Chicago's Current Mothman Flap "A Warning," Says Expert | Mysterious Universe

Google "Mothman Chicago" or some such, and a lot of links appear. The recent and  numerous sightings in Illinois, including the Chicago area, have given us mothy Forteans a lot to chase after. Here's a piece from M J Banias at Mysterious Universe. The article is from back in June of this year:



Chicago's Current Mothman Flap "A Warning," Says Expert | Mysterious Universe

In Playboy : "Hunting for the Mothman in Chicago"

Playboy has a piece by Dan Sheehan on the Mothman sightings in Chicago. Lon Strickler is cited.

Hunting for the Mothman in Chicago | Playboy: I’m typically a very cautious person, but at this point I was determined to see something, and so against the will of several signs in the area, I walked into the woods. Immediately, I was confronted with the idea that this may not have been a smart idea. My iPhone, as my only source of light, wasn’t so much guiding the way as it was lighting everything like a deleted scene from The Blair Witch Project. After walking for a bit, I was startled by the sudden appearance of two college-aged guys who, I assumed from various odor-based context clues, were in the woods to smoke pot. As unassuming as they were, I was put on edge by the sudden reminder that a large forest preserve at night doesn’t necessarily have to be empty. I was suddenly acutely aware of the fact that I had just chosen on a whim to walk into the woods at night to search for a large mythical beast . . . (Dan Sheehan; Playboy)

Winged Beings in Illinois

For awhile now, Lon Strickler, at his Phantoms and Monsters, has been investigating the winged creature sightings in the Chicago area. These sightings have been going on for months now. Not long ago, Strickler was on Coast to Coast to share his research. (One post of his to check out: Winged Being Observed on Chicago Suburb House Roof.)

What is going on in Illinois? Who can say, except, obviously, something very mysterious and weird. Reports of large, Mothman like creatures are coming in from all over, but the Chicago area an Illinois seems to be a hot spot right now.

I have no theories on this but I do accept that extremely unusual things are happening, of that there is no doubt. And while I've never visited Chicago, I do know there are a lot of haunted places in the area. Whether or not this has anything to do with the current sightings . . .

The political unrest Chicago has seen lately could be a factor. Or, of course, it could be a bird, something prosaic even though still unusual. Of the latter, I don't think so. Too many reports of weirdness to put it in the "just a bird" category.

Psychics Not Allowed at Mothman Fest?

Mothman researcher Andy Colvin commented on FB that psychics are not allowed at the Mothman Fest. I went to the Mothman Fest site and took a look at their vendor guidelines. I couldn't find anything specifically mentioning psychics, but, they do say that vendor offerings need to be related to Mothman.  For some reason they strongly imply that Mothman is not related to psychic realms, which, as Colvin commented in his FB post, the Mothman phenomena is paranormal. The Mothman Fest vendor policies goes on to say that the festival is a family event, and therefore, [paraphrasing] "no new age, satanic, or witchcraft related items allowed." It's a safe assumption that they include tarot readings and psychic readings in that exclusion.

Also, according to Colvin, Confederate flags are allowed. I find that astounding. So, a no on psychics, a yes on racist yahoo-ism.

You can read the policy here.

As with Sasquatch, Mothman is apparently being considered only as a flesh and blood being, and any connection with paranormal, supernatural, occult and psychic areas is nonsense. Why? What of witnesses, researchers and others who have had experiences that go beyond the mundane? Well, they need to shut up apparently.