The Problems with Lake Monsters
F.W. “Ted” Holiday was the author of three notable books. We begin with 1968’s The Great Orm of Loch Ness. It was followed, in 1973, by The Dragon and the Disc. And, finally, there was The Goblin Universe.
The latter was published in 1986, seven years after his death. Holiday
had a deep interest in accounts of lake-monsters, and particularly so
the creatures of Loch Ness. Holiday wrote other books, too, but the
three above are the ones of particular relevance to this article.
Loch Ness
Holiday’s early work and research at Loch Ness led him to conclude
that whatever the creatures were, they were flesh and blood in nature.
As the years progressed, however, Holiday’s views changed. And they
changed radically. Strange synchronicities at Loch Ness, a chilling
encounter with a Man in Black, rumors of a dragon-worshiping cult in the
area, seances at the loch, and much more had a major effect on Holiday.
Indeed, The Great Orm of Loch Ness and The Goblin Universe could not have been further apart, in terms of theories, concepts and ideas. The former was the kind of Cryptozoology championed by Bernard Heuvelmans. The latter was full-on John Keel.
One of the things that led Holiday to change his mind on the nature
of lake-monsters was the fact that they were seen in not just huge
bodies of water, but in absurdly small ones, too. So, in
something not much bigger than a large pool, why couldn’t they be
caught? Holiday realized there were issues and anomalies that needed to
be addressed. He did address them – hence his change of
approach to the phenomenon and how to handle it. A perfect example of
such an absurdity can be found in a 1968 case from Ireland. Why is it so
absurd? Not because of the beast itself, but as a result of the size of
the lough. Or, rather, its lack of size. It’s approximately 100 yards x 80 yards and roughly 20 feet in depth.
It was on the evening of February 22, 1968 that something very weird occurred at Lough Nahooin.
Holiday’s chief source was a man named Stephen Coyne, who Holiday
interviewed five months after the strange encounter went down. Holiday
wrote: “At about seven on the evening of 22 February 1968, Stephen Coyne
went down to the bog by the lough to bring up some dry peat. With him
he took his eldest son, a boy of eight, and the family dog. Although the
sun had set it was still quite light. On reaching the peat-bed beside
Nahooin he suddenly noticed a black object in the water. Thinking it was
the dog he whistled to it; however, the dog came bounding along the
shore from behind. On seeing the object it stopped and started barking.”
Holiday continued: “He then saw that the object was an animal with a
pole-like head and neck about nine inches to a foot in diameter. It was
swimming around in various directions. From time to time it put its head
underwater; two humps then came into view. Occasionally, a flat tail
appeared. Once this came out near the head which argued length and a
high degree of flexibility. The thing was black, slick, and hairless
with a texture resembling an eel.”
According to what Holiday was told by Coyne, it was specifically the
dog’s barking that seemed to provoke a response from the monster. In
fact, the wide-open-mouthed thing swam directly towards the family pet.
When Coyne moved towards the dog, though, the beast immediately swam
away. Which may have been very fortunate for the faithful hound! Holiday
added: “At about this point the little boy ran home to bring his mother
to see the strange beast. When Mrs. Coyne and the children returned the
Peiste [which is Irish terminology for a lake-monster] was still busily
patrolling the tiny lake.”
According to the Coyne family, the unknown animal was around twelve
feet in length and, oddly, seemed to have no eyes. Or, at least, none
that could be seen. There were, however, a pair of stump-like
protrusions sticking out of the head of the monster – something which
has been reported in other lake-monster cases, too. According to
Holiday: “To and fro before the seven members of the Coyne family
strutted the Nahooin dragon. As dusk was setting they finally left it
and made their way home over the bog.”
So, we have what Holiday believed was a credible family, but who had
seen an incredible creature under even more incredible circumstances.
When it comes to lake-monsters, it’s often said that we lack hard
evidence of their existence because of the massive bodies of water in
which they deeply dwell and hide. This does make some sense,
particularly so when it comes to the likes of Champ of huge Lake Champlain.
But, there are so many reports of unknown creatures in very small
bodies of water that, arguably, should be easy to snare. But, that never
happens. Ever. Of course, the skeptic would likely say that
the reason why such creatures are never caught is because all the
reports are due to misidentification or hoaxing. That may well be the
case in some reports. But, I don’t think that tells the full story. And
neither did Ted Holiday.
If you want to learn more about what Holiday thought was really going
on, I suggest a reading of all three of his books, and in chronological
order. The books are not just fascinating for what they tell us. They
are also fascinating for the way in which they show how and why, and
over just a few years, Holiday came to alter his views on lake-monsters –
and alter them significantly so.
UFO Repairmen From The Stars? No!
Last year I wrote an article here at Mysterious Universe titled “UFOs: Extraterrestrial? Probably Not.”
One of the reasons I gave for suggesting that the UFO phenomenon is far
stranger than anything of an E.T. nature, is the fact that many UFO
incidents seem to be staged for the benefit of the witness. As if “they”
are trying to convince us they are extraterrestrials. But, they are
trying way too hard. I made mention of one particular angle of the UFO
phenomenon that, in my opinion, is a perfect example. I wrote:
QUOTE: “There’s the nature of the entities themselves: they
practically overemphasize who, or what, they claim to be. Take, for
example, all those ‘soil-sampling’ aliens of the 1950s and 1960s. You
know the ones: someone is working in their field, or driving down a
stretch of road, when they encounter a couple of diminutive aliens
collecting specimens of local plants, flowers, and vegetables. E.T. on a
scientific mission, right? No, not in my view.
“We only have to take a careful look at such cases (and there are
more than a few on record – here’s a link to a number of classic cases)
to see that these ‘incidents’ are clearly stage-managed. It’s a game, a
scenario that has nothing to do with real soil-sampling, but everything
to do with trying to emphasize the ET meme. Are we to believe that, time
and time again, aliens are so stupid that they can’t collect a few of
those aforementioned samples without having their cover blown? Of
course, they could easily avoid us! But, here’s the deal: they want to
be seen. It’s not an accident. It’s carefully planned. And it’s designed
to plant an image of ‘E.T. scientists’ in the mind(s) of the
witness(es).” END OF QUOTE.
Today, I’m going to highlight another – equally absurd – aspect of
Ufology. I’m talking about the many reports of people stumbling on
aliens “repairing” their craft. Like the supposed extraterrestrials who
endlessly take soil samples, “the repairers from beyond” are also
spectacularly useless when it comes to the issue of avoiding being seen.
Of course, the truth is (as per my words above) that they want to be seen. Yet again, to add weight to the E.T. meme. Let’s take a look at a few incidents.
Richard Hall
The late UFO researcher Richard Hall recorded a couple of such cases:
“November 25, 1964 New Berlin, NY: Twelve humanoids observed at
distance after two discs landed on hill; appeared to be engaged in
repair operation for hours. September 18, 1978 G. Filiputti, Melaria,
Porto Nogaro, Italy 3:30 P.M.: One 1-meter-tall humanoid, silver
tight-fitting coveralls, almond eyes, emerged from disc with dome,
appeared to be making repairs on rim.”
Then, there is this at UFO Evidence,
from March 30, 1995: “When a local farmer from Groot Marico in the
western Transvaal plains region first observed the saucer-shaped object
on Thursday morning, he noticed that it had a distinctly visible hole in
its hull. The farmer, Mr. Jan Pienaar (45), is of the opinion that this
‘vehicle’ landed on a remote country road between Coligny and
Brakspruit to have its damaged hull repaired. However, his arrival
probably prompted the ‘vehicle’s’ hasty retreat and rapid ascent into
the sky.”
In 1976, John Brent Musgrave wrote an article for Flying Saucer Review magazine titled “Saskatchewan, 1933: UFO Stops For Repairs.” Musgrave said in his article: “During the summer of 1933 stories drifted into Nipawin [Canada]
that some homesteaders, as well as a forest tower ranger, had been
observing strange lights in the sky and near the ground. Whatever it
was, they had been seeing it for the better part of a week.” Musgrave
added that according to three witnesses to a landed UFO in Nipawin: “The
Occupants appeared to be slightly shorter than the average man, and
were all dressed in what appeared to be silver colored suits or
uniforms. All appeared to be wearing helmets or ski caps, and all were
busy running around ‘repairing’ the craft.”
I could go on and on. But, you get the picture. Aliens are so
advanced that they can travel the Universe, but when they come here, to
Earth, they are endlessly plagued by problems of the “mechanical” kind.
And when and where there just happens to be someone around to see them
replacing the equivalent of a spark-plug or changing a tire. Nope.
Something else is afoot. I don’t know why the UFO phenomenon plays such
bizarre mind-games with us. But, it does. If we can figure out why, we
may be halfway towards figuring out the real nature of the UFO phenomenon.
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