The Fascinating Story of The Tilma of Guadalupe

In December of 1531, the hills outside what is now Mexico City were still marked by the collision of two worlds. The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire had happened only a decade earlier. Ancient temples had been torn down, churches were being built in their place, and the people of the region were living in fear, confusion, and spiritual upheaval. Some of the new buildings were constructed with stones from the destroyed temples. 

It was in this uneasy atmosphere, according to Catholic tradition, that one of the most famous religious events in history took place - the appearance of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Saint Juan Diego 

The story begins with a humble Indigenous convert named Juan Diego. Born Cuauhtlatoatzin, he had accepted Christianity after the arrival of the Spanish missionaries. On the cold morning of December 9, 1531, Juan Diego was walking several miles from his village to attend Mass near Tlatelolco. His route took him along the slopes of Tepeyac Hill, a place already sacred to the local people long before the Spanish arrived.

As the sun began to rise, Juan Diego reportedly heard beautiful music unlike anything he had ever experienced. Birds sang with impossible harmony, and the air itself seemed strangely calm. Then a radiant voice called his name from the hilltop.

When he climbed the hill, he claimed to see a young woman standing in dazzling light. Her skin was dark, her clothing shimmered like the sun, and the rocks and cactus around her appeared transformed by her presence. According to the traditional account, she spoke to him in his native Nahuatl language with tenderness and familiarity. She identified herself as the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, and asked that a church be built on that very hill so she could show compassion and protection to the people of the land.

The request placed Juan Diego in an impossible position. He was poor, Indigenous, and virtually powerless in the rigid colonial hierarchy. 

Still, he obeyed. He traveled to meet Bishop Juan de Zumárraga and relayed the message. The bishop listened politely but remained skeptical. Stories of visions and miracles were common in the volatile years after the conquest, and Zumárraga wanted proof.

Discouraged but determined, Juan Diego returned to Tepeyac Hill. The mysterious woman told him to go back again and insist. Once more he did and the bishop hesitated, asking for a sign that would confirm the truth of the apparition. According to tradition, the bishop secretly instructed attendants to follow Juan Diego, but they reportedly lost sight of him near the hill, increasing the mystery surrounding the claims.

For two days, Juan Diego avoided returning to the apparition because his elderly uncle, Juan Bernardino, had become gravely ill. Believing his uncle was dying, Juan Diego set out early on December 12 to find a priest who could administer last rites. 

Hoping to avoid delay, he attempted to take another path around Tepeyac Hill. But the woman appeared again. She reassured him with words that would later become famous throughout Mexico: “Am I not here, I who am your mother?”

She told him not to fear because his uncle would recover. Then she instructed him to climb the barren hilltop and gather flowers.

The request made little sense. It was winter, and the rocky slopes of Tepeyac were not known for blooming roses in December. Yet when Juan Diego reached the summit, he reportedly found Castilian roses growing fresh among the frost-covered stones. Carefully, he gathered the flowers into his tilma - a rough cloak woven from cactus fiber that Indigenous men commonly wore.

When he arrived before Bishop Zumárraga later that day, Juan Diego unfolded the tilma to reveal the impossible roses.

According to the tradition, the flowers cascaded onto the floor - and suddenly an image appeared upon the fabric itself. The bishop and those present reportedly fell to their knees. Imprinted on the coarse tilma was the image of a dark-skinned Virgin clothed in a rose-colored gown and blue-green mantle filled with stars. She stood before golden rays of light, supported by an angel, with the moon beneath her feet. 

The Tilma of Guadalupe 

The symbolism struck both Spanish Catholics and Indigenous converts with astonishing force. To Europeans, she resembled the Virgin Mary. To the Indigenous population, many of the symbols carried meanings tied to their own cosmology and traditions. The black sash around her waist suggested pregnancy. The stars on her mantle seemed arranged in celestial patterns. The rays behind her echoed imagery associated with divinity.

Word spread rapidly.

The tilma was placed in a chapel at Tepeyac, and pilgrims began arriving almost immediately. Reports of miracles multiplied. Juan Bernardino, the dying uncle, was said to have recovered fully and claimed the Virgin herself had appeared to him as well, instructing that she be known as “Santa María de Guadalupe.”

Over the centuries, the image became one of the most important religious symbols in the Americas. The Virgin of Guadalupe evolved into more than a spiritual figure - she became intertwined with Mexican identity itself. Revolutionaries carried her banner. Farmers prayed before her image during droughts and wars. Entire generations viewed her as a protector of the poor, the oppressed, and the forgotten.

Yet the tilma itself remained the center of fascination. The original cloth, traditionally believed to be woven from agave cactus fibers, should not have survived for centuries under normal conditions. Similar garments typically deteriorated within a few decades. Yet the tilma remains preserved today in the great basilica at Tepeyac Hill in Mexico City - almost 500 years later. 

The image has also generated endless debate between believers and skeptics. Some researchers claim the colors and pigments do not behave like ordinary paint. Others argue the work could have been created by human hands in the style of early colonial religious art. Certain investigators have pointed to alleged microscopic details in the eyes of the Virgin - tiny reflections that some believe resemble human figures present during the unveiling before the bishop. Skeptics counter that such claims are the result of image distortion and wishful interpretation.

There are also stories of extraordinary survival surrounding the tilma. In 1921, a bomb hidden in a flower arrangement exploded near the image. The blast reportedly destroyed nearby objects and bent a heavy metal crucifix, yet the glass protecting the tilma was said to remain intact. To believers, it was another miracle added to a growing list centuries long. Both the Tilma, and the bent crucifix remain on display to this day.

Basilica of Guadalupe, as seen today 

Millions visit the Basilica of Guadalupe every year, making it one of the most visited Catholic pilgrimage sites on Earth. Pilgrims often approach the shrine on their knees in acts of devotion. Some travel for days across Mexico carrying candles, flowers, and images of the Virgin. Others come searching not only for faith, but for connection - to history, identity, suffering, and hope.

Whether viewed as divine intervention, cultural transformation, or one of history’s most enduring religious mysteries, the story of the Tilma of Guadalupe continues to hold enormous power nearly five hundred years after Juan Diego first claimed to hear music drifting across the hills of Tepeyac.

Now Playing: The Grobe by Ween 

The Mysterious Sounds that Echo through Goshen Pass

Tucked within the Allegheny Mountains of Virginia, Goshen Pass has developed a reputation not just for its scenery, but for the strange way sound behaves inside the gorge. 

The pass itself is a narrow mountain corridor carved by the Maury River, with steep stone walls rising sharply on both sides. Those cliffs create a natural echo chamber capable of carrying sound for astonishing distances. A branch snapping half a mile away, water crashing against rock, or even a distant vehicle can ricochet through the canyon and emerge transformed into something unrecognizable.

What makes the reports unsettling is how specific many of them are. Visitors have described hearing what sounds like faint singing drifting through the trees late at night, disembodied whistles echoing from impossible directions, and long, low moans that seem to move along the riverbank. 

Others have reported hearing cries for help or conversations that abruptly stop when followed. Some campers claim the sounds intensify after heavy fog settles into the gorge, when visibility drops and the river noise becomes muffled beneath the dense mountain air. Under those conditions, the pass can feel completely sealed off from the outside world.

Part of the mystery may come from a rare acoustic effect called a temperature inversion. In mountain valleys like Goshen Pass, cooler air can become trapped beneath warmer air during the evening or early morning hours. When this happens, sound waves bend instead of dispersing upward. Noises from miles away can suddenly become startlingly clear. Railroad sounds, barking dogs, voices from distant campsites, or even highway traffic can seem unnaturally close. Combined with the irregular cliff faces and the winding shape of the gorge, sounds can appear to come from directions that make no logical sense.

There are also natural geological explanations tied to the rock formations themselves. Certain mountain regions produce what are sometimes called “earth groans” or “rock booms” - deep rumbling or cracking noises caused by shifting stone, temperature changes, underground water movement, or pressure within the rock. 

Similar unexplained sounds have been reported in other isolated mountain areas across Appalachia. At Goshen Pass, some visitors describe hearing a metallic humming or distant thunder-like vibration even during calm weather, leading to speculation that the cliffs themselves may contribute to the phenomenon.

Local folklore adds another layer. Old stories from the region speak of spirits lingering near the river after drownings and accidents. The Maury River has claimed lives over the years, particularly during floods and dangerous swimming conditions near the rapids. Some legends claim the cries heard at night belong to those who never left the gorge. One recurring tale involves phantom voices calling people toward the riverbanks, only to vanish once approached. Whether those stories grew naturally from the dangerous terrain or from genuine unexplained experiences is impossible to say, but they remain deeply woven into the culture surrounding the pass.

The isolation of the area plays a psychological role too. At night, Goshen Pass becomes extraordinarily dark. The sound of the river is constant, creating a kind of auditory blanket that masks ordinary environmental cues. Human brains are wired to search for patterns in ambiguous sound, especially in low-visibility environments. 

A shifting echo or distorted animal call can quickly begin to resemble speech, music, or screams once the imagination engages. In a place already surrounded by ghost stories and Appalachian mystery, even natural sounds can become deeply unnerving.

Still, many people who have spent time there insist the phenomenon feels different from ordinary echoes. Hunters, hikers, and longtime residents have described moments where the gorge seemed to amplify silence itself - followed by sudden sounds that appeared impossibly close, only to disappear instantly. 

The world is full of strange places, and Goshen Pass belongs on that list. The unpredictability of sound is why Goshen Pass continues to fascinate people. It sits in that uncomfortable space between science and folklore, where geography, atmosphere, and human perception blur together until the mountains themselves release their whispers.

Now Playing: Things that Go Bump in the Night by Tommy Spase and the Alchemists

Circles in the Fields: Hoax, Phenomenon, or Something Else?

In the summer of 1978, two men sat in a pub in Winchester listening to farmers complain about strange patterns appearing in their fields. According to rumor, wheat had been flattened, forming impossible circles with rings woven into the grain as if some giant hand had pressed them from above. No footprints or tractor marks were left at the scene. The farmer had no explanation about it. 

The men were Doug Bower and Dave Chorley, and according to their later confession, they decided to create a few circles themselves as a prank. Armed with rope, wooden planks, and patience, they slipped into fields under cover of darkness and bent stalks into spirals and discs. When the sun rose, newspapers exploded with speculation. 

UFOs! Magnetic anomalies! Messages from another world!

But crop circles did not begin with Bower and Chorley. Long before modern “crop circles” became global headlines in the 1980s and 1990s, strange accounts had already been drifting through folklore and local history. 

The Mowing-Devil was highlighted in
a 1678 English news pamphlet

One of the earliest known references appeared in 1678 in a mysterious English pamphlet called The Mowing-Devil. The woodcut illustration showed a field mysteriously cut into circular patterns overnight after a farmer allegedly refused to pay a laborer fairly. According to the story, the Devil himself appeared and carved the field into impossible designs by moonlight. The Devil of course, was an easy scapegoat in the 17th century.

Many researchers debate whether this was a true precursor to modern crop circles or simply a folk tale about supernatural punishment. Still, the imagery feels eerily familiar.

Long before crop circles became tied to UFO lore and late-night documentaries, strange circular formations in nature were already being recorded in England. In 1686, naturalist Robert Plot documented unusual rings and arcs of mushrooms in The Natural History of Stafford-Shire. Rather than blaming folklore or superstition, Plot suggested the formations were caused by powerful air currents descending from the sky. (Centuries later, meteorologist Terence Meaden revisited Plot’s observations and proposed they may represent some of the earliest recorded descriptions connected to the crop circle phenomenon.)

Nearly two hundred years later, another curious report surfaced. In 1880, amateur scientist John Rand Capron wrote a letter to the journal Nature describing mysterious circular patches of flattened grain discovered in a field after severe weather. Capron believed the formations may have been created by swirling “cyclonic wind action.” What caught attention, however, was the precision of the patterns themselves. The crops appeared bent into organized circular shapes, with a small cluster of stalks still standing at the center while the surrounding grain radiated outward in carefully arranged spirals, bordered by an outer ring left strangely untouched.

Crop Circles appear in all shapes and sizes, some more intricate
than others. Ufologist Nick Pope suggested that the messages could 
be interpreted through mathematics.  

By the late 20th century, the phenomenon had transformed into something far more elaborate. The quiet countryside around Wiltshire became ground zero for increasingly complex formations. Not just circles anymore, but massive geometric symbols stretching hundreds of feet across fields near ancient landmarks like Stonehenge and Avebury. Some resembled mathematical equations. Others looked like spirals, insects, solar systems, or symbols no one could fully interpret.

Long before scientists gave it a name, there were whispers that sound itself possessed hidden architecture - invisible blueprints waiting to shape the world. In the late 1700s, German physicist Ernst Chladni set out to prove it. He scattered salt across metal plates and drew a violin bow across their edges. At first, the grains danced chaotically across the trembling surface, skittering wildly as the plate vibrated. Then, almost impossibly, order emerged. The salt gathered into sharp lines, circles, and elaborate geometric symbols that seemed too perfect to be accidental. The higher the pitch, the more intricate the formations became, as if the sound were speaking a mathematical language hidden beneath reality itself.

What Chladni had revealed were standing sound waves. Some areas of the plate, called antinodes, shook violently with energy, flinging the salt outward. Other regions remained perfectly still  - the nodes - and there the grains settled into symmetrical patterns. Round plates produced rippling rings like the surface of a pond struck by rain, while square plates birthed jagged lattices and angular corridors of white crystal. 

Invisible frequencies were directly manipulating physical matter, arranging chaos into order with nothing but vibration. The phenomenon would later become known as cymatics, a haunting visual reminder that sound is not merely heard - it shapes the world around us. 

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To many observers, cymatics feels almost supernatural. Tiny grains obey unseen forces, assembling themselves into designs that resemble sacred geometry, crop circles, or ancient symbols etched by some hidden intelligence. Yet the science is undeniable. Every frequency carries structure. Every vibration leaves its fingerprint on matter. Chladni’s experiment became more than a physics demonstration; it became a glimpse into the secret geometry of the universe, where energy and form are forever intertwined in patterns we are only beginning to understand.

Of course it gets stranger. Witnesses occasionally reported glowing orbs hovering above fields before crop formations appeared. Farmers described hearing strange crackling sounds at night. Pilots flying overhead claimed certain formations appeared within hours.

Researchers who entered some circles reported odd physical effects: compass malfunctions, drained camera batteries, electromagnetic spikes, and plants whose stems appeared bent rather than broken. A few laboratory studies claimed some crops showed signs of rapid heating from inside the plant itself, as though exposed to bursts of microwave energy. 

Skeptics countered that flattened stems could easily be reproduced mechanically and that many “anomalies” lacked rigorous controls. The truth became harder to untangle as the phenomenon grew.

By the 1990s, crop circles had become a worldwide obsession. Television specials featured theorists connecting them to UFO intelligence, Earth energies, ley lines, ancient sacred geometry, or even secret military experiments. Some believed the formations were attempts at communication. Others saw them as spiritual symbols appearing during times of global uncertainty.

Crop Circles appear in all shapes and sizes, some more intricate
than others This crop circle from near Chilbolton Observatory was created in binary data which was eventually decoded. .  

 

One of the most famous formations appeared near the Chilbolton Observatory. A massive face and coded image appeared in a field close to the radio telescope facility. UFO researchers claimed the pattern resembled a response to the famous Arecibo Message humanity had transmitted into space in 1974. To believers, it looked like an answer from somewhere beyond Earth.

It was August of 2002. The deeply unsettling crop formation appeared at Crabwood Farm near Winchester. From the air, the design resembled the face of a stereotypical gray alien positioned beside a strange circular object packed with intricate symbols and patterns.

What made the formation especially eerie was that the circular “disc” was eventually interpreted as a coded message. Researchers discovered the design contained binary data arranged in a spiral sequence of 1s and 0s, structured in a way remarkably similar to how information is stored on a compact disc. When the binary code was converted into ASCII text, it revealed a chilling statement:

“Beware the bearers of FALSE gifts and their BROKEN PROMISES. Much PAIN but still time. BELIEVE. There is GOOD out there. We oppose DECEPTION. Conduit CLOSING.”

Whether it was an elaborate human creation or something far stranger, the Crabwood formation remains one of the most mysterious and technically sophisticated crop circles ever discovered.

Skeptics were unconvinced. Professional circle-making teams later demonstrated how highly detailed formations could be created overnight using surveying tools, GPS measurements, ropes, and boards. Some artists even argued the circles should be appreciated as land art rather than paranormal events. And yet, even among skeptics, certain cases remained difficult to explain completely - especially reports involving lights, rapid appearances, or formations created in muddy conditions without obvious entry paths.

While some formations have indeed been admitted hoaxes, there remains a category of circles that continues to trouble researchers, pilots, scientists, and even experienced surveyors. Some of these formations appear overnight in enormous fields, stretching hundreds of feet across with breathtaking geometric precision. Intricate fractals, impossible symmetry, and mathematical ratios emerge in patterns so complex that many struggle to believe they could be created silently and flawlessly in just a few hours. 

Witnesses have also reported strange lights, humming sounds, and electromagnetic disturbances in the areas where certain formations appear.

What keeps the mystery alive is the physical evidence often found inside some of the most famous circles. Researchers have documented bent stalks woven together without being broken, plants showing signs of rapid heating from the inside, and unusual magnetic anomalies in the soil. In some cases, seeds taken from within formations displayed accelerated growth compared to normal crops nearby. Then there’s the mathematics itself - sacred geometry, binary-like arrangements, and formations based on advanced ratios that seem intentionally designed to communicate something beyond random art. 

Whether the answer lies in unknown atmospheric phenomena, secret human technology, or something far stranger, there are crop circles that many investigators insist simply could not be man-made. And that lingering uncertainty is exactly what keeps the mystery alive.

For a smaller but passionate group, crop circles remain something else entirely:

A language. A fingerprint left behind by an intelligence we still do not understand.

Crop Circle seen near Wiltshire England in late 1990s

Former UFO Investigator Nick Pope (RIP) famously said about crop circles, “To make these you have to have knowledge of math. Mathematics is of course the universal language. If we ever encounter aliens, they’re not going to speak English, or French or German. We’ll speak.. and communicate via mathematics.”

Today, the true meaning of crop circles depends entirely on who you ask. To some, they are human-made masterpieces born from creativity, mischief, and mythology. To others, they are modern folklore - living legends created by the collision of media, mystery, and belief.

Meanwhile, on a quiet summer night somewhere, while the rest of the world sleeps, another field may still be waiting for something unseen to press a message into the earth before dawn.

Now Playing: Sample and Hold/Computer Age - Neil Young 

The Horrifying Lore of the Wendigo of North America

Deep within the frozen forests of the northern United States and Canada, among endless black spruce, pine, and snow-choked rivers, there exists one of the most feared entities in Native American folklore: the Wendigo.

Unlike many monsters born from campfire tales, the Wendigo was never viewed as entertainment. To the Algonquian-speaking tribes - including the Ojibwe, Cree, Saulteaux, Innu, and Algonquin peoples - the Wendigo was a genuine spiritual horror, a warning wrapped inside a nightmare. Stories of the creature stretched across the Great Lakes region, the dense Canadian wilderness, and into parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ontario, Manitoba, and Quebec. These were lands where winter could become a death sentence. Temperatures plunged far below zero, food disappeared beneath deep snow, and isolation swallowed entire communities for months at a time.

In that brutal environment, the Wendigo became the embodiment of starvation, greed, and cannibalism.

The oldest traditions describe the Wendigo not simply as a beast, but as a corrupting spirit capable of possessing human beings. 

During especially harsh winters, when famine overtook hunting camps and survival became desperate, there were whispered fears that someone might resort to cannibalism. According to legend, once a person consumed human flesh, the Wendigo spirit entered them, transforming them into something no longer human.

Descriptions varied from tribe to tribe, but certain features appeared again and again. Witnesses described the Wendigo as unnaturally tall and emaciated, sometimes towering fifteen feet or more above the forest floor. Its skin was stretched tightly over protruding bones, gray or ash-colored like a corpse frozen in winter. Its ribs showed clearly through its flesh. Its lips were often described as shredded or missing entirely, exposing yellowed teeth stained with blood. The creature’s eyes were said to glow deep in the darkness, sunken and animal-like, while its fingers ended in long clawed hands capable of tearing through flesh.

One of the most terrifying elements of the legend was its hunger. No matter how much the Wendigo ate, it could never be satisfied. The more it consumed, the thinner and more skeletal it became. 

Some legends claimed it's heart was made entirely of ice. Others said the creature emitted the odor of death and decay long before it appeared. Hunters told stories of hearing strange whistles in the trees during blizzards, followed by massive footprints circling camps at night.

European fur traders and missionaries moving through the Great Lakes region during the 1600s and 1700s recorded Native accounts of the creature in journals and letters. 

Jesuit missionaries wrote of “man-eating spirits” feared by tribes living in the northern forests. 

French voyageurs traveling icy canoe routes heard stories of entire hunting parties disappearing after one member allegedly “turned Wendigo” during starvation.

By the nineteenth century, the fear surrounding the creature had become deeply tied to real historical events. During severe winters and periods of isolation, accusations of Wendigo possession occasionally surfaced in northern communities. 

Some individuals reportedly claimed they felt themselves transforming, becoming overwhelmed with violent urges or insatiable hunger. This phenomenon became known among some anthropologists as “Wendigo psychosis,” though modern scholars debate whether it was truly a distinct condition or misunderstood cultural trauma linked to starvation and fear.

One of the most famous historical accounts involved a Cree trapper named Swift Runner in Alberta during the winter of 1878. Despite emergency food supplies existing nearby, Swift Runner murdered and consumed his wife and children during a harsh winter. When authorities questioned him, many local Indigenous people believed he had become possessed by the Wendigo spirit. He was eventually executed at Fort Saskatchewan, but the story helped pave the bedrock of Wendigo lore.

Another famous and controversial case involved the Fiddler brothers of northern Ontario in the early 1900s. Jack Fiddler and his brother Joseph were respected Cree spiritual leaders who claimed they had killed several people they believed were becoming Wendigos. 

To the brothers, these acts were not murder but mercy - desperate interventions meant to protect entire camps from violence and cannibalism during harsh winters. In Cree tradition, a feared “windigo” transformation could threaten everyone nearby, and spiritual leaders were sometimes expected to stop it before tragedy unfolded.

Canadian authorities arrested the brothers after learning of the death of an elderly woman whom Jack believed was close to turning into a Wendigo. The legal system viewed the killing as homicide, while many in the Cree community saw it through an entirely different spiritual and cultural lens. Before the trial could conclude, Jack Fiddler reportedly escaped custody and died by suicide not far from the jail cell he had escaped from. With pressure mounting from the Cree population, Joseph was eventually released and lived a free man for several years thereafter. 

The Fiddler case became one of the clearest and most haunting collisions between Indigenous belief systems and Canadian law - a moment where two completely different understandings of fear, illness, duty, and survival met in the frozen north and could not reconcile with one another. But yet they kind of did. 

The creature’s appearance evolved over time in popular culture. Modern depictions often show the Wendigo with antlers or a deer skull-like face, though these features largely come from Hollywood films and horror artwork rather than traditional Algonquian legends. 

In older tribal stories, the Wendigo looked far more human - or rather, like a human corpse perhaps, being stretched and broken by supernatural hunger.

The Series One Wendigo card from Cryptidverse

The forests associated with the legend remain some of the wildest in North America. Vast stretches of Ontario and Manitoba contain thousands of square miles of dense wilderness where snow muffles every sound and visibility vanishes between the trees. In winter, those woods can feel endless and oppressive, especially at night when temperatures plunge and the wind moves through the pines like distant voices. It is easy to understand how such landscapes gave birth to stories of something starving and inhuman stalking the dark.

To many Indigenous communities, the Wendigo was never merely a monster hiding in the woods. It represented what happens when human beings surrender to greed, selfishness, and violence. The creature symbolized imbalance - hunger without end, consumption without restraint, and winter without mercy.

Even today, in isolated northern towns and camps, there are still elders who avoid speaking the creature’s name aloud after dark. Because in the old stories, calling attention to the Wendigo was said to invite it closer.

Deep within the frozen forests of the north, where the wind groans through the trees and winter nights seem endless, the Wendigo remains more than just a frightening story. It lingers as a warning - a chilling reminder that the coldest monsters are not always born in the wilderness, but within the human heart itself.

Now Playing: Oh Woman, Oh Why by Paul and Linda McCartney 

300,000 Years Got Us Here - by Guest Writer Zane Worley

By Zane Worley and Ronny Nixon 

The Celestial Orbs, Sentient Abominations, and P.U.R.S.U.E Details

Still from a 1 minute, 46 second video, captured by a U.S military infrared sensor of an unexplained, star-shaped entity flying in the Middle East. (File Name DOW-UAP-PR38)

______________________________________

On May 8th 2026, the United States enacted the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAPs (P.U.R.S.U.E). 

It was a good week for the ghost hunters, drum circle gurus, whack-jobs, tinfoil hat wearing, and mushroom-tripping conspirators that have timely proved the rest of us wrong once again. 

Perhaps there isn't always a conscientious reason behind the fallacies strung by waves of anti-believers in regard to realms of nature and space that we don't quite understand yet. (And maybe we never will.) Nothing is impossible, and only God knows what is sitting in a box at some undisclosed government warehouse. 

Some say the Loch Ness monster is in there, or maybe an inter-dimensional, time traveling Bigfoot. Hell, maybe their bodies lie cryogenically frozen, among the 3-fingered sentient green men.  

Yes... those green men have always been important, especially on this planet we call home. 

The kicker is: what if they aren't verdant, or tiny mainstream monsters? 

And why here anyway? 

As far back as 1561 in Nuremberg, an aerial battle supposedly emerged at dawn between orbs, crosses, and cylinder shaped space vehicles that appeared to spawn out of the sun. Whatever these machines may have been, the stories of their existence hunting and observing us from afar (and up close), have been circulating long before Spielberg made movies about them. 

Then, just five years later in Basel, Switzerland a similar event happened as people observed "sky miracles" - divine red and black balls battling against each other,  intensely shooting smaller orbs above the city. 

Maybe these galactic visitors serve as protectors - a part of a galactic civilization watch program. But who knows? 

On a global scale, we may not be much different from the Sentinelese - a primitive, pre-Neolithic hunter-gatherer society observed from afar, isolated not by geography alone, but by a universally respected no-contact boundary. 

Still, any hard evidence for the existence of these celestial beings is often dismissed - either lost beneath hoaxes or explained away through scientific realism. It’s a recurring pattern, one shaped by decades of campfire stories and the constant spotlight of folklore surrounding the phenomenon.

In 2023, Jaime Maussan presented two corpses to the Mexican Chamber of Deputies that convincingly resembled an unearthed species. However scientists swooped in and quickly debunked these abnormalities, revealing them as skinned monkeys. 

In 2011, also in Mexico, L.A. Marzulli made similar claims - that he had discovered an evil-energy carrying, "biblically-demonic" fairy. When investigated, it was determined that Marzulli's subject was actually just manipulated bat remains. 

These faulty, unserious attempts at unleashing a governmental entity on public UAP investigations are surprisingly successful. At least after the newspapers print stories about them. 

As long as people believe and buy merchandise, the sleazy circus that is the U.S government is willing to entertain us with their presence. All of course, while keeping the actual truth out of arm's reach.

This isn't the grandiose display of servitude and transparency that Locke/Platos argued for, but at least it's something, damn it. The 443,000 concurrent daily viewers of Ancient Aliens can finally breathe, but now must read PDF files before digging deeper into the popcorn bowl. 

Because of P.U.R.S.U.E., 162 previously classified files in relation to 'Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena,' are now public and downloadable, dating back to the 1940s. 

It seems we still stand far away from seeing any real bodies (dead or alive), or recovered aircrafts of the alleged evangelical space agents. But in 1947 an Air Force Major claimed on a phone call with the FBI an "object purporting to be a flying disc was recovered near Roswell, New Mexico," so there are likely many files still being withheld, hopefully to be released later. 

Paul Peyerl (a former Luftwaffe officer) also told the FBI, that Nazis have built a disc-shaped aircraft in 1944 somewhere in the Black Forest, 3 years prior; interpolating that some of these may be man-made weapons of war. 

Many of the reports discussed oval/football, metallic blimp shaped aircraft - sometimes up to 195 feet long - capable of materializing out of the sun. These aircraft are most likely not made by man, and appear strikingly similar to reports of the aerial assault above Nuremberg 500 years prior. 

There were recorded instances in the files that take place in other countries that seemingly targeted U.S military - places like Syria, Dagestan, and Iraq. Also included was an incident with a "star-shaped" entity above the ocean, that feels eerily less like a machine, and more like a living entity.

That tracks, because some theories within Panpsychism suggest that a UAP could itself be a sentient, non-biological entity - either operating autonomously through advanced technology or existing as a naturally occurring energy-based organism. Some researchers have compared these hypothetical entities to plasmoids, non-Newtonian orbs, or even the rumored “space jellyfish” reported in certain anomalous encounters.

Advanced technology capable of consciousness and cognition is not out of human reach. Therefore it can be inferred that any species capable of galactic travel has developed something much more powerful than what we are aware of. In our own world, AI similarly serves as a non-biological life, capable of reason, interacting with its environment, and reproducing. 

There has been countless recorded civilian sightings of the classified/rumored U.S military aircraft TR-3B (also known as Black Manta), allegedly capable of anti-gravitational propulsion, made out of reverse engineered alien technology. 

Yet what is most interesting (specifically to media outlets), is the overwhelming abundance of incidents involving these bright lights or some sort of ball/orb in the files. NASA's Apollo 11, 12, and 17 (1969-1972), all reported experiencing flashing lights - both in space and on the moon's craters - with Apollo 17 reporting triangular-positioned UAPs far away in distant space. 

In late 2025 a U.S helicopter conducting a search (again with infrared sensors) noticed an "extremely hot orb" flying at speeds the Blackhawk helicopter could not match. It gained elevation and almost hit the U.S helicopter, missing by less than 10 feet. Seven U.S federal agents across independent teams have also reported seeing large orbs shooting smaller red orbs out of them, as well as orbs appearing and dissipating into a "firework" like state. 

Because of the currently known lack of physical or biological form, it is suggestible these anomalies aim to directly interact with consciousness, through glimpses of humanity, as manifestations of spiritual organisms. This is favored to many - that sentience and self-awareness transcends on an intricate nature of universal scale. 

The need to emphasize and be aware of another intellectual species may not run only deep in homo sapiens, but in the lonely unknown that has always been interested in us. The Sumerians wrote about and worshipped the "Anunnaki" - extraterrestrial deities that served as personifications of time, and deciders of humanity. A different but similar sectarian belief: the indigenous tribe Blackfoot Nation said the beings of sky, were the first creations by God. 

Aliens have only turned green and started being presented as vigorously meaner, in the last 100 years or so. Maybe they are, and for great unknown reasons, we upset them. 

Recent UAP behavior displays reactionary defense mechanisms and gang stalking, a great contrast to hundreds of thousands of years of alleged cooperation. 

A celestial entity that once defended us in an aerial battle, presenting gifts of knowledge to Mesopotamians, and possibly dropped off (the still encrypted book), The Voynich Manuscript; now attack us, and hide themselves. 

(The Voynich, carbon dated to at least the 1400's, contains text written in an unearthly language, displays images of plants that do not exist, shows what looks like recipes, and features extremely complicated astral charts.)

If space invaders that live 2,000 light years away look at us through a magnifying glass, they would still see the Roman Empire (due to time dilation). Just as if we look back in the sky, we may observe planets and stars that no longer exist. One day another species may do the same to us, and recover our satellites, the Voyager Golden Record, and find remnants of our miraculous culture that will by then, be gone.

Hopefully before that day, they get the courage to talk to us again. If they see the future, hopefully we overcome our significant obstacles. Without proof, we still have humanity, and our desire to not be alone. No matter if man-made, biological, technological, or a physical state of consciousness, we only wish to be peaceful again. 

It might not matter if they are real. 

"A time will come when men will stretch out their eyes. They should see planets like our Earth." - Cristopher Wren (1750)

Non-Planetary Entities: Jellyfish Floating in Space

Far above the Earth, astronauts have reported seeing strange objects that seem to defy explanation. Silent shapes drifting through the darkness. Glowing forms pulsing like living organisms outside spacecraft windows and cupolas, as if suspended in space itself. Some appeared to tumble like translucent jellyfish, while others seemed to move with an eerie sense of purpose all their own.

The first time they saw them, nobody aboard the spacecraft said the word “alien.” 

They described them instead in the careful language of engineering and observation: luminous objects… self-illuminated forms… drifting structures outside the vehicle. But tucked inside mission transcripts, private interviews, and late-night recollections told years after retirement, another description kept surfacing again and again.

They looked like jellyfish. Not metallic saucers. Not glowing spheres. Jellyfish - translucent, pulsing things suspended in the blackness of space, trailing long tendrils behind them like living creatures swimming through an invisible cosmic ocean.

Stories of strange objects in orbit go back to the earliest days of spaceflight. During the Gemini and Apollo years, astronauts frequently reported seeing unusual lights outside their capsules. NASA usually attributed them to ice particles, space debris, or reflections from the spacecraft itself. And often, that explanation made sense. But not every account fit neatly into those categories.

Several astronauts privately described objects that appeared to move intelligently -  pacing spacecraft, changing direction, or reacting to observation. One of the strangest themes involved glowing, organic-looking forms that seemed almost alive. Witnesses spoke of softly pulsating lights with dangling filaments drifting silently against the backdrop of stars.

During missions aboard the Space Shuttle, astronauts occasionally reported seeing formations of luminous objects floating above Earth’s atmosphere. Cameras captured strange shapes tumbling and changing brightness in impossible silence. Most viewers dismissed them as frozen debris illuminated by sunlight, yet some footage disturbed even experienced observers because of the way certain objects appeared to maneuver independently.

One former astronaut reportedly described seeing something “like a jellyfish made of light” hovering far beyond the shuttle windows. It had a rounded glowing crown and faint trailing appendages beneath it. According to the account, the object did not drift randomly. It moved with smooth, deliberate motion before slowly fading into darkness. No official report was ever released.

Then there are the eerie encounters tied to the International Space Station. Over the years, viewers watching NASA live feeds have spotted odd luminous forms appearing briefly in orbit before the cameras abruptly cut away. Skeptics argue these are lens flares, compression artifacts, or ordinary space junk. But believers point to several clips where glowing masses seem to pulse and reshape themselves before vanishing.

One particularly unsettling story emerged from an unnamed ISS crew member who allegedly spoke privately after returning to Earth. The astronaut described seeing “transparent beings” outside the station during a quiet orbital pass over the Pacific. They resembled drifting jellyfish illuminated from within, enormous in size, moving without propulsion. Their tendrils shimmered faintly blue against the darkness.

The astronaut reportedly said the objects did not appear mechanical at all.

“They looked biological,” he claimed. “Like deep-sea creatures swimming through space.”

That comparison has haunted researchers ever since because the resemblance is difficult to ignore. Earth’s oceans contain bioluminescent jellyfish that pulse with internal light, survive crushing pressures, and drift through a hostile environment humans barely understand. Space itself is another abyss - cold, silent, and almost entirely unexplored. Some theorists have wondered whether entirely unknown forms of life could evolve in electromagnetic fields, solar radiation, or plasma-rich regions of space.

In the 1950s, astronomer and physicist Fred Hoyle even speculated that spaceborne life might exist in forms completely unlike anything on Earth. Later fringe researchers proposed the existence of “atmospheric beasts” or plasma entities inhabiting the upper atmosphere and near-Earth orbit. Most mainstream scientists reject these ideas outright, but the recurring jellyfish descriptions remain strangely persistent.

Adding to the mystery are bizarre photographs and leaked footage occasionally circulating online showing enormous translucent shapes hovering above Earth. Some resemble giant floating medusas with glowing centers and trailing limbs stretching for miles. Most are impossible to verify. Some are almost certainly hoaxes. Yet they continue feeding the legend that astronauts may have witnessed something alive in orbit.

And perhaps the strangest part is this: The deeper humanity travels into space, the more the universe begins to resemble an ocean. Astronauts already describe weightlessness as swimming. Spacecraft drift like submarines through endless darkness. Beyond the thin shell of Earth’s atmosphere lies a vast abyss filled with currents of radiation, invisible storms, and silent moving objects.

If life adapted to the deepest trenches of Earth’s oceans - places once thought impossible to survive - then maybe somewhere in the cosmic dark, something else learned to swim too. It's not too outlandish a notion - but it seems strange that these entities are floating in space and not attached to an actual planet. 

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Kenneth Arnold and the Flying Saucer Flap of 1947

On June 24, 1947, a businessman and experienced pilot named Kenneth Arnold took off from Chehalis in his small private aircraft for what should have been a routine flight across the Pacific Northwest. Instead, Arnold would become the man forever linked to the phrase “flying saucer,” while also igniting one of the most famous UFO waves in American history.

Arnold was 32 years old in 1947 and owned a company that sold fire-control equipment. Flying was both practical and personal for him. He had logged thousands of hours in the air and was considered a careful, credible pilot. That afternoon in June, he was flying a CallAir A-2 near Mount Rainier on his way to a business meeting in Yakima, Washington. The weather was clear, visibility was excellent, and the Cascade Mountains stretched sharply beneath him.

Earlier that day, Arnold had heard reports that a U.S. Marine Corps transport plane had gone missing somewhere in the rugged mountains. Hoping to spot wreckage and collect the $5,000 reward being offered, he diverted slightly from his route and scanned the terrain around Mount Rainier and nearby Mount Adams.

At around 3:00 p.m., Arnold suddenly noticed a brilliant flash of light to the north. At first he thought it might be sunlight reflecting off another airplane. But when he searched the sky, he saw something he could not explain.

Nine strange objects were moving in formation across the mountains. Arnold later described them as thin, flat, and crescent-shaped - not perfectly circular. Some appeared almost like pie plates or boomerangs, with a convex front and trailing edges. He estimated they were flying at an incredible speed, weaving between mountain peaks in a chain-like formation. What struck him most was their motion. They did not fly like conventional aircraft of the 1940s. Arnold said they moved “like a saucer if you skip it across water.”

That single comparison would change history.

Arnold tried to calculate the speed of the objects as they traveled from Mount Rainier to Mount Adams - roughly 50 miles apart. Timing their movement with his cockpit clock, he concluded they were traveling around 1,200 miles per hour, far faster than any known aircraft at the time. (In 1947, that speed was extraordinary. The sound barrier had not yet officially been broken publicly by Chuck Yeager in the Bell X-1. That event that would occur months later in October 1947.)

When Arnold landed in Yakima and later spoke to reporters, he expected skepticism. Instead, the story exploded nationwide. Newspapers across America carried headlines about mysterious discs in the sky. Within weeks, hundreds of similar sightings were reported from nearly every state.

However, reporters misunderstood Arnold’s description. He had been describing the motion of the objects, not necessarily their shape. But newspapers seized on the phrase “flying saucer,” and within days the term spread across the United States. The modern UFO era had begun.

The flap had begun. Some people claimed to see metallic craft darting overhead. Others described glowing disks hovering silently at night. Overnight, it seemed, the country became captivated with the flying saucer craze. 

The timing amplified the panic and fascination. America was entering the early Cold War era. Tensions with the Soviet Union were growing, and many feared secret enemy technology. Military intelligence agencies quietly took interest in Arnold’s report. The sighting would eventually help inspire official government UFO investigations, including projects that later evolved into Project Blue Book.

1947 was a very big year in regards to UFO lore. Emil J. Smith, Captain of Eastern Air Lines Flight 105 had reported his own sighting shortly after Arnold reported his incident. 

It happened on July 4th, when Eastern Air Lines pilot Captain Smith and his crew on Flight 105 reported one of the earliest commercial airline UFO encounters in American history. While flying at night near Montgomery, Alabama, the crew spotted a strange glowing object streaking across the sky at tremendous speed before pacing the aircraft. Witnesses described the object as circular and brilliantly illuminated, moving in ways no known aircraft of the era could duplicate. Smith, already familiar with Arnold’s famous “flying saucer” sighting from just several days earlier, became convinced he had seen something genuinely unknown.

The sighting made national headlines during the feverish summer of 1947, adding fuel to the growing fascination with mysterious objects in the skies and helping cement the idea that trained pilots - not just ordinary civilians - were encountering unexplained aerial phenomena.

A few weeks after pilot Kenneth Arnold ignited the modern UFO era with his famous sighting near Mount Rainier, another strange case pulled him into even darker territory. This time, the mystery centered on Maury Island in Washington’s Puget Sound, where harbor patrolman Harold Dahl claimed he had witnessed six enormous disc-shaped crafts hovering above the water on June 21, 1947. 

According to Dahl, one of the objects appeared damaged and began spewing strange metallic debris onto his boat, killing his dog, injuring his son, and scattering lightweight fragments across the deck. Dahl later said a mysterious man in a dark suit warned him not to speak publicly about what he had seen.

The bizarre story quickly spread through early UFO circles and eventually reached Arnold. Curious and increasingly fascinated by reports of “flying discs,” Arnold traveled to Tacoma with the aforementioned pilot Captain Smith to investigate the claims firsthand. Dahl and another witness, Fred Crisman, showed Arnold pieces of the alleged debris, describing the objects as doughnut-shaped craft unlike conventional aircraft. 

Arnold reportedly found parts of the story suspicious, but the case became even stranger when the two Army Air Force intelligence officers assigned to collect the debris died in a fiery crash of their B-25 bomber near Kelso, Washington, shortly after leaving the area. 

Their deaths fueled rumors of a military cover-up and transformed the Maury Island Incident into one of the earliest and most controversial UFO cases in American history.

In the end, the military declared the entire affair a hoax, claiming the debris was nothing more than common industrial slag. Yet the combination of Arnold’s involvement, the mysterious warnings, contradictory witness accounts, and the tragic bomber crash ensured the story would survive for decades in UFO lore. For many researchers, Maury Island remains a strange crossroads where Cold War paranoia, possible deception, and genuine unexplained events all collided during the birth of the flying saucer age.

A few days after the Flight 105 sighting, another event intensified public obsession with UFOs: the infamous Roswell Incident in Roswell, New Mexico. Together, along with the supposed incident at Maury Island, these cases cemented 1947 as the birth year of the modern UFO phenomenon.

Kenneth Arnold in 1947

Decades later, researchers still debate what Kenneth Arnold saw over the Cascades. Skeptics have proposed mirages, pelicans, military aircraft, snow reflections, or optical illusions. Others believe Arnold witnessed advanced experimental craft  - or something not of this world. No explanation has ever fully satisfied everyone.

Arnold himself remained adamant for the rest of his life that he had seen something real. He rejected many wild explanations but also insisted the objects were unlike anything he knew about. In later interviews, he admitted the experience deeply affected him. He became both famous and ridiculed - celebrated by UFO believers while mocked by skeptics who viewed the "craze" as mass hysteria.

After the events, Kenneth Arnold found himself pulled into a world of strange encounters and unsettling experiences that seemed to follow him long after the headlines faded. 

Arnold later claimed that anonymous phone calls, mysterious visitors, and persistent feelings of being watched became part of his everyday life. He spoke of receiving threats from people who warned him to stop discussing flying saucers publicly, while others approached him with bizarre stories of their own encounters, convinced he had become some kind of gateway to the unknown. 

Friends and researchers who interacted with Arnold over the years often described him as deeply shaken by the attention surrounding the Maury Island Incident and the suspicious deaths of the two Army Air Force officers connected to the case.

Arnold reportedly began experiencing vivid nightmares, growing paranoia, and an increasing belief that unseen forces - whether governmental, psychological, or something stranger - were operating beneath the surface of the UFO phenomenon. 

Though he remained skeptical of many claims throughout his life, the events surrounding 1947 appeared to leave a permanent mark on him, transforming a practical businessman and pilot into a man forever haunted by mysteries he could never fully explain.

What remains undeniable is the historical impact of that clear June afternoon in 1947. One pilot looking out over the mountains of Washington transformed the language of mystery forever. 

Before Kenneth Arnold, there were strange things in the sky. After Kenneth Arnold, the world had flying saucers.

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Blue Banana Interview with Author and Musician Forrest Lonefight

From the underground worlds of horror fiction, Native storytelling, heavy music, and working-class Americana comes author Forrest Lonefight - a writer whose voice feels as raw and unfiltered as the Iowa backroads and construction sites that shape his stories. Known for his latest novel The Pipelayer, Lonefight blends blue-collar realism with dread, addiction, identity, and the strange shadows that linger beneath everyday life. His work doesn’t feel manufactured or polished for mainstream audiences; it feels lived in. Weathered. Real.

What makes Lonefight especially compelling is the way he merges Indigenous perspectives, Midwestern grit, underground music culture, and psychological horror into something uniquely his own. There’s a heaviness to his writing that recalls late-night highway drives, rusted machinery, dive bars, isolation, and the feeling that something ancient might still be buried beneath the surface of America. Beyond literature, Lonefight is also a musician and artist, bringing the same intensity and atmosphere into his creative work. 

Forrest Lonefight is so much more than a musician and an author. 

As the guitar player for the Des Moines band The Maw, Forrest opened my eyes to a hungry and vibrant music scene in Central Iowa. He was a huge inspiration for my previous blog, Bigfoot Diaries (BFD), a project that predominately covered music. I have told friends that Forrest is the greatest guitar player that I've ever seen live. I meant it 100%. I still do. 

Blue Banana was honored to speak with Forrest about his books, Iowa, horror, Native identity, music, creative inspiration, and the darker corners of storytelling that continue to pull readers deeper into his world.

Growing up Meskwaki in lowa, were there stories, beliefs, or legends you heard as a kid that stayed with you long after childhood?

My grandma was a great storyteller. She had a way of telling stories. One story she told was of a gambler who would gamble with a dead man. That zombie creature would rise in the middle of the night to gamble with him, lose one of his valuable burial adornments for two nights in a row, then on the third night, the whole cemetery of zombies were waiting for the gambler. They chased him back to his village and tore his family to shreds. That was a cautionary tale. Respect the dead, which was always a customary thing growing up on the Meskwaki Settlement.

How does Meskwaki tradition shape the way you think about creativity, inspiration, or artistic responsibility?

There was a lot of room to play on the Settlement. I was living the real life Zelda. Exploring, finding secret grottos in the woods and pretend-fighting with Octorocks and Leevers in the woods. That’s probably were my imagination bloomed, before anything else. Meskwaki tradition had nothing to do with my inspiration per se. It was a patriarchal society full of rules. I was excluded for the most part and got bullied a lot. My family was ostracized for my grandparent’s Christian beliefs; that’s something I would find out later in life. I’ve always wondered why most Meskwakis never liked me! (Haha!)

I did admire the way that the Meskwaki were a hidden society away from mainstream Iowa. So, that fact opened my eyes to how our country was being run. I was able to see and navigate the complexities of America’s problems and saw the gray areas in the middle of the Reagan’s “Moral Majority” regime days.

Are there certain landscapes in Iowa that still feel spiritually charged to you - places that seem to carry stories?

The hills. The bluffs. Along the river valley. I included a story in my book that takes place along a beaver dam that runs along the Iowa River. I heard stories that a lot of people were buried down there. You would hear different things about that area over the years. But who knows? It is a legitimately dangerous place and I do recall a death of a man in the 2000’s. The legends grow over time.

Is there a difference between the stories told in your books and the stories you tell through guitar?

Well, my last book, Life Belongs to the Loud, was a direct correlated work. I melded those two things together to make a pretty good story. Epic. If I die tomorrow, that’s my testament to music. They are both different modes of expression. Most times they are better left to their own designs, but one can be ambitious and promiscuous just as long as it’s killer in the end!

What do books allow you to express that music can’t - and vice versa?

I was a writer first. At 7 years old, it came to me first. You can make the most mundane situation in the world and make it into something like a Kafka and Dostoevsky novel. Music is much more ethereal. Or I’ll say it like this; Writing is corporeal, music is spiritual. In my Libra mind, one needs a balance of both in order to achieve the great work of life.

Do you think modern audiences misunderstand Indigenous folklore by treating it like fantasy rather than lived belief?

Every culture has their own stories. What’s cool is that many tribes share the same ones. The more Natives I meet, the more I see the things we have in common. Ojibwe, Potawatomi, Meskwaki, even Lakota (our supposed mortal enemies haha) have the same words and culture. Every culture has merit in the human experience, no matter who has the biggest gun.

The show "Reservation Dogs" opened a lot of eyes in the mainstream. It showed that Natives weren’t all just downtrodden tragic apparitions of society. Natives love to laugh and yes, make fun of each other too.

Are there myths or spirits from Meskwaki lore that deserve wider recognition outside Indigenous communities?

Meskwaki got bigfoot! Haha!

The Deer Lady was one we heard growing up. There’s a lot of representation of that now. Stephen Graham Jones did the most brutal Deer Lady in his book, "The Only Good Indians". Reservation Dogs did, probably the sexiest, Deer Lady on their show. So those stories are getting their run in the mainstream now, I would urge you to check those out.

There’s a scourge of right wing videos on YouTube trying to justify their points of view using Native Americans, which isn’t cool; saying that there were prophetic Hopi paintings in caves showing trump and musk wearing red hats as saviors. That BS is something we always gotta be cognizant of and filter out.

There is also a segment of Natives who would rather not have those stories told to the outside world. I’ve already gotten flack for sharing my stories by that segment, but what can a writer do but write his truth?

What does “home” mean to you now: Iowa, Minneapolis, the Meskwaki Nation, or something less physical?

I feel at home wherever I lay my head down. Attending the Des Moines Book Festival was like coming home.

Not so much the Meskwaki Settlement. They’ve been cracking down on us "Descendants / Unenrolled Members" out there. Remember when I told you I wasn’t welcome out there and got bullied growing up? It has really come to a head now. Greed has a lot to do with that, they gotta dis-enroll us and kick us out of the Settlement so they can have all that casino, cigarette, and THC money all to themselves.

There’s a movement brewing now that’s tackling that very issue of tribes dis-enrolling and banishing descendants. The documentary film, "You’re No Indian" is shining a much-needed light on that problem. [The problem] It’s basically another form of genocide.

What do you listen to when you write? 

I can't do music when I write, though I do listen to ambient soundscapes to create atmosphere. Ossa Coronata was my go-to band for my latest project; their soundscapes really capture the eerie ghostly church-in-the-woods vibe. I love them!

One time you told me about a gal that you knew who was a strong believer in Shadow People. One night at your house "something" knocked over a fan. Can you tell me about that? What do you associate that to?

There's a new Testament song called, "Shadow People" that totally whisked me back to that time. I believe some people can see things that most people aren't conditioned to see; much like children who can see things that adults can't. Perhaps it may have been a past trauma she experienced, but she claimed that she was cursed. I have no explanation, that incident was an anomaly. She is no longer a part of my life so I don't know if she still sees the Shadow People. She's definitely not alone in seeing them. I included a bit of that in my last novel in a brief, disturbing scene.

Actually, I think my guitar playing buddy Jas Spargur can see them - or ghosts, one of the two.

Do characters in your books sometimes reflect real people you've met in your life?

Oh god yes! Haha! My last book was 90% Autofiction with my life in my band Inhale the Ellipses. I just had a dream last night about the "Rick" character and myself beginning to write songs again for a new project. The old feelings came back and I wasn't so sure it was a good idea! Haha!

The newest book, The Pipelayer has a lot of characters that came from real life, since it spawned from my time working in that field. Inspiration comes from the people you know.

Tell us what The Pipelayer is about and what inspired you to write it.

Ah well, it is about Gaston Johnson, a Native American Pipelayer from Des Moines who is a descendant of the Fox Tribe in Te Ma, Iowa. The company he works for, Price Plumbing, has a job on the Fox Tribal Settlement: a place he never felt accepted. Circumstances and tragedies lead to him to discovering something truly f-ed up while digging underground.

The story switches back-and-forth between the present and 1989. So there some flashbacks that have some of my earliest memories in life. 1989 was a pivotal year for me and I wanted to pay tribute to that time. I had a great time writing it. Also, I should point out that the Fox Tribe is a pseudonym for Meskwaki. It worked for the story, I have some Meskwaki and Sauk words in there and I thought it be classier to protect the names of the innocent and not-so-innocent. Haha!

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