................................................................................................... 17 Birdman...................................................................................................................... 20 “Space Guardians, Assemble!”................................................................................. 22 West Virginia Ufology.............................................................................................. 62 Alien Vampires.......................................................................................................... 70 Veggie Tales, Part I.................................................................................................... 72 Veggie Tales, Part II................................................................................................... 76 Gray Barker and Friends.......................................................................................... 85 John A. Keel, Enlightened Ufologist....................................................................... 90 Humanoid Monster................................................................................................... 96 Two New Cryptids.................................................................................................... 99 Two Bigfoot Creatures ........................................................................................... 106 In Pursuit of UFOs.................................................................................................. 113 Santa’s Sleigh............................................................................................................ 115 Appendix A: Strategies for Extraterrestrial Intervention................................... 117 5

Introduction Dr. Raymond Keller, Contributing Editor Readers of Fred Saluga’s West Virginia: Paranormal Gateway, will quickly come to the realization that when one thinks of this beautiful “Almost Heaven” state, it can in no way be separated from the long-enduring legends of sundry phenomena that have occurred here such as Bigfoot, cryptids, ghosts, monsters, UFOs, etc., dating all the way back to its Civil War battle-born statehood acquired on June 20, 1863. As of the date of this publication, Fred is 74 years old and teaches DUI driver safety classes and conducts driver evaluations in Weirton, West Virginia. He is also a licensed private investigator in the State of West Virginia and a certified finder in the states of Ohio and Pennsylvania. Fred is a retired law enforcement officer and Chief of Police in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. During his long career in law enforcement, he also worked as a child protective officer in Florida and Pennsylvania and was a state and federal correctional officer and a licensed private investigator in the states of Florida and Pennsylvania. Fred brings his many law enforcement skills to investigating UFOs. He currently serves as the State Director for the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) in West Virginia and the Assistant State Director of that same organization in neighboring Pennsylvania. In his capacity as a UFO investigator for MUFON, Fred has investigated over 500 UFO cases during the period of 1996 to the present. He also established MUFON’s Humanoid Research Group, which oversees the investigation of humanoid beings reported as UFO occupants. This dutiful researcher also appeared in two movies about UFOs: Kecksburg (Grand Conspiracy Films, 2019) and The Flatwoods Monster. Kecksburg was about a mysterious object that crashed in a Southwestern Pennsylvania town back in December of 1965 and The Flatwoods Monster dealt with a frightening being from another planet that came down in a flying saucer and was spotted in the hills above Sutton in Braxton County, West Virginia, back in September of 7

1952. Additionally, Fred co-hosted a Comcast Cable Company weekly television program, “UFOs Over Pittsburg,” and did 65 shows. Fred, with his extensive and lifelong experience in law enforcement as Chief of Police and a Federal Law Enforcement Officer, is more than qualified to also investigate other kinds of phenomena beyond UFOs. He is also concurrently serving as the Director of the West Virginia Center for Unexplained Events, an organization dedicated to investigating sightings of Bigfoot, cryptids, ghosts, and other anomalous entities. He is also the Director of the Fayette County, Pennsylvania Bigfoot Research Project, headquartered in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. Fred developed and taught private investigator classes at Daytona Beach Community College in Florida for two years, as well as classes on UFOs and other paranormal phenomena at the Gateway Community College in Steubenville, Ohio, for four years and counting. Fred is a highly sought-after speaker at various UFO and paranormal festivals and conferences, giving over 100 presentations on sundry topics in these areas to date. While West Virginia: Paranormal Gateway is this intrepid investigator’s first book, it is by no means his first venture into paranormal journalism. Fred and fellow paranormal investigator Brian Seech have written a series of articles, “The Creature Chronicles,” that regularly appeared in the Hancock Courier newspaper of New Cumberland, West Virginia. Fred Saluga has been investigating Bigfoot, UFOs, and other paranormal phenomena for over 50 years. He can be reached at (304) 564-7165 (home) or (412) 298-0031 (cell). His e-mail is paranormal1949@aol.com. To write Fred a letter, his postal mailing address is P.O. Box 632, New Cumberland, West Virginia 26047. It has been a great honor to work with Fred Saluga as a contributing editor and fellow author with Headline Books. I testify that this book, West Virginia: Paranormal Gateway, will open your eyes to many of the often overlooked and frequently obscure and mysterious phenomena that abound here in the Mountain State. Dr. Raymond A. Keller Morgantown, West Virginia 27 January 2023 Dr. Keller is the author of the international award-winning Venus Rising series of books (Headline Books, Terra Alta, West Virginia, 2015-2022)

1 Recurring Civil War Ghosts Battle of Droop Mountain, West Virginia 6 November 1863 Battle-Born West Virginia Paranormal phenomena have been associated with the state of West Virginia ever since its very inception. The state of West Virginia was formed out of the counties of northwestern Virginia and added to the Union as a direct result of the Civil War. It is the only state battle-born as a result of having declared its independence from the Confederacy. In the summer of 1861, Union troops were formed under the banner of the government of Restored Virginia and the command of General George McClellan, whose contingent routed the rebel troops serving under General Robert E. Lee. This victory led the Unionists in these northwestern counties of Some soldiers never got the Virginia to form a functioning government of their memo. Lee surrendered to Grant 158 years ago. Drawing source: own while assembled at a statehood convention PaintingValley.com held in Wheeling, which ultimately resulted in West Virginia’s admission to the Union on 20 June 1863. After General Lee’s departure and throughout the remaining period of the Civil War, West Virginia was the continual target of Confederate raiding parties. These rebel incursions largely focused on supplying the Confederate Army with 9

provisions confiscated in small towns, as well as attacking the vital Baltimore and Ohio Railroad’s lines that served to link the Northeastern states with the Midwestern states. Guerrilla warfare also plagued the newly formed state of West Virginia, especially in those counties of the east, encompassed by the Allegheny Mountains and closer to the frontier with the state of Virginia. Approximately five months after West Virginia became another star on the Union flag, on 6 November 1863, Union forces under Brigadier General William Averell defeated Confederate forces under the command of Brigadier General John Echols at the Battle of Droop ,Mountain that, apart from scattered bands and guerilla contingents, effectively put an end to organized Southern resistance in West Virginia. The engagement, which was one of the bloodiest encounters between North and South during the War Between the States, was considered the largest and last major battle in West Virginia’s Civil War history. Sometimes, however, dead soldiers don’t remain dead. And in the case of the soldiers on both sides of the conflict at Droop Mountain, many are still seen fighting on and in the vicinity of that legendary and still remote mountain. In the battle, 6,700 troops were deployed, with 5,000 from the Commanders at Droop Mountain, Union and 1,700 from the Confederacy. There were West Virginia: (top) for the United States, Brigadier General 394 known casualties, of which 119 came from the William W. Averell, (bottom) for Union and 275 from the Confederacy. Today, the the Confederate States, Brigadier General John Echols. battlefield, commemorated as Droop Mountain State Park can be visited in the rugged mountains of eastern West Virginia.1 And, yes, countless reports are made by tourists to the park of “ghostly figures resembling soldiers.” The ghastliest ghost sighting consists of a Confederate soldier with his head blown off flying about the grounds of a former Union encampment. At the appearance of this headless soldier garbed in a Confederate gray uniform, there is a “mournful cry” heard echoing through the trees. Over the years, there have been reports from hunters, park personnel and visitors of many other strange sights and sounds within the darkened forest. 1

American Battlefield Trust (2022), https://www.battlefields.org/learn/civil-war/battles/ droop-mountain (Accessed 22 December 2022). The nearest city to Droop Mountain is Pocahontas, West Virginia.

Some have heard the rolling wheels of troop wagons, the retort of guns and cannons, and the battle cries of both Union and Rebel soldiers. Edgar Walton, a retired logger in the area, recalls how he and a co-worker, back in 1920, were returning from a hard-day’s work and passing along a mountain path near a site where 14 or 15 graves of Droop Mountain Civil War casualties were buried, when Walton heard a “peculiar rustling in the leaves.” When he and his co-worker turned in the direction of the sound, they were confronted by a headless phantom soldier who did an about face, picked up his gate and vanished into the blackness of the deep woods. It seems the ghost was as afraid of Walton and his friend as they were of him. Walton and the other logger, by the time it got dark after work, would usually camp out somewhere along the mountain path, but on the night of their encounter decided to push on until they were below the tree line. Walton explained to Karen Timmons, a reporter for the Hutchinson News (Sunday, 27 October 1985), of Hutchinson, West Virginia, that while he had returned to Droop Mountain on several occasions after his unique encounter, “I have never seen it again; but lots of people have seen stuff out there. It didn’t scare me a bit; but the other fellow got wild. He wanted to get out of the area right away.” Apparently, Walton was from the area and somewhat familiar with the legends of the ghostly mountain, while the other fellow was just an itinerant worker passing through.

2 Look! Up in the sky! Is it a bird? Is it an optical illusion? No, it’s Super-Horse! Back in the Silver Age of comic books (19561970), Otto Binder, a prominent ufologist and author of five UFO books, as well as a comic book writer, created the ever-popular DC Comics character Supergirl, who premiered in the May 1959 issue of Action Comics. A little more than three years later, the editor of DC Comics, Mort Weisinger, decided to give DC staff writer, Leo Dorfman, the task of coming up with a pet for Supergirl. Dorfman consulted with Binder and a pet horse that could fly, named Comet, was introduced in Action Comics #263 in October 1962. Was the creation of Supergirl’s pet, Now ufologist Dr. Raymond Keller, a.k.a. Comet the Super-Horse, inspired by “Cosmic Ray,” the owner of every comic book a UFO sighting over West Virginia in July 1878? Photo credit: DC issue where Supergirl has appeared since May of Comics 1959, and dubbed “Supergirl’s Oldest Fan,”2 when shown a copy by me of an article from the New York Times dated 8 July 1878 and titled, “What a West Virginia Farmer Saw,” concerning a white steed that could fly through the air, matching Comet’s description in the DC Comics, 2

Alan Zanjani, “Cosmic Ray as the ‘Wizard of Venus’ – Morgantown’s ‘Venus’ author is Supergirl’s Oldest Fan,” Rense News, 29 December 2017, https://rense.com/general96/ cosmicray.html (Accessed 16 December 2022).

speculated that perhaps Otto Binder, being an active and well-known ufologist and paranormal investigator, may have had prior knowledge of this older UFO event and decided thereby to suggest that Supergirl, unlike Superman with Krypto, and Batman with Ace, both dogs, that the Maid of Might should have a pet companion unique to her own personality and style, hence the Super-Horse Comet. Below this paragraph is a copy of the actual New York Times newspaper account of the flying horse sighting dated 18 July 1878; and there is a retyped version after that for greater clarity:

What A West Virginia Farmer Saw A telegram from Parkersburg, West Virginia, to the Cincinnati Commercial, contains this story: “An optical illusion or mirage was seen by three or four farmers a few miles from this city a few days since, the appearance of which no one is able philosophically to account for. The facts are these: “A gentleman, while plowing in a field with several others, about 7 p.m., happened to glance toward the sky, which was cloudless, and saw apparently, about half a mile off in a westerly direction, an opaque substance resembling a white horse, with head, neck, limbs and tail clearly defined, swimming in the clear atmosphere. It appeared to be moving its limbs as if engaged in swimming, moving its head from side to side, always ascending at an angle of about 45 degrees. “He (the gentleman that was plowing) rubbed his eyes to convince himself that he was not dreaming, and looked again; but there it still was, still apparently swimming and ascending in ether. He called to the men, about 100 yards off, and told them to look up and tell him what they saw. They declared they saw a white horse swimming in the sky, and were badly frightened. “Our informant, neither superstitious nor nervous, sat down and watched the phantasm, if we my so call it, until it disappeared in space, always going in the same direction and moving in the same manner. No one can account for the mirage, or illusion, except upon the uneven state of the atmosphere. “Illusions of a different appearance have Hollywood’s first talking horse, Mr. Ed, prepares to be launched into outer been seen at different times in the same space by NASA during an episode of his vicinity, frightening the superstitious and television program in season two (Filmways Productions, Columbia Broadcasting System, laughed at by the skeptical.” 1962)

3 “Sea Serpent” Sighted in Vicinity of Parkersburg, West Virginia June-July 1893 “Sea Serpent” in West Virginia Through the middle of June through the first week of July 1893, reports of a “sea serpent” plying the waters of the Ohio River in the vicinity of Parkersburg, West Virginia, flooded into the offices of the Pittsburg Post newspaper. In the 8 July 1893 edition of that daily periodical, we come to learn that a reporter was dispatched to Parkersburg to find out what was really going on. According to this article, “Boating A “sea serpent” such as the one depicted above was frequently sighted up and down the length and parties here (in Parkersburg) during breadth of the Ohio River. This chapter deals with the past few weeks have been greatly such a freakish creature off the coast of Nagle’s Island near Parkersburg, West Virginia. Drawing frightened by the appearance of a sea source: Cincinnati Gazette (Ohio), 8 February 1880 monster with a head as big as a barrel. The freakish creature has been variously described as being eight to fifteen feet long, appearing to float on the surface of the river, often near Nagle’s Island. “When approached, the sea serpent would dive, resulting in a great commotion of the waters, making heavy waves that were dangerous to open boats.” 15

The Pittsburg reporter telegraphed the story to the editorial offices on 7 July and noted that the monster was last sighted on the previous night. “Last night,” he wrote in his timely dispatch, “a party of a dozen prominent young people, who are entirely reliable, were out on a large boat when the sea serpent suddenly appeared, crossing the river in front of them. They were panic stricken and made frantic efforts to get away from the locality without making an investigation. “Parties living along the river all agree that, ‘The monster can be seen daily, being most conspicuous when heading up the river, and apparently changing its abode frequently.’” There is little doubt that some kind of large creature has been seen on numerous occasions in the waters of the Ohio River just off Nagle’s Island, for all the witnesses’ descriptions of the “sea serpent” concur one with another.

4 West Virginia’s First UFO Report 19 April 1897 Sistersville is a small city in Tyler County, West Virginia, and the most unlikely site for the Mountaineer State’s first UFO / “phantom airship” sighting, recorded for posterity in the 20 April 1897 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Inquirer as taking place one day earlier on the evening of 19 April. Correlated Event Coincidentally, the famous Aurora, Texas, UFO crash and supposed retrieval of a dead alien body took place two days earlier. The Texas incident, occurring on 17 April, made headlines across the entire United States on the same day the Sistersville event was unfolding. poster for Jules Verne’s Master of The Aurora object, also described as a “mystery Movie the World, starring Vincent Price as the airship,” slammed into a windmill/sump pump renegade Robur (American International Los Angeles, California, 1961). on a local judge’s farm, killing the lone pilot, a Pictures, Did Jules Verne’s Robur the Conqueror humanoid no taller than four feet. The deceased novel spark a rash of “airship sightings” UFO occupant was given a Christian burial in in the closing years of the 1890s? the Aurora, Texas, local cemetery. However, permission has never been granted

to exhume the body. Researchers of Fortean phenomena have long speculated that there might be a link between the Sistersville and Aurora events. Remote Location Sistersville rests along the eastern bank of the Ohio River, equidistant between Wheeling in the north and Parkersburg in the south. The population has remained static over the past 125 years and was registered at 1,413 by the 2020 census. The Sistersville Ferry crosses the Ohio River to the unincorporated community of Fly in Monroe County, Ohio, and has been in continuous operation since before the Civil War. As of 1850, the city has served as a center for grain and wool carding mills. There were spurts of growth in the 1880s and 1890s with the arrival of a railroad line and in the present time, Sistersville has become an attractive candidate for energy companies in the natural gas and oil industries. According to the Philadelphia newspaper story, “A series of red, white and green flashing lights were observed heading into the town from the northwest. When looked at through ‘strong glasses’ (binoculars), a cone-shaped craft, 180 feet long with large fins on either side, could be seen. It was observed for about twenty minutes by the majority of townsfolk.” Clearly, such a large object could not be a mere star; and the good citizens of Sistersville who witnessed this unusual phenomenon passed around an affidavit to collecting signatures and attesting to what they saw, which they presented to the reporter from Philadelphia as verification of the phantom airship’s appearance over their community. The Great Airship Flap of 1896-1897 In the winter months of 1896 and continuing through the entirety of 1897, the United States was experiencing a “flap” of mysterious airship sightings. Strange lights were seen in the sky that many interpreted as being some kind of dirigible. This was in conformity to what most of the citizenry thought of as the most advanced aerial platform of that time. In 1886, the French pioneer of science fiction wrote the first in his Master of the World Series, Clipper of the Clouds, a.k.a. Robur the Conqueror, followed up by Master of the World in 1904. So far as we, the authors of this book, can determine, apart from the Aurora, Texas, incident, no clue to the identity of the airship pilots has been put forward. In most of the cases, speculation ran rampant that those behind the appearance of the airships were from a secret cabal that transcended national borders,

just like Robur and his airship the Albatross in the Verne novel. In the Texas encounter, the local paper speculated that the airship’s pilot probably came from Mars or Venus. But for the good West Virginia folks of Sistersville, there is little doubt that they truly witnessed something quite astounding.

5 The Birdman of West Virginia

Statue of the Mothman in downtown Point Pleasant serves as a unique tourist attraction. Reports of flying cryptids in Point Pleasant and the surrounding area date back to the early twentieth century.

3 20

James G. Jones is an acclaimed American folklorist who, in his research into flying cryptids sighted throughout Appalachia, notes a bevy of interesting reports coming out of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, in the first two decades of the twentieth century.3 It seems that a large bird with the head of a man and possessing a wingspan of some twelve feet was repeatedly seen flying over Point Pleasant and the regions round about. That this strange “Birdman” was observed repeatedly at this location is not regarded as anything unusual by the local residents of Point Pleasant, most all of whom can relate the tale of the famous Mothman to anyone expressing an interest in cryptozoological creatures. There are definitely some marked similarities between the earlier Birdman sightings and the later Mothman reports, which emerged in the latter half of the decade of the 1960s.

James G. Jones, Haunted Valley and Other Folk Tales of Appalachia (Parsons, West Virginia: McClain, 1979).

Summary of the Mothman Case It was late on the afternoon of 15 December 1967 that the Silver Bridge collapsed, dropping 46 people into the cold waters below and killing them instantly. This landmark structure spanned the Ohio River, connecting Point Pleasant with eastern Ohio. Prior to the bridge’s collapse, however, some drivers in the general vicinity were buzzed by a flying cryptid best described as a kind of “Mothman.” This creature was so insistent on blocking the way of the drivers headed toward the bridge that many of them just turned around and returned to their respective homes. Some of the witnesses maintain that the Mothman served as a harbinger of the tragic bridge collapse, communicating with them telepathically and warning them to turn back, thus saving their lives. This was the theme of the megahit movie starring Richard Gere, aptly titled The Mothman Prophecies (Screen Gems, Hollywood, California, 2002). Nesting Creature in Point Pleasant Area Folklorist Jones, dutifully investigating Point Pleasant newspaper archives, discovered that numerous sightings of such flying cryptids had been reported over the years. “By World War I,” explained Jones, the Birdman was observed flying over Looneyville, up Johnson Creek, and down Gabe in Roane County, thence down in Elk County into the Kanawha. Its monstrous size and dark reddish feathers which glistened in the sunlight cast fear into all who saw it.” Contemporary cryptozoologist and Mothman expert, Loren Coleman, informs us that such sightings of the flying cryptid continued in the Point Pleasant area even after the conclusion of World War II. Whenever the creature was seen in the area, parents made sure that they kept their children indoors. Drivers traveling along the roads in Point Pleasant and other communities in Mason County, where Point Pleasant is located, in addition to the neighboring counties of Jackson in West Virginia and Wood in Ohio, occasionally reported to local law enforcement officers that they were being pursued by “some kind of huge bird.”4

Loren Coleman, Mothman and Other Curious Encounters (New York, New York: Paraview, 2002). 21

6 “SPACE GUARDIANS, ASSEMBLE!” Sister Thedra: West Virginia’s New Age Prophetess ©2023 by Dr. Raymond A. Keller, a.k.a. “Cosmic Ray,” author of the international award-winning Venus Rising book series.

Spiritual Aspects of Flying Saucers Having attained a deeper understanding that our planet is being visited by advanced intelligences from other planets in our solar system and beyond that are arriving here on a consistent basis through the piloting of their ever-elusive flying saucers, some ufologists are no longer content to merely chase anomalous lights and objects across the sky. They are, on the other hand, more desirous in determining the meaning and purpose of the arrival of these extraterrestrials and their interplanetary spacecraft on Earth and more so, just how the acquisition of this awareness can be duly applied to their personal and especially spiritual growth. In this delicate process, it appears that Mt. Shasta From Keller Venus Files, Dorothy in Northern California has long been recognized Martin (1900-1992) in 1955, while resident in Prescott, Arizona among these seekers as a focal point for access to establishing contact with the leadership of these beneficent other-worldly entities, a group which the contactees have identified as the “Celestial Hierarchy of Light.” One of the early contactees to recognize Mt. Shasta as a beacon for angelic extraterrestrials and those seeking further light and knowledge from them, was 22

Dorothy Martin (1900-1992), better known in so-called New Age circles as “Sister Thedra.” Born under humble circumstances in the “Mountaineer State” of West Virginia, Martin never remembered a time when she wasn’t pondering what wonders were awaiting humankind in the starry heavens. She was raised a fundamentalist Christian of the Baptist persuasion, so as soon as she could read, she began to search out the truth of creation in the pages of the Holy Bible. One day, while reading the scriptures, Martin came across this verse in John 21:25 of the King James Version, “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.” Soon Martin came to the realization that while the Bible certainly was the “Word of God,” there was a lot more yet to be revealed; and she was determined to play an important role in the revelatory process. Not much is known concerning Martin’s life following her graduation from high school in Charleston, West Virginia, in 1918, other than that she lived in New York City during the 1930s and studied Theosophy. Having accepted one of the primary objects of Theosophy to “explore comparative religions,” she delved into the spectrum of esoteric literature and became an early student of L. Ron Hubbard’s Dianetics, whose concepts formed the basis of Scientology. She also read the works of Guy Warren Ballard, creator of the I AM movement, arguably the first religious group to make extraterrestrial contacts a central tenet. Another book, Oahspe, recorded the 1881 channelings of John Ballough Newbrough, depicting a richly populated spiritual cosmos whose inhabitants include guardian angels known as “Ashars” who patrol the universe in etheric ships. Her developing tastes in reading were certainly preparing Martin for the coming time when flying saucers would arrive on the scene and the contactee movement would follow in their wake. See Jerome Clark, Extraordinary Encounters: An Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrials and Otherworldly Beings (Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, Inc., 2009), 229-232. Automobile Accident Sometime between the end of the Great Depression and the start of the 1950s, however, Dorothy Martin moved to Chicago, Illinois. We finally catch up with her in May 1950, when she was in a horrible automobile accident on a few miles outside of her home in the Oak Park neighborhood of Chicago. As a result of the accident, she was required to stay in a plaster cast for almost two years. During that time, she coped with the solitude by intensifying her reading of all the literature she could get her hands on concerning religion and metaphysical 23

subjects, especially anything having to do with the appearance of flying saucers and their mysterious occupants. When alone at night, she began to receive telepathic communications from angelic beings outside the Earth’s atmosphere, headquartered on a saucer base on the far side of the Moon called Clarion. She began to write these revelations down and publish them in small circulation newsletters. Eventually, she built up quite a remarkable reputation as a contactee and channeler of extraterrestrial messages for humankind. There was also an unfortunate aspect to her hospitalization. When the doctors finally removed the cast, they discovered that Dorothy Martin had developed a pernicious skin cancer. “The doctors told me that I should get my affairs in order,” she once declared to a reporter for the UFO Review of New York City (Issue 15) in 1983, adding that, “I was getting very painful treatment, and nothing seemed to help. One night I prayed to the Lord. I said, ‘I am ready to go.’” Jesus Appears No sooner had Dorothy Martin uttered her innermost desire to shed her material body and depart for celestial glory, than the form of Jesus the Christ materialized directly in front of her. “Jesus told me that he would heal me, that I would be restored to my former self. In turn, I asked what I could do for Him, to which He replied, ‘You can feed my sheep.’” Martin replied, “I don’t know if I am worthy of such a task, nor do I know if I have it in me to do such a job.” Then Jesus responded, “You go and I will give you the food.” The New Age prophetess understood that by “food,” the Savior meant that He would provide the requisite information that she needed to fulfill her calling and spread the word of the Lord to those who would take her preaching to heart. Suffers Persecution Jesus was true to his word. Upon her next medical appointment, the Chicago doctors were befuddled by the complete remission of the cancer. It was truly a miracle. In an e-mail dated Sunday, 29 November 2009, to David Houchin, the curator of the Gray Barker Paranormal Collection in Clarksburg, West Virginia, from Kim Powers, then an investigative reporter for the 20/20 program of the ABC Television Network for the past 14 years, the television journalist thanked him for the background information that he had provided on Martin’s early channeling work in the Chicago area and also kept the curator posted on what

she had discovered so far concerning the unusual ministry of Dorothy Martin, the enigmatic UFO herald of the latter days: “The whole story is quite incredible. She began channeling, and eventually met Charles Laughead and his wife Lillian at a saucer club meeting in East Lansing, Michigan, that John Otto, a gentleman who claimed to be in contact with extraterrestrials, was speaking at. The Laugheads and Martin became fast friends. The Laugheads had been medical missionaries in Egypt; and Charles was now a medical doctor working at Eastern Michigan College. Lillian, somehow, had become very involved in ‘interpreting’ the photo of a Venusian footprint that the California contactee George Adamski had taken and was known of in the saucer community…. I feel insane writing all this! “Anyway, the Laugheads took Dorothy under their wing; and she soon received a message the world would be destroyed by flood on 21 December 1954. Charles Laughead was the ‘front man’ for all of this, pushing Dorothy into the spotlight and clamoring for publicity. He would write press releases and wildly send them out; and that is how news about her tidal wave prediction got out. Only gradually did it get revealed to them that the ‘true believers’ would be taken up in flying saucers and rescued. “This is where it gets interesting; and where the story really became public. A sociology professor, Leon Festinger, at the University of Minnesota, read that first article and decided this would be a perfect template for exploring his theories of group behavior, etc. He and two other professors, as well as a score of grad students observers they hired, began infiltrating Dorothy’s group, both at her house in Oak Park, a suburb about ten minutes outside Chicago, and through a group called ‘The Quest’ that the Laugheads had in East Lansing. Of course, they did this under the subterfuge of being interested believers and never revealing their true purpose.” Naturally, when all of the information concerning the goings-on of the Oak Park and East Lansing meetings came to the public’s attention through the university spies, Powers noted that, “Charles was eventually asked to resign from the East Lansing Medical College.” The ABC television reporter continued with her narrative of the investigation: “Ground zero became Dorothy’s house in Oak Park, an upper middle-class conclave full of houses designed by the architect Frank Lloyd Wright, as more and more believers started arriving, essentially moving in with her and her helpless husband. Dorothy would channel non-stop…. All of this was leading to 20 December, when they thought the saucers would arrive and them away. From about 16 December 1954, when word leaked that Charles had been fired, 25

and through the Christmas holiday, there were daily news articles all across the country about the little band of believers.” Keep in mind that this was all taking place 43 years before the mass suicides led by Marshall Herff Applewhite, Jr., (1931-1997), an American cult leader who co-founded with Bonnie Nettles (1927-1985), what became known as the Heaven’s Gate religious group in 1974, claiming the lives of 39 people at Rancho Santa Fe, outside of San Diego, California, in 1997. Perhaps Applewhite and Nettles borrowed from Sister Thedra’s playbook on running a UFO cult, for Powers remarked: “Dorothy channeled messages about passports they would need and passwords, such as ‘I left my hat at home,’ -I kid you not- secret handshakes, and the need to remove all metal from their clothes and bodies, or else they would be burned when they entered the spaceships! Needless to say, as the press ridiculed them and waited, no saucers arrived. Faced with this devastating news, Dorothy, et.al, soon forced themselves to believe that their belief and love had saved the planet from extinction. And Charles immediately issued a press release telling the world so! There was one last event when Dorothy interpreted that she and the band had been told to stand outside her house and sing Christmas carols. This was on Christmas Eve, and then the saucers would take them; but once again, no go.” Powers informed Houchin that it had also come to her attention that Charles’ sister tried to get him and his wife Lillian committed. To this end, the Laugheads did end up undergoing sanity hearings in East Lansing, but they were ultimately cleared and the cases against them dismissed. The Chicago Police Department also threatened Dorothy with institutionalization; but a few of her close, stalwart followers managed to secret her out of Oak Park in disguise, where she went into hiding in Los Angeles, California, and later to Phoenix and Prescott, Arizona, before actually moving outside the confines of the United States to Peru, where she could continue her work in the peace and solitude of a spiritual retreat high in the Andes mountains. It was she while she was resident in Peru that Dorothy took upon herself the new spiritual name of “Sister Thedra,” in emulation of her mentor, the prominent Arizona archaeologist and friend of the Southern California contactee George Adamski, Dr. George Hunt Williamson (19261986), whom she met while living in Arizona and followed to South America. Williamson, after encountering Ascended Masters from Venus in the Andes Mountains, changed his name to “Brother Philip” and later wrote a book about the higher teachings of these angelic beings of light and beneficent guides, Secret of the Andes (London, United Kingdom: Neville Spearman, Ltd., 1961). 26

Additionally, Powers informs us that while the trail “sort of went cold for a while” insofar as the whereabouts of Dorothy Martin was concerned, “the Laugheads took to the road and visited Edgar Cayce’s museum in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, and ultimately got involved with the psychic Uri Geller.” Controversial Files On Saturday, 28 November 2009, David Houchin sent an e-mail to Kim Powers stating that, “I neglected to mention that Dorothy Martin spent time with the Laugheads in Michigan in 1954, with Lillian as typist, thereby greatly increasing spiritual output. Charles Laughead wrote a piece called ‘An Amazing Prophecy,’ with Dorothy’s messages interspersed. “The messages began to arrive in April of 1954, either on Easter Sunday (the th 18 ), or around the first of the month. The material Gray Barker received runs only as far as September of that year. I imagine you know what came next. I don’t; and I’m in suspense. “Dorothy’s last letter, or next to last, undated, mentions leaving the planet in a fine doomsday fashion.” As a preface to presenting these files, however, let us examine Dorothy Martin’s own words concerning the process of “inspirational writing” that brought these extraterrestrial messages to the forefront of her consciousness. The following information, some of it biographical, appeared in an undated article in The Messenger newspaper of Prescott, Arizona: Automatic Writing Brings Messages to Dorothy Martin (Note: Sadly, whoever snipped this item out of the newspaper failed to denote the date, although the name of the periodical was determined from information on the back side of the clipping. As the article was published shortly after Dorothy Martin’s moving to Prescott from Phoenix, I am assuming that it must have been sometime between the last half of 1955 but before her 1956 departure for Peru with Dr. George Hunt Williamson (Clark, Extraordinary Encounters, 269). -Cosmic Ray) It was Easter, 1954. Mrs. Dorothy Martin was getting ready for church, hoping that the minister would have something worthwhile to say about the Resurrection. Meditating along this line, she sat down and wrote. Her pencil formed these words: “There is light. See it and walk therein.”

On that Easter morning the automatic- or inspirational- writing began. Mrs. Martin, who now lives at 113 North Granite Street, Prescott- she was not living here then- has received many messages. That Easter message, she says, was given to her by One she identifies as “Jesus, the Elder Brother.” He has not always given them, but He has always presided over the group from which other communications have come. Mrs. Martin has a big book of messages, gathered neatly in a binder. The messages are well written, although she says they were often written at more than her usual speed. “Inspirational Writing” “The information comes through inspirational writing,” she states. “My hand moves like a phonograph needle, independent of my brain. The letters are perfectly well formed.” Before the messages come, Mrs. Martin sits with writing materials in the corner of a couch and makes her mind blank. She hears no voice and does not know what has been communicated until she reads what she has written. “My shoulders get warm,” she says. “It is as though I were sitting in sunshine or a ray of light. I make my mind a blank tape as though for a recording machine.” Acting as a recorder, Mrs. Martin receives the messages. Some of these messages she has released in mimeographed sheets under the general heading of “Excerpts of the Prophecies from Other Planets,” for the members of her metaphysical study group. She waits for permission from the Masters before releasing them all to the general public. However, Mrs. Martin has granted this reporter permission to reveal a few extracts from the messages. Because no man knows the day or the hour, no indication is given as to the exact timing for the fulfillment of the prophecies; and she herself does not know. “And it is said there shall be winds,” states a message recorded 1 January 1955, “and there shall be, and they shall be in the time when it is winter; and the trees shall bow down their boughs, and the winds shall sing with the cold: and there shall be great suffering among the people and they shall fall down and cry for mercy. Mighty Earthquake “And there shall be a mighty earthquake and it shall split in twain the country of North America, and it shall be as nothing the world has known before, for it shall be that there shall be a great part of the north continent go down and a 28

great sea shall form within her center part from the Dominion of Canada into the Gulf of Mexico. “And there shall be great ocean liners, liners which shall travel within its waters, which shall be propelled by solar energy of the next age. And with this they shall be unable to ravel east to west or from west to east through what is now the Atlantic Ocean, for it shall have a mountain range which has been thrown up from the bottom of the Atlantic; and it shall be extended into the air to the altitude of 18,000 feet. And it shall be as Sittur of old, for it was the light of the world that this land once took her place in the Sun. And she went down amid a great shock and a great wave. And it shall be that she shall come up the same way as she went down.” Visitants “Just Appear” Linked with the automatic writing, although not a part of it, are the visitants Mrs. Martin says have appeared to her. She believes in spaceships and reports that she has seen them in the sky above Prescott, but does not believe that the visitants she has seen are dependent upon spaceships for their sudden appearances. “They have the faculty of just appearing,” she says, “but I believe they have come from other planets.”5 Mrs. Martin is convinced of their reality. They are as real to her as the friends who visit her and talk with her. Mrs. Martin is a native of Charleston, West Virginia. She has lived in New York and Chicago, Los Angeles and Phoenix. Her home now is in Prescott. She belongs to no organized group but she has made a wide study of ancient and modern religions, including Theosophy. Dorothy and Her Sister Encounter Four UFOs It is interesting to note that before Dorothy ever began to relay any messages from the beings of other, more advanced planets, she and her sister Marie, actually had a close encounter of the first kind (a visual sighting) with four UFOs at 3 a.m. on 18 August 1952, which they observed carrying out an unusual maneuver over their home at 707 S. Cuyler Avenue in Oak Park, Illinois. From Dorothy Martin’s description, it appears that all four of the UFOs were orbs, with 5

Aviation mechanic George Van Tassel (1910-1978) of Landers, California, maintained that he communicated with a Venusian master named Solganda who materialized outside of his home in 1953, and was informed by this exalted being that many of his kind have the ability to just “beam in” to selected locations from a mothership in orbit around our planet. -R.K. 29

From the Keller Venus Files, in her own hand, below the reader will find a description of Dorothy and Marie Martin’s first UFO experience.

the #1 UFO being bright and silvery in color, occupying the center position. The #2, #3 and #4 UFOs seemed to have been subsidiary objects that split off from the #1 orb, and then reunited with it right before it disappeared as a single unit, resuming the same appearance just as it was first observed by the two sisters. On the Transcription Process An accurate transcription of Dorothy Martin’s initial revelations follows in this section. The work of producing this information in a comprehensible form would not have been possible for me without a glossary that I discovered, composed by Martin herself, in the archives of the Gray Barker Collection in Clarksburg, West Virginia. While Dorothy Martin composed this glossary in 1954, be advised that many of the words herein find their origin in ancient Sumer and other lost civilizations of the Mesopotamian region of the Middle East, only revealed by the-archeologist and astronomer Zecharia Sitchin in his groundbreaking book, 30

The Twelfth Planet (New York City, New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1976). The meanings Martin attaches to some of these Sumerian words either directly or closely match those definitions provided by Sitchin. Quite a vindication for Dorothy Martin, I would say, considering all the abuse heaped upon her throughout her controversial but spectacular life. Pay particular attention to the definition of “Schar/Shar” provided below, as this more than adequately underscores the accuracy of the words of knowledge passed on to us by the prophetess. Glossary Alcetopes:rays of the force of light. Arline:the recorder. Avagada:spaceship. Carter:one who finds his way (also leads the way). Carting:action; layout or plan; event; purpose; blueprint. Cast:light of understanding; conditions being, or to be fulfilled, or set forth. Celecoblet:device for “beaming” magnetic energy impulses from the teachers. Cerus:mother planet of the North Star Constellation, on which is located the Losolo (presumed to be a parallel Earth. -R. K.) Channis:first civilization destroyed by cataclysm (comprises the now Black Sea and Turkey). Clarion:sister planet of Earth (later revealed to be Venusian base on the far side of our Moon. -R. K.) Coindon:pity. Com:group; sea of energy in which earlings (spirits of persons who once lived on Earth) are active. Connoiter:liaison worker on Earth. Contra Canal:light beam communication between the low and High Self; threads over which light flows to the desire body. Cosmos:Omniverse. Creton:outpost of the Losolo (University on Cerus). Daringle:meaning. Earlings:persons who lived on Earth but are now in thee unseen; also the thought forms created by humankind. Hestar:our Moon. Lear:our Earth vehicle (body) Losolo:University on Cerus. Losloes:science of the worlds of the Cosmos. 31

Losoloes:Universal Laws. Omniverse: Cosmos (all universes) Saguacie: fear. Sai: degree or title. Scar: activities: Schar or Shar: house (Sitchin states that one shar is represents 3,600 Earth years, i.e., the time it takes for the home planet of the Anunnaki to complete one highly elliptical orbit around our Sun, passing through all the signs (houses) of the Zodiac in the process. Astronomical events and the rule of various quasi-immortal Anunnaki kings and queens (posing as divine entities) in Mesopotamia were measured in shars. -R.K.) Scibe: science. Scibes: scientists. Scice or sice: the persona or actor; one in disguise; one who is mixed up. Sibe or Sibet: student of the Light. Silas: visitor of space mentioned in the Bible. Sittur: Name of the New Cycle, meaning “the light of the work of the Little One.” Tactable: workable or penetratable. Tek: consciousness of an individual. Tentination: process of transforming communicated thoughts into thought forms on paper. Thaten: soul; emotion or desire body. Thermin: that which records our thoughts, actions, etc., in the Losolo. Thoros: communicated truths. Tolata or Tola: craft or spaceship. Tra: harmony; beauty; love (Venus is the Tra Planet). Treal: travel, revelation; survey. Tur: work of the light. Un: mind of a human. UN or Un: Intelligence of the Creator; mind of the High Self. Ureal: voice heard in the head, through intuitive knowing. Varon: oath to the truth; testimony of my being. Vatican: the city within, or the Inner Self (collective consciousness shared with a community. -R. K.)

Poem to the Gods of the Omniverse Dorothy Martin was well read, to be sure, and opens her earliest set of revelations with an “Old Poem” based on the writings of Edward Young, LL.D., Night Thoughts, “The Consolation,” (London, United Kingdom: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1856), 214: What read we here? --Th’ existence of a God? Yes; and of other beings, Man above! Native of aether! Sons of higher climes! ‘Tis thus the skies Inform us of superiors numberless, As much in excellence above mankind, As above Earth, in magnitude, the spheres. Revelation recorded 18 April 1954 (Easter Sunday) by Dorothy Martin: The Elder Brother: “I will come again to teach each of you.” Easter Sunday morning: I am always with you. The cares of the day cannot touch you. We will teach them that seek and are ready to follow in the light. I will take care of the details. Trust in us. To the lovely loved ones, every single word of the Golden Script is from my hand. Be patient and learn, for we are there too, preparing the work for you as liaisons from the Celestial Realms to the Earth. This is the work I am engaged in until I return in power. That will be soon. You were directed to tell your experiences of my visitation to you, for it prepares the way in the hearts of those who have ears to truly hear. I will come again to teach each of you. They that have told you that they do not believe shall see us when the time is right. Now it is time to cast out for little fishes. Go get my children from North Lake. I will go with you. Also on Easter Morning, comes Sananda, as an earlier manifestation of the Christ, speaking from Clarion (the Venusian base on the backside of the Moon): I will tell you something of Clarion. It is a beautiful place to live. We have weather, snow and rain. We adjust our bodies to the temperature.

There is light. See it and be enlightened. The Light of the World emanates from the two poles of force surrounding all life forms. The Light of the World is the focal point of light, which is the opposite of darkness or ignorance. The love one has for his brother on the abased planet Earth has become corrupted. Our saucers from Clarion, from the interior of your Moon, have been dispatched and are currently patrolling over the skies of your world, beginning in your state of West Virginia. The pilots of these craft are comprising lists of sundry industrial and military sites, as well as the leaders of those industries that make war material and profit from war assets. Our saucer pilots are going to land and begin a program of making contact with certain people in May that can help us in our mission in stemming the production of those weapons of mass destruction that may prove dangerous to the future of all sentient life on your planet and other orbs in the solar system. The irresponsible will write in such a manner as to anchor the unbelieving. It may be in June when the saucers commence landing in West Virginia, for the purpose of starting to make their presence and power better known among the general population. We shall expand the range of our operations from the state of West Virginia. Letter dated 23 April 1954 from Dorothy Martin to Gray Barker, editor and publisher of the Saucerian Press, Clarksburg, West Virginia, at that time the only UFO investigator and writer about the flying saucer enigma in the state of West Virginia, and mailed from her home at 707 S. Cuyler Ave., Oak Park, Illinois: Dear Mr. Barker; I shall try to explain this letter. I have apparently been contacting the visitors; but their messages are far beyond my comprehension and of such caliber that I wonder if they should be called “visitors,” for they know far more about this Earth of ours than the so-called “permanent residents.” Much of it is of a very scientific nature, i.e., use of Latin and words from other ancient civilizations, symbols, etc. I asked them how to classify this information, and they said they would take care of the details. Now they are telling me who to send them to, most notably ministers, scientists and politicians. I believe it is a very “ego shrinking” task. They have asked me if I wish to go on. I feel that this task is, however, “bigger than the both of us,” so I am trying to obey orders.

They told me once before to tell you that they would land at Flatwoods, West Virginia. This time, however, the contact was stronger and more positive. I now understand how Edgar Cayce felt, for I challenge it every step of the way and now have some very fine minds at work on the various messages. So here it is, for what it is worth to you. Yours truly, Dorothy Martin Note: Along with the above letter, the revelations from The Elder Brother and Sananda, given to Dorothy Martin on Easter morning, were enclosed. -R.K. A second letter dated 23 April 1954 from Dorothy Martin to Gray Barker, editor and publisher of the Saucerian Press, Clarksburg, West Virginia, also mailed from her home address at 707 S. Cuyler Ave., Oak Park, Illinois: Dear Mr. Gray Barker: I am in contact with the pilot of an active space craft in the vicinity of Flatwoods. We have made contact there and expect to land in May or June. At that time, you will be contacted. The contact will be one of the space people. You will look for a scar on the left cheek of the same color as the hair. The last time there was so much confusion that they failed to see what did happen. This time it will be planned to be so there is a contact on Earth to receive us. Sincerely, Garica Sai, by Dorothy Martin Note: Garica is an entity in direct tensor beam communication to the mind of Dorothy Martin. “Sai” is a designation or title, probably referring to the entity’s role as a communicator for the Hierarchy of Light. Gray Barker was the first journalist to cover the appearance of the so-called “Flatwoods Monster” outside the small town of Sutton in Braxton County, West Virginia, by multiple witnesses, to include a National Guardsman, on the night of 12 September 1952. For a complete account of this case, please see Chapter 2, “Foundations of the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO),” in my sixth book in the Venus Rising series, Flying Saucers and the Venus Legacy (Terra Alta, West Virginia: Headline Books, 2021), under the subheading of the “Green Monster.” Coral Lorenzen (1925-1988) was the founder and co-director of APRO, the first civilian UFO group that Barker trusted enough to share detailed information about the Flatwoods incident. 35

The above communication from the Sai Garica seems to indicate a greater integration taking place between the consciousness of the entity and Dorothy Martin, to the point of making it somewhat difficult in distinguishing whose personality is coming through. “Pitting of the Windshield” Prophecy of World War III: “America will start World War III in China. Russia will retaliate.” Revelation given by the Master Jain, a Ganesha (Elephantine) being of the Hierarchy of Light and instructor of the Universal Laws in the University of Cerus and recorded by Dorothy Martin, 24 April 1954, at her home in Oak Park, Illinois: Jain Sai: We of the Hierarchy of Light, the faculty of the University of Cerus, have facilitated these tensor beam transmissions to spark your awareness, arriving as electromagnetic impulses to the sensory receptors in the human brain, thereby inducing stimulation of thought and understanding. In this manner, we are trying to improve our contacts with you, that we may accomplish greater work without further delay and confusion; for there is surely much to do. Dorothy Martin: How shall we begin? Jain Sai: We shall begin in an orderly manner. Get your tape recorder and the words shall be recorded from us into the records for all to hear. Tear off a piece of paper and let it fall to the floor. Watch it. It will pick up these impulses that you have been and now are hearing and feeling. We can transmute them into sound. Dorothy Martin (speaking in the shared consciousness of Jain Sai and the Cerus collective, referring to recent damage to her car windshield and the other windshields of vehicles in the Chicago area): Is the windshield pitting of our doing? Jain Sai: No. (Note: A flash thought came to my mind, revealing this to me. -D. M.) It is from the planet Carcea, the one you know as Jupiter. When a certain indigenous life form leaves the atmosphere of Carcea, it is in a liquid form that is much like your liquid gases. With it comes in contact with the analogous gases caused by your atmosphere and the carelessness of your world’s people, it causes an element we know as “charel” to form. It forms like hail in the atmosphere. Coming closer to the surface, it becomes harder but invisible, in most cases. If the scientists of Earth would work on the problem of air pollution as diligently as war preparations, these visiting life forms, in addition to the human beings, would live for a longer time. Dorothy Martin: What you tell us about the two major communist countries of China and Russia? 36

Jain Sai: Yes, America will initiate a war with China; but she will not use atomic bombs there. It will be a conventional war, mostly fought at sea. However, Russia will come to the aid of China when the naval war turns to America’s favor, and will launch a first strike against your large industrial centers as well as Washington, D.C. “The Earth is Slowly Drying Up:” Earth’s billions to be fed by the “Bread of Increase” Revelation given by Lady Sara, a translated Terran in the Seventh Density and spaceship commander of the Hierarchy of Light, on patrol in the Creton Sector of the Milky Way Galaxy, orbiting the only moon of the planet Cerus, a parallel Earth in the solar system of the star you know as Polaris (Careas), and recorded by Dorothy Martin, 24 April 1954, at her home in Oak Park, Illinois, as relayed to her via a tensor beam transmission from the campus of the Losolo, the University of Cerus: Sara: From the Sector of Creton in the Seventh Density, in the constellation of stars you call the Little Bear (Ursa Minor), and we call Careas. Another Sun center is being formed in and about the Earth. The Earth is slowly drying up and there will be no physical life, as you know it, only that which can exist without a physical gas substance (atmosphere). Some of the space people have been teaching certain individuals on Earth how to live without food or water, to be independent of either substance; for they will either be left to this dry planet or taken where there is no need for such food. I tell you now that we do eat; but it is a different variety of substance. We have what we call the “Bread of Increase,” which is like a snowflake. We eat some of the minerals of the soil which is in solution and can cause one to become ecstatic when consumed. Does that sound familiar? It has been used or eaten on your Earth. Yes, we do eat the flesh of some animals at times. They are called the “bangano.” They are about the size of a small Earth rabbit and they have large ears, but similar in configuration to those found on your elephant, only smaller to conform in proportionality to its body. Revelation given by Lady Sara continues, recorded by Dorothy Martin, 24 April 1954, at her home in Oak Park, Illinois, as relayed to her via a tensor beam transmission from the campus of the Losolo, the University of Cerus. The space commander declares that the University is beaming up prospective students from the Earth, speaks on the immortality enjoyed by those in the 37

Hierarchy of Light, and informs the instrument Dorothy Martin that Silas is a visitor from outer space: Sara: We are coming through your atmosphere and are being seen by your astronomers. They attribute our arrival to the appearance of large Sun spots. The various methods of communication with the people of Earth can be explained by the various sundry frequencies that we operate on. Our systems are very complicated to you. In reality, they are very simple. The currents of wind of your Earth go from east to west. Ours go counterclockwise. The science of water is a subject of the territorial university; for we have much water and use it for much of our physical needs, much as you utilize coal. Do you understand this? Note: Sara telepathically perceives that the instrument Dorothy Martin understands this concept. Sara continues with her tensor beam transmission to the instrument. The Master Jain monitors the conversation and interjects an observation. Yes, we have both oral and mental language. That is the method that you are to learn. The university here in my locale is beaming some prospective students from or on your Earth for a long-range program. Yes, (tongue-in-cheek) as guinea pigs. (Note: Dorothy Martin marvels at how Sara and the other ascended ones can “pick up every little thought.”) Since everyone volunteered lovingly, we are there to instruct them. Since we have been in contact with your planet, your people have been responding to our forces of light for the advancement of the human race on your Earth. Not all of the Earth’s people favor the energy that floods your planet. We know no death as you do. It is as a cocoon turns into a moth, very consciously and voluntarily, when we need or desire the change. We never go back to the former lear (physical body). That is the vehicle that we have used. It is, dear one, a continual unfolding. You will find a glimpse of the thoros (communicated truths) in the philosophy of Plato. The Bible touches on these truths as well in the books of the prophets Ezekiel and Samuel. Silas, the Christian elder and companion to the Apostle Paul on his second missionary journey, was a visitor to our university here in those regions you refer to as “outer space.” When the Jewish High Council in Jerusalem ordered the man, Jesus, to appear before Pilate, charging him with being an imposter even though they understood that he was a prophet who preached with the power and authority of God, they did so because they feared what havoc Caesar could bring down on the Jewish nation, and particularly, on their own heads. Acting in cowardice, they feared man more

than God. Yes, dear one, Jesus was an enlightened entity from the planet Barbalo, located in the solar system closest to the Great Central Sun of your galaxy. Jain Sai: There have been many great ones from other planets who have come to yours for the purpose of imparting further light and knowledge; but there have only been a few among you that have seen them as the spiritual masters that they are and heard their message, taking it truly to heart. Sara: Sadly, for those of Earth, the lessons learned from mistakes seem to be the best form of learning. Revelation given by the Master Jain continues, recorded by Dorothy Martin, 24 April 1954, at her home in Oak Park, Illinois, as relayed to her via a tensor beam transmission from the campus of the Losolo, the University of Cerus. Master Jain informs Dorothy Martin that people from Earth do, indeed, visit other planets. Those in the Hierarchy of Light are already on Earth, teaching those who are prepared to receive further light and knowledge from the Celestial Realms. Captain Aura Rhanes commands a Saturn class observation craft patrolling the skies over Charleston, West Virginia: Jain Sai responds to Dorothy Martin’s thought as to the appropriate gender to be addressed: Female. We have our interest in your women of Earth, too. We are planning to take some for a trip to our plane of existence, on our planet. We are trying to make arrangements for a party of six female scientists from the Westinghouse Corporation in Butler County, Pennsylvania, to visit our territory. It is that a surprise to you? We have had people from your world with us, coming from all walks of life. There is one in Syracuse, New York; one in Schenectady, New York; one in Rockford, Illinois; one in California…. There are more than one in California, Arizona and Oregon. Two of them are now on our planet Union. We train these individuals to return to Earth or go to other developing planets and complete very special missions on our behalf. We have people in the Pentagon, for the affairs of the world depend on what goes on there. (Note: Here Master Jain is answering a mental query from Dorothy Martin about an undisclosed situation.) Yes, we know all about that mess; for I am one of the workers with Justine. We are teaching those who are prepared, those who are consumed with the love of universal brotherhood and the shining forth of perpetual light. An age-old theory that all life in this Earth is the highest is a lie. The form of transforming thoughts into thought forms on paper is “tentination.” We use this form of communication often, as it is a color record. 39

I know Aura Rhanes. She, too, is a translated human being of Earth. She is the captain of a Saturn-class patrol saucer assigned to hover over Charleston, West Virginia. Choose the good. Now go do good. The ease with which you go to your tasks today can prove that we can actually help. “Telepathy Our Common Means of Communication” Dr. Searle Beiglow of Lansing, Michigan Revelation given by Lady Sara continues, recorded by Dorothy Martin, 24 April 1954, at her home in Oak Park, Illinois, as relayed to her via a tensor beam transmission from the campus of the Losolo, the University of Cerus. Lady Sara informs Dorothy Martin that telepathy is the common means of communication for the Celestials. Lady Sara also explains the important mission of Dr. Searle Beiglow of Lansing, Michigan, in the Terran year 1881: Sara: I am coming via inter-conscious perception, which you call “telepathy,” telling you of these that have been used by us for long eons of time. It is our common means of communication and is used between our own planet and all the others we have communicated with. How many, you ask? We cannot number them, for you have not enough paper to write the 000s on. This is staggering to you, for we have been learning for millions of years, as they are measured on Earth. There is much to tell, too much to put on paper. We shall show you. The people of the Earth will know by the combined effort of our emissaries to your planet that we are here in the Earth and can reach you through various means of communication. We first reached the Earth through the liaison efforts of the lovely Dr. Searle Beiglow of Lansing, Michigan, in the year of 1881. Searle was one of our scientists, incarnated on your Earth’s physical plane of existence, who helped bring forth the last…. (Note: Psychic interference generated from a saucer study group in Wheaton, Illinois, temporarily blocks the transmission for a period of 15 minutes.) Sara continues the transmission from the point she left off: I have not forsaken you. The contacts were broken by a flying saucer study group at Wheaton, Illinois. They were breaking in on this vibratory frequency, for they were trying to make contact with the Venusian base Clarion on the far side of your Moon. They are disturbing the frequency. We will go on with the lesson. Are you ready to go on? (Note: There is a pause while Lady Sara reads Dorothy Martin’s mind. Dorothy mentally affirms that she is ready to continue with the lesson.) 40

OK, let us go back to the last…. (Note: Psychic interference from the Wheaton group picks up again. For about a minute’s time, Lady Sara negotiates with the Wheaton seekers to search out another mental frequency in their attempts to communicate with the Venusians on the Moon.) They have switched to another frequency. They are not interested in the things I have for you. I am Sara. Let us go back to Dr. Searle Beiglow. He was a learned physician who was interested in the minds of his fellow laborers. He was the first psychiatrist of his day. He was experimenting with his own mental abilities when he broke through the constraints of his Earth vehicle (physical body) and came to us. He came by the same means we are teaching you. After we instructed him in our university for hours, he would return with much knowledge that was new to your people of Earth. Searle suffered much and was persecuted for his unorthodox lessons in mental diseases. But that is another story. Let us go back to the last…. (Note: Interference picks up once again. Mental transmission from the Wheaton group is bleeding over into Lady Sara’s psychic signal. Lady Sara cannot restore the faded, staticfilled signal and switches the tensor beam to yet another frequency that she shares with Lady Justine, a co-worker with Lady Master Jain, the Ganesha being, and then reestablishes the link with the recorder Dorothy Martin.) The contact was broken by the Wheaton group. We have been in contact there. They have been studying the higher lessons from the teachers of many worlds; but they have yet much to learn, as do we all. They have lost…. Justine interjects: Just be patient, dear one. You must learn to sift the fruit from the leaves. By the way, there are many clues given to our real presence and purpose on Earth given in your world’s entertainment programs, on the radio, television and movies. Now I must conclude my transmission with this admonition: “Let there be light!” But let it come through meditation. There is light. See it and be enlightened. The light is the two poles of force that are found in all life forms. Come with us and understand that the Light of the World is the focal point of light, which is the opposite of darkness or ignorance. The love one has for a brother or sister on the abased but developing planet Earth has become corrupted. We do not call it sin, so much as acts of ignorance, denying the illumination that humans have been granted through the messenger angels sent forth among them. The ignorance of your world can manifest itself in fanciful ways, to be sure, as you humans are always creative. But moreover, it is the ignorance of the Universal Laws that bring conditions of misery unto all of the Earth.

Revelation given by Lady Sara recorded by Dorothy Martin, 24 April 1954, at her home in Oak Park, Illinois, as relayed to her via a tensor beam transmission from the campus of the Losolo, the University of Cerus. Lady Sara informs Dorothy Martin that the thermin is a monitoring device that can also accommodate the recording of vibratory impulses emanating from seven different time streams corresponding to the Earth. She emphasizes the brotherhood and sisterhood of the Celestials with all the inhabitants of the Earth in all impulse waves of time (vibrations): Sara: The thermin you tuned in on was really from Cerus. It is the engine we utilize for monitoring the vibratory impulses that emanate from Earth in seven other time streams. Sara explains some birds that Dorothy Martin witnessed and heard through the thermin when monitoring a time stream for a parallel Earth: The canaries were really birds, much like the canaries on your own Earth. This communication is being recorded by your thermin. It looks much like a large looking glass and your thoughts are recorded on it as quickly as you think. And we beam back our impulses in the form of electromagnetic energy. It is done with a celecoblet, a device that our university teachers only are authorized to operate but something your scientists have not even imagined yet. You volunteered for the position; and we need you, for we are going to try to reach your planet soon, by levitation, which is literally brought about on your world by the condensing of thought. We will come to let you of Earth know that you do not need to war over the resources of your planet, or any other’s sphere, for that matter. We see and know that you struggle in darkness and want to bring the real light to your planet, for yours is the only orb in your immediate galactic sector that has war and hatred. The are many new planets that are beginning their initial phases of cosmic evolution, largely outside the great nebulae. We hope that they will be able to evolve in peace, not following the path of the Earthlings. No, we feel no sadness; but are sincerely interested in the progress of the people of your Earth. This is because at a fundamental level we are all brothers and sisters. Need I say more? When we used to have concourse with your Earth, it was long ago; and the solar system was closely compact into an area of which your planet was part. When we moved out and the Earth moved closer to the Sun, there was a closing of communication, causing the Earth people to become more superstitious. And yet there are some of your people who will not accept the original truth. To piece this story together, take your Bible, Chapters 11 and 12 of the Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 8 of the Gospel of John, Chapter 15 of First Corinthians, 42

Chapter 5 of First Samuel and Chapter 24 of Luke. The way will be made clear by the time you do the reading we have given you. The Rosicrucian Society has some of the records; and Plato had a good view of the Cosmos, overall. When you go to the lecture you will be contacted by a man from Langley Field. He has been to our planet for a brief stay. He will say to you, “You are early.” That will be the sign that he knows you. He came through the atmosphere on a beam of light. Desca, a thermin operator, speaks: My density is Aurea Sector. “The Constellations Do Change” “The Bombs Have Broken the Sonic Barrier” Revelation given by Lady Sara continues, recorded by Dorothy Martin, 24 April 1954, at her home in Oak Park, Illinois, as relayed to her via a tensor beam transmission from the campus of the Losolo, the University of Cerus. Lady Sara informs Dorothy Martin that Earth’s scientists are on the verge of detecting many new planets. The Master Jain Sai explains how the Celestials exploit holes created in the ether to visit our Earth: Sara: This is Lesson Number 2, a continuation of last night’s lesson. I come from a planet in the Cereus Constellation which is many times the size of your Earth. For its light source, you can look to your present North Star. Do you understand that we have inhabited this constellation (star grouping) since before the emergence of hominids of your planet? The constellations as seen from the surface of your world do change. The Cereus group was not always your northern constellation of Ursa Minor; and hence the star you call Polaris has not always been your North Star. Teach your astronomers that even in your own solar system are they aware of the existence of only half of the visible planets on the physical plane. There are still many more planets, moons and other celestial orbs to be discovered in your solar system, and countless beyond that. Now they are close to making these discoveries, which are sure to multiply into the next century and well into the far future. Jain Sai: Sara and I will teach you many truths you as yet do not understand. I am Sara’s assistant, Jain Sai, assigned by the Hierarchy of Light to this mission. Dorothy Martin projects this thought: What can you do for us? Jain Sai: Well, you can go tell the world that we have at last contacted the Earth planet with the waves of ether that have become tactable (able to penetrate barriers) by the bombs that your scientists have been exploding. This works like an accordion. When the condensation leaves the carceious level of the ether, or the atmospheric level that supports an extensive but light layer of marine life, it 43

causes a barrier to be set up. Now that the bombs have broken that barrier, we can break through, too. This is what your scientists call the sonic barrier. We have been trying to get through for many of your years, with alcetopes sundry light rays and the earling timer, a type of projector for transmitting phantoms onto your physical plane of existence. “End of the Age of Darkness” “The Earlings” “We Sent the First People to Earth” Revelations given by Lady Sara and Master Jain Sai, the assistant to Lady Sara, as recorded by Dorothy Martin, 24 April 1954, at her home in Oak Park, Illinois, as relayed to her via a tensor beam transmission from the campus of the Losolo, the University of Cerus. Lady Sara informs Dorothy Martin of the coming of the New Age to dispel the darkness now surrounding planet Earth. Lady Sara also explains the power of being, as well as its application. Master Jain Sai interjects herself, speaking of the connections of the Sai (Pronounced Say) with the bringing of the Oahspe to the peoples of Earth: Lady Sara: Surely there is light; and it shall be revealed to you. You are coming to the end of the Age of Darkness. The Light of the World shall be made manifest by the coming of the Earlings. The Earlings are the beings who are inhabiting the regions of your planet that you call the “atmosphere.” The atmosphere is alive with being of such a vibratory rate that the dense people of Earth cannot see them. They have form and have lived through many conditioned bodies, for certain purposes. It is not what you call “astral.” It is the Earling elements of space. Your Earth scientists call it the “Silence of Nothing.” The Earling is entering your observable world. Yes, “angels,” if you wish to call them in your language, and you living in the observable world, will see that the word is not void. That is to say, that by every word you utter, you create a creature in its image, of the very type that you image in your mind’s eye. The thoughts of the human being of Earth are located in the intensity of the Earling, and thereby increased in power. Perhaps you do not yet understand this concept; but we are here to teach you. This is Sara; and my duty is to teach the Earthlings the science of scribe, which is to say the science of being, and the power its application will bring into greater force. Jain Sai: When you look about and see the failure of the Earthlings, and hear their careless words manifesting about them, with coindon, or pity, you come to the realization that this is a negative leashing of the speaker to the same condition, 44

whereby that one becomes more than entangled in pity, but even incorporated as a part of it Lady Sara and I have gotten away from the subject of the “angel.” But yes, the Earling or “angel,” as you understand this being, is very real. He or she has lived on your Earth before and is now living in the same place that he or she inhabited in the flesh, but remains invisible by the human being of grosser flesh. Perhaps this is good; for you have as much privacy as they could afford you in a flesh body. We, your teachers Lady Sara and I, speak from the Unity of the planet Cerus. We have been to your Earth on many occasions, but we have never been indigenous to your world. In perceiving your thoughts, Sister Dorothy, I can assure you that we, too, are born of woman, as you yourself. However, in the celestial realms there is no pain suffered by the woman in child bearing. Child bearing, like all other actions taken in the lighter densities, is an act of love. We live fully those things we were created to do. You ask, “Do you conceive in the same manner as us?” Well, dear Sister Dorothy, we do. In your Christian tradition, you misinterpret the scriptures and think that in the heavenlies, men and women “are not given in marriage,” or engaging in sexual relations, but this merely signifies that the relations between the sexes are not formalized with any particular ceremonies or rites as they are on your world. Sexual relations are a natural evolution of a loving relationship. This awareness may startle you, as well, in that we are the very ones who sent down to Earth the first people, sometimes referred to as the El, the Ihins or the Elohim. The Oahspe was given through us. You shall carry on the work where the Sai left off with Dr. Newbrough. The “Sai,” of course, is the equivalent on Earth of a degree or title. Revelations given by Lady Sara as recorded by Dorothy Martin, 24 April 1954, at her home in Oak Park, Illinois, as relayed to her via a tensor beam transmission from the campus of the Losolo, the University of Cerus. Lady Sara informs Dorothy Martin of the Light of the World and His glorious illumination shared with “those who are ready” to receive it here on the Earth, transitory to their translation to a higher plane of existence. Lady Sara: Dearest Sister Dorothy, the day breaks anew; and we come for the purpose of instructing you in the higher densities, or those worlds of light populating the cosmos. I will tell you of the many teachers and their work. You will study with many of them in the various fields of language, art and economy, to thereby relay what of this great awareness that you can to the peoples of Earth. 45

Speaking from the Unity, or the One Mind, I inform you that the least of my children shall be glorified in my house. And where is my house? It is the universe and the fulness thereof. When you are proven ready, we will be with you for instruction in the work of the Losoloes, or the Universal Laws, and the Loslos is the study of the individual bodies making up the entirety of the cosmos. We begin our studies with surety, a careful preparation into the University of Wisdom. I am not particularly interested in your books and what they teach; for the wisdom I impart is from the very Light of the World. Probably you would be interested in partaking of a glimpse into our school routine. By no means shall we block your way in this endeavor. This is a new study for you; and we will be lenient with you, for the experience will prove very shocking to you. You will need to maintain real, level-thinking people around you. Obtain to a couple of learned friends that can stabilize you in the process. Let them know what you are doing. Let them watch you to see that you are not misunderstood. Share what you have with each other, by way of celestial knowledge. Share all; and be enlightened even more; but only to those who are ready, i.e., those whom you deem to be so prepared for this further light and knowledge. Never worry; for we will not forsake you. The learned lesson is the best form of learning. Interim Period: Gray Barker Correspondence Dorothy Martin’s revelations temporarily stopped following her receipt of the above communique from the Celestials. But even before she began to publicly proclaim these messages, in an attempt to gain further understanding of her experiences with personages from the Hierarchy of Light in view of events taking place in the field of ufology, Sister Dorothy began an active correspondence with fellow West Virginian and pre-eminent ufologist Gray Barker, of Clarksburg, the editor and publisher of Saucerian Books, on 23 April 1954. She initiated their correspondence with two letters. The letters were of a personal nature, and published earlier this chapter. Fortunately, I was able to come across Barker’s response, dated 27 April 1954, which reads as follows:

Miss Dorothy Martin 707 S. Cuyler Ave. Oak Park, Illinois Dear Miss Martin: Thank you very much for your interesting letter of 23 April; although I would like to know more about the matter you describe. I tried to get you on the telephone; but you were not listed in the directory. I would appreciate knowing how I could get in touch with you if this thing should work out as you explain in the letter. You mention that you have apparently been contacted by the visitors. I should like to learn a little more of the exact techniques used, whether telepathy, actual physical contact, or what. Could you please tell me a little more of what they have told you, since I would like to evaluate it more before making the decision on its authenticity; for, as you know, it is quite easy to be given wrong information by evil astral entities, etc. Would you advise just how the letter you forwarded from the visitors to me was received? The letter states, “I am in contact with the pilot of an active spacecraft in the vicinity of Flatwoods.” Do you mean that you are in contact with it, or the entity dictating the letter was in touch with it? The letter speaks of having made contacts in Flatwoods. Would you mind explaining whom the space visitors have contacted, or if you meant that you are in contact with it (the entity); or the entity dictating the letter was in touch with it? Just whom has been contacted in Flatwoods? Could you make it clear how the contact with myself will be brought about? I live in Clarksburg, quite a distance from Flatwoods. Is the contact to be made here, or how shall I go about arranging the meeting? Is Garcia Sai the entity who proposes to contact me? I hope you don’t mind all of these questions; it’s just that I want to get everything clear. Thanks for your information, Gray Barker P.S. I will appreciate your keeping this matter strictly confidential for I wish to receive no publicity over it. Then, on the following day, 28 April 1954, Miss Martin replied:

707 S. Cuyler Ave. Oak Park, Illinois Ph. Euclid-3-4921. My Dear Mr. Barker: You say you are confused, but who’s not? I know how many, and what questions you want to know the answers to. I followed the only instruction I received; and I thought you might be able to supply the missing link. But this saucer business came to my attention in 1947 when I was rockhounding in the deserts of New Mexico, Arizona and California. Now I believe that they (the Celestials) were trying to convince me that I could see more by looking up than down. I would get strong urges, if that will convey the thought correctly, to go to the lonely spots. I’ve spent hours along that Blythe, California, road alone, watching a cloudless sky, and much to the amusement of the tourists. It just seemed to be a duty I had to perform. Now the events that have transpired in the interim will naturally be omitted, because of the time element. Nevertheless, about 1 April, I sat down to write and a magnetic impulse overcame me. My hand began to write, seemingly of its own accord. My eyes became transfixed upon the paper, in great anticipation of seeing what might be involuntarily written upon it. Some of the things that were written down were very personal; so, I wondered what kind of situation I had gotten myself into. Upon thinking this, a subtle inner voice reminded me that I had asked for this position long before my incarnation on the Earth plane. Essentially, I was doing what I was born to do. With this thought in mind, I pressed on, well aware that like Jesus, the apostles and all the prophets who came before them, I would yet have to go through many very painful and frightening tests. A still small voice spoke to my spirit, “I am pleased, dear sister, that you have chosen to go on with this important work, the work for which you had lovingly volunteered in your prior lifetime…” Much like an FBI agent in conducting interviews, I tried to maintain a sense of discernment with regard to sundry spirits to whom I was in communication. Many of the spirits issuing orders for me to carry out seemingly foolish errands convinced me that they may have originated from some dark, psychic realm, which I wanted no part of. I have been a student of the occult for many years. I know that there is lots of mischief in the astral, so one must always be careful when operational on spiritual planes.

Well, much has been written; and I have come across many new terms, as you will note. And do be patient with my typing of the notes, for I have been going through a new experience and there is much “static” (spiritual interference/ poltergeist activity -R.K.) at the typewriter. Even the ribbon has perfect knots in it; and I have found it, on occasion, unreeled on the floor. Another spiritual manifestation includes floating pens having written without ink. Despite all of this, the contact continues to get stronger every day and is now coming in in a more orderly fashion. I have begun to focus more on detail, which is sometime I was not able to previously accomplish. I am also getting better in the use of the typewriter, whereas before I would mostly write in longhand. However, about two months ago, I realized that I absolutely had to have a typewriter. I began to look for one and asked my husband to join me in the search. I know that my husband would even go to India to hunt a white rhino for me, if he thought I really wanted on. “What are you going to do with the typewriter?” my husband asked. I had no credible, immediate answer for him. “I don’t know,” I replied, adding that, “I just know that I will be soon be needing one.” It then dawned on me that I would also be needing a tape recorder. Then I began to wonder if I wasn’t somehow “off the beam,” as the saying goes. Really, I’m just not the type that needs these sorts of gadgets. I am telling you this to lead up to these messages, that go back early in March. One Sunday morning, hubby and I were sitting in the living room and I went over and turned on an old Zenith television that a friend unloaded on me a couple years ago. My judgement had been to sell it; but surprisingly, no one wanted it for free. Well, now we have a television, AM and FM radio in every part of the house. We also have a shortwave radio in our living room; and when I turned it on, I heard a beautiful concert of canaries being broadcast from the Thermin, those advanced teachers of the Losolo, or University of Cerus in the celestial realms. The first time I ever came across one of the Thermin was outside a town hall about 15 years ago. This being had a musical instrument composed of some unknown metallic alloy. It had no keys or reed to blow through. The Thermin simply placed it on a stand in the open air, whence the air harmoniously and rhythmically moved around it, producing music that was literally “out of this world.” Nothing else could compare to it. Getting back to the present, I dashed to my telephone and made a call to my brother-in-law in the south side of Chicago. He was a ham operator and also

had a shortwave radio, so I thought he might like to hear the strange broadcast. Although he doesn’t know much about flying saucers, and could probably care less, he does know a great deal about good music. By the time he tuned his radio to the required frequency, the signal was already down. I had also called another friend in the Chicago area who had been to a couple of flying saucer club meetings; but he, too, had missed the broadcast. Naturally, I was disappointed. Then, on the following night, we (those of our local flying saucer club) met with Dr. George Hunt Williamson, who came up from Noblesville, Indiana, to join us over at John Ott’s home. One in the group was an engineer from the Motorola Corporation, and both he and Dr. Williamson reported that they heard the unusual broadcast. Although neither could identify the instrument used, they both admitted that the music had a hauntingly beautiful quality to it. Dr. Williamson dubbed it the “Canary Serenade.” Now, this may seem like just a lot of talk; but I assure you that it is important. In their messages to me, the Celestials refer to “your Thermin.” Clearly, there is some metaphysical or spiritual connection here, perhaps a guardian angel or oversoul is at work. Sometimes when meetings are held in my house, those in attendance can hear the Thermin transmitting unusual signals over my shortwave radio. Sometimes they sound like the music of canaries, crickets or human voices. I have striven to make transcripts of the human voices. The canaries and crickets could not be deciphered by those in the group, but somehow, I was able to go into a trance state during some of these transmissions and provide transcripts in English via automatic, or as I prefer saying, “magnetic writing.” (Dorothy Martin would later come to understand that she was able to translate these transmissions simultaneously as they were being received through the aid of a tensor beam directly to her brain as a harmonic to the carrier wave to the radio set. -R.K.) I have to be able to see and hear all, when it comes to these alien transmissions. I hope you know what I am referring to, Gray, insomuch as you have interviewed many contactees. John and I were at my house when a request came over the shortwave radio from the Thermin. “Can you listen for three minutes?” came a voice from the speaker. Then, after I sat down with a pen and paper, the canaries and crickets began very rhythmically. I interpreted this message as, “We are trying to improve contact that we may do greater work without so much delay and confusion. There is much to do. Shall we begin in an orderly fashion? Get your tape recorder and from now on, the words shall be recorded, from us, the Thermin, for all to hear. Tear off a piece of that paper and let it fall to the floor. Watch it. It will pick up these impulses that you have been 50

feeling and hearing. We can transmute them to sound. Is this obstructing wind shield of our doing? No, it is not.” (Perhaps the Celestials are making a reference to the heavy winds that frequently whip through Chicago and the surrounding area off of Lake Michigan, occasionally disrupting a transmission as they howl outside Martin’s home. One of those in attendance speculated that it might have something to do with what then news commentator Lowell Thomas referred to as “air pollution,” thus speculating that it might in some way interfere with the reception of clear signals from outer space or beyond the Earth plane. -R.K.) It is important to note that I can stop in the middle of a word and lay the pad away, temporarily forgetting about it and not having to read it at all until the next day, when the message will be picked up again and finished in proper order. I know that you are anxious to hear; and I was out last night to the Williamson lecture about his encounter with the Venusian in the California desert along with his associate, George Adamski of Mount Palomar. However, tonight I will probably initiate an all-night session, despite having a great need for sleep. But any time I can be of help, I am glad to provide it. And I shall keep this very confidential, to be sure. Yes, some of these messages have been identified as coming from Cerus or Clarion. Some of the senders include Justine, Desca, Jain Sai and Sara, who work together. Jain identifies as one of the Sai, a class of teachers. Once upon a time there was a great man in a long-lost civilization of the Earth, the most able of psychiatrists during his time, who freed his consciousness from his material body, referred to as the lear, breaking through to attend university classes on other planets in a spiritual dimension at night. He would return to his physical body during the day and impart much good information to the people of his land. These were quite ungrateful, however, and persecuted him severely, claiming that he suffered from some mental disease. His name was Sai; and later generations would bestow the title of “Sai” upon all outstanding instructors. This information has been sent to the group meeting in my home, insofar as it is the proper place for study at this time. I am a servant in the light, Dorothy Martin (Note: At the end of this letter, Dorothy Martin writes in pencil: D. M.: Lear is a body or vehicle we use. Jain Sai: Since you received that last letter, this week we have been in Flatwoods, West Virginia, again; but little was thought of about that light that was seen over Sutton, West Virginia, last Sunday. 51

D. M.: Here’s something to work on. I am in bed covered up to my beck, so this was not so strong. But here is the message: Sara: Sir (meant for Gray Barker, -R.K.), The identity of our contact is very private. That is the only way we care to work, no fanfare, no cameramen. This is to say that we never digress from our plans; and the way of the contact must be veiled. There is a certain young man with a limp in the left foot that will be “on tap.” That is all we will say. -Dorothy Martin, Recorder On 5 May 1954, Gray Barker replied by mail: Dear Miss Martin: Many thanks for your letter of 28 April further describing your experiences. I am most anxious to learn where Garcia Sai plans to contact me and in what manner the contact will be affected. Could you please let me have more information? Please also advise whom they have already contacted in Flatwoods, West Virginia. I would really like to follow this through. Have you discussed Mr. Otto’s experiences with him? He telephoned me that he had talked with a Venusian recently. Your letters have been greatly appreciated. Cordially, Gray Barker On 10 May 1954, Dorothy Martin received, as the recorder, the following communication from an entity simply known as Searl. After recording it and then typing it up, she mailed the typed copy to Gray Barker in Clarksburg, West Virginia. The communique reads as follows: Searl: It is necessary that things be proven. We shall do this. The voices shall be recorded on the machine that the engineers are working on. That is a small beginning, for much knowledge will ensue. You did see the casual-looking visitor from the “T.” (Might be a reference to Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. Other great Sai, like the ever-wise teacher Sol-du-Naro, have incarnated on the Earth plane over many lifetimes. At the time of this revelation, Sol-du-Naro was just beginning his public ministry as the contactee from New Jersey, Howard Menger, who would later go on to write his epic From Outer Space to You (Clarksburg, West Virginia: Saucerian Press, 52

1959). His position is a diplomatic one. (Gray Barker edited Howard Menger’s book and became his close friend. In a diplomatic role, Menger also brought the Venusian commander Valiant Thor to his home for a flying saucer club meeting in 1958, thus introducing him to the world at large. -R.K.) No false moves must be made. This is why he cannot announce himself, for the mentality of the mob is humankind at its lowest denominator. Perhaps this gentleman might be rushed off as a Russian spy, an imposter, or some criminal injustice done him. (Menger and other contactees were often accused of being communists or “fellow travelers” precisely because they advocated for building utopian societies here on Earth, emulating those on Venus and other planets in the celestial realms. -R.K.) He just appears for a few seconds and surveys the surroundings, and lets those who are privileged to recognize him. (This is often the case with many advanced extraterrestrials and ultra-dimensionals inhabiting the Earth’s material plane. Your attention is invited to Hebrews 13:2 in the King James Bible, where it mentions “entertaining angels unawares.” -R.K. He need not come into the crowd to see and know that you are in the crowd. (He can sense or feel your spiritual presence. -R.K.) -Dorothy Martin, Recorder Many more channeled revelations did Dorothy Martin impart from June through December of 1954, all in the same vein from sundry Ascended Masters, thus pushing her end-of-the-world prophecies to Christmas Eve, seeing as how the Easter prophecies had failed, and caused her so much consternation from negative press reports. In a most telling letter to Gray Barker from Dorothy Martin of Oak Park, Illinois, dated 5 August 1954, the seeress wrote: Arrival of the Venusian Ambassador- Averting War Dear Mr. Barker: Things seem to be moving at a rapid pace these days. We will open with this morning’s work as I view my note pad (as my typewriter is in the shop). It reads, a recorded by Sananda: Page 3 Send the editor a note as follows: To the Editor of the Saucerian: It is I, Sananda, the ambassador to Earth from Venus, planet of love, which 53

has proclaimed, that I, of my own choice, came to Earth in the form of man, done by the prompting of love. It is I, Sananda, who asked for the light by which the writer (Dorothy Martin) has composed and sent you this letter, for the purpose of making myself known to the fleshly inhabitants of your material world. It was I who dropped down from an octave of light into the mountains of West Virginia. It is I who is now establishing upon the Earth a school of the prophets to advance a greater awareness of the intelligence of the Creator. This is a school such as your world has not known, reflecting the mind of the Creator which is the cause of all things past, present and future. As it stands at the present time, you are not aware that it is the work of the Father of Lights which has placed you in the position of being a publisher. It has been set forth, by the power of love, that your work consists in bringing esoteric knowledge to the peoples of Earth. This will prepare them for the events ahead. When you announce that your publication of these prophecies constitutes the Father’s work, be fearless in so doing. We will send to you a contact in person, in the form of a businessman. He will make himself known to you as the Ambassador of Venus. To you we say that there is an abundance of material in the form of lessons to be given for the asking. This you will publish as a service of love to the “little ones” of Earth. There are many of the little lambs who are hungry for the lessons we are to give in the next few months to come. For the presentation of these revelations you were prepared; yet you know it not, for the day is soon to be that it shall be as the eclipse of the Sun at high noon. As the panic of humankind knows no bounds, it is necessary for the messages to reach the people. It is, therefore, deemed that you are the one to do the Father’s work as your press awaits the printer in your local city. It is also decreed that you are to be directed in every task you do, as a student of love and the mind of your Higher Self. Operating in the Higher Self is, of course, most emblematic of the planet Venus, from whence in the Cycle of Light we come to Earth. The writing of the channel (Dorothy Martin) will, in time, become more familiar to you. As never before, the Hierarchy of Light will reveal through the channel the things to come transpiring under the Sun both on your planet Earth and sister planet Venus. Therefore, it is extremely important to be accurate in its presentation in your press. Concerning the Earth and its interactions with Venus, the Venusians will be working diligently in the name of love behind the scenes on your world to promote greater cooperation and world peace. No war shall scatter atomic radiation into the atmosphere of your planet, nor extend it into outer space to the Moon or other planets in the solar system. 54

As was done during the Cycle of Carnice of Bor (one of two supercontinents on the planet Marduk which once was situated between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, where the Asteroid Belt is today), when aid was sought from the Bor colonists of the small Saturnian ice moon of Cor in their fight with the Carcans (inhabitants of Marduk’s other supercontinent), there came to exist a great vacuum in space, creating a vortex that became filled with the particulate matter resulting from a massive atomic chain reaction that took place on both Marduk and Cor, destroying both orbs in the process and, ergo, creating both the Asteroid Belt and the Saturnian ring system. Don’t allow yourselves to become uninformed and forget such things. We ask that you go immediately to the land of Oak Park for further details in the process of planning for the days ahead. And as in the last few days, it is a matter of much concern to us that the peoples of your world are not heeding the wise voice of the Venusian Queen and High Council as the peoples of the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics rush headlong into war, while simultaneously the peoples of the other nations of Earth are taking sides. As the conflict between the United States and Soviet Union heats up, further hatred of one people for another is needlessly increasing on both sides. And as both nations contemplate the exploration of outer space, your respective leaders are already seeking to carve out territories to control on the Moon and other planets in the names of their respective countries. These politicians are not behaving as real leaders, only imposters. These are aggressors to each other and to the welfare of the planet as a whole. They have already become as enemies one to another; and now the time is ripe for the Hierarchy of Light on Venus to send ambassadors to the peoples of Earth that its peoples might hear our lessons as they have been recorded in the house of our channel and recorder, Dorothy Martin. -Sanada P.S. This is it. I can add nothing at present, except to note that the things we have called “jigsaw pieces” now begin to fall into place. I now know beyond a shadow of doubt. I have had two physical contacts (angelic messengers) leading where? and to what? But I am now holding myself in readiness, at their bidding. I now know what my mission is. This message is for you; and it is not my job to interpret it for you. I am glad to share with all the volumes of material they (the Ascended Masters) have given me. They say, “He who would set himself up as a pillar of brass will, by his own acid, be tarnished.” That is enough for me. Best regards in the way of holy affection, -Dorothy Martin Tel. Euclid 3-4921 55

Life in Peru Leaving a comfortable life in a suburban Chicago neighborhood to go live in the then poverty-stricken yet developing nation of Peru must have been quite difficult for Dorothy Martin. On the other hand, perhaps she could endure these harsher living conditions in lieu of the peace and quiet to be enjoyed in that remote corner of South America. Following the infiltration of her UFO contactee group and the drubbing she took in the media following the unfulfilled 1954 Easter and Christmas catastrophic prophecies, together with the harassment she took from academics and government agents over her pronounced coming endof-the-world (at least as we know it) scenario, there was no place in the United States that she could safely go without immediately being recognized as that “failed Doomsday UFO cult leader.” Therefore, remaining in Arizona was not going to be an option. She felt inspired to go with Dr. George Hunt Williamson to Peru, for that is why her first move out of Chicago was the Arizona desert at the start of 1955; but it was in Peru with Williamson where her destiny lied in the next few years. There she could strengthen her extraterrestrial and ultradimensional contacts as the reborn seeress known as “Sister Thedra.” It is easy to see now how Dorothy Martin could be so misunderstood. There are many overlapping interdimensional forces and timelines at work. The extraterrestrials were allowing her to view the events that had transpired on a parallel Earth in order to issue a voice of warning to the peoples and their respective governments on our own Earth. The citizens of the United States were not ready to receive Martin’s messages from the stars. But they might someday in the future, when she, as “Sister Thedra,” could return from Peru empowered by our space friends to successfully complete her mission in the United States, the true “Land of Promise” that Guy Ballard and other contemporary prophets had spoken so highly of. Of her time in Peru, Hanna Spitzer, a correspondent for the UFO Review (NYC, Issue #15, 1983), revealed the following: “Sister Thedra traveled to the Andes and there she studied with some very wise and educated men in the ways of ancient teachings. During this period, Sister Thedra started channeling not only Christ, but masters from space. Many of the messages paralleled those of the early UFO contactees. A good percentage of the information dealt with endtimes prophecies.”

Move to Mt. Shasta, California At the conclusion of 1961, Sister Thedra felt she was ready to return to the United States with Williamson; and after spending a short time in Arizona, chose Mt. Shasta in Northern California as her new home and spiritual headquarters, which she moved to at the beginning of the following year. When correspondent Spitzer asked her why she chose Mt. Shasta as her new home, Sister Thedra explained: “I was drawn here as if by a magnet. I began channeling on an almost daily basis. Jesus and Saint Germain are only two of the members of the spiritual hierarchy who have communicated with me.” Clearly, her move to Mt. Shasta served to totally transform every aspect of Sister Thedra’s life, opening up her senses even more acutely than they had ever been before. UFOs also played an intricate part in this process. In addition to observing many interdimensional and interplanetary spaceships in the vicinity of the huge mountain, she was also able to capture many of these craft in photographs and one of them on film. “There it was, right outside my door,” related Sister Thedra to Spitzer, also noting that while, “Some people might say it was only a cloud, I swear that it stayed in one place for four days and then, on the morning of the fifth day, it disappeared.”

Resident of Mt. Shasta, California, Frederick Spencer Oliver (1866-1899), wrote, A Dweller on Two Planets in 1894. It was published by his mother in 1905; and in this drawing from the book purports to show a carrier ship from Venus visiting Mount Shasta. According to Sister Thedra, such Venusian spaceships camouflage themselves inside the large lenticular clouds that are frequently reported as suspended above the magic mountain.

According to the seeress, almost everyone living near the 14,161-foot mountain take UFO sightings for granted. She recalled that, “Just a few months ago, as an example of the intensity of their appearances, the sheriff told me he was chased by a flying saucer for over a mile.” 57

Fate of California Predicted One of Sister Thedra’s end-times prophecies of the various upheavals coming to our world was of great concern to the seeress, that being that California was one of the states that would be so shaken by earthquakes that it would slide off into the Pacific Ocean, becoming an archipelago. In time, she foresaw a time in the far future when California would become an independent republic again. She also foretold that, “One day, within the next one hundred years or so (by 2083), Mt. Shasta, a now dormant volcano, would blow its lid, just like St. Helena did in Washington State.” Fortunately for the people living in the city of Mt. Shasta, Sister Thedra assured them that, “Should Mt. Shasta erupt at any time that I am still living on the Earth, my spiritual contacts have promised to give me plenty of notification.” As a highly respected spiritual teacher, Sister Thedra was able to assure us that, “If we pull ourselves up by the bootstraps, all might Goodbye, California! We will all miss you dearly. Art source: Mises be averted. “None of this has to happen if we Institute, https://mises.org change our ways and become more concerned about one another and the plight of the Earth.” Association of Sananda and Sanat Kumara During her third year in Mt. Shasta (1965), the seeress was inspired by the hierarchal masters of light, Sananda and Sanat Kumara to establish a foundation in Mt. Shasta to disseminate their messages to the people of Earth. Therefore, in obedience to their wishes, the New Age channel Sister Thedra established the Association of Sananda and Sanat Kumara. The group was located at #1 Vista Avenue in Mt. Shasta and mailed correspondence could be sent to Sister Thedra at P. O. Box 35, Mt. Shasta, California 96067. Sister Thedra made sure that the new association increased the output of literature regarding the masters’ continuing revelations, even circulating it at no charge to “all those who wish to be enlightened about the role of the Masters in today’s world.” Donations, of course, were encouraged and gladly accepted. Mt. Shasta was the perfect venue for the work of Sister Thedra. No doubt, because of her efforts, Mt. Shasta became known as one of the great spiritual centers of the world. And far from being afraid of the vast powers that apparently dwell in that region, Sister Thedra would live and thrive to absorb them. It has long been believed that there is an ancient colony from the lost continent of 58

Lemuria established in the caverns deep underneath the magic mountain. Speaking wise words in regard to Mt. Shasta, the seeress proclaimed, “I think that the powers that be are our Guardians. I believe that the Creator meant for us to keep in touch with Him from this sacred mountain.” And like fellow Theosophist, extraterrestrial contactee and friend, George Adamski, Sister Thedra concluded, “I believe it is all natural, not supernatural at all.” Last Stop, on Earth

In 1961 Sister Thedra returned to the United States and settled in Arizona. She established the Association of Sananda and Sanat Kumara in 1965 and a short time later relocated to Mount Shasta, California. In 1988 she and the group returned to Sedona, Arizona. The association existed Photo of Dorothy Martin, a.k.a. “Sister Thedra,” taken as a far-flung network of people inside her Mt. Shasta home in 1983 by UFO Review who received the teachings of (NYC) reporter, Hanna Spitzer those Ascended Masters who spoke through Sister Thedra. The advanced beings she channeled were seen as both spiritually advanced and coming from outer space. Martin died in 1992 and no new channel has arisen to take her place. The association may be reached at 2675 W. Highway 89-A, #454, Sedona, AZ 86336, where the newsletter, Call to Arms may be obtained. Two Fellow West Virginia Ufologists Opine In an editorializing and stinging article about the West Virginia seeress by Gray Barker of the Saucerian magazine, (Clarksburg, West Virginia), Issue #6, Spring 1955, the pioneer ufologist noted: “We believe everyone should have the right to predict the end of the world. There is always something dramatic and entertaining about predicting the world will end, or hearing such a prediction. Because you are unlikely to believe it, such a prediction is not overly upsetting. And then, hardly anyone fails, on such an occasion, to do a bit of thinking. What would he do, for instance, if he really knew the end of the world was imminent? It provides a way to take selfinventory, sort of like Thanksgiving.

“We do not believe your predictions, Mr. Laughead and Mrs. Martin. We seriously doubt either the reliability of your communications or the intelligence of the space people you have talked to. But we believe we would take up arms to protect your right to talk with space people and to predict the end of the world. You have damaged the saucer situation to a great extent because of the adverse publicity you have received; but at the same time, you have given us serious food for thought.” Of course, if Dorothy Martin and her associates were truly communicating with highly advanced and evolved extraterrestrial or ultra-dimensional beings, then one might consider it unreasonable to judge her based on standards applicable to our contemporary understanding of the space-time continuum. After all, she may have been allowed to view another Earth existing in a parallel time line or alternate universe, such as another contactee, Columba Krebs, did during the late 1950s and early 1960s (See Dr. Raymond Keller, Lady Columba Venus Revelations, Headline Books, Terra Alta, West Virginia, 2021). This would allow her to accurately report events as they unfolded in that other realm, only to serve as a voice of warning for us to change our wicked ways. Oh, well, all I can add to this is that we may yet be facing the end of the world with hypersonic missiles, climate change, artificial intelligence, etc., but still, like the R.E.M. song goes, “I feel fine.”

Despite Gray Barker’s doubts about Martin’s claims, he went to bat for her in petitioning for her rights under the laws of Illinois. Here is the response to Barker from then Illinois Governor William G. Stratton.

Gray Barker’s Influence Responsible There is little doubt that towards the concluding years of the decade of the 1950s, in the state of West Virginia, at least, Gray Barker’s name had become synonymous with the terms “flying saucers” and ‘UFOs.” In one sense, Barker was considered the promotional impetus behind much of the flying saucer legacy as we understand it today. This would include such mythologies surrounding assorted cryptids like the Flatwoods Monster or the Mothman, and even the notorious Men in Black, now popularized in a series of blockbuster movies. Amateur Astronomer Ponders Extraterrestrial Life The following account involves one West Virginia woman who became caught up in the hullabaloo attained to Gray Barker’s UFO revelations in the various publications of his Saucerian Press in Clarksburg, West Virginia. Her name was Julia C. Rothwell of South Parkersburg. Ever since she was a high school student in the late 1930s, Julia was fascinated by mysterious fires and lights she would see zipping over the mountain ridges in the western part of West Virginia. Back then, the mountain folk simply identified such phenomena as “ghost lights.” Nevertheless, Julia was convinced that she had witnessed “strange things in the sky that could not be put down either as airplanes or astronomical objects.”6 Julia had a scientific inclination; and she wasn’t ready to just blame the appearance of these mysterious lights on the activities of ghosts. It then became her lifelong ambition to explore such objects to determine their true nature and origin. 6 62

News, Parkersburg, West Virginia, 15 February 1957.

Following the formation of the short-lived International Flying Saucer Bureau (IFSB) in 1952 by Albert K. Bender (1921-2016) of Bridgeport, Connecticut, Gray Barker became the editor of the organization’s monthly periodical, Space Review. In the late summer of 1953, Bender somehow stumbled upon the truth about flying saucers, that they were spaceships from other planets and that the government of the United States was concealing this fact from the people. He planned on revealing the evidence for this conspiracy in the October issue of the Space Review, but was visited by “three men dressed in black” who somehow already read what he was going to publish and warned him not to, also stressing that, “We advise you and others engaged in saucer work to please be very cautious. Get out while you can.” Bender, who referred to these men in black as the “silencers,” promptly suspended publication of the Space Review and disbanded the IFSB. He moved out to Southern California where he ran a small hotel, never again speaking of flying saucers or anything related to them. For Barker, this was quite a tragedy, since the Space Review was very popular and attracting subscribers from all over the world on a daily basis. Therefore, Barker continued to write and publish articles about flying saucers and extraterrestrial life on his own out of his home in Clarksburg, West Virginia. Julia Rothwell was an early member of the IFSB who transferred her allegiance to Gray Barker and his publishing efforts. Like her mentor Gray Barker to the whole of the state of West Virginia, Julia became a noted “go to”authority for all matters dealing with outer space or flying saucers in the greater Parkersburg area. In the 15 February 1957 Parkersburg News article, Julia was interviewed by a reporter covering the beat on the south end of town, who came over to her home one evening upon hearing about a special activity that she and her husband were planning. Her husband was a noted aircraft engineer who just returned from California, and realizing his wife’s love of everything extraterrestrial, brought her a birthday gift of an eight-inch reflecting telescope, one that he had personally built for her from a special kit. Julia had invited all the neighbors over for a block party on the evening of 8 February 1957. After Julia set up the telescope and a various array of lenses, everyone cut out their porch lights for optimum viewing at Julia’s sky watch, whence she would test out her telescope. There was only a scattering of clouds, so all of those in attendance could get a look at the Moon, the planets, the stars, the constellations, and any other celestial phenomena. The Sun had set at 5:58 p.m. The inner planets of Mercury and Venus were then morning stars, so they weren’t visible in the evening sky. 63

Mars was visible as a bright red dot until 11:53 p.m., being 89% full. Massive Jupiter, with an extremely bright magnitude of -2.2, was also visible from 8:35 p.m. to 8:50 p.m., when it set below the horizon. Everyone stayed awake until Jupiter’s appearance, waiting to get a gander at five of Jupiter’s largest moons, as well as its prominent red spot. The other seven moons were too small to be seen with only a small-power reflecting telescope. Saturn had already set during daylight hours and the other outer planets were just too dim to be seen by Julia’s telescope. The Moon was 64% full and would remain in the night sky until 2:12 a.m.7 Everyone enjoyed looking at the mare and craters of our natural satellite. Julia was such an outstanding astronomer, albeit an amateur, that she was able to pinpoint many of the brightest stars and quickly identify most of the major constellations and nebulae. After the sky watch, everyone went inside for tea and cookies. When this concluded, the reporter stayed and asked Julia some very pertinent questions: Reporter: As an amateur astronomer, what are your favorite celestial objects to observe? Julia: The rugged terrain of the Moon and also the polar caps of Mars, such as we were able to observe tonight. Reporter: Have you ever observed any unidentified flying objects through your telescope? Julia: Oh, yes. I have been observing UFOs for a long time, well before they ever came into prominence. I have witnessed strange things in the sky that could not be put down either as airplanes or astronomical objects. Reporter: What do you most enjoy about studying astronomy? Julia: I look at the telescope as a sort of magic carpet. I use it to mentally travel to regions cut off from many. Reporter: Do you believe there is life on other planets? Julia: Of course, I do. Really, it is unthinkable that our little planet (Earth) is the only one inhabited. In our own solar system, Venus and Mars are considered good candidates. And while the Moon probably has no indigenous life, there are probably bases built by extraterrestrials used as staging areas for a reconnaissance of the Earth. Reporter: What do you think about the so-called “UFOs?” Julia: I do not know for sure what the UFOs are or where they are from. But I do know that they exist and, in my opinion, represent manifestations of intelligence of some kind. Scientists have known of the existence of such objects for hundreds of years. 7 64

Time Machine, S.R.L., https://takemeback.to/astronomy/08-February-1957 (Accessed 20 August 2022).

Reporter: Do you think that some of the UFOs might be coming from planets beyond our own solar system? Julia: There is a high probability that some of them do come from further out. After all, space is infinite. Of space there is no end. Danger on the Moon! Anytime an issue related to outer space or UFOs would come up, Julia would be contacted by a reporter from the Parkersburg News. From her acquaintance with Gray Barker, Julia came to learn of some disturbing news about planned American experiments on the Moon. She shared her concerns about these with the Parkersburg News reporter in mid-April 1957: From Robert Gribble, the editor of the Aerial Phenomena Research Group (APRG) Reporter newsletter, published out of Seattle, Washington, a news clipping from the 3 April 1957 Elizabethton, Tennessee, Star newspaper, was forwarded to his friend Gray Barker, who, in turn, shared it with Julia, whom he knew was quite interested in all types of lunar phenomena. This article entailed an impending danger on the Moon! According to the article, it seems that top American military brass and scientists were concerned about what to do with the growing stockpile of nuclear warheads amassing in various countries around the world. They were searching for ideas as to how they could dispose of these stockpiles and thereby eliminate the danger of a nuclear apocalypse occurring on Earth. Dr. Harold C. Urey, a distinguished astrophysicist from the University of Chicago, the same institution where the Doomsday Clock was established in June 1947, has suggested that all nations 1953 artist’s conception of how Mars having nuclear weapons could launch would look close up at its nearest approach to the Earth three years later, based on them at the Moon and other planets astronomer’s research of the Red Planet. of the solar system, instead of at each Insofar as a Martian summer lasts for 182 other, thus bringing upon the Earth an days, much longer than our summer season on Earth, the presence of a great deal of unprecedented era of global peace and vegetation would be visible through Earthscientific cooperation. Dr. Urey believes based telescopes during close approaches of Mars

that such a disposal of nuclear arms would also have great scientific value: “My suggestion is that we bombard the Moon’s exterior with atomic weapons in an attempt to chip off pieces of the Moon’s interior. I believe these pieces will eventually fall to Earth and enable scientists to resolve their many differences concerning the composition of the Moon’s surface, or what would be left of it, that is.” Opined the amateur backyard astronomer Julia, “I can’t believe that there are those so reckless in the scientific community. Don’t they realize that radioactive chunks of the Moon striking the surface of the Earth might end all life on this planet? And what if the neighboring planets in our solar system are inhabited? This might be the start of the First Interplanetary War!” Our Favorite Martians The reporter also remembered that Julia spoke of an affinity for observing the Martian polar caps. Like the Earth’s polar caps, Mars’ caps were probably composed of water. The changing seasonal patterns of colors, to include blues and green, on the Martian surface surrounding deep valleys probably indicate vegetation of some sort taking nourishment from the melting water and silts flowing down from the polar regions. But what about more advanced forms of life going beyond mere vegetation. He asked Julia if she had information regarding the possibility of some form of intelligent life on Mars. Julia replied that she had followed up on some articles in Gray Barker’s Saucer News dealing with this very question. She obtained actual quotes from the scientific journals cited in the Saucer News and shared some of these with the reporter. The following remarks from noted scientists of the 1950s are included below: Dr. W. E. Duckwall (astronomer), correspondent in Popular Astronomy: Life on Mars is certain. Evolution there may have been more rapid so that there are fewer races but with a high level of development. The dominant race there may not be manlike, but such a form is as probable as any other. Dr. A. L. D. Norbert-Hall (astronomer), Director, Mannheim Foundation Observatory, Germany: The reason for the rapid development of Martian life is that Mars is a much smaller planet than Earth, with a diameter of only 4,216 miles as compared with our 7,918 miles, with the result that has cooled faster while life appeared sooner and presumably evolved more rapidly. The idea that dominant life forms may be similar is based on the cosmological fact that stellar radiation, the speed of light, gravitation, atomic structures and other phenomena are basically identical throughout the macro-cosmos. Galaxies, stars and planets 66

have much more pronounced similarities than they have differences, so why shouldn’t high-level life forms, too? Dr. Tsuneo Saeki (astronomer), Osaka Observatory on the outskirts of Tokyo, after observing what appeared to be an atomic explosion on the surface of Mars, 16 January 1950: Many believe that the flying saucers, if they are of extraterrestrial origin at all, can come only from Mars. They point out that Mars and the Earth are the only two planets in the solar system with atmospheric oxygen and that oxygen is essential to all known forms of life. There seems to be an almost hysterical effort in some quarters in the United States to prove that flying saucers are cases of mistaken identity, hallucinations and so on. But according to the United States Air Force itself, investigation always reveals a substantial portion of such reports that cannot be explained by conventional means. So, we may safely assume along with such authorities as Major Donald E. Keyhoe,8 that the saucers are “interplanetary spaceships.” Appearance of the Typical Martian The editors of Sir!, a popular men’s magazine of the late 1940s and 1950s, wishing to compete with the success of True magazine and its series of articles by the retired Marine Corps Major Donald E. Keyhoe about the flying saucer enigma, asked Dr. A. L. D. Norbert-Hall, Ph.D., the director of the Mannheim Foundation Observatory in Germany, if he would speculate about what a typical Martian might look like.9 Gray Barker shared a copy of the article with Julia, who, in turn, shared a copy of it with the reporter. Similar conditions that exist on Earth and Mars would, of course, push evolution in the direction of creatures with two legs with toes, a torso covered with hair or fur, two arms with fingers, and a head with two ears, two nostrils, two eyes and a mouth. The Martian would be basically humanoid in appearance, but with significant evolutionary adaptations to accommodate any peculiarities of the Martian environment. Keeping this in mind, Norbert-Hall describes the typical Martian we might run into with our first encounter, thusly: “He is a huge biped, standing ten or fifteen feet tall and covered with fur from 8

Donald E. Keyhoe (1897-1988), a retired Marine Corps aviation major who came to direct the largest civilian UFO investigations group, National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP), headquartered in Washington, D.C., from 1957-1969. At the time that the Japanese astronomer referenced Keyhoe, the retired major was a correspondent for True magazine and had just published his first book, The Flying Saucers Are Real (New York, New York: Fawcett Publications, 1950). A. L. D. Norbert-Hall, Ph.D., “What the Martians Really Look Like,” Sir!, (New York, New York: Volitant Publishing Group, September 1953. 67

head to toe. As we speak to him, his ears swivel attentively in our direction like furry membranous bowls. His limbs are pipe-stem thin, almost spidery, while his abdominal area is equally slender due to the fact that his metabolism is a very high level of efficiency and the water content is much less than ours. Only his chest and braincase are truly gigantic, enormous to the point of grotesqueness. “As he examines things, we show him perhaps the mechanism of a watch. His long, multi-boned fingers write like slim serpents. “His mouth is little more than a tiny orifice in the center of his furry face. He has no teeth or lower jaw. He has lost the need for them millions of years ago. His breathing orifice, too, is only an opening set flush in his face and protected against the Martian sandstorms by a furry valve that opens and shuts as he is breathes. Lacking enemies on his own planet, he has no need for a long snout like a dog or a wolf. “But it is his eyes that are strangest. They project on stalk-like antennae at least six inches from the side of his head and he can turn them in any direction, which gives him spherical visibility at all times. They too are provided with furry lids. “Despite his size, he is not formidable physically by our standards. On Earth, he weighs no more than 75 pounds; he is mostly brain, skeleton, protective coating and lungs. “It is his brain, developed over millions of years during which our ancestors were still swinging in trees and acquiring opposable thumbs, that make him formidable. It is his brain that has conquered his own planet and may yet conquer ours. “This, then, is a reasonably accurate estimate as to what a Martian looks like, according to many astronomers and biologists. In many ways, he is grotesque by comparison to Earthlings, but the resemblances are far greater than the differences. “A closer study of Mars may put the phenomenon of the flying saucers in perspective. The presence of the flying saucers may indicate that the Martian has a highly developed civilization and a science superior to our own. Perhaps our wisest course would be to attempt to contact him as a potential friend, and not as a potential enemy, because he might whip the daylights out of us before we even got started!” The controversy over the non-anthropomorphic appearance of extraterrestrials was forcing emerging ufologists like Gray Barker, Coral and Jim Lorenzen, and others to reconsider the Nordic-types being offered up to the public by Orfeo Angelucci, George Adamski, Truman Bethurum and others 68

of the early contactees as the sole types of aliens we would one day encounter in our voyages into outer space. It occurred to some astrobiologists and cryptozoologists like John A. Keel, Ivan T. Sanderson, et al, that the Bigfoot, Sasquatch, Yeti and other large bipedal creatures frequently seen on Earth might share some of the characteristics of the typical Martian, thus indicating a possible extraterrestrial connection with these entities. Perhaps they find their origins on Mars or a planet quite similar to it in physical properties. Many thanks to inquisitive minds like Julia C. Rothwell’s for keeping the West Virginia public’s attention focused on getting the truth out about the reality of extraterrestrial life and flying saucers.

An artist from Sir! magazine sketched this drawing of a typical Martian based on a renowned astronomer’s speculations.

8 Case of the Alien Vampires Animal Mutilations and Blood-Thirsty Ufonauts Over the past few decades, there have been thousands of animal mutilations, as evidenced by the bloodless carcasses left in their wake. Local and state law enforcement officials usually blame such mutilations of domesticated animals on the activities of rustlers, or sometimes members of Satanic cults. Others, such as paranormal researchers, have suggested alien An evil extraterrestrial seeks to suck out the blood of this Earth female of the future. intervention, i.e., with the suspected Scene frame from 1980 episode, “Space culprits as extraterrestrials. They (the Vampires” that aired on the television researchers) point out that there has program Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. The show was produced by Glen A. Larson usually been a substantial increase Productions (Sherman Oaks, California) in UFO reports over any given area and ran for two seasons on stations of the where there has simultaneously been an National Broadcasting Corporation from 1979-1981. uptick in domestic animal mutilations as reported by farmers and ranchers. But is it only animal blood that certain nefarious extraterrestrials are seeking? UFO Buzzes Bloodmobile In my capacity as the director of the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) in West Virginia, an interesting case recently came to my attention, but dating back 70

to Sunday, 5 May 1967. It appears that in the rainy, pre-dawn hours of that day, a Red Cross bloodmobile, carrying a cargo of human blood collected on the previous day, was driving along Route 2, running parallel to the Ohio River. The bloodmobile was headed to the Red Cross State Headquarters in Huntington, West Virginia, to deliver the blood shipment there, whence it would be portioned and distributed to local hospitals in need of various blood types. The driver that day was Beau Shertzer, also accompanied by a young nurse. When the driver came upon a complete stretch of straight road, however, a large but glowing object lift off from a nearby hill, swooping over the top of the bloodmobile. Shertzer, startled as he was, rolled down the driver’s side window and looked up, trying to get a better view of the UFO. In horror he watched as some kind of long mechanical arm extended down from the belly of the now hovering saucer above him. The scary object kept pace with the bloodmobile, cruising along at just few feet over the bloodmobile’s roof. The accompanying nurse in the bloodmobile, from her side of the truck, witnessed another mechanical arm reaching down from the saucer. She thought that whoever was piloting that UFO wanted to wrap a pincer-like device around their entire vehicle. The nurse went into hysterics and began to scream uncontrollably. Shertzer gunned the accelerator. He was now trying to out run the flying saucer. But as they approached the city limits of Huntington, they suddenly encountered the appearance of headlights from the traffic approaching in the opposite lane. As the other cars closed in, the UFO retracted its metallic arms and hastily flew off. Even to this very day, Beau Shertzer refuses to drive on West Virginia State Route 2. This case was investigated by the noted paranormal researcher John A. Keel (1930-2009), who openly wondered, “Was this a case of a UFO making a deliberate attempt to pick up a bloodmobile and carry it off to some secret place?” Keel considered the possibility that some extraterrestrials desperately require human blood in order to carry out experiments in creating recombinant DNA for the literal manufacture of a new hybrid species that would neither be human nor alien, but a functional mixture of the two. Remarked Keel in his breakthrough book, The Complete Guide to Mysterious Beings (New York, New York: Tor Books, 1970), p. 189: “There are a number of astounding incidents which seem to suggest that such biological experiments are actually taking place.”

9 Veggie Tales, Part I: Crunching Down on West Virginia’s Mysterious Vegetable Man…. “Got dip?” ©2022 Cole Herrold, cryptozoologist and editor of New World Explorers Society website, used by permission of the author

Classic Case Some cases are classics. And there are cases that, even though they are rarely mentioned in the Fortean Community, are destined to be as such. The case of the Vegetable Man is one such case. As the years grew, more and more researchers in the field of cryptozoology became aware of this bizarre, monstrous mutant. It has gained both love and jeers from those who have heard about the encounter and, interestingly enough, may be interconnected with a wider phenomenon reported cross-culturally, and not just in the hills and hollows of West Virginia. Hunting Woodchucks Curtailed It was a warm summer day during Mid-July 1968 when Jennings Frederick had begun to traverse through the woods in an area between Rivesville and Fairmont in West Virginia, near his father’s property. His intent for being in the woods on this particular day was to hunt woodchucks with his bow and arrow. After There are plenty of woodchucks almost a full day of searching for the game of (groundhogs) to hunt in West Virginia and the surrounding states. his choice, he decided to return back home Drawing credit: Pennsylvania Game before nightfall. As he was travelling back to Commission the path, his thoughts were troubled; and so, he 72

proceeded to stop under a set of red maple trees to adjust hi 45-lbs. bow before moving on; but his deep contemplation would soon be broken by a bizarre sound. The sound he heard was strange to his ears. It was not an animal call or something he was familiar with. The closest he could explain as to what it sounded like was akin to a record played at an extremely fast speed. This sound caught his attention; and as he listened, he soon was able to decipher that this was some sort of collection of words, a communication which seemed to say, “You need not fear me. I wish to communicate. I come as a friend. I come in peace. I wish medical assistance. I need your help!” Jennings Frederick proceeded to reach down in his pocket for a handkerchief, because during this whole excursion (of hunting woodchucks), he had become rather sweaty. And as he reached down, he suddenly felt a sharp pain on his hand; and as he looked over to see if his hand had been caught in a brier bush, he saw that there was a strange green form grabbing onto him by the wrist. Following the green form as it moved up his arm, he noticed that this was not a typical brier bush, but instead a colossal creature that defied explanation. Debut of the Vegetable Man There, standing close to him, was a seven-feet tall creature, bright green in color with eerie facial features. The most noticeable feature of this creature’s face, however, was its bright, piercing yellow eyes and its long ears. As he scanned the creature’s body, he noticed it was carrot-shaped, but green in color, almost like a plant stock. The body had noticeable shoulders and arms, but these arms were only as thick as a quarter. The Artist Tim Morris’ conception of the eerie head of the Vegetable Man as depicted on arms’ eerie thinness was not the most cryptozoologist Karl Shuker’s website, http:// disturbing feature of this portion of karlshuker.blogspot.com/2012/10/my-top-tenthe body; however, for the creature’s strangest-aliens-close.html. hands stretched down into three incredibly long fingers with seven-inch needlelike protrusions that were enveloped by a kind of suction cup. It was the right arm of this particular creature that had encapsulated Frederick’s arm, and as he continued to watch, the creature seemed to grip his arm even tighter. And 73

Frederick noticed that through all of this, the creature managed to puncture one of his blood vessels. Inflicting Pain As the creature continued to do this, Frederick could hear a sound almost akin to sucking that instantly told him that this creature was draining his blood. Pain from this motion shot up Frederick’s arm; and as he continued to stare at the creature, a peculiar thing began to occur: The creature’s yellow eyes suddenly began to swirl with red, creating almost a spiral-type effect; and where the two colors would meet in the center, orange circles appeared. This sudden change in eye color and motion had a hypnotizing effect on Jennings Frederick; and soon he realized that he no longer felt any pain from the creature’s grasp as it did this. Mental Telepathy? As the creature did this, it once more released its message that Jennings Frederick had heard before; but he was unsure if the creature was communicating telepathically or whether the creature was speaking it audibly. This otherworldly blood transfusion, mentioned previously, lasted, at least in Frederick’s estimation, for only about a minute; but the drainage could very well have lasted much longer. After the creature had its fill, suddenly it released Frederick quickly; and the creature then, at incredible speeds, began to jump away and sprint up a hill in leaps that spanned a distance of Sketch of the Vegetable Man as drawn by Jennings Frederick and seen in the Time- twenty-five feet. Jennings Frederick was able Life Books’ UFO Phenomenon: Mysteries to estimate the height of these jumps after of the Unknown Series (New York City, he watched the creature clear a five-feet tall 1987). fence with at least three-feet to spare.

Being from Outer Space? Once it reached the hilltop, it disappeared; and as Frederick stared in the direction where the creature departed, the pain in his arm suddenly returned, with him standing there, holding his arm in pain. He then heard a high humming and whistling sound off in the distance, over the ridge, which he felt might be a flying saucer or some kind of spaceship coming in to retrieve it. Jennings Frederick decided not to bandage the wound, nor to speak out right away about his encounter, nor to go to the doctor, and all out of fear that no one would believe him. Yet, as time went on, he began to develop a friendship with the famous investigator and writer of all things paranormal, Gray Barker, to whom he related this incredible tale. But this would not be Frederick’s last brush with the unknown, for it came to light that his own mother encountered a similar entity lurking around their rural, backwoods home.

10 Veggie Tales, Part II: Crunching Down on West Virginia’s Mysterious Vegetable Man…. “Got dip?” ©2022 Cole Herrold, cryptozoologist and editor of New World Explorers Society website, used by permission of the author.

Mother’s Experience with Smaller but Similar-Type Entity While Jennings Frederick was still in high school, his mother would have a bizarre encounter with a tethered entity from a UFO. This she experienced after she dropped her husband off at work; and as she returned home and was washing the breakfast dishes, she glanced out of their family home’s kitchen window and noted what she first believed to have been a child playing in the field on the hillside near to their house. Her motherly instinct kicked in because she was concerned the child might go out and touch the nearby electric fence which surrounded their property; and so, she began to head out onto the porch to warn the child. West Virginia’s “Vegetable Man” Drawing source: New World Explorers Society website, 03 April 2022

Was it the Devil? Once she got onto her porch, however, she noticed that what she initially thought was a child, was not a child but a strange creature that was small and black or dark green in color. The

creature bore the appearance of almost a “little devil” to her, as it had long pointed ears and a tail; but she was unable to see the face of the creature. Flying Saucer As she watched the strange entity, she noticed that it was grabbing clumps of dirt from the hill and shoving the clods into a bag in its other hand. And as she looked over, she noticed that beyond the creature nestled in the grass was a large, cream and silver-colored, saucer-shaped craft on the ground. The object was about ten feet in diameter and about five-feet tall. It had several windows under the dome of the craft. The creature was seemingly connected to the craft by some sort of cable or wire; and the object seemed to rotate in a clockwise motion and also seemed to emit a humming sound. The mother was deeply disturbed by this apparition and its potential Satanic origins. Therefore, she rushed back into her bedroom and covered herself with some sheets and a blanket, just hoping for the entity and its craft to disappear. She waited for some time until finally gathering enough courage to peek out of the covers and out the window, upon which she just caught sight of the craft departing. She noted that the saucer-shaped UFO made an even louder humming sound before it finally left the property. Son Informed Mrs. Frederick told no one about what she had seen and experienced until her son Jennings came home from school because her son, after his own encounter with the Vegetable Man, had developed a sudden and intense interest in all things UFO and paranormal. Mrs. Frederick felt that Jennings would know just what to look for. When her son Jennings came home from school and heard his mother’s own account, he proceeded to go out onto the hill and investigate, whereupon he discovered a depression on the ground and, based on the impression and soil consistency at the alleged landing site of the craft, was able to estimate that it probably weighed around one ton (2,000 pounds). As the son searched the area, he also found claw-like tracks from which he was able to gauge that the creature weighted approximately 45 pounds. And as Jennings observed the area, he also found hair samples that he managed to collect, as well as managed to make a Plaster of Paris cast of the creature’s tracks. He then proceeded to send all of this evidence to an unspecified section of the Air Force, which upon analyzing the data, claimed that the UFO was probably a downed weather balloon and the creature probably a medium77

sized wild animal that roamed in from the adjacent woodlands. As the mother was frightened, she did not take any time in trying to figure out what kind of animal she was looking at. No one from the Air Force bothered to return the samples that Jennings had sent them. After graduation from high school, Jennings enlisted in the Air Force; and after his honorable discharge, he was living with his parents once more in their family home, where the previous encounter took place. Visit by the Men in Black (MIBs) A few months after Jennings had returned home, around one o’clock in the morning, he was awakened by a bright flash of red light. Being instinctively concerned after his previous excursions with the unknown, he withdrew his .38 service revolver that he kept under his pillow and left his room to investigate the strange illumination. At first, he believed the source of the flash may have been caused by a malfunction in the regulator of the gas furnace. Yet suddenly, a small cannister about the size of an apple dropped to the ground and began to bounce around the living room floor. Suddenly, as he was watching this strange device, he felt a hand grab him as well as the prick of a needle in his left arm. Afterward, he was confronted by three men all decked out in black clothing: ski masks, turtleneck sweaters, slacks and shoes. When they started to talk among themselves, Jennings Frederick overheard part of a conversation before he passed out that went something like this: MIB #1: “The dogs have been darted and everybody gassed.” MIB #2: “What about this one?” (Referring to Jennings) MIB #3: “He’s going out soon. He’s half asleep. Don’t worry about the needle. It’ll make his arm sore for a day or two, that’s all.” Just as the cannister was about to reach Jennings, the strange men proceeded to put on gas masks; and the last thing Jennings remembered was that one of the MIBs put the jumping cannister into his pocket. The men then began to put something over Jennings’ head and began asking him about UFOs and exactly what he thought these objects were. The men also asked what time it was and also what he thought about the future. After this last question, however, Jennings remembered nothing and was sure he had just passed out. He slept soundly until sunrise and no one else, gathered around the breakfast table, seemed to remember or comment on anything strange.

Analysis Thus ends the strange tale of Jennings Frederick. Now breaking down this case, I am only going to focus on the Vegetable Man portion of his encounters, since it is arguably the most important and easiest to analyze. Now proceeding in the skeptical mode, there is a lot to point out. First up be the source of this information, who is none other than Gray Barker, editor and publisher of the Saucerian Press in Clarksburg, West Virginia. Now Barker was considered somewhat of a hoaxer; and there is no denying that even though he had covered other seemingly legitimate phenomena like the Flatwoods Monster, Mothman, Grafton Monster and, in part, the Men in Black, one must recognize that with all of his writings, one needs to take them with a grain of salt, especially a case like this, since there is no peer review for it as in other cases. It is literally just Barker’s rendition of Frederick’s account. Therefore, we have to either assume that Barker is being honest about everything pertinent to this vase, or embellishing or outright fabricating a fantastic tale. Hollywood Connection Upon reading this tale, one notes that there are a lot of similarities to films that would have been easily accessible to Barker, whose main source of income was running a drive-in movie theater in Clarksburg, West Virginia. The mot recognizable film in this connection is Howard Hawkes’ Thing from Another World (RKO Radio Pictures, 1951). While most are familiar with the John Carpenter reboot, The Thing (Universal Pictures, 2011), the original is based on the short story, Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell (New York: Street and Smith Publications, 1938). This is still a classic and very important to this case; for in the film, there is an extraterrestrial being that goes on a murderous rampage in a frozen environment that serves as the setting. The alien being is a tall humanoid with the shape of a carrot, also having strange knuckle protrusions akin to thorns or claws. Yet in the film, as the characters speculate on the morphology of the entity, it is revealed that the alien is, in fact, a kind of humanoid plant that feeds- and this is the most important part- on the blood of mammals, to include humans.

James Arness of Gunsmoke television fame, played the Thing from Another World, a vegetable monster wreaking havoc at a U.S. military polar outpost, in this classic RKO Radio Pictures 1951 sci-fi epic.

There is a scene where the creature kills several of the outpost’s dogs and hangs their bleeding carcasses over some of the alien plants it has placed in the greenhouse to essentially feed them all, off-screen, of course. The features on the creature’s hands, the creature’s need for blood, and the vegetable connection are very similar to the reported Vegetable Man of West Virginia. Add to this the many films about Dracula and even the 1960s’ Batman television series (Greenway Productions and Twentieth Century Fox for the American Broadcasting Company, Century City, California, 1966-1968), particularly with the villain known as the Mad Hatter, where hypnotism is utilized through the eyes to stop a person from feeling or being easily manipulated, and it would be easy for someone to be influenced by these to thereby create a false story that seems believable. Now it must be said that while the movie’s general depiction of the creature would seem to make this very likely, the creature’s specific description as provided by Jennings Frederick is not a perfect match to the Hollywood version. I’m referring to Frederick’s account of the hand features being in different sections 80

and the specific lengths and measurements of the sundry appendages such a quarter-thin arms and seven-inch long fingers. New Cryptid Category Perhaps this creature is a real cryptid. Clearly, there is nothing in the known botanical or other categories that would match it. But there are a few different possibilities that I think need mentioning. The first is that perhaps this creature is a highly-evolved version of an insectivorous plant. This species of plant, like the Venus Flytrap, the Sundew, Cobra Lily, etc., developed the need to consume other organisms as a way of getting their mandatory need of nitrogen to survive in their respective environments. These species are extremely fascinating; and perhaps over some million years or so of evolution, one became more mobile, no longer needing the nutrients of the ground as much, and, in turn, crossed the line into a species almost akin to an animal. Now granted, this is pure speculation; but there have been other cryptids reported of the plant variety that are similar. The Ya-Te-Veo, for example, is an alleged South American short-tendrilled tree that captures many insects of all sizes and small mammals but does not attempt, at least so far as we know so far, to capture humans. A similar type of tree is reported to exist on the island of Madagascar, off the southeast coast of Africa. Now obviously, there is a big issue with this. For one, neither the Ya-Te-Veo, nor its Madagascar equivalent, which seem to be megaflora versions of insectivorous planets, have been found; and again, the lore of these plants is that they grow in the ground and do not move in a sentient way like the Vegetable Man. Now while this creature might not be a plant, it may be an animal. We know in nature that there are plants that mimic other plants; there are beetles that look like leaves; there are stick insects, and so on. Therefore, perhaps the creature that was seen was some sort of colossal equivalent of such a creature. In nature, animals always find unique ways to camouflage themselves or find a way to better their chance of survival, such as through Batesian mimicry. A creature that could essentially blend in so well with its environment that it would appear part of the natural flora would be perfect for catching any number of prey as well as remaining elusive for countless years. Now, of course, the problem with this is that this creature, if real, is more advanced than an insect; and its abilities and features are, in fact, more plant-like than animal, so it simply could not be a traditional animal as far as we know it, or even from a speculative standpoint, unless it’s that this creature is something altogether new from everything else that we currently know that somehow managed to evolve. 81

Similar Case It is important to note, in regard to a potential undiscovered species of plantlike humanoid in West Virginia, that the Vegetable Man is not the only report. I had written about a case that appeared in Isaac McKinnon and Eric Turner’s Monsters and Ghosts of West Virginia (Charleston, West Virginia: Quarrier Press, 2011), involving one of the authors of that book (requesting to remain anonymous), who, while working in his garden, encountered a stalk-like entity with yellow eyes that was lurking in a field of sunflowers. The author watched the anomalous two-fingered green entity run through the flowers before ultimately disappearing in the surrounding woodlands. The author instantly compared his cryptid sighting with Jennings Frederick’s; and mused that perhaps this entity might be a juvenile version of the species since it did not have the same number of digits or the long ears, as reported by Frederick. Or perhaps this is something altogether different and a part of the wider belief of moving plants as reported from many other countries. Other Considerations The next possible option to this is the same assumption that Gray Barker and Jennings Frederick came up with, and that’s that this creature was, in fact, an extraterrestrial. Now a lot of the interactions one could compare with those of the extraterrestrials. Aliens seem intent on causing pain; and once they realize that they are doing so, the witness stares helplessly into the eyes of the beings; and in doing so, the pain goes away. And then there is the possible telepathic interaction between Jennings Frederick and the creature; as such interactions are common in extraterrestrial lore. The strange sounds were described as two high-pitched recordings. Whistling is also something frequently described in UFO reports. In this case, however, no actual UFO was reported. There is plenty of noise associated with UFOs, but no craft reported; and whistling sounds are very ambiguous. They are heard in haunting and in cryptid accounts, as well as from people, so perhaps such sounds are totally unrelated. Plus, in alien cases, encounters that involve transfusion are not done in the wilds, but on a craft, unless the entity was actually in some dire distress, as his (Frederick’s) report stated. Yet again, there is nothing to positively state that this being came from outer space. Barker, it is most important to note, made a similar comparison to the Grafton Monster case, which also involved a whistling noise. But again, no UFOs were directly reported in that case.

Mysterious Fae There is another possibility with this case; and that is that this entity might be a faerie. Now the Fae are often described as humanoid plant elementals, with the most famous being the Green Man, which is often described as a humanoid figure with a man-like face that symbolizes rebirth. The fact that this creature was humanoid in almost all aspects, aside from its obvious plant-like features, is important; for unlike some other cryptids, this appears to be an intelligent creature (non-animalistic intelligence) that has plant-like features, is aware of us as a species, and has appeared and disappeared at superhuman speeds. These are characteristics associated with the Fae. Much like any Fortean topic, the Fae has never been viewed as a plausible or even worthwhile subject. But I do find it interesting, especially when comparing the overall description of the entity to reports of plant-like Fae, that there are some stark similarities. Yet, of course, it is not the only possibility. Other Dimensions The final possibility of just what this entity could be is that it is an interdimensional or ultra-terrestrial one. These are sort of the catchall theories, as Jennings Frederick and Gray Barker said this must be true since none of the other hypotheses turned out to be accurate; therefore, they could still allow for this creature to exist. If this creature popped in, for example, the existence of another dimension opens up countless possibilities, not only for evolution to work, but also for explaining why it has never exactly been seen since, or why we do not have further evidence for it. The same goes for ultra-terrestrials, yet with these, they are supposed to be tricksters or entities that exist among us, manifesting for the purpose of either feeding off of our emotions or messing with us for some reason we have yet to understand. With this creature, it did leave alleged physical traces of itself via wrist wounds. Gray Barker has speculated, therefore, that this creature may not be an ultra-terrestrial, as they are more akin to a less-violent Pennywise type of character from the movie It (Warner Brothers, Hollywood, California, 2017). If this creature is from another dimension, though, it would fit all of the boxes. But again, with how extensive our universe is and the universes around us, if string theory is to be believed as accurate, then there must be at least one planet or dimension where some entity like this would have to exist. Of course, there are countless ways to interpret this case; and those who know Gray Barker’s personal life will notice some Freudian elements to this tale 83

that they can interpret as being examples of a fictional story. Yet, there are so many intricate details that, if this is a piece of fiction and not an actual account, and was perpetrated in the mind of Barker, it is incredibly detailed to such an extent that Barker should be recognized as belonging in the annals of the world’s greatest horror and science fiction writers. But as with all paranormal encounters, there is a chance of reality; and so I leave it up to you, the reader, to decipher your own ideas as to just what Jennings Frederick encountered on that warm July day in 1968.

It has been the privilege of this author, Dr. Raymond A. Keller, a.k.a. the “Cosmic Ray,” to carry out UFO research in both the paranormal and personal files of the late Gray Roscoe Barker (1925-1984). Barker was best known for his book, They Knew Too Much about Flying Saucers (Clarksburg, West Virginia: Saucerian Publications, 1956), which provided a description of fellow pioneer ufologist Albert K. Bender’s encounters with the so-called “Men in Black.” These mysterious agents, whose job it was to keep UFO experiencers from talking about their close encounters, were later popularized in movies with Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones in starring roles.

From Gray Barker Collection files, National Enquirer article dated 14 December 1969, wherein Raymond A. Keller and Alan T. Weston are holding up back issues of their own publication, The Flying Saucer Report, which was inspired by Gray Barker’s Saucerian magazine. 85

Barker also received worldwide notoriety through his own UFO investigative efforts, which he wrote about in the pages of the serial magazine, The Saucerian, of which he was editor and publisher. For the most part, The Saucerian served as a collection point for contactee stories and other types of UFO encounters. It was through the pages of this cutting-edge periodical that Barker brought an intense spotlight to the appearance of such enigmatic entities in West Virginia as the “Flatwoods Monster” and the “Mothman.” In addition, it was Barker who first focused attention on the alleged disappearance of the Navy destroyer USS Eldridge (DE-173) and its crew in the so-called “Philadelphia Experiment.” The Barker Collection is located in the Waldomore House on the grounds of the Harrison County Public Library at 404 West Pike Street in downtown Clarksburg, West Virginia 26301 and consists of approximately 29 drawers of file folders, 300 books,75 magazine sets, photographs of Barker and various props used by Barker. The public is welcome to visit by appointment set during the library’s regular hours of operation. David Houchin is the collection curator. In my youth during the 1960s, I began to write and publish my own monthly magazine, The Flying Saucer Report, out of my home in Bedford, Ohio, funded initially by a grant of thirty dollars from Earl J. Neff, the director of the Cleveland Ufology Project (CUP). Neff was impressed by a series of articles on the UFO phenomena that I had written for my local newspaper, the Bedford TimesRegister. The first issue of The Flying Saucer Report sported a cover inspired by the cover of the first issue of Gray Barker’s Saucerian. In the Gray Barker Collection, researchers can find a folder dedicated to myself and The Flying Saucer Report. Gray Barker and I traded publications through the mail; and it was through his auspices that I came in contact with many of the leading lights in the international community of ufologists: Otto Binder of comic-book, science fiction, space research fame, as well as the author of five UFO books; Gene Duplantier of Saucers, Space and Science in Willowdale, Ontario, Canada; Gabriel Green of the Amalgamated Flying Saucer Clubs of America (AFSCA) in Southern California; Dr. James E. McDonald, a professor of meteorology at the University of Arizona and early proponent of the extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH) with regards to the UFO enigma; Raymond Palmer of Flying Saucers magazine in Amherst, Wisconsin; and countless others too numerous to mention. My own Venus Rising series of books can also be found among the titles in the expansive book section of the Barker Collection. In the course of attending meetings of the Congress of Scientific Ufologists in both Cleveland and New York City, as well as independent UFO meetings at

sundry locations, I had the great opportunity of meeting Barker as well as others on his staff at The Saucerian, such as his photo editor August C. Roberts and his staff artist, Dominick Lucchesi, both from New Jersey; as well as Gladys Fusaro of New York. Revelatory and vital information from all of these individuals and others in Barker’s inner circle appear in all of my books in the Venus Rising series. Of all these, Dominick Lucchesi was the most interesting, insofar as his accounts of meeting the beautiful Venusian space commander Aura Rhanes. See Chapter 6, “Dominick Lucchesi Meets the Space Girl,” in my Vast Venus Conspiracy (Terra Alta, West Virginia: Headline Books, 2021), 81-103. Background Information on Gray Barker Gray Roscoe Barker was born on 2 May 1925 and grew up in rural Braxton County, West Virginia, near the town of Riffle among a culture saturated with story-telling. Barker was introduced to science-fiction while studying at Glenville State College, which he continued to read as a hobby throughout his life. After graduating, Barker briefly taught English in a Maryland high school before moving back to West Virginia to manage a small theatre in Clarksburg. Barker went on to establish his own business in Clarksburg, booking films for local drive-ins and cinemas. In January 1953, Barker’s first UFO article, “The Monster and the Saucer,” was Gray Roscoe Barker (1925-1984), published in Fate magazine, wherein the pioneer ufologist. Photo from Gray Barker Collection, Clarksburg, West emerging writer described the sightings of Virginia. the so-called “Flatwoods Monster.” This was a very spooky alien with a spade-shaped head and glowing eyes. The enigmatic entity was observed within a few miles of Barker’s hometown of Riffle. The overwhelming interest that the article generated prompted Barker to write and release the first volume of his own UFO magazine, The Saucerian, in September of that same year. In 1956, Barker changed the name of the publication to The Saucerian Bulletin; and it continued to attract readers- all fans of everything UFO and extraterrestrial- from around the globe well into the 1960s. In this same year, the immediate success of Barker’s book, They Knew Too Much about

Flying Saucers, also served to fuel the notoriety of The Saucerian Bulletin and prompted Barker to look into establishing his own book publishing enterprise. Of the period that followed, the Barker Collection curator, David Houchin, noted that, “Beginning in 1959, Barker expanded Saucerian Publications, which produced The Saucerian/The Saucerian Bulletin in Clarksburg, West Virginia, to include books sales and production. The first book the Saucerian Press produced was Howard Menger’s From Outer Space to You (1959). Saucerian Books also produced and sold works by Morris K. Jessup, Laura Mundo, and Michael X, which can be found in the collection. The business also sold overstock books from other publishers, and served as a mail order book service for hard-tofind or out-of-print works as noted throughout his personal correspondence....” By 1962, however, Barker ended up selling The Saucerian Bulletin to James Moseley, the editor of the competing Saucer News; and not long afterward, Barker filed for bankruptcy. Barker did return to magazine publishing when he replaced Moseley as the chief editor of Saucer News for a brief stint between 1968 and 1970; and five years after that went on to set up another UFO magazine, Gray Barker’s Newsletter. The newsletter continued until April 1984. Saucer News, on the other hand, was restarted in 1976 by its long-time editor, James Moseley, and it continued to be published until Moseley’s death in 2012, under the name of Saucer Smear. It was more of a specialized publication, focusing on the lives of ufologists and other paranormal researchers. On his other works, Houchin stated that, “In 1970, Barker published his second-best, well-known book, The Silver Bridge, in which, Barker regaled readers with the Mothman sightings that took place around Point Pleasant, West Virginia, before the collapse of the Silver Bridge in 1966.” The curator added that, “Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, Barker continued to publish his own works as well as others via the Saucerian Press. In 1983, Barker released Men in Black: Secret Terror among Us. In the book, Barker provided readers with additional and updated stories about the men in black. Barker may have gone on to write other works; these have not been confirmed.” Beginning in October 1984, Barker began to struggle with difficult illness, being admitted and released from a local hospital. By late November, Barker was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit in Charleston, West Virginia, where he died on 6 December 1984. He continues to be missed by the worldwide ufology community. Barker’s creative writing style inspired a generation of readers to dream about UFOs and life on other planets or other dimensions. His works

sparked debates among ufologists and enthusiasts around the world and pushed the boundaries of reality through the infusion of UFO lore into popular culture, thus significantly expanding the planetary level of consciousness.

Keel Comes to West Virginia John A. Keel (1930-2009), the author of Operation Trojan Horse (1970), Our Haunted Planet (1971), Mothman Prophecies (1975), and countless other books dealing with metaphysical and supernatural phenomena, set aside three years of his life, 1966-1969, to the exclusive investigation of the flying saucer enigma. The intrepid researcher came to some startling conclusions Pioneer ufologist John A. Keel (1930-2009), regarding these elusive objects, and friend and associate of Gray Barker, discusses UFO case he investigated in Oregon at a prepared a detailed, audio-taped gathering of the first Congress of Scientific report from his residence at 334 West Ufologists in New York City, 1967. 85th Street, Apt. 1B, New York City, to be played to the leadership of the Congress of Scientific Ufologists assembled in a closed-door session at the Daniel Boone Hotel in downtown Charleston, West Virginia, on Sunday, 22 June 1969, the closing day of the convention. Fellow UFO investigator Gray Barker of Clarksburg, West Virginia, the prime organizer of the Charleston Congress, introduced Keel’s recorded discourse.

Keel’s gravelly voice came over the recording machine with a stern warning: “The following tape is not be reproduced in any fashion or resold, as some people seem to have a habit of making copies of tapes and trying to peddle them through the mail. This tape is intended for the closed session of the 1969 Congress of Scientific Ufologists at Charleston, West Virginia.” The respected ufologist continued, “While individuals may copy it for their own use, I rather frown on anyone trying to sell it. This is John Keel in New York City this June 1969. I regret that I was unable to attend this year’s convention; but, my three-year safari into the never-never land of flying saucers will soon be ended.” Paraphysical Realms Considered John A. Keel’s interest in UFOs dated back to 1945, when he first read a newspaper account about the so-called “Foo Fighters” being reported in the European Theatre of Operations towards the end of World War II. But his fulltime engagement with the phenomenon did not take place until February 1966, with a flap of sightings across the United States that eventually culminated in the rash of reports coming out of Michigan in the following month, the ones the Air Force quickly dismissed as resulting from “swamp gas.” In the three years since that time, up until the closed-door session of the Congress of Scientific Ufologists, Keel had personally, and thoroughly, investigated over 600 extraordinary UFO cases. These were not mere “lights in the sky,” however, for the ufologist declared, “Now, I am not talking about sightings. I have investigated thousands of those. I am talking about what I call cases of major events where a definite manifestation occurred.” So, there was some connection to the supernatural in all of these events. Keel readily admits that he began from the assumption that flying saucers were the product of an advanced technology from another planet. “But by the end of 1966,” he says, “I realized that the evidence I had collected pointed to another and far more complicated answer.” These findings are what he tried to present to his fellow scientific ufologists assembled. From the UFO reports examined by Keel, he took note that the “objects,” if we can rightly call them thus, seemingly defied gravity and traveled faster than sound, but without producing sonic booms. Keel concluded that this was “not because they are superior mechanical devices, but because they are constituted of energies which are not affected by the natural laws which bind us to this planet.” In other words, the objects served merely as focal points. Keel concluded that the majority of UFOs that he was looking at “are merely transmogrifications of 91

energy; they exist only temporarily as illusions and momentary condensations of energy.” The imaginative Keel began his prolific writing career at the age of 12, when his first story was published in a magician’s magazine. Therefore, from an early age, the aspiring journalist exhibited the ability for “thinking outside the box.” In the closed-door session, Keel mused that, “They may come from beyond our space-time continuum….” He compared UFOs to ghosts. While they remain mostly invisible to us, occasionally they enter the narrow spectrum of human vision. There are plenty of examples of this type of phenomenon in the pages of the Bible and other ancient sources. Also, Keel emphasized that, “It is explained again and again to each new contactee; and there are thousands upon thousands of contactees that you never hear about.” The Contactee Conundrum Keel’s three-year, intensive study of the UFO phenomenon led him to conclude that “people who see exceptional UFOs close up, and contactees in particular, have all the same characteristics as people who have supernatural experiences, psychics and trance-mediums.” To this, he added that, “The two types of people are identical.” The ufologist took note that the family and personal history of both UFO experiencers and psychics ran along parallel tracks. “Therefore,” said Keel, “we are forced to assume that it takes a special kind of person to perceive these objects, at least to perceive them close up, to have a genuine experience with them.” Even back in 1969, while the issue of UFO disclosure was taking center stage at the Congress of Scientific Ufologists, Keel warned the inner circle that perhaps they should “lay off ” the government, and the Air Force, in particular. The ufologist surmised that, based on the available information he had garnered from his investigations, the authorities in the United States, at least, had been telling the truth all along. This is to say that they did not possess sufficient, hard evidence to prove that UFOs represented an advanced technology, that they came from a physical extraterrestrial source, or even that these objects in our skies posed an imminent threat to national security. What’s a Ufologist to Do? Keel stressed that his remarks should not be misconstrued. Ufologists should not simply hang up their hats and call it quits. The ground-breaking ufologist remarked that, “We must make a completely fresh start. It is absolutely impossible to prove that flying saucers are real and extraterrestrial (in a physical sense). If 92

it were possible, someone would have done it a long, long time ago. What we must now do is completely reassess the situation and admit all of the previously inadmissible evidence. We must collect the details of all manifestations which surround UFO events, no matter how incomprehensible they seem. We must forget the absolutely fruitless and pointless campaign against the government and the Air Force. It has succeeded only in draining our strength, stirring the coals of controversy, and keeping the subject mired in ridicule. It has accomplished absolutely nothing.” Of course, flying saucers are largely a visual and hence observational phenomenon. As such, Keel wrote that, “They could be the manifestation of another space time continuum;” and he added that, “We have probably never seen the objects, or their occupants, in their true form. We see only what they want us to see and, to a large extent, believe only what they want us to believe.” The ufologist lamented that many fellow investigators of this enigma have settled on a physical, extraterrestrial conclusion and then tried to fit the incoming data into this hasty paradigm. Look to the Native Americans As to the UFOnauts themselves, Keel’s amassed documentation revealed that, “They also pick out people with very interesting religious and racial backgrounds.” Of particular note, the ufologist comments that, “If you have Indian (Native American) blood in your In the footsteps of pioneer ufologist John A. veins, you are more apt to be Keel, Krsanna Duran of Morgantown, West contacted than any other type of Virginia, explores the mysteries of UFOs and inter-dimensionality through a Native American person. This is, if your great, great perspective in her Time Star website and many grandfather was an Indian or a intriguing books. In addition, Krsanna worked Gypsy, by the way.” Keel elaborated: closely with the “Cosmic Ray” in investigating ethereal Venusian connections to one of the first “Gypsy or Indian blood is very flying saucer clubs in the world, established in important and the majority of Paradise, California. Their findings are detailed in Dr. Keller’s third UFO book, Cosmic Ray’s Excellent contactees do have either Indian Venus Adventure (Terra Alta, WV: Headline or Gypsy blood. But, if you are Books, 2017).

Jewish, your chances of being contacted are almost zero. We have very few Jewish contactees, for some reason; and on the other hand, we have a great many contactees. “So,” Keel surmised, “the religious factor seems to be of some significance, but the Indian factor is the most important of all.” Keel believed that if you had the good fortune of living near an Indian reservation, with enough tact and persuasive ability you might be able to gain the confidence of some Native Americans to the point that they would tell you a great deal about the UFO phenomenon because, after all, “they know all about it.” Keel declared that, “A great many of them have been contactees for years and years.” But to find out more about UFOs, one would have to get a Native American to open up about their experiences, which most are somewhat reluctant to do. Keel continued, “You would have to spend some time there. You couldn’t do it in an afternoon. You would have to spend some time there to win their confidence. But it would be very useful to you if you could do this because you would learn a great deal.” Native American Thunderbird Insofar as Gypsies are concerned, Keel cautioned that there were a lot of “phony” ones out there, trying to cash in on the Gypsy reputation for linkages to the UFO occupants. But much like the Native Americans, Keel was of the opinion that the Gypsies knew an awful lot about flying saucers. “It is no mystery or secret to them at all. They know the whole story. In fact, a great many people know the whole story because, as I said, there are thousands and thousands of contactees all over the country who never tell anyone of their experiences.” Interestingly, I uncovered documents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation that revealed Gypsy heritage in the famous contactee George Adamski’s genealogy, his paternal line, which I published in my second book in the Venus Rising series, Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus (Headline Books, 2017). On Contactees, Generally Keel noted that, usually, these contactees are “introduced to the whole secret, if you want to call it a secret, over a long period of time. He continued, “I have contactees, now, in my files, people that I am working with who were first contacted in 1961. But, they themselves were not fully aware of what was happening until 1965; and then gradually they were sort of trained and educated 94

through contacts and told what it was all about and given some very useful information, information which could be proven.” Of this data, Keel notes that, “We have received information, scientific information which has been proven in the laboratories. At this time, there is a physicist on the West Coast, a highly qualified man in his field, who became a contactee in 1966. He has received information for a process, a metallurgical process, which he has proven out in the laboratory and he is now getting a patent on it.” The intrepid ufologist then covers some specific cases of contactees, most notably that of Canada’s radio engineer Wilbert Smith, who headed up the Canadian top secret Project Magnet, the details of which I published in my third book in the Venus Rising series, Cosmic Ray’s Excellent Venus Adventure (Headline Books, 2017). In the first chapter of that book, I discovered a linkage to an event at the Shirley’s Bay Ontario Project Magnet station and the dematerialization of the Queen of Outer Space, Dolores Barrios, and her posse, on Mount Palomar in California on 8 August 1954. Keel concluded his remarks by declaring, “So the whole bag is far more complicated than just sitting around waiting for the Venusians to land on the White House lawn. If they were going to do that, they would have landed at the Vatican in 1600; or they would have landed in London in 1200, or they would have landed in Jerusalem, or what have you.”

13 “Humanoid Monster” Plagues Oceana, West Virginia Does a seven-foot humanoid monster with Olympic jumping ability and an unearthly cry come out at night to stalk the dimly lit streets of Oceana, West Virginia? Patrolman Bill Pratt of the Oceana Police Department says, “Yes, such a creature does exit, because I have seen it.” “Misdirected Heron?” Patrolman Pratt insists that his close encounter with the humanoid monster took place during the pre-dawn hours of Monday, 14 August 1978, while he was on patrol across the street from the Oceana Town Hall, standing in front of the residence of Johnny Aliff. Most locals do not doubt that Pratt saw something, for many claim that they, too, have heard the creature’s call and have, on occasion, caught glimpses of the “unidentified varmint.” Some of these tend toward writing off the creature as a “misdirected crane or heron which somehow mistook the town of Oceana for the marshlands of the Atlantic or Gulf Coast.” Pratt, on the other hand, insists that, “The monster exists, and it isn’t any fucking bird either!” There is at least one resident of Oceana willing to give the patrolman the benefit of the doubt. “I think he really believes that he saw what he says he did,” remarked Oceana town recorder Vaughin Cozort, adding that, “Since I did not see it, however, I can’t very well say it isn’t so.”

On Patrol Dispatch asked patrolman Pratt to check out the area around the town hall as there were calls coming in regarding a loud catfight taking place in an alleyway adjacent to the building. “For what I am about to tell you,” Pratt informed reporter Ron Mullens from the Pineville, West Virginia, Independent Herald newspaper,10 and looking at him directly eye-to-eye, “You can believe it or not. But I am not lying.” The patrolman then went on to explain the situation thoroughly. “I couldn’t find any evidence of a catfight, so I started to check the neighborhood to find out where the weird sound was coming from.” At this point in the interview, Pratt shuddered and continued with his story, “Then it let out a squall that scared me to death. I mean, the hair on the back of my neck stood straight up. I have never seen anything like it.” Pratt nervously continued to recount his encounter. “I went down toward Johnny Aliff ’s house and I saw what I thought was a man standing under a street light. I noticed it was big; but he did not move to hide from me and with that noise, it wasn’t really usual for someone to be out there. When I got closer, it kind of turned around with its back to me. It was near the riverbank and it crouched down. “Then it kind of leaped and I hollered at it. I thought it was somebody who was into something and was trying to get away from me; and it had jumped over the bank to the edge of the river. But I shined my spotlight down and it was not there. It had jumped completely across the river. It had to jump because I did not hear any splashing and as close as I was, I would have heard it hit the water. The river at that point is 50 to 75 feet across. I saw it moving up the bank on the other side; and I fired six shots at it. After that, I just don’t remember. I was scared to death.” Police Chief Involved Oceana’s police chief Raymond Walker heard the shots fired and came to Pratt’s location on the riverbank to provide assistance. “When I got there,” said Walker, “Bill was still trying to shoot; but he’d emptied his gun at it. He was standing there just pulling the trigger, and the gun was going ‘click, click, click.’ He was as white as a sheet and still shaking.” Walker himself noticed some movement in the brush and fired off three or four rounds at “whatever it was.” Unfortunately, the police chief explained, “I never got a good look at the thing.” 10 Ron Mullens, “The Oceana Creature,” Independent Herald newspaper, Pineville, West Virginia, 16 August 1978. Mullens interviewed Pratt just one day after the encounter, and just one day prior to publication of the story. 97

Posse Formed By dawn the police chief had organized a posse to hunt down the creature. The search team gathered at the river; but just before they crossed it, the creature’s blood-curdling cry was heard again in the distance. Patrolman Pratt estimated that the sound was coming from “half way up the mountain.” When the posse members checked out the site where Pratt said that the “thing” landed on the opposing riverbank, they found broken branches, trampled weeds and what appeared to be heel prints next to an upturned rock. No blood, feathers or other evidence was found. “I hope,” Pratt exclaimed, “that I never see anything like it again,” adding that, “I honestly don’t know what it was; but it wasn’t like anything I ever saw or heard before. And that scream….” Pratt shuddered again.

A spokesperson for the West Virginia State Department of Natural Resources speculated that Oceana, West Virginia, Patrolman Bill Pratt mistook a goliath heron for a seven-foot humanoid monster.

State Department of Natural Resources Investigate Personnel from the West Virginia State Department of Natural Resources came out to Oceana on Monday night to interview witnesses to all of the events transpiring earlier in the morning hours. They were able to reach a tentative conclusion. A spokesman for the department told reporter Mullens that, “The operative theory at this point is that it was a large wading bird, perhaps a crane or heron, possibly with wing damage which prevents it from extended flight. I strongly urge everyone not to shoot at it.” Oceana mayor John Roach, standing next to the spokesperson for the Department of Natural Resources, bolstered the previous speculations about a big bird when he remarked that, “Residents in the area have reported what appeared to be a crane in the area over the past two weeks. I join with the Department of Natural Resources in urging that the creature not be shot at.” As to his city’s fearful patrolman Pratt, the mayor noted, “He meant well; but frankly, I’m unconvinced.”

Part I: West Virginia’s Dangerous “Blue Devil” Thanks to the investigations and writings of such famed anomalist investigators as the late John A. Keel of New York (1930-2009) and Gray Barker of West Virginia (1925-1984), West Virginia has become well known as the hotspot for alleged encounters with cryptids of various shapes and sizes. The most famous of these supposed creatures by far is the Mothman, first sighted in the town of Point Pleasant in 1966. And as any Mountaineer can tell you, the Mothman has gone on to become the central figure in numerous From Keller Paranormal Files: In an August 1981 books, documentaries, and a 2002 meeting, Harold “Brooksie” Brooks (left) and Richard Gere film (Screen Gems/ Webster Republican newspaper (West Virginia) editor and publisher Boyd Dotson (right), Sony Pictures), based on the 1975 reminisce about the infamous “Blue Devil” that book, Mothman Prophecies by appeared in Webster County during the Great John A. Keel, Saturday Review Depression. Press, New York. Among the many other unusual creatures hailing from West Virginia are the Bigfoot, Flatwoods 99

Monster, Grafton Monster, Ogua and Sheepsquatch. All of these have received their fair share of notoriety in the Mountaineer state over the years. However, I now add to these, in the following two parts, respectively, both the Blue Devil and the Rabbit Man. Read on, dear reader…. West Virginia Country Roads Drew Him Home Back in August 1980, retired Van Nuys, California, postman Harold “Brooksie” Brooks and his wife returned to central West Virginia to visit relatives in his home town of Webster Springs, the capital of Webster County. Brooks had lived in Van Nuys, California, since 1946; and this was their first trip back to Webster Springs in 34 years. In the late 1930s, Brooks had attained national renown as an early cryptid investigator, writing a series of articles in the Exponent and Telegram newspaper of Clarksburg, West Virginia, about a mysterious, sheep-killing creature roaming about at will in Webster County that was popularly known throughout the West Virginia countryside as the “Blue Devil.” Throughout most of the Great Depression years, Brooks had worked fulltime at the A & P grocery store in Webster Springs. Towards the close of the 1930s, he moved on to Cutlips, Inc., a local trucking concern, where he had the opportunity of driving throughout the state. In his spare time, he began his journalistic career by writing about the “Blue Devil” sightings in the Webster Republican newspaper, from whence these articles caught the attention of the editor of the larger paper up in Clarksburg. Then, when he would pass through Clarksburg on his trucking delivery route, he would drop off his articles to the editor of the Exponent and Telegram newspaper. When the United States entered World War II in December 1941, patriotic Brooks enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps, where he saw action in the South Pacific theatre of operations. Following the war, he was discharged in California; and liked the climate so much there that he decided to stay. His honorable discharge from military service, helped land him a job with the post office in Van Nuys, in the suburban area of Los Angeles. No sooner than he began working in the post office, he met his future wife; and in the ensuring years in Van Nuys, they raised two daughters, Mary Jo and Paul Sue. Upon returning to Webster Springs in 1980, Brooks felt as if he had stepped out of a time machine. There were so many changes. New buildings had popped up everyone, with many of the old ones having disappeared. Brooks took note that the shrubbery seemed taller, but more trimmed and taken care of than it was during the Depression years. There were also a lot more businesses and 100

churches. One of the prime characteristics of the city never changed, however, and that was the people. “The people of the city have not changed,” remarked Brooks in a local Webster Republican newspaper interview, adding that, “Old faces were also missed, especially Mr. J. D. Cutlip,” president of the company he worked for before the war. Both J. D. Cutlip and Boyd Dotson, Sr., had served as a great inspiration for the young Brooks. “They helped me learn the marks of their trades,” said Brooks, further declaring that, “They inspired me to be more industrious throughout my life.” Old “Brooksie” concluded his interview with the following comment: “It was like a dream to return to Webster County after being gone for so long.” As a fellow West Virginian familiar with this almost mystical area of the state, all I can say is, “Who can disagree with Brooks’ assessment?” Summary of Brooks’ Articles From Brooks’ series of articles, it appears that the majority of sightings of this mysterious “Blue Devil” have taken place within a cluster of three hills (triangulated) and located between the towns of Jumbo and Grassy Creek in Webster County, West Virginia, mostly occurring in the winter of 1939-1940. The then young and aspiring journalist described the Blue Devil as a “bluish, doglike creature larger than a pony that prowled the area late at night and emitted a ghostly howl.” Many in Webster County attribute to the Blue Devil the deaths of a growing number of livestock over the period it stalked the land. Eventually, however, sightings of the creature began turning up in neighboring Randolph County, where residents joined the Valley Head Rod and Gun Club in offering a reward for its death totaling $400. Of course, that was at the close of the Great Depression, so it would probably come to over $7,000 today, taking inflation into account. For those brave enough today to try and catch a glimpse of the “Blue Devil,” Brooks’ advice of traveling down scenic Grassy Creek Road in Webster County between Jumbo and Grassy Creek still holds valid. But you better bring a loaded, twelve-gauge shotgun. Unprecedented Growth Imperils Blue Devil’s Natural Habitat During the early years of the last century, Webster County saw a dramatic increase in industrial growth. Railroad access to the county allowed entrepreneurs to penetrate and gather the vast untapped natural resources of lumber and coal closer to the heart of West Virginia. With the arrival of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and West Virginia Midland Railroad in the 1890s and early 1900s, 101

respectively, however, this process was facilitated and accelerated. Many of the old growth forests in the Webster County area were largely undisturbed for well over a century, thus making them an ideal target for lumber companies. Therefore, one of the county’s largest and fastest growing industries in the period was the timber industry. Many of the county’s residents made their livelihoods by harvesting local lumber. But within a few decades, overharvesting led to the industry’s collapse and many area residents were left unemployed. And with the destruction of much of the old growth forest that formed the habitat of this cryptid, no doubt the Blue Devil probably struck back understanding that its own continued existence was in doubt. And with the Depression upon them, the economic insecurity in the local population fueled individual uncertainties and overactive imaginations about this predatory cryptid, and the legend of the “Blue Devil” was born. Blue Devil on the Rampage From Harold Brooks’ files come these following reports about the Blue Devil on a rampage: “One of the first reported sightings of the “Blue Devil” was by Jumbo resident John Clevenger, a former lumber company employee and then farmer, who claimed in December of 1939 that his much-valued hunting dog had been attacked and killed by the beast. Another farmer, Ernest Cogar, reported that his livestock had been spooked for several nights and some wild animal had attacked and killed one of his cattle and a sheep. Mrs. V.S. Cutlip, meanwhile, reported hearing a ‘wild, inhuman scream’ outside her home in Diana, a few miles from Jumbo and H.A. Anderson heard something in Hacker Valley that ‘sounded like a panther.’”11 Naturally, these reports quickly attracted outside attention. Hunters arrived in Webster County from throughout West Virginia, and even a contingent from New York City. Sadly, or fortunately if you happen to be the Blue Devil or one of his aficionados, none of these hunters had any luck finding the beast that allegedly stalked the hills of Webster County. It should be pointed out, however, that the group from New York City apparently had their hunting dogs on the trail of something, but were forced to cut the chase short when their hounds refused to proceed any further. Said one of the New Yorkers, “This is very strange, indeed. I have never seen our dogs so spooked.” Other Newspapers Run Amok Other newspapers throughout the state got wind of the big story of the 11 West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History, Culture Center, State Capitol Complex, 1900 Kanawha Boulevard, East Charleston, WV 25305-0300. 102

Blue Devil of Webster County and the panic that ensued there following the frequent sightings of this unique but scary creature. By the close of 1939, articles about the cryptid had already appeared in both the Elkins Inter-Mountain and Charleston Gazette newspapers. And when the sightings spread to Randolph County, West Virginia, in January of 1940, the Charleston Gazette reprinted a story from the Elkins Inter-Mountain calling the beast a “some kind of large varmint” and posited as “proof positive that panthers still stalked the West Virginia heartlands.”12 All of this publicity inspired locals in Webster and Randolph County to take part in the growing search for whatever was killing their livestock. Several claimed to have already killed the beast; and there were yet others among these hunters seeking to collect the reward offered by the Valley Head Rod and Gun Club. The first claimant, Glen Fisher of Bill Fisher Hollow, reported before the reward was offered that he had shot and killed the animal in December of 1939. However, he maintained that its body had vanished before he could inspect it in the morning. Another claimant, coal miner Elmer Corley, killed something that Webster County game protector C.T. Whittaker characterized as “not quite a coyote, but some critter resembling one.” After collecting the reward, Corley assured area residents that the “Blue Devil” was dead, and no further reports were issued regarding the beast to belie his claim.

Don’t mess with the flocks of a Mountaineer! From Keller Paranormal Files: In the cold winter of 1897, sheep rancher Jacob Hamrick of Whitaker’s Falls in Randolph County, West Virginia, rounded up his neighbors and hunted down the “last known gray wolf in the state,” believed to be the predator that killed 32 sheep of his flock. Some in central West Virginia in 1939 and 1940 attributed the rampage of the Blue Devil to the appearance of a similar wolf, or maybe a coyote. Others thought the Blue Devil might be some kind of supernatural manifestation. 12 “It’s a Hard Life,” Charleston Gazette (West Virginia), 30 January 1940. 103

Blue Devil Nothing New to West Virginia One would think that the case of the Blue Devil was finally solved. However, in 1941, we are back to the Webster Republican with a story detailing a similar county-wide hunt a little more than four decades earlier. It seems that back in 1897, the residents of Webster County had participated in the search for what the paper claimed was the “last known gray wolf in West Virginia.” On one night in January of 1895, as the story goes, the wolf had killed twenty-seven lambs belonging to Jacob Hamrick in Randolph County. Shortly thereafter, the county courts of Randolph and Webster had offered a $100 reward (a little over $3000 today). Then, on New Years’ Eve, 1897, the wolf had killed five more sheep at John Hamrick’s farm near Whitaker’s Falls. Hamrick and his neighbors banded together and set off on a hunt for the animal in two feet of snow, stalking it over the course of several days before they finally brought it down. By publishing this account as it did just a short while after the “Blue Devil” sightings ended in 1940, the Webster Republican no doubt hoped its readers would come to the same conclusion it had: that the “Devil” was just one more wild beast like the last gray wolf in West Virginia, with nothing supernatural to it. While the Republican might have dismissed the “Devil,” other have not been so quick to write it off as a mere coyote or wolf. Not surprisingly, many cryptid hunters from around the world are still showing up in Webster County, looking for it somewhere on the road between Jumbo and Grassy Creek, just this side of the Twilight Zone. Part II: Tales of the Rabbit Man On Saint Patrick’s Day (17 March) in 1990, the Clarksburg, West Virginia, Exponent-Telegram newspaper ran a most unusual story about a “man-sized” white rabbit that, in the previous few weeks, was keeping the residents of Walton, West Virginia, and its Roane County Sheriff ’s Department, both quite busy and “hopping mad.” It seems that two Walton women called in numerous sightings of the “Rabbit Man,” thus causing sheriff ’s deputies to wonder if perhaps the Easter Bunny himself was making an early appearance. Arriving at their farm house in Walton, one of the deputies inquired of the woman answering the door, “You haven’t been sipping on the shine, have you?” The woman at the door, upon hearing this, however, did seem quite serious about the reports. She became agitated by any snickering on the part of the deputies sent out to their farm to investigate the case. The other woman came up from in back of the woman at the door, 104

and pleaded with the chief deputy, Russell Goodwin, who was asking the questions, “Can we just shoot that thing the next time it shows up around here?” Goodwin stolidly replied, “I wouldn’t recommend you do that, lady. You would find yourself in a world of **** were you to follow through on that.” “Well, give me a description of the trespasser,” said Goodwin, to which the lady in WV Rabbit Man is no Playboy Bunny front replied, “It just looked like a big white rabbit, but with shorter ears.” “How many times have you seen it?” further inquired the chief deputy. The lady, whom the deputies refused to identify to the press, replied that, “I have been seeing it off and on for about eight months. I knew that if you thought I was the only one calling in to report it, you would think that I am crazy. So, I got the neighbor to come over and we kept a watch out for it. When she saw it from my place, she called the report in. This is her with me now.” “OK,” remarked the chief deputy, “We’ll check out these reports and keep an eye out for a man-sized, white, furry figure; and if we see one, we’ll let you know.” The Clarksburg reporter asked Deputy Goodwin if he had followed up on the report, and he said that he had. “OK, then,” replied the journalist, “What do you make out of it?” “To be frank,” said Goodwin, “I guess you could say we did not make ‘hide nor hare’ out of this. However, we are not being dismissive of the women and their complaint. We take all complaints seriously. “We have to check it out. She’s right, you know. If she had been the only one reporting it, well, then we would be suspicious. But when there are two people saying the same thing, we just have to check it out.” The reporter then asked Goodwin if he had any theories about it. “Well, there might be someone sneaking around that woman’s farmhouse in a bunny costume; although I haven’t the faintest idea what their motivation might be.” Other local residents say that the two women are good churchgoers and don’t imbibe alcoholic beverages, at least as far as they know. Most declared “No comment,” when asked if they, too, had seen the Rabbit Man. “If nothing else,” said Goodwin, “Walton residents now have something to talk about besides the crop projections, with a giant Rabbit Man hopping down the local trails.” From Walton, West Virginia, all we can say is, “Good night, John Boy.” 105

15 Cacapon Bridge: Hunters Attacked by Two Bigfoot Creatures Turkey Hunt Gone Awry

Two hunters of wild turkeys, a father and son visiting West Virginia from the Columbia, Maryland, area, were up on Dillon’s Mountain on the outskirts of the rural community of Cacapon Bridge, West Virginia, where they claim they were attacked by two Bigfoot creatures about an hour past daybreak on Saturday, 25 October 1986. The two relayed their story to Warren E. Dullers, the editor and reporter for Turkey hunters found more than the West Virginia Advocate newspaper, gobblers atop Dillon Mountain. published in Cacapon Bridge. Dullers said Artwork from Field and Stream. that his newspaper would run their story but that he “was skeptical of the claim.” The father and son then told Dullers that they did not want their names to get out in connection with this story for fear that their reputations would be disparaged and their careers in the financial sector would suffer. Dullers covered the father and son’s encounter with the two Bigfoot creatures in the 10 November 1986 edition of the Advocate, where the father was quoted as saying, “It was a nightmare. It was the most frightening experience I have ever had. It was crazy; and people will probably say we are crazy and that it never happened.” 106

The son echoed his father’s sentiments: “People can think what they like. Neither of us is crazy; and both of us know what we saw and what we went through.” The father was in his late 50s and his son was in his early 30s. The father, upon coming down from Dillon’s Mountain and talking to Dullers in the Advocate’s office, displayed a large tear in the right shoulder of his hunting coat. He explained that this big rip occurred when he narrowly escaped the clutches of one of the attacking Bigfoot creatures. His son also had some evidence to display, eight strands of hair that supposedly came off of the other Bigfoot. The son maintained that he snagged the hair from some underbrush at the site of the alleged encounter. Dullers noted that the strands of hair were very coarse and black in color. Each strand ranged in length from one to two inches. Dullers noted that the hair resembled that from a horse’s mane or tail. Pinpointing Incident Location Dullers brought out a geographical survey map of the area from the United States Department of the Interior and asked the turkey shooters to indicate on the map where the alleged incident took place. The hunters then pointed to a location at the top of the southeast side of Dillon’s Mountain, some three miles southwest of downtown Cacapon Bridge. Interestingly, this is about 1,500 feet northeast from where a powerline crosses the mountain and about 5,000 feet to the southwest from where another powerline crosses the mountain. The father and son say that they arrived at the mountain around daybreak, whence they selected a large oak tree where the father assumed a sitting position at its base with his back against the southeast side of the tree trunk. The son sat on the opposite side of the tree trunk, facing the northwest. They took turns operating both slate (friction) and wood turkey callers in the hopes that one or more turkeys would be attracted to their position. Both were armed with 12-gauge, pump-action shotguns. The father declared that, “It was overcast, drizzling rain and foggy. We could only see about 50 to 75 feet away through the fog and the woods. After we had been there for about an hour,” he added, “we heard movement out in front of my son but beyond where we could see.” The son remarked that, “We thought it was a flock of turkeys. But then something strange happened. It sounded as though a turkey flock had split up, and part of the flock was circling to our left and part were circling to our right.” Then the father interjected, “Suddenly, I heard some branches break. From those sounds, I knew it could not be turkeys. I became worried that two hunters 107

had heard our turkey calls and were stalking us. After listening to the sounds for about a minute more, I was certain it was two hunters. To let them know we weren’t turkeys, I said, ‘Hello!” Then the sounds stopped.” The father continued, “We silently remained at our location for about five more minutes. During that time, we heard faint sounds that sounded closer and kept moving around in a circle.” The son opined, “I decided it was two deer. I wanted to see them; so, I got up and started walking softly and slowly toward where I had heard the last sounds off to my left.” Frightening Encounter The son was the first to sight one of the creatures: “I walked about 40 feet from the tree. Suddenly, through the fog, I saw in the woods what looked like a big, black gorilla about eight feet tall. It was off to my right and about 15 feet away. Its legs were behind a bush that was in front of it. I didn’t know what the hell it was; but it scared me so bad that I could not move. I even forgot I had a gun in my hands. “The thing and I stared at each other for a couple of moments; and then, all of a sudden, it growled like a gorilla and lunged at me. I turned and ran back toward the tree.” At that time, being so terrified by the creature, the son remarked that he had dropped his gun while making a run for his life. The father remained at the tree and watched his son stalk forward, saw him stop and then stare off toward his right. After that, he witnessed his son spin around and run back toward the tree. “I heard a growl and something big running after him,” the father noted, further adding that, “I thought a bear was after him. I jumped up and threw my shotgun up and aimed at the sounds. Suddenly, I saw this thing running after him and about 20 feet behind him. It looked like a giant man dressed up in a gorilla suit. I was too surprised to pull the trigger. Besides that, I did not know if the thing was human.” The son elaborated further, “I saw my dad raise his gun and then lower it. Then he began waving his arms and shouting. When I got to him, I spun around and Female Bigfoot conceptual sketch by Morton saw that the thing had stopped about 15 Kunsler of Crypto Mundo. 108

feet away. We both yelled, screamed and flapped our arms. The thing started moving back and circled to our left. All of a sudden, my dad screamed like he had been stabbed. I looked and there was another of the things behind him and it had a hold of his shoulder. He was yelling and trying to jerk loose. I grabbed hold of him and pulled him loose from the thing.” Bigfoot Sexuality From the father’s perspective, he noted that, “The damn thing had tits like an old woman. It was as big as the other one; but this one had tits. It was covered with black hair, but the tits did not have much hair on them. They looked like big hound-dog ears.” The father dropped his gun, as well, while struggling with the female Bigfoot. Both of the hunters ran about 15-20 feet; but the male Bigfoot shifted to its left and blocked their way. They then found themselves stuck between the two creatures that remained only 15 feet away, circling and maneuvering to keep the two men trapped between them. When Dullers asked how they were able to know that the Bigfoot that blocked their escape was a male, both hunters noted that, “It had a big penis and testicles.” The father added, however, that, “They looked like a man’s; but they were bigger. When the thing ran, or jumped, or turned a certain way, you could see them plainly; but they were hairy and partly hidden by the hair that covered the whole body.” One Shotgun Retrieved The father and son both asserted that the pair of Bigfoot creatures kept circling them, all the while snarling and making terrible sounds. The father further explained that, “Every couple of seconds, one of them would growl and lunge toward us. We would yell and flap our arms and it would stop and back up. I was so scared I dirtied my pants. “One of them would lunge at us and we would yell and jump back or run a few steps. At one point, I looked down and saw my shotgun on the ground. I grabbed it and fired it into the air. The Bigfoots jumped backward. I shot the gun again. They turned and started to run away. I kept shooting the gun into the air. We could hear them running away through the brush. They ran away in different directions.” The standoff with the Bigfoot creatures lasted for about ten minutes, according to the estimates of both the father and son.

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Published Interview The following interview of the hunters appeared in the West Virginia Advocate newspaper of 10 November 1986: Dullers: Why didn’t you shoot them? Father: I wanted to, but they looked too human. Dullers: Do they have fangs? Father: No. They had teeth like a human, but they were much bigger. And they were all yellow. Dullers: What type of feet and hands do they have? Son: They looked like the hands and feet of a giant human, except that they were hairy on the tops. Their palms and soles of their feet looked like the dark skin of a white man. Their feet were broad and about 18 to 20 inches long. Dullers: What type of nose do they have? Father: Like a cross between the nose of a man and the nose of a gorilla. You could see the nostrils real plain. Dullers, as the editor of the Advocate, at this point cuts into the continuity of the interview to inform us that when the father and son were further questioned, “they painted a picture that coincides with the classic description of what many people claim are Bigfoot. They seemed to be describing a huge, prehistoric Cro Magnon man or a huge homo sapiens neanderthalensis man whose body is covered with coarse, thick black hair about one-inch long.” Dullers: Will you give me one of the strands of hair you claim came from one of the Bigfoot? I want to have it analyzed. Son: We plan to have them analyzed by a lab in Washington, D.C. We want them to study all the hair. We will have them release their report to you. You can have some of the hair after that. Dullers: Did you report this alleged incident to a law enforcement agency or the state Department of Natural Resources? Father: No. They would have said we are crazy or that we were drunk or on dope. I work for a bank and my son works for an investment firm. We would probably lose our jobs if our names get out. Dullers: I suspect this is all an elaborate hoax. Simply because your story is incredible, I believe you are both lying. Will you submit to a polygraph examination? Father: Only if you can guarantee that our identities will never be revealed. Dullers: I can only guarantee my conduct. During accomplishment of a polygraph examination, your identities would probably be known by others. I cannot guarantee that they would not reveal your identities. Your desire for 110

anonymity and your having come to a newspaper seem contradictory. Why did you come to the Advocate? Son: We didn’t tell anyone outside of our immediate family. Then we talked about it and decided that we should let the public know about those things. They could attack someone and kill them. As you are a professional journalist, we know that you would keep a promise of anonymity; and that is why we returned to your office to participate in this interview. Dullers: What do you believe “those things” are? Father: Without a doubt, they were two Bigfoot, a male and a female. I think that they heard our turkey calls and came to where we were because they thought they would catch some turkeys to eat. We both had camouflage gloves and hats on, and camouflage paint on our faces. I don’t think that the Bigfoot saw us until it was too late. After they saw us, maybe they didn’t know we were humans. When my son surprised the male, he came after hi because he thought he had to protect himself and the female. When the female saw the situation, she joined in to protect her mate. Dullers: Do you believe the public will consider your story credible? Father: They better, for their own good. We know what happened. Son: Other people can think what they want. We just hope that nobody gets hurt by one of those things. Prior History of Bigfoot Near Dillon’s Mountain In the Advocate’s article, Dullers points out that there was a prior report of a Bigfoot in the vicinity of Dillon’s Mountain that went back to 1982. It seems that “Jack” Heintz, a former resident of Cacapon Bridge who had since moved to Baltimore, Maryland, saw a Bigfoot on the nearby Schaffenaker Mountain, situated in the mountain range that runs parallel to Dillon’s Mountain. Heintz claims that his night time encounter with a Bigfoot took place about threequarters of a mile from the site where the father and son met up with the terrible two Bigfoot four year later. Between the two mountains is a small, mostly forested valley, which would most likely be the stomping grounds for any potential Bigfoot, provided that Heintz’ and the father and son team’s accounts were true. Dullers was beginning to lose some of his doubts about the hunters, given the facts that both of the Bigfoot encounters, i.e., Heintz’ and that of the father and son, occurred in the same region and both at the top edge of southeast side of a mountain.

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When Heintz first viewed the creature, it was at night with the aid of a floodlight. There he saw what looked like a Bigfoot moving about in the forest surrounding his mountain home. Heintz sided with precaution and decided to stay inside his home and not going out to investigate the matter. “I am basically a coward at heart,” Heintz avowed. Heintz wasn’t the only one frightened that night. Apparently, the Bigfoot was also scared. When the creature was caught in the beam of the floodlight, it ran down the southeast side of Schaffenaker Mountain towards Dillon’s Mountain, across the valley. In 1982, Heintz told Dullers that, “It did not appear to be a bear; and, in my opinion, it was a Bigfoot.” The editor had to agree that Heintz’ description matched that of what has traditionally become known as a Bigfoot. While Dullers noted that “Heintz is known to be a practical joker,” he reserved judgement on the matter and remained skeptical, but not outright dismissing the claim, especially now in light of the new Bigfoot revelations from the father and son. As Dullers checked into the matter of other strange occurrences and sightings in the area, he reviewed old newspapers in the “morgue,” as the Advocate’s archives were known, and came across an item in 1979 where a Bigfoot had been sighted in the Edwards’ Run Public Hunting and Fishing Area, just two miles north of downtown Cacapon Bridge, in the section at the northeast terminus of Schaffenaker Mountain. And during the 1940s, some old-timers, deceased by 1986, related sundry stories where they, their parents, grandparents or even great grandparents had encountered mysterious creatures in the Cacapon Bridge region that they dubbed “snolgosters.” The old-timers described these cryptids in terms resembling the Bigfoot or Sasquatch. Science Weighs In Biologists have yet to confirm the existence of creatures like Bigfoot. Many scientists from various other disciplines doubt that they even exist, although more are coming to see the possibilities, moving from the camp of outright deniers to that of simply being “unsure.” And yet there is an ever-growing cadre of believers, scientists who assert that massive evidence exists from ongoing research that not only the alleged sightings of the Abominable Snowman or Yeti of the Himalayas are real, but so are the many reports of sightings of the Bigfoot or Sasquatch as roaming the wilderness areas of North America. Right here in West Virginia, the isolated and forested valley between Schaffenaker and Dillon Mountain may turn out to be a genuine Bigfoot habitat.

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16 Four West Virginia Air National Guard Planes Scrambled in Pursuit of UFOs On 11 March 1997 UFOs were buzzing both sides of the United States. It was the second day of the UFO flap over Phoenix, Arizona; and in the South Hills neighborhood of Charleston, West Virginia, three large orange spheres appeared over the south bank of the Kanawha River. Patricia J. Blake and her The AC-130 gunship was the most appropriate aircraft nine-year old daughter were at Yeager Field to militarily engage the UFOs. Photo source: AC-130 Gunship Society out in their backyard patio at around 6:30 p.m. on Oakwood Road in the South Hills when they first caught sight of the UFOs. “All the UFOs were all lit up,” noted the mother, adding that, “The first orb came down towards the woods vertically. It was very orange and had a long tail behind it. Two other UFOs of the same description were also coming down, also with tails behind them. The first one was now in the middle and seemed to slow down at one point.” She also explained that the UFOs seemed to be holding a triangular formation. Continuing to describe the movement of the objects, the mother said, “Then all three appeared to stay in the triangular position for a few minutes, the larger moving rather slowly to our right. When we first saw them, they were maybe 45 113

degrees above the horizon; and then they came down to a much lower angle that I estimated to be about 25 degrees.” Patricia J. Blake believed that the UFOs were hovering over a wooded area south of Route 61 and west of Route 119. “The UFOs darted to the west, somewhat southwest. Then they hovered at the second site for about ten minutes. It was still daylight and the sky was nearly cloudless.” At fifteen minutes into the sighting, however, four specially adapted C-130 West Virginia Air National Guard planes flew across the Kanawha River, also heading in the same southwest direction as the UFOs. Blake surmised that the planes were dispatched from the nearby Chuck Yeager Field, northeast of Charleston. “My daughter and I probably weren’t the only one to see these UFOs,” remarked the mother, concluding that, “The other witnesses probably called the Air National Guard at Yeager to report them.” The C-130 is a large Hercules transport plane. It was not out of the ordinary that these larger planes were deployed, because the mission of the 130th Airlift Wing in Charleston does now focus and always has focused on air mobility, a mission that delivers global air transportation of equipment and supplies during times of war, states of emergency and peace-time training. Therefore, smaller planes are not required and the C-130s were the only aircraft available that was suitable for deployment that evening in pursuit of the UFOs. The C-130s utilized in the UFO chase were actually Lockheed AC-130 gunships, being adapted to serve as a heavily armed, long-endurance, ground-attack variant of the C-130 Hercules transport, fixed-wing aircraft. Therefore, the most appropriate for any possible military engagement with the orbs. Patricia J. Blake shared this information with Joseph Trainor, the editor of UFO Roundup (https://www.sacred-texts.com/ufo/ufor2n12.htm).

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17 Christmas 2014: Santa’s Sleigh Over Huntington, West Virginia A UFO showed up in the skies over Spring Valley in Huntington, West Virginia, at approximately 8:45 p.m. on the Christmas of 2014. According to a report received by the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC) in Davenport, Washington, from the father of a prominent Huntington family, “We were sitting in our living room which has a large picture window when suddenly in the southern sky a large delta-winged craft appeared out of nowhere. “The craft hovered for about two minutes The X-Files has a new UFO requiring its own classification. and began moving due north at a slow speed. The From Ultracards on www.zazzle. craft had five very large orange lights changing com. to yellow and back.” The father, who requested that he and his family remain anonymous, explained that his house was approximately two miles from the Huntington TriState Airport located in Kenova, West Virginia. He added that, “The craft moved slowly from south to north and paused for approximately five minutes. The lights went off one at a time until only the center light remained. It (the center light) stayed in place for another 20 seconds and suddenly shot straight up.” 115

The father told Peter Davenport, the director of NUFORC who was manning the UFO hotline throughout the Christmas holiday that year, that he took a video to document the sighting in MP4 format. Unfortunately, it only looked like a small triangle in a soft blur due to its moving through a cloud bank. Was it Santa with his sleigh returning home after a busy day of delivering gifts across every time zone, a traditional UFO, a TOP SECRET military aircraft, or just some unusual atmospheric phenomena? Davenport said that the delta shape and behavior of the UFO, which was seen for a total span of a little over five minutes, resembled one of the famous “Phoenix Lights” observed over southwestern skies in Arizona and Nevada on 13 March 1997. As for this writer, I still want to believe it was Santa Claus with Rudolph leading the team of flying reindeer. After all, the object was heading in a due north direction. A lustrous “Ho! Ho! Ho!” and “Merry Christmas!” to all, wherever you live and hang your stockings with care….

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Appendix A Strategies for Extraterrestrial Revelations By Dr. Raymond A. Keller, a.k.a. “Cosmic Ray,” international award-winning author of the Venus Rising book series (Terra Alta, West Virginia, 2015-2022)

Keeping in mind the extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH) for the origin of some UFOs as coming to Earth from other planets, the following information is presented: Strategies to Ponder Brighton, England, was the site of the 38th Congress of the International United States Government officials acknowledge, “unidentified aerial Astronomical Federation, held from 10- phenomena” (UAP) exist, but won’t 17 October 1987. Approximately 1,000 concede they may be originating from some scientists, mostly astronomers, were in other planet. Photo source: https://www. theguardian.com/world/2022/may/17/ufoattendance. The topic of their discussion briefing-us-congress-military was phrased in the context of a question: “If there is life on other planets, what do we do?” Of course, the “we” in this case refers to the members of the global scientific community. The scientists in attendance pondered strategies that they might take in announcing the monumental discovery of life on another planet, particularly intelligent life, without causing public alarm or instability in their respective national governments. One of the scientists from the United States at the unprecedented conference was then National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) administrator James C. Fletcher, who told a reporter 117

from the Los Angeles Times that, “The finding of extraterrestrial life would eclipse all previous discoveries of humankind.”13 Sociologist’s Viewpoint Another scientist, a sociologist from Italy, Robert Pinotti, worried that the discovery of advanced beings on another planet might cause an inferiority complex in many Earthlings. Pinotti noted that, “The news of the existence of extraterrestrial intelligences could be devastating. It will affect every field of human activity. Contact with superior beings would be shattering because it would mean humans on Earth might suddenly find themselves inferior.” Others Opine Other scientists at the conference hesitated to make any public statements on the UFO phenomenon. However, even these anonymous ones told the Los Angeles reporter that, “The discovery of life elsewhere could cause many Earthlings to panic, and even the super powers might find themselves inferior to the newly-discovered extraterrestrial society, and thus subject to internal security. If anything, this Congress demonstrated that an ever-increasing number of scientists, particularly astronomers, have suspected, or known all along, of the existence of advanced life forms on other planets. Once hiding their knowledge of this behind the ivy-covered walls of academia, in what Dr. J. Allen Hynek, the former Air Force consultant on UFOs for Project Bluebook for over twenty years, once referred to as the “Invisible College,” they were now gradually coming into the light of day with full revelations. This Brighton conference was quite significant in that it provided an impetus worldwide for the acknowledgement that such supercivilizations exist on other worlds and that the peoples of Earth need to prepare for eventual contact with highly evolved extraterrestrial beings.

13 Los Angeles Times (California), 16 October 1987. 118

Changing Public Attitudes On 25 June 2021, when the Department of Defense’s declassified intelligence report on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) was publicly presented in a Congressional hearing, there existed widespread interest across the nation in the subject of UFOs and a possible connection with advanced extraterrestrial life. Polls taken earlier in the year indicated that almost two-thirds of Americans (65%) did not believe that the government was being honest about what it knows about the phenomenon.14 In all likelihood, most of those polled later felt their suspicions of the government were validated when the report presented to Congress acknowledged that military pilots were encountering real objects demonstrating an advanced technology, but there was no proof that these UAP were coming to Earth from some other planet. Most likely, the Department of Defense analysts concluded, the objects were “secret Chinese drones” or some other types of advanced hypersonic aerospace reconnaissance vehicles from other nations. After China, Russia was the next highest on the list of possible candidates for dispatching these objects. Hollywood Influence The popularity of science fiction movies focusing on advanced forms of extraterrestrial life, like the Star Trek and Star Wars franchises, while entertaining enough, have not done the subject of UFOs much justice, beyond keeping the idea of extraterrestrial visitors to Earth in the forefront of the mass consciousness of the American people. As the Congressional hearings aptly demonstrated, the UFO/UAP enigma is real. These objects exist in the here and now. George Adamski (1891-1965), an amateur astronomer from Southern California who claimed contact with extraterrestrials over three decades and who wrote three books on the subject of UFOs and intelligent life on other planets, informed his followers that, “The coming of our neighbors from other planets is not just for the entertainment of Earthlings, nor for starting a new religion, for they are not gods! However, our neighbors are willing to share their knowledge with us if we are willing to do our part. They know that our viewpoint on life is based on false premises; and our present attitude and behavior will lead to self-annihilation. Their program is vast in scope, and the pattern well laid out. They do not judge us for our disbelief, for they know that, in time, all of this 14 Kathy Frankovic, “Three in Five Americans Think There is Life on Other Planets,” 3 June 2021, https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/articles-reports/2021/06/03/americansthink-intelligent-life-outer-space (Accessed 26 Nov 22). 119

dilemma of fantasy will die by recognition of its own ‘reality.’ And the people of Earth will use their minds to think clearly and realistically. The mystery will be replaced by the understanding of natural law.”15

15 Fred Steckling, Why Are They Here? (New York: Vantage Press, 1969), 140. 120

FRED SALUGA

WEST VIRGINIA: PARANORMAL GATEWAY

FRED SALUGA