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

Giant Bug Zappers, Daisy the Goat, and Devil Dog Stew: Mountain Monsters

This is a post I wrote for my Animal Forteana blog, August 2014 --  reposting it here.

Giant Bug Zappers, Daisy the Goat, and Devil Dog Stew

Seriously. The mountain men monster hunters of Destination America's Mountain Monsters show built a giant 'bug zapper' trap to capture Mothman. Then they set up lit torches along a path -- all this in the woods -- to lure Mothman to the trap. A bit later, the torches were found re-lit, burning unattended. Why, Mothman must have done it! Because, the mountain monster hunters insisted, those torches were put out!

Three things disturb me about shows like this. One, the arrogance of the "investigators." Armed, tromping around in habitats, disturbing creatures just for the hell of it. They'd tell you, no doubt, that it's no mere joy ride, they are indeed chasing after mysterious -- and often dangerous -- creatures, which is very important business. The assumption however seems to be these mysterious creatures are inherently evil and deserve to be trapped, harassed, placed in captivity, and possibly killed.

Ulisse Aldrovandi,  Italian illustration.

 Two, in their lust for chasing down non-human beings, they are generally disrespectful of the environment. It's their personal monster playground. Hell, they almost set the place on fire in the Mothman episode.  Building giant traps and luring would be monsters -- simply ridiculous. I assume they get permission from various authorities; Fish and Game, etc. before constructing their contraptions. (The website has a disclaimer about not attempting to build traps yourself, and getting permission from authorities.)

Exploiting animals for para-tainment; like Daisy, the poor goat used as bait. Now, Daisy, we were constantly assured, was not going to be harmed. But imagine Daisy's freaked out mind, and how can we be sure that something unpredictable could happen? Can these armed mountain monster hunters move fast enough to protect Daisy from a fast moving predator -- "monster" or not?

Food porn is another aspect of these kinds of shows.  On the Mountain Monster section of 
Destination America website, there is a recipe for 'Devil Dog Stew':

'Ever wonder what a Wampus Beast tastes like? How about the Ohio Grassman? All this
 hunting for fearsome creatures on Mountain Monsters got us wondering...what would you 
do with a trapped mountain monster? They might be kinda tasty, no? 
We decided to find out and it turns out, mountain monsters make delectable meals. 
Here is a recipe for one such creature.'

Of course I don't believe real devil dog meat -- or, hopefully, any kind of dog -- is the main 
ingredient. The point here is the appeal to the gratuitous, the titillation factor.

Mothra

 Three, the fact that these shows are popular is disturbing.  Mountain Monsters isn't the only
 program that relies on entertainment, and ignores facts and data. For example: Mothman
 is not a giant moth with evil intent, akin to a malevolent version of Mothra, as the producers 
and actors in Mountain Men would have us believe. 

When it comes to the unexplained, including Mothman, producers have their own agendas. 
They then set out to find willing participants who will partake in their made-up 
monster scenarios.
 
Not to say that shows exploring UFOs, cryptids and other anomalous topics can't be, or 
shouldn't be, entertaining.  With all programming, not matter the topic, producers have their 
agenda, and editing is brutal. But some do attempt to present a deeper look into whatever 
phenomena is being explored. Shows like Mountain Monsters are gratuitous and are not 
concerned at all with authentic cryptid research. 

MOTHMAN CAUGHT ON CAMERA IN ARGENTINA? - UFOmania - the truth is out there

So they say . . .

With photo, but unsure if it's the alleged photo from Argentina, or a made up photo. (UPDATE: according to Lon Strickler of Phantoms and Monsters, he posted on his FB page that the photo is a "mock up.")  They also have a video compilation of various mothman sightings -- including the hoaxed winged entity near the world trade center towers -- linked with his item.

Interesting though that I've been noticing recent mothman items popping up on the internet, beginning with the day after cryptic film maker Christopher Maloney commented on Coast to Coast (September 7)  that there have been no Mothman sightings since the 1960s Pt. Pleasant appearances.

MOTHMAN CAUGHT ON CAMERA IN ARGENTINA? - UFOmania - the truth is out there: A mysterious figure with wings was sighted in the small city of Qulino in Argentina. The small city only have 5000 habitats. The case happened in October but it only reached international websites now. This seems to be something related to Mothman, because winged humanoid sightings are not that common, at all. So here’s the news summarized: Back in October, the citizens of Qulino started to report about a strange humanoid figure showing up in the middle of the night and disappearing like a wizard( turning invisible as they said). (UFOmania)

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.