Strange Things (Conspiracies, X-Files, Etc)

Best Selling RPGs - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com

Endless Flight

I have the power!
Administrator
Moderator
Joined
Apr 24, 2017
Messages
15,297
Reaction score
41,642
Since we all have active imaginations as RPG enthusiasts, I thought it would be fun if we talked about things like conspiracies, oddities, aliens, UFOs, cryptids, etc.

For some reason I can't remember, I came across an article that discussed the US governments funding for remote viewing from the late 70s all the way through 1995 (supposedly it was shelved and declassified by the CIA then) called Project Stargate to see if they could get any actionable intelligence from psychics. It was deemed a failure although some strange bits did come from it. I'll link an article here.

A Martian State of Mind
Did the CIA really astrally project to Mars in 1984? We asked a psychic spy.

By Jacob Brogan
 
Last edited:
Funny article about the Bohemian Grove in California with this little funny snippet I picked out.

Over the years, the Grove has been infiltrated countless times by activists, journalists like Philip Weiss, and conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones. None of them have found anything much of interest, other than a lot of powerful old men partying and urinating on trees.

Even former employees I talked to who had access to the entire campground were disappointed by the lack of intrigue. “After working at the Grove, I really do believe that Area 51 is a boring Nevada test site full of nothing,” Kevin said.

My Summer Job at the Bohemian Grove, Serving Milkshakes to the Shitfaced Global Elite
 
Ooooh. This is my jam, homes. I'm gonna post the crap out of this thread.

Because why not? It's not like I have any credibility on this or the other forum anyway. :oops:

But not yet. I got, like, work stuff to do. Then, God help us all, I'll post some stuff.

And some things.

And maybe some personal stories.

I'm sure it won't be awkward at all. :rolleyes:
 
In Search Of...Coral Castle.

One of the greatest mysteries of the 20th century.
 
I'm always picking up ideas for weirdness from Welcome to Nightvale... which sometimes references actual real-world peculiarities like the 'Number Stations' (BBC link).
 
For some reason I can't remember, I came across an article that discussed the US governments funding for remote viewing from the late 70s all the way through 1995 (supposedly it was shelved and declassified by the CIA then) called Project Stargate to see if they could get any actionable intelligence from psychics. It was deemed a failure although some strange bits did come from it. I'll link an article here.

Along the same lines: Weaponized Psychics.
 
Funny article about the Bohemian Grove in California with this little funny snippet I picked out.

My Summer Job at the Bohemian Grove, Serving Milkshakes to the Shitfaced Global Elite

I've got an entire rant about this, but I'll spare us all and keep it short and sweet (and fail miserably).

I'm inclined to believe the article's central premise that the BG is a big nothingburger. Doing so would cater to my own biases. But skeptical noman is skeptical.

Why? If you're running a secret society with heavy ritual overtones, you don't hire a bunch of high schoolers as help. You either hire professionals who are paid for their competence and discretion...or you never planned on doing anything other than getting dunk and drinking milkshakes anyway. I mean, If I ran BG, and I knew neckless maniacs like Alex Jones had a hard-on to get some dirt one me, I'd close up shop. I'd move whatever made BG BG to somewhere more discrete, away from the eyes of the Internet, were I could conduct whatever ritual bullshit I wanted, while keeping up appearances at the old site. I mean, Jeb Bush? Really? I'd invite know-nothing's like him to Old BG to have drinks, eat coconut shrimp, and not get milkshakes, while I'd have the real shenanigans take place at my new location...with the actual elites who matter. That's just how I'd play it.

The second thing here is the author spends a lot of time talking about the old white (Rs) who were present or said to be members. Little mention of anyone from the (D), and It's my understanding that these institutions are bipartisan. I smell a little too much bias to take the article seriously.

Oh, one last thing. Alex Jones. No. Just no.

Imagine for a moment you're sitting around with other conspiracy theorists (I hate this term BTW): people who are serious about the subject and are desperate to get to the truth of various mysteries. You're sitting there, sipping your tea or coffee, trying to peel away the bullshit that surrounds this kind of subject matter so you can get to something logical, concrete, and actionable -- some base assumptions from which you can proceed. Then, this hysterical motherfucker shows up. He sucks any intelligence, logic, and investigative credibility out of the room.

The Web as been both the best thing for this kind of subject, as well as its worst enemy.
 
In Search Of...Coral Castle.

One of the greatest mysteries of the 20th century.


This is freaking awesome!

That 'stash, tho (RIP Leonard).

Is it weird that I'm less interested in how he did it (telekinesis, duh) rather than why he did it? His "Sweet Sixteen"? A lost love? His sister? May not even be a woman. Could be a refernce to a date or sixteen of something, maybe a cluster of sixteen stars in some part of our galaxy?

Fuck, I'll never know, and that pisses me off. :mad:

But this has some awesome potential for modern fantasy or horror RPG campaigns though.
 
This is freaking awesome!

That 'stash, tho (RIP Leonard).

Is it weird that I'm less interested in how he did it (telekinesis, duh) rather than why he did it? His "Sweet Sixteen"? A lost love? His sister? May not even be a woman. Could be a refernce to a date or sixteen of something, maybe a cluster of sixteen stars in some part of our galaxy?

Fuck, I'll never know, and that pisses me off. :mad:

But this has some awesome potential for modern fantasy or horror RPG campaigns though.

I find Coral Castle and Ed Leedskalnin fascinating. I know one thing, if I was that truck driver and walked around the corner and heard a noise and came back a couple seconds later and he had the truck loaded up with him standing there with his arms crossed, I would freak out. I wouldn't be standing with my hands on my hips.
 
I find Coral Castle and Ed Leedskalnin fascinating. I know one thing, if I was that truck driver and walked around the corner and heard a noise and came back a couple seconds later and he had the truck loaded up with him standing there with his arms crossed, I would freak out. I wouldn't be standing with my hands on my hips.

Acting, EF, from testimony given well after the fact. As far as we know the truck driver pissed himself.
 
I found this and thought it was interesting.

I've come across a lot of this kind of stuff online recently -- critters creeping around the yards of middle-class homes. Very skeptical, given the power of modern image and video editing.

But it's good fodder for a modern horror game.
 
I find Coral Castle and Ed Leedskalnin fascinating.

I'm wondering if he was trying to do some kind of weird-science geomancy / Feng Shui kinda thing here. His garden was clearly set up with some intention in mind. A summoning? A method of information transmission? Inquiring nomans want to know.
 
Last edited:
I know one thing, if I was that truck driver and walked around the corner and heard a noise and came back a couple seconds later and he had the truck loaded up with him standing there with his arms crossed, I would freak out. I wouldn't be standing with my hands on my hips.

Anyway, none of us really know what we'd do or how we'd react in the face of the Twilight Zone until we come face to face with it. You may very well surprise yourself.
 
I'll post this very quickly, as I find it hilarious:

iu
 
Another one of my favorite mysteries...the Mothman!

John Keel, author of The Mothman Prophecies, talks a bit about his experiences.
 
Anyway, none of us really know what we'd do or how we'd react in the face of the Twilight Zone until we come face to face with it. You may very well surprise yourself.
From what I've read and experienced, a common reaction is to have no reaction at all... at least not at first.
IIRC Colin Wilson wrote about it in one of his 'Occult' books... that people experiencing very odd things don't tend to register them as odd until some time later. I remember him recounting a story of people at Loch Ness encountering a 'man in black' and being quite numb to the strangeness. Wilson proposed it might be some sort of hereditary defense mechanism.
 
In Search Of...The Money Pit.

This mystery has a lot of attention over the last few years because of The Curse of Oak Island TV series.

 
Last edited:
In Search Of...The Money Pit.

Am I the only one upset that this version of the episode didn't have the original opening theme? That's the best part of this show!!! At least this version of The Money Pit was a lot more historically accurate than the movie version with Tom Hanks and Shelley Long.
 
From what I've read and experienced, a common reaction is to have no reaction at all... at least not at first.
IIRC Colin Wilson wrote about it in one of his 'Occult' books... that people experiencing very odd things don't tend to register them as odd until some time later. I remember him recounting a story of people at Loch Ness encountering a 'man in black' and being quite numb to the strangeness. Wilson proposed it might be some sort of hereditary defense mechanism.

Very interesting. I read Wilson's The Occult ages ago. I don't remember any of it. :sad:

I've seen a variety of reactions: aggression, retreat, blackout, denial, and the sort of numbness you describe. I don't have a uniform idea why people react as they do other than to think different people react differently to paranormal stressors for different reasons.

I think a major factor is an already established belief in the existence of the paranormal, rather than a hard-core skepticism. Another factor is survival instinct.

Another thing to keep is mind, I think, is how dramatic the paranormal event is. For example, a MIB showing up and acting odd, is well, just odd. It's hard to make a hard case that something like that is supernatural in nature. Compare that to seeing a UFO land in front of you, a bunch of Greys step out, blast you with a paralysis ray, and haul your ass into their ship for whatever reason. Very different experiences with very different sensory input and survival triggers. A MIB can be hand-waved away as just an odd encounter, but some of this crap is way over the top.

Sorry if I'm rambling. :oops:
 
Another one of my favorite mysteries...the Mothman!

John Keel, author of The Mothman Prophecies, talks a bit about his experiences.


I like John a lot. I have a few, trite quibbles with some of his ideas (not gonna get into that here), but I respect the guy a lot.

I read the Mothman Prophecies ages ago. It's a very interesting read. The mothman aside, the most interesting thing for me was an idea he briefly described in his book.

Keel had the idea (I'm badly paraphrasing here) that the UFO events in the area weren't the result of objective, mechanical spacecraft as many UFOlogist believe. They were more subjective. The phenomena were creations of a sort of supernatural field -- the creations of some unknown, non-physical force. Almost like Jung's (?) collective unconscious, except manifesting lights, entities, and critters. His idea struck me as less UFOlogy and more modern occult.

Man, that's a terrible representation of what Keel wrote. :sad: If I have the time, I'll dig up my copy and reread the section I'm babbling about.
 
Keel had the idea (I'm badly paraphrasing here) that the UFO events in the area weren't the result of objective, mechanical spacecraft as many UFOlogist believe. They were more subjective. The phenomena were creations of a sort of supernatural field -- the creations of some unknown, non-physical force. Almost like Jung's (?) collective unconscious, except manifesting lights, entities, and critters. His idea struck me as less UFOlogy and more modern occult.

Man, that's a terrible representation of what Keel wrote. :sad: If I have the time, I'll dig up my copy and reread the section I'm babbling about.

I don't think you really misrepresented Keel. I quoted this from a great article that I'll link here.

However, as the mother of all false reference frames, Keel regarded the belief in the extra-terrestrial origin of UFOs to be the biggest whopper of them all! He even describes it as a contagious disease of sorts. In his books, he points out that there is little difference between the modern UFO reports and descriptions of demonology in the Middle Ages. The same goes for Irish fairly legends, vampire myths, and other monster lore that has been handed down through the centuries. All of this is part of the same underlying phenomena designed to steer the ship of human destiny through false belief. This phenomenon has probably been around as long as human beings have been around, and in each epoch it establishes itself in a new frame of reference acceptable to the culture at hand.
 
A John Keel lecture about the sinister MiB.

 
So you're this ultra-conservative anti-Vatican II Roman Catholic lay order (mostly made up of old money families, including the descendants of the Brazilian royal family — yes, we were a monarchy for most of the 19th Century) who hates Pope Francis' guts for being a bleeding-heart liberal, who you gonna call?

The motherfucking Devil, that's who.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/this-s...ult-in-brazil-is-making-a-deal-with-the-devil

And of course their compound is like an hour's drive from my place.
 
Last edited:
As part of my relentless quest to raise the intellectual standards of this forum, I present the following link:

An Alex Jones parody (NSFW -- audio).

You're welcome. :grin:
 
Keel had the idea (I'm badly paraphrasing here) that the UFO events in the area weren't the result of objective, mechanical spacecraft as many UFOlogist believe. They were more subjective.
IIRC Jacques Vallee came to a similar conclusion... and I think Whitley Streiber's 'Communion' series took a similar tact as well. That there might be something there, but it's not space aliens.
 
Last edited:
So you're this ultra-conservative anti-Vatican II Roman Catholic lay order (mostly made up of old money families, including the descendants of the Brazilian royal family — yes, we were a monarchy for most of the 19th Century) who hates Pope Francis' guts for being a bleeding-heart liberal, who you gonna call?

The motherfucking Devil, that's who.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/this-s...ult-in-brazil-is-making-a-deal-with-the-devil

And of course their compound is like an hour's drive from my place.
So these idiots doing exorcisms start talking to the devil...and listening to him...and now they believe one of their former members is some Uber-Spirit who's making the earth climate change and will kill the Pope unless their radical dogma is followed.

What part of NOT TALKING TO THE FUCKING DEVIL DURING AN EXORCISM did you not understand?

These guys are like the best thing for exorcist trainers - a perfect case study.

The Pope needs break it down Old School and excommunicate these bastards. After summoning them to Rome so they can begin their 30-year lively conversation with the Dominicans. :grin:

And living an hour away...Ouch. :sad:
 
There's a whole backlog of posts I want to reply to, but busy, busy busy.

I did want to take a minute to post this, however. An article explaining that D&D was never a game, but a tool for existential manipulation. You know. Magic (though the author never goes there).

I thought I had heard of all the conspiracy theories. No. No I hadn't. Until now.
 
This episode of In Search Of... scared a lot of us impressionable youth back in the day.

 
There's a whole backlog of posts I want to reply to, but busy, busy busy.

I did want to take a minute to post this, however. An article explaining that D&D was never a game, but a tool for existential manipulation. You know. Magic (though the author never goes there).

I thought I had heard of all the conspiracy theories. No. No I hadn't. Until now.

Given the names of the co-conspirators it's crystal-clear to me that this is an Internet-polemic-savvy gamer taking the piss.
 
If you have never read The Mothman Prophecies, it is an interesting read. I first read it here before it was reprinted in softcover about five years ago. Point Pleasant, West Virginia was certainly an interesting place in 1966-67 with all the Mothman, Men in Black, and UFO sightings.
 
An interesting article (SFW) about disappearances at national parks. Bigfoot primary suspect.

Personally, I think it's more user error and crime, but the article is still very interesting. I listened to David Paulides speak once, and he makes a good case for the unexplained aspects of the disappearances.
 
Last edited:
I haven't read the article yet but what about alien or alternate dimension abductions?
 
I haven't read the article yet but what about alien or alternate dimension abductions?
The article doesn't go there. It's trying to imply Bigfoot, mostly because Bigfoot has gotten a lot of news recently with a surge of alleged sightings and even a local sheriff's department offering bounties (no link).

IIRC, Paulides didn't push any particular theory. He started out trying to investigate disappearances, without any paranormal angle. But he kept finding cases that couldn't be explained, even by experts (local terrain, local trackers, zoologists, forensic specialists, etc.).

As for dimensional and alien abductions, I can't comment on the former, but I have a few thoughts on the latter. I'd say 'Unlikely" with regard to alien intervention. Reason being that while there have been cases in which an alleged alien vehicle has done a snatch and grab while airborne, most abductions seem to require a place to park their craft. The ETs usually land their vehicle some distance away during an abduction operation, then secure and transport the abductee from the abduction site and transport them to the ET's vehicle.

A good rule of thumb is that if you can securely land a medium-sized or larger helicopter at a site, the ETs can put their vehicle in the same spot. Most of the terrian we're talking about here is heavily wooded, rocky, and uneven. I'd be hesitant to suggest most of the disappearances were due to ET intervention because of this fact.

EDIT: I'll clarify that I'm not promoting the idea of the objective reality of ETs, ET abductions, Bigfoot, etc. I'm only thinking in hypotheticals.
 
I've done a lot of reading on aliens and UFOs over the years and I've come to the belief that they are probably interdimensional beings that have loved playing tricks on humanity for tens of thousands of years. They have changed their appearance and shapes to adapt to the current trends on our society. I still have a hard time believing an alien species can travel in the tens of light years to get here, even if they are thousands of years ahead of us. I'm also fairly certain that time travel will never be discovered, so that rules out time travelling evolved beings from Earth's future.
 
I've done a lot of reading on aliens and UFOs over the years and I've come to the belief that they are probably interdimensional beings that have loved playing tricks on humanity for tens of thousands of years. They have changed their appearance and shapes to adapt to the current trends on our society. I still have a hard time believing an alien species can travel in the tens of light years to get here, even if they are thousands of years ahead of us. I'm also fairly certain that time travel will never be discovered, so that rules out time travelling evolved beings from Earth's future.

I think that's a fair conclusion to draw, and I respect it.

I have a very different perspective, however.
 
Banner: The best cosmic horror & Cthulhu Mythos @ DriveThruRPG.com
Back
Top