Mothman Math: Dates, Disasters, and Deaths

Mothman: Evil Incarnate

Review by Andrew W. Griffin, here.

Review by Nick Redfern, here. 

"Mothman Math" is the underlying bits of twilight language that entwine numbers, prophecy, and the evil events that haunt the fabric of Mothman-related interactions. It involves a type of arithmetic that links to augury, the prophecies that have been tied to sightings of Mothman. Whether factual or not, a psychological pattern has emerged, almost in a folkloric sense, related to a specific numeral that routinely appears in the Mothman story.

"Prophecies," of course, are important parts of the Mothman tale, and the motion picture version of The Mothman Prophecies extended the "banshee" elements of the story. The movie was fiction-based on a true story. Some of its enhancements created greater fictions.

Dates, disasters, and deaths do dwell along the edges of this story. But we can be openly skeptical of many portions of what we are being told. 

As I said to Micah Hanks in 2010:

John Keel and I openly discussed with the media, and did our best to straighten out the record regarding the mythos that became the Chernobyl “Mothman” accounts.
The Chernobyl story, the Galveston Hurricane-Mothman tie-in, and other examples given in the 2002 movie were pure fiction....Right after the movie was released, various websites posted the Chernobyl/Mothman sightings as factual. But there is not one thread of evidence that any winged weirdies were witnessed before the Chernobyl accident.
It is a bit of movie fiction that has, unfortunately, moved into pseudo-factoid cryptozoology.

What facts are behind the fiction?

Beyond the synchrocinematic mischief, nevertheless, most people know there is Mothman math that authentically revolves around the number "13."

In my 2002 book, Mothman and Other Curious Encounters, I looked at how 13 months after the "first" sighting of Mothman on November 15, 1966, the "prophecy" implied in the title The Mothman Prophecies occurred. This happened when the Silver Bridge collapsed as the White House Christmas tree lights were illuminated on December 15, 1967.

The number 13 is considered an unlucky number in some countries. The end of the Mayan calendar's 13th Baktun was superstitiously feared as a harbinger of the apocalyptic 2012 phenomenon. Fear of the number 13 has a specifically recognized phobia, Triskaidekaphobia, a word coined in 1911. The superstitious sufferers of triskaidekaphobia try to avoid bad luck by keeping away from anything numbered or labelled thirteen. As a result, companies and manufacturers use another way of numbering or labelling to avoid the number, with hotels and tall buildings being conspicuous examples (thirteenth floor). It's also considered unlucky to have thirteen guests at a table. Friday the 13th has been considered an unlucky day. Source.

In my new 2017 book, Mothman: Evil Incarnate, I document how the number 13 plays a deeper role in the Mothman timeline. The first sighting, the collapse of the Silver Bridge, and when Mary Hyre died all are linked to the number 13 in the Mothman melodrama.

Thirteen months after the "first" Mothman sighting (Nov 15, 1966), the Silver Bridge collapsed (Dec 15, 1967). The only problem is that the Scarberry-Mallette encounter of November 15, 1966, was the "first" sighting that showed up in the media. There were other sightings that occurred before that one. But the November date is retained as the "first" and thus exactly 13 months to the day, the bridge came down. As I mention in my book (due out by the 50th anniversary of the Silver Bridge collapse - December 15, 2017), "Mothman math" figures in other links.

For instance, I extend this through my Mary Hyre entry (#47 of #100, in my section on the "The Mothman Death List") that I reproduce here from the new book:

The complex use of "Mothman math" as a yardstick for measuring these events, involving the number 13, has now (via comments online) been applied to the new Chicago Mothman sightings.

How should we look at the dates involved?

In my research on the most recent series of Chicago "Mothman" sightings, the first media-acknowledged 2017 encounter, report, and story is dated to April 7, 2017. But by July 2017, it was becoming commonly accepted the real (unpublished) initial sighting was on March 22, 2017.

Therefore, by traditional "Mothman math," the predicted 13-month date for a Chicago-based disaster event would be tied from the publicized "first date" to the one exactly 13 months later: May 7, 2018.

However, I would not wish to tempt fate with a series of elevator tours of the Chicago skyscrapers on April 22, 2018. As students of terrorism understand, double-number dates like 11 & 22 have been especially attractive to terrorists in the modern era.

Should we look at older dates linked to "Mothman sightings," and apply "Mothman math" to them, to test the auguric arithmetic?

Lon Strickler tells me that the first date for the 2011 little-known series of Chicago Mothman encounters was June 29, 2011.

What happened on July 29, 2012, thirteen months after the Chicago incident?
Tropical Storm Khanun killed 88 people and left 60,000 homeless in North Korea.

(Between the 2011 date and the technical start of the newest Chicago Mothman series on April 7, 2017, I must note a tragedy touched primary investigator Lon Stickler. He lost his wife of 33 years, Vanessa, who passed away on November 7, 2015, of cancer. It was exactly 17 months between November 7, 2015, and April 7, 2017.)

Another case to examine is what the late Mark Chorvinsky (who died July 16, 2005), editor of Strange Magazine, called the "Potomac Mothman." 

On July 27, 1944, at 8:30 pm, Father J. M. Johnson, pastor of St. John's Church in Hollywood, Maryland, saw in the sky "the outspread form of a huge man with wings."

What date would have been 13 months after the "Potomac Mothman" sighting? That would have been August 27, 1945.

What happened on August 27, 1945?
The Texas hurricane made landfall near Seadrift, Texas. The storm resulted in three fatalities and $20 million in damage.
The first United States Navy carrier plane touches down on Japanese soil, at Honshu/Atsugi Airdrome. The American occupation begins.

Will a disaster happen on May 7, 2018? Or on April 22, 2018? In Chicago? Elsewhere? A tornado? Only time will tell? But certainly, those who use "Mothman math" may be on the lookout.

+13+13+13+13+13+13+13+13+13+13+13+13+13+

The Mothman Wiki has an entry that reinforces this Mothman Math:

Some consider the Mothman legend to be associated with the number 13:
The Original Point Pleasant WV Mothman reports started in November 1966 and ended in December 1967 with the collapse of The Silver Bridge. This makes it a 13 month period of strange events.
The Silver Bridge Collapsed because of the faulty 13th steel pin eyebar.
The name Point Pleasant has 13 letters in it.
The most polluted pond in The TNT Area , where many of the sightings took place, was pond 13.
The Men In Black were reported to have been harassing witnesses and telling them not to talk about The Mothman. The phrase "The Men In Black" has 13 letters in it.
The name Mothman Museum has 13 letters in it.
The maiden name of Mothman witness Linda Scarberry is Linda McDaniel which contains 13 letters.
Linda Scarberry claimed to have seen the Mothman on her roof when she lived on 13th street.
The name of Mothman witness Steve Mallette has 13 letters in it.
The name of Mothman witness Kenneth Duncan has 13 letters in it.
The name of Mothman witness Mabel McDaniel has 13 letters in it.
The name of Mothman witness Katluyn Beaver has 13 letters in it.
Everett Wedge was with four other pilots during his sighting, the name of one was Ernie Thompson which contains 13 letters.
Faye Dewitt-Leport is said to have had her encounter with the Mothman at the age of 13.
Owner of the Mothman Diner and prominent Point Pleasant local, Carolin Harris, also has 13 letters in her name.
The 2017 documentary The Mothman of Point Pleasant was directed by Seth Breedlove, who has 13 letters in his name.
Both the phrase "West Virginian" and "The Ohio Valley" have 13 letters in them.
Artist Frank Frazetta did cover art for The Mothman Prophecies, he also has 13 letters in his name.
In relation to the Indrid Cold story, the term "Parkersburg WV" and "Mr. Derenberger" have 13 letters in them.
John Keel, the main investigator of the Mothman suffered a non-lethal heart attack and was hospitalized on Friday, October 13th 2006.
13 people died in The Mississippi River Bridge Collapsed in 2007 after a sighting of the Mothman.
The number 26 is divisible by 13, It is 13 x 2, a set of two thirteens:
There are 26 sightings on John Keel's Mothman sightings list printed in his book, Strange Creatures From Time And Space.
Mary Hyre died on February 15th 1970 which is 26 months after the The Silver Bridge Collapse.
Three Mothman sightings are said to have taken place on November 26th 1966. The witnesses are: Ruth Foster in St. Albans WV, Marvin Shock and Ewing Tilton in Cat Creek Ohio, Women and Thirteen year old child in Charleston WV. Source.

Obtain the above two books - numbered special, signed copies - by Loren Coleman, here.

The table of contents of Mothman: Evil Incarnate.

Thunderbirds: America's Living Legends of Giant Birds 

by Mark A. Hall, Introduction by Loren Coleman

Link to this podcast, here.

What Is Coming From Space on June 3rd?

Does this individual know something we don't?

The media captured a recent moment with an oft-heard phrase, "a history of mental health issues."

Let's look behind the quick burying of a recent story as yet another "lone nut" distraction from day-to-day life.

Psychiatric disorders are no laughing matter, and are a burden to family and loved ones. But what if there are twilight messages being transmitted, not through magical thinking, but via prophetic moments?

The man above, in a weird costume, threatened a television station on Thursday, April 28, 2016.

This occurred north of Druid Park Drive and south of Rockrose Avenue, in the midst of several television stations.

The progressively bizarre scene unfolded when the young man walked into the lobby of Fox affiliate WBFF, known as Fox45, on Baltimore's TV Hill, just blocks away from CBS Baltimore and NBC affiliate WBAL-TV.

At 1:20 p.m. the suspect barricaded himself in the building. Police were unsure how far he made it into the building in the 2000 block of West 41st Street.

The man, wearing what Baltimore Police Department spokesman T.J. Smith said was a panda suit and what employees described as a hedgehog costume, gave a flash drive to a security guard and told him he wanted the station to broadcast its contents.

In the vestibule, the man in the onesie displayed that flash drive and said he wanted to air information comparable to the Panama Papers, FOX45 News Director Mike Tomko told reporters. The Panama Papers are leaked documents that alleged some world leaders used secret offshore companies and accounts to hide billions of dollars.

Smith said police don't know what was on the drive, but the security guard told CBS Baltimore, "It pretty much had to do with anything with astronomy -- black holes, the sun, about it being liquid and gas, and he just wanted to say that the government was wrong in thinking about the way they do when it comes to anything in space."

Shortly afterward, Alex Michael Brizzi, 25, of Elkridge, Maryland in Howard County. was shot and wounded by police in Thursday's incident. He was treated in a Baltimore hospital for injuries that are not life threatening, Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said at a news conference Friday.

Brizzi wore an animal onesie, surgical mask, and did carry what appeared to be explosives. A panda? A hedgehog? "This outfit appears to be associated with Japanese anime culture," Davis said.

A bomb squad robot was brought in. "The robot was able to disarm and disrobe Brizzi," Davis said.

Brizzi claimed he was carrying explosives. But the "bomb" turned out to be a life preserver outfitted with wires and chocolate candy bars wrapped in aluminum foil. He was not wearing a real bomb.

The suspect's father Edward Brizzi, who spoke to CNN affiliate WBFF Thursday, said his son had lost his job, had broken up with his girlfriend, and appeared to have a nervous breakdown.

"Just talked with the dad of the 25-year-old who made the threats against WBFF FOX 45 today. The dad says his son was convinced the world was ending on June 3rd. He says his son does not have a history of mental health issues, but two weeks ago had what he called a break. Video starts with him describing that moment two weeks ago when his son was found sleeping in a neighbor's yard," tweeted Shelley Orman, a reporter for FOX45 News in Baltimore, Maryland, on April 28, 2016.

The name Brizzi is of Italian origin, from a short form of the personal names Albrizzo (a diminutive of Alberico) or Fabrizio, or from an unattested Germanic personal name, Berizo, or from the ethnic name from Latin Brittius “Breton” (of the Imperial Roman Army).

A special recent tattoo added by Brizzi, meaning as yet unknown. But probably a "fallen angel."

Police are ruling out terrorism, and say mental illness may have played a role. 

“How long shall they kill our prophets while we stand aside and look?” – Bob Marley

Mental health is a complex subject. With a background in psychiatric social work, having studied under Sophie Freud (born 1924, Sigmund Freud's granddaughter) at Simmons School of Social Work, I take this subject seriously. But what if yesterday's prophets are some of today's mental health patients?

We’re weeding out our geniuses. We’re killing off our prophets. We’re drugging our messiahs.
Were she alive today, Sylvia Plath would be on anti-depressants. Salvador Dali would be on anti-psychotics. Beethoven would be on Lithium. Newton would likely be committed as well as heavily drugged for his multiple, pervasive mental illness symptoms.
Don’t even get me started on Jesus Christ. ~ Vironika Tugalenva, Rethinking Mental Illness: Are We Drugging Our Prophets and Healers?

Why would Alex Bruzzi target "something" dealing with space as "happening on June 3rd?" or even that he was "convinced the world was ending on June 3rd"?

Let's look at what others are saying about June 3rd? What has happened on June 3rd? And why "space" and June 3rd?

On June 3, 1769, the British navigator, Captain James Cook, British astronomer Charles Green and Swedish naturalist Daniel Solander observed and recorded a transit of Venus across the sun on the island of Tahiti during Cook's first voyage around the world.

On June 3, 1948, the 200" (5.08 m) Hale telescope was dedicated at Palomar Observatory.

On June 3, 1965, astronaut Edward White became the first American to "walk" in space, during the flight of Gemini 4.

On June 3, 1966, Gemini 9 launched; it was the 7th U.S. 2-man flight, with American astronauts Stafford and Cernan.

On June 3, 1969, saw the last episode of Star Trek airing on NBC ("Turnabout Intruder").

On June 3, 1980, the crew of Soyuz 36 returned to Earth aboard Soyuz 35.

On June 3, 2002, NASA launched the $159 million Contour space probe to study the composition of comets. Scientists lost contact on August 15, 2002.

On June 3, 2010, in Russia, a male crew of three Russians, a Frenchman, an Italian-Colombian and a Chinese began a 520-day experiment in a windowless capsule, to simulate a 250-day journey to Mars, a 30-day surface exploration phase and 240 days return trip.

Intriguingly, in limited release on June 3, 2016, is a new film entitled Approaching the Unknown. Captain William D. Stanaforth (Mark Strong) is on a one-way solo mission, taking humanity’s first steps toward colonizing Mars. Although the entire world is watching him, he is completely alone in a dark and distant sea of stars. Stanaforth rockets bravely through space facing insurmountable odds, but as the journey takes a toll on his life-sustaining systems, he is forced to make impossible choices that threaten his sanity, mission and very existence.

Also, there is the claim, found online, that the Mayan Calendar is "off by 3.5 years" and the date to watch is June 3, 2016! (See here.)

Remember the predictions for the end of the world in 2012? Wrong year, wrong month, wrong day?

Under these new calculations, December 21, 2012 (Gregorian) is actually June 3, 2016 (Mayan Haab calendar). December 21, 2012 plus 1260 days = June 3, 2016.

Watch the skies on June 3, 2016.

If A Mayan Knocks...

"Just to be safe, don't let any strangers wearing feathered headdresses into your home for the next 24 hours," tweeted, on Thursday morning, by a Mexican friend going by the handle Red Pill Junkie (RPJ).

Okay. That's worth a nervous bit of laughter. 

So I searched for an appropriate image to go with RPJ's comment. Though not colorful, this first one I found (below) struck me. But I had not visualized a dwarf when I read RPJ's line. So why a little person, I asked myself?

Mayan Dwarf, AD 550-850 (Late Classic), Walter Arts Museum:

Dwarfs were important members of royal Maya courts. They are portrayed serving food, playing musical instruments, holding sacred objects for the ruler, and as diviners and scribes. Their elevated social roles were steeped in cosmology and religious mythology, especially that of the maize god, who was assisted by a dwarf when the deity set the Three Stones of the cosmic hearth at the beginning of Creation. The Classic Maya viewed dwarfs as the living embodiment of the maize god's supernatural helpers, who continued their sacred duty in the regal court. Maya peoples today believe that earlier creations were populated by a race of dwarfs who now reside inside the earth, living below the ruins of the ancient cities. The ornate turban worn by this dwarf is typical of the courtly garb of key individuals serving the ruler. This so-called spangled turban headdress is especially connected to gods and humans associated with Creation and scribal duties. A curious feature of this dwarf is what may be a halved cacao pod held in his right hand. His cheeks are covered with what appears to be a thin, woven fabric; this recalls other figurines, many of which are dwarfs, with an unidentifiable material plastered to the lower half of their face. These features suggest the depiction of a formal rite. The graceful rendering of this figure and the exceptional attention to detail reveal the work of a master artist.

I pasted in the above paragraph, because this public domain image definitely needed explanation. Then I went back to Twitter to double-check RPJ's exact "headdress" wording, to make certain I had typed it correctly.

I don't know why I should be surprised, but here's what RPJ also posted soon after his first one, but I had not seen it: "In case a weird dwarf knocks on the door, have a pen in hand...."

That's sync-linking working on parallel planes, I'd say. (For more on the twilight language of suicidal dwarfs, see here.) At the top is a Yaxchilan ballplayer shown with two dwarfs.

During my undergraduate college years, I actually worked with Robert L. Rands, Ph. D., one of the first modern era archaeologist to work at Palenque. Hundreds of sherds later, I had great respect for what he would find there, even though it was not as exciting as what Mayan conspiracy theorists see in his results.

What do I really think about the supposed Mayan calendar business, with all the melodrama about the end of the world coming tomorrow? This morning, my interview on the topic, with Dangerous Minds' columnist Thomas McGrath, appeared in "The Eve of Destruction? DM Talks 'End Times' with Loren Coleman, America's Unlikely Cassandra."

And finally, if you missed it, check out Boing Boing friend David Pescovitz's December 20th contribution, "The Future, As Imagined by Hollywood."

If you are going to go Mayan, you might as well do it in style, a la' The Blade Runner.

Okay. Everyone seems to be tired of the Mayans. Time to move on the Olmec?

A Vera Cruz Olmec figurine holding a skull and wearing an eagle headdress associated with the Olmec death cult and human sacrifice rituals. 

And, won't you know it, here is an Olmec dwarf.

Source.