John Keel: A Rare Appearance
Posted by: Loren Coleman on June 23rd, 2007
John A. Keel rarely attends conferences these days. However, he will be lecturing in October 2007.
UNIV-CON, the national paranormal conference, is to be held at Penn State University, in the town of State College, Pennsylvania, over the weekend of October 18-21, 2007.
As noted, among the conference lecturers is scheduled to be Fortean researcher and author John A. Keel of The Mothman Prophecies fame. Keel will specifically be coming out of retirement to give a talk on Saturday, October 20, 2007.
The organizers’ promotional material claims that UNIV-CON is considered to be the largest paranormal conference in America and is the only paranormal conference held at a university. (There may be some disagreement on that final point, among other conference organizers.)
Most of the other lecturers are associated with ghost and/or psychic phenomena.
Another speaker will be author and vampire researcher Michelle Belanger.
The timing of this conference is intriguing as it will be competing with various conferences, gatherings, and informal local celebrations being planned around North America, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the filming of the Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot footage on October 20, 1967, at Bluff Creek.
For full and complete info on the UNIV-CON and the scheduled speakers, please see here.
Mothman is a real enigma. Is it a large Owl? It’s been reported to have a man like face with a wing spread of 12 ft. It’s not a human, but a man could have a face like an owl.
Well I bought The Mothman Prophecies book by Keel when I was 16. Now I’m 18 and I still have a massive amount of curiosity for the creature. No, not because it’s “dark”, like most people my age, adore. It is simply the science of it and the open mind I have. I believe in DIMENSIONS. Therefore have an idea that maybe this, being, is from another dimension, in that case would appear frightening to us, but normal in his/her world.
Keel’s Strange Creatures From Time and Space made a huge impact on me as child. I was about 9 when I read the original paperback edition, complete with cover art by Frank Frazetta. Chapter 15, entitled The Bedroom Invaders, was particularly fascinating and frightening.
Keel was much more inclusive than the only other reference on strange creatures I had at the time, the early books of John Green.
Strange Creatures from Time and Space has been re-released as The Complete Guide to Mysterious Beings, which I believe is even sold at Barnes and Noble.
As I grew older, I grew more skeptical, and reading Keel today is a much different experience for me. It’s one thing to compile anecdotes, but Keel inserts his sometimes far-fetched theories and explanations into the mix. At times he reads like Charles Fort, in that you can’t always tell what is being offered in all seriousness, and what is just a big put-on.
Nevertheless, I would certainly recommend Keel’s books to any serious student of Cryptozoology and general weirdness. I’m sorry that I’ll miss his presentation.
hey everyone wow ive always been interested in the mothman phenomena. so im glad john keel is doing that presentation. i might buy a copy of his book in near future. thanks bill green
yet another reason I wish I could attend Univ-Con this year. Keel is the kind of person who, though I may not agree with all he says, I would love to discuss theories with.