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Author Topic: Mothman - Fact or Fiction  (Read 22231 times)

Offline zorgon

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Mothman - Fact or Fiction
« on: August 23, 2012, 06:32:11 pm »
Mothman



The following us reprinted by permission  from Viewzone...

By Gary David for Viewzone

From late 1966 though late 1967 the small town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia along the Ohio River was terrorized by a series of sightings of an uncanny creature that became known as Mothman. He was typically described as a broad-shouldered black or gray humanoid at least seven feet in height with moth-like wings that extended about ten feet. His glowing red eyes seemed to have a hypnotic effect. Sometimes the creature appeared headless, with round, reflective eyes set into his shoulders.



Artist's sketch of one variation of Mothman.

The eerie entity would reportedly swoop down on people or cars and chase them at very high speeds. Sometimes it would suddenly shoot straight up in the air and completely disappear. The same period saw increased sightings of luminous balls or other UFOs and unexpected appearances of Men In Black.


This 12-foot-high, stainless steel statue of the Mothman located in Point Pleasant, West Virginia was created by artist Robert Roach.

Were all these sightings of Mothman and other anomalous incidents just a weird precursor to the brief psychedelic era in popular culture when hallucinations and altered states of consciousness became the norm? Or are there precedents for this phenomenon in the distant past?

Cut to the high plain of central New Mexico in about 1350 AD. On the western bank of a turbulent, muddy river we see a flat-topped pyramid where a bizarre ritual is taking place. It involves a ring of elders wearing feathered headdresses, geometric medallions, white sashes, and brightly painted capes. Some are holding round shields and eagle-talon staffs.

At the center stands a tall being with the gray wings and coiled proboscis of the night flying hawk moth. One of the elders raises a woven plaque heaped with tiny black and yellow seeds and brown spiny pods. The participants begin to eat the seeds, while low chants punctuated by a lone cottonwood drum rise into the endless desert night.

An uncertain period passes as dizzy heads spin in swirling silver smoke. The creature then extends his massive wings and rockets high above the lone pyramid. He soars over whispering cornfields and circles the bulwark of the pueblo. Suddenly in a burst of purple light the Mothman disappears into gauzy clouds while moths flutter gently over jimsonweed blossoms glowing ghostlike in silent moonlight.


Quote
One of the most striking aspects of murals is the variety of brilliant colors: eight shades of red, three of yellow, two of green, two of blue, as well as purple, lavender, maroon, orange, pink, salmon, white, gray, and outlines of black. From three to 38 layers of plaster, each one providing a visual space for the paintings, were found on the kiva walls. Thus, the total prehistoric murals numbered about 800!

Some murals seem to have been plastered, painted, and then re-plastered after just a couple days when their ritual purpose had been fulfilled. This practice is similar to the destruction of Navajo sand paintings or Tibetan mandalas at the conclusion of certain sacred ceremonies.

Among the plethora of images are non-indigenous green parrots and scarlet macaws, which also suggest a wide trade network with Mexico. One fresco even depicts a jaguar and an eagle, which may refer to the ancient Mexican jaguar-eagle cult. Another shows a rattlesnake superimposed on an "eagle-man." Just add a cactus and you'd have the traditional symbol for Mexico.

One disturbing image shows an unfortunate man painted purple with a red equilateral, outlined cross on his chest being eaten by a horned serpent with sharp teeth and a feathered ruff. This creature is, of course, the archetypal plumed serpent named Quetzalcoatl. Another mural shows a horned serpent with a zigzag body cradling a four-pointed star with a circular face at the center. This star-face (which, by the way, is frowning) supposedly signifies a "soul-face," possibly the soul of a warrior killed in battle. (See painting below.)

Some of the most unusual murals, however, are those that depict what we today call the Mothman. One shows the creature with a red body, white sash, black kilt with geometric designs, and a red headdress. His translucent wings are crosshatched and painted with a few lavender spots. One wing's lower edge has three red spots on a white jagged background.

 
Mothman mural.
Pink-spotted hawk moth on a jimsonweed bloom.[/i][/b]

The other figure in basically the same pose has a yellow body and a brown and yellow headdress. This one has star symbols on his wings and a couple of dragonfly symbols beneath him. With his left hand he is grasping a lightning bolt emanating from a bowl balanced on a maiden's head. (She is not seen in the this picture, but she is, by the way, holding a macaw in each hand.) Both of the Mothman figures have a coiled or curved proboscis.


Another Mothman mural.


Sphinx moth.

What prompted the depiction of this strange human-insect hybrid? One of the archaeological interns who originally excavated Pottery Mound and helped to copy its murals has put forth an intriguing theory. In a poster presentation at the Society for American Archaeology conference, March 2005 in Salt Lake City, Utah, independent researcher and anthropologist Paul T. Kay provided some interesting links between the night flying hawk moth (Manduca sexta, also called sphinx moth) and the Datura plant. "There exists a mutualistic relationship in nature between the hawk moth and the Datura plant. ALL of this is related to the widespread ritualistic use of Datura during SHAMANISTIC practices..." [3] The pink-spotted hawk moth (Agrius cingulata) may also have been intended.

Datura wrightii is known as devil's weed, thorn apple, or jimsonweed. The latter term is a corruption of "Jamestown weed," after the Virginia colony where Europeans first unwittingly ingested a similar species. This perennial grows throughout the American Southwest in open land with well-drained soil. Its nocturnally blooming, white trumpet-shaped flowers are pollinated by the hummingbird-sized hawk moth, which inserts its long proboscis into the fragrant flower tube to reach the profuse nectar.

Kay furthermore believes that the classic plumed serpent traditionally depicted on ceramics, murals, and rock art is actually the instar, or larva, of this moth. The only problem with this part of Kay's theory, however, is that the 'horn' is at the posterior, not the head. Ancient Pottery Mound inhabitants would surely have known this.



Mural of star-face and horned serpent with feather ruff.


Hawk moth larva.

http://www.viewzone.com/mothman.html


Pot with painted moth from the ruins of Puaray, located on the southern edge of the modern town of Bernalillo, New Mexico, a little over 40 miles north of Pottery Mound. Occupied between 1300 and some time prior to 1680 AD, Puaray was known as the "Pueblo of the Worm" (or "Insect"), which may refer to the hawk moth larva. This whole region, then, may have been the domain of Mothman.


Top view of Hopi "butterfly vase." The six insects are actually moths, which represent the four directions plus the zenith and nadir.

Copyright © 2008 by Gary A. David. All rights reserved.

« Last Edit: August 24, 2012, 03:17:53 am by zorgon »

Offline zorgon

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Re: Mothman - Fact or Fiction
« Reply #1 on: August 23, 2012, 06:33:08 pm »
Mothman



Quote
Mothman is a legendary creature reportedly seen in the Point Pleasant area of West Virginia from 15 November 1966 to 15 December 1967. The first newspaper report was published in the Point Pleasant Register dated 16 November 1966, entitled "Couples See Man-Sized Bird...Creature...Something".

Mothman was introduced to a wider audience by Gray Barker in 1970, later popularized by John Keel in his 1975 book The Mothman Prophecies, claiming that Mothman was related to a wide array of supernatural events in the area and the collapse of the Silver Bridge. The 2002 film The Mothman Prophecies, starring Richard Gere, was based on Keel's book.



History

Quote
On Nov. 15, 1966, two young couples from Point Pleasant, Roger and Linda Scarberry, and Steve and Mary Mallette told police they saw a large white creature whose eyes "glowed red" when the car headlights picked it up. They described it as a "flying man with ten foot wings" following their car while they were driving in an area of town known as 'the TNT area', the site of a former World War II munitions plant.

During the next few days, other people reported similar sightings. Two volunteer firemen who sighted it said it was a "large bird with red eyes". Mason County Sheriff George Johnson commented that he believed the sightings were due to an unusually large heron he termed a "poopepoke". Contractor Newell Partridge told Johnson that when he aimed a flashlight at a creature in a nearby field its eyes glowed "like bicycle reflectors", and blamed buzzing noises from his television set and the disappearance of his German Shepherd dog on the creature. Wildlife biologist Dr. Robert L. Smith at West Virginia University told reporters that descriptions and sightings all fit the Sandhill Crane, a large American crane almost as high as a man with a seven foot wingspan featuring circles of reddish coloring around the eyes, and that the bird may have wandered out of its migration route.

There were no Mothman reports in the immediate aftermath of the December 15, 1967 collapse of the Silver Bridge and the death of 46 people, giving rise to legends that the Mothman sightings and the bridge collapse were connected.
[/color][/size]



Claims of later sightings

Quote
UFOlogist Jerome Clark writes that many years after the initial events, members of the Ohio UFO Investigators League re-interviewed several people who claimed to have seen Mothman, all of whom insisted their stories were accurate. Linda Scarberry claimed that she and her husband had seen Mothman "hundreds of times," sometimes at close range, commenting, "It seems like it doesn’t want to hurt you. It just wants to communicate with you."

Cryptozoologist Loren Coleman claims that sightings of Mothman continue, and told USA Today he re-interviewed witnesses described in Keel's book who said Mothman was "a huge creature about 7 feet tall with huge wings and red eyes" and that "they could see the creature flapping right behind them" as they fled from it.[/size][/color]



Explanations

Paranormal


Quote
Some UFologists, paranormal authors, and cryptozoologists believe that Mothman was an alien, a supernatural manifestation, or an unknown cryptid. In his 1975 book The Mothman Prophecies, author John Keel claimed that the Point Pleasant residents experienced precognitions including premonitions of the collapse of the Silver Bridge, unidentified flying object sightings, visits from mysterious or threatening men in black, and other bizarre phenomena. However, Keel has been criticized for distorting established data, and for gullibility.



Skeptical

Quote
Skeptic Joe Nickell says that a number of hoaxes followed the publicity generated by the original reports, such as a group of construction workers who tied red flashlights to helium balloons. Nickell attributes the Mothman reports to pranks, misidentified planes, and sightings of a barred owl, an albino owl, or perhaps a large snowy owl, suggesting that the Mothman's "glowing eyes" were actually red-eye effect caused from the reflection of light from flashlights or other bright light sources.

Folklorist Jan Harold Brunvand notes that Mothman has been widely covered in the popular press, some claiming sightings connected with UFOs, and others claiming that a military storage site was Mothman's "home". Brunvand notes that recountings of the 1966-67 Mothman reports usually state that at least 100 people saw Mothman with many more "afraid to report their sightings", but observed that written sources for such stories consisted of children's books or sensationalized or undocumented accounts that fail to quote identifiable persons. Brunvand found elements in common among many Mothman reports and much older folk tales, suggesting that something real may have triggered the scares and became woven with existing folklore. He also records anecdotal tales of Mothman supposedly attacking the roofs of parked cars inhabited by teenagers in lovers lanes.



Festivals and statue

Quote
Point Pleasant held its first Annual Mothman Festival in 2002 and a 12-foot-tall metallic statue of the creature, created by artist and sculptor Bob Roach, was unveiled in 2003. The Mothman Museum and Research Center opened in 2005 and is run by Jeff Wamsley. The Festival is a weekend-long event held on the 3rd weekend of every September. There are a variety of events that go on during the festival such as guest speakers, vendor exhibits, and hayride tours focusing on the notable areas of Point Pleasant.

Mothman From Wikipedia
« Last Edit: August 24, 2012, 02:41:22 am by zorgon »

Offline zorgon

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Re: Mothman - Fact or Fiction
« Reply #2 on: August 23, 2012, 10:07:11 pm »
Point Pleasant, Mason County
W. Virginia Sightings


Newspaper Clippings and Eye Witness Accounts





[/img]





















Source: Mothman US

Offline zorgon

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Re: Mothman - Fact or Fiction
« Reply #3 on: August 23, 2012, 10:14:05 pm »
Point Pleasant, Mason County
W. Virginia Sightings


Eyewitness Sketches























Source: Mothman US

Offline zorgon

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Re: Mothman - Fact or Fiction
« Reply #4 on: August 23, 2012, 10:17:21 pm »


Quote
The Loren Coleman sketch is above.  Below is a scan of the Thunderbird artifact from the book The New England Indians by C. Keith Wilbur.  It may also be found in The Western Abenaki by Colin Calloway.


Source: Mothman US
« Last Edit: August 23, 2012, 10:28:49 pm by zorgon »

Offline zorgon

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Re: Mothman - Fact or Fiction
« Reply #5 on: August 23, 2012, 10:26:43 pm »
Manananggal
Another Mothman?




Quote
From the folklore of the Philippines there is another winged creature called the Manananggal that terrorizes the Visayan islands. Locals hang large amounts of garlic around their houses as a deterrent which brings to mind vampires.

With the face and body of an older woman, and  features leathery wings.  According to local legend, is able to detach its torso and fly away leaving its legs behind. The severed lower torso is left standing and it is said to be the more vulnerable of the two halves. Sprinkling salt or smearing crushed garlic or ash on top of the standing torso is fatal to the creature. The upper torso then would not be able to rejoin and will die at daybreak.



Quote
Known to feed on pregnant women, using a proboscis-like tongue to suck out the hearts of fetuses or the blood of an unsuspecting, sleeping victim. Legend also says the manananggals propagate themselves by spewing a black chick into someone's mouth.

Per legend, those infected by a manananggal, can dispel the chick inside by hanging you upside down from a tree and fumigating you, or they could spin you round and round until you vomit the chick.

Like most entrenched legends, this one appears to have been elaborately embellished.  However, at its root is the winged monster that has appeared to many Filipinos.






Manananggal Plush Toy

Source: Mothman US
« Last Edit: August 23, 2012, 10:31:03 pm by zorgon »

Offline zorgon

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Re: Mothman - Fact or Fiction
« Reply #6 on: August 23, 2012, 10:33:55 pm »
Unknown Story







Source: Mothman US
« Last Edit: August 23, 2012, 10:44:19 pm by zorgon »

Offline zorgon

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Re: Mothman - Fact or Fiction
« Reply #7 on: August 23, 2012, 10:43:23 pm »

Remains of "Mothman" found in 2001 near the remains of 3 children that disappeared in 1986


Said to me a previous Mothman


Ms. Johnson's composite image from Greenup County Ohio 1986


Mothman footprint from Greenup County Ohio 1986

Source: Mothman US

Offline zorgon

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Re: Mothman - Fact or Fiction
« Reply #8 on: August 24, 2012, 03:11:37 am »

© iKids Inc 2006






These drawing are from eyewitnesses that were used in the movie

Offline zorgon

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Re: Mothman - Fact or Fiction
« Reply #9 on: August 26, 2012, 01:43:32 pm »
   Sky Otter


March 18, 2011

    Mysterious Winged Creature Reported In Pennsylvania
    Butler County, early morning
    From Researcher: Stan Gordon
    www.stangordon.info


Quote
    On March 21, 2011, I was contacted by a witness who reported having an encounter with a very strange creature during the early morning hours of March 18, 2011. The incident occurred on a rural road in Butler County between Chicora and East Brady. The witness, a businessman passing through the area, stated that “this was the freakiest thing I ever saw, and it made the hair stand up on the back of my neck.”

    The man told me that he was driving down the road when from about a ¼ mile away, he observed something on the right side in a grassy area. His first thought was that it was a deer. The driver stepped on the gas to move closer to get a better view. From about 50 yards away, he observed something that appeared to be hunched down, and then stood up. The driver then observed a very tall muscular creature.

    At this point, the driver had his high beams on and watched as the creature walked in front of a yellow reflective road sign, then crossed the two lane road in three long steps and continued into a wooded area. What he saw was a humanoid figure that stood at least 8 feet tall that appeared to have smooth leather-like skin that was of either a darker tan or light brown color.


This sketch of the winged creature used with permission of the witness

    The creature never looked at the witness, and was only observed from its side. The head appeared to be flat in the front section, and then rounded out. “At the top back of skull, it was like one of those aerodynamic helmets. The top was not quite a point, but looked like a ridge on top of the head.” The face was flat, and the eyes were not clearly defined, but the man thought that they might have been pointed in the corner. The ear that was observed on the left side was long and flat, and came up and back and was pointed backwards like a flap.

    The arms were muscular and a little longer than that of a human. The hands looked more like a claw, but the number of fingers was unclear. One physical trait that stood out were the extremely muscular legs. The witness stated that it was hard to explain, but the legs did not move like that of a human, and “looked like they bent backwards.” The witness also saw what appeared to be wings on its back which were tucked into its body, with the wing tips extending toward the side of its head.

    No unusual sounds or smells where noticed during the observation which was estimated to have been about 7-8 seconds. As the motorist approached the location where the creature entered the woods, it could no longer be seen. The next day the witness decided to drive back to the location of the encounter to look for any evidence. The ground conditions were not suitable for tracks, and nothing was found. The witness did, however, measure the road sign that the creature had walked in front of. The sign was just over 8 feet high, and the head of the creature was estimated to have reached about 4 inches above the sign.

Mysterious Winged Creature Reported In Pennsylvania

Offline zorgon

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Re: Mothman - Fact or Fiction
« Reply #10 on: September 01, 2013, 08:14:00 pm »


No source yet...

sky otter

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Re: Mothman - Fact or Fiction
« Reply #11 on: September 02, 2013, 07:09:02 am »

a lot of the pics aren't showing


that last shot looks like europe..too clean for here..(sadly)

Offline Gigas

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Re: Mothman - Fact or Fiction
« Reply #12 on: September 02, 2013, 11:28:25 am »
Supernaturally Occult and beyond the human mind to interpret and accept.

Chicago had a bat like mothman roaming the skies over 63rd and pulaski in August 2011.





Lets have a closer look see





Quote
my wife and me were going by this Indian on August 22nd 2011 at about 2:00pm I decided to get a picture of this. I just got new smartphone and I wanted to check out how good the camera would work. So I got out of the car and went to the spot and took about four pictures of this Indian. So we left and went home and later on that night I went to look at the pictures I took. When I was checking these photos out, in one of the pictures I notice the object that was on the backside of Indian. At first I didn’t think nothing of it, I figured it was plane or something. But just for the heck of it I enlarged it. It looked something similar to a bird or a bat, but then again it doesn’t. So I have no idea what it could be.



Than, a much weirder story came out from Chicago of an even more bizzare creature peeping third story windows with girls undressed followed by screams and shock. This one is really weird as it follows the original story of the bat like mothman from above.

The victim(s) states:

Quote
She was getting dressed and when she turned to face the mirror on her dresser, she saw a pair of orange eyes staring at her from the window. She turned around to see two brightly lit orange eyes staring out at her; these eyes were attached to a creature that was staring back at her through the window. My friend lost it and started screaming hysterically and backed herself into the corner. She said she was filled with this overwhelming feeling of complete and total terror, she felt like the creature was looking at her as though she was prey. She said she felt like a rabbit that was about to be pounced upon by an eagle.


http://www.phantomsandmonsters.com/2011/10/photo-2nd-mothman-bat-like-object.html
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Offline Gigas

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Re: Mothman - Fact or Fiction
« Reply #13 on: September 02, 2013, 11:33:15 am »
Few months later another story comes out of batman or mothman flying overhead in chicago.


http://www.phantomsandmonsters.com/2011/10/3rd-mothman-bat-like-object-reported.html
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Offline Somamech

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Re: Mothman - Fact or Fiction
« Reply #14 on: September 02, 2013, 11:38:02 am »
I keep hearing about this from time to time !

Wonder if Brandon Lee and The Crow fit any bill in this sotry ?

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