Mar 26 2007
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Swamps and Saucers
Hispanic ufologist/cryptozoologist Scott Corrales, a contributor to UFOmystic and Cryptomundo, has a new article in the current issue of FATE magazine.
Most people are not thrilled by the idea of having to go to a swamp, as the idea conjures up swarms of mosquitoes, snakes dangling from tree branches, and the pervading smell of decay. In some latitudes there is the ever-present danger of crocodiles. Cherished by sportsmen and shunned by the average person, our planet’s swamps are also the home of mysterious beings and unexplained lights that have been reported for generations. In fact, a swamp seems almost too perfect a location for supernatural goings-on, yet they occur year after year, as we shall see in the following cases.
Any association between UFOs and swamps inevitably leads to the “swamp gas†incident of March 20, 1966, when nearly 80 students at a university residence hall in Hillsdale, Michigan, reported an unidentified flying object hovering over a neighboring marsh. This prompted J. Allen Hynek, who at the time was a consultant to the U.S. Air Force’s Project Blue Book, to suggest the possibility that methane gas had suddenly erupted from the swamp and ignited. “Swamp gas†went on to acquire legendary status as the explanation trotted out by officialdom whenever it could not account for strange phenomena in the heavens above. But unexplained aerial objects have appeared over marshland and continue to do so….
Read the rest of this article in the March 2007 issue of FATE.
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March 26th, 2007 at 1:24 pm
Woolybooger,
Marshlands, swamps and such would seem to be very good places to withdraw from extensive scrutiny because they tend to have low human population densities in proportion to the snakes, alligators, and such that “rule the roost” in such areas. It is also because such areas DO support methane deposits and biochemical reactions that produce “ghostlights” that a hypothetical otherworldly intelligence might want to use such as camouflage for its own physical presence. It might also be that some of these swamps, marshes, etc., just happen to be located in what John Keel calls “window areas” or portals to “somewhere” and it is the “GPS-ID” of the territory (and not its swampiness) that is the main factor here. Remember, for every swamp sighting you’ll have just as many arid desert or rocky grassland sightings; Arizona and New Mexico (and the San Luis Valley) are traditional hotspots for UFO activity and there are no swamplands there.
I think, therefore, UFO type activity, as well as other types of perceived paranormal activities, may be more tied to location re: ley lines and ley-line junctures (and, hence, “windows”) than to the actual topographical condition of specific areas. Or not. It must be considered that an awful lot of paramormality seems linked to water (even dogmen and manwolves in Wisconsin and Michigan…where bodies of water are always in close proximity). Is Matsumoro Eto (sp?) onto something with his water studies? Is perhaps water sentient? Is our collective unconscious waterborne? Is water the mind of the earth? Is this the universal linkage mode of all thought? Is all perhaps “something in the water?” after all? And does water like to “jerk us around” and play mind games with us—since it dominates the composition OF our bodies and brains, and would certainly have the power to do so if it were sentient and purposeful.
Hmmm. Think I’ll go have a drink and mull this over.
March 27th, 2007 at 2:39 pm
It might also be pointed out that the methane “swamp gas” so-called “explanation” for the Hillsdale, Michigan, sightings was one of the factors that led to Hynek’s disillusionment with the “Air Farce” and eventual break with them. As he told it many times after that..often with undertones of anger…the swamp gas idea was nothing more than a notion he floated to them “off the top of his head” as an unlikely, but conceivable POSSIBILITY in this matter. He always claimed it was a very preliminary and underdeveloped hypothesis that “needed work” and might well be discarded on further investigation. He allowed as how he was surprised, shocked, and angered when..the first thing he knew…this “notion” was being announced as “THE” explanation. He felt it was way too premature to be doing such a thing and that it put him between the proverbial “rock and a hard” place and, in fact, basically made him look like a fool.
It was Hynek, also, who later on in his books, suggested that the Air Force habitually…and egregiously….”cooked the books” on their sightings-solved percentages (transforming notional hypotheses on sightings into “cases solved” through a “massaging” of the facts in evidence). Hynek claimed that the “Unknown/Unsolved’ numbers should be much higher in truth and the “solved’ numbers decidedly lower. neither the Air Farce (nor “Condy Condon” and company, later) wanted to hear THAT! So they chose not to.
In my opinion, swamp gas (will o’ the wisp”/ “foxfire”) may contribute to some good boogery ghost stories “down in the bottoms”…but has nothing whatsoever to do with big scale unexplained aerial phenomena.