Sixteenth century astrologer Michel de Nostradame has been credited with a great many magical and mundane accomplishments, most of which fall into the category of urban legend. Evidently his astrology skills were quite poor while his apothecary abilities were decent enough. And he wrote poems, lots of them, which were sufficiently confusing as to be thought to be written in code. So when we read anything inferring he predicted the current outbreak of Coronavirus, we need to take a step back from the tragic media circus and get a very large grain of salt to take with with the story. However if you’d like to better understand how a prophetic experience might manifest for a receptive individual, try Spirit Messages/EVP, a Visionary Experience and Rediscovering Nostradamus. Not all prophecies are hokum and not all prophets are gifted. Pass the salt please. (CM)

The Mysterious San Luis Valley - Part 1 of this quartet of conversations with "paranormal researcher" Christopher O’Brien on a remarkably anomalous area in Colorado and New Mexico was very interesting. Part 2 is even better. Having discussed his early career previously, O’Brien now explains topics like "cheap fireworks," BOLs (Balls-of-Light), and "rods." What's likely behind cattle mutilations and a number of other questions are answered knowledgeably and believably. A midwestern location became anomalously famous recently as a Series of Eerie Mystery Flashes Light Up Night Sky in Ohio. Tim Binnall has the background and the whole video footage from a home's security system. Fox19Now provides complementary information in Red-orange Flash Reported in Skies above Clermont County: 'I thought it was an Explosion'. Paul Seaburn is following the story and reports Mysterious Lights in Sky Over Bethel, Ohio Still Unexplained a Week Later. Invoking the experience those in Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming are having regarding their drone flap, Paul concludes "Perhaps it's time to accept the obvious...getting no answer is now the new norm." (WM)

Rich Reynolds discusses the general weaknesses of the Ancient Astronaut/Alien construct for just about any remarkable human achievement. Daniel's Rock Megaliths asks for help with the "Ancient Alien interpretation" for what Mediterranean history students called "cyclopaean architecture" and marveled at--without invoking the need for extra-human agency--in the days before tv series began promoting their mantras to a viewing public. The Daniel Factor allows that a reader's observations about certain specific wonders are legitimate. The Ancient Astronaut/Alien Patina of Atheism suggests another possibly negative aspect of Ancient Alien belief. A good, current, readable, yet Oxford University Press-published reference is Kenneth Feder's Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology, 10th edition (December 23, 2019). (Note particularly "My Pseudoscience Cheat Sheet" on pp. xix-xx, and Chapters 9 and 10.) (WM)

The inventor behind a set of "Tic Tac-like" patents has communicated with Brett Tingley, and the result if anything just makes the whole matter "confuseder and confusinger." Brett sets Dr. Salvatore Pais' answers to his questions against those of other experts in the strange hyper-advanced physical fields, and we are probably no closer to judging whether the stuff Pais claims is real, visionary, or wonky. Brett notes the apparent disconnect in Pais' current activities from those underlying the scope in the physics-bending patents, and also highlights previous War Zone articles on them. Staying with mind-stretching stuff, Keith Basterfield gives us AAWSAP/AATIP; MRI Brain Scans and Skinwalker Ranch. Keith brings together disparate pieces of information to link MRI scans on some Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) employees at Skinwalker Ranch with the rather enigmatic and surprising "Statement from a Senior Manager of BAASS" that was part of a May 4, 2018 Las Vegas KLAS-TV news report. It's interesting sleuthing, but as with Dr. Salvatore Pais, we are still left with more questions than solid answers. (WM)

It does seem that Ayahuasca has the capacity to alter the minds of its users--and present alternate realities--mostly for the better. But let’s keep in mind that celebrities rave about a lot of strange things, like the sold out candle that smells like a particular woman's nether regions. Point is, use your own good judgement. (And stick to basic lavender in your candles!) Here’s a similar report, only without Hollywood endorsement. A New Understanding: The Science of Psilocybin. Seems ’shrooms have made quite the turnaround and are joining the ranks of respectable pharmaceuticals--almost, at least. If initial studies are accurate, the dealer down the street in the 1980s was peddling a safer balm for anxiety than our doctor. Now that’s irony. (CM)

Michael Masters' recent book Identified Flying Objects: A Multidisciplinary Scientific Approach to the UFO Phenomenon generates a good bit of analysis in this Leonard David article. Masters has mixed insights from his biological anthropologist day job with speculations on time travel to argue the ETH has got it all wrong. It's not extraterrestrials forging their way across the incredible vastnesses of space to visit our little orb. Nope; it's our descendants somehow literally turning back the hands of Time. Paul Seaburn has taken notice of the possibility that UFOs May Actually Be Tourist-Carrying Cruise Ships From the Future. Paul has fun with the Space.com article and how its premise may be commercialized. Well, even though Neil deGrasse Tyson Says UFO Does Not Mean Aliens, but Something Else, Tyson's not jumping on the "extratempestrial" band wagon. In a short video Tyson gives full vent to what "UFO" actually stands for, and his basic point is of course valid. Reporter Nirmal Narayanan also reminds us that Stephen Bassett both claims Donald Trump's election win "has hindered the process of alien disclosure," yet that "disclosure will most likely happen in 2020." (WM)

Hakan Blomqvist continues to provide little-known information on Early Contactee Extraordinaire George Adamski and his followers. Even for one not immersed in Contacteeism, the stories fascinate. John Keel was enmeshed with Contactees, which affected his perspective on "the biggest story of our times." In A Letter to Coral and Jim Lorenzen, August 8, 1966 we have more on navigating through the business of his publishing findings on the subject during that heady time period. Further insights are provided in Two Letters from June Larson, August 1 & 15, 1966. Concerns over "UFO cultists" such as Wayne Aho and Frank Stranges and photo authentication pop up here. (WM)

Primatologist Mireya Mayor walks the fine line between adventurer and fool and crosses slightly over to the latter side--but not before getting what she came for. The results will give Sasquatch fans goosebumps even as we slap our foreheads and wonder how some people always manage to come out unscathed. And since we’re on the topic, get a load of this next headline. Washington DOT Cam Spots Bigfoot! Well it certainly spots something, but we’re not inclined to believe it is even remotely related to our favorite Hairy Man. Score: Pareidolia 1, Hopeful Squatchers 0. (CM)

It's time for out-there assertions on ancient times, places, and gods. Jason Colavito ably dissects a set of assertions by Robert Schoch. Jason's points about translation resonate. Atlantis pops up, of course, in Colavito's discussion. Tristan Shaw takes us back before even Atlantis in The Disappearance of J.C. Brown, a Man Who Allegedly Found Lemurian Ruins. Shaw's is a fascinating account of the "history" of Lemuria and a quirky and mysterious figure with extravagant claims and an unexplained disappearance connected with it. Shaw is excerpting from a book of his that sounds morbidly interesting. The two legendary civilizations appear together in Colavito's Tom DeLonge on Instagram: Angels Might Be Aliens From Atlantis. This is a troubling look at the thinking of To The Stars...Academy of Arts & Science co-founder Tom DeLonge. Curt Collins' Comment to the Colavito piece mentions how the Atlantis/UFO connection came to be, as discussed in Collins' own valuable rather older post UFO History: The Saucers from Atlantis. (WM)

In a story published on January 17th, updated on the 21st and not yet well-recognized, a Wichita, Kansas group may be responsible for some of the drone reports in the recent flap. Sterling (Colorado) Journal-Advocate reporter Jeff Rice has the raw basics from an interview with claimed group member Michael Spicer of Durango, CO. The article lacks particulars as to time and place that would help judge how much this claim would explain the "drone flap" and even its legitimacy. The post spells the name of the group two different ways, which gets continued in secondary articles on other media outlets. Paul Seaburn has taken note that a UFO Hunter Claims Responsibility for Mysterious Colorado Drones and done some checking into the group. As with the lack of really probative information in the newspaper article, Paul's research has come up with very little. For perspective, a current tragic example of positive capabilities of drone flying is Northwest Colorado Drone Pilots Didn't Get Outcome They Wanted, But Efforts Helped Find Missing Man. (WM)

Residents in a Thai village are being plagued by mysterious deaths of their men, so much so that a ghostly apparition is being blamed, and households are displaying a talisman to ward the sickly specter away. It might just work, but if not they can always pick up a few ideas from The Brave Mortal’s Guide To Ghost Hunting. This week’s guest on the Paranormal Podcast discusses ways of approaching spook-seeking with some credibility. We also have psychic sleuthing with Jeff Belanger on The Paracast. Ghosts Beware: we’re after you! (CM)

Brent Swancer leads off a quartet of truly mysterious posts with one more iconic case, this one being one of the most frightening and puzzling of all multiple abductions. An intense and deeply unnerving human story at the least, and possibly more. With some relief we turn to Nick Redfern for When the Government of the Soviet Union Faked a Crashed UFO. Nick tells a fascinating and ill-known story. You know you're in trouble, and you even know what kind of trouble it is when you read Nick's next title: "M.I.B." - You Want Weird? You've Got It! And here Nick delivers with a couple of really odd tales from the 1930s Canadian prairie. Nick then transports us to the 1998 American southwest to introduce "Two Men, Wearing All Black Military Fatigues". These gents were men of few words and ominous, no-nonsense mien. And what they guarded was puzzling and itself rather sinister. (WM)

Stand back all you monster hunters who have devoted your lives to solving the mystery of What Lives In Loch Ness. And you scientists who’ve been on the case can retire now. There’s a new kid on the block, a self-proclaimed doctor of forensics named Vladi S. PeCan, and for an undisclosed fee, a private team to assist, and access to any equipment he desires, he’ll catch the Loch Ness Monster and prove she carries her young about in a pouch. Right. Or you could turn your attention to some actual scientists and researchers who have just announced that the Giant Squid’s Full Genome Revealed, Providing Clues About Mysterious Creature. Who would have thought the Krakken—or rather, a Krakken—would donate its body to science to not only teach us about cephalopods, but about ourselves as well? Except for that loudmouth at Loch Ness. It’s doubtful anyone can teach him anything. (CM)

We here conclude the nine-part George Knapp interview with Luis Elizondo. Not sure the title is actually the message of this particular segment, as Luis Elizondo shies away from the Ranch per se. But it's an interesting general discussion of intelligence problems. At the end of this sixth installment the discussion slides into Luis Elizondo on What Should be Secret, and Studying 'Metamaterial'. As George Knapp notes, there are "Two very different points" in this segment. In the eighth section Elizondo admits To The Stars Academy Knows More UFO Videos are out There, but "in the end, it's not about the videos." He's probably right, but "grainy" or not, the three publicly released videos certainly have added punch to the message TTSA has tried to promote. And the interview ends with the former AATIP leader saying his Public Role Has Tortured Him, but Luis Elizondo saw it as the Only Way. He's heartened that "brave individuals" in the legislature are finally taking UFOs seriously. And, truth be told, it's hard to imagine most of this happening without this one man taking the stand he did. (WM)

We have a pair of inexplicable deaths with undeniable paranormal connections and dark overtones of--cue the spooky music--murder. Our first report is a case of an investigation gone terribly wrong. Or a really unhappy marriage. Case number two is The Mysterious Paranormal Death of Christopher Case. Was this a curse, a haunting, or an undiagnosed case of paranoid schizophrenia? Corpses don't tell. (CM)

Papua New Guinea is noted for the largest butterflies in the world, but it also has an interesting though ill-known UFO history. Thus Keith Basterfield proves with yet another set of sightings from hitherto unprobed Australian government files. In rather the same vein, Jocelyne LeBlanc reveals a Newly Declassified Document Sheds New Light On UFO Sighting Over Soviet Missile Range. Unsurprisingly but thankfully, we owe John Greenewald for his efforts in prising out the document, and LeBlanc links to further information from Newsweek and Greenewald's The Black Vault. Another worrisome and far better known case is The Time UFOs Buzzed Washington D.C. and the White House. Brent Swancer continues his practice of reviewing iconic and still mysterious UFO encounters. He next adds the famous Chiles-Whitted sighting of July 23, 1948, concerning An Airliner, a UFO, and Mysterious Lost Documents. For the context to this case and the story of the "Estimate of the Situation" as well as the Washington National Airport Sightings, this historian continues to recommend UFOs and Government: A Historical Inquiry, Michael Swords and Robert Powell, eds., published by Anomalist Books. (WM)

We are a society with advanced communication abilities, technology that almost exceeds our wildest imaginings, and a conviction that science can conquer all. But plunge us into darkness in the middle of the afternoon with no eclipse or volcanic activity to pin the blame on, and we’re likely to panic, for good reason. These are the kinds of cases that the late William Corliss devoted a good part of one of his Sourcebook volumes to. The only ones to express certainly when such fortean events occur are the Russian authorities. When Green Snow Falls on Meteor City of Chelyabinsk, folks in charge are very confident, informing their citizens that the green snow is perfectly natural and safe. What could possibly go wrong? (CM)

As we've previously mentioned, on June 27, 2018 former Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) senior person Luis Elizondo sat down with George Knapp for an interview that George has sliced into 9 segments. The first installment covered why Elizondo rather avoids ufologists lest their ideas create "analysis bias" in his interpretation of data. In this second slice Elizondo defends the success of the alphabet-soup studies spawned by the DoD's foray into the paranormal in 2007 and after. With AATIP's UFO Findings More Than Pentagon Admits, Luis Elizondo Says there's discussion of the 2009 Harry Reid letter, and Elizondo's statement that AATIP was "killed." In Seeing the Big Picture Crucial to UFO Discussions, Luis Elizondo Says Elizondo talks about the "Five Observables" binning process that emerged from the data the program studied, and in AAWSAP Got UFO Studies--and a Lot More--Started in 2007 Elizondo presciently predicts the eventual victory of "Advanced Aerospace" over "Advanced Aviation" in the AATIP's nomenclature, and emphasizes how the AATIP program was "nuts and bolts." We'll conclude the series in a future post. (WM)