Tag Archives: Cryptids

Legendary Creatures & Cryptid Stuff with Author JW Ocker

Posted on May 25, 2024 | 10 comments

A great book by author JW Ocker with a chapter on the impact the Mothman has had on Point Pleasant, West Virginia

You might be asking yourself, what is a cryptid?  You may not know the word, but you have definitely heard of specific cryptids. Does the name Bigfoot ring a bell? How about The Loch Ness Monster? Those are the big name headliners in a field called cryptozoology. To borrow from JW Ocker’s book, “a cryptid is a creature or species whose existence is scientifically unproven.”

Author JW Ocker does not take cryptids as seriously as cryptozoologists do, but he’s all in on the fun of the possibility of cryptids, and I’m with him on that!

Wouldn’t it be a wonderful, fun world if all those legends like the Mothman, The Jersey Devil, and the Loch Ness Monster were all true?  Let’s get on with the interview!

Picture from CNBC

TPF: How did your interest in the paranormal begin?

JW: As a kid I liked monsters and I was also raised religious, so soul-deep in gods and demons, but it wasn’t until college or thereafter that I really started digging the strange in a real way. Probably at that moment when I got my first real job and a place all my own and was supposed to start getting serious about life. I looked out at that landscape and realized, “Ah. The regular world kind of sucks. Guess I’ll be spooky instead.”

TPF: Which of the creatures you wrote about is your favorite, and why?

JW: The Mothman. It’s got a great story arc (most cryptid stories peter out, but the Mothman story raises to a climax with the collapse of the Silver Bridge), but also because Point Pleasant supports its creature in a way that has become the template for all other cryptid towns. Plus, you can explore the TNT area where the creature was most often sighted and pretend it’s the late 1960s and it could pop up anytime with its glowing red eyes and freaky motionless flying.

The Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp-Pic from Redbubble

TPF: Which creature would scare you the most if you came upon it in the wild?

JW: The Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp or, if you can count them, Gray Aliens. The former is because a humanoid reptile just sounds like it could mess you up more than anything else in cryptid lore (minus the water monsters, which is a totally different fear). The latter is mostly because of the movie Communion.

TPF: What did you do before you figured out that you could make a living writing about interesting oddities?

JW: Oh, I can’t. Not and keep my family in Bigfoot t-shirts. I’m also a strategist at an agency in Boston. That basically means I tell stories for businesses, which is a lot like telling paranormal stories except that the monsters all wear suits and I’ve got to pitch them to rooms full of people with “Chief” in their titles.

TPF: Those monsters sound scarier than anything else we’ve discussed here!

 

TPF: When I look at your collection of books, it seems like you’ve covered almost everything. Do you have a work in progress right now, and if so what is it about?

JW: I’m currently working on a book about cults that will come out next year. There’s still a ton of weirdness out there I want to tackle, but after my last three nonfiction books–cursed objects, cryptids, and cults–I might just be out of c-words.

Thank you for your time JW. I’m completely enjoying Cryptids and I’m planning some trips in hopes of seeing a Jersey Devil or maybe a Snallygaster! To my readers, JW is a fun follow on social media and has a website: OddThingsIveSeen.com which is always a fun read. You can also find him on Facebook. In addition to his paranormal subjects, he also has quite a few fiction novels for both young readers and adults. You can find his entire collection on Amazon!

Have a great Saturday everyone! ~Phil

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An Underrated Cryptid: The Chupacabra

Posted on May 20, 2024 | 5 comments

The Chupacabra is a cryptid from Puerto Rico, Mexico and the southwestern United States. The Chupacabra (goat sucker in Spanish) was first reported in Puerto Rico in the early 1970’s. It was named Goat Sucker because it was believed to be responsible for the deaths of many livestock in Puerto Rico that were the result of the animals being seemingly drained of their blood. It is believed that the Chupacabra is some type of vampire.

Pic from Quora

I remember first hearing about the Chupacabra in the 1990’s. As soon as the word of the Puerto Rican farm animals broke, farmers in other countries began complaining of their own attacks. Animals in Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and the United States were all dying similarly gruesome deaths, seemingly with no explanation.

The mysterious creature allegedly glimpsed by eyewitnesses, who describe with horror what they saw. It was a five-foot-tall creature with glowing eyes and bat-like wings, standing on its hind legs. It had spikes on its back. It smelled of sulphur.

Much like Bigfoot, there have been alleged sightings, but no one has ever found a dead Chupacabra. It has sometimes been described as having an alien appearance while others have said that it’s just a coyote with mange. That would be a disappointment, wouldn’t it?

For me, the fact that the creature has only been spotted in Spanish speaking areas makes me think that it maybe be more myth than mystery.

Have you ever heard of the Chupacabra? From what you’ve heard or read from other sources, what are your thoughts on the Chupacabra?

Happy Monday! ~Phil

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The Mothman Mythology

Posted on May 6, 2024 | 3 comments

Check out those abs! That guy is ripped!

I feature a lot of paranormal content to celebrate Paranormal Month, which I invented (copyright!). When you think about the paranormal you usually think of ghosts, demons, UFO’s and cryptids like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster.

But have you heard about the Mothman? I had heard of Mothman occasionally when consuming paranormal content, but it wasn’t a big topic. The Mothman never gets paranormal headliner status, except in Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia. That’s sort of his home region. Despite stories of a winged entity in the Point Pleasant area since the 1920’s, Mothman is still like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster’s little brother, forever in their shadow.

Mothman is an interesting character though because, unlike cryptids, which are usually considered animals that are unusual and difficult to verify, the Mothman (or Mothwomen) are considered to be sentient beings. (Yes, I said Mothmen/women plural. There have been a lot more sightings than people realize.)

The Mothman is often described as being a tall, hairy, winged humanoid being with glowing eyes. Some people have theorized that the Mothman is an alien.

2016 picture of a Mothman flying over Point Pleasant

The Mothman sightings that really captivated the country began in Point Pleasant, West Virginia from Nov. 15 to Dec. 15, 1966. Author John Keel popularized local folklore about the creature with his 1975 book “The Mothman Prophecies.”

Interestingly is that shortly after the Mothman started appearing, so did reports of UFO’s and “Men in Black” (not Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones). In the documentary The Mothman of Point Pleasant there are several eyewitness accounts of unwanted harassment by the Men In Black.

Some believe The Mothman is a bad omen , only appearing when catastrophe is about to strike. There have been many claims that the winged, red-eyed creature was seen right before the Point Pleasant Silver Bridge collapsed early in 1967. That event took the lives of 46 people.

A great book by author JW Ocker with a chapter on the impact the Mothman has had on Point Pleasant, West Virginia

Over the last 50 years there have been reports of Mothmen or Mothwomen being spotted in Vietnam during the war, in Chernobyl, Russia before the nuclear plant melted down, and even a mothman near the Twin Towers before they were hit. Another was reported in August 2007 when the the bridge collapsed in Minnesota.

More recently, starting in the summer of 2011, reports of Mothman-like flying humanoids have been popping up in the Chicago area. The picture below is a map of where those sightings have occurred around Chicago. That’s a lot of sightings, so it’s definitely is not one or two crackpots reporting their hallucinations.

I find the century long story of the Mothman fascinating. If you look back at history, in every country humans have always reported seeing flying beings. Some were thought to be angels, some aliens, some predators. It’s another of those murky paranormal stories that seems to have enough widespread validation that something different is going on but we just haven’t pinned it down.

If you’re more of a watcher than a reader, there is a documentary titled The Mothman of Point Pleasant on Amazon for free. It’s interesting with some very detailed eyewitness accounts. Also on Amazon is a fictional movie based on what happened in Point Pleasant titled The Mothman Prophecies.  It stars Debra Messing and Richard Gere, who in the 6 degrees of separation game is only one person away from me. I wonder if The Mothman predicted that?

As they say, keep your eyes on the skies! You never know what you might see. What do you think? Are cryptids like Bigfoot or the Loch Ness monster real? Is the Mothman a member of an alien species that visits Earth to warn us of danger? Feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts!

Have a great Monday! ~Phil

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My Interview with Bigfoot Expert Rick Reles!

Posted on May 4, 2024 | 7 comments

That picture above is the Bigfoot that we all grew up with. That bigfoot sighting was alleged to be a hoax, but has not been proven so. That’s fine. Whether it’s Bigfoot, aliens or ghosts, there’s always going to be some hoaxes. Despite that one Bigfoot sighting getting uncovered as a possible hoax, how do you explain that there are literally thousands of sightings of Bigfoot/Sasquatch/Yeti from people all over the world? My opinion is that obviously there is some race of large, hairy, reclusive creatures living in the undeveloped, remote parts of most countries.

I’m not an expert on cryptids, so I interviewed one of the most well known experts on Bigfoot/Sasquatch in the United States, Rick Reles. Rick is one of the founding members of the BFRO (Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization)

Pic from BoldLife.com

Founded in 1995, the BFRO is now the oldest and largest organization of its kind. It’s a virtual community of scientists, journalists, and specialists from diverse backgrounds. The researchers who compose the BFRO are engaged in projects, including field and laboratory investigations, designed to address various aspects of the bigfoot phenomenon.

TPF: Hi Rick, and welcome to The Phil Factor. Over the past year we’ve been digging into the paranormal, including cryptids, but I hadn’t yet had the opportunity to discuss the OG of cryptids, Bigfoot.  When people think of Bigfoot sightings, most people default to the Pacific Northwest, but there are a lot of places around the United States where Bigfoot type creatures have been spotted. What are some of the other hotspots?

Rick: Kentucky, The Appalachian Mountains, Upper Midwest ( Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois), Georgia mountains and Tennessee. Upstate New York, Western Pa.. Basically, where there are vast forests and plentiful water, there are populations of Sasquatch. BFRO.net lists vetted out witness reports by county, by state across the nation, so you can see where activity has been.

Pic from Britannica.com

TPF: Rick, I love that list of hotspots and especially your mention of upstate New York, which is where I live. How many personal sightings of a Bigfoot/Sasquatch/Yeti have you had?

Rick: I have 3 Class “A” sightings, meaning I knew it was not a human, or  animal (bear), I was seeing.

TPF: Have you ever felt that you were in physical danger when you spotted a Bigfoot?

Rick: Yes, I am in the woods all the time, as an active researcher. I lead expeditions, scout areas of reported activity, and investigate witness reports. Sometimes when in the presence of Bigfoots, meaning we hear them, can see their shadow movement, feel their presence, it can get scary. That is them projecting what we believe is “infrasound”, which drives a  “fight or flight” response, in humans. They want you to leave the area  then.

TPF: If you could give one piece of advice to amateurs who want to experience a Sasquatch sighting, what would it be?

Rick:  When in the woods, keep your eyes and ears open. Rely on your senses. Get your nose out of your phone. Listen… Pay attention to odd noises, movements in the forest, whistles, whoops, knocks, howls, stick breaks, etc… We often have blinders on, and these noises do not register. Conversely,  EVERY odd noise in the woods is not a Squatch! Keep your antenna up!

Pic from Jack Osbournes Night of Terror

TPF: You’re also the author of Field Guide to Bigfoot Stick Structures. Could you tell us a little about that and where we could order a copy? —

Rick: The field guide reviews stick structures that Bigfoots assemble in the forest. It speaks to 7 categories,  types that could be built by Bigfoots, and asks questions like: Why these are built? What are the meanings? Are they built for us? For them? And so on.. Photo evidence/examples are given. The Field guide is small, and can be carried easily in a back pack for hiking. It is available on ETSY, at IKNOWSQUATCH. We are also on IG and FB as IKNOWSQUATCH.

TPF: Thank you for your time and expertise. For me, it’s good to know that Bigfoot/Sasquatch/Yeti’s are still alive and well.  For readers interested in finding out if a Bigfoot has been spotted in your area, there is a list of sightings on the BFRO.net website and there are several online maps of sighting locations. I was surprised to find one sighting had been within a mile from my house. Take a look, you might be surprised. If you’re interested in Bigfoot/Sasquatch merch, check out Rick’s ETSY site. They have tons of great stuff! You can even get a bigfoot sticker specific to your state. I ordered that for my laptop and an awesome coffee mug.

Thanks for reading and GO BILLS!  ~Phil

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Posted in Bigfoot, cryptids, paranormal

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A New-ish Paranormal Creature? The Fresno Night Crawlers

Posted on December 10, 2023 | 8 comments

The Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, and the Mothman have all been around for more than 50 years. They are the OGs of the cryptid community. (Btw, does it sound pretentious using the word ‘cryptid‘ instead of “paranormal creature” or “weird ass thing someone caught on their outdoor security cam“?) Anywho, over the past 20 years or so a new creature has popped up that has the paranormal community talking.

These creatures, that look like a ghostly 3-7 foot tall walking pair of pants, have been appearing in various locations sporadically over the last 19 years. Unfortunately, they are not Hammer pants. Those were scary in a different way.

MC Hammer and his pants. It can’t be confirmed that they don’t walk on their own.

The first sighting of this kind of being was initially reported in 2004 in Indiana. It was only a witness report with no footage. The first incident with film occurred in the Fresno, California area in 2007. The original footage was from a guy taking video on his cell phone of the little indoor screen connected to his outside security camera. It’s very poor, and almost impossible to get a decent look at the creature.

The following, in the video below, is better footage from a Yosemite Park sighting in California and has commentary from paranormal experts.

There are many theories as to their origin. Some believe that they might be aliens. Others think they may be creatures from another dimension. Some theorize that they are a special effects stunt that proliferated because of the internet.

I for one want to believe in these creatures. Thus far they’ve been entirely harmless and appear far less often than UFO’s. There has only been about a half dozen sightings over the last twenty years which leads me to believe that they are either real reclusive nighttime creatures, or they are a hoax that keeps getting copied.

Have you heard of the Fresno Nightcrawlers? What do you think?

Thanks for reading! ~Phil

8 Comments

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The Mothman Mythology, Does He Really Predict The Future?

Posted on October 4, 2023 | 11 comments

This statue is in Mothman’s “hometown” of Point Pleasant, W.V. Check out those abs! Mothman is ripped!

In May of this year, I featured a lot of paranormal content to celebrate Paranormal Month, which I invented (copyright!). When you think about the paranormal you usually think of ghosts, demons, UFO’s and cryptids like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster.

But have you heard about the Mothman? I had heard of Mothman occasionally when consuming paranormal content, but it wasn’t a big topic. The Mothman never gets paranormal headliner status, except in Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia. That’s sort of his home region. Despite stories of a winged entity in the Point Pleasant area since the 1920’s, Mothman is still like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster’s little brother, forever in their shadow.

Mothman is an interesting character though because, unlike cryptids, which are usually considered animals that are unusual and difficult to verify, the Mothman (or Mothwomen) are considered to be sentient beings. (Yes, I said Mothmen/women plural. There have been a lot more sightings than people realize.)

The Mothman is often described as being a tall, hairy, winged humanoid being with glowing eyes. Some people have theorized that the Mothman is an alien.

2016 picture of a Mothman flying over Point Pleasant

The Mothman sightings that really captivated the country began in Point Pleasant, West Virginia from Nov. 15 to Dec. 15, 1966. Author John Keel popularized local folklore about the creature with his 1975 book “The Mothman Prophecies.”

Interestingly is that shortly after the Mothman started appearing, so did reports of UFO’s and “Men in Black” (not Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones). In the documentary The Mothman of Point Pleasant there are several eyewitness accounts of unwanted harassment by the Men In Black.

Some believe The Mothman is a bad omen , only appearing when catastrophe is about to strike. There have been many claims that the winged, red-eyed creature was seen right before the Point Pleasant Silver Bridge collapsed early in 1967. That event took the lives of 46 people.

A great book by author JW Ocker with a chapter on the impact the Mothman has had on Point Pleasant, West Virginia

Over the last 50 years there have been reports of Mothmen or Mothwomen being spotted in Vietnam during the war, in Chernobyl, Russia before the nuclear plant melted down, and even a mothman near the Twin Towers before they were hit. Another was reported in August 2007 when the the bridge collapsed in Minnesota.

More recently, starting in the summer of 2011, reports of Mothman-like flying humanoids have been popping up in the Chicago area. The picture below is a map of where those sightings have occurred around Chicago. That’s a lot of sightings, so it’s definitely is not one or two crackpots reporting their hallucinations.

I find the century long story of the Mothman fascinating. If you look back at history, in every country humans have always reported seeing flying beings. Some were thought to be angels, some aliens, some predators. It’s another of those murky paranormal stories that seems to have enough widespread validation that something different is going on but we just haven’t pinned it down.

If you’re more of a watcher than a reader, there is a documentary titled The Mothman of Point Pleasant on Amazon for free. It’s interesting with some very detailed eyewitness accounts. Also on Amazon is a fictional movie based on what happened in Point Pleasant titled The Mothman Prophecies.  It stars Debra Messing and Richard Gere, who in the 6 degrees of separation game is only one person away from me. I wonder if The Mothman predicted that?

As they say, keep your eyes on the skies! You never know what you might see. What do you think? Are cryptids like Bigfoot or the Loch Ness monster real? Is the Mothman a member of an alien species that visits Earth to warn us of danger? Feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts!

Have a great Wednesday! ~Phil

11 Comments

Posted in Aliens, paranormal, UFO's

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Legendary Creatures & Cryptid Stuff with Author JW Ocker

Posted on May 27, 2023 | 3 comments

You might be asking yourself, what is a cryptid?  You may not know the word, but you have definitely heard of specific cryptids. Does the name Bigfoot ring a bell? How about The Loch Ness Monster? Those are the big name headliners in a field called cryptozoology. To borrow from JW Ocker’s book, “a cryptid is a creature or species whose existence is scientifically unproven.”

Author JW Ocker does not take cryptids as seriously as cryptozoologists do, but he’s all in on the fun of the possibility of cryptids, and I’m with him on that!

Wouldn’t it be a wonderful, fun world if all those legends like the Mothman, The Jersey Devil, and the Loch Ness Monster were all true?  Let’s get on with the interview!

Picture from CNBC

TPF: How did your interest in the paranormal begin?

JW: As a kid I liked monsters and I was also raised religious, so soul-deep in gods and demons, but it wasn’t until college or thereafter that I really started digging the strange in a real way. Probably at that moment when I got my first real job and a place all my own and was supposed to start getting serious about life. I looked out at that landscape and realized, “Ah. The regular world kind of sucks. Guess I’ll be spooky instead.”

TPF: Which of the creatures you wrote about is your favorite, and why?

JW: The Mothman. It’s got a great story arc (most cryptid stories peter out, but the Mothman story raises to a climax with the collapse of the Silver Bridge), but also because Point Pleasant supports its creature in a way that has become the template for all other cryptid towns. Plus, you can explore the TNT area where the creature was most often sighted and pretend it’s the late 1960s and it could pop up anytime with its glowing red eyes and freaky motionless flying.

The Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp-Pic from Redbubble

TPF: Which creature would scare you the most if you came upon it in the wild?

JW: The Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp or, if you can count them, Gray Aliens. The former is because a humanoid reptile just sounds like it could mess you up more than anything else in cryptid lore (minus the water monsters, which is a totally different fear). The latter is mostly because of the movie Communion.

TPF: What did you do before you figured out that you could make a living writing about interesting oddities?

JW: Oh, I can’t. Not and keep my family in Bigfoot t-shirts. I’m also a strategist at an agency in Boston. That basically means I tell stories for businesses, which is a lot like telling paranormal stories except that the monsters all wear suits and I’ve got to pitch them to rooms full of people with “Chief” in their titles.

TPF: Those monsters sound scarier than anything else we’ve discussed here!

 

TPF: When I look at your collection of books, it seems like you’ve covered almost everything. Do you have a work in progress right now, and if so what is it about?

JW: I’m currently working on a book about cults that will come out next year. There’s still a ton of weirdness out there I want to tackle, but after my last three nonfiction books–cursed objects, cryptids, and cults–I might just be out of c-words.

Thank you for your time JW. I’m completely enjoying Cryptids and I’m planning some trips in hopes of seeing a Jersey Devil or maybe a Snallygaster! To my readers, JW is a fun follow on social media and has a website: OddThingsIveSeen.com which is always a fun read. You can also find him on Facebook. In addition to his paranormal subjects, he also has quite a few fiction novels for both young readers and adults. You can find his entire collection on Amazon!

Have a great Saturday everyone, and come back tomorrow for my interview with a demonologist who will be appearing on The Travel Channel in the coming week! ~Phil

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Posted in Humor, paranormal, Uncategorized

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