It’s interesting to note how in all three of those reports mist/fog plays a role, and seem to almost be a marker of the high strangeness of those events. The presence of fog/mist could be a good way to differntate between a “normal” report and one of high strangeness because it only seems to play a role in the most strange cases, while being conspioucsly absent in most cryptozoological reports, many ufological accounts, etc. (at least to the best of my knowledge). It’s funny, it almost seems like the mist is needed to “set the stage” for the weirdness to come, like some of the old classic Hammer films where the strange monster would rampage across the fog-shrouded countryside. Though..that could just be me

http://www.wunderkabinett.co.uk/damndata/index.php?/archives/332-Swedish-Plasma-Balls.html

It’s interesting how mist/fog plays such a role in so many different reports. Perhaps the presence of mist/fog is an indicator of the presence of “otherworldly” phenomena, the ones that take shape in our world for a brief time and then dissapate, leaving nothing behind but frightened witnesses. It’s interesting to note how mist/fog plays almost no role in most “normal” cryptozoological reports, it’s only the “high strangeness” cases where it’s reported (to the best of my knowledge anyway). I would assume that that would be at least one good way to differentate between “normal” reports and more strange ones.

Although when it comes to cryptozoology and ufology I’m a flesh and blood, nuts and bolts kind of guy, I have actually been giving a lot of thought to ‘zooform phenomena’ as of late. So many strange beings are seen, many of them zoologically impossible, that the chances of them all being physical entities seems rather remote, assuming the reports are authentic. Take the reports of fairies, for example (since Greg mentioned them): could they possibly be earth spirits or even the earth’s mana given physical form? I actually wrote an entry on my blog forteanhistoricalarchive.blogspot.com where I discuss them in detail.

At the risk of sounding too forward, I’m currently working on some personal projects dealing with anomalous phenomena and would love to get your opinon on them, do you have an email address I can reach you at? (assuming you don’t mind, of course)

Kind regards,
Greg

I have been following the whole Cannock Chase business for a while (and become slightly connected with it as I the “three angry Americans” mentioned in a report from the local paper - despite not fitting any aspect of the description) and so all information is gratefully received.

The progression: mist resolving into sphere of light, resolving into figure(s) is a common one and seems to crop up quite a bit with the BVM.

That story has strong parallels with the report from Aarno Heinonen and Esko Viljo in 1970 (although they first saw the vehicle and then the mist). They also had a number of other encounters which seemed to skate the line between UFO, fairyfolk and religious (at least one other one involving a figure in the mist).

As to what is going on… who knows. I’d certainly not exclude the idea that somehow the cloud is a non-corporeal entity or possibly some kind of probe made from pure energy and/or some kind of projection from… beyond. The weird figures, strange encounters and the like could then just be a by-product of some kind of muddled communication attempts (things like the Subanthropic Principle would suggest other things “out there” might be far smarter and/or doing things in radically different ways and we may have only a very crude grasp of what is going on). Equally I don’t rule out weird weather having some very odd effects on the human mind. The last option strikes me as being highly testable.

There are other interesting parallels from the life of D.D. Home with border experiences as well. A fascinating topic (IMO!).

Kind regards,
Greg

As for living clouds, I don’t think there has been a book on that as such. But check out the work of Trevor Constable for theories re. weird living things soaring in our skies. He has some interesting theories.

Nope: no offense taken at all. In fact, I welcome debate as that’s the only way we’ll get answers.

Re the trickster angle: certainly it provokes controversy; but I’m strongly inclined to think it’s the right path.

There are so many weird “things” in our world that pop up in the same places, that are always elusive, and yet have curiously similar patterns of behavior: UFOs, cryptids, paranormal phenomena. They always remain elusive; investigators of the phenomena begin to experience weird synchroncities, the list goes on.

I think the “cosmic trickster” theory is an interesting idea, but my problem with that theory has always been that it seems a little bit of a cop out (no offense), because theres no real way to prove something like that and so it lessens the burden for proof. At the same time, things like the Grinning Men sightings that Keel spoke about would make more sense in that context than any other kind.

Oh, this is probably offtopic, but since the entries have been discussing weird mists and clouds as of late, do you know if anyone has ever conducted an indepth study into that branch of Fortean phenomena, i.e. the “living clouds” for lack of a better term?