Nick Redfern's Blog, page 114

Snowy in Texas!

The view outside my apartment today...

Colin Wilson RIP

Jon Downes writes...

"Colin Henry Wilson (26 June 1931 – 5 December 2013) was a prolific English writer who first came to prominence as a philosopher and novelist. Wilson also wrote widely on true crime, mysticism, the paranormal, and other topics. He preferred calling his philosophy new existentialism or phenomenological existentialism. It is always strange writing an obituary for a man that I knew. I didn't know him well, but our paths crossed two or three times in the course of my chequered career.

"I first met him at the Exeter University Science Fiction Club conference in 1989, when he gave a fascinating talk on the subject of Peak Experiences, and afterwards he and I spoke for several hours about the philosophy of Abraham Maslow, who - it turned out had been a friend and colleague of his.

"I met him again, many years later, at one of the Fortean Times Unconventions when we stayed at the same hotel and talked existentialist politics late into the night. Together with Mick Farren and John Michell he was one of the few truly great men that I have met, and tonight my heart is heavy with the knowledge that I will not be meeting him again."

Beware of Psychic Backlash

My latest Mysterious Universe article deals with a subject that - as I know, personally - more than a few people in the Fortean world have experienced: psychic backlash. It starts like this...

"While it is certainly true that undertaking research into the collective world of the unknown can be illuminating, stimulating and exciting, it can also be downright hazardous. Sometimes, when a person becomes immersed in an investigation to a very deep and significant degree, the phenomenon under the microscope appears to realize that it is being watched and responds in violent, and sometimes even deadly, fashion. Welcome (if that’s the right word to use) to the world of what is known as psychic backlash.

"A classic example comes from a good friend of mine, Jon Downes, the director of the UK-based Center for Fortean Zoology . For years, Jon deeply investigated the mystery of the Owlman of Cornwall, England – surely the closest thing the nation has to the infamous Mothman of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, USA. But there was something deeply sinister about the winged, glowing-eyed Owlman. Every time Jon dug deep into the heart of the enigma, things would go wrong – as in big time."

Forbidden Bigfoot: Reviewed

"Well, it’s time for me to get on my Bigfoot soapbox again. Or, in other words, get the collective blood-pressure of the “flesh and blood” brigade soaring through the roof. On several occasions here at Mysterious Universe, I have noted the undeniable fact that many people within the Bigfoot research arena will simply not address the theory that the creature is far more than a mere unknown animal. That is, aside from predictably attacking the theory.

"Now, I have no problem – at all – with someone concluding that the high-strangeness angle of Bigfoot has no validity if they actually do the research to prove their point. But, time and again, I come across researchers of the monstrous mystery who openly admit to refusing to even look at such cases, read books on the weirder side of Bigfoot, or engage the witnesses in debate. The reason? Their minds are already made up. And that’s something I do have a problem with."

That's how my new Mysterious Universe article begins, on the subject of Lisa Shiel's new book, Forbidden Bigfoot .

Watching the Abductees...

Are "Alien Abductees" secretly watched by a clandestine group within the world of officialdom? That's the subject of my latest Mysterious Universe article...

Goatman: Flesh or Folklore?

If you have read my books Memoirs of a Monster Hunter , There's Something in the Woods , Wildman , Monster Diary  and (with Ken Gerhard) Monsters of Texas , you'll know I have done more than a few investigations into reports of so-called "Goatmen" across the United States.

Well, the good news is that in 2014, a full-length book on this subject will be published. You can find the info here.

PS: The photo above shows the Old Alton Bridge at Denton, Texas, which is home to a Goatman legend.

More JFK Assassination-Related Pics...

And a few more JFK assassination-connected pictures taken this week, while my dad is over here. These were taken at the grave of police officer J.D. Tippit, believed (by some, but not all) to have been shot and killed by Lee Harvey Oswald.

   

Creatures for the Kids

Each November, I do a series of lectures for Dallas' Highland Park School District on the Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, the Chupacabras, the Yeti etc. And every year the teachers have the kids (aged around 7) mail me drawings and letters of the things they liked and learned from the lectures. And above are a few of the latest...

Cornwall's Creepiest Critter...

My latest Creature of the Month article at the blog of New Page Books is on the subject of one of the UK's weirdest winged whatsits of all. It starts like this...

"It is a large, humanoid, flying monster with glowing red eyes and huge, powerful wings. It strikes fear into the very heart of all those that encounter it. It’s the infamous Mothman of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, right? Nope, wrong. Although it is just about the closest thing that Britain has to the bizarre beast made famous in John Keel’s now-classic book, The Mothman Prophecies. Its name is the Owlman."

The Chaos Conundrum: Reviewed

My latest Mysterious Universe article...

"Aaron Gulyas’ new book, The Chaos Conundrum , is a thoughtful, and thought-provoking, compilation of papers on a wide variety of paranormal phenomena. Or, as it’s collectively known in circles where the unusual is typically the usual: profoundly weird stuff. A cursory glance at the titles of the essays, and their attendant subject matters, might make some readers assume they are stand-alone pieces with no connecting or unifying parts. Well, those souls would be wrong. Actually, they would be dead wrong.

"The connection is not so much the issues and topics that Gulyas places under his supernatural microscope. Rather, it is the fact that the essays all invite us to do one thing: address and consider alternative theories, paradigms, and ideas to those that the established figures of the paranormal would prefer we adhere to."