Mason Gamble, Mothman, and Golf

Mark Pellington, The Mothman Prophecies, Arlington Road, Mason Gamble, Esalen, and Golf in the Kingdom. It's just another day in synchromysticism.


Mark Pellington directed Arlington Road (1999) and The Mothman Prophecies (2002).

Christopher Knowles, over at The Secret Sun, today is discussing "astrognostics," and then he starts to make some connections to names personally familiar to me.

After pondering some popular cultural astrogeneaology emails, family mythology, and some films it brought to mind for him personally, Knowles writes that he has "friends in common" with Mark Pellington, director of The Mothman Prophecies. He notes that Pellington's first feature film was Arlington Road.


Mason Gamble in Arlington Road.

Knowles writes:

And weirdest of all, Arlington Road opens with a harrowing scene of a boy who's been maimed by a bomb. The boy is played by Mason Gamble.....who I was just hanging around with at Esalen. The gyre is constantly widening, isn't it, Bob?.

Christopher Knowles and Mason Gamble at Esalen.

...Like the Mothmen, the syncs notice you noticing them and tend to follow you around.

But for some reason, the syncs we see inside films like The Nines or The Number 23 never seem to be as arresting as the syncs we see in the Synchrosphere, or in our own lives. Movies are great at generating Synchronicity, but not usually as good at portraying it. ~ Chris Knowles

As some may or may not know, I worked with Sony/Screen Gems' publicity division in late 2001 and early in 2002, doing media interviews on behalf of Pellington's film. John Keel was regularly ill, so I appeared on nearly 400 radio shows and in a few television documentaries (including on the special deluxe DVD) talking about the Mothman movie. My Mothman book also came out in January 2002, complete with what's called a tie-in "sunburst" promoting the movie on its backcover.


Loren Coleman being interviewed about Mothman on "Animal X."

The links mentioned by Knowles are intriguing, to say the least.

It is a small world, indeed.

Pellington, I found, is a master of understanding the "name game." Arlington Road was a deep look at the conspiracy thought process. The Mothman Prophecies film and events surrounding it are a synchromystic gold mine or minefield (depending upon how you are impacted). Some of Pellington's "name games" are seemingly well-planned and others simply align with supposedly "random events," which I can hardly insult anyone anymore by calling them "coincidences."

In February 2002, I wrote of some of these elements I discovered in a SciFi Dimension piece, entitled "The Mothman Prophecies: 'Gordon Smallwood' and Some Strange Happenings."

I've discussed often the little "name games" played in this movie, such as John Keel showing up in the "Leek" (as in "Keel" backwards) character, played by Alan Bates (who died December 27, 2003) and the "John Klein" (John Keel) role of Richard Gere. But sometimes the "games" seem to turn sinister.


Linda Scarberry, famed first Mothman eyewitness, is interviewed on "Animal X." Her boyfriend and fellow witness was Roger Mallette.

As I was writing that SciFi piece, deaths related to the original Mothman eyewitnesses were occurring too frequently, including Agatha Bennett (January 12, 2002), Charles Mallette (January 22, 2002), and Gary Ury (February 15, 2002). When the deaths started touching closer to the film and my book, the darkness seemed nearer. Some of those deaths included Ted Demme (Pellington's friend, January 13, 2002), Ted Tannebaum (the film's executive producer, March 7, 2002), and Aaron Rebsamen (son of the illustrator who did the art for my book's cover, by suicide, May 23, 2002).

Then, with much shock and sadness, I was so sorry to hear that Pellington's young 42-year-old wife died unexpectedly two years after the success of his film, on July 30, 2004.

That movie took many of us on several wild rides, emotionally.

That Knowles would highlight Mason Gamble, when so much of The Mothman Prophecies centers on the happening in Mason County, West Virginia, seems only right. To learn that Gamble's next project is as Michael Murphy in the movie adaption of Golf in the Kingdom (1972), an Esalen book by Michael Murphy, well, just seems so very Secret Sun. :-)

For those unaware of the links here (pun intended), here is the overview of Golf in the Kingdom:

Esalen Institute founder Michael Murphy's divine meditation on the royal and ancient game defied categorization when it was first published in 1972, and it still does. Instantly hailed as a classic, Golf in the Kingdom is an altogether unique confluence of fiction, philosophy, myth, mysticism, enchantment, and golf instruction. The central character is a wily Scotsman named Shivas Irons, a golf professional by vocation and a shaman by design, whom Murphy, as participant in his own novel, meets in 1956 on the links of Burningbush, in Fife. The story of their round of golf together culminates in a wild night of whiskey and wisdom where, as Shivas demonstrates how the swing reflects the soul, their golf quite literally takes on a metaphysical glow. The events alter not only Murphy's game, but they also radically alter his mind and inner vision; it's truly unforgettable. For a golfer, Murphy's masterpiece is as essential as a set of clubs.

Even as a non-golfer, I appreciate the deep mystical significance of golf's connection to much of what we all are attempting to fathom. One can measure a circle, beginning anywhere.

Mothman and Other Curious Encounters, 2002.

Bridgewater Triangle Fire

A significant Hockomock Swamp/Bridgewater Triangle structure has vanished, apparently due to arson.

The Assonet Band of the Wampanoag Indian Cultural Center building in the Freetown State Forest was destroyed by fire Saturday morning, June 27, 2009.

It was located on Ledge Road on the 227-acre Watuppa Reservation in the forest, according to a statement by the Freetown Fire Department.

Police said the Freetown Communications Center received calls at 7:30 a.m. for “smoke in the area.”

When firefighters arrived, they found the 30-by-25-foot single-story wooden structure on fully involved in fire.

It took a dozen firefighters using three engine companies about 90 minutes to extinguish the flames, police said.

Investigators from the police and fire departments and the State Fire Marshal’s Office are looking into the cause of the fire.

Ken Alves, chief of the Assonet Band of thw Wampanoag nation, said he suspected arson, citing many other acts of vandalism that have occurred at the Cultural Center and a nearby pump house. The buildings have been broken into, shot with paintballs and covered with graffiti.

"The part of the forest that we're located on, we've been besieged by vandalism for quite awhile," he said.

The Cultural Center, which was built in the 1990s, was used as a gathering place for meetings, celebrations and teaching, Alves said.

The Center sat in the midst of the Freetown forest in the Hockomock Swamp/Bridgewater Triangle.

On Saturday, July 4th, 2009, the radio show "Spooky Southcoast" will broadcast a program on this new fire and any developments this week from the arson investigation. It is aired live from 10 PM to Midnight, Eastern, from the midst of the Bridgewater Triangle.

Let me share the beginning of the passage defining the "Bridgewater Triangle" from Wikipedia, and following it with some corrections about this phrase:

The Bridgewater Triangle is an area of about 200 square miles (520 km2) within southeastern Massachusetts in the United States. Since colonial times the area has been a site of alleged paranormal phenomena, ranging from UFO and "black helicopter" sightings (including many with multiple points of corroboration including police and a local news team), to poltergeists and orbs, balls of fire and other spectral phenomena, various "Bigfoot" sightings, giant snakes and 'thunderbirds', as well as the mutilation of cattle and other livestock.

Although known for centuries as an area of unusual and unexplained activity, the specific boundaries of the Bridgewater Triangle were first defined by paranormal researcher Loren Coleman in his book Mysterious America. The Triangle encompasses the towns of Abington, Rehoboth and Freetown at the points of the triangle, and Bridgewater, West Bridgewater, Middleboro, Dighton, Berkley, Raynham, Easton, Lakeville, and Taunton inside the triangle.

Central to the area is the mysterious and largely untouched Hockomock Swamp, which means "the place where spirits dwell", and which was called "The Devil's Swamp" by early settlers. The Triangle also contains several Indian burial grounds, as well as significant sites used by both natives and colonists during King Philip's War, which is said by some to be the source of several curses on the nearby land.

The Wikipedia author of this entry gives other info, and then summarizes what I and others have written on the Freetown State Forest:

Another area of unusual activity within the Bridgewater Triangle is the Freetown-Fall River State Forest. The forest land and that forming the town of Freetown was purchased from the Wampanoag Tribe in 1659, and many Native Americans have claimed that the odd and evil events which transpired over the preceding 350 years are the result of a tribal curse. For decades the Freetown State Forest has reportedly been the site of various cult activity including animal sacrifice, ritualistic murders committed by admitted Satanists, as well as a number of gangland murders and a high number of suicides.

Among the recorded homicides are over a dozen confirmed murders in the forest over 1978 to 1988, as well as on-going police investigations in discovered mutilated remains of cattle and goats. Another gruesome discovery by Freetown police, following the report by the victim of a previous sexual assault at the site, was an underground bunker otherwise hidden from view. Upon investigation police found a number of strange objects, including small chairs with belts or restraints, seemingly made for children.

Actually, I coined the phrase "Bridgewater Triangle" in the 1970s, using it in correspondence with other researchers, in lectures, and with the media during my investigations there. I first used it in print in an article for the April 1980 issue of Boston Magazine entitled “The Bridgewater Triangle.” I then expanded that article into a chapter in the first Faber and Faber edition of Mysterious America in 1983, and then updated that chapter for the Paraview publication of 2001 and 2006's Simon and Schuster edition of Mysterious America.

Mysterious America: The Ultimate Guide to the Nation's Weirdest Wonders, Strangest Spots, and Creepiest Creatures



The cultural wave of the Bridgewater Triangle can be seen sprinkled above in the three distinctive examples of old-fashioned poster art from Mark Phelan, and other creations below.


Logo used for the Mass Monster Mash conferences.


Map of the Bridgewater Triangle created for a Boston Globe article about the area.

Neverland Nevermore

Remember that Michael Jackson's ranch was named after Neverland, the fantasy island in the story of Peter Pan, where children never grow up.



Peter Pan was a story written by a man who was obsessed with little boys and had a dark side.



J.M. Barrie, the author of Peter Pan, technically at 4 ft 10 in tall (question sources that promote an over five ft height), was a dwarf (which had a psychological impact on him). His child molestation-oriented letters and writings have often been overlooked, hidden, and suppressed. But even the overt story of Peter Pan gives clear hints of the deeper disturbed nature of the author and today's followers.

The "Peter Pan" name has sinister links to a modern subculture of child maltreatment and sexual abuse in this country, far beyond Jackson's legacy and court cases, but more of that another time.

Children do grow up, some are hurt along the way, and men do die.

According to TMZ, Los Angeles Times, and law enforcement sources, Michael Jackson, 50, died, Thursday, June 25, 2009, at 2:26 PM Pacific Time, of a cardiac arrest.

Brian Oxman, the Jackson family attorney, has remarked that Michael Jackson was surrounded by people who enabled his abuse of prescription drugs.

Michael Jackson's close pal Uri Geller was “too upset for words” tonight to make a statement.

New X-Mystery & Knights Templar

In the last few days, villagers of Xertigny have frequently sighted a “mystery crocodile.” Eyewitnesses have included members of the fire brigade and police department.

Xertigny is a village of some 3,000 inhabitants in the Vosges region in eastern France.

The hunt for the creature has turned into a media circus, and the beast is now being dubbed the “Loch Ness Monster of Vosges.”


The Monnin pond where the crocodile has been seen. Now what does Monnin mean? It appears to be, in French, from a shortened pet form of the personal name Simon. The name Simon is of Hebrew origin, and its meaning is "to hear, to be heard; reputation." In terms of Biblical connections, Simon was the name of two of the apostles, including Simon Peter.

The police have established a security perimeter around the Monnin pond to prohibit the fifty or so onlookers and dozen journalists present from approaching the water. Greater details about this drama can be read here.


A member of the gendarmery guards the borderland of the pond and continues the search for the enigma.

For our purposes at this "Twilight Language" blog, it is intriguing to read a bit more about the location of all this recent mysterious activity.

A Xertigny village legend recounts that local brewery owner Victor Champion discovered the treasure of the Knights Templar in the nearby woods, which provided the fortune for creating the Arboretum de Xertigny (4 hectares), also known as the Arboretum du Château des Brasseurs, a municipal arboretum and park located at Mairie 1, le Château, Xertigny, Vosges, Lorraine, France. The location of its discovery is duly marked.

The arboretum was established in 1994 to protect the former park of the Château des Brasseurs (Brewers' Castle), originally created in 1888 by local brewery owner Victor Champion, who planted a number of trees from North America and Asia when laying out the park. Although Xertigny's brewery closed in 1966 and the château now houses the town government, the arboretum preserves many of the park's old trees, including fine specimens of Araucaria (e.g., the living fossil tree, the Monkey-Puzzle),Cladastris lutea (American Yellowwood), Pseudotsuga (Douglas Fir), Fraxinus ornus (Manna Ash), and Sequoiadendron (Sequoia or Redwood, 45 meters).

Even the choice of trees appears to have some significance in terms of a mystical orientation for this locale.

1) Araucaria is a genus of evergreen coniferous trees in the family Araucariaceae.

Many if not all current populations are relicts, and of restricted distribution. These columnar trees are living fossils, dating back to early in the Mesozoic age. Fossil records show that the genus also formerly occurred in the northern hemisphere until the end of the Cretaceous period.

The most famed species of this genus is Araucaria araucana (Pehuén or Monkey-puzzle). Because of the species' great age it is sometimes described as a living fossil. Araucaria araucana is the national tree of Chile. Said to look like a pyramid, it appears to be symbolic to various group. It is known sacred to members of the Mapuche Native American tribe.

The spiky leaves of the monkey puzzle were never evolved to stop monkeys however, but rather to stop grazing dinosaurs eating it before it could grow out of their reach, such is the ancient age of this tree.

2) Cladastris lutea is the American Yellowwood. It is an unusual tree as it is actually a legume or pea species.

3) Pseudotsuga is the genus of the five species of the Douglas-fir. The female cones are pendulous, with persistent scales (unlike true firs), and are distinctive in having a long tridentine (three-pointed) bract that protrudes prominently above each scale. A California Native American myth explains that each of the three-ended bracts are a tail and two tiny legs of the mice who hid inside the scales of the tree's cones during forest fires, and the tree was kind enough to be the enduring sanctuary for them.

Size probably was the attraction of this tree. Coast Douglas-fir has attained heights of 393 ft (120 m). That was the estimated height of the tallest conifer ever well-documented, the Mineral Tree (Mineral, Washington), measured in 1924 by Dr. Richard E. McArdle, former chief of the U.S. Forest Service. The volume of that tree was 515 cubic metres (18,190 cu ft). The tallest living individual is the Brummitt (Doerner) Fir in Coos County, Oregon, 99.4 metres (326 ft) tall. Only Coast Redwood [which includes Sequoiadendron (Giant Sequoia) and Metasequoia (Dawn Redwood)] reach greater heights based on current knowledge of living trees. At Quinault, Washington, is found a collection of the largest Douglas Firs in one area. Quinault Rain Forest hosts the most of the top ten known largest Douglas Firs.

4) Fraxinus ornus is the Manna Ash. A sugary extract from the sap is extracted by making a cut in the bark; this was compared in late medieval times (c.1400) with the Biblical manna, giving rise to the English name of the tree. It is also called the South European Flowering Ash.

5) Sequoiadendron giganteum (giant sequoia, Sierra redwood, or Wellingtonia) is the sole species in the genus Sequoiadendron, and one of three species of coniferous trees known as redwoods, classified in the family Cupressaceae in the subfamily Sequoioideae, together with Sequoia sempervirens (Coast Redwood) and Metasequoia glyptostroboides (Dawn Redwood). The common use of the name "sequoia" generally refers to Sequoiadendron. Giant Sequoias are the world's largest trees in terms of total volume.

One of the world's most famous secret societies (Bohemian Club) gave its name to the annual meetings in the Bohemian Grove, in Monte Rio, California, an encampment area consists of 160 acres (0.65 km2) of old-growth redwood trees over 1,000 years old, with some trees exceeding 300 feet (91 m) in height.

The Grove's well-known symbol is the Owl Shrine. The Club's patron saint is John of Nepomuk, who legend says suffered death at the hands of a Bohemian monarch rather than disclose the confessional secrets of the queen. A large wood carving of St. John in cleric robes with his index finger over his lips stands at the shore of the lake in the Grove, symbolizing the secrecy kept by the Grove's attendees throughout its long history.

Thus, the St. Johns Day timing is intriguing.


"Every year, in various freshwater rivers and lakes around the globe, people report seeing alligators and crocodiles that are probably out-of-place, discarded pets. When these reports involve escaped animals, capture is routine. When it doesn't, something else seems to be involved." ~ The Field Guide to Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents, and Other Mystery Denizens of the Deep (NY: Tarcher/Penguin, 2003, page 163.)

Coach Killed on St. John's Day

High school football coach Ed Thomas, 58, was killed Wednesday, June 24, 2009, in the weight room of his high school in Parkersburg, Iowa. Mark D. Becker, 24, a former Thomas football player, is charged with first-degree murder. He is being held at the Butler County Jail in Allison.

----
Update
Authorities say Mark Becker was released Tuesday from a hospital where he had been brought for psychiatric evaluation after threatening a man with a baseball bat Saturday night and leading police on a high-speed car chase.

Police say they were supposed to be notified when Becker was fit for release, but that they weren't.

Covenant Medical Center in Waterloo said in a statement Thursday that its staff was not asked to notify authorities before releasing Becker. - SI/CNN reporting on Thursday, June 25th
====


Coach Thomas stands in the midst of the 2008 rumble caused by a tornado. ESPN.

Thomas was shot multiple times at point blank range, including once in the head, according to the school's business manager Pat Gosch. No one else was injured in the incident, the Cedar Rapids Gazette reported.

Sports secretary Sue Muller said Thomas was supervising the early-morning weightlifting in Parkersburg when the shooting happened around 7:45 a.m. About 30 students were present at the time. The school has about 230 students.

The Des Moines Register said the Aplington-Parkersburg High School coach died at Covenant Medical Center in Waterloo after being shot at about 8:30 a.m. in the weight room next to the school.

Aplington-Parkersburg school superintendent Jon Thompson told the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation would be investigating the shooting, which occurred in front of students.

Named the NFL High School Coach of the Year in 2003, Thomas led his school to nearly 300 victories, and 19 state playoff appearances in his 37-year coaching career. Thomas had coached a few NFL players, including Landon Schrage, Aaron Kampman, Brad Meester, Jared DeVries and Casey Weigmann.

Thomas coached football for 37 years, with a career record of 292-84. He led the Falcons to 19 state playoff appearances and two state titles, in 1993 and 2001.

Coincidentially, exactly one year ago, on June 24, 2008, ESPN published a story on the recovery the town had made from a recent tornado, in large part because of the leadership efforts of Coach Thomas.

It was a just about four weeks ago, on the evening of May 25, when an EF5 tornado, three-quarters of a mile wide, with winds in excess of 200 mph, ripped through this community of 1,900, destroying or damaging nearly half the town. The tornado, which stayed in Parkersburg for 34 seconds before traveling another 43 miles, killed six people and leveled 21 businesses, the city hall and the heart of the community: Aplington-Parkersburg High School.

***

This is the building -- in the middle of nowhere -- that produced four active NFL players, the fifth-most of any high school in the country.

[Jared] DeVries, Aaron Kampman of the Packers, Casey Wiegmann of the Broncos and Brad Meester of the Jaguars had always given the credit to Ed Thomas, Aplington-Parkersburg's longtime coach. Thomas taught every boy in this town how to play football, but also how to be a man. Now his life lessons were being put to the test, especially when he asked six of his players to dig the graves for those killed by the storm,

wrote Wayne Drehs, ESPN, "Iowa town turns to football to recover from tornado," June 24, 2008.

June 24th is St. John’s Day.

Some previous events on this day include:

Knights Templars display “Mysterious Head” at Poitiers (1308). Founding of the Order of the Garter (1348). John Cabot discovers North America (1497). Galileo released (1633). “Woman of the Wilderness” utopian community arrives in America (1694). “W of W” angelic visions (1701). Grand Lodge of Freemasons inaugurated (1717). Ambrose Bierce born (1842). Red rain, Italy (1877). Ice fall, Ft. Lyon, Colorado (1877). Fall of jelly-like mass, Eton (1911). Fred Hoyle born (1915). Mick Fleetwood (1942) and Jeff Beck (1944) born.

First day of flying saucer history, Mt. Rainier & Mt. Adams, Washington State - Kenneth Arnold sighting (1947). Filmstock fire kills seventeen people, Brussels (1947). Movie theaters evaluated during huge fire, Perth Amboy, NJ (1947). United Airlines plane struck by lightning over Cleveland. Ohio (1947). Invasion of grasshoppers battled with flame-throwers, Guatemala/El Salvador (1947). Woman attacked and killed by bees or wasps, Seattle (1947). Bizarre aerial sightings near Daggett, California (1950) and on Iwo Jima (1953). The Angora Fire (2007) starts near South Lake Tahoe, California, destroying over 200 structures in its first 48 hours.

The deaths of various aerial and related phenomena researchers, writers, and fans (Frank Scully, June 24, 1964; Frank Edwards, near the coming midnight of the 24th, still on June 23, 1967; Arthur Bryant, June 24, 1967; Richard Church June 24, 1967; Willy Ley, June 24, 1969; Jackie Gleason, June 24, 1987). June 24, 2006 saw the death of renegade publisher Lyle Stuart who published anomalist writer Frank Edwards’ Fortean book, in 1959, Stranger than Science, a paperbook full of information on cryptozoology as well as ufology.

Mystery deaths are often associated with St. John's Day.

Respect the wonder of the 24th of June.

Lizard Man Witness Killed

On Monday, June 22, 2009, Chris Davis will be laid to rest. Few involved can forget the shy young man who would find himself in the limelight after he came forth to say, yes, he'd seen a bipedal reptilian creature near Bishopville, South Carolina.

Click on image for full-size version

Last Wednesday, June 17th, Davis, 37, was shot to death. Investigators say the killing was likely a home invasion. Deputies identified the gunmen as 19-year-old Lakiem Butler and 22-year-old Anogory Slater.

The local paper, The Item, noted that...

Christopher Davis was killed shortly before 11 p.m. in an incident at his home at 5230 DuBose Siding Road. Investigators say Davis was targeted in a drug-related incident.

In another story, the cause was clarified:

His killing...was drug-related. A narcotics officer recovered 10 grams of marijuana and two scales from the kitchen of his home, the sheriff said.

Because the investigation is still pending, he was unable to provide more information, except that a shotgun was used as the murder weapon and that Slater and Butler both had criminal records.

According to the police report, five other people were present at the time of the shooting. They were Davis’ girlfriend, his brother, the brother’s friend, Davis’ 12-year-old daughter and his 14-year-old son, who witnessed the shooting. None was injured.

Christopher Davis, a Lee County native, recently moved to Sumter County, Lee County officials said. Davis became an international celebrity at the age of 16 when he reported the first sighting of the legendary Lizard Man of Lee County.

Former Lee County Sheriff Liston Truesdale told the media that "there would be no Lizard Man without Davis."

"In July 1988, Chris was the first witness interviewed as seeing the Lizard Man," Truesdale said. "And what impressed me was that he told the same story every time. And he had to tell the story over and over again to the media and others. If you're lying, you can't tell the same story twice."

Everybody wanted to hear the Lizard Man story from the eyewitness, Truesdale said.

Davis served as a grand marshal at a festival parade and signed T-shirts at a mall in Myrtle Beach, he said.

"At that time, he was super, nice kid," he said. "You know, I bet he told the story more than 100 times every week for several weeks."

Truesdale said he believes the media attention and publicity became too much for him.

"He could have made a mint from this," Truesdale said. "A lot of people don't know that he was scheduled to go to the Oprah (Winfrey) Show, but he canceled it. I think finally he just had enough."

Funeral services for Christopher Davis will be held at 1:00 p.m. Monday, June 22, 2009, at the New Haven United Methodist Church in Bishopville, South Carolina.

Click on image for full-size version

Click on image for full-size version

Click on image for full-size version

See Cryptomundo for more about Lizard People.

Masonic Mormon Martyrs?

There is something strange going on with a seemingly isolated story quietly occurring in Utah-Colorado. It has come to involve suicides, Indian artifacts, and perhaps, most covertly and confusingly, Mormons.



On June 10, 2009, two dozen people* were indicted after a sweeping investigation into ancient artifacts allegedly stolen from public and tribal lands. The indicted are accused of stealing, receiving, or trying to sell American Indian bowls, stone pipes, sandals, arrowheads, jars, pendants, and necklaces.

More than 100 agents were involved in the arrests of 23 people. Another person was issued a summons. All were part of a tight-knit network of people involved in illegally excavating, dealing, and collecting stolen artifacts, said Timothy Fuhrman, of the FBI office in Salt Lake City.

Bureau of Land Management and FBI agents used a confidential source who in 2007 and 2008 paid more than $335,000 for 256 stolen artifacts, according to court documents.

The local reaction was swift and vocal. People were upset with the federal government, and the anger soon also turned to sorrow.

The day after the indictments, James Redd - a 60-year-old physician and defendant in the case - was found dead on his Blanding property. He had killed himself, while sitting in his vehicle by a pond on his property. He died of carbon-monoxide poisoning. And then another suicide occurred, by gunshot. What does all this have to do with Mormons?

First, a bit more on Redd.

The Salt Lake Tribune reported on how the body was found:

San Juan County Chief Deputy Grayson Redd said James Redd left a note at his home about 6:30 a.m. Thursday [June 11, 2009] saying he was going to the pond. When he did not return by 10 a.m., the family called their LDS bishop. After a brief search, the bishop called the sheriff's office, which joined in the search.
The Jeep was obstructed from the searchers' view, but a passing neighbor was able to see it and told the bishop, said Grayson Redd, who is a distant relative of the doctor.
The bishop found the Jeep and James Redd about 4 p.m.

"He was one of the best guys I knew," said Paul Reay, a physician who worked with Redd at the Blanding Clinic. "He was a very competent physician, he was kind and always doing things for people. "I feel it's a waste of human life over pottery," Reay said. "The priorities of our federal government are badly misplaced."

On June 10, 2009, Redd was charged with one felony count of theft of Indian tribal property as a co-defendant with his wife, Jeanne Redd, 59, who faces two counts. Court papers say that in September 2007, Jeanne Redd possessed with intent to sell ancient relics, including a black and white ceramic mug, a hafted ax, a gourd necklace and an effigy bird pendant. Each of the artifacts was valued at more than $1,000. She also was accused of swapping two stone pendants for two other stone pendants valued at more than $500. In October 2008, she allegedly sold four sandals valued at more than $1,000.

The Salt Lake Tribute noted, in part:

A 78-year-old member of the Utah Tourism Hall of Fame, Harold J. Lyman, of Blanding, entered a plea of not guilty Thursday to trafficking in stolen artifacts.
Lyman's arrest was particularly galling to many in Blanding.
"Harold Lyman is the nicest guy you'll every meet," said Steve Knight, who lives in neighboring Dove Creek, Colo., but does business in Blanding, a town of about 3,200. "He hasn't broken a law in his life."
And many townspeople spoke bitterly about the federal government, which oversees enormous tracts of federal land throughout Utah.
"Everybody in Blanding is outraged," said Joy Holliday, 69. "Why aren't they out stopping things that hurt people?" Holliday's home was raided in 1987 by federal agents who "took two pottery bowls and a pair of sandals," she said. "They never took us to court, but we couldn't get our things back."
Her nephew, the late Earl Shumway, was convicted at that time of trafficking in antiquities and served six years in federal prison.
In the Four Corners area, pre-Columbian ruins, potsherds, arrowheads and other relics dot the landscape by the thousands.
"You can't walk two miles in any direction without running into an Anasazi site," Holliday said. "In San Juan County, [collecting relics] is a hobby for many people."
...the people of Blanding were mourning James Redd. Reay, his colleague, said Redd was "heroic" in responding when a tour bus overturned on a sharp curve near Mexican Hat to the south last year. Nine of the 53 people aboard were killed and the rest were injured.
"It's going to be a real loss to the community down here," he said. "He's pulled a lot of people through. A lot of the time, he was the only one around who could do a surgery or deliver a baby."

Then on June 19th, it happened again. A second defendant in the federal crackdown on archaeological looting in southern Utah killed himself.

Steven L. Shrader, 56, a resident of Santa Fe, New Mexico, who faced two felonies in the antiquities case, shot himself twice in the chest late Thursday, June 18, or early Friday, June 19, behind an elementary school in the village of Shabbona, Illinois, authorities said. Winnebago County, Illinois, Coroner Sue Fiduccia said Shrader was in Illinois to visit his mother.

The Salt Lake Tribune commented:

Shrader was indicted for allegedly trafficking in stolen artifacts -- specifically ancient sandals and a basket -- along with Carl "Vern" Crites, 74, Marie Crites, 68, and Richard Bourret, 59, all of Durango, Colo.
An affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Denver implicates Shrader in a 2008 "arrowhead hunt" in Disappointment Valley near Dove Creek, Colo. The affidavit says an undercover operative, identified only as the "Source," was in the Crites residence in March 2008, when Vern Crites displayed arrowheads he said came from Disappointment Valley, a huge area ringed by prehistoric ruins.
During a subsequent conversation with the Source, Shrader said he had gone to the valley with Crites. It was unclear from court papers whether he was on public land.
Reached at his home in Durango, Vern Crites questioned the accusations against Shrader.
"I don't know why he was charged even," Crites said. "I don't think he did anything wrong."
Crites lamented the loss. "That's a shock to me, because he was a friend," he said. "He was a good young man, a single man, a hard-working man, very personable."
Crites declined to further discuss his relationship with Shrader.

For those not looking behind the headlines of this story, part of the linkages here to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints or Mormons might not be obvious. Clearly, both men who have died by suicide to date and perhaps most of those indicted, are Mormons. Is there some connection between certain members of the Mormon church and Indian artifacts?

Shabbona, Illinois, is an interesting town to which to return to die. Are there new Mormon martyrs that are being created?

This area of Illinois is historically significant in Mormon history. The town of Shabbona (which is very tied to Native history) was a focus of early Mormon thought, where Joseph Smith first conceptualized polygamy (Shabbona, October 1859) and where his followers formulated restructuring of the Church. Shabbona's Postmaster and Justice of the Peace, the Freemason William Marks (November 15, 1792 – May 22, 1872) was a leader in the early days of the Latter Day Saint movement. It was to Marks in Shabbona that Smith's son wrote (1850), saying he would someday be the "head of the Mormon church." Marks was a member of the First Presidency in the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (1860).

In a parallel to the digging up of ancient items, Smith was a "seer," using seer stones in attempts beginning in the 1820s to locate lost items and buried treasure. It will be recalled that Joseph Smith founded the Mormon church after an angel directed him to a long-buried book, inscribed on golden plates, which contained a record of God's dealings with ancient Israelite inhabitants of the Americas. He also found other artifacts (including a breastplate and what Smith referred to as the Urim and Thummim), which were buried in a hill near his home.


Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial is a granite obelisk on a hill in the White River Valley near Sharon and South Royalton, Vermont. There is a LDS Church meetinghouse on the same property as the memorial.

The death of Joseph Smith, Jr. (b. December 23, 1805) on June 27, 1844 marked a turning point for the Latter Day Saint movement, of which Smith was the founder and leader. When he was attacked and killed by a mob, Smith was serving as the mayor of Nauvoo, Illinois, and running for President of the United States. He was killed while jailed in Carthage, Illinois, on charges relating to his ordering the destruction of facilities producing the Nauvoo Expositor, a newspaper whose first and only edition claimed Smith was practicing plural marriage and that he intended to set himself up as a theocratic king. While Smith was in jail awaiting trial, an armed mob of men with blackened or painted faces (shades of the "Indians" and the "Boston Tea Party") stormed the jail and shot him and his brother Hyrum to death. Latter Day Saints view Joseph and Hyrum as martyrs.



Strange artifacts are part of the history of the Mormon church. For instance, James J. Strang produced a counterfeit letter from Smith commissioning him to lead the church, as well as revelations with a seerstone and discovered another set of supernatural writings, the Voree Plates. Strang attracted two thousand followers, but Strang himself was assassinated in 1856, after he began to practice polygamy.



Is there more to this story of Indian artifacts, arrests, indictments, and suicides in Utah and Illinois than meets the eye? Is there more to be told on the level about all of this? What is occurring from the West to the East here, folks?



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*Here is the list of everyone arrested and indicted.

Richard Raymond Bourret, one felony count of violating ARPA, one felony count depredation of government property
Brent Bullock, 61, Moab, Utah, three felony counts of violating ARPA, two felony counts of theft of government property;
Carl Lavern Crites, 74, Durango, Colorado, two felony counts of violating ARPA, two felony counts of theft of government property, one felony count depredation of government property;
Marie Virginia Crites, 68, Durango, Colorado, two felony counts of theft of government property;
Tad Kreth, 30, Blanding, Utah, seven felony counts of violating ARPA, three felony counts of theft of government property, two felony counts of theft of Indian tribal property;
David A. Lacy, 55, Blanding, Utah, four felony counts of violating ARPA, three felony counts of theft of government property, two misdemeanor counts of violating NAGPRA;
Brandon Laws, 38, Blanding, Utah, one felony count of violating ARPA, one felony count of theft of Indian tribal property;
Nicholas K. Laws, 30, Blanding, Utah, two felony counts of violating ARPA, one felony count of theft of government property;
Reese Laws, 27, Blanding, Utah, three felony counts of violating ARPA, one felony count of theft of government property, one felony count of theft of Indian tribal property;
Dale J. Lyman, 73, Blanding, Utah, three felony counts of violating ARPA;
Harold J. Lyman, 78, Blanding, Utah, one felony count of violating ARPA, one felony count of theft of government
Raymond J. Lyman, 70, Blanding, Utah, one felony count of violating ARPA;
Aubry Patterson, 55, Blanding, Utah, four felony counts of violating ARPA, two felony counts of theft of government property;
Jeanne H. Redd, 59, Blanding, Utah, two felony counts of violating ARPA, two felony counts of theft of government property, three felony counts of theft of Indian tribal property;
James D. Redd, 60, Blanding, Utah, one felony count of theft of Indian tribal property;
Steven L. Shrader, Durango, Colorado, two felony counts of theft of government property;
Kevin W. Shumway, 55, Blanding, Utah, eight felony counts of violating ARPA, four felony counts of theft of government property, two misdemeanor counts of violating NAGPRA;
Tammy Shumway, 39, Blanding, Utah, three felony counts of violating ARPA, one felony count of theft of government property;
Sharon Evette Shumway, 41, Blanding, Utah, one felony count of violating ARPA, one felony count of theft of government property;
Joseph M. Smith, 31, Blanding, Utah, 17 felony counts of violating ARPA, eight felony counts of theft of government property, three felony counts of theft of Indian tribal property, one count of misdemeanor theft of Indian tribal property;
Meredith Smith, 34, Blanding, Utah, one felony count of violating ARPA, two felony counts of theft of government property, one count of misdemeanor theft of Indian tribal property;
Rulon Kody Sommerville, 47, Monticello, Utah, one felony count of violating ARPA, one misdemeanor count of violating ARPA, one felony count of theft of Indian tribal property;
Loran St. Claire, 47, Monticello, Utah, one felony count of violating ARPA, one misdemeanor count of violating ARPA, one felony count of theft of Indian tribal property; and
David Waite, charged with one count each of trafficking in stolen artifacts, transportation of stolen property and theft of government property.

ARPA incident sources: #1; #2; & #3.

Rosemary's Brother

You could say "Rosemary's" brother has killed himself in Castleton.

Rosemary's Baby (1968) starring Mia Farrow, as the pregnant woman who is having Satan's baby, aired on Cinemax on Friday June 19, 2009. The timing seemed, well, sadly appropriate.


Roman Polanski directs Mia Farrow.

Mia Farrow's brother Patrick Farrow, 66, was discovered dead in his Castleton, Vermont art gallery on Monday, June 15, 2009. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot to the head.



Mia and Patrick Farrow (above) are the children of Maureen O'Sullivan (who played Jane to Johnny Weissmuller's Tarzan, 1932) ~ shown below ~ and director John Farrow.



John Farrow (Patrick's dad) directed John Carradine (David's dad) in Five Came Back (1939). John Carradine and Maureen O'Sullivan starred together in two films, Cardinal Richelieu (1935) and Peggy Sue Got Married (1986).

Maureen O'Sullivan was born May 17, 1911, and died June 23, 1998 (aged 87).

John Carradine was born February 5, 1906, and died November 27, 1988 (aged 82), two years after he and O'Sullivan appeared together in Peggy Sue Got Married (1986).

John Carradine was involved with the Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO), in the long tradition of trying to reestablish the Knights Templar. For example, another version was reborn in Ordo Novi Templi (Order of the New Temple) around 1907, in the medieval castle of Burg Werfenstein, which perched dramatically above the Danube with a swastika and fleur-de-lis flag over its tower.

Castles abound in the back stories here.

Needless to say, Castleton's Patrick Farrow suicide comes in the wake of the David Carradine mysterious death, which some have seen as a suicide or, at least, parasuicidal. Then there is too, the so-called "Paradise Syndrome."

Reuters reporter Rachel Noeman explained the term in a 1996 news story: "They inherit celebrity names, appear to have it all and live apparently gilded lives, but what may at first seem like paradise can end in pain or even tragedy." Noeman was reporting on the suicide death of Amschel Rothschild, 41-year-old chairman of Rothschild Asset Management and great-great-great-grandson of Nathan Meyer Rothschild -- who established in 1804 the merchant bank in the City of London that still bears his name. He hanged himself in a Paris hotel room ten days after Margaux Hemingway, who also was 41, killed herself. Noeman was making the link between the two, in terms of the "Paradise Syndrome."

As I noted in detailing this syndrome in my book, The Copycat Effect, the reaction is rather predictable. Amschel Rothschild’s widow Anita Rothschild repeated what is often said in the wake of such deaths, that it was “totally unexpected,” and the family was "shocked and devastated."


David and John Carradine.

Intriguingly, John Farrow was a writer of titles for the 1929 film Four Feathers, which was a remake of the famed book of the same name, just as was 2002's Four Feathers. I previously mentioned Four Feathers here in connection with Heath Ledger (Dark Knight) and Lucy Gordon (who also recently died by suicide).

Patrick Farrow died by suicide in Castleton, Vermont. One of the major characters in Four Feathers, one of the soldiers to leave a feather symbolizing cowardice was named Lt. Castleton.

The name Castle keeps appearing in all of this.

Lucy Gordon
Batman - Commisioner Gordon in The Dark Knight;
Gordon Lui - actor with two roles in Kill Bill ;
Ruth Gordon - actress in Rosemary's Baby.

The name "Gordon" means "large fort" and "hill." A "large fort" is, well, a "castle."

"Castle" and "Hill" play a role in Rosemary's Baby.

William Castle produced it. William Castle himself is really William Schloss, and it does turn out that "Schloss" is German for "Castle."

Cassavettes is in the film. The character names of the couple who help impregnate Mia Farrow is Castavet. A character is named Dr Hill.

Associated with John Cassavettes is Castle Hill Productions which was formed by his widow Gina Rowland and Julian Schlossberg.

Schlossberg = Castle Hill.

Farrow's suicide took place in Castleton, Vermont.

Rosemary's Baby was released June 12, 1968, in the wake of the RFK assassination highlighted here recently.



Rosemary's Baby was filmed at the Dakota Building (above), the site of John Lennon's assassination.

Roman Polanski was the screenwriter and director of Rosemary's Baby and it was Polanski's pregnant wife, Sharon Tate, who was murdered by Charles Manson and his Family.


Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate.

The killings were allegedly based on Manson's notion of "Helter Skelter," (an event), created in terms of Manson's scenario based on John Lennon's Helter Skelter (the song).

All of these things are obviously just coincidences.


John Cassavettes and Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby.

P.S. On May 25, 2008, a 37-year-old nephew of Patrick Farrow's died mysteriously.

Sgt. Jason F. Dene, married with children, died in Iraq and his uncle Patrick blamed the "war criminal" George W. Bush for the loss. Patrick V. Farrow took his anger to the Letters section of the Rutland (Vt.) Herald.

Patrick Farrow, of Castleton, Vermont, wrote:

To date all the family has heard from the Army is that Jason variously died 'in his sleep' and 'in his bunk' and 'in his quarters' and my favorite 'sleep apnea complicated by smoking cigarettes,' in other words, natural causes.

Because of the arrogant, corrupt lies of George W. Bush and his neo-con handlers my nephew is dead, and I am mad as hell...Jason Dene was not killed by enemy fire nor friendly fire but by Bush's brutal and cynical stop-loss program.

Because of Bush's abusive stop-loss policy, Jason had been sent into an unwanted third tour of duty. He was a father of three and could not afford to lose his pension. Some "volunteer Army."

During his three 15-month tours in Iraq, exposure to roadside bombs and other job-related injuries caused Jason to be hospitalized several times for concussion and internal bleeding and other injuries. Recently, Jason's condition was such that the Department of Defense flew him from Iraq to Dover Air Force Base for surgery. He was released from the hospital into the loving arms of the government who sent him directly back into Iraq. He was put on active duty while he was still on a liquid diet, unable to eat solid food because of a throat hemorrhage due to a botched surgery at a military hospital.

After his second tour Jason returned home with severe mental and physical issues. He was certainly in no condition to be pressed into a third tour. He wanted out of the army. But Jason was a victim of the liar's back-door draft...

Because of George Bush, the arrogant, the corrupt, the liar, the war criminal, my nephew is dead and my sister and the rest of my family are devastated.

Mia Farrow wrote:

I don't know what Jason died for....This war is as incomprehensible as it is unacceptable. In a cloud of confusion, politicians, generals and ordinary people have come to see that it is a disaster. Exit plans are being discussed while Iraqi citizens and young Americans like our Jason are being killed.

My sister is a nurse. For long years has lived in fear of the day when the two uniformed men came to her door to deliver the most terrible news a mother could hear. I hope I never see George W Bush.

I could not shake his hand. He and his cabal have killed my beautiful nephew. . May God, if there is one, forgive them. I cannot....How many more must die before this atrocity is ended?

Why The Name Change?

A week ago, on the Full Strawberry Moon of June 7th, 2009, as you may have noticed, I changed the name of this blog.

Perhaps that does not seem like a major move to most, but monikers mean much to me.


Hidden meanings sometimes are right in front of us, in plain sight.

The Copycat Effect blog, begun on December 2, 2004, was directly based on my 2004 Paraview Pocket ~ Simon and Schuster book of that title and the concept after which it was named. The "copycat effect" is a popular rendering of the more academic "Werther Effect."

The scholarly phrase was itself based on the story told about a novel written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (August 28, 1749- March 22, 1832). Goethe’s novel Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (The Sorrows of Young Werther), published in 1774, told of how a hero shoots himself at his writing table, while wearing a yellow coat, after an ill-fated love. Shortly after its publication there were reports of young men using the same method to die by suicide, and even copying the scene of their deaths in the same clothes worn by young Werther in a similar setting. This resulted in the ban of Goethe's novel in several locations throughout Europe.

The term "Werther Effect" was coined by sociologist and behavior contagion researcher David Phillips in 1974, on the 200th anniversary of Goethe's work. Both my 2004 book and my earlier 1987 Faber and Faber book Suicide Clusters (which was dedicated to Phillips) explored the influence and impact of media and other factors on historical and contemporary suicidal, homicidal, and murder-suicide events.

For this blog, lately, I have grown to find "The Copycat Effect" too restrictive, and too tied to the name of my 2004 book. Indeed, I feel I need to return to a more broad-based exploration of areas of interest I have had for a long time. For example, my classic book, first published in 1983 and still in-print in a greatly updated/revised edition, Mysterious America, includes an often-quoted and well-known chapter, "The Name Game."

I have, therefore, changed the name of this blog at the blogspot.com site to "Twilight Language," to more fully embrace the body of my work.


The Tom Lee Memorial (above and below), erected in 1954, celebrates the heroic efforts of the African-American Lee, who saved thirty-two lives when the steamer U.S. Norman sank about twenty miles below Memphis on May 8, 1925. The obelisk is located 0.4 miles from the Lorraine Motel, where the Rev. Martin Luther King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, at 6:01 p.m.


Why this name?

Most of what happens around us is ignored psychologically. The rationalistic filters allow for only the mundane details of most interactions to awaken any response. In deciphering mystery deaths, assassinations, suicide clusters, school shootings, workplace violence, killings, and other acts propelled to our attention via the media, we must forensically look a little deeper.


Few people realize that the site of JFK's assassination is the same location as the first Masonic temple in Dallas and the birthplace of the city. It is marked by an obelisk and plaque, near this special place next to the Trinity River, the Triple Overpass, and the former Texas School Book Depository.

“Twilight language” concerns, to name a few of its parts, from psychology, the hidden significance of dates and other signs, from religious studies, the hidden symbolism that lies in stories and texts, and from criminology, the profiling insights that have revealed the ritualistic nature of certain crimes and violent incidents.


The Trinity Site Marker, an obelisk, sits exactly at 33° 40.638′ N, 106° 28.517′ W. The plaque says: "Trinity Site where the world's first nuclear device was exploded on July 16, 1945 Erected 1965 White Sands Missile Range J. Frederick Thorlin Major General U.S. Army Commanding." The time of the explosion was 5:29:45 a.m. Mountain War Time.

Nonfiction events in which the outcome may be a death are often only viewed in terms of the end result. They are more than this tragic statistic. They are a chain of events, a summary of incidents that contain the essence of many themes. These motifs are common to influential literature and ancestral traditions, which have imprinted people to such an extent, that these stories are passed down from generation to generation.

For all who wish to decipher the dates, locations, symbols, images, and twilight language surrounding, encompassing, and behind suicides, murder-suicides, and violent “random” acts to prevent or understand these incidents, the “text” may be as difficult to read as those created by the ancient Buddhists who hide meanings from outsiders. Their words in allegory, symbolism, and code were often misinterpreted and misused by unworthy or skeptical seekers. I would not expect anything less today.


De Naald (in English The Needle), is the obelisk monument in the Dutch city of Apeldoorn that became the final resting place for the April 30, 2009, assassin Karst Tates' automobile.

Events appear to have the ability to attract additional symbolism and synchronicity. They trigger a type of behavior contagion in time and space, which generates other catastrophic events of ritual significance, as indicated by the symbols and twilight language that are attached to them.

I will keep making the same types of observations, encompassing varied Fortean, sociological, occult, and synchromystical themes, which I've been writing about for several decades now. This blog, as an extension of my writings, in part, is also an exploration in onomatology (the study of names) and toponomy (the study of places), in the context of current and past events.


The Holocaust Remembrance Museum, the site of a recent violent encounter, is in the foreground, with the obelisk of the Washington Monument nearby.

Hopefully the new blog title will allow me to stretch my legs intellectually again, in a direction I find myself constantly exploring, and it will alert future readers to the sweeping horizons that I wish to discuss.

For the purposes of folks who have signed up via RSS feeds and bookmarked the former site, however, I am retaining the url and archives of the old blog: http://copycateffect.blogspot.com/

Regular visitors should not see too many changes, other than the masthead revision, and new readers are welcomed with the more harmonic name.

Thank you for following my thoughts and view of the news, and leaving your helpful and insightful comments. Your feedback on the name is appreciated.


Decoding the meaning of the Washington Monument has become a photographic parlor game on the web.

Remember, a sense of humor is often required along the way.

We are, needless to say, joined with each other on spaceship Earth in this journey together. We might as well see if we can make some sense of what's happening, in our own special and unique ways.

πππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππ

P.S. The mysteries I examine on the "Twilight Language" blog appear to be generated by mostly humans. Meanwhile, I shall continue to write about cryptozoology, biographies, and the many varied natural history mysteries I tend to track over at the popular Cryptomundo site and in my books in that realm.


Willow Creek, California, 1975.

Thank You.


This obelisk is not in Memphis, Egypt, but at the Memphis Zoo in Tennessee.
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The word "synchromysticism" was first coined by Jake Kotze in August 2006, on his website-at-the-time, Brave New World Order. Kotze defined the concept as: "The art of realizing meaningful coincidence in the seemingly mundane with mystical or esoteric significance."

"Synchro" = synchronicity.

The justification or the rationality for this type of activity usually involves a direct or indirect reference to the "collective unconscious mind," thus the "synchro-" in "synchromystic," refers to "synchronicity."

"Mystic" = from the Greek μυστικός, mystikos, an initiate of a mystery religion is the pursuit of communion with, identity with, or conscious awareness of an ultimate reality, divinity, spiritual truth, or God through direct experience, intuition, instinct or insight.

See also, the following post, "Synchromysticism's Godfather."