Nick Redfern's Blog, page 140

Lecturing for MUFON

For the last few days I have been in California doing lectures for the Mutual UFO Network (Mufon) - at (a) Los Angeles; and (b) Orange County.

And here's a few pics from the trip, including one hanging out with good mate, Greg Bishop.

Cryptozoology vs. Parapsychology

Over at his blog, Matt Bille has a new post that discusses my Monster Diary book, in relation to the high-strangeness cases I present in its pages, and with specific regard to the matter of things such as a spectral sabre-tooth tiger (a case I describe in the book), and whether or not rogue cases like this should have a place in Cryptozoology or Parapsychology.

You can find Matt's post here , and here's my comment to the post:

"Hey Matt,

"Yes, it may well be argued that if a creature exhibits phenomena that is far more paranormal in nature (however we define that term), it may not technically be considered a creature of cryptozoology.

"But, here's the thing: many creatures that are widely accepted as being part of cryptozoology do exhibit such paranormal (or perceived paranormal) traits.

"Whether people agree with the data and witness testimony or not, there are a lot of Bigfoot reports that are steeped in high strangeness.

"Take, for just one example, Stan Gordon's 2010 book, Silent Invasion, that chronicles very weird Bigfoot activity in Pennsylvania in 1973.

"Tales of the Yowie in Australia are also saturated with odd overtones.

"FW Holiday, while investigating the Loch Ness Monster, began to experience a lot of high-strangeness, including a MIB sighting at the loch and strange synchronicities.

"Tim Dinsdale alluded to the possibility of a paranormal explanation for Nessie.

"There's Britain's Owlman, West Virginia's Mothman, the 'pterodcatyls' of the Texas-Mexico border - all steeped in high strangeness.

"Merrily Harpur's book, Mystery Big Cats, places the UK's Alien Big Cats into a non-physical category, a book well worth reading.

"So, if even just one example of high-strangeness in all these cases is valid, using your criteria for what passes as a creature of cryptozooloogy, would we not have to remove all the above 'things' from cryptozoological study and hand the data over to paranormal researchers?

"Or, perhaps, we should modify what cryptozoology is and represents."

UFOs: A 1963 Wave...

There's a new post from me at Mysterious Universe that chronicles a small part of a little-known wave of UFO encounters that occurred in Britain in 1963.

It starts like this...

"It’s amazing what you can find when you go looking into the seldom-studied archives of certain government, military, and intelligence agencies.

"A perfect case in point being a certain, brief wave of encounters of the UFO kind that reached the eyes and ears of the old British Air Ministry in the clearly-defined period of August to September 1963.

"Each and every one of the cases referred to below (and many more from this same time frame) can be found in the depths of Britain’s National Archives, but have seldom received the publicity they deserve. So, it’s time to change that…"

And here's the complete article.

Jack the Ripper 1 to 10

There's another new post from me at EHow too, this one on the many and varied theories for who Jack the Ripper might have been.

You can find the article here , and it begins like this:

"In 1888, he roamed the shadowy and foggy back-streets of Whitechapel, London by night, violently slaughtering prostitutes, and provoking terror throughout the capital. He was the world's most infamous serial-killer. He was, in case you haven't by now guessed, Jack the Ripper. But, what makes the Ripper so infamous more than a century after his terrible crimes were committed is that his identity still remains a mystery. And everyone loves a mystery. So, who might Jack have been? The theories are almost endless and include a surgeon, a doctor, a poet, and even a member of the British Royal Family!"

My Advice on Crop Circles

Over at EHow, there's a new article from me on how to investigate Crop Circles...

A Russian Wild Man

  There haven't been many posts from me for the past week or so, and for good reason: I was down with the flu, which coincided with being down to the deadline on submitting my next manuscript to the publisher!
Fortunately, the flu is gone and the book is done! So, it's back to regular posting.
Here's how I start my latest Lair of the Beasts column at Mania.com.
"Across what used to be Soviet Central Asia, as far west as what are parts of Europe, and as far east as Mongolia, reports have long proliferated of hairy creatures known as Almas or Almasty that seem to be far more akin to men than they do apes; although they reputedly demonstrate clear and undeniable characteristics of both.  "Opinion is acutely divided upon what these beasts are, or may be. It is deeply tempting to theorize that they may be surviving pockets of our closest relative - the Neanderthals - who supposedly died out in the later part of the Pleistocene epoch, more familiarly known as the Ice Age."  And here's the full piece...

Nightmare at 20,000 Feet!

This story almost reminds me of a certain, classic episode of The Twilight Zone!

My Hammer Top 10

My latest post over at EHow.co.uk: on the subject of my favorite horror films from the legendary company of Hammer...

Monster Files - Coming May

So, what do I have going on in this new year, 2013?

Well, one project is Monster Files: A Look Inside Government Secrets and Classified Documents on Bizarre Creatures and Extraordinary Animals , which will be published by New Page Books in May.

And here's the publisher's blurb on the book:
Does the Pentagon have the body of Bigfoot on ice? What is the U.S. military hiding from us about lake monsters? What is the link between the CIA and the Abominable Snowman? Why is there a British government file on sea serpents? What do the Russians know about animal ESP? For decades there have been persistent rumors, tales, and legends that government agencies all around the world have been secretly collecting and studying data on bizarre beasts, amazing animals, and strange creatures.

Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, sea serpents, psychic pets, the Chupacabras, and the Abominable Snowman have all attracted official, classified interest.

Now, for the first time, the full, fearsome facts are finally revealed in Nick Redfern’s Monster Files . You’ll discover all the amazing cryptozoological truths, conspiracies, and cover-ups behind the secret studies by the Pentagon, the Kremlin, and the British military, among many others.

Despite what your parents might have told you when you were a child, monsters, creepy creatures, and terrifying beasts really do exist. And our governments know all about them.

Jadoo - Now Available!

  Excellent news! Anomalist Books have just published a new edition of John Keel's classic title, Jadoo .
But, this is not just a reprint. Rather, it contains a number of hard to find additions that any fan of Keel won't want to miss - at all.
Here's Anomalist Books to tell you more...
"John A. Keel died on July 3, 2009, but his works survive. With the permission of his estate, we have just reprinted his first book, JADOO , which appeared in 1957. Whether or not it is “the greatest book ever written on the black magic of the Orient,” as it’s been called, we can say for certain that there will never again be another book like it. Jadoo, a Hindi word meaning “Black Magic,” captures a world that is now lost to us—the strange, dark, mysterious world that was once called the “Orient.” It is the story of a real-life Indiana Jones of the 1950s named John Keel, who went on to write The Mothman Prophecies, which was made into a movie starring Richard Gere in 2002. This revised edition of JADOO contains material that the original publisher deleted from the book, specifically a warm and melancholy chapter on Keel’s love life in Egypt. In this new edition you will also find a review of the book written by Keel himself under a pseudonym, a few photographs from his files, a sample of his travel notes, and a proposal for a follow-up book to JADOO . If you read the book long, long ago, it’s time to read it again. The book has aged very, very well."