Human beings, like all members of the animal kingdom, are capable of awareness of their environment due to the presence of sensory organs, a nervous system, and of course, a brain. In the absence of these key attributes, it seems unlikely that a living organism would be aware of its environment on any level (or any at all) that would be comparable to humans and the animal kingdom.

This fundamental observation never kept polygraph expert Cleve Backster from delving into the secretive realm of plant consciousness, however. Beginning in 1966, the CIA Interrogation Specialist had been conducting experiments with plants hooked to polygraph equipment, when he first noticed that in some instances the plants would “react” to various stimuli in ways that suggested some level of awareness pertaining to their environment. Incredibly, Backster claimed to observe how some plants would cause polygraph readings similar to a person in distress when burned or harmed otherwise. On some occasions, the same effect could be registered as a result of Backster merely thinking about harming the plant in question.

And of course, as a result of his “studies,” Backster was labeled a crackpot by the skeptic community for ever suggesting an organism with no central nervous system could have any level of awareness of this sort. However, recent studies regarding what could be likened to “communication” between plants has now shown that plants might have been keeping a few secrets from us after all… and that perhaps a few of Cleve Backster’s more unorthodox claims could have some justification, after all.

For the first time, scientists at Exeter University have now captured on film the process by which plants alert each other to possible dangers. When a plant is under attack, it releases a gas that warns neighboring plants to protect themselves. It was already known that plants will secret a quick-acting toxin to help ward off herbivores seeking to consume them. Now, scientists at Exeter University who made the new discovery have likened their observations to “listening in on a conversation.” Upon release of the “warning” gas by a plant that is under attack, other plants nearby begin to react in a way that shows they are preparing for an “attack,” after coming into contact with the gases released by the initial plant. Following this remarkable study, scientists are now wondering if there could literally be, “a chatter between plants all around us.”

While this may not lend justification to the idea of plant awareness or consciousness, it certainly does illuminate some unique possibilities regarding Cleve Backster’s original research from the late 1960s. Among Backster’s claims, in addition to observing alleged reactions of plants using polygraph equipment, had been a few instances where a reaction could be garnered when another plant in the room had been “attacked.” That is, while one plant may have had, for instance, a flame held to it’s leaves, a different plant nearby that was hooked to a polygraph machine would register some form of response, which seemed to coincide with this “attack” occurring elsewhere. Knowing what we do now, especially with regard to how plants can secrete enzymes not only to protect themselves, but also to release gases that “communicate” dangers occurring nearby, does it illustrate that maybe certain aspects of Backster’s observations were correct after all, but perhaps interpreted inaccurately at times?

For more on Cleve Backster and his research, here is a classic video narrated by Leonard Nemoy that appeared on In Search Of… as well as this ever-enjoyable entry from over at the Skeptic’s Dictionary, which is almost laughable in its overt condescension.

Life in Bolckow … never a cell phone or internet signal … landlines down constantly … electricity blinking on and off sporadically … locals are reclusive and unfriendly … stories of strange disappearances and mutilated pets … sounding like a horror movie yet?

— Tamin, Facebook post, February 3, 2011, 3:03 p.m.

A long, winding grey asphalt road splits from a rural highway thirty-some miles north of St. Joseph, Missouri, and runs between brown winter farm fields and a scattering of trees before it enters the tiny town of Bolckow, Missouri. A weathered sign welcoming visitors stands at the city limits. To some, the welcome ends there. This hilly town with its curbless streets, long dark business fronts, and many houses with grand days decades past, hides something sinister.

Tamin and Tony Morrell bought a house here in 2008; they signed the papers on Christmas Eve and moved in Christmas Day. “When we bought the house it was known as ‘the old haunted house,’” Tamin said.

The house was strange from the first day, partially because the previous owners never really moved. “They left everything,” Tony said. Furniture sat as it had for years, pictures hung from nails on the walls, dirty socks lay crumpled in the bathroom closet.

“It was spooky,” Tamin said. “The table was made. There was food in the refrigerator. Their clothes were in the drawers. They just left.”

The Morrells bought this two-story, four-bedroom house after a foreclosure. Few prospective buyers had looked at the house, Tamin would find later. “I got it really cheap,” Tamin said. “But I didn’t expect it to be like this.”

As Tony, originally from Davenport, Iowa, Tamin from nearby St. Joseph, Missouri, and her children Katheryn and Jake Hatfield, finished carrying boxes into their new home, trickles of strangeness began to fall. “The first night I slept on the couch, and I heard pots and pans rattling around,” Tamin said. “But we hadn’t unpacked. We weren’t using the kitchen.”

Tony heard something, too, but not pots and pans. It was a voice. “It sounded like a kid crying,” he said.

Last night I was awakened by my son’s voice calling “Mom” … yet he was sound asleep.
— Tamin, Facebook post, April 21, 2011, 8:42 a.m.

The first morning in the house, the smell of breakfast cooking greeted the waking family, but there was no breakfast cooking in the small kitchen. “It was weird,” Tamin said. “But there’s always weird smells.” Like death. The family began to notice the smell of rotting flesh throughout the house, but the smell never lingered. This scent of decay would appear in some parts of the house, then move to others and disappear, only to come back weeks later. The smell continues to plague them, but they have never found a cause.

During the first month the family lived in Bolckow strange occurrences in the house slowly escalated. The smells, children’s voices, doors slamming, cabinets opening, and the sound of footsteps were their constant companions. The worst thing about the house, however, was the feeling. “A lot of people say in a room upstairs they feel it,” Tony said. “A depressing feeling.”

Tamin added, “If I’m the only person here at night I feel really depressed. Almost frozen, like I can’t breathe.”

The atmosphere on the ground floor of the house is thick, heavy. But, Tony said, so is the atmosphere of the town. “I’m the biggest skeptic in the house and I’ve felt things here,” Tony said. “This house is weird anyway. The whole town is weird. The first month we lived here we only saw kids. No adults. Yeah, this town is weird.”

Driving down the road in to town, heard rain drops hit the car, stuck our arms out and felt the cold stinging raindrops hit our hands and arms, smelled the rain … yet our hands and arms were dry when we pulled them back in the windows, there were no visible rain drops on the car … weird place Bolckow is!
— Tamin, Facebook post, March 20, 2011, 8:16 p.m.

Strange things in the house continued. Thousands of flies appeared in an upstairs room, and the day after the family cleared them out, a thick mass of flies lighted on the porch. A sound like a bowling ball rolling down the upstairs hallway has woken Katheryn in the night. The dogs refuse to go into the basement. And Tamin has seen shadow figures wandering through the house. The occurrences became commonplace to the family, then the house grew violent. “I got thrown down the stairs,” Tamin said. “It was morning time. I was not scared or anything. I was standing on the landing with my dog Chewie, and the next thing I knew I was halfway down the stairs bouncing down and wondered what happened.”

They decided to move back to St. Joseph. Although Tamin said the main reason was financial, Tony said another was their now bizarre life. “We didn’t like being in this house.” The move culminated at Halloween.

The previous family who owned the house was pre-occupied with Christmas … ironically they moved in on Halloween (OUR favorite holiday) … btw … we moved in on Christmas day … coincidence?
— Tamin, Facebook post, April 10, 2010, 2:55 p.m.

Neighbors in Bolckow didn’t seem to take kindly to Halloween, and given the fact that the town’s population is 234, everyone is a neighbor. “We volunteered to donate Halloween decorations to the park,” Tony said. “People said, ‘we don’t celebrate Halloween. We celebrate the fall harvest.’”

The family decided to celebrate anyway; with a haunted open house. They didn’t realize their house was well known outside of Bolckow. “When we handed out fliers in St. Joseph,” Tamin said. “This guy said, ‘I know that house. It’s in Bolckow. It is evil.”

The event didn’t get any easier. Although many locals shunned the event, some came. “When they were drunk,” Katheryn said. “Some kids went through but their parents weren’t supposed to know about it.”

Most of the guests came from out of town to tour Bolckow’s haunted house, and the house performed, the audio system in the attic behaved of its own free will, and ornaments spun from strings in the dead still attic. The activity soon grew intense. “There was a girl in my room and the window imploded,” Tamin said.

Katheryn was there. “She stepped back and it blew on her.”

“It was a mistake, I think,” Tamin said, “to do the haunted house.”

Today I was upstairs sorting clothes in the closet and came out with scratches on my hands and arms!
— Tamin, Facebook post, April 12, 2010, 5:51 p.m.

In November, the family moved back to St. Joseph, leaving the strange house behind. They rented the house to Jim, a long-time friend of Tony’s, but the house hit the renters with everything it had.

“They changed so much,” Tamin said. “They changed when they lived here.”
Jim, his girlfriend, two teenage boys and a ten-year-old girl moved into the house and immediately felt the weight of the house upon them. “The little girl said she came to our house to talk to ghosts,” Katheryn said.

One day the renters were just gone. “They left their clothes here,” Tamin said. “They left their cell phone.”

“There was food in the fridge,” Katheryn said.

And worse. Buckets of grease and urine were scattered throughout the house. Tamin and Tony didn’t know what had happened to the people who lived in their house, but they knew the house had done something to them. “We didn’t know where they were and they never came back for their stuff,” Tamin said.

Reluctantly, Tamin and Tony moved their family back into the Bolckow house soon after.

This house has not lost its depressing, suffocating, oppressive feel. It’s like the house sucks every bit of hope and happiness out of a person when they walk through the door.
— Tamin, Facebook post, February 13, 2010, 5:01 p.m.

“Since we’ve moved back, I have not been able to sleep well, and I can always sleep,” Tony said

“We all don’t,” Tamin said.

Katheryn sat in a kitchen chair, holding her hands. “I feel like someone is shaking me.”

They moved back into the “hell house,” as Tamin calls it, because of personal finances, and crime rates in St. Joseph. “I thought, ‘let’s go back to Bolckow and everything will be fine.’”

It wasn’t. The haunting continues. Katheryn told Tamin of a dream about a little girl who lives in the house. The girl told her “the grey kitty is my favorite.” That morning Tamin found the grey cat had been inexplicably locked in the parlor all night.

“My life has been nothing but insane since I moved to Bolckow,” Tony said.

Tamin nodded. “I feel like I’m in a movie.”

By all accounts 41 year-old oil well driller, husband and father of four, Carl Higdon, was not a man prone to flights of fancy, but on the crisp autumn afternoon of October 25, 1974, he had a close encounter with a bizarre being who would not only test the limits of his imagination, but quite literally take him on the ride of his life.

Like many Americans in the 1970s, the hardworking Carl Higdon was hit hard by the recession. As food prices crept ever higher, Higdon decided that he would have to hunt in order to feed his family and stock their icebox with enough meat to get them through the harsh Wyoming winter that was just around the corner. It would be during one such expedition that Higdon would go from being the hunter to becoming the hunted.

THE HUNTER, THE ELK AND THE ALIEN

The day began like any other. Higdon awoke and was getting ready for his 2^nd shift work day at the AM Wells Service Company in Riverton, when his telephone rang. After working his way up through the company for the better part of 20-years, Higdon was now the foreman, and therefore it fell to him to take “sick calls” from his crew. He described the situation:

“I was all set to leave for work when one of my key men phoned to tell me that he was sick. Realizing that nothing could be accomplished with him at home, I decided to take the day off.”

Having committed to not going in to work, Higdon decided to utilize his unexpectedly free afternoon by using it to hunt for elk. With his plan in place, the oil man packed his gear into his company pick-up and began heading towards McCarthy Canyon in nearby Carbon County. It was then that a random act of kindness would forever change his destiny.

While cruising toward McCarthy Canyon, Higdon spied a pair of stranded motorists working on their immobile van. The Good Samaritan pulled over and helped them repair their vehicle. During the course of their conversation the duo revealed that they were also hunters and they knew of a place where there was much more game than Higdon’s current destination. Higdon recounted the encounter:

“I pulled in front of them and helped them. During our chat, they told me the hunting was much better farther back in a remote section of the Medicine Bow National Forest.”

Higdon thanked his fellow hunters and without delay decided to change his course and begin driving toward the northern region of Medicine Bow National Park, which is located just 40-miles south of his home in Rawlings. Higdon arrived at the park in the late afternoon. Once there he was surprised to bump into an old buddy:

“Around four o’clock, I parked my two-wheel-drive on a knoll and pulled out my thermos to pour a cup of coffee. An old friend, Gary Eaton, walked over to where I had stopped and together we surveyed the area. After a few minutes, Gary told me he was going on higher up into the forest. Jokingly he suggested he might scare down some elk for me.”

Higdon and his compatriot then separated, at which point the hunter pulled out his brand new Magnum rifle and loaded it with powerful 7mm bullets. Higdon decided to explore an area that was concealed behind a hill and set off… never imagining what would happen next.

Higdon walked for a few minutes and then, out of the corner of his eye, he caught a flash of movement. It was exactly what it was he had come for — a small herd of elk. Higdon silently raised his heavy rifle, put his eye to the sight and took aim at the largest male:

“I walked maybe five minutes until I came to a rise in the ground. Down below in a clearing were five elk, huddled closely together. From my vantage point, several hundred yards away, I could see that one of them was a really outstanding animal. I lined him up in my telescopic sight and fired my gun, a Magnum rifle. It can give your shoulder a mean whack if you’re not careful.”

It would be at this moment that Carl Higdon’s world would take a decided twist toward the bizarre.

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS:

As soon as Higdon pulled the trigger of his Magnum he was astounded by the fact that there was no kick back from the rifle. What was even more perplexing was the fact that the detonation was absolutely silent. In fact, according to Higdon, it was as if the entire world had fallen still.

As if all of that were not strange enough, for the first time in his life Higdon claimed that he was actually able to watch as a bullet left the barrel of his rifle and soared forward so slowly that it looked as if were traveling through a wall of invisible Jello. Higdon later swore that he watched the bullet glide about 50-feet before it plummeted to the snow speckled ground before him. In Higdon’s own words:

“I couldn’t believe my senses! Instead of a powerful blast, the 7mm bullet left the gun’s barrel noiselessly and in slow motion. It floated like a butterfly, finally falling to the ground about fifty feet from where I stood. I was awestruck. I froze. All around me there was a painful silence. Not a chirping bird or the rustling of leaves on nearby trees could be heard. The only sensation I could detect was a tingling feeling which crawled up my spine. This was similar to the feeling you often get before a fierce thunderstorm, when the air is full of static electricity.”

Still immersed in the eerie, static charged silence, Higdon cautiously retrieved the bullet and inspected it closely. He immediately noticed that the lead portion of the 7mm had disappeared and only the oddly misshapen case remained.

He placed the bullet into his pocket and took a few perplexed steps forward. That was when the deathly silence surrounding him was abruptly broken by the sound of a twig snapping. Higdon spun around and was a confronted by a sight that he instantly knew was not of this Earth:

“Turning to my left, I saw a ‘man’ standing there. At first I thought he was just another hunter so I lowered my gun. Then he moved out of the shadows, into the light, and immediately I realized something was terribly wrong… My heart skipped a beat and my knees were shaking so badly I could hardly stand. I thought, ‘Hell, I should have stayed in McCarthy Canyon like I’d originally planned!’”

Standing before the trembling hunter was what appeared to be a humanoid being clad in a skintight, black, one piece outfit that Higdon claimed was: “similar to a wet-suit scuba divers wear.”

Atop the suit was a pair of harness-like straps that crisscrossed its chest, below which was a metallic belt adorned with a large, yellow, six-pointed star. Beneath the star was an insignia that the outdoorsman could not identify. Higdon described the (at least what he presumed to be) masculine entity in detail:

“It was definitely a male… The visitor had no detectable ears. His eyes were small, and lacked eye brows… The dome of his skull was covered with the coarsest hair imaginable. It looked as if he had straw growing out of his head… [his complexion was] very similar to an Oriental’s… He was definitely man-like in height. I’d estimate he stood well over six feet, and weighed around 180 pounds. This was definitely no ghost! Good Lord, he was flesh and blood. Amen.”

Higdon would go on to depict this creature’s oddly upsetting facial features, including a lip-less, slit-like mouth that concealed three exceptionally large teeth — not entirely unlike the notorious Fanged Humanoids of Kofu — on the top and bottom, a pair of antennas and, most alarmingly to Higdon, a face that blended directly into its neck. Higdon continued his disturbing depiction of this alleged alien:

“Personally, it took getting used to, in order for me to look at him without getting a queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. No chin was visible. His face just seemed to blend right into his throat. He had no jaw bone!”

Stranger still was the fact that this long armed, bow-legged, jaundice skinned creature had a pointy, almost drill bit-like appendage sticking out of its wrist where its right hand ought to have been and nothing at all on the left. At this point the being slowly approached the terrified Higdon and did something completely unexpected… it asked him: “How you doin’?”

The bewildered hunter admitted that he was “trying to stay calm” when he weakly responded: “Pretty good.” At this point the ostensible extraterrestrial, like any good host, inquired whether or not Higdon was hungry, but before he could respond the creature sent a small, clear cellophane package floating toward him:

“He waved a pointed object where his right hand should have been, and it levitated over to me. I opened the packet and found four pills inside. He told me, In English, to take one of them. That it would last four days. Now normally I don’t like taking pills, not even an aspirin, but something happened. It’s as if I had no control over my actions. So I just swallowed one of them, and put the other three into my jacket pocket.”

THE GREAT GLASS ELEVATOR:

The strange, jawless humanoid then introduced himself as “Ausso One.” That was when Higdon’s gaze caught a strange box-like object catching the sun’s rays in the clearing behind strange creature:

“There, not far from us, was a transparent, cube-shaped object resting on the ground. To me it looked like a huge Christmas package. You know — flat on all sides, like a box. I couldn’t see any landing gear or entrance… It was much smaller than any of our commercial or military planes. In fact, you’re going to think I’m crazy, but this thing couldn’t have been more than five feet high, seven feet long, and four and a half feet wide. Tiny is the only word I can think of to accurately describe its size!”

Apparently intrigued by the awe at which Higdon was staring at its ship, the alleged alien gamely asked the hunter: “Do you want to come along?” Higdon, fully aware of the fact that he was in no position to refuse this being any request, lamely shrugged his shoulders in assent. It was at this point that time appeared to leap forward, as Higdon’s next recollection was of being inside the cube-like craft.

“Before I was able to move a muscle, I found myself inside this contraption. It was instantaneous. How I was able to fit inside remains a riddle. They must have shrunk me, that’s the only explanation that seems plausible… I wouldn’t venture how they accomplished this feat. Ausso One just pointed, and we were where he wanted us!”

After Ausso One loaded his Earthly guest into his tiny — perhaps TARDIS-like — box, Higdon’s mind began to get fuzzy and he started to panic:

“My memory fails me, here. I recall my head starting to reel. My hands sweating. Somehow the pill this fellow gave me must have deadened at least some of my senses; otherwise I’m positive I would have been crying and perhaps even fainted. I may be strong, but I’m only human!”

At this point Higdon noticed that all five of the elk he had been stalking just moments before were also in the cube behind what he perceived to be an invisible barrier. The hunter marveled at the creature’s ability to incapacitate the untamed animals: “I’m kind of fuzzy as to how they managed to contain such wild beasts. They were motionless; paralyzed.”

It would seem that the elk were not the only things paralyzed, because at virtually the same moment as he saw the frozen beasts, Higdon claimed that he became abruptly aware of the fact that he was now sitting in a high-backed “bucket seat” with what he described as restrictive “bands” securing his arms and legs:

“As we took off, I found myself strapped down to this seat with my hands held fast to the armrests of the chair. My legs were similarly bound.”

Resisting what must have been an overwhelming urge to panic, Higdon watched in growing horror as another jawless, straw haired being appeared out of nowhere, at which point and he and his genial partner strapped a bizarre, wire smothered, football helmet-like device to his head, prompting the hunter to state: “I felt like the monster in an old Frankenstein movie.”

Higdon then observed a console with three dissimilar levers, which Ausso One used to control the craft. The alien pointed its “hand” at the longest lever and seemed to move it with a telepathically. It was then that the peculiar, transparent cube that Higdon would later describe as a “flying box car” took off.

Ausso One manipulated the vehicle so that it hovered above Higdon’s truck. With a point of his conical hand the vehicle vanished before his eyes: “When we got above the trees Ausso aimed his arm at my pick-up and it disappeared — poof — vanished into thin air!”

A WORLD WITHOUT FISH

As if this entire ordeal weren’t already quite outlandish enough, Higdon testified that just as suddenly as they left terra firma he abruptly spied an ominous, planet-like sphere — “shaped similar to a basketball” — through the clear floor of the box-like craft… a planet he immediately knew was not Earth.

The most memorable sight that Higdon recalled from his impromptu tour of this ostensibly alien world was a colossal tower that loomed above the surface.  He would later compare it to Seattle’s Space Needle, but unlike its earthbound namesake, this huge, umbrella-like structure was covered in rotating lights that were so blinding that they hurt his eyes. The hunter was also overwhelmed by a sound that he compared to an electric razor buzzing:

“All around this tower were revolving patterns of multi-colored lights, not unlike powerful spotlights. They were so intense that it was actually painful to keep my eyes open. These lights were so brilliant that I held my hands to my face as a protective shield. I vaguely remember shouting, ‘Shut them off… they’re burning me!’ I just couldn’t tolerate them.”

Rather than comforting their frightened guest, the second drill handed humanoid merely commented that they had similar problems on our home world, insisting that:”Your sun burns us, too!” It was then that the odd craft landed about 150-feet away from the platform at the base of the tower, at which point the second being vanished just as abruptly as it had arrived.

Through the transparent walls of the ship, Higdon saw what he claimed were five human beings, dressed in average Earth fashions, talking to one another. The individuals consisted of one brown-haired girl who appeared to be about 11 years-old, a blonde girl who was just a few years older and a teen couple who seemed to be about 17 or 18. The group was rounded out by a man who seemed to be in his 50s. The people seemed to be talking to one another and did not notice Higdon.

Ausso One, who had so cordially offered Higdon food pills and a ride around the cosmos, did not explain the presence of the other humans, but patiently explained to the anxious oil man that they had touched down on a planet that was 163,000 “light miles” from earth.

Higdon was quick to elucidate that the creature did not say “light years,” which to him indicated in no uncertain terms that: “To them the passage of time is different than it is to us.”

Ausso One escorted Higdon into the dazzling tower. The pair ascended in an elevator, which deposited them into a room where the hunter was instructed to stand on a small platform. Higdon noted that he and the alien never actually walked anywhere, but seemed to be floating just above the ground. While they hovered toward their destination Ausso One (arbitrarily, or so it seemed) explained that there were no fish on his planet and that these finned critters were one of his peoples’ favorite things about Earth.

THE EXAMINATION:

At this point an odd device — that Higdon described as resembling a “glassy shield” — slipped out of the wall and paused in front of the human. The “shield” was evidently some kind of medical device and scanned the man for almost 5-minutes before it disappeared back into the wall.

Rejection is never fun, but it’s hard to contemplate that Higdon did not consider it to be a stroke of luck when his extraterrestrial tour guide informed him that he was going to return him to the spot where they had first met because the examination had shown that he did not: “suit their purpose.”

Higdon (perhaps mercifully) never knew what this potentially nefarious purpose was, but he would later speculate that he thought it had to do with a “breeding program.” Ausso One led the oil man back to the elevator and then down to the main door.

With the same abruptness that he had felt earlier, Higdon realized that he and his alien companion were now back inside the clear cubicle, this time sans elk. Ausso One was admiring the human’s rifle and with a tinge of regret admitted that as much as he would like to he would not be able to keep the “primitive” weapon as a souvenir.

Ausso One telepathically handed the rifle back to Higdon, then removed the food pills from his pocket, a fact that dismayed the hunter as it represented the only piece of concrete evidence he had of this weird event. Once again the alien pointed at the longest lever. It was then that our intrepid hero suffered another disorienting time jump.

HOMEWARD BOUND

Higdon quickly realized that he was no longer hovering above an alien world, but that his alien comrade and his miraculous cube had seemingly instantaneously transported him back to Earth. He claimed that he saw his truck, which had been inexplicably transported some 5-miles from the glade where it had been parked two and a half hours before. The hunter later considered the situation:

“Since I was in a state of mental stress, this fact did not have any impact on me until sometime later. I know that I could never have driven over that impossible terrain — even if I had been physically capable of driving, which I most certainly was not!”

At this point the kindly spaceman said to the Earthling: “We’ll see you.” The foreman was overwhelmed by a floating sensation and without warning found himself standing on the edge of a steep, rocky slope. The loose stones could not support his weight and he suddenly found himself plummeting down the 9-foot decline, severely impacting against the hard ground and injuring his head, neck and shoulder.

STUCK IN THE MUD:

The next thing the bewildered father of four consciously recalled was staggering nearly 3-miles down an old, dirt road, rifle in hand, freezing and in a state of nearly hysterical amnesia:

“I didn’t know what had happened, who I was, or where I was, for that matter. The only thing I could think of was to get out of there as fast as possible and find someone who could help me.”

Higdon was in such a state of shock that he walked past his pick-up without even recognizing it. When he realized that he was utterly alone on the dirt road he backtracked to the vehicle:

“There I stood, shivering, eyes filled with tears and not knowing my own identity. I saw a truck parked off the road between some trees, and decided to crawl into it for shelter and to keep warm. I didn’t realize the truck belonged to me.”

Huddled and trembling in shock, Higdon was startled by a feminine voice that suddenly crackled over the CB radio: “There was a two-way set under the dashboard, so I picked up the mic and held it close to my mouth. I managed to blurt out that I was sick and lost and desperately in need of assistance. When the voice on the other end asked me where I was, I told ‘em I had seen a sign down the road which read, ‘North Boundary National Forest.’ This didn’t seem to be much help, however, as there was absolutely no indication as to what forest the sign was referring to.”

THE POSSE ARRIVES:

A search party led by a local sheriff — and accompanied by Higdon’s wife Margery — had a lot of difficulty navigating the backwoods paths with their 4-wheel drive vehicles and were unable to locate the panicky hunter until almost midnight. It was during this arduous trip that Higdon’s wife and two other deputies claimed to have spied green, red and white flashing lights in the sky, but they were too far away to discern its true origin.

Later it would come out that two residents of Rawlins, Wyoming, Don and Marliyn James, claimed to have observed an unusual radiance in the vicinity of Medicine Bow Forest at the same time that the posse was making its’ way toward the missing hunter.

Not long after, the baffled officers were astounded to find Higdon’s 2-wheel drive truck bumper deep in a mud filled sinkhole in the center of a forest ravine that was impenetrable by motor vehicles. In fact, the conditions were so bad that the police were forced to make the final leg of the journey by foot!

Even more perplexing was the fact that there were no tire tracks leading into the bog. The sheriff and his men could not comprehend how Higdon had managed to get his pick-up stuck there. Judging from the circumstances it would’ve had to have been dropped from above — it seemed to defy rational logic.

As if things weren’t bizarre enough, when they finally managed to pry the still terrified Higdon from the truck he was shrieking that: “They took my elk.” He even failed to recognize his own wife.

Deputies quickly packed the hunter and his wife into one of their vehicles, while the rest the police were confronted with the puzzle of how to get the seemingly impossibly trapped pick-up truck out of the bog. Eventually they created a sort of bridge with fallen trees and finally managed to tow the truck from the shallow ravine and down the dirt paths that would have proven impossible to navigate with a 2-wheel drive. Higdon later described the situation:

“Using towing equipment, I was hauled out. They immediately took me to the nearest hospital, where I was placed under day-and-night observation. Not until the following evening did I begin to regain my memory and start to recall a few details of my ordeal.”

A MIRACULOUS RECOVERY:

Sheriff’s deputies wasted no time in transporting the frantic hunter and his wife to the Carbon County Memorial Hospital in Rawlins where he was admitted at 2:30 am. The doctors on staff noticed that his eyes were extremely bloodshot and that he seemed to be suffering from nervous exhaustion, not to mention the injuries he sustained during his fall into the gully.

Following an extensive series of medical tests, the doctors noticed that despite Higdon’s clearly injured and anxious condition, his blood was extraordinarily nutrient and vitamin rich. Even more peculiar was the fact that in 1958 Higdon had been hospitalized after he came into contact with tuberculosis and at the time x-rays showed a significant amount of scarring on his lungs.

Be that as it may, the x-rays that were taken following his presumably intergalactic expedition in 1974 showed no scar tissue on his lungs and his doctor — one R. C. Tongo — even noted that some painful kidney stones which had been plaguing the hunter were no longer evident. The mystified Dr. Tongo even stated that: “He’s now in A-1, super condition!”

Despite his new and improved organs, the still petrified oil man remained incoherent throughout the night and, according to most reports, did not manage to reclaim his memories until the following day when his daughter came to visit him. It was then that he regaled his wife, doctors and police officers with his harrowing run-in with Ausso One (and his unnamed copilot) and their journey to another world.

While it’s difficult to imagine that that his rapt audience — consisting of both loved ones and authority figures — were not at least initially skeptical, this did nothing to prevent the deputies from informing the press and local ufologists about Higdon’s wild adventure. Margery, however, claimed that she never once doubted the sincerity of her husband’s strange tale, later telling reporters from the Star-Tribune:

“I believed him because it was him and because I was out there and saw a lot of different things that went on that night.”

Although his innards showed a marked upgrading, Higdon’s appetite did not return for days (a fact that he attributed to Ausso One’s miraculous pills) and he grumbled about sharp pains in the base of his skull and neck, claiming that he felt as if his body had been treated like an accordion: “I feel like I’d been pushed together like this. That’s just the way my muscles feel — like they were compressed, and then yanked apart.”

After three days of observation, the swiftly recovering outdoorsman was released from the hospital and into the care of his wife and family.

THE BAFFLING BULLET

Within days of her husband’s hospitalization, Margery discovered the crushed 7mm bullet hidden in her his canteen patch. Higdon was still at a loss to explain the force which had managed to so thoroughly damage his bullet, so he took the casing to the sheriff’s office. According to Higdon:

“I’d never seen anything like it before, to compare it to. Soon as I could I took it to the Carbon County Sheriff’s Department where the officer in charge of ballistics analysis examined it through a microscope. He told me it was from a 7mm Magnum rifle, which is the caliber of my gun. Returning the chunk of metal, he noted that he had never seen a bullet in that shape or condition.”

The Sheriff inspected the warped bullet and claimed that he had never seen its equal. He was convinced that it was impossible to hammer the bullet into its existing shape and felt that the bullet had probably not hit a solid object, like a tree or a rock. The copper jacket had been turned inside out and the lead slug was missing. He later wrote: “It looks as if it has been turned inside out by a superhuman being!”

The Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO) sent metallurgy consultant, Dr. Walter Walker, to inspect the jacket. After a rigorous examination of the object he testified that it had collided with and exceptionally solid surface with immense force. This assertion is not to be underestimated as a 7mm bullet travels at such a fantastic rate of speed it would have been well nigh impossible to track the casing down had it not hit something incredibly hard — much harder than a rock or a tree.

In the APRO Bulletin, Vol. 23 No. 5, which was published in March, 1975, investigators were planning on organizing a search party in order to find the lead slug of the 7mm in the hopes that it might produce additional evidence of what it had impacted against. Quoted from the report: “After the snow melts, an attempt will be made to locate the lead slug from the bullet and hopefully it will be able to add something to a very puzzling story.”

Unfortunately the search party failed to come to fruition, or if it did their efforts were met with naught, leaving the mangled bullet casing as the only physical evidence in support of Higdon’s account. Despite the lack of corroborating proof, on October 29, 1974, the Rawlins Daily Times published an account of Higdon’s extraordinary experience and from there the story spread like wildfire.

ENTER THE HYPNOTIST

Like many abductees — or in this case invitee — Higdon claimed to have had only a partial memory of his close encounter of the weird kind. He recalled his bullet hitting the invisible barrier, meeting the alien and entering the clear cubicle with the elk, but after that his recollections became hazy.

Due to the success their team had had with the method in the past, the APRO investigators suggested that the distressed huntsman undergo hypnotic regression in order to reclaim his lost memories and (hopefully) put himself at ease with the reality of what had happened to him.

Higdon agreed and on November 2, 1974, APRO consultant and Professor of Psychology at the University of Wyoming, Dr. R. Leo Sprinkle, spent over four hours with the Higdons and their children, discussing what had happened as well as their responses to it.

Sprinkle — a trained hypnotist and former UFO skeptic who had allegedly investigated thousands of alien abduction cases and believed that he himself was a victim — was assisted by MUFON field investigators Rick Kenyon and Robert Nantkes. Sprinkle employed the classic pendulum technique in order to elicit hidden information from Higdon, but his efforts were met with disappointment.

Over two weeks later, on November 17, Sprinkle took another crack at it utilizing alternative hypnotic methods… and this time he was not thwarted. While many modern investigators take an understandably dim view regarding the validity of hypnotic regression, it’s important to note that unlike many similar cases, Higdon had a conscious memory of his alien encounter before he was “put under.” This would seem to lend at least a little credibility to the account that followed.

Under hypnosis, Higdon was able to recall his trip to Ausso One’s home world in minute detail. He revealed to all of those observing the session that the straw headed alien and its kin where searching for food and used the Earth as a sort of game preserve where they came to hunt and fish — not unlike an more amiable (and less anti-human) group of “Predators.”

They also wore their black, skin tight suits to protect them from the rays of our sun and brought the elk back to their planet for “breeding purposes,” but whether Ausso One was referring to a program that is analogous to a game warden ensuring a population of wild animals survives, am alien slaughterhouse or some kind of unimaginable extraterrestrial genetic experiment is, of course, unknowable.

According to Higdon, breeding was also the reason why human beings were brought to this alien world. Higdon was under the impression that the aliens had harvested these primarily young humans in order to use them in some kind of propagation program and that he did not: “suit their purpose”  due to the fact that in 1965 he had undergone a vasectomy: “Maybe this is what they meant when they said, I wasn’t any good! I kind of sense that they wanted young people.”

At the end of their hypnotic session, Sprinkle eased Higdon from his “trance” with the instruction that he would retain his memories of Ausso One and their expedition, but would no longer fear said recollections. Later Sprinkle would write in his official report on the case:

“Although the sighting of a single UFO witness often is difficult to evaluate, the indirect evidence supports the tentative conclusion that Carl Higdon is reporting sincerely the events which he experienced. Hopefully further statements from other persons can be obtained to support the basic statement.”

THE UFO AND THE POLYGRAPH TEST

Higdon, still a nervous wreck about the whole affair, claimed that for weeks following the “trip” he was followed by a colossal “green light” in the sky. Some ufologist speculated that it might have been the extraterrestrials keeping a watch on their quarry, much like modern scientists tracking a tagged bear.

Four years later, in September of 1978, Higdon was subjected to what was then one of the most advanced polygraph test available, the PSE (Psychological Stress Evaluator) device. The test was presided over by a technical consultant for LAPD, Dr. Greenberg and his colleague Dr. Sidney Walter.

The scientists ascertained that the former hunter was giving a truthful account of what happened and Greenberg concluded: “I am forced to admit that something utterly fantastic did happen in this man’s life. The test proves it beyond doubt.”

THE EVIDENCE

The evidence in this strange case is circumstantial at best; there are no corroborating eyewitness who saw anything more significant than a few random lights in the sky and even the celebrated bullet only shows that it hit something — hard!

Nevertheless there are more than a few elements — above and beyond Higdon’s fascinating sketches — regarding this case that have a way of nagging on even the most skeptical of minds.

The first thing that comes to mind is how did the permanent scars on the inside of Higdon’s lungs simply vanish without a trace? Investigators claim to have seen before and after x-rays that seem confirm this seemingly miraculous healing process, which left doctors baffled. If this curative process was not instigated by the alien visitor, then what might have been responsible for the cure?

The second — though harder to verify — factor that lends to the credibility of the hunter’s account is the state in which his company truck was discovered by his rescuers. If reports are to be believed then there is simply no way Higdon could have moved the vehicle to the place where it was discovered without the aid of a military helicopter. As to why his otherwise polite host would leave him in such a muddy lurch is a matter of debate.

Of course there’s always the possibility that Higdon made up the whole tale after he got the company truck stuck while playing hooky from work. Perhaps he assumed he would be better off making up a patently outlandish story about alien abduction rather than fess up to having made a mistake while traipsing in the forest when he should have been working. Maybe… but I doubt it.

To begin with his employee called in sick before he decided to pack it in and go hunting. Also he was the boss and almost certainly could have concocted a more reasonable falsehood if he had to. Lastly, who in their right mind would subject themselves to the kind of public scrutiny and ridicule that invariably follows a report of this nature?

Add to this the undeniable fact that Higdon was well liked and respected by his neighbors, bosses and co-workers. Not to mention the effort that would have been involved in creating the performance he would have had to put over on his wife and rescue team in the forest — not to mention the nurses, doctors, police and press in the hospital — and it becomes clear that this working class Wyoming man was either one of the greatest actors of the 20th Century or very likely the victim of a very bizarre episode.

CONCLUSION

So how is it that a case involving a solitary hunter and his (frankly credibility taxing) tale of a run-in with an intergalactic angler has transformed over the decades into one of the most significant extraterrestrial encounters of the 20^thCentury — even going so far as to be loosely adapted into comic book form — especially considering how most folks would dismiss it as a story that was barely noteworthy enough to make page three in the Weekly World News?

That’s a difficult question to answer. Perhaps it was the hard working, straight shooting Higdon who lent some integrity to the proceedings.

The oil man has maintained the veracity of his story throughout his life and is the first to admit that his trip is a difficult pill to swallow — even for him:  “I’d like to think it was just a nightmare, except I know it was real. I’ve tried to shake my mind clear of all thoughts pertaining to what took place, but frankly that’s totally out of the question at this point.”

just months after his abduction, Higdon went on to say this about the incident at Medicine Bow Forest:

“Though I remain apprehensive over the events of last October, I firmly believe the American public is brave enough to accept the truth about such matters. Of course, I wish the whole episode hadn’t occurred, but since it did, I don’t see any reason to keep it secret. Some folks may think I’ve gone off my rocker, but anyone who knows me can tell you I’m not making up any of this… People seem to accept it now. I’m being truthful as I can be. This all really happened!”

Regardless of whether this was a genuine celestial encounter, an elaborate ruse or the frightful dream of a man who had taken a nasty spill and was suffering from a concussion, one overwhelming fact remains; if Carl Higdon had it to do all over again he would not have stopped and helped those strangers fix their van. Instead he would have continued onto McCarthy Canyon where he would have never… ever… have met a friendly, jawless, drill-handed alien named Ausso One.

Beverly French stepped outside her home November 25, 2008, dragging a box of Christmas lights she and her husband Bill would soon string across the eaves. Bill had taken his box of lights out back.

The French’s had lived in their home, along a cul-de-sac on the outskirts of a small, Northern California town, about 40 years, and owned a general store/gas station in this town of about 2,000 people.

The day, two days before Thanksgiving, was peaceful. That peace did not last.

“I was sitting on the porch with a box of lights at my feet when I heard someone call out to me,” Beverly said.

“Do you need any help?” the voice asked.

Beverly looked up from untangling strings of lights to find two children on the sidewalk in front of her house. She hadn’t noticed them approach, which was unlikely on this quiet dirt road, engine noise and a cloud of dust advertising visitors. What struck her as even more odd, she didn’t know them.

“Our neighbors, all six of them, were good friends of ours and we all looked out for one another,” she said. “Point being, not a single car, person, bike or bird came through that neighborhood that we all didn’t know about.”

One child, a tall girl of about sixteen, was dressed unlike a teenager. She wore slacks, an argyle sweater, overcoat and pearls, with her nearly white hair pulled back from her face. The boy, about ten, had thick, dark hair. He held the girl’s hand.

“She was the one who spoke to me and as I stared, not responding, she spoke again,” Beverly said.

“It looks like you have a lot of work to do,” the girl said, staring unblinking into Beverly’s eyes. “We would like to help you.”

The girl’s voice was confident, polished, “like a radio show host.” This wasn’t the voice of a teenager. A shock of fear ran through Beverly.

“I just felt afraid,” Beverly said. “I had no idea why but these kids unnerved me unlike anything else. I’ve been robbed at gunpoint and even that didn’t make me as quaky as these kids.”

It was the eyes.

“It was something about the way she looked at me,” Beverly said. “It took me a few months after the incident to place where I’d seen that look before but I remembered while watching TV one day. It was the way I see sharks look at their prey. No emotion in their eyes, no motivation beyond hunger, just this cold deadness.”

Beverly knew she had to make these children leave.

“No thanks, you all should run along, I’m fine here,” she said. Then the girl smiled and Beverly thought she might die.

“Beverly, we want to help you. It looks like you have a lot of work to do and you need some help with it,” the girl said.

Owning one of the ten businesses in this small town, Beverly was used to hearing her name come out of all sorts of mouths, but not like this.

“It was creepy as all get out hearing her address me like that,” she said.

“Do I know your parents?” Beverly asked her.

The girl ignored the question. “You should let us help you,” she insisted.

Beverly nearly screamed for her husband who worked on the other side of the house, but something inside her didn’t want these children to know she was terrified.

“I’m fine,” Beverly told her. “Your parents wouldn’t like you being all the way out here. It’s getting dark. You go on home.”

Then the expression on the boy, the quiet, quiet boy, changed. He looked directly at Beverly and smiled.

“It was kind of dazzling, like he was really happy,” Beverly said. “He didn’t say anything to me, he just kept smiling while they both stared through me.”

As she looked at the boy, his smile suddenly grew dark, sinister.

“I felt my hands start to shake,” Beverly said. “He was aggressively chewing on his lower lip.”

After what may have been a few minutes or a few seconds, the girl shrugged and led the boy away. When they disappeared down the street, Beverly dropped to the porch, tears welling in her eyes. The garage door opened, and Bill walked up to her; he was upset as well.

“What’s the matter?” Beverly asked.

“I was working out back and this real tall, black-haired girl comes around the gate and asks me if I need any help,” Bill said.

At first, he thought she may be selling magazines, but she looked too old for that.

“I told her that I was fine and asked what she needed. She told me she needed to help me,” Bill said. “Beverly, I tell you, something about her gave me the creeps. She kept staring at me like she wanted me to do something. I told her to leave and she went out the back gate into the alley.”

Beverly told Bill her story, and they realized these frightening children had no transportation – they had to still be in the neighborhood.

“I hadn’t heard a car or bike,” Beverly said. “How did they get down the road? Walking? No one would come out to our property by foot. It’s just too far off the highway and nothing else is in walking distance.”

They locked their house and got into their car to try and find the threatening strangers, but the children were gone.

“Bill and I drove the road between our cul-de-sac and the main highway four times,” Beverly said. “We even drove up and down the highway for a couple of miles in each direction. We saw no trace of them. At the time, I honestly thought that maybe they were casing houses.”

When the French’s returned home, they reported their encounters to the police, and told their neighbors. Beverly thought this was the last she would see of these strange children, but three days later they came back.

Beverly had just come home from the grocery store and while pulling bags from her car, someone said her name.

“I turned around to see the same two kids as before plus another girl, who I assumed was the one who had spoken with Bill,” she said.

The blonde girl and dark-haired boy wore the same clothes. The new girl, taller than the first, looked to be in her early 20s, her short black hair framing a strikingly pretty face. The young, dark-haired woman stood at the end of Beverly’s drive; the others remained further back.

“Can I help you carry those?” the young woman asked.

This new girl unnerved Beverly more than the younger children.

“This girl had a confidence that I could not believe. It absolutely oozed from her,” Beverly said. “It was like she was laughing at me or superior to me.”

“No thanks,” Beverly said. “Are you all Mormons? If so, I already have a stack of pamphlets in my recycle bin. No use for any more.”

The young woman smiled.

“No, Beverly, we just want to help you,” she said, then held out her hand like she wanted Beverly to shake it. Beverly didn’t move.

“I could see that she was visibly annoyed with that,” Beverly said.

Beverly put her grocery bags on the hood of the car, reached in and triggered the garage door opener, never taking her eyes off these terrifying children.

“I don’t need any help,” she said to them. “I told your two friends that I’m just fine. If you’re looking for a job, try the help wanted pages. You all should run along home.”

Beverly shut her car door, picked up the groceries and began backing into the garage when she noticed something that froze her soul.

“I glanced over at the boy, who was staring at me intently,” she said. “This is when I began to realize there was something else going on. I tell you, this kid’s eyes were solid black. They were the color of asphalt and had no shine to them at all. I felt angry at myself for being afraid and angry at my inability to understand what was going on. I stared at that little boy’s black eyes and wondered how much was going on in the universe that I didn’t know about.”

Beverly knew she was in danger. Maybe the young woman felt the fear inside Beverly; she took a few bold steps forward. As this eerie woman stepped closer, the urge to sit rushed through Beverly, “like suddenly I had no energy.”

Drawing as much strength as she could find, Beverly remained on her feet. The young woman didn’t move closer, but when Beverly looked back at the blonde girl, the child’s eyes, like the boy’s, had darkened into dull black voids.

“Although I was quite unnerved, I will admit that I wondered if they had put in contact lenses or were playing some kind of a trick on me,” Beverly said. “I hadn’t yet given in to thinking this was a paranormal experience. I did think that I was potentially the victim of a clever robbery, although they made no motions to take anything from me.”

“I want you to leave,” Beverly said to the young woman and the two monstrous children. “I want you to leave and I never want you to come back. I want you to get off my property or I’m going to call the police again.”

The young woman smiled again, sending more chills through Beverly. This person’s eyes weren’t black like the children, they were an icy blue.

“She nodded like she thought what I said was cute, the way you nod at a child telling a story,” Beverly said. “I am not a violent woman but I felt this rush of hatred toward her and, I’ll admit, I toyed with the idea of attacking her.”

As this ran through Beverly’s mind, the young woman slowly shook her head, like she could hear Beverly’s thoughts.

“You don’t want to do that, Beverly. You should really think first,” the ominous young woman said. “Some people don’t realize that other people are just trying to help them. It makes me really sad that these people who refuse help have no idea what they’re missing. You’re going to regret this.”

The woman stared deeply into Beverly’s eyes for an uncomfortably long time. Then she turned and walked down the gravel road toward the highway, the two children close behind her. When the three were out of sight, Beverly bolted inside the house, locked the doors, and called the police.

“I didn’t really know what to say, except that I thought a group of kids was casing houses,” she said. “I had no proof of this and although the officer I spoke with was very polite, I could tell that nothing more would come of it. I didn’t mention the black eyes.”

Beverly never saw those children again, but they weren’t through with her.

“Later that afternoon I began to feel ill,” she said. “I had a horrible migraine and spent the day in bed.”

Her sleep was wracked by dreams of those children with their dead, black eyes.

“I wrote this all off as stress but I was still sick the next day – and the next,” she said. “I figured I just had the flu or a cold, but my dreams were getting really intense. I even started to imagine I was seeing the two kids wherever I went.”

Nausea, fever, and rashes plagued Beverly for two weeks. Fear gripped her tightly, and she refused to leave the house without Bill or a neighbor accompanying her.

“I hated the idea of pulling up to my driveway and seeing those kids again,” she said. “I did eventually get well but I never forgot my meeting with these people. I continued to have vivid, frightening dreams for close to six months.”

Bill and Beverly eventually sold their house and moved to a larger town, but the memories of the wicked children followed them.

“I was relieved to not have to look at my home and remember my experience with those kids,” she said. “I have no idea to this day what they were or what they wanted.”

The short answer to the title of this post is “yes.” Obviously, anything capable of causing devastating illness among large portions of the world’s population should be quite concerning to all of us. However, as is the case with a particular circumstance at present regarding the creation of a new kind of synthetically engineered super-flu, experts are advising that we not break out into a panic just yet.

Indeed, new experimental procedures have successfully created what scientists call H5N1, which amounts to being a synthetically-mutated form of the H1N1 virus that has caused great concern (and legitimate harm) around the world. This is already old news, since the first mention of the new “mutated” form of the virus came out late last year; but experts who have attempted to qualm the fears of the public have had little success in dampening the worry associated with how such a potential killer might escape into the world at large.

Described as “a virus that could kill tens or hundreds of millions of people if it escaped confinement or was stolen by terrorists,” the new super flu has indeed managed to elicit concern from a variety of disciplines; some in the scientific community are worried that the virus should never have been engineered at all, and that it’s existence is of little value, since the particular mutation in question would likely never have occurred naturally in the first place. Hence, why studying H5N1 in it’s mutated form would be of any justifiable merit–weighed against it’s potential dangers–seems questionable.

Then from the perspective of national security and potential “germ warfare,” there is always the possibility that such a virus, falling into the wrong hands, could wreak havoc on an unsuspecting population, especially in the event that vaccines or other suitable measures for containing and treating the illness weren’t available (and this would likely be the case if, God forbid, the populace in question were caught off guard). In an editorial that appeared in the New York Times Sunday Review, the author espoused concerns as follows:

“We nearly always champion unfettered scientific research and open publication of the results. In this case it looks like the research should never have been undertaken because the potential harm is so catastrophic and the potential benefits from studying the virus so speculative.”

The Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam has served as the center for the controvertial H5N1 studies, as this was where attempts at learning how a virus that normally would not infect or spread among a human populace might become highly communicable. Tests performed on ferrets, which respond nearly identically to humans with the spread of influenza, showed that five mutations induced in the laboratory (hence the “H5″) allowed for the strain to become airborne in its virality.

At present, two scientific journals plan to publish information about the mutated strain, though officials have asked that information regarding the specific processes induced in the lab that allowed the mutations be redacted, so that those with ill intent may not have access to the information necessary to simulate the outcome of this highly dangerous synthesis. Then again, there have been some pretty strange things that have appeared in scientific journals recently… hopefully the information regarding H5N1 that is released will not allow any potentials for the spread of dangerous infectious disease, especially where no threat had (or perhaps ever would have) existed previously.

One of the most bizarre, not to mention flat out terrifying, mysteries of the modern age concerns the enigmatic deaths of nine Russian mountaineers whose cross-country skiing trip ended in a tragedy so ghastly and perplexing that it has mystified experts for over half a century.

Excursions into nature can be serene for some and exhilarating for others, but for an unfortunate few these sojourns into the untouched wilds of our world can be tragic. Still other such journeys into the unknown end in such unfathomably frightening circumstances that they become the stuff of legend. Such is the destiny that befell nine ill-fated skiing enthusiasts in the late 1950s.

Unlike so many of the most intriguing mysteries of the 20^th Century — including the fate of the crew of the Ourang Medan or the whereabouts of the missing Anjikuni Villagers of Canada — What makes the so-called “Dyatlov Pass Incident” so fascinating is the fact that there is absolutely no doubt that these events actually occurred… and dreadfully little doubt that one of the last sensations experienced by these poor souls was one of abject terror.

The proof of this tragedy exists not only in the plethora of photographs that have been preserved, but also in the extensive records (many of which are still allegedly classified) of the Soviet military who investigated the odd case and were manifestly unable to reach any definitive conclusions despite an overwhelming amount of physical evidence. In fact, the investigators tasked with solving this case were eventually forced to attribute the whole peculiar affair to: “a compelling unknown force.”

But, before we go any further; like any good mystery we must begin at the beginning…

TEN LITTLE SKIERS

On January 25, 1959, one ski instructor, three engineers and seven students from the former Soviet Union’s Ural Polytechnic Institute, located in the city then known as Sverdlovsk, boarded a train and embarked on a journey to the nearby Otorten Mountain range, which is nestled in the northern Urals, for a strenuous cross-country skiing expedition.

The leader of the excursion was an enthusiastic 23 year-old by the name of Igor Dyatlov — for whom the notorious Pass would eventually be named — who had assembled a crack team of male and female skiers with the intention that this arduous trip would serve as a training exercise for a future expedition to the more difficult and treacherous Arctic regions.

As the group of seasoned skiers left the train station and hopped a truck headed toward their very own “Alpine in the Urals,” one of the team members, Yury Yudin, fell ill and was forced to remain behind at the settlement of Vizhai, which was the last outpost before the Otorten range.

Yudin hugged his comrades goodbye and with envy watched them leave… scarcely could he imagine at the time that he would the lucky one.

Later in life Yudin would claim that the one thing that had haunted him the most over the years was not being able to discover what kind of diabolical force stole the lives of his friends; a fate he would have shared were it not for his unexpected illness. According to Yudin:

 “If I had a chance to ask God just one question, it would be, ‘What really happened to my friends that night?’”

Two day after embarking on their adventure, the nine remaining athletes — including engineers Rustem Slobodin, Georgyi Krivonischenko and Nicolas Thibeaux-Brignollel, as well as students Yuri Doroshenko, Zinaida Kolmogorova, Lyudmila Dubinina and ski instructor and guide, Alexander Zolotarev — all followed Dyatlov toward the first stop on their long and grueling journey, the Gora Otorten mountain.

The date was January 28, 1959. The team would never make it to their destination… and none of them would ever be seen alive again.

THE SEARCH BEGINS

On February 11, 1959, The Dyatlov Ski Team was supposed to arrive in Vizhai. Among their first orders of business, following a hot meal and a stiff drink, were to send their loved ones telegrams announcing the success of their mission.

When no telegrams were received, most of the team’s family members were not concerned, realizing that journeys like this rarely end on schedule, but when over a week went by with no word from the skiers, their relatives began to demand that the Ural Polytechnic Institute organize a search and rescue operation, which they did posthaste.

Within days it became clear that the institute’s ground based initiative would not be able to produce any results on their own and that was when both military and civilian authorities got involved in the search.  Military planes and helicopters were swiftly dispatched to the area and it was on February 25, that a pilot first spotted something curious on a mountainside below.

A MYSTERY IS BORN:

The next day the search party — including fellow Polytechnic student Mikhail Sharavin — made their way up to an abandoned encampment on the eastern slope of a mountain listed as “1079.”

The foreboding peak is better known to the indigenous Mansi tribesmen as “Kholat Syakhl,” which (prophetically perhaps) translates from their native tongue as the “Mountain of the Dead.”

The would-be rescuers discovered a badly damaged tent and a plethora of footprints made by what appeared to be at least eight different people radiating out from the devastated tent. Sharavin then described the state of the large tent that the skiers all shared:

“We discovered that the tent was half torn down and covered with snow. It was empty, and all the group’s belongings and shoes had been left behind.”

The search party members quickly realized that the tracks consisted of either bare or sock clad feet and, in one case, a single shoe. Two sets of prints led down a slope toward a densely forested area, but the tracks were covered by snow roughly 1,500 feet away from the tent.

Sharavin followed the trail and found the remains of a fire beneath a looming, ancient pine… and with it something much worse.

Near the long dead fire were the frozen remains of team members Doroshenko and Krivonischenko. The searchers noted with utter bewilderment that even though the men were well within range of the now ravaged tent both men were naked and shoeless, save for their underwear. The investigators also saw that the branches of the old pine had been snapped off up to a height of almost 15-feet.

Forensic tests later confirmed that traces of skin were found embedded in the bark, indicating that the pair had frantically attempted to climb the tree, snapping off branches until their hands were mass of pulpy flesh.

At this point the searchers no doubt began to wonder what manner of “beast” could scare these men so much that they abandoned their clothes, despite the freezing cold, and tore the skin from their palms in a desperate attempt to get to safety. The fact that there were no evident animal tracks and that they had the time to try and start a fire, combined with the fact that the bodies of the men remained untouched only heighted the searchers puzzlement.

Not long after the party found the bodies of Doroshenko and Krivonischenko, they stumbled across the corpse of team leader Dyatlov nearly 900-feet away from the other cadavers, but somewhat closer to the tent. Dyatlov was on his back; one hand was clinging to an undersized birch tree branch while his other hand, locked in ice and rigor mortis, appeared to be protecting his head from some unknown assailant.

Half buried in the snow not far from the tent was the body of Rustem Slobodin, which rescuers found lying face down in the snow. Slobodin’s skull bore a deep fracture nearly 7-inches long; nevertheless medical experts later determined that the most likely cause death was hypothermia, which only compounded the befuddlement of the volunteer and military search party participants.

The carcass of Zinaida Kolmogorov was turned up the furthest away from the group. Traces of blood were found near her corpse, yet it was not revealed if she was its source, although that conclusion would seem likely. The rescuers could not understand why there was no evidence of a struggle.

The party continued their efforts to locate the rest of the team, but a lengthy search for the remaining members turned up nothing. The men on the site could not comprehend why a group of experienced skiers would dash half-naked into the bitter cold of the forest in the black of night. Nor could they fathom the kind of terror that must have inspired these young people to act so recklessly.

Even more perplexing was the fact that the searchers, after inspecting the severely damaged tent, came to the conclusion that the material had been torn from the inside, as if its occupants had been frantic to escape from something that was already sealed in the tent with them or were in such a rush that unclasping the tent from the inside was not an option!

Amidst the broken wood, shredded canvas and debris of the ravaged tent, investigators discovered rolls of undeveloped film and the journals of a few of the expedition members, but rather than helping to illuminate the truth, these finds would only add more layers to this already dense mystery.

MAY 4, 1959:

After two months of fruitless searching, the spring thaw finally set in and the weather let up enough to reveal the corpses of the missing team members in a ravine situated some 225-feet from the pine that served as an arboreal memorial to Doroshenko and Krivonischenko.

The four lost skiers — instructor Alexander Zolotaryov, engineer Nicolas Thibeaux-Brignollel and students Alexander Kolevatov and Ludmila Dubinina — were discovered buried beneath 12-feet of snow and ice. All had apparently succumbed to brutal internal injuries. Unlike their friends who had perished above, these victims were all fully dressed.

As in the case of Slobodin, Thibeaux -Brignollel’s skull showed evidence of having been struck by a heavy object. Zolotarev and Dubunina’s chests had been crushed inward, shattering several ribs and causing massive internal damage. Strangely there were no indications of what may have caused this severe trauma and, even more bizarrely, the corpses showed no signs of bruising or soft tissue damage.

Doctor Boris Vozrozhdenny, who inspected the bodies, stated that the force with which these corpses were hit exceeded that capable by man and went on to claim that the damage: “…was equal to the effect of a car crash.”

The searchers were startled to observe that Dubinina’s head was tilted back; her stretched mouth wide as if emitting a silent scream. Upon closer inspection the rescuers realized that her tongue had been ripped out by the root.

They also noted that at some point these poor individuals had either exchanged or stolen the clothing off their comrades as Dubinina’s foot was swaddled in a tattered piece of Krivonishenko’s wool pants and Zolotaryov was found wearing Dubinina’s faux fur hat and coat. The searchers were unsure if this was the result of dressing too swiftly in a dark tent or a case of scavenging articles of clothing from deceased teammates.

At the funerals that soon followed the discovery of the bodies, many family members claimed that the skin of the deceased bore an unnatural orange color and, even more disturbingly, most reports insisted that their hair had lost its pigmentation and was a dull shade of grey. Skeptics claim that the orange skin was caused by exposure and that the hair had not lost its color, but it’s interesting that so many of the bereaved relatives took the time to notice these strange features.

As if all of this were not odd enough, some of the articles of clothing found on the bodies were measured as emitting higher than normal levels of radiation.

THE INVESTIGATION:

The compounding enigmas surrounding this fantastic case, combined with the youth and popularity of the victims, sent Soviet investigators into overdrive.

The first thing they did was to try and reconstruct the series of events that led to the Dyatlov Ski Teams shocking demise with the help of the journals and film rolls discovered at the scene.

The primary mystery that faced them was why Dyatlov and his team would have chosen to make camp on an exposed mountain face when a detour of less than a mile would have afforded them some shelter from the harsh Russian elements.

It would be Yudin — the only team member to survive thanks to a timely illness — who would shed light on this question:

“Dyatlov probably did not want to lose the distance they had covered, or he decided to practice camping on the mountain slope.”

The photos developed from the rolls of film found in the tent revealed that the expedition members had set up camp on February 2, at approximately 5:00 pm. on the slope of Kholat-Syakhl, in order to get out of the inclement weather. The group had cleared the tree line and was a mere 10-miles from the first destination on their long trek, Gora Otorten. In the photos they all looked healthy and jovial.

Investigators came to the conclusion that sometime around 7:00 pm. the team ate a meal and not long thereafter members began to settle down for the night. The temperature on the slope was less than five degrees Fahrenheit, which has always made investigators wonder why it was that so many of the skiers were in a state of undress. Whatever their reasons may have been, most researchers agree that at this point everything was relatively normal.

Forensic pathologists later estimated that the events which ultimately led to the untimely deaths of the skiers must have occurred somewhere between 9.30 and 11.30pm. They based this speculation on the undigested food found in the stomachs of the victims. At this point military investigators began piecing this puzzle together to the best of their ability. What follows is, in their best estimation, what occurred:

THE TIMELINE OF A TRAGEDY:

The investigators speculated that sometime before midnight on February 2, the skiers were frightened by an “unknown event.” Members of the team managed to cut or rip through the fabric of the tent in a frantic attempt to escape whatever might have been attacking or approaching them and in their haste they burst out into the icy night mostly unclothed and in a state of sheer panic.

Being experienced skiers and mountaineers, the group must have been fully aware of the fact that they would not be able to survive long in the frigid wastes without protection. This indicated to the investigators that the team must have been convinced that they were facing mortal peril and had opted to flee for their lives.

The generally bare tracks found in the deep snow implied that the team had initially scrambled outward in all directions, but that they managed to rejoin one another down the incline about 900-feet away from the now shredded tent. Investigators then surmised that the group then huddled for safety beneath the large pine that Doroshenko and Krivonischenko tried so desperately to climb.

At this point the investigators speculated that an attempt was made by teammates to share clothes, but the states of undress that so many of the victims were found in would seem to indicate otherwise. Still the evidence suggests that the group, obviously terrified by the prospect of returning to their tent, manage to gather enough kindling to start a fire.

The agents on the case then begin to wonder of if Doroshenko and Krivonischenko’s efforts to climb the tree were a futile attempt at escape or if they might have been trying to gain a better vantage point to see if their tent, which was much higher up on the slope, was still under siege by whatever unknown menace had compelled them to take flight.

At some point during the night investigators proposed that Doroshenko and Krivonischenko likely had succumbed to exposure. It was then that three members of the team — Kolmogorova, Slobodin and Dyatlov — determined that braving whatever it was that had apparently infested the tent was preferable to dying of hypothermia. Resolute (and almost certainly terrified) the exhausted trio attempted to make their way back up the slope — none of them would make it.

With their young leader out of sight one can only assume that the remaining team members Zolotaryov, Thibeaux-Brignollel, Kolevatov and Dubinina hoped for the best, but expected the worst. Likely terrified beyond belief the four remain survivors strip whatever they can from the corpses of their comrades… and almost certainly pray for daylight.

Fearing that their friends are all dead, investigators hypothesized that Zolotaryov, Thibeaux-Brignollel, Kolevatov and Dubinina decided to move nearer to the forest in hopes of finding some kind of shelter. Somewhere along this journey and eventual descent into a nearby ravine the remaining teammates would sustain their fatal internal injuries, but investigators could not find an obvious cause.

The first to perish, according to forensics reports, was Thibeaux-Brignollel. Within hours he was followed by Kolevatov and Dubinina. Zolotarev would be the last to expire from a combination of internal trauma and hypothermia. It was not clear if the removal of Dubinina’s tongue occurred postmortem or if it contributed to her demise.

When all was said and done, the final survivor died less than eight hours after the initial event. As with everything else in this case, the discovery of the missing team members offered more questions than answers, and the most important one was…

WHAT HAPPENED?

While investigators were able to piece together much of what happened that terrible evening from the physical evidence left at the scene, the primary questions remained unanswered; firstly what could have possibly have frightened these athlete caliber skiers so badly that they were willing to freeze to death rather than confront it… and secondly, what (if anything) lethally injured the remaining survivors?

Despite the popularity of the region, for 3-years following this harrowing event the pass was closed to outdoorsmen, hikers and skiers. This was, presumably, to avert the same terrifying fate from befalling anyone else.

This proves how seriously authorities took this case, but after months of dead ends and disappointments the case was closed and the files were sent to what many allege was a clandestine Soviet archive, but even though the final official word on the event was that the skiers fell to: “a compelling unknown force,” that does not mean that there weren’t plenty of theories floating around. The first supposition that the investigators proposed was that they were murdered by…

MANSI WARRIORS… AND GHOSTS:

The first theory offered up as grist for the rumor mill regarding the fates of the nine skiers was that they had unintentionally run afoul of some Mansi tribesman by trespassing into their territory and that these legendarily harsh Siberian natives had dispatched them accordingly. The theory goes something like this…

Mansi natives enraged by the intrusion of the team tear their way into the communal tent and force the mostly disrobed skiers down the slope, where they build a fire.  After Doroshenko and Krivonischenko perish, Dyatlov, Slobodin and Kolmogorova desperately try and make their way toward what’s left of their tent. Slobodin’s skull is crushed by the butt of a rifle or some other heavy object, knocking him cold. He and his friends then succumb to the elements.

Following the deaths of their compatriots, Zolotaryov, Thibeaux-Brignollel, Kolevatov and Dubinina are compelled to balance on the steep precipice of the ravine wherein their bodies were found the following spring. Thibeaux-Brignollel is wounded with perhaps the same blunt instrument that claimed Slobodin’s  life and Dubinina’s screams prove to be so annoying that one of the Mansi throws her to the ground, breaks her ribs with his knee and forcibly removes her tongue to prevent her from shrieking.

They are both thrown into the ravine, followed by Zolotarev and Alexander Kolevatov. At this point the Mansi leave the interlopers for dead… or so this admittedly dubious theory goes anyway.

Military investigators were swift to dispel this rumor, stating that the damage done to the corpses were inconsistent with an attack by a human being. Some modern day researchers have suggested that the Soviets may have concealed evidence of a Mansi attack in order to avoid a distracting and potentially costly confrontation with the Mansi on their own oil rich soil, which they hoped to exploit.

To even the armchair investigator — a clan of which I am a proud member — it would seem that the total absence of bullet wounds in the victims, combined with the utter lack of footprints, essentially rules out the Mansi as potential suspects in this heinous crime.Add to this the fact that the groups’ provisions were left untouched and we can all but totally dismiss the circumstantial case again these aboriginal hunters

As if that weren’t enough evidence to exonerate these native Siberians, there is conclusive proof that the Mansi assisted in the hunt for the missing skiers. Regardless of how sound the Soviet’s motivation may have been for covering up a Mansi attack, the evidence simply does not bear out this hypothesis.

Intriguingly, Mansi legend has it that Kholat-Syakhl received it’s ominous name after nine Mansi warriors had mysteriously perished on the same peak years before. This has led some investigators to surmise that the region might be cursed or infested by ancient and malicious spirits, but for the most part the mountain was not considered to be a particularly sacred region by the Mansi.

So if we rule out the indigenous human culprits as well as undead ones, then perhaps we should (like so many before us) look to the skies and wonder whether or not the Dyatlov Team might have fallen prey to an…

ALIEN ATTACK:

Like all classic 20^th Century mysteries involving groups of missing persons or enigmatic deaths, someone, somewhere is bound to blame strange flying saucers and their insidious occupants for the crime and this case proved to be no different.

According to archived reports, Lev Ivanov, the lead Soviet investigator on the case, collected a report from a group of hikers suggesting that something extraterrestrial might have resulted in the Dyatlov Team’s tragic demise.

The hikers were camping in an area about 32-miles south of Kholat-Syakhl on the night in question when they spied a series of “strange orange spheres” in the northern sky.  It’s worth noting that during the next month and a half other residents of the area report similar anomalous aerial phenomenon.

Ivanov himself believed that these spheres might have been involved with the unusual deaths. In a 1990 interview, Ivanov claimed that he had been ordered to close the case and classify the findings as secret.

He stated that officials were worried that reports of U.F.O.s in the area by multiple eyewitnesses — including members of both the military and weather service — could result in some unnecessary speculation. In an interview with a small Soviet newspaper, Ivanov was alleged to have stated:

“I suspected at the time, and am almost sure now, that these bright flying spheres had a direct connection to the group’s death.”

Ivanov speculated that one of the skiers might have spotted the U.F.O.s and that his or her cries might have panicked the other team members into rushing out just as one of the vehicles exploded above, sending them all fleeing in terror. He even speculated that the concussive blast may be what had cracked Slobodin’s skull. I feel compelled to add that the removal of the tongue is one of the most common features in cattle mutilations, but that seems to be a sketchy link at best.

Other “evidence” that researchers claim is evidence of alien interaction is the allegedly orange flesh and grey hair found on the victims — a point which is hotly debated — and the fact that some of the team members were wearing clothes contaminated with a low level of radiation.

While it’s certainly impressive that the head of the Dyatlov investigation supported this theory, and the anomalous radiation readings are intriguing, it seems as if we might be yet again casting unwarranted aspersions upon our intergalactic brethren. While there can be little doubt that there was some kind of bizarre object soaring in the skies above the Urals that night, perhaps it was not from out of this world, but an all too terrestrial…

MILITARY EXPERIMENT GONE AWRY:

This conjecture supposes that the Soviet government was conducting a highly classified test of an unknown weapon on the secluded slopes of Kholat-Syakhl and that — either by intention or accident — the ski team fell prey to this monstrously powerful weapon.

One of the biggest proponents of this theory was the only surviving member of the team, Yudin. Yudin believed that his friends inadvertently entered a covert military testing ground and had paid for it with their lives. He speculated that this was why the military had been so secretive about the investigation and that it also explained his comrades’ irradiated clothing.

After all of the evidence had been collected, the searchers asked for Yudin’s help in identifying who the objects found at the site belonged to. He said that he saw in the mix of his friend’s possessions a torn swathe of fabric that resembled a piece of a soldier’s coat as well as a pair of glasses and skis that had not belonged to any of the team members.

This proof — combined with the fact that Yudin testified to seeing documents that indicated the actual investigation had begun two weeks before the camp’s “official” discovery — compelled him to claim that the military had discovered the camp before the volunteer search party arrived. Yudin also claimed that he knew for a fact that: “there were special boxes with their organs sent for examination,” but this was not reflected in any of the papers that were released.

Be that as it may, the fact remains that the search party found no indication on any explosion on or near the campsite at Kholat-Syakhl. There is also no record of any missile launches in the region, but even in the 21^st Century records of clandestine Soviet military operations are still few and far between.

But if we’re dealing with a hazardous unidentified weapon there’s no reason to assume it was explosive. Perhaps there was a bacteriological or chemical spray released that resulted in their panic and eventual demise. A few have even suggested, due to the haphazard method they used in building the fire, that they were blinded by a bright flash, but most researchers do not agree with this assumption

There are also some who believe that it might have been some kind of experimental sonic weapon that employed Infrasound, which has been known to cause feelings from dread to outright panic in humans. Since this sound is inaudible in a classic sense, many people who have been subjected to Infrasound experiments claim to feel that some manner of paranormal force is at work.

This would frankly explain a lot, but that doesn’t change the fact that there’s absolutely no proof to support this assumption. Bringing this back down to Earth… literally… there are those who feel that the team may well have surrendered to…

AVALANCHE PARANOIA:

The eastern face of Kholat-Syakhl is a potentially disastrous avalanche zone and while these intrepid mountaineers chose to brave the slope rather than retreat to the safety of the forest, it seems indubitable that they were keeping one ear open for any tell tale signs of an avalanche.

While there is no evidence supporting the theory that the skiers were caught in even a small avalanche, there are a few who suspect that they might have heard a strange rumbling sound during the night, which led them to believe an avalanche was imminent and in their haste to escape they cut their tent and ran half-naked into the 3-foot deep snow drifts.

While this is a distinct possibility, one would envision that the manifest lack of falling rocks and snow would be enough to compel the team to return to their torn tent to patch it up and bundle up in the clothing they left behind. Investigators have reported that the base of the pine tree where the group gathered was just out of sight of the tent, but I find it difficult to imagine that these seasoned skiers would run that far and never look behind them.

Beyond that, “avalanche panic” doesn’t account for the extensive injuries suffered by so many team members. Still, the one element of this mystery that is universally agreed upon is that the frenetic condition in which the  team members ripped, then abandoned their tent indicates that they were genuinely afraid. The biggest question has always been “what caused this fear?” and some have suggested that the Dyatlov crew might of had a nasty run-in with a…

VICIOUS SIBERIAN YETI:

Although the evidence for this supposition is scant to say the least, there are some who have proposed that the skiers fell victim to the notoriously territorial wild man of Siberia, known to locals as the Almas. They speculate that the terrifying roar of the beast might have sent the team into a panic, resulting in their poorly prepared escape into the snow.

The two primary reasons for the existence of this theory are the seemingly inexplicable impact wounds found on the skulls and torsos of nearly half of the corpses and an as yet unverified piece of paper that was allegedly discovered near the campsite which read:

“From now on we know there are snowmen.”

While the crypto-dork in me salivates at the idea of lumbering, ape-like beasts dwelling in the dark and forested nether regions of our ever shrinking world, the evidence in this case simply does not support the involvement of hairy hominids. The first and most obvious point is that amidst all the manmade tracks that the searchers found, there is no way a pair of gargantuan, bare prints would have gone undetected.

Secondly, while a punch from a Bigfoot-like beast could most assuredly shatter ones ribcage, why would these commonly gentle giants choose to attack some in the group, while allowing others to succumb to the elements? It might be suggested that they were hurling large rocks from a distance, as these creatures are sometimes known to do, but if that were the case then where was the debris when the searchers arrived? Finally the existence of the note itself is highly debatable and most researchers dismiss the entire theory. I’m inclined to agree.

A LEGEND IS BORN

In 1967, journalist Yuri Yarovoi wrote a novel about this enduring mystery titled: “Of the highest rank of complexity.” Yarovoi had served as the official photographer for the Dyatlov Ski Team search party, so he was privy to inside information. Nevertheless, many modern investigators think that due to the fact that the book was published in an era when Cold War tensions were running high and secrecy was the rule rather than the exception, the likelihood that this book told the full story was not very good.

Regardless of how revealing Yarovoi’s book may actually have been — and he conceded that it was a “dramatization” of the actual events, with a much more happy ending — it did manage to lay the groundwork for the legend that would eventually creep its way past the Iron Curtain and into the outside world.

Yarovoi’s colleagues would later reveal that he had written alternative (and ostensibly more authentic) versions of the novel, but his first two attempts were scratched by Soviet censorship. Sadly, following Yarovoi’s death in 1980, his photos, diaries and manuscripts were, conveniently perhaps, lost.

In 1990, author Anatoly Guschin had been granted “special permission” to study the original files of the Dyatlov inquest for a book he wanted to write about the incident. He later reported that scores of pages had been removed from the files, including an “envelope” mentioned in the evidence list. What this envelope was supposed to contain (or if it ever really existed) remains just one of the many mysteries surrounding these events.

In his book: “The price of state secrets is nine lives,” Guschin speculated that the team had fallen victim to a “Soviet secret weapon experiment.” While his theory was just as controversial as the rest, Guschin’s reintroduced this mystery to a brand new generation of curiosity seekers and the floodgates were thrown open with literally hundreds of articles and documentaries following in its wake, including a 2011 segment on the History Channel’s hit program “Ancient Aliens.”

CONCLUSION

So what really happened to these nine poor souls? For over half a century forensics experts, scientists, military officials and amateur investigators have scratched their collective heads over this eerie enigma… and it doesn’t seem as if any answers are forthcoming.

On February 2, 2008, an investigative conference was organized by Ural State Technical University and the Dyatlov Foundation. The six surviving members of the original search party as well as 31 technical experts assembled in Yekaterinburg, Russia, to look at the evidence and determine the actual fate of the Dyatlov Ski Team. After much deliberation the panel concluded that their deaths were likely the unintended result of a secret military test. Needless to say there are many who disagree with this conclusion.

Regardless of the fact that the victims’ grey hair may be an exaggeration or that the radiation readings might be dismissed due to mild exposure to Radium or Radon in one of the Polytechnic Institute’s many laboratories, the fact is that nine experienced hikers were thrust into such a terrified state that they literally doomed themselves in an effort to escape a fate that they believed would be even more horrendous that freezing to death on an icy mountain slope… what could do that?

In the end we must never forget that this is first and foremost a tragedy in which nine young lives were tragically cut short, with little more than a memorial stone and a rusted plaque to commemorate the terrible loss. Almost as sad is the fact that none of their families were offered the dubious consolation of knowing why it was there loved ones had perished in such a frightening fashion.

There are many who would attribute this mystery to little more than a mundane series of unfortunate mishaps that resulted in nine sorrowful deaths, but these were experienced skiers and it seems unlikely that they would all follow such a foolhardy path. Now, despite generations of effort to debunk and demystify this extraordinary event, the “Dyatlov Pass Incident” remains one of the great mysteries of the 20^th Century…  and one of the most frightening true life campfire stories I’ve ever encountered.

The deep, shadow shrouded jungles of South America are rife with carnivorous predators rarely seen by the human eye, but as intimidating as the creatures lurking in the dense rain forests of this mysterious continent may be, the arid plains of northern Chile are said to harbor a colony of chillingly bizarre beasts, which are quite unlike anything supposed to be living on the Earth.

Situated in the northernmost portion of Chile, less than 12-miles away from the port city of Arica, is a sprawling swathe of red sand desert known as Pampa Acha. The only real nod to the existence of humanity in this desolate region is the Pan-American Highway, which twists through this barren wasteland like an asphalt serpent.

It was on this lonesome stretch of road that in July of 2004, an army sub-officer with the “Cazadores” regiment named Carlos Abett de la Torre, his wife Teresa, their three children and a nephew would have a harrowing encounter with a group of fantastic creatures, which seemed to jump straight out of the pages of an ancient bestiary.

THE TORRE FAMILY AND THE GARGOYLES:

At approximately 7:00 pm. on the day in question, the Torre family packed into Carlos’ pick-up truck and departed from their quarters in Fuerte Baquedano, which is located in the military community of Pozo Almonte, heading toward Arica to visit some relatives.

Knowing full well that he was in for long and monotonous drive with a car full of children, Carlos gamely threw the truck into gear and began motoring down the same highway he had been traveling for the better part of 25 years.

About two hours into their journey, Carlos was cruising at about 65-miles per hour through the Pampa Acha approximately 20-miles south of Arica. The road ahead was illuminated not only by the pick-up’s headlamps, but the bright moon that hovered above them in the cloudless sky. That was when Carlos’ eldest daughter, Carmen, noticed a pair of extraordinary entities through the back window of the vehicle. According to Carmen she was astounded to see two creatures leisurely “floating” in the skies above. In her own words:

“I was traveling in the backseat with my brothers, talking, and suddenly everything went dark. Then I told my brother what I was seeing and he told me to keep quiet, because Mom gets nervous. Later I looked through the window and saw some things that looked like birds, with dogs’ heads and back swept wings. My father said they were like gargoyles.”

Carmen later estimated that the strange airborne critters that flew over her father’s pick-up truck were at least 6-feet in length and she admitted that at first she wasn’t sure if the creatures had wings or legs, but that the appendages were angled toward the rear of the creatures.

Carmen and her brother watched as the outlandish animals paced the truck, afraid to speak, lest they panic their anxiety prone mother. But their efforts were wasted as Teresa, who sat next to Carlos in the front seat, would catch sight of the peculiar avian duo through the windshield just moments later.

From her vantage point Teresa was afforded the best view of these anomalous animals, which the press would quote her as saying resembled “dog-faced kangaroos.” She claimed that the “gargoyles” seemed to match the speed of the truck, occasionally slipping ahead, then falling back, never traveling more than 60-feet from the vehicle.

By this point Carlos and the rest of his frightened brood were all stealing skyward glances and catching glimpses of these soaring evolutionary nightmares. He accelerated the truck, praying under his breath, terrified of the fate that might befall him and his family if these creatures decided to swoop down and attack their vehicle. The Torre family was in such a state of shock that none of them spoke. Carmen described the scene:

“We were speechless for some ten minutes [then] my Mom told us to react, and then we started discussing what we’d seen.”

Just when the Torre family was growing accustomed to the flying fiends above, another pair of the same species leapt in front of the truck on strong hind legs, which were shorter than their upper legs.  Carlos managed to avert a collision with these land bound “gargoyles” and increased the pick-up’s speed, eventually leaving all four of the beasts behind.

When Torre family safely arrived in Arica they told their relatives about their bizarre sightings, but swore them to secrecy, concerned that the public ridicule which might follow the unveiling of their tale would somehow damage the military career of the family’s patriarch.

Although their sojourn with their extended family was enjoyable, it goes without saying that the entire Torre clan was anxious about the trip home.

Teresa even conceded: “We were terrified to go back,” but, much like every other journey Carlos had taken through Pampa Acha, the expedition proved to be mercifully uneventful.

Once back on base in Pozo Almonte, the Torre family honored their oath of silence, but when another sub-officer, Diego Riquelme, claimed to have encountered a dinosaur-like creature on the same stretch of road a few weeks later they decided to come clean.

Needless to say it wasn’t long before the press got wind of these bizarre stories and began churning out articles about the monsters seen on the Pan-American Highway. Soon after the story broke Scott Corrales of the Institute of Hispanic Ufology translated the story for the English speaking world.

The usually open minded Chilean press was quick to claim that the eyewitnesses were likely seeing nothing more than ostriches, which must have escaped from a local breeder. The fact ostriches are flightless and that none of the birds were reported missing in the area was ignored by the media.

It also seems unlikely that seven individual eyewitnesses would confuse ostriches for either on the wing gargoyles or prehistoric reptiles, regardless of how unbelievable the alternative may be. So if these observers were not bearing witness to bird refuge escapees, then the question remains…

WHAT ARE THESE THINGS?

It’s a fair question considering that the list of dog headed, bat winged, kangaroo legged and potentially reptilian creatures that stand over 6-feet tall is not a large one… In fact, nothing like that should exist, nevertheless let’s keep an open mind and look at few of our options here. I have to admit that when I first stumbled across this report my initial thought was that the eyewitness descriptions were akin to reports of the infamous…

CHUPACABRA

For reasons difficult to discern the description of the notorious blood sucking chupacabra — it’s name is Spanish for “goat sucker,” which was initially said to be its favorite prey — has varied wildly since the first reports of these beasts emerged from Puerto Rico in the mid-1990s.

Nowadays many people believe that the mangy coy dogs so often videotaped near the Texas/Mexico border represent chupacabra, but these sickly canine creatures are nothing like the classic depictions of these ferocious fiends.

Initially chupacabra were described as being semi- reptilian beasts with Kangaroo legs, upon which it could leap astounding distances. These creatures were also said to have canine (and occasionally feline) features, large fangs and, very often, bat-like wings. A forked tongue and porcupine-like spines were also commonly seen attributes. All versions of this creature were said to live on the blood of animals.

The above description sounds a lot like the “dog faced gargoyles” described by the Torres and Riquelme. In support of this hypothesis is the fact that since 2004 there have been sporadic reports hailing from South America regarding similar varmints, some of which have been allegedly spotted near scores of bird carcasses that were discovered to be devoid of blood.

While many people are of the mind that the late blooming, so to speak, of the chupacabra phenomenon is the result of it being either of alien extraction or the product of an American genetic experiment gone terribly awry, the thought that these gargoyles might be the origin for tales of the enigmatic chupacabra is an intriguing one. It’s also worth considering the fact that these critters seem to look a helluva’ lot like the…

NEW  JERSEY DEVIL

Although it is said to have hooves rather than coiled marsupial legs, the bat winged dog-like description of these gargoyles also seems to bear an uncanny resemblance to eyewitness accounts of the New Jersey Devil.

Nevertheless, the fact that the Jersey Devil is an ostensibly supernatural rather than traditionally cryptozoological entity, combined with the lack of any significant eyewitness accounts from outside the Pine Barrens, leads me to believe that this is just a farfetched shot in the dark.

Okay, so removing both the cryptozoological, paranormal and potentially ufological elements and look at some of South America’s indigenous fauna to see if we can come up with a culprit. There are a handful of options, but the character that seems to most fit the bill is…

VAMPYRUM SPECTRUM

Vampyrum Spectrum — also known as the Spectral or false vampire bat — is native to both South and Central America. This nocturnal predator ranges from Mexico to central Brazil and Peru. It is not only the largest bat found in the “New World,” but it is also the biggest carnivorous bat on the planet.

With its elongated nose and 3-foot wingspan it’s not entirely unreasonable to deduce that the Torre family spied a small group of these animals and assumed the worst. Granted the arid deserts of northern Chili are nothing like the prototypical habitat of deciduous forests and swampy areas where bunches of five Vampyrum Spectrum nest in hollow trees near bodies of water, but it is not that unusual for small colonies of creatures to occasionally stray from their usual environment for a variety of reasons.

One could also argue that a pair of gargantuan non-indigenous bats that are seen at night by young and inexperienced eyewitnesses may well appear to be larger than they are. Still, as convenient as a rogue population of bats might be in explaining away these events, they cannot account for the leaping, winged, kangaroo-like creatures that temporarily blocked the Torre’s path in full view of their truck’s headlights.

CONCLUSION:

So what is it that we are dealing with here? It seems fairly evident that if we are not contending with a mistaken identification or outright hoax, then these gargoyles must be either a variety of unknown flying mammal or perhaps a colossal species of heretofore undiscovered bat.

Strangely enough, according to both Carlos and the Carabineros — the uniformed Chilean national police force — there were no reports of strange creatures on the well traveled highway until 2004. Does this suggest a migratory pattern for these beasts or might we surmise that jungle deforestation or some other manner of likely human encroachment has forced these critters out of hiding and into the public eye?

Until one of the Chilean gargoyles is shot, captured or convincingly caught on film this mystery will no doubt endure… and if you ever find yourself traipsing around northern Chili at night, look to the skies… you never know what you’re going to see.

There are a number of ancient city sites throughout the world today, existing in remnants of lost metropolises and societies from the past, that boast curious, history-altering potential that are both incredible and terrifying. It seems very startling, for instance, that places like Mohenjo-daro, a once prosperous ancient city in modern day Pakistan, seems to bear trace evidence of some kind of cataclysmic event in it’s historic past that, even by today’s standards, remains difficult to explain.

Granted, if we are to utilize modern conventions available to us in the present day, a number of the peculiarities about this particular location can (and do) bear remarkable similarity to the aftermath of a nuclear explosion. The problem, of course, is to attempt to reconcile with the anomalies of places like Mohenjo-daro by asserting that nuclear explosions–the likes of which have been seen previously only at places like Hiroshima and Nagasaki during WWII–could have occurred thousands of years ago.

 While I’m hesitant, as many probably should be, to say there is definitive proof of nuclear weapons being used in ancient or even prehistoric times, I don’t think it can be argued that nuclear events of some variety–perhaps even naturally occurring–did occur in Earth’s distant past. In my latest contribution to the ongoing series of anthologies released by New Page Books, titled Exposed, Uncovered and Declassified: Lost Civilizations and Secrets of the Past, I chose to address this rather touchy subject specifically. This is both due to the fact that the idea of ancient societies with advanced technology has always fascinated me, as well as the fact that I do think that a wealth of information exists that can be directly linked with prehistoric nuclear events.

One interesting example of this is an article that was penned by researchers Richard B. Firestone and William Topping, titled “Terrestrial Evidence of a Nuclear Catastrophy in Paleoindian Times.” The article appeared in Mammoth Trumpet Magazine‘s March 2001 issue, and recounted curiously high levels of radiocarbon data gathered from the Great Lakes Region of the United States. According to the authors, “The entire Great Lakes region (and beyond) was subjected to particle bombardment and a catastrophic nuclear irradiation that produced secondary thermal neutrons from cosmic ray interactions.” Indeed, it was a wide scale nuclear event dating back to Paleo-Indian times, and though the authors speculate that a supernovae might have been the cause for the event in question, it remains uncertain exactly what else could account for such an anomaly.

While this event (which I’ll argue does prove that nuclear events, albeit natural ones) could have occurred in our prehistory, places like Harrappa and Mohenjo-daro in modern day Pakistan present a number of problems that aren’t so easily reconciled. In addition to the presence of vitrified stone, the likes of which was discovered after being melted by the intense heat of the atomic weapons used in Japan during WWII, there have also been stories regarding incredible levels of radiation among the bodies of those found at Mohenjo-daro. Russian munitions expert and researcher Alexander Gorbovsky wrote in 1966 that the radioactivity in question was, in fact, as much as fifty times higher than average.

What could possibly account for such strange circumstances at the excavations of ancient city sites and other locations? Can we chalk all such instances up to being random acts of nature… which conveniently appear to have targeted specific metropolises of the ancient world? Must we consider that our ancestors could have indeed harnessed the power of the atom thousands of years before the Manhattan project performed its tests at Alamogordo, or could there be other scenarios (even otherwordly in nature) that are at play here?

Numerous allegations and claims have been made about the famous 1969 flight to the Moon of NASA’s Apollo 11. They include that the astronauts saw UFOs on the way to the Moon, that alien spacecraft were seen and filmed on the surface of the Moon, and that the whole event was nothing but a well-orchestrated hoax. And the conspiratorial list goes on and on. But, there’s yet another issue that directly concerns the Moon landings and that was quietly planned for way back in 1969. This one, however, is very different to all of the above matters, but is certainly no less intriguing…

There is one particular aspect of the Apollo missions to the Moon that was shrouded in deep secrecy for decades. It is an aspect of the project that offers much support for the notion that the astronauts really did set foot on the surface of the Moon, which I, personally, do believe occurred. Although the Neil Armstrong-Buzz Aldrin-Michael Collins flight proved to be a spectacular and historic success, behind the scenes both NASA and the White House knew that this never before attempted mission was an extremely dicey one.

There was a very real possibility that it could all have ended in awful tragedy, with Armstrong and Aldrin left stranded on the surface of the Moon, and faced with an inevitable and rapid death; while Collins, orbiting above the lunar surface, would have been forced to make the terrible decision to leave his friends and comrades behind, and head back to the safety of the Earth, utterly alone.

As a result, and in the event that the fate of Armstrong and Aldrin might very well have been forever and cruelly sealed far away from home, a brief speech was secretly and quietly drawn up for then President Richard M. Nixon, should he be forced to reveal to the world and the media that the very worst case scenario really had tragically come to pass.

A July 18, 1969 document sent from Nixon aide William Safire to Nixon’s White House Chief of Staff, H.R. “Bob” Halderman, reveals the text of the this speech. Given the title of In Event of Moon Disaster, it began thus:

“Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace. These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice. These two men are laying down their lives in mankind’s most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding.”

The document continued: “They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown. In their exploration, they steered the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man. In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations.”

Its final words: “In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood. Others will follow and surely find their way home. Man’s search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts. For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of the world that is forever mankind.”

Thankfully, the speech was never needed during the course of any of the Apollo missions, and the secret documents languished in near obscurity, all but forgotten for decades.

Author’s Note: This is the last in a three-part series about Dan Mitchell of Wisconsin, U.S.A., and his struggle to identify the entity that’s haunted him throughout his life – the Harlequin. (Read Part Two Here)

The description of the Harlequin – the shape of the face, eyes, mouth and thin, androgynous body – are similar to reports of the traditional “grey” alien. Councilman Adrian Hicks of Winchester, Hampshire, England, saw the Harlequin in February 2004 and is convinced the entity is extraterrestrial. Hicks walked down High Street at 1:30 p.m. on a Saturday when he saw a blonde-haired girl in a white ballet dress, but what set the girl off from the crowd was her walk. Hicks described the woman as a “humanoid” that walked “with a penguin-like gait,” and was taking keen interest in everyday objects, like a bank clock. “Most definitely an alien,” Hicks said. “I watched her for a very good eight minutes plus.”

Although the street was busy that winter day and Hicks reported someone taking pictures of her, no one else has come forth to say they saw the girl in the ballet costume, Andrew Napier, chief reporter of the Hampshire Chronicle, said. Napier was the first person to interview Hicks about his encounter. “Despite lots of publicity in the local papers and websites, no one has come forward to corroborate what Mr. Hicks said he saw,” Napier said.

However, the drawing made of the entity Hicks saw made an impression on Mitchell. “The likeness in his drawing was the spitting image of what we have here, the collar was identical,” Mitchell said. “I recall he said that someone got pictures of this thing. I’d pay to see those, I really would. Hopefully someone might know something or have a similar story in all of this. Time will tell. I’ve been taking my camera with me everywhere I go.”

Hilary Porter of BEAMS, the British Earth and Aerial Mysteries Society, said she’s convinced Hicks saw an extraterrestrial. “I feel this is a real encounter and that he is an honest and sincere person,” Porter said. “It must have taken some courage to go public with this, even though others saw her, too.” Porter lives about 30 miles from the site of Hicks’ encounter, and the area is rife with paranormal occurrences. “It is an ancient place with prehistoric burial mounds,” she said. “There have been UFO cases and alien activity for Winchester down the years.”

Karen Totten, who grew up near St. Louis, Missouri, also saw a Harlequin-like entity in the 1970s and, like Hicks, she’s sure it was not of this earth. “I was 17. I was working in a small convenience store when a woman came in to buy cigarettes,” she said. “At first I didn’t pay any attention to her until I saw her hand when she handed me the money.” The woman was small, about five-feet-tall, and thin. But her hand was spindly, white and not like a human hand. Startled, Totten looked up and saw a pale human-like entity wearing a black raincoat with the collar turned up to cover her neck. The entity’s heavy, long wig covered her ears and most of her face, and it wore large black “Jackie O” sunglasses. “This did not entirely hide her strange face,” Totten said. “(She had) a very pointed chin, scant lip and nose. She did not speak.”

The entity took the cigarettes she’d paid for and left. “I was kinda stunned,” Totten said. “Her head was not overly large in comparison to her body, but other details, like her hand, her facial features, were not human looking.”

The Harlequin next door

When Dan Mitchell and his wife moved from their southern Wisconsin three-bedroom townhouse, they kept in touch with their neighbors. In 2010, when Mitchell’s wife called to announce they were moving back into the townhouse in early March, she found someone had been looking for them. “The woman who lives there with her husband she says that her and her husband were up watching a movie (February 5),” Mitchell said. “She had a pizza in the oven and when the timer went off she goes into the kitchen to take it out.” Someone was waiting for her. “Once she gets to the kitchen she is horrified to see a strange woman standing in her kitchen,” Mitchell said. “She says that she knew she heard something, but thought it was the cats. It didn’t sound like the door even opened.” Mitchell’s neighbor said the woman in the kitchen looked like she was wearing a disguise. Blonde hair, big sunglasses, “and overall she was just weird looking.” She also held a key. “She says something like, ‘I have this key for the house next door (Mitchell’s townhouse). I tried it but it didn’t work. I have the wrong key because it opens (Mitchell’s neighbor’s) door,’” Mitchell said.

The couple demanded the woman leave, and she did. “They lock the door behind her and start to run around to the windows to see if she is getting into a car,” Mitchell said. “They wanted a license plate so they can tell the police.” But there was no car and the woman seemed to have disappeared. “They called the landlord and he came out to change the locks the next day,” Mitchell said. “The landlord says he never gave anybody the keys to the houses and has no idea how it could have happened.” The encounter has rattled Mitchell’s neighbor. “She tells me that she can’t sleep at night and wants to buy a big dog to have in the house after what happened,” Mitchell said. Mitchell is convinced this woman trying to get into his townhouse is the sexless, moon-eyed entity that’s plagued his life. “I am starting to suspect that perhaps I am being tracked down,” he said. “I can’t say that there is anything malevolent going on around here, but there is something odd and disturbing.”

It is generational

The Harlequin isn’t finished with Dan Mitchell; it’s getting at Mitchell through is children. “While we were eating breakfast my daughter who just turned four said, ‘A guy came in my room last night and he got in my head,’” Mitchell said. “My heart sank a bit and I can’t know for certain that this means anything. My son has also made mention of someone coming out of the walls and playing with his pillow.” Although it’s sometimes difficult to interpret the words of a child, something about his children’s descriptions sound all too familiar. “In regard to my daughter, the way she said it reminded me of when I was a little kid telling my mom these things,” he said. “The whole ‘in my head’ thing really was reminiscent of the intuitive communication I had with this thing.”

Twenty-eight years after his encounters began, Mitchell is still trying to figure out what this entity is. “My thought is that whatever this thing is, it attempts to fit in, but can’t quite seem to figure things out,” Mitchell said. “In other words, it’s not intentionally trying to scare the dickens out of me, but it can’t fit into our culture for whatever reason. Of course I can’t be sure on any of this, these are just the impressions that I get.” Mitchell has been frightened by this entity, but has never felt threatened. However, now that the Harlequin may be visiting his children, that feeling may change.

The decision

Frustrated, afraid, panicked, desperate, Mitchell wanted answers more than anything. The only place to get them definitively was from the Harlequin itself. “My only curiosity is how exactly does one talk to it?” Mitchell said. “I am of the opinion that if I were to go out for a walk alone one night that I would be able to call it and see it, but to be very honest, the thought is incredibly terrifying.” Rabbi Albin said for Mitchell to rid himself of the Harlequin, that’s what he needs to do – talk with the entity. “This being is attached to this young man and has been for a long time,” Albin said. “His best action would be to try to contact the being and find out what the being wants. It would put his mind at ease and might end up with a friend he never expected.” So Mitchell did.

The meeting in the park

Dreams bombarded Mitchell’s sleep one night in late April 2010; powerful, vivid dreams – and they were telling him something. “The dreams were so profound that I felt as though I had been told to be at a certain location at a certain time, which was this morning (April 29, 2010) before sunrise,” Mitchell said. “Against my own better judgment, I decided to go there while having the impression that nothing at all would happen, and the whole affair would be little more than a wild goose chase at best. I was profoundly wrong.” Mitchell walked out of his house before the sun crawled over the horizon, drove to a park with a playground near his house, and sat on the bench his dreams instructed him to sit on. He took nothing special with him; no cell phone, no camera, no audio recorder, and no weapons. However, as a precaution he taped his driver’s license to his leg in case his wife had to identify his remains. “That is how concerned I became before I left my house,” Mitchell said. “I was so anxious about this meeting that my hands were shaking.”

After sitting on the bench for about 10 minutes, Mitchell realized he wasn’t alone. “I felt that I had made a grave mistake by even showing up,” he said. “It was clear that my mind was not sufficiently prepared for the event.” A tingling grew in the back of his head as if something almost physical was pushing itself into his mind, something that began to swim there. “At that point I distinctly heard a voice say, ‘Do you remember when we used to dance and sing together, Danny?’” Mitchell said. “My heart dropped utterly because it was clear there was a presence right behind the bench I was sitting in. I have never heard a voice so incredibly rich, while possessing no accent or blemish of any kind. As nice as that may sound, this didn’t make this experience seem any less terrifying.” The thing behind him was the Harlequin. “There is no doubt in my mind of this,” Mitchell said. “I was solidly frozen in absolute terror. How I managed to not piss myself is a mystery.”

Mitchell turned his head only slightly and made out the Harlequin’s thin form standing less than ten feet behind him. “It was just as I always remembered it, it was not a ‘grey’ or any other such being,” he said. “It was an old androgynous human-like being that still possessed the features of a child with that typical shocked look upon its face.” But unlike the thing he had always remembered, it didn’t call itself the Tooth Fairy. It gave Mitchell a hint at what it is. “It became clear almost immediately that I entered into the mind of something that exists so far beyond humanity that not even in my most profound moments of despair or spiritual elation, have I ever experienced anything like it,” Mitchell said. “It has a certain animal nature to it even though it is far above the animal kingdom in respect to its self-awareness. I am convinced that it has the potential to destroy the world if it wished.” Mitchell sensed no human morals, no human sympathy in this ancient entity. “This type of being operates by an entirely different set of rules, rules that transcend morality in ways we don’t understand,” he said. “At the same time, as nonsensical as it may sound, there was a genuine care that it had for me this morning. Even though I was completely terrified, and was possibly screaming, ‘Please don’t kill me,’ as I was running to my car, it became obvious to me that it felt a horrible sorrow at my response to what it was. It was as if I had rejected it completely.”

Mitchell’s meeting with the Harlequin lasted only about 20 minutes, but during that meeting he garnered the creature had once been human, but transcended its humanity out of sheer will. “It communicated things I did not want to know or even believe in. It revealed to me how my own view on life, and my reliance upon traditionalism as a worldview, was laughable at best,” Mitchell said. “This bothers me partially because it is almost like saying, there is no God, that idea is a delusion. Quite honestly it’s blown my fucking mind in ways I can barely express.”

Mitchell also got the impression there are more Harlequins out there, watching humanity from the shadows, lurking in the corners of our lives. “They are disguising themselves as homeless people, I am sure of it,” he said. “They are hiding out and carrying out some kind of mission. I say this because on several occasions in my childhood, and in adulthood, she has presented herself to me in such a manner. I want to say that this shocked appearance on its face seems related to the trials it has been through.”

But something about this entity that has flitted about the periphery of Mitchell’s life, something devious, something dishonest, leads Mitchell to believe he’s been a pawn in a grand lie – a job he no longer wants. “There is still a large part of me that considers all of this a deception,” Mitchell said. “Sometimes it seems like the more we think and dwell on things, the more life and expression we give to ideas. That’s really a scary thought, I think. At this point it feels that I have the option to say, ‘No,’ and all of this strangeness will simply end.”

At least, that is Mitchell’s hope.