Aliens! Bigfoot! The Lochness Monster!

billwill

For some reason, I am fascinated by conspiracy theories and cryptozoology. I don't really believe them, but they sure are fun to read about.

Any suggestions for some particularly awesome ones? I already know a lot about Bigfoot and Nessy, but alien stuff is a mystery to me outside of Roswell and Area 51.

So, PA, is there a bunny-dragon in somewhere in the world, with actual "photographic evidence" and "encounters"? How about a two-headed alien that only appears on Sundays?

I would love personal accounts, and just an ounce of plausibility (ie multiple witnesses, untampered photos, etc), otherwise its no fun!

So...what are your favorite fantastical stories?

Xaquin

I've always been a fan of the Chupacabra

Edit: Also, De Loy's Ape is kind of cool

Servo

my personal favorite bit of americana conspiracy-ism is the babushka lady, the unknown woman who filmed the grassy knoll at dealey plaza

PirateJon

The Dyatlov Pass Mystery

Nine experienced cross-country skiers hurriedly left their tent on a Urals slope in the middle of the night at around -30 degrees Celsius for no obvious reason, casting aside skis, food, boots and most of their clothes. Soon they would be dead, some with injuries more suited to car crash victims, and apparently dosed with radiation. Their deaths are still unexplained, 49 years later.

http://www.metafilter.com/69297/The-Dyatlov-Pass-Mystery

CrossBuster

This guy presents some compelling arguments that the Dyaltov Pass mystery likely has a pretty mundane explanation, involving panic over a possible avalanche, hypothermia, radioactive lantern mantles that were in common use at the time, and an actual avalanche.

Of course, we'll never definitively know exactly what happened, but that article does demonstrate how silly it is to jump to the conclusion that aliens or some secret military project were involved, without any specific evidence supporting those theories.

In any case, it's still really fascinating.

corcorigan

The British MoD recently stopped bothering with UFO reports.

Our alien overlords are clearly in control.

Deadfall

It's not exactly what you were asking about but I absolutely love the SCP Foundation. It's all user-generated, and a good many are absolutely fantastic. There is some rubbish, but with so many entires it happens. Warning: You will most likely find yourself missing about three hours if you start reading these.

http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/

TetraNitroCubane

These aren't really cryptozoology related, so much as tinfoil-hat fun.

Though I think it's probably just a bunch of coincidental stuff, I can't help but be fascinated by Denver International Airport. There's a conspiracy theory section on the Wikipedia page, but if you'd like more direct access to out-there theories, this page is a bit more in-your-face about it.

Also, if you're in the mood for a game or two, I'd recommend the Assassin's Creed games, just for their depth in mining historical 'conspiracy' events. The second one, in particular, references a bunch of actual 'conspiracy theories'. Which isn't to say that they are actually conspiracies, but rather that they are actually events that people sometimes ascribe to conspiracies. My favorites are the Philadelphia Experiment and the Tunguska Event.

Peter Principle

Fortean Times. Go!

Atlus Parker

Whenever the mood strikes me, I turn to Wikipedia's list of Cryptids which includes crowd favorites such as The Bloop, The Grinning Man, and Mothman.

Also after digging through these articles there was a TV show called The Lost Tapes which was supposed to be decent.

Esh

I like the mystery of Oak Island quite a bit.

PixelMonkey

The Bloop is prettty good to have a read of.

Descendant X

Deadfall wrote: »

It's not exactly what you were asking about but I absolutely love the SCP Foundation. It's all user-generated, and a good many are absolutely fantastic. There is some rubbish, but with so many entires it happens. Warning: You will most likely find yourself missing about three hours if you start reading these.

http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/

This page is amazing. Thank you for posting it.

L|ama

there's a guy on these forums called ACSIS. Read his post history, if you like the really crazy and disjointed shit.

Sir Carcass

Catch the Coast to Coast AM radio show sometime. You'll hear some crazy shit. You may can find episodes online.

Improvolone

I've heard of most of the shit mentioned here, what with being a fan of Fortean Times, but I never heard about this dude untill moving to the South Eastern US.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skunk_ape

Drswords

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogopogo

"Champ is a picture of a log, and the Loch Ness monster is a toy submarine with a head made out of plastic wood. Ogopogo.. is a plesiosaur. *snikt* PLESIOSAUR"

pacbowl

Here's some CARET stuff I found online and copied. The linguistic analysis primer and reports are interesting. The originals have been taken down and it's Coast to Coast stuff but entertaining anyway.

Their hardware wasn’t operated in quite the same way as ours. In our technology, even today, we have a combination of hardware and software running almost everything on the planet. Software is more abstract than hardware, but ultimately it needs hardware to run it. In other words, there’s no way to write a computer program on a piece of paper, set that piece of paper on a table or something, and expect it to actually do something. The most powerful code in the world still doesn’t actually do anything until a piece of hardware interprets it and translates its commands into actions.

But their technology is different. It really did operate like the magical piece of paper sitting on a table, in a manner of speaking. They had something akin to a language, that could quite literally execute itself, at least in the presence of a very specific type of field. The language, a term I am still using very loosely, is a system of symbols (which does admittedly very much resemble a written language) along with geometric forms and patterns that fit together to form diagrams that are themselves functional. Once they are drawn, so to speak, on a suitable surface made of a suitable material and in the presence of a certain type of field, they immediately begin performing the desired tasks. It really did seem like magic to us, even after we began to understand the principles behind it.

Kevin R Brown

www.abovetopsecret.com is a good place to go if you want to talk to tin foil hatters and conspiracy theorists.

Szechuanosaurus

billwill wrote: »

So...what are your favorite fantastical stories?

The Illuminatus! Trilogy.

Apogee

The Bullshit! episode on cryptozoology is pretty funny. I love how they created that stupid Bigfoot video just to see how big a wave it would make.

Killgrimage

Not sure on the credibility but there's a guy at my work who raves about Millennial Hospitality. It's apparently a first hand account of a weather observer who worked at Nellis AFB where aliens also resided (on the government's dime no less). It's been talked about on Coast-to-coast and stuff so it's definately in the tin-foil hat camp.

Deadfall

Oh man, I can't remember the name of it, but there was an obscenely long and detailed account of the government sending a group of 12 astronaughts to an alien planet for several years as a sort of exchange program. What was that called?

The planet was hot and dry, and the aliens had to live in the equatorial regions because the colder regions would kill them. And they taught the astronaughts their culture, didn't have a language but spoke in musical tones, I think?

Eeveelution

If you want a great show kinda about some of this stuff, Look for Destination Truth. Its on Sci-fi on wednesdays. Its on its 3rd season, is great fun, while making you think at the same time.

The Lovely Bastard

Gotta do some research on The Jersey Devil

Zombiemambo

Apogee wrote: »

The Bullshit! episode on cryptozoology is pretty funny. I love how they created that stupid Bigfoot video just to see how big a wave it would make.

Mitch Hedburg had it right: Bigfoot is just blurry.

Local H Jay

this is a fake but well made alien abduction movie
i am terrified of it

Descendant X

What you want to do is go to the following site:

http://www.youtube.com/user/MarbleHornets

And watch the whole thing from Introduction to Entry #22.

Fucking cool is what this thing is.

kitch

Tsuchinoko.

DrFrylock

A theoretical physicist calls into Coast to Coast. This is 100% real.

Trust me.

I'm a doctor.

BobCesca

If you like crazy, read Erich von Däniken's books.

Seriously, the guy's a nut, but it's very funny to read. Also, the books are quite short so you can usually finish one before the need to kill is too strong.

L|ama

If you do read von Daniken, cover up the captions on the pictures and try to guess what they're supposed to be, then look again

Zyre

I was reading about Sitchin's theories the other night and about general Sumarian history, I found it pretty interesting. I was mainly reading articles on wikipedia and www.sitchin.com I think. I also found a couple articles on the origin of man related to that; www.netscientia.com/orgins.html and sumerians.html and god_spell.html - I mainly found these interesting because I'm an athiest and do not believe in the concept of god and found SOME of what was in these articles more plausable (missing link in human evolution = genetic modification of homo erectus by splicing of their DNA and extraterrestial) and believable than blind faith in god. Again though, there is no proof of any of this, take it all with a grain of salt. Another part I liked was the theory that all the governments of earth are aware of extraterrestials but want to keep it from the mass public to avoid anarchy and the ruling classes losing control.

billwill

All great stuff so far guys! Thanks a bunch. You have provided me with a lot of reading material over the last few days! Keep it coming if you can.

Also, off-topic but not really warranting a thread:

Does anybody know what movie the clip playing on the back of the seat is from?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBdf6YGnMEA

Thanks

L|ama

Zyre wrote: »

I was reading about Sitchin's theories the other night and about general Sumarian history, I found it pretty interesting. I was mainly reading articles on wikipedia and www.sitchin.com I think. I also found a couple articles on the origin of man related to that; www.netscientia.com/orgins.html and sumerians.html and god_spell.html - I mainly found these interesting because I'm an athiest and do not believe in the concept of god and found SOME of what was in these articles more plausable (missing link in human evolution = genetic modification of homo erectus by splicing of their DNA and extraterrestial) and believable than blind faith in god. Again though, there is no proof of any of this, take it all with a grain of salt. Another part I liked was the theory that all the governments of earth are aware of extraterrestials but want to keep it from the mass public to avoid anarchy and the ruling classes losing control.

There's not really any such thing as a 'missing link' in human evolution any more, it's a cheap argument used by creationists. "There's no transitional fossil between here and here!" - 5 years later one is found - "There's no transitional fossil between the new one and the one before/after it!"

saint2e

DrFrylock wrote: »

A theoretical physicist calls into Coast to Coast. This is 100% real.

Trust me.

I'm a doctor.

Hilarious!

Sir Carcass

billwill wrote: »

Does anybody know what movie the clip playing on the back of the seat is from?

Don't recognize the movie, but that looks like a National Geographic logo in the corner.

Descendant X

billwill wrote: »

All great stuff so far guys! Thanks a bunch. You have provided me with a lot of reading material over the last few days! Keep it coming if you can.

Also, off-topic but not really warranting a thread:

Does anybody know what movie the clip playing on the back of the seat is from?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBdf6YGnMEA

Thanks

I'm pretty sure that it's an episode of Mayday!, although that show is generally on Discovery.

truck-a-sauras

Atlus Parker wrote: »

Whenever the mood strikes me, I turn to Wikipedia's list of Cryptids which includes crowd favorites such as The Bloop, The Grinning Man, and Mothman.

Also after digging through these articles there was a TV show called The Lost Tapes which was supposed to be decent.

awesome that list of cryptids has Popobawa. I just love how that one rolls off the tongue.

and the Jersey Devil is what has been infecting all those guido bennies at the shore and turning them orange and making their hair stand straight up I think. Either that or I should make a trip to the pines and start looking for that thing

Zombiemambo

saint2e wrote: »

DrFrylock wrote: »

A theoretical physicist calls into Coast to Coast. This is 100% real.

Trust me.

I'm a doctor.

Hilarious!

I wish somebody less awkward did it, though.

L|ama

Descendant X wrote: »

billwill wrote: »

All great stuff so far guys! Thanks a bunch. You have provided me with a lot of reading material over the last few days! Keep it coming if you can.

Also, off-topic but not really warranting a thread:

Does anybody know what movie the clip playing on the back of the seat is from?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBdf6YGnMEA

Thanks

I'm pretty sure that it's an episode of Mayday!, although that show is generally on Discovery.

It's Air Crash Investigation on national geographic.