The house was quiet for about two weeks, then on November 15 at ten in the evening, the rock throwing started again and this time, they were not only smashing up against the wall, but also falling on the roof. Suddenly, a rock flew through the living room window, shattering the glass, and all was quiet. The couple called the police once again and after looking around, the responding officer suggested that someone they knew was having fun with them. The couple found this idea ridiculous and told me that although the officer seemed helpful, they got the feeling he did not believe them. He even asked the couple if they were drinking or smoking dope. They showed him the stone in the living room that came through the window; the officer picked it up and said it felt warm.
There were no more incidents until November 18 when at about ten in the evening, rocks began hitting the south side of their home once again, but every time they would run out to try and catch the culprit, the bombardment would stop. After my investigation and visit on November 21, the rock throwing stopped. I kept in touch with the couple for several weeks and all remained quiet. They were sure that an evil spirit or ghost was contacted when they used the Ouija board so they burned it in the fireplace. This case remains unexplained in my files. There was notable damage to the side of the house and roof so I think a hoax can be ruled out—why would these people damage their new home? This case is one of many in my files in which a paranormal event was triggered after the use of a Ouija board. Is there a connection between the two? Do they open a doorway to another reality?
A Bermuda Triangle in the Sky
Charles Fort thought that there was a “Super Sargasso Sea” in the upper atmosphere that would occasionally interact with our world and draw things up from the ground and the oceans.[15] Fort also felt that on the other side of this Super Sargasso Sea was another land composed of unknown forms of matter and home to strange creatures. This was incredible speculation for Fort’s day; he was trying to express the idea of portals opening up from a parallel reality. During his life, Fort collected more than a thousand cases of identifiable and unidentifiable things that fell from the sky. After spending hours going through microfilm in the New York City Public Library, I actually found many of the original stories Fort used in his research and they seemed quite well documented. Believe or not, the New York Times (“All the news that’s fit to print”) was one of the only papers that carried these types of stories. Although some of the articles were short and used as fillers, others had a great deal of information indicating something strange did indeed take place.
Falling Out of the Super Sargasso Sea
We’ve all heard the saying “it’s raining cats and dogs,” but as far as we know, house pets never fell down to Earth from the sky. This saying seems to have originated in sixteenth-century England. Dogs and cats were not allowed in homes so when heavy rain fell, animals would jump on the roofs, lined with a considerable amount of straw for insulation. When the straw got wet, it became very slippery and animals would easily lose their footing, thus the saying was born. Fair enough, but when it rains fish, frogs, birds, and toads not normally found in the area, where do they come from? The cases are too frequent to be ignored, and although I have seventy-three cases in my files, only seventeen of them are presented below.
1666, September: Wrotham, Kent, England: Hundreds of fish of all sizes and species were found in a field. There was no rain for two days and no water around the area. The fish were all dead but there was no sign of decay, indicating they had fallen less than twenty-four hours before.
1683, October 24: Charles Fort’s Book of the Dammed reports that frogs fell from the sky over Norfolk, England. Many of the frogs were still alive as they invaded the homes of people who lived in the village. It took ten days to get rid of all the frogs; the number of frogs was said to be in the hundreds (sounds like one of the biblical plagues).
1804, September 22: The London Herald reported that the town of Toulouse, France, experienced a fall of tiny frogs. The day was nice and sunny but without warning, massive grey clouds filled the sky and there was lightning with no thunder or rain but plenty of wind. After about ten minutes, the skies cleared and the sun once again was seen—it was as if the storm never took place. Then, tiny little frogs fell from the sky, totaling more than one hundred; they were all cold and appeared frozen.
1859, October: The magazine Nature reported a dense shower of fish 5 inches in length that covered the roofs of many homes in South Wales. The report was investigated by a Dr. Gray of the British Museum who was puzzled by the event.
1860, June 2: The New York Times reported that on May 28, 1860, the Port Jervis area of New York experienced a rain of toads. The author of the article, a Dr. Isaiah Deck, said “these experiences are not rare” because he also saw a rain of toads and fish in 1846 in Norfolk, England. The Port Jervis toads were all dead but they were fresh—the mouths were all open and there was no sign of decay.
1877, January 15: Scientific American reported small snakes falling from the sky after a violent freak thunderstorm over the town of Sandhaven, Scotland. An investigation team from the British Museum said the small garter snakes were most likely transported by a water spout from France; all the snakes were dead.
1878, July 16: The New York Times reported an exceedingly large number of small toads fell from the sky covering the ground during a heavy afternoon shower in La Crosse, Wisconsin. The toads were most numerous in the Vine Street Depot area where they excited and caused wonder among residents there. A Captain Moulton testified that he saw them fall from the sky; the reporter considered his statement “good testimony” and included it in his story.
1881, May 30: From the Worcester Daily Times: During a severe thunderstorm at three in the afternoon, there were heavy rains and hail that “tore through the trees.” In the town of St. John’s, thousands of periwinkles fell from the sky; residents picked them up. In the days to follow, locals were still picking them up.
1885, July 26: The New York Times: “Where did all the toads come from?” After a heavy shower passed over Troy, Pennsylvania, in Pike County, the town found itself covered with toads. There were so many toads, it was impossible to walk along the streets without crushing them. They were reported to be at least 1 inch in length and they swarmed into the streets, yards, and gardens. People in the area said roads and fields for miles around were swarmed with toads in the same way. By noon, the toads had all disappeared as mysteriously as they had come; no one was able to explain how they came and went.
1896, October 15: The Philadelphia Times reported that dozens of dead birds fell from the sky on a clear day over Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
1897, July 16: The New York Times reported a shower of toads that appeared during a heavy evening rainfall in the village of Leeds, New York. The toads fell in a limited area only about 100 square feet. This area was covered with perfectly formed, still-alive toads. The toads were all of the same size, about an inch or so in length and of a very strange translucent white color.
1922, September 5: The New York Daily News reported that the French village of Brignoles experienced a freak tornado and thunderstorm. After the weather cleared, small live toads fell from the sky over a two-day period. The total number of toads was said to be more than three dozen.
1929, July 8: The New York Times reported a tiny toad shower on a hill just outside New Brunswick, Canada.[16] One witness said “The toads fell like rain from a clear blue sky and many of them were still alive and jumped away when they hit the ground.” Scientists from the New Brunswick Museum investigated, but could find no answer concerning how the toads got there.
1933, July 22: The New York Times writes that a couple living on a farm in Enfield, Connecticut, reported toads falling from the sky during a “frightening” thunderstorm.
1954, June 12: The New York Times reported a fall of little frogs after a thunderstorm in Sutton Park, Yorkshire, England.
1
973, January 2: The Camden News of Arkansas reported showers of tiny frogs the size of quarters during a violent thunderstorm that seemed to form out of nowhere.
1973, September 22: A small article in the New York Times said that thousands of tiny toads were seen falling from the sky during a freak thunderstorm near Kent, England.[17] A local meteorologist theorized that a water spout must have lifted the toads from another location and transported them to Kent. The toads were found to be not common to the area; the article does not go into detail from whence they came.
Fishing in the Sky
A case of small fish falling from the sky came to my attention in 1986 from a neighborhood in Rhinebeck, New York. On September 23rd, at two in the morning, there was a violent thunderstorm with winds that actually blew over several trees. The next day, many residents in the northern section of this very rural suburb found their property covered with little minnow-like fish. Several days before this occurrence, I did a series of cable television shows in the area on UFOs and the paranormal. One of the families that found fallen fish on their property had seen the show and decided to give me a call in hopes of shedding light on this mystery. I arrived on the 23rd, sometime in the early afternoon where property owners were still raking up fish and placing them in baskets. There were hundreds of them scattered over the yards of four homes, but not one on any of the roofs—the strangest thing was many of these fish were still alive.
One of the dead fish was sent to the Connecticut Department of Wildlife Management where the species of minnow was identified as the bluntnose minnow, found across the Midwest from Louisiana to New York. The bluntnose is the most common type of minnow. One resident, an avid local fisherman, joked that he’d wasted years fishing in area lakes—perhaps he should have started casting his line up in the sky!
Fallings of toads, frogs and fish from the sky are the most common, but there also exists many reports of blocks of ice, blood, meat, unidentifiable organic substances, jelly-like material, blocks of limestone, and the most perplexing of all due to its white, silky appearance: angel hair.
Do Angels Shed Their Hair?
Angel hair, so named for its similarity to fine silver threads, is a substance allegedly dispersed from UFOs as they fly overhead; some think it similar to spider webs. Paranormal researchers most often compare it to ectoplasm due to its tendency to disintegrate shortly after being found.
Reports of “angel hair” falling are worldwide; the greatest numbers comes from North America, Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. In the Portuguese city of Évora, angel hair was collected and analyzed by a local school director in November 2, 1959. Later, armed forces technicians and scientists of the University of Lisbon took interest in it as well. Their conclusions were that angel hair was formed by a small insect of an unknown species or perhaps some kind of single-celled organism. An unconfirmed report also states that angel hair was seen falling from the sky on November 3 of that year as a UFO passed over the Air Force Base of Sintra; soldiers were seen collecting the material in containers.
Other Noteworthy Angel Hair Fallings
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1881: Scientific American, volume 45, p. 337: People of Milwaukee were astonished by the fall of a web-like material that appeared to come from over Lake Michigan. The strands seemed to fall from a great height and were 2 or 3 feet in length. They covered the ground and trees over many miles. In all instances, the material was said to be strong in texture, very white and vanished five minutes after reaching the ground.
Port Hope, Ontario, September 26, 1948: A story entitled “Cobwebs or Flying Saucers?” appeared in the December 1949 issue of Weather. At 2 pm eastern time, a number of objects that looked like stars were seen streaking across the clear sky. Shortly after the objects passed over the town, residents witnessed a silk-like material in the shape of long threads falling from the sky. The threads quickly dissolved after touching the ground.
Montreal, Canada, October 10, 1963: The Marine Observer reports that a Captain R. H. Pape noticed very fine white threads falling from the sky while his ship, the Roxburgh Castle was moored in her berth. Calling the attention of the chief officer, the captain picked up one of the threads from the ships deck and said that it was “quite tough and resilient and after keeping it in [his] hand for three to four minutes, it disappeared completely.” Looking up, they noticed “small cocoons” floating down from the sky. They tried to pick up the material and preserve some of the filaments, but they disappeared very quickly.
A Recent Fall of Angel Hair
On July 24, 27, and 30 of 2008, a considerable number of UFO close encounters took place in the small New York town of Hopewell Junction.[18] I received calls and emails from a total of fourteen people reporting that a very bright object, triangular in shape and the size of a large aircraft flew silently over their homes at about ten-thirty at night.[19] The UFO circled one particular neighborhood for ten minutes and projected down a beam of red light that moved across residents’ properties. After “scanning” the ground, the object moved northwest and vanished.
On October 10 of that same year, I received a telephone call at six in the morning from one of the witnesses from the aforementioned sighting stating that he once again saw the object that very morning, this time at 4 am. When he went outside at sunrise, his lawn and trees were covered with a silky, white material that looked like “cobwebs.” When he picked up the material in his hand, he said excitedly, “it just dissolved like it wasn’t even there!” I made arrangements to drive to his home from my place in Connecticut—I wanted to get there as soon as possible because it sounded like a rare case of angel hair. With my research in mind, I knew this phenomenon would likely completely dissolve a short time after its fall from the sky. I arrived about two hours later at the witness’s property; he told me most of the material was gone, that it just “vaporized,” but some of it was still left on the front lawn.
I picked up a small amount and it felt like fine threaded silk. It wasn’t sticky like a spider web and the strands were so thin that the slightest breeze blew them up into the air. I collected as many of the threads as I could and placed them in a specimen jar, took some photos and left. I was hoping to take the material to a laboratory in the area that I often used to perform quantitative and qualitative analyses. Unfortunately, half an hour into my trip, the material in the jar was gone and nothing at all remained. I called the property owner and was told all the “cobwebs” were gone; just “evaporated away.” I was able to get my laboratory associates to take rubs from the inside of the glass jar, but nothing was found. The next day I discussed the incident with an entomologist who guessed I had found spider silk. She explained that spiders often use a finer thread-like material spun into sheets or balls for transportation. Air currents take them up in the air and they’re used to migrate from one place to another. I then asked if they could dissolve. The entomologist replied that yes they could over time, if exposed to moisture, but she could not explain why this mystery material vanished on touch and inside the jar so quickly. As of 2009, the angel hair (or spider silk) never reappeared, so the question remains whether those wispy silk threads were from a UFO or nothing more than a migrating spider web.
[1]. Gregory, “Statistical Studies of Ball Lightning,” World Scientific Publishing (1988): 80–94.
[2]. Josephus Flavius (author), William Whiston (translator), The Complete Works of Flavius Josephus: The Celebrated Jewish Historian (London: Potter Publishing, 1880).
[3]. Karl Hoeber, “Flavius Josephus,” The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 8. (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910).
[4]. Ronald W. Clarke, Benjamin Franklin: A Biography (New York: Random House, 1983).
[5]. Martin Caidin, Black Thursday (New York: Bantam, 1987).
[6]. Air Material Command document dated October 17, 1943: Declassified July 1987.
[7]. The Newt
own Bee, September 10, 1978.
[8]. This case is documented in my book, Interdimensional Universe: The New Science of UFOs, Paranormal Phenomena and Otherdimensional Beings (Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn, 2008).
[9]. A UFO flap is an outbreak of many UFO sightings over a relatively small geographical area..
[10]. One of the meteorites is now on display at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Connecticut.
[11]. Ursula B. Marvin, “Ernst Florenz Friedrich Chladni (1756–1827) and the Origins of Modern Meteorite Research,” Meteoritics & Planetary Science 31 (1996): 572.
[12]. Plutarch, The Life of Lysander, written in 75 ad. Loeb Classical Library (January 1, 1916). Copy available at the New York City Public Library.
[13]. This incident is documented in my book Interdimensional Universe: The New Science of UFOs, Paranormal Phenomena, and Otherdimensional Beings (Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn, 2008).
[14]. The Litchfield police report indicated that the investigating officers thought that squirrels were running on top of the roof; however, I checked the roof while I was there and found the same type of stones piled alongside the house.
[15]. The Sargasso Sea is also known as the Bermuda Triangle.
[16]. Most stories of falling toads and fish, especially from the period of 1830 to 1899, can now be found in the online New York Times archives at newyorktimes.com.
Files From the Edge Page 5