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Iowa Mothman
- Thread starter wwkirk
- Start date
Free episodes:
Burnt State
Paranormal Adept
Yeah, that was unfortunate because the tale itself is entirely bizarre and worthy of more detailed discussion...how did people know they lost ther memory - I must have missed that sequence? The Mad Gasser?! Tell me more! This episode lacked richness in detail.
The entire Visitor thing is a wonderfully anomalous event of surreal proportions. At some points in the episode, however, it did feel like Gene was pulling teeth. This might have been better as only one half of the show, like in the olden days with split guest appearances. I would have appreciated hearing the ergot poisoning story in more detail. I've read details about this but that kind of more detailed padding could have helped to round off the podcast.
My take away from thIs episode was Chris' discussion about events with multi-disciplinary paranormal/anomalous occurrences where there is a collage of strange phenomena going on - could have definitely listened to some examples of that concept as I've heard of only a few, but understand that it is probably more common than believed.
The entire Visitor thing is a wonderfully anomalous event of surreal proportions. At some points in the episode, however, it did feel like Gene was pulling teeth. This might have been better as only one half of the show, like in the olden days with split guest appearances. I would have appreciated hearing the ergot poisoning story in more detail. I've read details about this but that kind of more detailed padding could have helped to round off the podcast.
My take away from thIs episode was Chris' discussion about events with multi-disciplinary paranormal/anomalous occurrences where there is a collage of strange phenomena going on - could have definitely listened to some examples of that concept as I've heard of only a few, but understand that it is probably more common than believed.
starise
Paranormal Adept
I'm not sure what to make of it. Very odd that the paper stopped documenting the story right when things were getting good.
I've smelled some bad things in my lifetime but nothing so bad that it made me loose my memory..at least not that I remember.
Aside from my bad attempts at humor this show really didn't leave me with much to go on. Like wwkirk said. How did he get 200 pages out of it. But such is the investigation into the paranormal where nothing is normal and nothing is for sure,or at least, very little.
I've smelled some bad things in my lifetime but nothing so bad that it made me loose my memory..at least not that I remember.
Aside from my bad attempts at humor this show really didn't leave me with much to go on. Like wwkirk said. How did he get 200 pages out of it. But such is the investigation into the paranormal where nothing is normal and nothing is for sure,or at least, very little.
With the local bigwigs complicit, since they were mentioned as witnesses? Doesn't that seem a stretch? Since the story was carried around the country, I'd think that niggling fact might have come to the fore eventually, though it is curious the coverage simply stopped after 5 days.
TheJCBand
Skilled Investigator
That is probably the only aspect that lends it credibility, however Mr. Lewis did mention a rival newspaper also covered the story and said the claims were greatly exaggerated. He also argued that it wouldn't be easy to get such reputable people to go on the record for such a thing for fear of damaging their reputation, but in the rural turn of the century setting where everyone in town knows everyone, would these people really care what the newspaper says when all of their business comes from friends and neighbors? Would they even be reading the Des Moines newspaper in the first place? If not, that would make it a lot easier for the paper to throw their names in to such a fabrication.
nameless
Paranormal Adept
Did someone say a possehoedownexpedition? Yeeeeehaawww I got myself some guns and some buffy knives and a Bat'leth so let's go blow the hell out of some cryptoids and if not kill out a possible new species lets maim or scare the shieeet out of em so they wont steal our oil/cattle/women/jobs YEAGH.
flipper
Paranormal Adept
Perhaps Chad Lewis would like to investigate meat falling from the sky?
MYSTERIOUS FALLS FROM THE SKY!
MYSTERIOUS FALLS FROM THE SKY!
Jimi H.
Paranormal Adept
Indeed, this story reminded me of some research on regional trauma, something I read in an academic book on folklore and places, I wish I could remember the title.
(EDIT It was this one: Sense of Place: American Regional Cultures - Google Books
Read from p.78 "Some historical events..", it might give some insight into some mechanisms.)
To follow the line in that book, I'd imagine that some trauma was haunting the community, I think Gene or Chris said something similar.
- It could be that some tragic or violent event happened that became local taboo. E.g., someone got killed out at the mine, but noone talked about it. Or there could have been a traumatic mining accident with people trapped inside.
- It could be an old native settlement or locale, where the unconscious guilt of the community, namely the guilt of settling on someone else's land, perhaps with force, played an invisible hand in the local lore.
So, if something like this was the case, the posse was shooting at (psychological) shadows, but the psychological effect could actually be that the 'monster' had been done away with, it was 'never seen again'.
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LeBombette
Skilled Investigator
I'm reading the book right now...so far it's okay, but it is pretty thin although the authors did what they could do with a case that old. Wwkirk, I'll let you know how the evidence stacks up once I've finished.
About the newspapers...I've spent a lot of time in archives and searching old newspapers and I can say that they are extremely unpredictable in coverage and especially continuing a story or even picking it back up later on. Think of how many times even today that you are left wondering what happened in the "big" local story. People generally have short attention spans...even in the days before Ipads and cell phones and maybe someone stealing farmer Joe's horse became bigger news than an unexplained critter emitting noxious gas.
I would've liked to have heard about more of Mr. Lewis's investigations...he briefly mentioned some pretty interesting cases of local lore that I wanted to hear more about and this whole "legend trip" thing is awesome. I'm ready to plan one myself!
RenikNorthEngland
Skilled Investigator
I very much enjoyed this episode. Stories of this kind are infinitely fascinating and the fact that these creatures are seen by multiple witnesses. If it really did happen, It makes me wonder about why, as an apparantly intelligent creature, it should happen to be in that place at that specific time, interacting with humans all of a sudden. There wasn't much down on record to beef up this story but the circumstances were interesting.