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Men in Black

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Kristin Moore
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« on: August 22, 2011, 12:34:06 am »

Men in Black



A stylized depiction of a Man in Black.

Men in Black (MIB), in popular culture and in UFO conspiracy theories, are men or aliens dressed in black suits who claim to be government agents who harass or threaten UFO witnesses to keep them quiet about what they have seen. It is sometimes implied that they may be aliens themselves. The term is also frequently used to describe mysterious men working for unknown organizations, as well as to various branches of government allegedly designed to protect secrets or perform other strange activities. The term is a generic one, used to refer to any unusual, threatening or strangely behaved individual whose appearance on the scene can be linked in some fashion with a UFO sighting.[1]
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Kristin Moore
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« Reply #1 on: August 22, 2011, 12:34:53 am »

Early reports of Men in Black often described them as men of short stature with swarthy complexions, as if they were deeply tanned. Some reported them as Gypsies. Sunglasses, black suits and black cars have been a feature for the entire period since modern sightings began in 1947, but according to UFO historian Jerome Clark, "All MIB are not necessarily garbed in dark suits."
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« Reply #2 on: August 22, 2011, 12:35:11 am »

According to the accounts of those reporting encountering them, Men in Black always seem to have detailed information on the persons they contact, as if the individual had been under surveillance for a long period of time. They have been described as seeming confused by the nature of everyday items such as pens, eating utensils or food, as well as using outdated slang, though accounts on the behavior of Men in Black vary widely. Accounts indicate that they often claim to be from an agency collecting information on the unexplained phenomenon their subject has encountered. In other accounts, they seem to be trying to suppress information by, for instance, trying to convince their subject the phenomenon never existed. They have been described as behaving in either an exceedingly furtive manner or a completely outgoing one, with wide grins and disconcerting giggles.[2] In the UFO research community the Men in Black often claim to be from the U.S. Air Force or the CIA. Those who have encountered them say they produce identification, but when verification is later sought, the people described either do not exist, have been dead for some time, or do exist but have a different rank.
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« Reply #3 on: August 22, 2011, 12:35:46 am »

Possible explanations
Alien explanation

Some ufologists believe that Men in Black are in fact either aliens or androids controlled by aliens. According to this theory, they are sent out in order to cover up alien activity on Earth. All oddities in their appearance and/or behavior may be explained by the Men in Black's extraterrestrial origin and their unfamiliarity with norms of the human society.
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« Reply #4 on: August 22, 2011, 12:36:27 am »

Folkloric explanations

Although the phenomenon was initially and most frequently reported in the 1950s and 1960s, some researchers—John Keel and others—have suggested similarities between Men in Black reports and earlier demonic accounts. Keel suggests that MiBs are a modern-day manifestation of the same phenomena that were earlier interpreted as the devil or encounters with fairies. Similarly, folklorist Peter Rojcewicz[3] noted that many Men in Black accounts parallel tales of people encountering the devil: Neither Men in Black nor the devil are quite human, and witnesses often discover this fact midway through an encounter. The meaning of this parallel, however, has been the subject of debate. Even so, the term "the black man" was used for centuries in reference to the Devil, up until contemporary times when "black man" was used to replace the term "Negro" and the satanic sense was lost. In witchcraft trials "The Black Man" was often reported as meeting with the accused and having sexual intercourse with them. In Washington Irving's story "The Devil and Tom Walker" set in 1727, Irving tells how Tom asks "the black man" who he is. The man says he goes by many names and is called the black miner sometimes or the black woodsman. He says that since the Indians are gone, he presides over the persecutions of various religious sects, supports slave-dealers and is the master of the Salem witches. Tom replies that he must be "Old Scratch", which is another name for the devil, and the black man acknowledges that he is Old Scratch. In 1932, H. P. Lovecraft also used the figure of The Black Man in his tale "The Dreams in the Witch-House" as a synonym for the Devil, but also uses the term and description for Nyarlathotep, a malevolent entity of his own creation. In the Middle Ages The Black Man was not a man with African features, but rather a man colored black and dressed in black.
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« Reply #5 on: August 22, 2011, 12:36:53 am »

Military/CIA explanations

More prosaically, Clark cites Bill Moore, who asserts that "the Men in Black are really government agents in disguise ... members of a rather bizarre unit of Air Force Intelligence known currently as the Air Force Special Activities Center (AFSAC) ... As of 1991, the AFSAC, headquartered in Fort Belvoir, Virginia," and "under the operational authority of Air Force Intelligence Command centered at Kelly Air Force Base in Texas." (Clark, 321–22) Curiously, Moore also reports that AFSAC was inspired by the tales of Men in Black from the 1950s, and had nothing to do with those early accounts. Similarly, Clark notes that Dr. Michael D. Swords has speculated that the Barker/Bender Men in Black case (occurring shortly after the CIA-directed Robertson Panel issued its recommendations to spy on civilian UFO groups) might have been a psychological warfare experiment.
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« Reply #6 on: August 22, 2011, 12:37:11 am »

Hoax explanation

In his article, "Gray Barker: My Friend, the Myth-Maker," John C. Sherwood claims that at age 18, he cooperated when Gray Barker urged him in the late 1960s to develop a hoax - which Barker subsequently published - about what Barker called "blackmen," three mysterious UFO inhabitants who silenced Sherwood's pseudonymous identity, "Dr. Richard H. Pratt."[4]
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« Reply #7 on: August 22, 2011, 12:37:31 am »

MIB media franchise

Men in Black (1997), starring Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith as Agent K and Agent J, was based on Lowell Cunningham's comic book about a secret organization that monitors and suppresses paranormal activity on Earth - The Men in Black from Aircel Comics. The film was followed by Men in Black: The Series and its 2002 sequel Men in Black II. Men in Black III is scheduled to be released in 2012.[5] Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, who published the comic book, took the property to Sony to become a billion-dollar film franchise.[6] Will Smith made a song called "Men in Black" for the movie Men in Black in 1997.
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« Reply #8 on: August 22, 2011, 12:39:54 am »

Men-In-Black

Oriental or olive-skinned. Eyes sensitive to light. Eyes have vertical pupils. Very pale skin in some types. Do not conform easily to our social patterns. Usually wear black clothes, drive black cars, and wear sunglasses. In groups they all dress alike. Sometimes time-disoriented. They cannot handle a psychological "curve-ball" or interruption to their plan. Often intimidate UFO witnesses and impersonate government officials. Equivalent of our CIA. From another galaxy


===
Also referred to as the 'Men In Black' or 'Horlocks'. These are apparently in many cases humans who are controlled by draconian influences, although other 'MIB' have been encountered which do not seem human, but more reptilian OR synthetic. The 'MIB' have been encountered often after UFO sightings, usually intimidating witnesses into keeping silent about what they've seen (many of the witnesses may be 'abductees' with suppressed memories of the event). Their 'threats' appear to be motivated by attempts to utilize 'terrorism', 'fear' or 'intimidation' as a psychological weapon against witnesses. This 'weapon' may not only be used to keep the human 'MIB' under control, but by the human MIB's themselves. 'They' are often, though not always, seen in connection with large, black automobiles, some of which have been seen disappearing into mountains -- as in the case of one basing area between Hopland and Lakeport, California -- canyons or tunnels or in some cases apparently appear out of or disappear (cloak?) into thin air. Most humanoid MIB have probably been implanted by the Draconians and are essentially their 'slaves'. Bio-synthetic forms possessed by 'infernals' also seem to play a part in the MIB scenario, as do subterranean and exterran societies. Sirius, at only 9+ light years away, has been identified as a major exterran MIB center of activity, with a subterran counterpart existing in ancient antediluvian 'Atlantean' underground complexes which have been 're-established' beneath the Eastern U.S. seaboard.

http://www.istina.rin.ru/eng/ufo/text/241.html
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« Reply #9 on: August 28, 2011, 12:07:38 am »

Strange & Unexplained - Men in Black

[- Strangers to be Avoided -]
In the March 30, 1905, edition of the Barmouth Advertiser, a Welsh newspaper, it was reported that over a period of three nights a "man dressed in black" had appeared in the bedroom of an "exceptionally intelligent young woman of the peasant stock.... This figure has delivered a message to the girl which she is frightened to relate."

This curious incident allegedly occurred in the midst of a religious revival in which sightings of mysterious lights figured prominently. It is the first known report of a "man in black" in an arguably UFO context.

In 1953 men in black (or, as they eventually would be called, MIB) entered twentieth-century folklore permanently when Albert K. Bender of Bridgeport, Connecticut, abruptly closed down his popular International Flying Saucer Bureau (IFSB) and refused to elaborate on a cryptic statement in the last issue (October 1953) of the IFSB magazine Space Review. The statement indicated that Bender now knew the answer to the UFO mystery but could not publish it because of "orders from a higher source." In addition, he urged "those engaged in saucer work to please be very cautious."

Pressed by Gray Barker, who had been IFSB's chief investigator, Bender would say only that three men in black suits had visited him in September, told him what UFOs are, and threatened him with prison if he revealed what they had told him. The experience was so traumatic that Bender subsequently fell ill. He told Barker that the strangers were "members of the United States government."

The MIB's exact nature grew more ambiguous in Bender's reluctant retelling of the tale, and soon some suspected that the MIB were agents not of American intelligence but of alien intelligence. Barker wrote a scary, paranoia-driven book on the episode, They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers (1956), and over the next few years exploited the "Bender mystery" in various publications. Soon Bender's visitors were being identified variously as demons, agents of the International Bankers, or representatives of a civilization inside the earth.

In 1962, Bender wrote, and Barker published, Flying Saucers and the Three Men -a wild story which only the most impressionable readers took to be anything other than a clumsy science-fiction novel. In it Bender was taken to the South Pole by monstrous aliens, who then monitored his activities until 1960, when they returned to their home planet.

Men-in-black stories were revived in the 1960s when a New York writer, John A. Keel, recounted episodes of MIB harassment reported by UFO witnesses in New York, Ohio, West Virginia, and elsewhere. Keel even claimed some personal encounters: "I kept rendezvous with black Cadillacs on Long Island, and when I tried to pursue them they would disappear impossibly on dead-end roads.... More than once I woke up in the middle of the night to find myself unable to move, with a dark apparition standing over me." In Keel's telling, the MIB were not government agents or even human beings but paranormal entities associated with the UFO intelligences themselves. Frequently described as being vaguely Oriental in appearance, they behaved strangely, asking odd or even rude questions of those whom they confronted. They usually traveled in large black cars. Keel warned investigators, "Do not attempt to apprehend MIB yourself. Do not attack them physically. Approach them with great caution. They frequently employ hypnotic techniques."

According to Keel, men in black had interacted with such historical figures as Julius Caesar, Thomas Jefferson, Napoleon, and Malcolm X. Moreover, "the general descriptions of the vampires ... are identical to the 'men in black'." The danger of MIB visitation to those interested in UFO specially "the neurotic, the gullible, and the immature" -is such, Keel warned, that parents should "forbid their children from becoming involved [in UFO study]. Schoolteachers and other adults should not encourage teenagers to take an interest in the subject."

MIB reports were not confined to Keel's witnesses or even to the United States. In May 1975, two weeks after a dramatic sighting from his Piper Pa24 -a sighting confirmed on the radar screens at the Mexico City airport -a young pilot was pursued down the freeway by four black-suited, "Scandinavian--looking men in a black limousine. After forcing him to the side of the road, they warned him not to discuss his sighting; the pilot was on his way to do a television interview. A month later one of the strangers reappeared and threatened him again as he was on his way to a hotel to talk with J. Allen Hynek, the prominent American astronomer and UFO investigator. That was his last meeting with the MIB, whom he remembered as tall and strangely white; "I never saw them blink," he added.

By the late 1980s such tales were sufficiently numerous to warrant the attention of the Journal of American Folklore. The author, Peter M. Rojcewicz, surveyed the MIB's role in flying-saucer legends and related it to earlier demonic traditions. He also told of his own MIB encounter, though giving himself the pseudonym "Michael Elliot." While doing research on UFOs in a library, he was approached by a dark-featured, dark-suited man who, speaking briefly in a slight accent about flying saucers, placed his hand on Rojcewicz's shoulder and said, "Go well in your purpose," and vanished.
http://www.skygaze.com/content/strange/MenInBlack.shtml

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« Reply #10 on: August 28, 2011, 12:08:51 am »

Encounters With Men In Black

 
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    ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ *                                         * ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
                *    L I T E R A R Y   F R E E W A R E    *
                *                                         *
                *           F O U N D A T I O N           *
    ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ *                                         * ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
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Newsgroups: alt.alien.visitors,alt.alien.research,alt.paranet.ufo,
alt.paranormal


ENCOUNTERS WITH MEN IN BLACK

(Minneapolis Star Tribune) -- They sat quietly, leaning toward the lectern
in a dark-paneled room near Lake Calhoun as a professor from New York told
of his encounter with one of the mysterious Men in Black. In the audience
were people like biophysicist Otto Schmitt, a retired professor of
electrical engineering at the University of Minnesota, retired aircraft
developer and physicist Cecil Behringer, physician Steven Zuckerman and
polymer scientist Arthur Coury, Medtronic's director of venture
technology.

Peter Rojcewicz told them there have been hundreds - perhaps thousands -
of such encounters over the centuries. "The Men in Black are part of the
extraordinary encounter continuum - fairies, monsters, ETS, energy forms,
flying saucers, flaming crosses," said Rojcewicz, a 37-year-old professor
of humanities and folklore at New York's Juilliard School. The modern era
of Men in Black - visitations by mysterious, black-clad men who seem evil
and threatening - goes back to at least the early 1950s when a man named
Albert K. Bender allegedly saw a UFO in Bridgeport, Conn., and was later
frightened by a visitation from three Men in Black.

Rojcewicz told the audience that his own MIB (Men in Black) experience
occurred in 1980. "I have never gone public with this before," he said.
Most of the modern era MIB encounters have followed sightings of UFOs or
strange lights.  Rojcewicz's encounter involved no sightings.  He was just
sitting in the University of Pennsylvania library, reading a UFO book
suggested by another professor who thought that Rojcewicz, as a
folklorist, would be interested in such phenomena. "Then in the corner of
my vision I noticed a black pants leg and a black shoe, scuffed,"
Rojcewicz said. The folding chairs in the auditorium of the Bakken Library
of Electricity in Medicine, 3537 Zenith Av. S., stopped creaking as
Rojcewicz's audience listened intently. Standing in front of him,
Rojcewicz said, was a very gaunt, very pale man.  He was about 6-1,
weighed about 140 pounds and wore a black suit, black shoes, black string
tie and a bright white shirt. "His suit was loose and it looked as though
he had slept in it for three days,"  Rojcewicz said.

Rojcewicz didn't know what to make of the figure. At the time he wasn't
aware of the Men in Black phenomena which, he subsequently learned, dates
back to at least Biblical times. "He sat down, like he had dropped from
the ceiling - all in one movement" - and folded his hands on top of a
stack of books in front of him, Rojcewicz said. The Man in Black asked
Rojcewicz what he was doing. Rojcewicz said he was reading about flying
saucers.  "Have you seen a flying saucer?" the Man in Black asked.
Rojcewicz said he hadn't. "Do you believe in the reality of flying
saucers?" Rojcewicz said he didn't know much about them and wasn't sure he
was very interested in the phenomena. The man screamed: "Flying saucers
are the most important fact of the century and you are not interested?" "I
tried to calm him," Rojcewicz said.  The man got up, once again all in a
single awkward movement, put his hand on Rojcewicz's shoulder and said:
"Go well on your purpose" and left.

Rojcewicz looked out at his audience.  "In 10 seconds I was overwhelmed by
fear. . . . I had a sense that this man was out of the ordinary and that
idea frightened me. . . . I got up and walked around the stacks toward
where the reference librarians usually are. The librarians weren't there.
There were no guards there - there was nobody else in the library. . . . I
was terrified."

He went back to the table where he had been reading "to get myself
together. It took me about an hour. Then I got up and everything was back
to normal, the people were all there." He didn't talk about his experience
in public because he was concerned about how people might react to his
story, he said.

Was he dreaming? He doesn't think so. He said he suspects he was in an
"altered state." Rojcewicz said he thinks his experience - and that of
others who have been exposed to the Men in Black - are somewhere "in the
crack" between real life and fantasy.

He has been studying anomalous phenomena such as the Men in Black ever
since his 1980 experience. He has interviewed many people who have
reported UFOs, flying saucers and Men in Black experiences. He said the
Men in Black most frequently appear in threes, but sometimes in twos, ones
and fours.  Some of the MIBs carry brief cases and represent themselves as
being Air Force UFO investigators, he said. The MIBs warn UFO spotters to
tell no one of their experiences with aliens from outer space.

When the MIBs leave, people are fearful, dizzy and, sometimes, nauseous,
he said. Frequently their lives are changed by the experience. Some become
more successful in their jobs and marriages and report a joie de vivre.
Others lose their jobs and marriages. One of his friends quit a good
academic position and went into hiding, he said. Some become addicted to
drugs, and many feel they have been victimized, he said.

He said the reaction varies with a person's culture, religion or openness
to imaginative ideas. To illustrate the various reactions he cited a case
of a psychiatrist and her husband, a professor of education, who saw a UFO
in Maine and subsequently had a MIB encounter. "She has been all right
since then, but he has not." The professor was left lethargic and troubled
by the encounter.

Rojcewicz, who teaches at the C. J. Jung Foundation for Analytical
Psychology as well as at Juilliard, said he suspects the psychiatrist was
able to handle the experience better because she is more open to spiritual
matters while her husband by training and experience is rooted in the
acceptance of only what seems reasonable.

In another case, Rojcewicz interviewed a woman named Deborah from
Burlington, Va., who said she had been visited by a slender, 6-foot, 9-
inch Man in Black who was wearing a bowler hat.  She said her knees went
weak when the man was close to her.  She said of her experience: "There
was something wrong - evil about this." When Rojcewicz telephoned Deborah
to recheck his notes, there was a beeping on the line and they couldn't
hear each other. He redialed and the line was all right.

Rojcewicz said there are references to Men in Black going back to Abraham
in Biblical times, and there have been many similar stories in folklore
over the years.  Often the Men in Black have been considered to be the
devil or his representatives. Some of the Roman Catholic church's saints
had Men in Black experiences.  The church itself recognizes the
possibility by endorsing exorcism, Rojcewicz said.

What is a good defense against the Men in Black? "Laughter," Rojcewicz
said. "If they ask you why you're laughing, tell them, `Rojcewicz told me
to do it.' " He added: "When you confront evil, don't feed them your fear.
Say you are not worried - ha-ha."

When his talk was over, several of those attending were asked if they took
the Men in Black stories seriously. "Maybe there is something there," said
Dennis Skillings, director of the Archaeus Project, which sponsored the
meeting.  But he said he doubts that there is any way of confirming that
MIB encounters "really, truly happened."

Zuckerman, a specialist in internal medicine, said he thought  Rojcewicz
was serious. "I have a friend who knows a fellow who is investigating
reports that men from space are coming to Earth and taking biopsies of
people's calf muscles," Zuckerman said.  "He says the biopsy sites heal
right away." Why would people from outer space take biopsies of people's
calf muscles? "An interesting question," Zuckerman said with a smile.

The Archaeus Project, which is subsidized by Medtronic founder Earl
Bakken, regularly brings in researchers in the field of the paranormal and
so-called alternative science for special lectures.


http://www.sacred-texts.com/ufo/mib_003.htm
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« Reply #11 on: August 28, 2011, 12:09:55 am »

The Men in Black (MiBS)




Man_in_black.jpg

The term Men in Black (MIBs), in popular culture, is used in UFO conspiracy theories to describe men dressed in black suits, sometimes with glowing eyes or other monstrous features, claiming to be government agents who attempt to harass or threaten UFO witnesses into silence. According to Albert K. Bender, their female counterparts are Women in White. "All MIB are not necessarily garbed in dark suits," writes American researcher Jerome Clark. "The term is a generic one, used to refer to any unusual, threatening or strangely behaved individual whose appearance on the scene can be linked in some fashion with a UFO sighting."

The phenomenon was initially and most frequently reported in the 1950s and 1960s; it is contemporaneous with many other conspiracy theories.

There are various types of Men in Black encounters, but they typically follow a pattern: after a presumably credible individual reports or witnesses a UFO sighting, the witness is visited by a man or men (they are often said to come in threes) who are often dressed in black suits, lending the reports their name. The men suggest -- or the witnesses assume -- that the men are government agents. The men often flash convincing-looking badges and demand that the witness recant their story or hand over photographs or physical evidence of a UFO. If the witness refuses or questions their credentials, they often subtly or overtly threaten the witness or their family with bodily harm or other hardship.

The men are often reported as driving large, late-model cars, typically Cadillacs; in rare cases, they are reportedly seen in black helicopters.

While it is not known if these threats have ever been realised, there are largely unsubstantiated reports of hardships and harassment levelled against those who resist. The number of claimants of Men in Black encounters is unknown, and might be rather small. Chevon Wallace writes that "Some of those who write about UFOs and other strange phenomena rather casually mention 'countless' cases where people have been visited by Men in Black. In reality these 'countless cases' are difficult to pin down. In fact, there really seems to be a rather small number of MIB cases where there are any details available at all."

Appearance and Behaviour

Some Men in Black are described as essentially normal in appearance, but others are said to be quite strange, either in appearance or behaviour. John Keel thought that many Men in Black were of an "Asian" appearance, though he also thought this description was inadequate, and hinted that some Men in Black may not be human. Bender stated that the MIBs who visited him had glowing eyes which they concealed behind sunglasses. Some accounts record that agents appear to wear make-up, even lipstick, in an attempt to mask their inhuman appearances.

Witnesses sometimes describe Men in Black's behaviour as odd, or belligerent and threatening. They are often noticeably unfamiliar with everyday etiquette and civility. Some witnesses say that they never blink. They also allegedly speak in archaic or obscure forms of English slang, or use odd sentence structure and grammar, as if English were not their first language. In some cases, they have been reported as using British received pronunciation.
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« Reply #12 on: August 28, 2011, 12:10:56 am »

Early accounts

Similarities between Men in Black accounts and earlier tales have been noted by folklorist Thomas E. Bullard, who argues that Men in Black "step into the shoes vacated by angels and demons ... modified to reflect extraterrestrial rather than supernatural employment but clearly functionaries in the same mold ... Even high gods like Odin ... sometimes disguised themselves and roamed the earth to dispense justice or stir up strife ... The devil of folklore sometimes rides in a black carriage, the nearest thing to a Cadillac." (Clark, 323)

While Bullard and others have simply noted the similarities and differences, some ufologists, such as John Keel, have argued that there are explicit connections between older and more recent accounts of black-clad figures: in Keel's view, the demons of old and the Men in Black of today are one and the same.

Jerome Clark cites Gerald Messadié’s 1973 work "A History of the Devil", which notes, "sometimes the devil wears green or gray, but mostly he is dressed in black, and always in the fashions of the day." (Clark, 312)

Messadié relates an account from Norway in 1730. A thirteen-year-old girl told investigators that some years earlier, she had accompanied her grandmother on a trip to meet the devil. On their way they met "three men dressed in black, whom the grandmother referred to as 'grandfather's boys.' Once they arrived and met the devil, grandmother called him 'grandfather.'"

Mary Jones

In Wales, in the early 1900s, there was a religious revival centred on thirty-eight-year-old Mary Jones. Though in some ways very different from modern UFO or Men in Black reports, this account is intriguing because it is perhaps the earliest account of spooky, black-clad figures explicitly associated with inexplicable lights reported in the skies.

Beyond the usual events associated with revivals, Jones was accompanied by "Mysterious Lights" (Evans, 114) in the night skies, which Evans reports were widely visible to many reputable witnesses and which "follow(ed), preced(ed), or accompanie(d) Mrs. Jones on her journeys." (Evans, 119) Writer Beriah G. Evans asserted that he saw these aerial lights himself. Residents furthermore reported encounters with a number of "Dread Apparitions" associated with Jones' revival. (Evans, 114)

One of these dread apparitions has some similarities to later Men in Black accounts: "In the neighbourhood dwells an exceptionally intelligent young woman of the peasant class, whose bedroom has been visited three nights in succession at midnight by a man dressed in black ... This figure has related a message to the girl, which, however, she is forbidden to relate." (Evans, 117-118)

Evans goes on to note that "a similar apparition was seen from different standpoints, but simultaneously" by two witnesses. One of the witnesses "startled (and) uttered an involuntary prayer. Immediately, one of Mrs. Jones 'Lights' appeared above, a white ray darting from which pierced the figure, which thereupon vanished." (Evans, 118)

It is worth noting, however, that these Welsh accounts also feature elements not typically featured in modern UFO or Men in Black accounts. For example, one of the “dread apparitions” was said to transform into "an enormous black dog". (Evans, 117)
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« Reply #13 on: August 28, 2011, 12:11:12 am »

Modern accounts

As noted above, there are relatively few MIB reports which can be verified in any detail -- for example, there might be only a handful of cases where names of MIB witnesses are publicly known. A few such cases are noted below.

Maury Island incident: The first Men in Black?

Arguably the first Men in Black report was made shortly after June 21, 1947. On that date, Seaman Harold Dahl claimed to have seen six UFOs near Maury Island, Washington. Dahl, his son, two other men, and Dahl's dog were on the boat. Dahl took a number of photographs of the UFOs, and reported that one UFO shed some type of hot slag onto his boat. The slag, he said, struck and killed his dog and injured his son.

The next morning, Dahl reported a man arrived at his home and invited him to breakfast at a nearby diner. Dahl accepted the invitation. He described the man as imposing, over six feet tall and muscular, and wearing a black suit. The man drove a new 1947 Buick, and Dahl assumed he was a military or government representative.

While the two men ate, Dahl claimed the man told him details of the UFO sighting, though Dahl had not related his account publicly. Furthermore, the man gave Dahl a non-specific warning—which Dahl took as a threat—that his family might be harmed if he related details of the sighting.

Some confusion and debate over Dahl's statements has occurred: Dahl would later claim the UFO sighting was a hoax, but he has also claimed the sighting was accurate but that he had claimed it was a hoax to avoid bringing harm to his family.

Bender and Barkerdwmib2.jpg

Alfred K. Bender seized on Dahl's story and printed it in his newsletter. In 1953, Bender claimed three Men in Black visited him and warned him to stop his UFO research. Bender's account was popularized in Gray Barker's 1956 book They Knew Too Much about Flying Saucers.

Historian Mike Dash writes that "One of the first visits from the Men in Black occurred in 1953, when Albert K. Bender, director of the International Flying Saucer Bureau, the largest early UFO organization, was visited by three dark-suited men who, he said, first confided the 'solution' of the UFO mystery to him, then threatened him with prison if he told the secret to anyone else. Bender was so scared by the visit that he closed down his bureau and ceased all his active involvement in the world of ufology." (Dash, 161)

In Flying Saucers and the Three Men in Black (1963), Bender wrote of "three beautiful women, dressed in tight white uniforms." Like their male counterparts, Women in White also had "glowing eyes".

Bender's insistence that he was ordered quiet would become an important feature of UFO lore; the tale was initially spread by Bender's friend, writer Gray Barker. Clark writes that "Bender’s 'silencing' obsessed Barker, who would go on to become a prominent writer, editor and publisher in the fringes of saucerdom." (Clark, 312) Barker speculated that the "silence group" might not be human, and advised UFO researchers to be cautious.

The 1998 issue of Skeptical Inquirer magazine casts a different light on Barker. The issue featured John C. Sherwood's article "Gray Barker: My Friend, the Myth-Maker", which suggests that deliberate hoaxes were responsible for some early Men in Black stories. Sherwood says he was part of the hoax, and cites his own "youthful amorality" and an eagerness to see his fiction published, in that he wrote sensationalistic UFO accounts at Barker's request. Barker had earlier published one of Sherwood's tales, which Sherwood altered to give the fiction a "factual" veneer.

In a letter to Sherwood, Barker wrote that Saucer Scoop was printing a piece on Sherwood, calling it "a big deal on you, suggesting you really were hushed by the blackmen. I'll always be glad to print an article by you if you'll tell the real (or made up) story of how these strange forces made you quit. You might as well go out of saucers in the usual syndrome."[1] The "usual syndrome" being warned to keep quiet by sinister men.

"By the mid-1950s," writes Clark, "the legend of the Men in Black had become fixed in the imaginations of ufology’s more excitable followers." (Clark, 315) Accounts of Men in Black have been reported since then and continue today.
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Kristin Moore
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« Reply #14 on: August 28, 2011, 12:11:28 am »

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