The book came my way after I saw the movie, starring Richard Gere. I’m including both versions in this review as I feel the movie’s the better of the two: a sharper and more focused retelling of the accounts leading up to and including the Silver Bridge tragedy on the Ohio River, between Gallipolis, Ohio, and Point Pleasant, West Virginia, in 1967. How much readers believe of the mystery surrounding the Mothman encounters and sightings depends on how open-minded they are. The book is a catalogue of various sightings and experiences of not only the Mothman, but also a wide variety of paranormal phenomena, including angels, demons, alien visitations, mutilated animals, accounts of UFO sightings, testimonies from witnesses, including several who have been approached by the “Men in Black” – among them the enigmatic and indefinable Indrid Cold. Several witness were afflicted by a strange conjunctivitis, having seen “something” and been exposed to an energy that left them injured. Many of the Mothman witnesses share a mindset in common: what they saw frightened them, they don’t feel privileged to have seen it and they hope they never see it again. The fact that people witnessed and experienced this phenomenon can’t be repudiated; there are similar accounts from all over the world and at different times throughout history. The movie is fabulously intense, eerie and atmospheric with excellent performances from all the actors. It’s a mesmerizing story about the blurring of our perception of the natural and supernatural world, where the “sensitive” among us may glimpse things not usually apparent to the majority. One explanation I like is that this phenomenon has been around us all the time and they are a form of natural energy. In the end, a lot comes down to faith. Many are simply frightened by what they don’t understand, or what doesn’t fit into their view of what constitutes “normality”. It’s easy to be sceptical, particularly when knowledge often comes marred in sound-bites, information overload and disinformation, but we live in a big world, surrounded by a vast, infinite universe. How much of that is still mystery? We have a need to know. But maybe it’s as the character Alexander Leek in the movie, played by Alan Bates, points out: we’re not allowed to know!
While I didn't buy that this was based on a true story, I did enjoy the movie, so I thought I'd read the book. However, the book has almost nothing to do with the movie. The Mothman barely makes an appearance and there isn't really any narrative structure. Instead of "based on a true story" the book should have "a series of unrelated anecdotes" on the cover.John Keel lists numerous contactee stories from people all over the world and attempts to connect them. He claims that similarities between people's stories couldn't possibly be due to copying since most contactees, as he puts it, aren't well read. Contactee stories range from the fantastic (people transported to other worlds and interacting with aliens) to the banal (someone hears a car door slam, yet there are no cars in sight). Men in Black don't always have to be wearing black. Anyone who acts strangely, talks funny, or looks foreign seems to be considered a MIB. Men with long hair "before the hippie explosion" are considered interdimensional beings.Keel isn't a skeptic, yet he seems to be one at times. In an afterword, Keel states that the Mothman sightings could have been due to the red glow of the U2 spy plane. He tells us of a woman who impersonates an alien as part of a publicity stunt and a man who flies his plane at night to trick people into thinking they saw a UFO. He admits that alien sightings aren't that different from angel and demon sightings and that they are largely due to hallucinations. He admits that most of the prophecies made by the aliens didn't end up happening and that every generation thinks the world will end during their lifetime. Yet, inexplicably, he still believes we are being contacted by beings from a different space/time than our own.
Do You like book The Mothman Prophecies (2002)?
Oh wow. Um, yeah. So, this book starts out pretty well; it's about a series of sightings in and around Point Pleasant, WV of "The Mothman," a strange creature with a manlike body, enormous glowing red eyes, and wings. I find this kind of thing fascinating in a folklore/sociological kind of way, so I like to read about such sightings. Like I said, this starts out pretty well. Keel is a witty storyteller and draws a lot of interesting parallels between the Mothman and other sightings throughout history of giant birds, dragons, etc. Then things start to get really weird. Keel believes that all of these sightings (Bigfoot, UFOs, sea monsters) are connected -- they're actually beings from another dimension that are intruding onto ours. Okayyyy... Believe it or not, this is not where I really started to lose track of him. It was when he starts in about how the alien creatures from another dimension are toying with him, tapping his phone, impersonating him in the field, and so on that I really just lost patience. The writing gets worse and more confusing and convoluted, and Keel basically comes off like a paranoid schizophrenic. I really wanted to know if there was any truth to his claims about all the weird things happening to him, but there's really no way of knowing.
—Kirsten
The book was pretty scary...veracity not withstanding. I like to look at it up on the bookshelf. It's a creepy title staring down at me, the haunting sound of fiddles off in the distance. Sometimes when I stare at this book for a while I get very hungry. Yet still scared and hungry in combination.You might even say I get "Scungry". While reading this book on the toilet, my phone rang and and a disembodied voice on the other end screeched "Your in the bathroom aren't you?"Turns out it was my mom (she sometimes sounds like the Mothman)but damn this book was scaaaaaaary!I'm going to go get something to eat.
—Joshua
I have to say that this book was a surprise. It wasn't at all like the movie, though you can see all the parts that the movie used for creepy effect. In fact, the majority of the book isn't really about the Mothman per se, or even the collapse of the Silver Bridge in Point Pleasant. The gist of the book falls upon John Keel's theory of ultraterrestrials: Beings that inhabit our world and may be from another world, another time, or who knows where. It details his attempts to chronicle the events in the year before the bridge collapse when there was a major UFO flap in West Virginia (and, indeed, all over the country). He ends up finding his efforts flummoxed at times by the strange Men-in-Black ultraterrestrial agents and even the government. I thought this was an excellent look at how a legitimate investigator works when dealing with a subject that usually rates hoots of derision from the general public. There's an earnestness to Keel's recollections and his way of trying to get the answers that's missing from the blog-heavy sensationalism we have nowadays. If you are into UFOlogy or cryptozoology, this book is an excellent read and will give you a lot to think about.
—Rich Meyer
