Man Bat

Imagine driving down a dark country road and having the above, man-sized creature fly at your windshield, stare in at you and then swoop upwards into the night sky. This actually happened to a 53-year old LaCrosse man who prefers to be known only by his Cherokee name, Wohali, and the man's 25-year old son. Their reaction? Immediate illness. In seconds, both became physically ill, and the son, who was driving, swerved and then pulled the truck over into the ditch so he could vomit. The son, who wishes his identity kept private, vomited six or seven times. Wohali retched, as well, and both remained sick for an entire week. The son was so frightened by the encounter that he refuses to discuss it. But Wohali told me he feels it's important for people to "know what is out there," and wants the story to be told.The Man Bat. This sighting happened Tuesday, Sept. 26, on Briggs Road near LaCrosse between 9:15 and 9:30 pm. The creature almost flew into their windshield, was an estimated 6-7 feet tall, sported batlike, leathery wings with a span of 10-12 feet, long claws on its feet and "hands" and a snarling expression on the face. They both somehow felt it was angry it had been seen. "When we turned onto Briggs Road," wrote Wohali in his hand-written account, "our little 4-wheel drive truck's headlights caught (in mid-air) a bat-like, man-like creature (we almost smacked it with our windshield) that was six or seven feet tall with abouta ten or twelve foot wingspan." The large muzzle featured rows of sharp teeth, and the creature "screamed" at them before sailing straight up into the air. The encounter made both men physically ill, sick to their stomachs and vomiting the rest of the night. Wohali stated that he did not know whether the creature had been on the road and then bounced up at them, or if it had been flying at the time it came at their car. He was sure the thing was a physical, actual creature, he said, but like nothing he had ever seen before. The drawing above includes more details than he actually saw during the few seconds of the encounter, he said, but "the face was hard to see clearly because the mouth and teeth were so prominent. It looked hungry.""Sorry about the cartoonish drawing," he wrote, "but it was so unreal that all I really remember is what you see." Wohali further described it as having "distended ribs, long sort of human legs with claws, huge bat-like wings with 'arms' sort of attached, I remember the teeth and the scream we heard was terrifying." Wohali added, "I've been living in this valley all my life and have seen some strange things, after all the Mississippi Upper Wildlife Refuge is the largest in the country and right out my back door. It hides lots of strange creatures. But I've NEVER seen anything like this. Rent the movie Bram Stoker, Dracula, the Dracula creature looks like it or better yet like the one in Van Helsing."
Briggs Road is a short stretch about a mile long just west of Holmen, which is north of LaCrosse. Briggs Rd. runs north and south between Cty. Hwys. XX and V, intersected by Hwy. 53 about midway. Immediately to the west is a large marsh, to the east is Halfway Creek. A mile north is the Van Loon State Wildlife area, and the road itself lies along the Amsterdam Prairie. The south end of the road sits about a mile and a half north of the Upper Mississippi River Natioanl Wildlife and Fish Refuge and Lake Onalaska. The road makes an immediate rise as you head north, and it was near the crest of the hill, less than a quarter mile from the road's south entrance, that the creature was seen. On the west side of the road, just before the sighting area, is a fenced off area that appeared to be some type of utility location, and on the east side was a shooting range and club. The west side of the sighting area features a row of bramble-type, dense vegetation.

INVESTIGATION:

I was able to visit the site in person with Wohali and a friend of his who is a veteran deer hunter and butcher. It was on October 14, eighteen days after the sighting (best I could do due to previous commitments). We drove there in the daytime first, and examined the area for footprints, but the surface was either asphalt roadbed or covered with tough, marshy grass or vegetation. However, we did notice something white on the west side of the road at the exact point the sighting occurred. We paced it to be twenty-five feet from the roadside. It was a strangely mutilated deer carcass, which appeared to have been deposited in a woodsy spot covered by brambles. There were no visible drag marks and a complete absence of blood on the ground. The deer carcass lay on its right side with its back facing the road, and the white area we saw was its exposed layer of winter fat, the skin having been peeled back from the midsection toward the forelimbs, which remained intact along with the head. No bullet wounds or bite marks were visible. There was no odor, probably because temperatures had ranged near freezing at night and only in the 50s daytime. The hunter with us estimated the carcass to be no older than three days, and its weight at about 60 pounds. The low weight estimate was due to the fact that the entire haunch section, lower abdomen and rear limbs WERE GONE!

The spine still protruded from the midsection, which by the way still retained the prized ribs and tenderloin that a hunter would certainly have taken, but the haunches appeared to have been ripped off. The remains did not appear to have been cut with a knife, said Wohali's Native American hunter friend. And the fact that the carcass was nearly bloodless and that there was no blood on the road or in the vicinity would indicate that the haunches were ripped off in another place where the carcass immediately bled out, and then it was carried to this spot and deposited. There were no APPARENTLY VISIBLE tooth or bite marks that would have been left by something carrying it in its mouth. We were not in a position to conduct a complete forensic examination of the animal. Oddly, an unused, unopened dark garbage bag lay adjacent to the carcass, toward the road. It's possible the deer was a "clean" road kill and someone had decided to butcher it and somehow lifted the fairly small deer and carried it back to the brambles for safekeeping, leaving the garbage bag with it. But why take the back legs and leave the good meat? And where did the blood go? Or the garbage bag could have blown against the deer from the road during recent storms. Wohali revisited the spot last week, which would have been about ten days after we discovered the carcass, and found absolutely no trace or remains of the carcass, not even a bone. I have to play devil's advocate and point out that the carcass could have been placed there no more than fifteen days (if the carcass was 3 days old) after Wohali's initial sighting of the creature. Therefore a connection to the creature is hard to prove. Also, because it was across the road from a gun club, one could easily imagine someone plugging an illegal deer and then going to some lengths to hide the evidence. But the fact that it was at the exact same point on the road as the sighting coupled with the curious physical condition of the remains still makes it worthy of note. We did return that evening about the same time of the initial sighting. Wohali, his friend, and I were passengers in a car driven by my friend and book reviewer Terri Schlichenmeyer. The carcass was still there and in the same condition we had found it earlier in the day. We parked in the ditch where Wohali and his son had pulled over, and watched in the darkness for about an hour. Wohali reported that he saw something shadowy in the treetops, and at one point, all three of them saw something large, black and slinky cross the road at the top of the hill. They said it looked like an inky ribbon unfurling. I saw nothing but perhaps was just not looking at the right place. Terri, I should add, was coming into the situation fairly uninformed, she happened to be my host for the weekend and was of a skeptical frame of mind about the situation. Finally, everyone felt quite unnerved and Wohali's friend, especially, urged us to leave the area immediately so we did.

Correlations:

I can't help but link this sighting to the mid-90s encounter another man and his son had by the riverbank in LaCrosse while hunting for a lost dog. They saw what they described as a "lizard man," covered in brownish scales and very reptilian-looking. It did not have its mouth open or arms extended Around the same time, a state DNR warden and separately, a group of highway workers saw what they described as a "reptile man" on Hwy. 13 near Medford. It also possessed wings and was able to fly out of their view (see Hunting the American Werewolf, p. 240-245) As I noted in "Hunting," the Medford spot was very near the Black River which winds up from LaCrosse! Could a creature be aerial and aquatic at the same time? Well, there are many water birds that manage the feat. Aquatic bats? Not so sure about that one.I can't imagine batlike wings being too great for swimming. And the feet Wohali saw were clawed, not webbed for paddling. Still, it seems odd that LaCrosse would be the locus of all these odd, man-sized creatures.Another item that bears mentioning is that LaCrosse is also the unfortunate site known for many drownings of college-aged males over the past couple of decades. The latest happened three days after Wohali's sighting. The last "rash," of which this drowning was the 7th, might be said to have started in 1997, the same approximate time as the sightings of the Reptile and Lizard man. Are these creatures some sort of death harbingers? Or totally unrelated? Your guess is as good as mine. On a more cryptozoological note, I have also found one other interesting "coincidence." On October 23, 2006, Biofort Blogger Scott Maruda reported that a William McManus claimed to have seen a huge bird near Stillwater, MN, that may have been a "Washington Eagle," a gigantic eagle species documented by John James Audubon in 1840. The Washington Eagle was dark, reddish brown and had a wingspan of ten feet, the same as the creature Wohali and his son saw, and a body length of three and one half feet. It would not, however, have displayed teeth or batlike wings with claws. Stillwater is only about 70 miles north of the Wohali sighting, along the same river. McManus saw the eagle-creature in winter of 2004. Does this mean that what Wohali really saw was the Washington Eagle (sometimes known as a sea eagle)? Well, the description just doesn't fit for the most part. But intriguingly, a similar pattern emerged with the sightings of another unknown flyer, Mothman of Point Pleasant, W. Virginia. Other very large birds...that were definitely birds....were observed by many witnesses at the same time the winged Mothman began terrorizing the area. Speaking of Mothman, could it have moved westward to the LaCrosse area, and is that what made Wohali and his son physically ill? Well, again the main similarity is size, along with the disturbing ability of both entitites to shoot straight up into the air. But what Wohali saw had a definite head, ears and fangs,with yellowish eyes, whereas Mothman was usually described as having no separate head, but with very large eyes that shined red when illuminated. And I didn't find any references to immediate nausea on the part of witnesses of Mothman in a quick glimpse at a few reference books on my shelf. So I don't think we can assume Mothman has migrated. And considering the other legacy of Mothman, the alleged curse that has caused so many deaths, I rather hope no other association with Mothey can be shown.

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Gothic Cathedral of Lincoln, England

In 2005 I began an exhaustive investigation into an area of research that hitherto had been completely unknown to me, the wondrous edifice of the Gothic Cathedral of Lincoln, England. To say that the Cathedral is a most splendid building would still be an understatement. Dominating the Lincoln skyline, it can be seen as far away as thirty miles, its 271’ central tower England’s second most tallest. It may even be compared in a fashion with the Tor at Glastonbury, itself visible for miles, for when it enshrouds in mist as it does many times in the year, it will vanish completely, as if wrapped up in the vaporous shroud of Avalon – made all the more appropriate by the fact that its Patron Saint Hugh arrived from the village of Avalon in eastern France. The Cathedral was the tallest building in the world from just after 1300-1549, the first building on the planet to exceed the height of the great pyramid of Giza, until the spire that afforded it this accolade was blown down. My own research led me to the startling and unexpected discovery of the ‘Lincoln Cathedral Code’ involving the mystery of Rennes-le-Chateau, Mary Magdalene and the Knights Templar, and I could have been forgiven for thinking that unearthing an occult and mystical side to the Cathedral was a unique find. However, as we are about to see, I am now forced to think again, for the Cathedral at Lincoln has drawn many a strange notion to itself, long before I came on the scene to publicise my own work.
The first mention I came across linking the Minster with the Devil was taken from the ‘Lindsey and Lincolnshire Star’ dated 21st May 1898, possible that the stories were genuine uninfluenced folk tales direct or remotely influenced by books. An article ‘Lincoln Minster and the Devil’ quotes; ‘The connection between the Prince of Evil and Lincoln has long been proverbial.’ The very erudite 1928 publication ‘The Cathedral Church of Lincoln’ by A.F. Kendrick, BA informs us that at the head of the tall central lancet of the gable of the chapel used as the Consistory Court is a grotesque figure – not to be confused with the Lincoln Imp found elsewhere – known as ‘the devil looking over Lincoln’. It quotes; ‘There appears to be no satisfactory solution of the origin of this phrase’ and ‘the most curious legend is that which describes the devil as still inside the Minster and afraid to come out for fear of being blown away!’ How completely and utterly bizarre! Do we know of any other religious building anywhere in the world where it has been said that the devil resides within? And, in our scientific world of 2009, how serious can we take this suggestion? In this day and age, how are we to interpret ‘Devil’? What can it seriously be hinting at or sustaining?
The 13th century legend of the Lincoln Imp, now symbol of the city of Lincoln, (which I have announced is a deliberately placed Masonic carving, key to a concluding location opposite the SE corner of the Cathedral concealing a Templar ‘treasure’ of great significance) tells of how the Devil sent an imp to cause destruction within the building and was eventually turned to stone by an angel – no mention of the Devil himself deigning to put in an appearance! Although there is clearly conflict here in what memory lore is being retained, what we can ask is why do we have this consistent association of Satan with the Cathedral?
In the South East Nottinghamshire village of Kinoulton, we hear of the legend of a stone that once stood in theold churchyard, although now neither stone nor church remain. The stone was told to be a diabolic missile hurled at the church, thrown from Lincoln Cathedral. It is accepted that similar stories throughout Europe simply reflect conflict between the early Christian church and paganism, so why in this instance if the offending rock was considered diabolical was it hurled FROM Lincoln Cathedral? Even the most respected of accounts do the Cathedral no favour when we learn of the title of its beautiful Rose Window, found on the North side of the Cathedral even though thenorm is for Rose Windows to be always to be found on the West of Gothic Cathedrals. Although preferably known as ‘The Dean’s Eye’, it also bears the lesser known title of ‘Lucifer’s Eye’ and has been placed at the North referred to as the darkened region of Lucifer as a kind of look-out to ward off the approach of evil, in contrast to ‘The Bishop’s eye’ round window staring out at the sunny South, the direction favoured by the Holy Spirit.
The mention of Lucifer brings me to the strangest and most fabulous of tales I have come across involving Lincoln Cathedral. Found circulating on the internet, it appears to have emanated originally from an alleged Templar in Rome and speaks of ‘The Ark of Lucifer’, an artefact said to control the lifespan of humans, no less! Placed in the Cathedral,it is alleged to work on a vibratory frequency affecting changes at the molecular level of living tissue, or the key of the DNA. We are asked to believe that during the 1920’s, of 144 people knowing of its existence and issued with a key, only 12 held the real key to opening a vault in the Cathedral where the Ark was and presumably still housed. This occult tale goes on to say that the Ark was originally at St Mary’s church in Lincoln, and that Bishop Alexander’s attempt to retrieve it caused the devastating fire that ravaged the building in 1141, and that after it was rebuilt, another attempt, this time by unknown persons, precipitated the Ark to cause the earthquake that cleaved the edifice in two, this tremor factually recorded in 1185.
The opening of the Ark is a precise and dramatic procedure. If we are to believe it, there is a Master Key held somewhere within the Cathedral, described as a corkscrew with the representation of the Cathedral as a handle. The functioning valid 12 keys are to be inserted into a metallic 4x4 with holes placed at a varying distance to each other. Inserting the 12 keys into the 4x4 allows the head of the corkscrew to protrude on the side of the door of the vault of the Ark. There are a number of rectangular holes from the ground to the ceiling with only one correct spot where the Master Key will open the door. The remaining other keys do serve a purpose but only after the opening of the vault. And so we have just learned of the ‘Ark of Lucifer’ hidden somewhere in a vault within the Cathedral and with no end of occultists seeking the key to open it and unleash its consequences. The pure Indiana Jones aspect of the tale is appealing, but we cannot help but have to accept that here again we have at least a reoccurring theme concerning Lincoln Cathedral, this time wrapped up in a titular Lucifer, and with an already established ‘Eye of Lucifer’ Rose Window we must ponder over what kernel of truth is being contained within this Gothic temple. The name Lucifer, in Latin, means ‘morning star’, and interestingly enough just a few minutes walking distance away from the East of the Cathedral is the public house ‘Morning Star’, dating back to 1781 thevery year that the once standing church containing the crypt with my hidden ‘Cathedral Code’ Templars’ treasure was demolished, additionally in the same year that French noblewoman Marie De Negre, who held the secret of Rennes-le-Chateau, died.
Another mention of Lincoln Cathedral and esotericism caught my eye in the heavily theosophical article ‘A Précis of Albion’ by author Richard Leviton in 1991, where he postulates the lay out of a giant cosmic ‘being’ occupying the land mass of Britain and France and whose second chakra – or energy field – is at Lincoln Cathedral and environs. Intrigued by his placing geographical emphasis on Lincoln Cathedral to do with anything, I contacted Richard, now an editor of a metaphysical magazine in Virginia, USA, to see if he would elucidate, and I found hisreply quite surprising. Richard had written more about the Cathedral since his Albion article, in a book entitled ‘The Emerald Modem’ where he described in detail an event he participated in with a small group to do with a celestial being ‘imprisoned’ under the Cathedral and alluding to the structure of the building as a perpetual black magic ritual intended to keep the being imprisoned, ultimately the Cathedral opposing the positive energy that is there. At this point, having learned of an ‘Ark of Lucifer’ and now an imprisoned spiritual energy within the Cathedral, I can imagine the average person in the street would choose to dismiss these assertions as simply fanciful and of no importance. But I’m not so sure, and cannot dismiss asking the question’ Why Lincoln Cathedral’ and especially as they are drawn from unrelated sources?
The common denominator of a hinted dark force receives a most unexpected recommendation nationally announced in 1995 and from the then Dean of the Cathedral himself, Rev Brandon Jackson. Within my personal files I hold a copy of ‘The Sunday Times’, the crème-de-la-crème of British newspaper journalism and a copy dated 23rd July 1995. The two page headline reads; ‘Where Angels fear to tread’, sub-headed ‘Is the dispute between the Dean of Lincoln cathedral and his Bishop mere human frailty or is it the work of an evil force many believe haunts the Minster?’ The Rev Jackson, acquitted by an ecclesiastical court of accusations of sexual misdeeds, announced that he believed he was caught up in a battle of good and evil that centres on the ancient Minster, and asked to have the Cathedral closed for three months to have it exorcised. Upon his arrival and stay lasting six years, he had first been alerted to this dark aura by a monk working at the Cathedral,’There are currents of conflict, hate and evil that have been swirling around your cathedral for centuries.’ Jackson went on to say to the Times reporter Stuart Wavell that this ‘swirling evil’ theory had been repeated by Deans and Provosts at their annual conference in April of that year. ‘One of them,a Dean of a cathedral, came up to me and said that Lincoln cathedral was one of the most evil places he had ever been in. Another Dean said that he believed the building sat on the junction of ley-lines.’ Mighty strange talk coming from the clergy! Would they dare say such things and risk credibility and reputation if there were no unified belief? The opening paragraph of the Times’ article reads, ‘Is there seething inherently evil lurking in Lincoln Cathedral? Is a malign force in the ancient stonework making the clergy behave like demented marionettes?’ Strong stuff from a quality newspaper not known for its sensationalism! So what can we deduce fromthis mixed bag of inferences, the Devil still being inside the Cathedral, a hidden vault containing an Ark attributed to Lucifer, and a spiritual being held captive within the Minster? My own feelings are that the story of the Lucifer Ark may well be a memory tool to highlight the numbers 12 and 144 and could have a value concerning sacred geometry within the Cathedral, ‘ark’ may actually refer to ‘arc’, part of the circumference of a circle or other curve. Richard Leviton’s thoughts on there being a figure of some importance held captive may well be an unconscious tapping in and offshoot of my own work in which I have announced the stashed and most sought after Templar treasure of Rennes-le-Chateau residing opposite the SE corner of the Cathedral at the St Margaret’s burial grounds, involving the revered figure of Mary Magdalene. Of these stories more than that I cannot say or be sure, but at least I now know I do not stand alone in finding my way to Lincoln Cathedral and into a labyrinth of mystique.
I will end these findings as I started, with that of my own work, and an anecdote that found its way to me in 2000. Circumstances found me in discussion with a lady in her fifties whom I will refer to as ‘Sylvia’. Her maiden name and relations placed her within the family D’Arques and she had relatives living at the chateau of D’Arques at Rennes-le-Chateau. Sylvia introduced the conversation and yet at the same time was reluctant to go into great detail as it clearly bears a scarring, traumatic effect, and so I do not know what year she and a female friend where spending some days at the Bishops Palace, facing Lincoln Cathedral, during a spiritual retreat. Things couldn’t have gotten further desperate and unwelcome when apparently the two were visited at night by an appearance from the Devil himself, bent on destroying their sanity. Sylvia told me how in the midst of this psychic onslaught and the most dreadful stench one could imagine as the prominent feature of the presence, the females resorted to furious and unrelenting prayer throughout the night and into the welcome arrival of morning, their only shield against the intense harrowing and vile assault. The incident succeeded in as much as it destroyed their friendship after such an ordeal with no seeming rationale as to what had brought it on. She refuses to speak further of it even today, as does Brandon Jackson about his troubled days in office. Assuming there is some validity in her story – and I see no reason to disbelieve her account on whatever level it manifested – could it be that it was simply confirmation of what Jackson stated as being the conviction held by many senior clerics in the Church of England – Lincoln Cathedral, for whatever conclusion, IS a battlefield between Good and Evil ?

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Secrets of Roswell memory metal revealed

Was the Roswell memory metal secretly "seeded" to industry and to others who could exploit its potential benefits? How was the technology transferred while keeping its origin disguised? Why were bizarre "mind-over-matter" tests performed by government psychics on the shape-recovery metal Nitinol? What is the hidden meaning of the morphing metal? Newly developed information provides the stunning answers to these questions.

Prior articles in this series showed that Wright Patterson Air Force Base contracted Battelle Memorial Institute -in the months immediately following the Roswell crash in 1947- to conduct studies on memory metal based on a Nickel and Titanium alloy. Similar material that could "remember" its original shape when crumpled or deformed was reported at the Roswell crash debris site. Wright Patterson -the base that contracted Battelle- was the very base to which the Roswell debris was flown after the crash.

Evidence for the Roswell-Battelle Connection was drawn from:

Footnotes that were located within military studies to a Battelle report on memory metal conducted by the Institute for Wright Patterson in the late 1940s

The fact that -although footnotes citing these reports have been found- the actual reports are "missing" despite repeated efforts

Supporting information provided by two USAF Generals (including one from Wright Patterson) on the composition of the debris and the existence of the analysis reports

A senior-level Battelle scientist's confession that he had analyzed the UFO crash debris when employed at the Institute

A historical "backtracking" of the technical literature on the development of shape-recovery metals- leading back to the doors of Battelle and Wright Patterson, to late 1940s exotic metal reports and to the Roswell Incident

A telling examination of the life of Battelle's Dr. Howard Cross as both metallurgist and UFO researcher- showing his likely involvement in the debris analysis

In this last installment, the memory metal's secret history is further exposed- and the hidden meaning of the metal is finally revealed:



MEMORY METAL'S "OFFICIAL HISTORY" IS FALSE

Europeans in the 1930s conducting metal "bendability" and stress tests noted that some alloys (containing Aluminum) could exhibit a type of "pseudo-elasticity." In fact -since man began forging metal by fire- the "state of metal" was known to be "changeable."

But the Battelle studies conducted for Wright Patterson in the late 1940s represent something entirely different. They show that this was the very first time that a metal system that had the potential for genuine "shape recovery" was ever examined by the U.S. military. And these studies began immediately following the Roswell crash where similar material was reported to have been found. Importantly, even after decades, the Nickel-Titanium metal system (Nitinol) remains the material that defines "morphing metal." Any earlier observation of "pseudo-elasticity" was with a metal alloy that did not utilize Nickel and Titanium- and that was not developed for that property. Nitinol, however, has gone on to be used in a variety of things from eyeglass frames to aircraft to medical implants.

It is traditionally held that the Nickel-Titanium memory alloy (known as Nitinol) was "discovered by accident" in the early 1960s at the U.S. Naval Ordnance Lab in Maryland, by co-inventors Drs. Wang and Buehler. But the true history of Nitinol is purposely obscured- and it is riddled with holes and discrepancies.

The truth is that the first efforts at examining this remarkable Nickel-Titanium alloy had ocurred years previously, in the late 1940s after the Roswell crash. And the work was performed by someone else- Battelle Memorial Institute in Ohio. This work was contracted by Wright Patterson- the very base where the crash material was taken.

YEAR OF DISCOVERY UNCLEAR

One of the problems immediately evident with the "official" history of Nitinol is the exact year offered for its discovery. Simply "Google" the word Nitinol with any of the following years: 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962 or 1963. Search results will show links to sites that give each of those years as the "year of discovery" for Nitinol. Even Nitinol's "official" co-inventors Buehler and Wang have offered different years of discovery when at the Naval Lab. Scientific journals and articles found in the popular press give different years. When reached by this author and asked what was the exact year he "co-invented" the material, Wang gave a strange laugh and admitted that he wasn't exactly sure and that he would have to look it up!

DIFFERENT REASONS OFFERED FOR WHY IT WAS DEVELOPED

We are given at least three completely different reasons on why Nitinol was being investigated in the first place. In an oral history, Buehler said that he was conducting studies on intermetallic alloys for use in re-entry aeronautic nose cones. But a 1968 Time Magazine article quotes him that they were trying to find a non-magnetic, non-corrosive material for use as a tool in mine dismantling. Recently, a former Lawrence Berkeley scientist has related that to this author that he examined Nitinol while at that National Lab. He was told that the material was developed when trying to create new submarine ship hull material.

DIFFERENT EXPLANATIONS GIVEN FOR THE CIRCUMSTANCES SURROUNDING ITS DISCOVERY
In most re-tellings, the explanation for how Nitinol was "accidentally" discovered is something to the effect that "someone was bored and decided to take a match to it to see what heating would do." Nitinol requires energy -like heat- to morph.

But in another recounting, a researcher "RCW Wiley" had placed a Nickel-Titanium alloy into a hardness testing machine and a dent was made. Wiley then decided to warm up the block to see the effect of heat treatment- and to his surprise- the dent vanished. No mention is made if the Titanium was purified to the ultra-high levels required to make Nitinol.

Yet another reason is given in an oral history by Nitinol co-inventor Buehler. He says that for some reason he took a strip of the alloy into a managment meeting at the Naval Lab one day. He was "fidgeting" with the material and an associate named David Muzzey (of whom no record as ever been found) was compelled to take a pipe lighter (in some versions a cigarette match) to the material to see what would happen...and Voila, Nitinol!

Buehler is conflicted and offers two diametrically opposed explanations about the material. He at one time refers to it as a "planned discovery" and yet to another reporter he said that it came about as a result of "serendipity" or an accidental discovery. In an historical retelling late in life, Buehler exclaimed almost metaphysically that he was "drawn" to the alloy. When he struck it, Buehler says, "it rang out brilliantly" and he states that the "equiatomic Nickel Titanium was acoustically signalling that it was unusual or unique." Just how he knew that the Titanium must be of nearly 100% purity- or that the temperature, pressure and other dynamics must be precisely in place to create Nitinol and energy then introduced into the metal is a specific way- is never made clear.

BATTELLE PROVIDED THE U.S. NAVY WITH ROSWELL MEMORY METAL TECHNOLOGY

As described in a previous article, Battelle's Dr. Howard Cross -a metallurgist and secret Project Blue Book UFO researcher- was likely directing the Roswell debris analysis. Cross was "feeding" technical information on specially-processed Titanium (which is required to make Nitinol) as early as 1948. Cross is the author of a technical summary report entitled, "Titanium Base Alloys." It was presented by him to the Office of Naval Research in December of 1948. The Naval Lab is the very lab where Nitinol was "officially" discovered many years later.

In fact, a research paper from Nitinol's "official" co-inventor, Dr. Wang, gives us confirmation that he was "fed" needed information on the alloy from the early Battelle report on memory metal done after Roswell. In footnote No. 6 in his "On the NiTi (Nitinol) Martensitic Transition, Part 1 1972 Naval Ordnance Laboratory, White Oak, MD" Wang cites the Battelle 1949 "Second Progress Report" on Nickel-Titanium system authored by Battelle scientists Craighead, Fawn and Eastwood.

This author reached Dr. Wang to ask him some questions about his research. When I eventually brought up the subject of the 1949 Battelle report that he had footnoted in his study on Nitinol, Wang got very "cagey" and appeared to not want to answer. When pressed, he said that "it must have related to a Phase Diagram on Nickel and Titanium." A phase diagram provides information on the "mixability" of metals that is needed to create an alloy. It details the individual metal's "boundaries" when attempting to combine them. Temperature, pressure and other dynamics are measured to determine the successful combination to create an alloy. Such information would absolutely have been required to create the memory metal Nitinol.

When I asked Wang who it was that had provided him with the Battelle report, he would only answer that he got it "from my superior, who may have gotten it from another agency." When I told Wang that this Battelle report was "missing" despite all attempts to locate it, he offered weakly, "well, I wouldn't know anything about that." When I asked if Wang knew one of the Battelle report scientists (Craighead.) Wang admitted, " I knew of Craighead."

I then "eased in" to telling the elderly scientist that his Nitinol seemed very much like the morphing metal that was reported by many people to have been recovered from the crash of an unidentified object at Roswell, NM in 1947. The scientist did not reply to me that he he was unfamiliar with the Roswell crash -or that he did not know to whIch event I was referring. Nor did he say that the idea of such a scenario was ridiculous or misguided. Instead, Wang was stunned silent. After a long pause he said, "I don't have any comment on that." With nothing to loose, I then quickly outlined my findings on the Battelle-Roswell connection. He only reiterated, "I told you that I am not going to discuss that." .



KEEPING THE SECRET WHILE TRANSFERING THE TECHNOLOGY KEEP THEM IN THE DARK

The key to keeping the origin of such a technology secret is "compartmentalization." You only give out pieces or parts -never the whole thing. And sometimes you provide only the technical information that was gained by others on the parts- not the parts themselves. You release these to different places. This is not done at once, but rather over periods of time. You give it to those holding high-security clearance, and then only to those with a "Need to Know." But most importantly, you never tell any of them the "backstory" about where it came from. "Blend" this technology so that it does not appear to be anything other than part of existing areas of research. Over the passage of decades, the truth remains even further and more easily buried. It is in this way that scientists today working on shape-recovery alloys are prevented from realizing the hidden history of their work. It is likely that even the Naval Lab's "official" inventors of Nitinol did not know the "Roswell impetus" of their research (though they may well have wondered.)

A report that bluntly and openly states "this is material that was recovered at Roswell" will never be found. It is only through carefully reviewing the "history of science" many decades later that these connections about the Roswell metal's history would be made. Only obscure footnotes found buried in military studies -coupled with sleuth work- would lead to the truth about the study of the Roswell metal.

It now appears that much of the work on the Roswell debris was skillfully and conveniently "folded into" military contracted work on "traditional" aeronautical or naval metals engineering projects of the time. It was the perfect guise. Nobody would put "two and two" together that this advanced materials work -actually inspired by Roswell- was anything "special." It would be seen as just "part of the program." Selectively "farming out" portions of this work assured that nobody would make any "connections." The "paper trail" on the study of the material could also be confused as "normal military work" that they were "already conducting."

MOVING THE METAL TO NASA AND INTO SPACE

One of the ultimate goals of the work on the memory metal was to return it to Outer Space. It came from a spacecraft at Roswell- and it would ultimately be used for this very purpose by us- through NASA.

This is confirmed by:

- Nitinol's "official" co-inventor William Buehler tellingly states in an oral history that after his "discovery" it was NASA that "independently retained Battelle to conduct further "characterization studies" on Nitinol. Buehler reveals two things as an elderly man recollecting his past: Battelle was still involved in directing the study of the material in the 1960s and that it was NASA that was "pulling the strings" about the direction of research on the material.

- An individual who was contracted by the U.S. Naval Lab to perform "mental influence" tests to attempt to bend Nitinol with the mind's energy said that NASA was there. He told me in a recent interview that "People in plainclothes from NASA were present at all times during these tests. I couldn't understand why." Why would NASA be at the US Naval Lab overseeing psychic tests on a metal? See this article's next section for details on these bizarre Mind-Over-Matter tests conducted on Nitinol.

- NASA sought to develop shape-recovery material for use in their own spacecraft. A "self-healing" material, or a material that can "remember" itself for future function would be very valuable. If the metal could morph, the shape of the craft could be changed to best suit the environment it is traversing. If the metal responds to direction given by the mind's energy, new control and navigation systems could be developed. This would be the ultimate in Mind-Machine interface.

- An extraordinarily telling video that can now be viewed online proves that NASA is perfecting such shape-recovery metals as "intelligent," adaptive materials of construction for spacecraft. This (short) video can be seen by "Googling" the phrase (in quotes) "NASA Morphing Metal." Any of the seven search results that appear will link to sites that show this technology-transfer film from NASA's Center for Excellence in Materials. You can then visually grasp just how amazing memory material can be: It can absorb the impact of a crash, like at Roswell. It can function as a novel actuator. It can even be used to create advanced craft with "flappable" or adaptable wings! And a craft that appears small when seen from the outside -once entered- can then appear very large when inside. Actuators and panels made of memory metal can create this effect by expanding the interior walls and floors and extending the craft's frame. Interestingly, this very effect has been reported by some who claim to have entered "flying saucers."


MIND, MATTER AND MORPHING
This unique metal combination holds a significance so special that it was tested by the U.S. Government to see if it could be altered by the human mind! This is revealed in a decades-old technical summary report found completed by the U.S. Naval Lab. In the early 1970's the U.S. government tested Nitinol to see if it could "morph" using only the mind's energy. Could "psychokinesis" affect this shape-recovery material? Would an "intelligent metal" like Nitinol respond to the energy generated by the intelligent mind?

Physical scientist Eldon Byrd was employed by the U.S. Naval Lab and other government agencies for decades. In his paper "Influence on Metal Alloy Nitinol" (1973 Naval Surface Weapons Center, White Oak Laboratory, Silver Spring, MD) Byrd outlines tests that were performed that year using "psychics" to try to change the hardness of the material, deform it in some distinct way or to alter its magnetic properties. The tests were in part successful. A permanent "knot" was induced in the material preventing its famous "snap back." Within this knotted section, unusual microscopic changes in its the material's structure were observed. The introduction of energy is required to create a morphing change in the metal. Typically this "introduced energy" is heat. But it appeared that the mind's "energy" could also create the morph.

Incredibly, it was none other than Dr. Fred Wang, Nitinol's "official" co-inventor who conducted these Mind-Over-Memory Metal tests, according to Wang's colleague Eldon Byrd! As mentioned earlier, it is also this very Dr. Wang who cites by footnote the (now missing) 1949 Battelle report on Nickel and Titanium in one of his own Nitinol studies! The scientist who conducted psychic influence tests on the material is the same scientist who had access to the "missing" late 1940's Battelle reports on memory metal likely inspired by the Roswell crash debris!

Some years ago in talking to skeptic Martin Gardner, Wang denied being present at the Naval Lab when these strange tests were conducted. But Eldon Byrd begs to differ. In a 2001 interview Byrd says that the scientist is lying. Byrd charges that Wang "yielded to the pressure put on him" and adds "he did the tests. I had the results in the form of photos and X-rays." When I asked of Wang what he thought of Byrd's assertation, Wang this time did not deny his presence at the tests but instead replied, "Byrd says a lot of things."

THE HIDDEN MEANING OF MEMORY METAL

Morphing metal may well be the stuff from which today's often-seen "morphing UFOs" are made. Such materials of construction may help to explain the "shape-shifting" craft. And it is likely that similar material accounts for some of the debris that was found at the crash at Roswell.

But there is an even deeper meaning to memory metal. It is found within the Morph. It represents "the potential for change." Such material reflects the value of adaptation. Without it, life ceases. The best material adapts itself to best suit its environment. The shape-memory qualities of the Roswell debris speak to the metal's "rememberance" of a malleable and ever-changing Universe. It reveals the Universe as Infinite Potential. And this Change is created by the unique and eternal interplay of Matter, Energy and Mind.

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Giant Skeletons

The mystery surrounding reports of “giant skeletons” has always intrigued and fascinated me. Specifically, how it seemed to be a common ocurrence that human-like bone remains, often of giant proportions, were known for popping up everywhere in the mid-to-late 1800s, as featured in reports like these:

During an 1879 excavation of an Indian mound near Brewersville, Indiana, a nine-foot eight inch skeleton was found buried within. Around the same time, George W. Hill, M.D., also unearthed a skeleton said to be “of unusual size” while excavating a mound in Ashland County, Ohio. In 1880, American Antiquarian, volume three, reported that a Doctor Everhart allegedly found another large skeleton “reported to have been of enormous dimensions” in a strange clay coffin along with a sandstone slab marked with unidentified hieroglyphics near Zanesville Ohio. In 1881 in Medina County, Ohio, a succession of nine bodies were found below the cellar of a house, buried as though the corpses had been “dumped into a ditch.” Albert Harris, one of the residents, was twenty years old at the time of the grave’s discovery, and removing one of the large skeletons, said that he could literally fit the piece over his entire head and allow it to rest on his shoulders like a large helmet, even while wearing a cap underneath! Still, we’ve all heard of how even well known authors of the era, including Mark Twain, contributed to the telling of “whoppers” in their day; that is, many writers who got their feet wet as newspaper writers for dailies would occasionally cook up tall tales when local news just wasn’t doing it (see a great example of this here). Eventually, I decided to try and find out if there might be any reports that could be verified with more certainty, and after some digging around in public domain archives, I found a couple.

In their 1894 report to the secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, Cyrus Thomas and Thomas Powell of the Bureau of Ethnology wrote of several discoveries where large human skeletal remains were found, the first ocurring in Roane County, Tennessee:

“Underneath the layer of shells the earth was very dark and appeared to be mixed with vegetable mold to the depth of 1 foot. At the bottom of this, resting on the original surface of the ground, was a very large skeleton lying horizontally at full length. Although very soft, the bones were sufficiently distinct to allow of careful measurement before attempting to remove them. The length from the base of the skull to the bones of the toes was found to be 7 feet 3 inches. It is probable, therefore, that this individual when living was fully 7½ feet high.”

And yet another instance, this time in presumed Indian burial mounds at Dunlieth, Illinois:

“Near the original surface, 10 or 12 feet from the center, on the lower side, lying at full length on its back, was one of the largest skeletons discovered by the Bureau agents, the length as proved by actual measurement being between 7 and 8 feet. It was clearly traceable, but crumbled to pieces immediately after removal from the hard earth in which it was encased….”

Indeed, it seems that the Smithsonian at one time reported oddities like these which they uncovered, especially during the “giant boom” of the late nineteenth century. Still, I can’t help but ask; if these kinds of discoveries were ever at all commonplace, why aren’t skeletons and other anomalies like this found more frequently in modern times… or are they?

During an email exchange I had last year with my good friend and mentor, Brad Steiger, we began discussing a few similar reports which he had included in his book Worlds Before Our Own, where a few such skeletons were said to exist in private museums. ”After the book was published, I learned of even more and included photos of them in my lectures,” he told me. ”Soon, individuals beseeched me to cease; the private museums were mysteriously suffering unexplained fires.” One is left to ask; what about anomalous relics of this (or any) sort could be so worthy of censorship on such a level?

Further complicating the mystery of missing giant bones is the following exerpt from an article I wrote which included the inquiries of the late zoologist Ivan T. Sanderson, best known for his interest in the legends regarding America’s Bigfoot and the Abominable Snowmen alleged to reside in the Himalayas:

“Sometime in the 1960s, Sanderson wrote about an odd letter he received regarding an engineer who, during World War II, had been stationed on the Aleutian island of Shemya. While building an airstrip, the bulldozing of a group of hills in the area led the engineer and his crew to unearth several sedimentary layers of human remains. They noted the extraordinary length of the crania and leg bones at the site, having apparently belonged to people of gigantic proportions. The skulls were said to have measured up to 24 inches from base to crown, far greater than the length of an average human skull. Also of interest was that each was said to have been trepanned, the strange process of drilling or cutting a hole and removing a top center portion of the skull, thought by some ancient cultures to enable a variety of alleged “benefits”, including psychic abilities, etc. Sanderson actively began to search for more proof of this incident, and later was able to contact another member of the unit who also confirmed the bizarre story. By all accounts, the remains were said to have been gathered by the Smithsonian Institution, but no record of where they were taken was ever issued. Sanderson seemed convinced that the institute did indeed retrieve them however, going so far as to ask ‘is it that these people cannot face rewriting all the textbooks?’ “

Do I honestly think that there are MIBs out there spiriting away giant skeletons into an unmarked warehouse someplace? Not at all… but I think it’s safe to suppose (at least for the sake of a good pun) that someone may have a few “skeletons in their closet” that they just aren’t talking about!

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Man-eating Plants

The twin fields of cryptozoology and cryptobotany are bursting with tales of strange and unusual plants and animals. While the public at large is generally aware of such cryptid superstars as the Loch Ness Monster and the Sasquatch, few have ever heard of the Man-Eating Trees of Madagascar, or the Mongolian Death worms.

In 1881 a magazine called the South Australian Register ran a story by a traveler called Carle Liche. He tells us that while travelling through Madagascar, he was horrified to watch the native Mdoko tribe sacrifice a woman to a man-eating tree.

He stated that the places the woman near the tree, and after laying there for a few seconds, the tree's tendrils took the woman by the neck and strangled her, before apparently engulfing the body. In his 1924 book "Madagascar, land of the man-eating tree" former Michigan Governor Chase Osborn recounted Liche's tale, and mentioned that missionaries and locals in Madagascar all knew of the deadly tree. Unfortunately, Liche's accounts may have been an exaggeration, as both the Mdoko tribe nor the man-eating tree have ever been found, and the governor may simply have been embellishing a little bit more to make for good reading.

From the steppes of Mongolia comes another type of creature that is particularly memorable by its rather disgusting appearance. The Mongolian Death Worm is a supposedly poisonous worm that has the appearance of a bright red bloody cow intestine. That's right, a deadly cow intestine. Said to be about four feet long, the animal is said to spit a yellow substance when threatened that is deadly on contact with human skin, and is even claimed to be able to kill with electricity in a manner similar to the electric eel. Shocking, but does it really exist? Expeditions to Mongolia to find the creature haven't been particularly fruitful, however the story is so wide-spread that there may well be truth to it. With new species of animal, even large ones, seemingly being found all the time in such places as the jungles of Vietnam, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to suspect that the same may be found under the earth in the extremely desolate Gobi desert.

Madagascar and Mongolia aren't the only places where one finds man-eating trees and deadly worms. South America is also a fruitful land for stories of deadly trees, and even more amazing are the stories of the enormous Minhocao. This giant cryptic has been reported to live in the forests of South America and has been claimed to reach astonishing lengths of up to 75 feet. Old accounts tell of a huge tunnel digging worm with two appendages on its head, perhaps similar to those of a snail or slug. Unfortunately, no one has seen the Minhocao in over a century, suggesting that it has either gone extinct or may never have existed at all.

Often cryptids are misidentified known animals, sometimes they defy explanation. In any of the cases detailed in this article, there would be few animals with appearances close enough to be mistaken. It might be that the man-eating trees simply stem from exaggerated accounts of venus fly traps, but the worms are more difficult to dismiss. Slimy worms aren't particularly scary, nor do they make good fodder to make up legends about. They are simply worms, and stories of 75 foot long docile giants and blood red disgusting-but-deadly creatures are not something that cultures would normally invent out of thin air. They probably have a grain of truth somewhere, hidden along with the animals themselves in the least explored places on planet earth.

The jungle seems a tangle of vines and stalks and leaves. The only way you move through the impenetrable wall of green is with a machete. Hacking with the knife, you can slowly make some progress, but the work is exhausting. Finally, you seem to be reaching the jungle's edge. Only a few heavy vines block your way. You bring back the knife to swing at one, but your native guide stays your hand.

"No sir! Do not touch that one! Go around! It is dangerous!"

You scoff at him. "Go around? What for? We're almost out. It's just a vine!"

You swing your machete and it strikes the three-inch-thick vine, slicing it neatly in two. Suddenly the jungle around you comes alive. The vines in the nearby trees start moving. You step back, but it's too late. One wraps around your ankle. You raise your knife to cut through it, but before you can swing, another vine twists around your arm, stopping it. A third vine, as thick as a fire hose, curls around your waist and you are knocked off your feet. It drags you into the thick underbrush. Suddenly the jungle parts up ahead and you see an orange pod as tall as a man. It opens and you are thrust into its dark interior. You find yourself waist deep in a sticky liquid that burns your skin. As the leaves close up behind you, trapping you, your guide's voice can be heard...

"Sir, you should have listened!"

A strange tale, but could it be true? Is there flora that traps animals and consumes meat? Are there really man-eating plants?
Well, the former is certainly true. There are many plants in the world that eat meat. The great biologist, Charles Darwin, was fascinated by them and spent fifteen years of his life studying them.

Carnivorous Plants

All plants, unlike animals, are capable of producing their own food. They take carbon dioxide out of the air, water from the ground, light from the sun and make food through a process called photosynthesis. In addition to sunlight, carbon dioxide and water, the plants also need certain minerals to survive. These they usually take out of the soil though their roots.

Plants living in wet areas, such as bogs, have a problem, though. The water in these areas carry away many of the nutrients the plants need to grow. Some plants have found a solution to this problem by becoming carnivorous, which means "meat-eating." Rather than get the minerals they need from the soil, they trap animals, mostly insects, and take the nutrients out of the unfortunate victim's body.

Darwin originally called these flora insectivores. Later scientists decided that the plants ate enough animals (other than insects) that the term carnivore should be used.

Meat-eating plants use several different mechanisms to trap their prey. Pitcher plants have leaves that grow into a vase-like container with a hood that overhangs the opening. The edge of the hood is covered with a sweet-smelling nectar that attracts insects. Inside this lid are downward-pointing hairs that lead the insects further into the plant and slippery wax surfaces that are difficult for the victims to crawl on. At the bottom of the vase-like structure is a pool of chemicals that will digest insects if they fall in. Various versions of the plants use different methods to get the victims into their pools. For example, the yellow trumpet has a substance in its nectar that paralyzes any insect that eats it. Once the victim takes a sip, he soon tumbles into the pool and is digested.

Other plants, like the sundew, use nectar to get insects to land on a leaf covered with sensitive hairs. Each hair has a tiny bead of sticky liquid on top. When the insect lands, it sticks to the hairs it is touching. As the victim struggles, other hairs bend over and attach themselves to secure the meal even further. The sticky liquid soon enters the insect's breathing holes and it suffocates. Digestive juices soon follow and the sticky liquid and the soft parts of the victim's body are soon dissolved away to be recovered and used by the plant.

Perhaps the strangest and most well-known carnivorous plant is the Venus flytrap. The flytrap, whose scientific name is Dionaea muscipula ("mousetrap of Venus") looks like a small circle of strange leaves sitting close to the ground. Sometimes it is topped by a long stem with small white flowers. These plants are so strange that folklore has it that they come from outer space and only grow near the sites of meteor impact craters.

The truth is that the flytrap comes not from the second planet from the sun, but from North and South Carolina. Its strange leaves have a lob at the end that looks like a small, green clamshell with teeth. Inside the clam shell are two sensitive hairs. If an insect lands on the lob and touches both of the hairs, or touches one of the hairs twice in a short amount of time, the trap is sprung. The two sides of the clamshell leaf close quickly on the insect. The "teeth" intermesh, making sure the animal cannot escape. After the trap closes, glands on the inner surfaces of the shell release digestive juices.
Man-Eating Plants

Are any of these carnivorous plants capable of posing a threat to humans? Not really. The largest of the meat-eating plants is a relative of the pitcher plant named Nepenthes. It grows in the rain forests of Southeast Asia as a vine up to 50 feet in length. The pitchers sometimes grow to be a foot in length. Nepenthes traps mostly insects and small frogs, though animals as large as a rat have been found dead digesting in its juices. Some Nepenthes pitchers that have been found are large enough to hold four quarts of liquid.

The Nepenthes is not a threat to humans, however. In fact the local people have found ways to make them useful. The pitchers can be cleaned out and used to cook rice, while its long, strong vines serve as ropes.

If no carnivorous plant known is large enough to consume a human, where did the idea of man-eating plants come from?

The Corpse Flower

The plant responsible for starting these rumors might be Amorphophallus titanum otherwise known as the "corpse flower." Amorphophallus titanum, which is said to be the biggest, smelliest flower in the world, looks like something that could eat a human being. When it blooms it can reach at height over nine feet in height and smells like a mixture of rotting flesh and excrement. The pungent odor attracts bees which are trapped in the flower until they are covered with pollen. Then they are released to fertilize other plants.

The Amorphophallus titanum, or "Corpse Flower" has been known to grow as high as nine feet.

A blooming Amorphophallus titanum's "flower" (actually it is technically a leaf or spathe) can be three feet across. It is notoriously difficult to get a titanum to bloom outside of its native Indonesia, and botanical gardens around the world often try for decades without success. Bloomings of the Amorphophallus titanum have happened only about a dozen times in the United States since the first success at the New York Botanical Gardens in 1937.

When the plant does bloom it moves quickly. It can grow as fast as 4 inches per day. The period when the "flower" is open lasts only about two days.

Although the Amorphophallus titanum looks a lot like you would imagine a man-eating plant to look like, and it even smells like somebody is dead inside, it is not carnivorous.

Ironically, people are a lot more dangerous to carnivorous plants than the plants are to people. The pitcher plant and the venus flytrap live in wetland areas which are being destroyed by human development. Also the popularity of these plants is also working against them. Commercial plant collectors have stripped areas of the venus flytrap in an effort to provide them to consumers. Also many species of North American pitchers, whose leaves are in demand by florists, have been so decimated by collectors that they may disappear from the wild completely.

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