SUMMA FAERYOLOGICA, part five

On we go. 

Old readership from the early days know that we used a term here called "Out Proctor." It was for the fun of it but it served a purpose too. When we went Out Proctor, we were admitting to ourselves that we were getting into unexplored and confusing territory. The term originated because Proctor WV is a little place near my family's last WV home (New Martinsville.) The folks around there had a local joke that the further you went Out Proctor Road, the more you entered weird and uncharted spaces. We would assume that very far Out Proctor was the home of Mothman and The Flatwoods Monster. For all of us familiar with the blog, going Out Proctor was giving ourselves license for "All The Way Fool" level speculation. 

So today, some of this anyway will be Out Proctor where no apologies are necessary.

Do UFOs Explain Faery?

UFOs and UFO occupants are the fairies in modern dress? Where did this idea come from? To say that Jacques Vallee did it is pretty much true, but doesn't quite say enough. I'm going to say a little bit more (as I believe that the history here is germane.) 

In the late 1960s Jacques Vallee was studying UFOs with Dr. Hynek in Chicago. The USAF Project Blue Book was becoming irrelevant to Hynek (except as a paycheck) and he was becoming more and more irritated with the USAF approach. Hynek wanted a scientific approach and so did Vallee. Along came the Colorado Project and the alleged Scientific Study of UFOs. And it was thoroughly botched. Meanwhile Vallee was getting discouraged about research through fieldwork on single cases no matter how good such a case was. So he decided to try a statistical approach. Being a stats and early computer expert, Vallee was well qualified for doing this (and he helped David Saunders of the Colorado Project decide that such a project was the correct way to go as well. Plus, all of that led ultimately to the massive UFOCAT maintained by Don Johnson.)

All of that should have created optimism, but it did not. In particular, Vallee gave up on the idea that we could explain the UFO phenomenon using a scientific approach. As Colorado and the USAF Blue Book collapsed, Hynek pushed on. But Vallee left the States and went back to his home country seeking a different path. While in France, he is said to have "discovered" the great book of fairy field research, WY Evans-Wentz' Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries. 

 
Evans-Wentz WAS a very good lore collector, and presented an impression of the reality of some of this lore as regards actual entities interacting with humans. 
Vallee was very impressed. So much so that he began reading much about fairy lore and (since he is nothing if not a creative mind)  began synthesizing some fairly unique ideas about connections between UFOs and fairies.

Vallee was also influenced by the rather weird idea environment which existed in those days. This was personified by John Keel, who had his moments where one might legitimately label him the craziest writer claiming to be writing about "truth" on the planet. 

For Keel, anything was game, as long as it claimed that things thought to be unrelated were actually related or identical at some sort of fundamental levels. Deserved or not, Vallee and Keel became looked upon as congenial thinkers by readers who preferred novelty and conspiracy to the harder pursuit of facts. Vallee didn't really deserve the comparison, even though some of the trajectory of his new thought seemed to point that way. 

 The new breakthrough book, Passport to Magonia, appeared in 1969 and caused a sensation of both approval and criticism in the anomalies community. The text is intelligent and if you are interested in the subject at all, readible  (I read right through both Evans-Wentz and Passport, for instance, while never being able to stomach the nonsense being spouted by John Keel.) 

Embedded in the book's ideas were however signs that the research wasn't carefully enough pursued . The book at its depths calls for us to believe that UFOs were the same phenomenon as not only fairies, but also angels and devils and ghosts and cryptozoological creatures. You, who have been reading these blog posts, already will note that examination of the actual data does not indicate a sameness of faery and ghosts, and really studying the folklore would have shown that the old cultures believed that these were entirely separate. Plus, despite support from neophiliacs like Keel, there is no good reason to state that faery is the precise same thing as either angels and devils (as seen in the last blogpost about the middle angels.) Nevertheless, the time of publication was ripe, and the concept stuck rather strongly, despite the surface-level-only research of the hypothesis. This does not mean that the hypothesis has to be false. It SHOULD mean, however, that the hypothesis needs to be examined by someone(s) who has spent a very large amount of time studying BOTH fields, both field report sets in depth. There is no evidence that the folklore encounter side of this has been studied with that intensity. (This is why I've bothered to give you this history.) 

Where did "Magonia" come from? 

This is the guy, Agobard of the 9th century in Lyon, France, who wrote about a claim that local farmers were being bombarded by bad weather caused by rogue demon sailors who rode the skies. For no good reason, they would create whirlwinds out of nothing and flatten fields with huge ice falls. Somehow, the locals knew that these no-goods were from a place in the Air called Magonia. Agobard wasn't so sure. He wrote that these stories demonstrated how stupid most people were, that they could believe such rot. ... so it's a little "amusing" to think that our original reference for the Magonia claim is from a fellow who thought that it was nonsense. 

But that still doesn't mean it's wrong.

 As the years have moved on, the "feeling" about Passport has changed, as you see above. And, it has been joined by a herd of other authors.

There in fact seems to be no limit to the amount of Keelian Speculation turned into entire books. The ratio of the claims to the evidence quoted in support of them is a powerful inverse relationship. We are trending towards a society desiring to spew forth exhaustively without the bother of fact. Facts are, as the saying goes, are a real bother as they restrict the full flow of the imagination. 

I felt that it was necessary to explain this sociology and history to wipe away any un-useful  preconceptions about the evidentiary status of the "fairies = UFOnauts"  speculation. This popular hypothesis is not based upon a strong evaluation of case histories, but rather an intriguing possibility. 

What Does The Evidence Say? 

As I studied UFO cases for 40 years rather intensely, and when the Magonian thing came into my perception, a natural thought was "why not?" A second thought was: if I've found "comfort" in reading credible UFO witness reports, why shouldn't I give fairy encounter witness reports the same level of not only critique but also (when earned) confidence? So, a few thousand UFO reports in, I shifted to creating the Leprecat in hopes of giving these ideas an honest attempt.

You've read the past blog entries. You know what the evidence says. And that is ... 

FAERY and UFO Entities are NOT the same thing --- not the same thing at all. And why do I say that? 

The UFO CE cases cannot prove this conclusion by themselves.
The Fairy encounters cannot prove this conclusion by themselves. 
BUT, reading a few thousand UFO cases AND reading several hundred faery cases --- that pushes one, in my opinion, inevitably to that conclusion.

But it's "feeling"....

Here is the concept"UFOs":

Here is the concept"Faery":

How do these two realities feel to you? 

Feel free of course to disagree, but to me these are utterly different. One of them is vitally alive, full of Nature, dynamically unpredictable and quirky. The other one is to me robotically cold, full of technology but not "life", unpredictable but simply mysterious. One "hates" technology; one thrives on it.

Utterly different --- a big statement, but I think that the constant reading of the faery cases should bring everyone to this. The only similarity that I find in the two is that they are both unsolved anomalies. That is apparently enough for John Keel and the unthinking Keelians, but good only for a Ship of Fools. 

But am I being too rough minded? 

Now, I guess, is the time to lay out my most controversial opinion which relates directly to this: the alleged identity of UFO abductions and Faery Baby-stealing Changelings. This constantly restated "obvious connection" is really bad on two levels. The first is: if we sat together and read several so-called abduction cases and then read several changeling claims, we'd be rolling on the floor if anyone had the opinion that they were anything like one another. Having done that, I begin to doubt the intellectual integrity if not the entire intellect of anyone who sees these two things as having ANYTHING to do with one another. 

But the second level is even more "amusing."(with for me a bittersweet side). The pushers of the UFO=Faery theory like to believe that the "Abduction Phenomenon" dominates and characterizes UFOs. But, I've known, rather well, the leading ufologists who were involved with creating the abduction story. This does not make me popular with some of my UFO researcher friends but, as I've hinted to you in old blogposts, my experience with the two most influential proponents of massive abductions, missing time, and messing around with reproductive systems (and "hybrids") has regrettably demonstrated to me that much of this mass phenomenon is investigator created --- unconsciously on their parts, but due to (Bless them) really bad research nevertheless. I DO think that there have been a small number of on-board experiences, but the "millions" and the alien agenda, no. I've read the unpublished materials, know the techniques, watched the emotions of the researchers. This opinion is not superficially arrived at. 

What then about the other side of this identity? The initial thing to understand is that there are NO credible reports of "changelings." There are tons of fairy tale type stories, but no witnesses. AND, there is a real probability that even the fairy tales are based upon something other than fairy. When I was teaching human genetics at Western Michigan University, I naturally came across the chromosome trisomies (ex, Downs Syndrome and the worse ones) but also rarer things like so-called "gargoylism" and some related (thankfully rare) horrors which "turn" the appearance of babies into short-lived old and deformed looking children. Reading that terrible literature, the thought automatically came that the way a less advanced culture might deal with such a horror would be to blame it on some other nasty beings. I even began to write this concept up in an academic way, but found out in mid-flight that a good folklorist named Susan Eberly  (I think that is her name; it's been a long time) had already seen the connections. 

So, the big braggadoccio  synchronicity: Mass UFO Abductions messing with reproduction and producing hybrids plus fairy changelings --- neither are factual. 

But don't SOME UFO cases look like Faery? We've already talked about that. VERY few do. If 99% of UFOs look nothing like Faery, and 99% of Faery looks nothing like UFOs, should one percent (and one percent unsolved mysteries) rule the day? Obviously not, but let's look anyway.

 What about Rosa Dainelli's imps? 

A 1954 "UFO" case. But I think maybe not. 
 Why not just put it in fairy files? The so-called UFO was never in the air.

What about the hoop of fire with fairies standing on it seen by Davydd Fawr in the 1800s? Was it a UFO? Why? Looks like Faery to me. 

You and I could dig out some borderline cases here and there. A few might be faery; a few might be UFO; but why claim that they are the same thing --- especially when all else are so different? 

And .... since we are completely Out Proctor: a final goofy speculation by me.

People constantly puzzle themselves about what the heck the UFOnauts were doing all these years just messing about when we are not that complicated? 

What if WE were not their main research interest? 

Till next time?
 

SUMMA FAERYOLOGICA, part four

HEADING DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE TO ??????????????

I guess that I can't avoid it any longer. It appears in this posting and the next, that I'm driven to making a fool out of myself, by going far beyond the data into the bizarre lands of speculation. I'm hoping to make a little sense while doing this, but I can't honestly promise anything. 

Two "practical(?)" remarks up front:
1. I got a bit "old and cranky" at one point in this post, but I don't take it back. My views on the actual damage to the search for truth done by cowardly academics sometimes outrages me; 
2. The awkward path of this post became so long, that I never got to the UFO vs Faery "thing" which is important to me, but will have to wait till another day.

But, to begin: 

A friend of mine remarked on the titles of these last posts (The Summa Faeryologica's) that I was giving a nod to St. Thomas Aquinas. That is sort of true, but mainly in a subtle way that should be mentioned now. When Aquinas wrote the Summa Theologica, he plowed along at the task for years and then just quit leaving it unfinished. I find that to be the first proper comparative point of the very few that could be made between the great genius and my feeble production. 

Thomas quit because he came to realize that his subject was too difficult for him to wrap his head around , and he had to admit to himself that he would never quite know what he was writing about. THAT is also a proper comparison with my current efforts.

Finally, though Thomas could never (just using philosophy and reason) PROVE the existence of GOD, Souls, The Spiritual Side of Life, another good friend of mine often reminded me that he nevertheless provided us humans with a great service: with all his heroic efforts, Aquinas demonstrated that it was REASONABLE to look into and think about these topics. 

In my embarrassingly minor way (and despite our very minor topic), this latter "Thomistic" accomplishment is all that I hoped for. I hope that our adventure down these paths and through these old forests have shown that it is not an unreasonable topic. And ... that thinking and being interested in these matters are not de facto childish nor deserving of derision. If I've done that for any of you, this has been a success.

So. If there is a reasonable excuse for exploring this topic, what is it that we've explored? My approach to that question is to trust the old folks.

 I think that it is "reasonable" to ask the old culture what they believed about these things for two reasons: One, they were a lot closer to this stuff than we are, or I am. Two, what they've "told" me so far about the Little People has more or less matched what I've found. What did they say about The Little People or The Fair Folk or The Other Crowd? Fortunately for us twenty-first century inhabitants, there were a few dozen people who felt that the 18th and 19th century influences were threatening to destroy the old understandings, and that this was a very bad idea. So they went out into the field, into the rurals of Ireland, Scotland, Cornwall, Wales, but also Scandinavia and Germany, and interviewed ordinary folks to save their stories and their vision. Our still-existing antiquarian books gladly tell us what those beliefs were. And, they were remarkably similar in what is to me a helpful way. This is it: 

The books tell us that the old cultures believed in four separate types of anomalous things: one was "Magic", another was "Witchcraft", a third was "Ghosts", and the fourth was "The Little People, or Fairies." The key point is: these four things, from their experience, were four basically distinct realities. The World of Faery had nothing to do with Magic (i.e. it was not based upon humans who had, by learning or close attention to Nature's behaviors, achieved the ability to do things that normal humans could not, and who did these things by strict discipline in following learned "rituals" or "recipes" or "actions.") Secondly, the World of Faery had nothing to do with Witchcraft (i.e. it was not based upon humans who had made contracts with fundamentally evil beings, and who through those contracts could do things that other humans could not do.) This second stance contains an important corollary: Faery is not Demonic. It is not demonic despite the majority Christian authority trying to make it so. That misplaced attack from Protestant Christianity may have had something to do with the fading of Faery across the decades, but, if so, it did not do so because the two were directly related --- only related through the misplaced prejudices and sometimes deadly emotions of those eras. 

A quick word about Clairvoyance or Second Sight: That "talent" is basic to none of the four concepts, although we humans might also get involved with that anomaly during experiences with any of the four. My guess as to why the folklore collectors did not include paranormal insight as a fifth "odd" belief, is that our ancestors thought that it was natural and not anomalous at all. So that leaves us with "Ghosts" and "Faery." To start we can say that our old ones "knew" that fairies were NOT ghosts.  

There's a bit of an issue regarding "Ghosts" --- what did they mean? This was a tougher issue for me. Here's my conclusion: The old folks did NOT mean what we call "poltergeists." They also would not have meant what we now call "tricksters." They DO seem to have meant the apparitional appearances which look perfectly "solid" even though they are not. They include the doppelgangers --- appearances of actual or recently deceased humans. The world of ghosts probably included things like the "banshees", or the apparitional carriage, or whatever images might announce a death. This gray area could be shoved into either the Ghost or the Fairy category depending upon the region, but if they do, they do not soften the cultural position that the entities of Faery are not ghosts nor the disembodied souls of humans passed away. 

The above are the cartoon images for the better credentialed cases where some creepy black-cloaked creatures were sighted. These things do not act like the other entities associated with fairy reports. They usually do not move at all, often standing like inert (yet creepy) black statues, which if they do move, seem to have instantly translocated to another location, again standing motionless. This is universally true for the multiple groups of three formations. Some of the singletons also stand motionless. Some do seem to drift or even come forward. None of these things seem to have a real feeling of life in them. I don't know what these things are, but relate them more to apparitional manifestations than the biologically-imitating Faery.

So, Faery stands on its own. It is not a realm of Devils nor a realm of tortured human souls. What's left? The people of the Dark Ages world faced all the same experiences in the fields and forests that the folks in later centuries did, but without the "benefit" of the scowls of 16th century Protestantism. (I'm sure that when early pre-protestant monks came to the isles there was a real adjustment needed but there seems to have been an early "understanding" between those two cultures, which often merely overlain a Biblical veneer onto the ancient celebrations and beliefs.) It is my belief that in these areas of the world, there was an era in which the culture of the past melded with the "new" ideas to form syntheses of belief. Such syntheses might even have made enough sense not only to survive but (maybe) even reflect what is real. 

And out of that came the majority theory about what Faery was. It is a truth that the old people were trying to figure out what this fairy business was. Modern theorists have lined up their own conclusions, often with stunning lack of humility. One oft-mentioned idea is that these creatures are a legendary culture, the Tuatha Da Danaan. For me, writings about the TDD leave me more confused than enlightened. They were supposedly powerful, brilliant, beautiful ... and somehow not able to hold onto anything in the face of crude outside invaders. For me, they don't make any sense. Not only don't they make any sense to me, but they don't look much like Snow White's seven dwarfs (or a faun/satyr, merperson, Ent, giant, or anything that witnesses actually report.) Heck, they don't even look like Tinkerbell. 

Another prominent theory is that they are remnants of primitive original peoples, or invaders from Denmark or some such "mysterious" place. It would be nicer for this theory if palaeontologists found any such peoples, or if they could be conceived to look anything like the fairy folk clan. I find it "unusual" for human pygmies to instantly appear and vanish before your eyes. The bottomline: one might allow a rare interaction to be with something like a genetic dwarf, but "POOF VANISH"?, no way that "Picts" do that. But all of this sort of alternative theorizing are the products of academia and therefore can be almost assuredly be classified as nonsense, if not the lucubrations of morons. (pardon me, folks, but these armchair reductionist "experts" have really irritated me in my own ancient years.) 

Recently, a good friend tasked me (gently and gentlemanly,) with looking into a "new way" of understanding fairies. Drugs. Naturally this is something so anti-scientific and misguided that only a lifetime brain-basher (Terence McKenna) or an academic (will remain anonymous) could seriously consider it. Belief in Fairies is, to our great surprise, the result of smashing our brains with DMT psychedelic. 

Yeh. THAT's the Ticket! That's exactly what all our witnesses from the last 500 years have been reporting!! I am so delighted to get this well grounded academic guidance on the subject. 

Our peasant witnesses must just have lacked the proper vocabulary. 

To add to my grateful understanding (while subtracting from the total amount of knowledge in the Universe), a website did an intelligent (if wrong-headed) explication of these DMT-is-the-Way speculations, and concluded it with a listing of "all" the theories which might be behind the truth of Faery. Since that is what I'm trying to do now, naturally I was intrigued. Here are a few of the theories offered: It's all hallucination; DMT shoves us into a higher dimension; DMT takes us down to the atoms; DMT activates our Reptile Brain (don't ask me how they say some of these with a straight face); Non-humans created us and left town, leaving a fairy-contact gene to contact them later --- sometimes you just wish that public firing squads were legal; it's all the Dead; it's all Aliens; it's all Time travelers. ... And you know what? These advanced human academics never mentioned one hypothesis: THAT THE FAIRIES ARE REAL ENTITIES just as the old folks and the witnesses say they are!!!!

A writer once said about a confused constricted academic: It's a marvel that such a respectable intellect can exist in such a tiny mind. 

I'll make one more remark: IF anyone takes this DMT=Faery-Gate seriously, then the INEVITABLE academic conclusion to all of this will be --- It's ALL subjective hallucination. 

So, Bill, my friend, thanks for sending me down THAT particular rat-hole for a day.
=========================================================================
Now, back to something that might lead us somewhere worth the journey.


I am going to guess that the old people thought of these entities as real physical beings, not humans, and having some dangerous and arcane powers. Where they lived, who really knew? But they seemed slightly related to certain locations which may have had meaning to the Old Religion. They seemed mainly existing in natural settings, but might show up anywhere. The following I'm not as comfortable with, but it has felt to me that some of these ideas probably were linked somehow with the Cosmos of the druidical religion, or whatever preceded that. This is despite the fact that I cannot find any substantive connection between druidical religion and fairy belief. But some sort of synthesis between two important parts of a culture had to be present. (This lack of literature reference to such a connectivity should be viewed as hardly surprising and certainly no show stopper as there exists essentially NO written data on the specific details of the druidical religion --- despite what modern "druids" would want to be true.)

Whatever that synthesis was, it was sitting there in everyday people's minds when the early Christian monks showed up with their own ideas. I believe that it is again obvious that one of the more esoteric concepts that the monks brought stuck, and gave the folks a plausible more specific answer to what these fairies were. It was an answer which fit the idea that fairies were real, yet not involved with ghosts or magic or witchcraft. They were the "Middle Angels." 

GOD created a whole lot of paranormally-empowered creatures before we humans (and presumably anyone else of our dualistic ilk) arrived in the physical Cosmos. HE gave them free will and a task or question to grapple with. Some of them "passed the test" and some of them said: Hell, no! (it turns out literally.) 

  This little disagreement was settled by some sort of spectacular conflict in which the "rebel angels" got their paranormal butts kicked. 

GOD said: OK, losers, I've a plan for how you fit into the rest of the Creation with some LAWS as to what you can and cannot do. So get the Hell out and Obey! 

But there was another problem. 

 
 Some of these paranormal beings didn't like the idea of saying No to The BIG FELLOW, but on the other hand, didn't really want to limit their options either. They refused to choose. 

 GOD, because He's the Good Guy, felt that these confused and childish characters did not deserve to be allowed to just go about their angelic business as before, but also didn't deserve to be cast into the (fiery) darkness (whatever that was.) They needed to go somewhere else, and be stripped of some of their angelic powers, while remaining essentially the creatures originally created. But where to leave them? And how to fit them into The Universal Plan? 

There were "new" places popping up (evolving) all over the physical Cosmos. Why not assign these childish clowns to them? But as paranormals, they couldn't be allowed simple free reign. There had to be Rules. Different rules than the strict "no-contact (physically) without voluntary agreement" laws for the devils, but restrictive rules nevertheless. They couldn't be allowed to just constantly interfere with obvious continual presence in human affairs either. The humans must be free to go their own way. Maybe it would be best to place them in a "World-alongside" which was connected more deeply or more weakly with places of natural or spiritual significance. These paranormals could slip into and out of the physical world "like magic" but not due to the demands of the humans on their side. ... and there were doubtless other imaginings to try to fit experiences into a philosophy. 

The result was a theory called The Middle Angels, wherein limited power paranormal creatures of GOD inhabited a World Alongside linked more or less strongly to Place. They weren't "ghosts" nor were they really devils. To what extent they could act and interfere might vary in regional belief, but the general concept could be made to fit the experience of the culture. The "moral" question of how much they were allowed to do, whether they could be "good" or "evil" and whether they might find Salvation differed culturally. 

Well, as a good Catholic boy, who believes in spiritual beings like angels and devils, I can adjust my theology rather easily to include "Middle Angels", as well. As an amateur student of Native American religion, I can adjust my understanding of Manitou and the Spirits of Place (The many Manitoug) to easily fit this as well.  Heck, I can even fit C.S.Lewis' "Eldils" from the SF books Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra into this ... and almost all the other cultures' concepts (not quite all, but most.) 

OK.  But. This is the point where I say that I'm not at any Jim McDonald (favored UFO hypothesis) stage and cannot, without cringing, state that one hypothesis  (even the Middle Angels) answers the details of all our questions. But I like it. And I really don't think that counter theories like pygmies, unknown aborigines, hallucinations, aliens, or some of those other mentioned data-less spewings make any sense at all. I'm happy to work with anyone who would construct another "parallel reality" style model with a very minimalist nod to tossing out case reports involving human mental errors, as long as we embue the Little Folk with some paranormal abilities and some action limitations.

........ but this posting has gotten way out of hand, and I never broached the UFO vs Faery conundrum. That's going to have to wait till next posting. Sorry.  
 

LEPRECAT in the Eighties

           LEPRECAT number 7: containing the 80s and 90s. 
We're creeping up on the modern world now, and maybe Faery will fade away. "We" certainly don't seem to have much belief in them anymore. But you and I keep the faith, right? So, let's put on our bravest faces and see if "they" still sneak out and show themselves from time to time.

 So, there aren't a lot of them there above, but we might have a few keepers. ... at least some "somethings" to hold onto. ... and I have a few non-illustrated ones for later. We are heavily dependent upon our trustworthy natures this time, as five of the ten cases above are Fairy Census reports. The other five include newspaper stories and websites. Let's begin with the five Fairy Census encounters. (In no order.) 

1. SCOTLAND. 1980s. A female witness in her 30s. Fairy Census case #177. 
    She was out very early in the "morning" (c. 3am) walking in a woodland. She was staring at the plants growing at her feet, when she bumped into an invisible barrier. The environment became utterly silent (The OZ Effect.) Looking up, she saw a figure on a horse. It was life-sized. There was no motion, as if this was a statue. The horse was white, and the figure was green --- a shining green as if all of this was made of light. The horse and rider then faded into the air. The witness interpreted this as a fairy vision, as she had spent time cleaning this area of debris from a rubbish tip nearby, and felt a peacefulness as if thanked by the spirit(s) of the place. 

Certainly an interesting tale. Seems more "apparition" than fairy, and the OZ portends (more and more for me) some penetration of two realities (ours and one other "X") which could include all those apparitional pictures and filmstrips from the past. Obviously I don't know what I'm talking about here.

2. HAMPSTEAD HEATH, UK. 1987. A female witness of 18. Fairy Census case #82.
    She and many others were camping on the heath. Awakened by the morning sun streaming into the makeshift tent, she saw much movement outside. Also, a strange silence had overcome the forest sounds (OZ Effect again.) A sudden unexplained chill hit her. A morning mist hung in the trees where dozens of small fairy beings moved in the branches. There were 50 or 60 of these "dryads" scurrying about. They were an almost transparent pale green with yellow wings. No clothes. High energy. (size is not stated but must be bird-sized small or not much bigger.) She watched these beings for a long time (disappearance is not stated.) This witness claims a second fairy experience, possibly in her home in Melbourne --- likely the Derbyshire village, not the Australian Melbourne. In this second encounter, the "fairies" were Balls-of-Light buzzing around her living room "for a few hours." 

What to make of this? OZ again is interesting. This case is a rare Wings case. The witness obviously likes the ideas associated with fairies, and calls the first group "dryads" despite them not being much like classic tree and plant spirits. I'm always uncomfortable with the "just-woke-up" encounters. 

3. LINCOLNSHIRE, UK. 1980s. A male witness in his teens. Fairy Census case #78.
    The witness was in his family's back garden wherein grew a willow tree. He was sitting beneath it. Looking over his shoulder he sensed motion and felt an electric tingle. Five very tiny humanoid beings (less than a foot tall and slender compared to dwarves). But they had a classic dress for gnome cases: Brown to dark green clothes, tights, sturdy boots, smock-like top. But even though they had gnomish wrinkled faces, their features were more angular and having narrow eyes. They stared at one another (the witness felt that they had an understanding about each other) and then marched off beneath a bush. The witness was certain that these creatures were "physical" (though he could not have known that really.) The persons had voices, very light and small of pitch like in the range a kitten might make. The witness rejected the idea that these were things like ghosts/apparitions etc. 

Neat case. Close to a classic gnome encounter. Intelligent witness. Beings sort of small tweeners of gnomes vs elves. 

4. ESSEX MOORS, UK. 1980s. A male witness in his 20s. Fairy Census case #49. 
    The witness was camping with a group near the moors. One evening he had a "call of nature" and moved slightly away from camp to answer it. He walked over to a hedgerow. Before he could begin his task, he was confronted by a largish hole in the hedge from which came an amount of light. Standing in that light, in silhouette but clearly outlined, was a two to three foot tall entity standing with hands on hips. The witness got the impression (without verbal communication) that the being was seriously angry about what he was about to do. As this sort of "emotional surprise" can cancel one's desire along this line, the witness, being now well scared, abandoned his mission and scurried off. The next morning, he had renewed courage and went back to the spot. There was now no hole in that hedge. 

Though many will find all of that humorous, I could do without the "humanity" part of the story (which WAS told simply without dwelling on things at least.) The part that DOES intrigue me was the lighted opening no longer there in real world time the next day. A "Portal?" 

5. OXFORDSHIRE, UK. 1980s. A male witness in his 20s. Fairy Census case #108.
    This witness views himself as sort of a counter-culture character, but his narrative gives me some hope that he is basically a "free spirit" without an agenda. Anyway, we join him as he's sitting meditating in a prehistoric tomb chamber (you see what I mean.)  He's meditating by looking down the passageway of the tomb, and appearing in that passageway is a two-foot tall figure. He had a round face full of fine wrinkles. He had on a pure white pointed conical hat of apparently brushed wool. Clothing was vague in memory. The figure seemed inquisitive with a benevolent attitude. He then just vanished. The witness later heard that several others had seen such a being in the area.  He thought of this as a gnome and nature spirit. He then said something which could be important for credibility: "The strange thing for me was that it wasn't how I imagined such beings." 

In some ways (small gnomish figure, instant vanishment, association with prehistoric site), this incident strikes a resonant chord. 
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The other five:
6. CRIEFF, Scotland. 1980s. An adult and four kids witnessed this. From Janet Bord's Fairies.
    The witnesses were walking along a path on a Sunday. Ahead of them was coming what appeared to be an old lady. "Unfortunately" as she got nearer, she was seen to have no feet, and was floating above the ground. She continued to disappear from her feet upwards, while making a sound, interpreted either as "tee hee" or as " taigh shidhe". Taigh Shidhe has been translated as "fairy mound." Ms. Bord interprets this as possibly establishing a link between ghosts and faery. 

Well, I'm ready to be wrong, but I don't. The case seems VERY apparitional. And the witnesses cannot assert with any assurance that the voice said anything in Celtic. Even if that latter was true, there's a difficult task to connect an apparition with a Celtic phrase with Fairies. I bother to argue against Janet Bord (one of my heroes) here for a simple reason: the old people separated ghosts from Faery cleanly. When the going gets tough, I'm sticking with the Old Folks. 

7. NEW BRUNSWICK. 1986. A young girl of about six witnessed this. Website report.
    The witness' family ran a potato farm. It was full of potato storage barns. One day the girl saw a figure standing in the entryway of one of the barns. She initially thought it was a farm hand and called out to him. It wasn't. She had begun running towards "him" but she then saw that this was a tall male figure with no facial features. He/it was "transparent" having a liquid like appearance. Much later in her life, she saw the movie The Terminator, and was stunned to see what she saw so long ago. At the time, she halted when the thing seemed to beckon to her, and she ran away. Years later, unable to express her feelings then, she said "It was like looking through Time." She admitted that she couldn't explain why she felt that way. 

What can we say about this? It seems to stand alone. An utter mystery to me.

8. WINCHESTER JUNCTION, Hampshire. 1980. 2 witnesses adults. Paranormal database.
    There was a dis-used piece of railroad track near Worthy Down. A husband and wife were walking there taking photos. Twelve-fifteen feet in front of them, something rose from the tracks. It was a small two to three foot tall (child-sized) being dressed in a muddy-colored coat. It had a hood and showed the face of a child. It had, however, slanted dark eyes. The husband held his wife's hand, stepped forward and said "Hello." The being turned to its left and vanished. 

VERY classic gnomish/elfin encounter but VERY brief report. This is another example of a potentially super case with way too little for the researcher to go on. 

9. FLAG STOP, Nome, AK. 1988. Group of young men witnessed. Newspaper report.
    Several teenagers out driving after midnight. See a "?" ahead. Coming nearer they see that this is a little man glowing green. Thinking that this is a fun thing, they try to race with this entity who runs the road at 50mph. It was two to three foot tall. Something happened and they ran over the being, but it seemed just to "flatten out" with no bump. They panicked and drove into town, but they picked up more kids and went back out. They found the little greenish man again in a different area. The thing changed color from green to silver. Two of the boys tried to run it down on foot. The being reversed the roles and chased them. Finally all was over. But the next night something similar happened again. Apparently that night even adults saw the thing. On a third night three of the beings showed up, and more chasing and observation occurred. More color shifting happened. 

I'm completely boggled, even more than usual on this one. This is a combination of full-of-action yet low on detail. BIG need for better data. If true, one of the very few repetitive and highly paranormal incidents around. 

10. NOME, AK area. somewhat earlier than the above. One adult male witness. Newspaper case.
     This is very much more in the Native American traditions of the Alaskan cultures than the previous case. Here a village fisherman was in an isolated situation where the environment was rough. This fisherman was visited by a group of several little men (two to three foot tall?) He welcomed them and they conversed in "eskimo" (content undescribed). The Little People all had backpacks, and were dressed as if on a hunt. Sealskins pants, mukluks, white skin parkas. They had facial hair. Their manner was friendly. 

This, at least, has all the earmarks of a normal-paranormal encounter. 

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All that was hard work at the old panning stream with few nuggets to show for it. The five Fairy Census cases were interesting and for all we know, good ones, but ... The same thing can be said of the second Nome case. So, I'll try to add a little something to this 80s post, by adding a few non-illustrated incidents. 

(Hmmmm... a few cartoon drawings just showed up for some 80s cases. Three try to illustrate some of the last five, and there are three others. Since blogging is supposed to be fun, why not put them up here?) 

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As to the general group of the whole post: 
These cases have some possibilities as to truth. The real value of these sorts of claims is whether they help constitute a genuine pile of respectable incidents, which has enough coherence to support a pattern. All our explorations here through these posts have been with the hope that either enough rock solid credibility cases will arise to make a stand-alone argument for some sort of paranormal reality, or that a lesser but not insignificant number of strong cases will arise to serve as foundationstones for a much greater pile of "just maybe" quality cases, which together make almost a statistical case for the anomaly. As I've said: this is not like UFO research. We don't have the overwhelming firepower. But we seem to have SOMETHING which can be presented without embarrassment. There seems to be a lot of flawed evidence here which can be anchored by the fewer Rocks that we have upturned. 

Next time will be a try at the 1990s.

 

FAERY/UFO Crossover Addendum

Once upon a time I made a partial list of oddities at the fringe of ufology. Who knows what to make of them. Some of the cases below are already mentioned in this series of posts, as you will recognize. Some (most) will be new. Think of it as popcorn.

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Tryptolemus: the Olde Minor god now reduced to Faery in his winged Chariot in the GoodOldDays. (To most people, the guy holding up the painting is much scarier.) 

LEPRECAT 4, Part 4: UFO files cross-overs??

Most cases in UFO files are there for an immediately recognizable reason. Others seem forced. Others still are clear outliers. Because the 1950s was so rich in UFO CE3 case claims, it was a decade ripe for containing some such enigmas, and let's look at a few here. 
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 ................A....................//.............B..............//...............C..............//...........D............//.............E...........

Yep. Kelly-Hopkinsville.  Cennini, too. Let's take a closer look. 
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A.  Kelly-Hopkinsville, KY 1955. The provenance here is solid as the Appalachians, and within that, the credibility is pretty good too. This incident has had interviews and follow-ups a-plenty. Because it so multi-witnessed, any individual personality questions are muted. This case was worked to death by UFO researchers Bud Ledwith (a one-time colleague of Allen Hynek), and legends of the field, Isabel Davis and Ted Bloecher. It's rare that there is anything approaching this in fairylore work. 

 The encounter: (I'm going to be lazy here as I have already written this case up elsewhere --- I don't think that you can plagiarize yourself, but if I'm wrong I apologize to me.)

One evening, with a large family celebration going on, one man stepped outside and saw a rainbow colored round object (or a round object with a rainbow-colored trail) coming to Earth in the woods some way off. Another man joined him and about a half hour later the two saw weird silvery glowing creatures approaching from the forest.

Scared at the weirdness, they went inside only to see the creatures keep coming on. A type of siege ensued with creatures going all about and climbing on the roof. Shots were fired at nearly point blank range to no avail. This strangeness continued most of the night. In the morning, upon going outside, no evidence that anything had been there was discernible except for empty cartridges, and damage by the bullets to farm property. [I'm telling the story almost off the top of my head, by the way, so a small detail could be off here or there].

The police were informed and the family gave witness. The military sent an investigator [he was from the Army base] to also write up a report. The drawings on yellowed paper [it's colored blue on the accompanying illustration below] are his, [It is possible that the Army guy just took the drawings made by Bud Ledwith who was on the scene rapidly] taken from the witness descriptions. Following that, many news outlets also came by, and most importantly, an engineer/scientist named Bud Ledwith, who had worked in the Moonwatch Program, and knew Allen Hynek well. [He was working at a nearby radio station at the time].

Somehow, not exactly known, Ledwith's very positive views of the veridical nature of the family testimony made it to CSI-NY and two of our finest-ever UFO researchers, Isabel Davis and Ted Bloecher. Isabel and Ted collected all the data associated with the incident and several others in what seemed to be a mini-creature flap going on. Exactly how long after the information collected by the military and Ledwith, Isabel and Ted got involved, I don't know, but it was they who put together the bigger picture. This is published in the well-known but rare-to-own monograph called, I believe, Close Encounter at Kelly and Others in 1955, by the Center for UFO Studies in the 70s.

As was said, although the family literally felt the physicality of the experience, no such physical evidence persisted. The whole thing smacks not only of the Uncanny but also the paranormal. These were country people who don't miss shooting things at close range. These are outdoors people who would laugh at your face [if you were lucky] if you suggested that they couldn't recognize an owl [certain "intellectual" clowns have recently suggested that this was nothing more than owls protecting nests --- note the "unusual" owl crawling on all fours behavior in one of the drawings --- these sorts of "intellectuals" are societal criminals deliberately confusing the search for truth with their hung-up garbage].

Throughout her life, the central female figure in the Sutton family was engaged in reflection about that night by prominent townspeople. The sheriff said that there always came that time in those reflections where she would just go silent with a look of awe on her face. The Kelly-Hopkinsville event happened, whatever it was. My belief is that it was not "biological"; that is not part of the evolution of lifeforms of the Universe of physical laws. Why? Even setting aside for the moment the apparent non-hit-ability by rifle shot, and the floating-slowly-about the landscape, the form of the creatures is "unlikely".

These things, if biological, are not water creatures and are sizable. They look sort of like they should be mammals or something which would have a chance for a large brain and intelligence, and if they are to be guessed as UFOnauts must be quite brainy. But their heads are absurdly gigantic in proportion to their bodies. This next thought doesn't HAVE to be true, but, if it is not, someone needs to do some real thinking as to why not: Those heads could never come through a birth canal of anything remotely shaped like the creatures drawn. Could the females be wildly different in shape than the males? If so, there is nothing on Earth remotely comparable in terms of divergent sexual dimorphism in large animals. Could the things be birdish and come from eggs? Eggs have real structural size limits and so the heads would have to be small and do a tremendous amount of growing while "outside" exposed to natural threat. Growing and remaking skulls to accommodate growing brains would take a very great risk-taking time using soft malleable skulls. Anything's possible, I suppose, but these things REALLY don't look like normal evolutionary biology to me. The only hope I'd believe would be that they were artificially grown. If so, why bother with the out-sized ears if you had that technology? Nothing about these critters says anything but "bogan" "bauchan" "trickster" to me.

 I'm maybe overdoing it here but I'm going to give you an added treat. Following are Bud Ledwith's notes comparing the several witnesses' testimonies, as found in the Center for UFO Studies files. 

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B. Stockton, GA 1955. Back to normal (descriptive amounts, that is. The Kelly case will doubtless exceed any other example incident writing in volume by factors of ten.) The provenance of the Georgia case is similar to Kelly, as Isabel Davis and Ted Bloecher hunted down it and others which were occurring at the same time. It appears that a handful of encounters with mysterious boggart like beings happened almost simultaneously and with very weak UFO connections. 

As far as this following story is concerned, there is not a lot to it. A woman was driving along a road at night and saw "beings doing road construction" ahead. She slowed way down --- they were in the middle if the road, and gingerly inched past. They were very strange non-human "workmen" more like boogeymen than people. They were three to four foot tall. 

The lady merely happily bypassed the things without incident and drove away. This, weird as it is, is not unlike some UK passive path crossings with British gnomes. 
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C. Cennini, Italy. 1954. A famous case in the history of the UFO subject. Even given its early occurrence, it was pretty well investigated and followed up over several years (The lady involved did maintain that her narrative of the encounter was true for decades thereafter.) The incident is weird even for a UFO close encounter, but I've read a lot about this thing, meditated about it more than most of my files, and I believe that Senora Dainelli told the truth as she felt it. 

In brief: Rosa Dainelli (she has been described as a simple Italian peasant woman) was preparing to go to Church for Mass. She had collected some flowers for the Church, and was walking in the woods, the grass of which was wet with dew. To avoid soaking her shoes and stockings, she had removed them, and was carrying them along with the flowers. She then came across two small "men" who could easily be labeled as "imps." Dressed as old time aviators, they began harassing her, trying to take the flowers and her stockings. Though frightened by this, she fought with them, and succeeded in salvaging her stockings but not her flowers, which the imps took. She hurried on to church where she told her story. Some rumors ultimately arose about seeing a light in the sky or whatever (not by her) but nothing substantial was reported. 

Rosa and her family at the time: to my knowledge her testimony did not waver and all she got out of it was some hassle and unwanted publicity. The Cennini case probably happened, but what was it? UFO researchers stick it into the early stage of the massive European UFO Wave of 1954 (which though dominant in France, did express in other European countries.) If I had to choose (and though I don't have to, I do), I'd say fairy-trickster not "UFO." 

Although some CE3 UFO beings act weirdly, they seldom act "impactfully" upon the witness, but fairylore knuckleheads OFTEN do. These guys are classic knuckleheads. 

Let's look at the "craft." Odd shape. I've read the reports and believe that the magazine version got it at least somewhat wrong (the spindle was fatter and the door opened differently), so for whatever it's worth I've redrawn it on the right. This "craft" was not seen "in flight" at all. Rosa Dainelli saw a structure on the ground in the woods which was no longer there later on, and leaving no trace. The interior of the thing could be seen through the open hatch. It resembled more something out of an old Jules Verne idea or an H G Wells story than a "saucer", with its padded plush looking interior a la an English Gentleman's way of outfitting a ship to the Moon. 

Wrong I may well be, but this is a rare one which I believe very probably happened and very probably was not ET nor even UFO, but possibly Trickster-faery. 
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D. Everittstown, NJ. 1957. Provenance is quite good in a legitimate sense of that quality as we've been using it. BUT this is one of the screwiest things in UFO research investigation history (well, maybe that's overstated given our history, but it's still screwy.) The case comes to the perfect group: CSI-NY (Ted Bloecher, Isabel Davis, Lex Mebane et al.) Unfortunately, the "et al" included an intelligent man named Jules St.Germain, who had a bad theory about investigating it, and really messed up. This left the community with the firm belief that this case was bad. But I think that the predecessor of St. Germain collected quite a bit of worthwhile information before the later boondoggle, trying to entrap the witnesses and causing them to bail from the story. My reading of this is that the earliest narrative might well be honest, but St. Germain blundered the approach and caused a what-the-hell-it's-not-worth-pursuing response. Anyway, I'm for the moment going to go with the original information and see what we might see.

The original report got to a CSI-NY investigator named Dick Harpster and he immediately personally interviewed the wife in the encounter, and the husband by phone. He was impressed by these narratives. The case as he heard it commenced with the husband going outside to the barn to look into what was alarming their dog. Both witnesses saw a small (9 to 12 foot long) "egg" which was bobbing up and down a few feet off the ground.  From the wife's position in the house, she could not see the "little man" but her husband was right in front of it. This being was dressed "leprechaun-style", all in green with shiny buttons and a green cap. His eyes were very big and round, and his voice scratchy. The Little Man said that "they were peaceful" but wanted his dog. The husband yelled "Get the Hell out of here!", and the "leprechaun" went back to the floating egg. The egg rose and went rapidly off. The wife said: you "should have let them take King, he's half blind and so cross I don't know who else would ever want him."  ... that's almost hilarious, and strikes a good note with me. 

The case was screwed up when CSI-NY sent St. Germain to do a longer follow-up. He opened up with a warning that some people have gotten into trouble for telling UFO yarns that proved bogus. This caused the witnesses to go into a private room, converse and return with a somewhat different story. St. Germain then (happily?) wrote them off as hoaxers. No evidence of hoaxing ever surfaced and no attempts at profiting ever occurred. 

Leprechaun-trickster in a floating egg? Maybe.
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E. Bells Corners, ONT. 1958. Very bizarre thing. Few moments of "action" therefore a brief tale. Provenance/credibility? You decide. This incident occurred in August of 1958, was talked about with friends shortly thereafter, but not publicly until February 1960. The primary (of two) witness was listening to a radio show where the speaker was a famous and controversial person in UFO history named Wilbert B. Smith. The witness called in, and shortly Smith and a second investigator went to her home and the site. Bells Corners is a small village in the vicinity of Ottawa. 

While there, Smith and his associate did a good job with the interview and the site investigation. Smith's unusual beliefs about UFOs apparently did not damage his scientist training in gathering simple facts. So, it is my (romantic?) opinion that the case report is pretty good. 

This night in August, the woman saw an oddly colored bluish patch of light in the back area of her home, perhaps twenty-five feet away. She went to investigate, as did her son, but he had reservations and asked her to not go too close. She ignored him and walked right up to the light patch. (two or three feet.) There is to my knowledge no imagery of this encounter, so I've attempted to "art" one. Whatever the success, in my opinion the best way to "read" the encounter is to look at a picture --- so, better or worse:

Here's what the lady and  to a lesser degree her son said they saw: A child-like form lying on its belly in the grass/pasture, head raised slightly so that mainly its eyes were all you could see. Tight curly brownish golden hair. A "patch" of bright bluish light which seemed perhaps to originate from the eyes. Very large eyes seemingly faceted like jewels. Very white skin. No motion. 

After watching this being for a minute or so, the son became so agitated (the mother was not afraid) that he insisted that they return to the house. They did. Once inside, they looked out and the patch of light was gone. A year and a half later, the investigators thought that they could discern an irregular area of dead grass in that field, where the being lay.  It measured approximately 3x1 1/2 feet in size. 

And so what is that all about? Doesn't look like UFOlogy to me, but what DOES it look like? 
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So, what do we know? We know at least that there are unusual cases which get into the UFO files which seem to fit better elsewhere. They aren't a high percentage --- in my experience far lower than 1precent. But now and then an incident gives you pause. 

Where to draw the Line? .... and IS there a Line? I "feel" that there is a clear feeling line. UFO cases are "cold." Faery cases are "alive." So, for me, things like 

 Are much more like Faery than UFOlogy. 

HEY, Mike! What about THIS?

What's this?

Bangor, Washington. 1989.

What did the beings look like?

GIVE ME A BREAK!!!!  ................. till next time folks. (I won't have the help of the UFO community so it shouldn't be so long a posting.)