It is interesting to note that while much of the paranormal phenomena of the fifties and sixties was associated with extraterrestrials and space and technology, that suddenly there emerged from the forest of the American conscious Sasquatch, a being that exists as one with nature and is revered by the Native Americans. A creature that has a definite mythological landscape surrounding its existence and that can possibly give man insight into his own origins. You may look to the stars for answers or you may look to the forests. Either way, the mystery keeps the United States looking, searching, and hoping.
THE MOTHMAN
In the town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, there stands a statue unlike any other in the United States, if not the world. It is a 12-foot tall, stainless steel creature that resembles a man with giant, tattered wings, clawed hands, and a goblin-like face with giant red eyes. This image was culled from the reports of eyewitnesses in and around Point Pleasant during the year of 1966. The “Mothman,” as the creature was dubbed, was characterized by witnesses as resembling a tall, muscular man with wings and hypnotic eyes: “Its face couldn’t be seen because the eyes simply hypnotized you when you looked into them … the eyes consumed your vision and you couldn’t see anything but them.”18
Throughout the following year, more than one hundred people would see this human-like creature with wings and glowing eyes. In addition to the Mothman, a strange mix of other mysterious phenomena have made their way into popular culture, such as the Men in Black, which became a major Hollywood film. The Mothman himself made it to Hollywood stardom in a rather creepy film staring Richard Gere and Laura Linney, entitled The Mothman Prophecies. The film was loosely based on the book by the same name authored by John Keel. Keel was in Point Pleasant during the outbreak of sightings. However, Keel’s work is not specifically directed at the Mothman; it incorporates a variety of phenomena in the area at the time, including various UFO sightings. The sightings ended rather abruptly, following the collapse of the Silver Bridge, a tragedy in which 46 people died. It was a devastating loss for a small community; since then, many have come to believe that the Mothman was some kind of strange, paranormal warning. Keel writes that some strange energy was converging on the area around Point Pleasant during the time leading up to the disaster; “…the strange ones began to arrive in West Virginia. They trooped down from the hill, along the muddy back roads, up from the winding ‘hollers,’ like an army of leprechauns seeking impoverished shoemakers. It was open season on the human race and so the ancient procession of the damned marched once more.”19
More important to the history of the paranormal than the Mothman himself, though he has become a part of American legend, are John Keel’s belief system and the actual state of West Virginia. It is difficult to define Keel’s beliefs as a “system” because they are built more on doubts and insecurities than on any one defined system. Keel does not believe that humans are the first or only intelligence at work on the planet. Rather, he believes that there have been vast intelligences here for eons; tricksters that toy with the inferior human race, ethereal beings that can manifest in a variety of ways and which, he believes, are evidenced in ancient archeology. Keel’s work incorporates far more questions than answers and stems from Charles Fort’s work regarding the paranormal and unexplained. Keel’s influence can also be seen in the works of Erich von Däniken and Graham Hancock, who use archeological evidence to paint a wildly different history of humanity involving highly evolved and sentient beings from other worlds that have guided the course of humanity and have left their fingerprints in the form of baffling ancient architecture such as the Great Pyramids. Keel writes in The Mothman Prophecies,
There are archeological sites in the Mississippi valley which have been dated to 8000 years ago … long before the Indians are supposed to have arrived. Some of the Indian mounds (there are hundreds of them scattered throughout North America) are laid out and constructed with the same kind of mathematical precision found in the pyramids of Egypt. While it is known that the Indians were still adding to some of the mounds in the south when the Europeans first arrived, other mounds seem to be considerably older. Some are built in the form of elephants. What did the builders use for a model? Others are in the shape of sea serpents. These forms can only be seen from the air. To plan and build such mountains of shaped earth required technical skills beyond the simple nomadic woods Indians.20
Beyond Keel’s theories however, the state of West Virginia, it seems, has an affinity for the unexplained. Besides the Mothman, the Men in Black, and the UFO sightings, West Virginia was also the location of the Flatwoods Monster. In 1952, several boys reported seeing a bright light in the night sky touch down in the hills near Flatwoods, West Virginia. They told their mother, and she with her two boys and a 17-year-old National Guardsman went to investigate the area. When they arrived, a 10-foot glowing creature that emitted a pungent vapor confronted them; it hissed at them and seemed to glide above the ground. They fled and called the police; the police investigated the area but could find only trace evidences. Other people reported seeing the creature during the next week, and witnesses were afflicted with a sickness that included vomiting and convulsions. Skeptics have tried to argue that the people only saw a falling meteor and an owl, but the theory comes off as weak and desperate for an explanation.
There seem to be certain areas of the world that tend to attract unexplained phenomena, and the hills of West Virginia would be one of those places. Both the Mothman and the Flatwoods Monster inspire annual town festivals that celebrate the creatures and the legendary status they bring to the area. Both remain unexplained, and the Mothman is still reported in other areas of the country today.
THE EXORCIST AND THE AMITYVILLE HORROR
However, the United States never forgot its ghosts, witches, and demons and its ability to blend reality with fiction to create a story that reaches over the bounds to become legend. The Exorcist was released in 1973 based on a book of the same name by William Peter Blatty. It told the story of a little girl who becomes possessed by an evil spirit and must be exorcised by the clergy. The disturbing nature of the film and the special effects earned it widespread popularity and even Academy Awards; however, that wasn’t what made the film so lasting in the American consciousness. What made the film truly horrifying was that it was supposedly based on a true story that occurred in the United States. Satan and evil spirits were suddenly cast into the American spotlight once again. “Not since Psycho had a film provoked the kind of hysteria accompanied by Friedkin’s tale of possession. Around the world, the appearance of the film was accompanied by long lines, vomiting, and claims of supernatural events.”21
The rumors and tales surrounding the truth of The Exorcist is what launched the film into a sort of American legend. Blatty claims that his fiction was based on an incident that occurred in the 1950s when a young boy, following the death of his aunt, began to exhibit strange symptoms and seemingly dual personalities. When science and psychologists at the time could not cure the boy, the family eventually turned to the church, much the same as in … The Exorcist. While the boy did recover and the priests involved (who are still alive and have been interviewed by the History Channel) claim that this was absolutely a case of possession and contend that numerous supernatural events took place during the exorcism, scientists and psychologists now believe that there may have been an incestuous relationship between the aunt and the boy that may have caused a psychotic break in the child’s mind that manifested itself through physical ailments and illnesses. Even the priests agree that the physical manifestations shown in The Exorcist were extreme—for Hollywood’s sake, of course. Nevertheless, the “true” story of The Exorcist plunged into the fabric of American culture and reinvigorated interest in the occult, spirits, and demons.
Following The Exorcist was another “true” story that became a part of American folklore, The Amityville Horror. The Amityville Horror was, in many ways, a truer story than The Exorcist. In November of 19
76 Ronald DeFeo murdered his six family members at his home in Amityville, New York, located on Long Island. Soon after the mass murder, George Lutz, his wife, and their children moved into the home unconcerned about the previous events. Over the next month they would experience such haunting phenomena as furniture being inexplicably moved about the house, family members levitating in their sleep, ghostly eyes glaring at them through windows, numerous destructive acts that damaged the home, the sounds of people and music playing late at night when everyone was asleep, and slime dripping from the walls. This demonic presence finally chased the Lutzes from their home a month later; they left all of their possessions behind. Their experience generated much media attention across the island as well as legal troubles concerning the Lutzes’ abandonment of a rather expensive home. Their story also generated the book by Jay Anson, aptly named The Amityville Horror, which was Anson’s rendering of the Lutzes’ story as told by the Lutzes themselves.
On the top step stood a gigantic figure in white. George knew it was the hooded image Kathy had first glimpsed in the fireplace. The being was pointing at him! George whirled and raced back into the bedroom, grabbed up Missy, and shoved her into Danny’s arms. ‘Take her outside!’ he shouted. ‘You go with them, Chris!’ Then he bent over Kathy and lifted her off the bed. ‘Hurry!’ George yelled after the boys. Then he too ran from the room, Harry following him down the steps. On the first floor, George saw the front door was open, hanging from its hinges again, torn away by some powerful force. Danny, Chris and Missy were outside. The little girl, just awakening, was squirming in her brother’s arms. Not knowing where she was, she started to cry with fright. George ran for the van. He put Kathy on the front seat and then helped the children into the rear. Harry jumped in behind them, and he slammed the door on Kathy’s side. George ran around to the other side of the vehicle, jumped in the driver’s seat, and prayed.22
This was the dramatic final scene in Anson’s book as the Lutz family escaped the house and vowed never to return.
The book became a best-seller, the story became legendary, and there was a media frenzy surrounding the house as reporters and onlookers tried to get into this supposedly possessed house. The attention became so much that eventually the name of the street in Amityville had to be changed to keep trespassers away. Meanwhile, paranormal investigators from around the country were clamoring to get inside and investigate the house. The Lutzes contacted both Stephen Kaplan of the Parapsychology Institute of America, and the Warrens, a paranormal investigating couple who had been working in the area for some time. The Lutzes allowed only the Warrens to enter the home and conduct a séance, similar to the Spiritualist séances of the 1800s. The infamy of this house and the success of the subsequent book and film led the Warrens to fame, where they made a name for themselves that would soon be immortalized in paranormal history.
However, there were many people, including the late paranormal investigator Stephen Kaplan, who believed this story to be a hoax perpetrated by George Lutz in an effort to back out of a mortgage that he couldn’t afford. Kaplan debated with the Warrens several times on television and radio, denouncing the Amityville Horror as a hoax while the Warrens defended it many times over, claiming that they had indeed experienced the demonic presence in the house. This led to a lifelong bitter rivalry between the two groups. The house was eventually sold again, and the new owners experienced no paranormal events in the home other than people trespassing, trying to get a glimpse of the house and, in some cases, even stealing shingles from the siding. The police had to be called to the house many times to steer away trespassers and tourists, and, as mentioned earlier, eventually the name of the street had to be changed. Still, the next owners were not above having a little fun with the now infamous house, throwing Halloween parties every year with a special invitation to Stephen Kaplan and his wife.
THE SATANIC PANIC
During the 1980s and early 1990s, the United States once again returned to its witch-hunts. Known now as the satanic panic, rumors of satanic cults that engaged in cannibalism, kidnapping, murder, incest, child pornography, group suicide, and ritual child abuse spurred panics in small towns and led to a media frenzy of wild speculation, massive police investigations, court trials, ruined lives and businesses, and the incarceration of innocent people. It was truly a social movement across the board sparked by psychiatrists and therapists—so-called experts—who began to claim that their clients had suffered childhood abuse at the hands of satanic cults. Fears of Satanism had been growing throughout the seventies following the social upheaval of the counter-culture movement, the emergence of New Age religions, and a number of high-profile murders that the perpetrators claimed were part of a satanic ritual. However, it was a small book, Michelle Remembers, written by a psychiatrist that really began the panic. In the book a patient by the name of Michelle recalls terrifying abuse at the hands of her mother and an organized group of Satan worshippers. Much of this was recalled under hypnosis, but the book became a best-seller and started a long string of copycat stories that became more and more gruesome as the years went on. Using the same hypnotic, suggestive techniques, psychiatrists and therapists across the country began to find similar stories in the unknown histories of their patients. Naturally, the patients could not remember any of these incidents taking place except under the influence of hypnosis and psychiatric drugs but, at the doctors’ insistence, became convinced of their validity. The movement in the psychiatric world corresponded and fit into the notion of multiple personality disorder and repressed memories that were becoming popular both in the psychiatric world and in pop culture. The psychiatrists believed that, as children, these people experienced such horrific atrocities that it caused their minds to either repress the incidents from conscious memory or fracture into different personalities, and this was why no one could remember any of the abuse actually happening.
This panic became national with the McMartin Preschool Trials, in which the staff of a preschool was arrested on the testimony of preschool children, who claimed, among other things, that they had been molested in hot air balloons and underground tunnels and forced to eat feces and drink blood; but there was absolutely no corroborating evidence. Of course, none of the children actually remembered this, either. Rather, child therapists who specialized in satanic ritual abuse (SRA) used leading questions and untested methods by which to extract this information. No bodies were ever found, nor was any physical evidence of sexual abuse. In the end, all those arrested in the McMartin Preschool case were acquitted in what remains the longest and most expensive trial in U.S. history.
The 1980s was awash in this belief that there was a vast conspiracy of Satanists who were murdering up to 50,000 people a year, according to one police officer’s estimate. Those who wanted to believe found evidence for satanic cults everywhere. Heavy metal music was blamed for leading teenagers to Satanism and suicide, teachers and family members were accused of molestation and murder, and talk shows were alive with gruesome stories of forced cannibalism and torture at the hands of a vast underground cult, including a Geraldo Rivera special that garnered some of the highest television ratings in history. Particular police officers became known as “cult cops” and went from city to city warning of the dangers of cults and instructing other departments in what to look for; psychiatrists and therapists began to specialize in SRA and quickly moved to the forefront of their fields as directors of psychiatric facilities; heavy metal bands were sued following the suicide of teenagers; major corporations were boycotted because people found evidence of satanic symbolism in their logos; evangelical preachers used the presence of a formidable and dangerous satanic presence to unite their flocks and rally against the downward plight of the nation; and there were even instances of townspeople arming themselves to go look for the cults as they practiced their rites in the dark woods.
However, no bodies were ever found; no corroborating evidence ever uncovered; no vast cult conspiracy that ruled the nation was eve
r unearthed; and when the accusations became too ridiculous to be believed by even the most ardent of believers, the movement died, just as the European witch craze and the Salem witch trials had. The U.S. justice system had forgotten what Cotton Mather wrote concerning witness testimony. It was later determined that a majority of the accusations against the McMartin teachers came from a mentally ill mother diagnosed with schizophrenia. In fact, there are several documented cases of the police and therapists taking the word of mentally ill people as testimony and prosecuting based on said testimony. The accusations also involved testimony from highly susceptible children who, up until that time, could not have been used as legitimate witnesses for prosecution. There are a variety of political, cultural, economic, and religious aspects of the satanic panic that will be covered in a later chapter, but it does demonstrate the United States’ ability to quickly forget lessons of the past and to resort to panic inspired by folklore and ancient beliefs, if given the right social stressors. Despite three hundred years of technological and economic progress since the Salem witch trials, the United States has progressed very little culturally and spiritually.
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