Mysterious Universe

Exclusive to Plus+ members is our 2011 Wrap Up show with our Top 5 picks for the year. 

Resident ‘MU All Star’ Micah Hanks brings his A-Game as we go completely raw and unedited for this episode. Don’t expect any fancy cuts or smooth music breaks here folks. Do expect cussing, and general randomness, as we look back on our favourite (and not so favorite) news items from 2011.

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The long sordid history of Forteana is rife with tales of chance encounters with unsettling weirdos and beasts whose very existence seems impossible, at very best. Due to the nature of these strange sorts of visits, it becomes difficult to discern how much of the mythos that surrounds such beings from the twilight world of the unexplained is based on pure fact, and how much could stem from the surreal archetypal realms of the human mind.

There are curious reports of creeping strangers the likes of the infamous “Grinning Man,” described by John Keel in his volumes pertaining to supernatural lore and oddities. There are reports of “Mad Gassers” that sneak noxious fumes into the homes of the middle class citizenry through pinhole-sized crevices along the edges of windows. There are also tales of demons, devils, and otherworldly goonies that lurch at the unsuspecting as they wander suburban roadsides during the still moments after the sun has gone down. While many of these denizens of the shadow realm might be attributed to various goings on of the physical realm (if not misidentification or outright hoaxes), one of their curious propensities relies on their odd tendency to court ill fortune and disasters… and for many readers of this blog, such creepy creatures of the night do have a particular name…

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For our final show of 2011, author and journalist Philip Coppens joins us to ask ‘The Ancient Alien Question‘. 

With substantial proof in hand that our ancestors were far more technologically advanced than currently accepted, Coppens lays out the best evidence that some ancient cultures had interactions with non-human intelligences.

Read on for show notes, music, and book links.

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I’m often asked: Do government agencies really spy on certain elements of the UFO research community? The answer to that question is an undeniable “Yes!” A classic example is that of one of the premier collectors of data on alleged crashed UFO reports, the late Leonard Stringfield, who was a high-profile figure within the American UFO research community from the mid-1950s right up until his death forty years later.

The author of two books on UFO encounters, as well as numerous “Status Reports” on his crashed UFO data, Stringfield first attracted official attention in 1954 – from the FBI, no less – whose now-declassified documentation on Stringfield makes it very clear that the man himself suspected more than fifty years ago that his UFO activities were the subject of an official monitoring operation.

According to the FBI: “A source of unknown reliability, an acquaintance of Leonard H. Stringfield, who is the Director of the captioned organization Civilian Research Interplanetary Flying Objects, in October 1954 advised that Stringfield is the Director of the organization and is assisted by his wife, and that Stringfield writes and publishes monthly the multi-lithographed ‘Newsletter’ of the organization. He uses the ‘Newsletter’ to report news pertaining to the sightings of flying saucers and he claims the ‘Newsletter’ now has a worldwide circulation of about 4,000 copies.”

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It sounds like something right out of a horror film: strange growths of possible biological origin are discovered  around a nuclear waste site, but experts have no idea what they may be, let alone how anything could potentially grow so close to harmful radioactivity.

While it may sound like science fiction, this is the exact scenario that was outlined in a recent report filed by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, in response to the discovery of several submerged barrels containing radioactive substances at the Savannah River Site that were covered in a strange, cobweb-like “growth.”

According to the report, “The growth, which resembles a spider web, has yet to be characterized, but may be biological in nature.” An article recently featured in the Augusta Chronicle related that the odd material “was found among thousands of spent fuel assemblies submerged in deep pools within the site’s L Area.”

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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.

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For many devout believers among the Judeo-Christian tradition, mankind’s struggles don’t end with our passing from this realm. And to be fair, a number of other cultures and long-practiced religious institutions spanning the centuries have maintained a belief in something that exists beyond our commitments in this physical life, as well. With belief in the afterlife, or even notions like ghosts and haunted sites, we’re given a certain hope that there may be more to life than merely living and dying.

While the notion of something beyond the physical–or to quote Raymond Moody, belief in “Life After Life”–remains a popular theme among the multitudes, there are nonetheless those who would argue that notions of an individual spirit existing beyond the mortal confines of the body is pure rubbish. Thus, it brings a touch of irony in knowing one of the staunchest critics, in recent times, of there being a potential for consciousness persisting after the body dies, has himself now passed from the mortal realm.

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