Astonishing Legends

In the second part of our series on Charles Hoy Fort, we first return to the formative events of his adolescence that shaped his personality, career, and personal philosophies. Fort chronicled anecdotes from his youth in an unpublished manuscript titled Many Parts, written while in his 20s and of which only fragments remain. What can be gleaned from tales of his boisterous boyhood adventures, punctuated by harsh punishments from a strict father, is that it all instilled in Fort defiance of rules, dogma, and the expectations of hallowed establishments. He struggled to make sense of a childhood world that seemed rife with capricious events and outcomes, much as he later struggled to make sense of an adult world peppered with anomalous occurrences and their close-minded dismissal. We then examine Fort's journey from middle age to the end and his mindset towards and relationship with strange evidence. Just as he had been since he was a kid, Fort remained a collector. First of birds and rocks, then later stories of things that shouldn't happen yet still seemed to. And just as he had lost interest in labeling his natural finds in his teens, Fort perhaps lost interest in defining the enigmas he gathered and instead focused not on the labels and definitions but on the meaning and mechanics behind them. As much as Fort proved to be a "fly in the ointment" to hubristic scientists, critics, and clergy alike, his point was that the events themselves remained even more problematic, or as he wrote, "They will march." We must accept that the weirdness of our reality defies absolute conclusions. As we've also found with our research, any judgments on the impossible essentially boil down to belief. Or, as Fort summed up, "Here are the data. Make what you will, yourself, of them. . . . We have expressions: we don't call them explanations. We've discarded explanations with beliefs." If there is any conclusion we perhaps share with Charles Fort, it is this: if the paranormal and the supernatural genuinely exist, it certainly doesn't care what anyone believes.
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On the evening of April 15, 1973, Enfield, Illinois, resident Henry McDaniel heard a scratching noise outside his door he thought might be a bear. He opened it to find a hideous creature he described as having "... three legs on it, a short body, two little, short arms coming out of its breast area, and two pink eyes as big as flashlights. It stood four and a half feet tall and was grayish colored. It was trying to get into the house." McDaniel grabbed his pistol and a flashlight and fired four shots at the beast, which was only 12 feet away, sure that he had hit it with the first shot. The bullets had no effect on the beast, as it made a hissing sound at McDaniel "much like a wildcat's" before bounding 50 to 75 feet towards a brush-lined railroad embankment in just three leaps. A neighbor of McDaniel's, ten-year-old Greg Garrett, claimed that 30 minutes before this encounter, the same creature had accosted him in his backyard, stepping on his sneakers and ripping them to shreds before the boy ran inside terrified. However, as a team of sociologists from Western Illinois University interviewed witnesses and townsfolk, Greg and his parents would later tell them they had concocted the story to tease their eccentric neighbor McDaniel and put one over on an out-of-town newsman. McDaniel would spot the same or similar creature again on May 6, around 3:00 a.m., casually ambling down the railroad track. After McDaniel reported his second sighting to WWKI radio, the media, thrill-seekers, and the sociologists mentioned above all came to Enfield to investigate, including the radio station's News Director, Rick Rainbow. Rainbow and three associates had their own run-in with a monster near McDaniel's place. Also joining the investigation was noted cryptozoologist Loren Coleman, along with famed WGN radio host Richard Crowe. Both experienced men would hear what Coleman described as "the most ungodly, piercing shriek you can imagine." Whatever this being or beings were, it became known as "The Enfield Horror" or "The Enfield Monster." It would be easy enough to pass off this tale as the fanciful yarn of a crackpot and some eager cryptid hunters who were the only ones in town to claim a brush with the beast, but were these Enfield monster sightings an isolated event? According to Coleman, in his later book, Bigfoot!: The True Story of Apes in America, there was a flap of different monster sightings in the Midwest before, during, and years after Enfield, yielding colorful names like "Momo" and "The Big Muddy Monster." Considering all these accounts that don't sound like the suggested kangaroos, bears, dogs, calves, deer, or escaped apes, could McDaniel have been right when he said, "If they do find it, they will find more than one, and they won't be from this planet, I can tell you that."
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In part two of our conversation with Remote Viewing instructor Lori Lambert Williams, we'll discuss what is known about how the process works and what is still unknown. Including how the practice can get your non-local consciousness to work with your subconscious and how it can improve your daily life. We'll also explore the mechanics and procedure of a Controlled Remote Viewing session. Lori relays anecdotes and answers to frequently asked questions, such as about her successes and the types of challenges that a professional remote viewer must overcome when viewing operational targets. Ultimately, if you believe that Remote Viewing doesn't work and that somehow the Stanford Research Institute was able to fool its CIA and DIA overseers in 23 years of repeatable demonstrations of its effectiveness, it doesn't matter to anyone who's tried it. Perhaps an apropos response would be that of Sir William Crookes when asked to explain the psychic abilities of D. D. Home, responding, "I didn't say it was possible, I said it happened!" Maybe a more relevant and profound observation comes from physicist Russell Targ near the end of his banned TED Talk about Psi and Remote Viewing, saying that you can use it to find your car keys, find a parking space, or make money in the Stock Market. But in his opinion, the most important thing Remote Viewing can do for you is to discover who you are.
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We’ve all heard of the mystical and wondrous ancient civilizations of Mesoamerica and South America: The Maya, Olmecs, Aztecs, and the Inca. But one culture that developed on the southern end of Lake Titicaca in present-day western Bolivia near the border with Peru left behind ruins so monumental they continue to intrigue archaeologists and spark hypotheses of anachronistic, advanced technologies. The Inca referred to Lake Titicaca as their origin place. The culture that evolved in the region became known as Yaya-Mama, or “Father-Mother,” for the sculptures depicting dualistic Male-Female opposites. The remains of the capital city for this society are now known as Tiwanaku, one of the most significant archaeological sites in South America. Beginning as a small village in the BCE period, Tiwanaku grew to an enormous metropolis for its time. Peaking around 700 to 1000 CE, with a population near 40,000 and as many as 500,000 people settling in the high plains valley, what remains is a little over one and a half square miles of artifacts such as impressively carved stone gates and monolith statues, artisan ceramics, and quality metalwork. But perhaps the most awe-inspiring remnants are found at a particular spot within Tiwanaku called Pumapunku. Translating as “Gate of the Puma,” archaeologists define Pumapunku as a ceremonial and elite residential complex constructed in the typical fashion of a sunken court surrounded by plazas and ramps, sitting on a terraced platform mound. Yet what makes Pumapunku stand out from other similarly designed sites is the sophisticated masonry of its massive stone blocks ranging in size from 30 to 130 tons. Baffling as it is to imagine how these stones may have been quarried and moved great distances, it’s even more unaccountable how the Tiwanaku were able to cut the blocks so precisely they fit like interlocking puzzle pieces. This feat has some guessing the lost techniques were known only to them or even guided by otherworldly visitors. With construction beginning between 500 and 600 CE and rebuilt over the following centuries, the city would fall just as mysteriously, sometime around 1000 CE. Whether from natural disaster, withering from internal strife, or some violent end, Pumapunku and Tiwanaku leave us with one of the world’s great archaeological enigmas. Tonight, we unearth the artifacts and culture of a city once known by the Aymara people of the Bolivian Andes as “stone in the center,” meaning the center of the world.
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We at Astonishing Legends love... well... legends of course, and myths, and traditions. The first two often lead to the latter. But none of it, no story we've ever come across or covered, happens in a vacuum. The one constant connection between all of it, which matters most to us, is people. And so continuing on with a new tradition of our own, we'd like to present another Astonishing All-Star Holiday Special. It's time to congregate with great friends, share stories and ideas, and reflect on things that keep us searching for answers in a spirit of wonder and imagination. Once again, we're joined by our paranormal cadre, in alphabetical order: Micah Hanks, Jim Harold, Richard Hatem, Rob Kristoffersen, a special segment from our own Tess Pfeifle, and our most cherished guest, YOU. As we relax and enjoy this new tradition of a virtual year-end party. Please keep in mind that as everything is connected, so is everyone, in a profound and meaningful way. We are all in this together, and none of us have to face it alone.
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