Why Does Paranormal Research Ignore Andy Colvin?

 

My copy of John A. Keel’s Carnival of the Mind, edited by Andrew Colvin, just arrived. 

“Global geopolitics is a hall of mirrors, just as ufology is a carnival of the mind.” - Andrew B. Colvin, in John Keel’s Carnival of the Mind.

And the two; geopolitics and ufology, go together. Anyone who doesn’t think so is naive. The same is true of all paranormal topics; or rather, the paranormal itself. Including Mothman. 

The other night, watching a paranormal show (forget which one) on Mothman. Mothman is one of my favorite paranormal subjects. As usual, while watching the program, I wondered at the conspicuous absence of Andrew Colvin, author of Return of the Prophecies of Mothman, The Mothman’s Photographer lll, Mothman Speaks, among others. 

Colvin is rarely, if ever, quoted or featured on programs about Mothman. I have long found this odd. I realize producers have their own agendas, their own slant they want to put on subjects (my limited experience has been dismal. What thieving bastards they be!) Anyway, instead of speculating on why Andy Colvin is ignored, I asked him if he’d mind sharing his thoughts. And he did. Andrew Colvin gave me permission to quote him. 

This is absolutely a thing. I think it goes back to the original Mothman events, which do have a national security element. This is why they harassed Keel and tried to distract him with the Long Island stuff. And they have done the same to me. The spooks put out the word, and keep it off the airwaves. Now what Loren did was write that position paper years ago, declaring Mothman as part of cryptozoology, and this is took it out of the realm of ufology. His buddy Clark said nothing. Basically Coleman and Clark put Mothman in a ghetto and "privished" it. Coleman has been on my tail for 20 years now, trying to make me out as crazy. He just got me kicked off the Keel FB group earlier this year. I am writing an intro about all this for the new Keel coming, The Big Bamboozle, so it is fresh in my mind. You can see a similar intro for the one that recently came out, Carnival of the Mind. 

The starting point for this was recent discussion I had regarding why ufology has totally abandoned Mothman. None of the ufologists know about it, or care about it, even though it was the biggest flap in history.

The cryptozoologists have "owned" Mothman for around 15 years, and they have done zilch to forward any understanding of it. The ufologists would perhaps do a better job of it, if they weren't being told to avoid it. Loren's Mothman Death Curse - his ridiculous notion that a large owl could put spells on people - really sank the credibility of Mothman as a research venue. Some were scared away, while others scoffed and walked away.

Plus, his Chicago Mothman scam really put the nail in the coffin for the time being. But Mothman will rise again. (Andrew Colvin)

Speaking of Loren Coleman, I realize he has a good reputation and has contributed a lot. I have several of his books. But he does have a smarmy attitude. Years ago, the golden age of Yahoo groups, I had a group called Paranormal Bigfoot. Or something close to that. Wait, I think it was called Bigfoot Mavericks. So long ago! Coleman emails me to tell me I "should know better" than to promote a paranormal theory in context of Bigfoot, and that he "expected better of me." I'm paraphrasing but that's the gist. The point is, not to dismantle Coleman (as if I could) but to point out that there are many in the field of the weird that will not, do not want, and will expend a lot of energy putting the kibosh on paranormal and, dare I say it? Spiritual speculations. On those, I hesitate because I get annoyed with Space Brother love and violent rays of awareness crap. That's not all there is to the spirit realm however. There's Space Brother Spirit Lite, and the real stuff.

But I'm getting off on tangents here. 

Enter

Stan Gordon's "Astonishing Encounters: Bigfoot, Mothmen and More"

I look forward to reading this book! Nick Redfern has a review of Stan Gordon's new book Astonishing Encounters: Bigfoot, Mothmen and More at Mysterious Universe. Brief mention of Mothy types:

Astonishing Encounters: Bigfoot, Mothmen and More | Mysterious Universe: Astonishing Encounters also contains numerous reports of unidentified flying things. Typically, they fall into the same kinds of categories of winged things that appear elsewhere in the world. We’re talking about (a) creatures that resemble long-extinct pterodactyls; (b) giant birds that look like the mighty Thunderbirds of Native American lore and history (described by one witness as an “eagle on steroids”); (c) Mothman-style creatures; (d) winged humanoids; and (e) monsters that have a “giant bat”-like appearance.

From Bigfoot Evidence: "Creepy, Strange Bird found in Venezuela: Mothman?"

Image from Bigfoot Evidence and Shuker Nature, source unknown

     Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater, the saying goes, and so I do occasionally check out Bigfoot Evidence, despite their snarky and gratuitous postings of animals that have nothing to do with Bigfoot, and everything to do with the thrills those with blood lust achieve when looking at images of animals eating other other animals, or that have died tortuous deaths, or the gleeful glow of hunters posing with their kill.  Anyway, on to Mothman. Not. This is certainly a very odd looking bird, and yes, it does really exist:Bigfoot Evidence: Creepy, Strange Bird found in Venezuela: Mothman? However, to consider that this bird is the explanation for Mothman is stupid. Of course, I suspect we all know that and as the saying goes, often attributed to P.T. Barnum, there is no such thing as bad publicity. As long as you follow the link, there you go.
     Here's more on this bird from the excellent Shuker Nature blog. Interesting background on this bird and related types, including a link to the bird's call. 

Cryptomundo: Mothman and Christmas

Like the Bigfoot phenomena, the high strangeness aspects of the Mothman phenomena are often dismissed by some researchers as not being of value, other than curiosities. Loren Coleman has a piece at Cryptomundo on Mothman, dreams, and the Christmas connection, but what I found interesting was his comment:
Cryptomundo Mothman and Christmas: Today the accounts are associated with all kinds of elements of occultism, demonology, and ufology, mostly due to how Keel told the tale. But cryptozoology underlies the initial reports, of course. [italics mine]

That's his assumption and opinion of course which many share, but there are those researchers, like Andy Colvin, who would disagree.