My previous article was on how and why the Tulpa-version of the Slenderman came to life in a very weird and creepy way. Today, I'm going to follow-up by looking at other strange creatures that I strongly suspect are Tulpas, too. We'll begin with the Men in Black. Over the years I have written a number of books on the Men in Black phenomenon. They include The Real Men in Black, On the Trail of the Saucer Spies, and The Black Diary. If there's one thing we can say about the MIB in the real world, it's that they are nothing like their Hollywood counterparts. I am, of course, talking about Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. And, Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson, who will be starring in this year's Men in Black: International movie. The Men in Black of the movies are portrayed as agents of a secret group that defends the world from hostile aliens. As for the MIB of Ufology, well, they are quite another thing altogether. People describe them as looking pale, emaciated, sometimes extremely tall and with long, spidery fingers. Bizarrely, they are occasionally described as wearing bad wings and even make-up. Their goal: to silence those who dare to dig into the UFO subject, whether witnesses to UFO activity or researchers of the phenomenon. Then there's the matter of who or what the MIB really are.
Ironically, the least likely explanation for the presence of the Men in Black is that they are "secret agents" of the CIA, the NSA, the Pentagon or...well...the list goes on. Government people they most definitely are not. There are multiple different theories to try and understand what the MIB are and who (or what) they represent. Some researchers have suggested they are time-travelers from a distant future. Others maintain they have demonic origins. There is also the possibility that the Men in Black are biological robots, dispatched to silence those who get too close to the ufological truth. There's another scenario that may explain a significant part of the phenomenon. It's a theory that Thomas E. Bearden detailed in his 1980 book, Excalibur Briefing.
In his book, Bearden focused deeply and extensively on the matter of Tulpas, about which Tulpa.info state the following: "A tulpa is an entity created in the mind, acting independently of, and parallel to your own consciousness. They are able to think, and have their own free will, emotions, and memories. In short, a tulpa is like a sentient person living in your head, separate from you. It’s currently unproven whether or not tulpas are truly sentient, but in this community, we treat them as such. It takes time for a tulpa to develop a convincing and complex personality; as they grow older, your attention and their life experiences will shape them into a person with their own hopes, dreams and beliefs." Now, to Bearden's very own words on the controversy:
"The kindling of virtual state tulpoidal forms into the zeroth bioframe of a physical reality (materialization) can result in the materialization of living, breathing, functioning forms. There is essentially no limit on the format that may be obtained. Sasquatch, Nessie, fairies, demons, angels, mothmen, skunkmen, yeti, kangaroos, etc. are just a small sampling." On this same matter of Tulpas, Bearden addresses the MIB in this fashion. He says: "The men-in-black syndrome is based on our own unconscious tuning; since each of us has some unpleasantness in the unconscious, sometimes the tuned-in-men-in-black can be very nasty indeed." I'm sure they are Tulpas born out of the human mind.
Now, to the Black Eyed Children. Point Pleasant, West Virginia is – beyond any shadow of doubt – noted most of all for its wave of sightings of the infamous Mothman, between 1966 and 1967. In 2014, however, the town played host to something even stranger. The witness to the weird affair was a local woman named Denise, who emailed me the details on May 23. As Denise explained, she was jolted from her sleep by the sight of a young boy looming over her bed. This was no normal boy, however: it was one of the dreaded Black-Eyed Children – pale-skinned, black-hoody-wearing kids who are noted for their completely black eyes. Denise tried to scream out, but her vocal-chords were paralyzed, as was her entire body. The eerie boy stared at terrified Denise for a few moments, then retreated into the shadows of the room and vanished. It was a nerve-jangling experience that Denise has not forgotten. Nor has she forgotten a strange wave of hang-up phone calls that occurred across the next three nights, and all around 3:00 a.m. A connection? Denise believed so. As did I. With that one of many cases on record, let's see how the Black Eyed Children phenomenon really began.
Although, today, we have people who claim to have seen the BEC in the period from the 1930s to the present day, the very first reported case didn’t surface until January 1998. The location was the Lone Star State, specifically the city of Abilene. The story revolves around a man named Brian Bethel, a journalist who works for the Abilene Reporter News. It was late one night when Bethel’s life was changed and he came to realize that there are dangerous, supernatural entities in our midst. It was close to 10:00 p.m. when Bethel had the kind of close encounter that one never, ever forgets. He had pulled up at a mall not too far from his home, to deposit a check in a mail-box. All was quiet and dark. Bethel, using the lights of the mall to illuminate the interior of his vehicle, was writing the check when he was rudely interrupted. He jumped with surprise at the sight of a couple of kids who were standing next to the car, on the driver’s side. But, there was something about these kids that rang alarm bells in Bethel’s head. In fact, as Bethel would imminently learn, things were wrong in the extreme.
Bethel stared at the pair and couldn’t fail to see just how incredibly pale the face of one of the boys was. The other had what Bethel described as olive-colored skin. Both boys were around ten to fourteen years of age, Bethel estimated, and both were dressed in pullovers. Only one of the two boys spoke – he claimed that they wanted to see a movie, Mortal Kombat, at the local cinema. But, there was a problem: they had left their money at home. Could Bethel take them to their homes to get some cash? Bethel near-instantly realized that this whole situation had an air of dark and disturbing theater about it. There was an undeniably unsettling agenda at work, and it had absolutely zero to do with movies.
Bethel awkwardly hemmed and hawed for a few moments, something which caused the talkative boy to become ever more insistent that Bethel let them in the car. Then, things became downright eerie and chilling: Bethel found himself almost mind-manipulated, to the point where, to his horror, he could see that his hand was heading to the driver’s-side door – with the intent of opening it, but without his control. Bethel, fortunately, broke the enchanting spell and didn’t open the door, after all. This clearly incensed the talkative boy, who amped up the pleas to allow them into Bethel’s car. It was then, for the first time, that Bethel finally got a good look at their eyes. In his own words - referenced in Pararational’s May 16, 2013 article titled “Brian Bethel – The Black Eyed Kids” – Bethel stated: “They were coal black. No pupil. No iris.” The two boys realized that, by now, they were losing the battle to be permitted to get into Bethel’s car. On this very point, Bethel himself said that the boy who did all of the talking “wore a mask of anger.”
The boy, now displaying a look on his face which was part-frustration and part-anger, almost shouted: “We can’t come in unless you tell us it’s okay. Let us in!” Bethel, terrified, did nothing of the sort. What he did do was to slam the car into reverse and head for home, completely panicked by the whole thing. Oddly, as he drove away, Bethel looked back, only to see that the boys were nowhere in sight. In what was clearly and impossibly quick time, they had vanished. And, thus was quickly born a legend. It’s a legend that shows no signs of stopping. It’s only getting worse. That's just how Tulpas work. Indeed, Psychonaut Wiki say: "Tulpas are seemingly sentient, autonomous mental companions subjectively experienced by the psychonaut as a separate being with their own agency, emotions, preferences, thoughts, and character. They can be likened to a separate mental consciousness, existing alongside the psychonaut. Tulpas can be considered as a type of autonomous entity distinguished by their persistence and continuity over time."
Now, to the really bizarre phenomenon of the U.K. Bigfoot. First and foremost, it must be noted that there are quite literally hundreds of reports on record. I have more than eighty such reports in my own files. Author and creature-seeker Neil Arnold has far more than a few such cases, too. As do numerous other researchers of the phenomenon in the U.K. And, most of the witnesses come across as highly credible. There are, however, significant problems: there is zero evidence in the fossil record that any kind of ancient, large ape has ever existed in the U.K. Plus, the United Kingdom is hardly what you could call large, but it has a population which is getting close to seventy million. In other words, if seven-to-eight-foot-tall apes are roaming around the U.K., we should surely have hard evidence by now. But, we don't. We just have fleeting sightings of such beasts - and that's all.
How about the Hat Man and the Shadow People? "They" are relatively new characters on the scene. But, just like nearly all Tulpas, they have quickly made his place in the world. In the last decade or thereabouts, a great deal of research has been undertaken into a phenomenon that is known as the Shadow People. Their title is most apt, as they appear in the form of a one-dimensional, flat shadow – and usually in peoples’ bedrooms while they sleep. Many of these entities – but certainly not all of them – have one thing in common: they wear an old-style fedora hat and a black suit. In that sense, there are deep similarities between the Shadow people and the Men in Black of UFO lore. It’s fair to say though that, for the most part, that’s where the similarities end. Apart from one important, extra thing: like the MIB, they are intent on terrorizing those who they maliciously target. And, they do an extremely good job of it, too – unfortunately for us.
Precisely who or what the Shadow People are, is a matter of deep debate. Jason Offutt is an expert on the subject, and the author of a 2009 book on the subject titled Darkness Walks: The Shadow People Among Us. He says there are eight different kinds of Shadow People – at least, they are the ones we know about. He labels them as benign shadows, shadows of terror, red-eyed shadows, noisy shadows, angry hooded shadows, shadows that attack, shadow cats, and the hat man. Certainly, the latter category – that of the Hat Man – is the one which is most often reported, and from all across the planet. Imagine a silhouetted character that had stepped out of a 1940s / 1950s-era piece of black and white film-noir, and you’ll have a good idea of what the Hat Man looks like. That he is entirely shadow-like in nature only adds to the menace.
Heidi Hollis is an expert on this topic, too, having penned a 2014 book on the subject titled The Hat Man: The True Story of Evil Encounters. She has collected literally hundreds of reports of encounters with this particularly dangerous shadow-thing. One example from Hollis’ files, and which appears in her book, reads as follows: “Dear Heidi, I was maybe 5 years old when The Hat Man started to visit me. Every night I would lay in the top bed of my bunk bed and watch as my door would crack open for him to creep inside. As high up as I was, I would still have to look up to see him and I would freeze in horror at the sight of him.” According to the witness, the Hat man would lunge towards her, at a phenomenal speed, and always warn her that, “One day I will have you!” To be sure, this was a deeply traumatic series of encounters for a young girl – a girl who never forgot the torment and the terror. At first glance, it may seem that the sole activity of the Shadow People is to create terror – and just for the warped sake of it. Well, yes, that is at least a significant part of the story. There is, however, another agenda to all of this. It’s an agenda which has at its heart the goal of bleeding the witness dry of their life-force. Keep away from all of these Tulpas!