Seem to have missed your comment until I was responding to Hillbilly above, sorry.

I’ve never heard myself called a pseudosceptic before. I’m usually the wacko nutjob that thinks there might actually be something to all this stuff, even protrusions onto the physical realm of purely psychogenic entities (Tulpoids and such, which given your statement that Globos are more common in South American countries, may perhaps be relevant here).

And no, I don’t believe that if there is a conventional explanation that it therefore follows that it must always be conventional (Although I suspect that’d be the way to bet most of the time). I personally think strapping a few red and green blinky lights on a flying saucer so that it looks like an airplane at night (Or black helicopter) would be a great way to camouflage the deadlier cowtipping and horseripping activities being reported.

As for the Globo footage I commented on, being a regular exhibitor at festivals where balloons and such are commonly released, I have seen my fair share of them. I have seen several that moved as fast as and in exactly the same manner as the Globo in the clip without the need for gale-force winds, which naturally leads me to suspect that that is in fact what it is. To my eyes the scale seems right as well. Add a little anthropomorphic speculation here that were it a flying humanoid, it would have much better control of its seemingly chaotic, wind-tossed flight characteristics, and the case seems very persuasive.

Ultimately, in the field of the paranormal, or science for that matter, it doesn’t matter what it really is (As sad as perhaps that is to say), but rather what you can prove that it is to a reasonable degree of probability. Could it be a flying humanoid? The probability is there, if slim (Although, not knowing the full facts of the sighting, it’s hard to tell if they would make it more persuasive. They certainly might. All I can go on here for the moment is the footage itself). Can you prove that this is what it is? I don’t believe that you can.

The second clip you provided a link to is even less impressive, owing to its pixelated, and unfocused condition, although perhaps the original is clearer. From what I can discern, the objects seem quite similar.

I am quite interested in this topic, and in no way wish to dismiss your beliefs, nor your obvious enthusiasm in this regard, so I apologize if that has appeared the case.

Do you have any links in English to more information on Globos and such?

Personally, I’m not quite convinced of the reality (If that word is even remotely appropriate) of tulpoid manifestations, but I find the possibility very intriguing. Sure would go far in explaining the more bizarre critters out there, like this thing.

“I just wondered–was there ever any Klan activity in or near Flatwoods?”

I am sure there was. It was a pretty common practice across much of the U.S. at that time.

“Either the Ku Klux Klan or the witchcraft angle MIGHT perhaps suggest a parapsychological “thought form” or “tulpa” theory of a temporarily materialized mental or archetypal image, for those inclined to “far out” theories!”

For some reason people in the city, among other places, Think that people in W.V. are stupid inbreds. If you think that well over a hundred people Fabricated a story or saw a klan member and freaked out and thought it was an alien or a witch, Or that all of them were hallucinating, Then I think that you may be experiencing from “Tulpa”! When A West Virginian tells you what they saw, That’s exactly what they saw period. Most of us know every animal here and the ones that stop off here during migration. For people like you that think that there is some kind of stupid factor here, We will always be two steps ahead of people like you! Common sense is in abundance here. Always has been. I read a theory of what happened by a man from the Air Force but I can’t remember his name but he said that There was a dogfight that started over Gulf Breeze, Florida(or somewhere off the coast of florida) between the air force and several large ufo’s on the same date. One of the ufo’s was hit and went north east. He thinks that maybe it was the one that landed in Point Pleasant, W.V. for repairs or was waiting here until help arrived. This is not the first or last time that ufo’s and the men in black have been seen here. Actually, It’s more common than you think! Also, I haven’t been to the Mothman festival yet but would love to go. I don’t see a thing in the world wrong with them having a festival and selling merchandise. Hell, That’s the american way. I can assure you though that it’s not as much about the money as it is about telling the world about what happened here.

Just another reason to stay out of VA if you don’t like the weird (good thing I love the out of the ordinary, it makes this modern scientific/technologic world less boring). Thanks for the great article

As a true sceptic (British spelling) I can’t deny that your suggested explanation of the object in the video is a possibility. However, people of your philosophical stripe (pseudoscepticism) think that if there is a conceivable mundane explanation for a phenomenon then that explanation MUST be true (which actually goes well beyond the mere assumption of probability proscribed by the principle of Occam’s Razor).

Not only do I reject your certainty, I also question the probability of your helium balloon explanation. To begin with, helium balloons rise into the clouds, not descend from them (this is a law of nature). And, to travel at the observed speed of the object, there would have had to have been quite a gale blowing at the time, and I see no evidence for this in the movement of the clouds or of the branches of the trees behind which the object passes (you have to look at the video frame by frame to check this out), or hear any evidence of strong winds in the soundtrack. There is also the fact that this object seems to change its form as it descends - seeming to “grow” a kind of protective canopy which turns it from looking like a space or diving suit into a flying Humpty Dumpty.

Anyway, and incidentally, here is a flash video of a rather more sinister looking UFH - a “Mothman”, perhaps?

Haz Mat suit 1
Haz Mat suit 2
Haz Mat suit 3

I wish I could find a period-correct picture of something from the 1940s or 1950s for better comparison.

Incidentally, I know that the military was conducting biolgical warfare testing throughout the 1950s in which they released what was thought to be harmless strains of bacteria on populated areas, and then measured the spread of the airborne bacteria to see how effective the spread and infection rate of a biological agent would be. Unlikely infections from this “harmless” bacteria ended up killing more than one person. However, this does not necessarily have anything to do with that as the kids may have simply stumbled upon someone cooking up some other sort of illegal chemical concoction that could have been anything from an herbicide to a pest killer to who knows.

However, the theory doesn’t address the claims of the creature being 12′ tall or floating. Although if there was chemical fog on the ground (which isn’t described in the story) the fog could have obscured the creature’s legs or a machine on which they were driving.

However, if it was just a person in a biohazard suit on a cherry picker spraying chemicals on bagworms in his trees, why wouldn’t he have just come forward and said that?

Anyway, just another line of thinking that might spark something in somebody else.