The Gralien Report

Recently I posted about a free book giveaway that my friend Mike Mott, author of Caverns, Cauldrons and Concealed Creatures and other fascinating books dealing with inner-Earth mysteries is doing. Several folks were kind enough to link the contest rules to their sites for Mike (including yours truly), which involve writing a short essay about a selected topic and submitting to me (Mike asked me to be the judge for his giveaway). However, since the process of getting the word out has been interspersed throughout this week leading up to today’s deadline, we felt it would be better to extend the deadline for an addition week. So now, participants have until Saturday, February 27th to get their entries completed and sent to me (info@gralienreport.com) for their chance to win four of Mike’s books, free of charge! For the low-down on how to enter, what to write, and of course, what titles you’ll be receiving if you win, visit this link:

Wm. Michael Mott Free Book Contest

Good luck with your new extended deadline… and may the best essayist win!

Since I recently posted a review that dealt with several of my friend Wm Michael Mott’s books earlier this week, I have gotten a lot of response from the paranormal community about his unique, insightful work. Therefore, after talking with Mike about it, I thought I’d provide a little more information about ways you can access his work and art (that’s right… in addition to writing and compiling vast tomes of knowledge and adventure, Mike illustrates his own work like the best of ‘em!).

First, for those of you who use Facebook, I recently joined my friend Mike Mott’s group Mottimorphic Musings: The Writing and Art of Wm. Michael Mott. Here, you can learn a good bit about more of Mike’s writing, that not only delves into hollow-earth mysteries and folklore the likes of Shaver’s Deros and Teros (discussed recently in the reviews I’ve written for this blog), but also content for which the Lovecraft fans out there will find a certain appeal also, much as I did, particularly in the Pulp Winds compilation (which apropriately features a slimy, writhing creature on the cover engaged in mortal combat with a sword-wielding adventurer).

Since it is obvious I receive a lot of personal enjoyment from Mike’s work, the spinner of great fascinating yarns himself took notice during our many recent correspondences, and this led to an offer from the man himself: “Micah, why don’t you judge a contest where folks submit essays about paranormal (also fun and hilarious) topics, and the winner(s) will receive free copies of my books?” In the past, subterranean mysteries and commentary I’ve provided on books and films that deal with this subject matter (namely The Descent) have evoked a strong response from readers, much like Mike’s work (what is it about underground mysteries that fascinates us so much?). Since Mike’s idea would allow a few of you to enjoy his work as I have, I thought Mike’s idea would be a great time had by all, especially since the topics for the essays we have cooked up are fun all by themselves. But before I get to that, let me turn it over to Mike Mott himself, just so you get it from the Horse’s Mouth:

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It’s finally here… the inaugural edition of a brand new feature you’ll be seeing more of here at the Gralien Report: “Gradio Podcasts.” By following this link you can learn more about the new show, as well as download the latest edition featuring special guest Timothy Green Beckley. Tim (aka Mr. UFO) shares his legendary insights pertaining to UFOs, subterranean mysteries, MIBs, late-night radio and a huge number of other esoteric subjects… not an interview you’ll want to miss!

Click here to visit the new “Gradio Podcast” page!

I’ve always been very intrigued by the notion that underground worlds might exist… by this, I mean extensive cavernous realms beneath the Earth that descend to depths yet unexplored. This realm is, typically, only occupied by creatures that exist in exciting works of fiction by the likes of Jules Verne, and more recently, Jeff Long with his fascinating Descent Trilogy.

There is, however, one man who exists in tandem between the frightening works of fiction that pertain to the underworld, and the reality of strange, anomalous things purported to exist below ground. Wm Michael Mott, author of the book Caverns, Cauldrons, and Concealed Creatures, is a well known graphic artist and author who has written everything from Fortean and paranormal subjects to fantasy novels and short fiction inspired by the likes of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Mike is a very good friend, and I was delighted when he recently shared with me a series of links to interviews with him over the years, including a classic 2004 Coast to Coast AM appearance.

Wm Michael Mott Radio Appearances

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Along with various mention of excursions to the North Pole having taken place this year, one group has made some headway in organizing an expedition to find an opening at the Earth’s point where Earth’s axis meets the surface in the Northernmost hemisphere. The team, whose website is OurHollowEarth.com, shares this vision of discovery with us at their website:

This proposed expedition would like to conduct some scientific observations in the Arctic that is hoped will resolve once and for all whether the hollow earth theory has any validity. The indigenous Eskimos believe there is a hole in the Arctic Ocean. Observations of several Arctic explorers of mirages of land in the Arctic indicate that the most plausible location for a north polar opening that leads into the interior of the earth is located at 87.7 N Latitude, 142.2 E Longitude. To check out this theory, a group of hollow earth believers and scientists would like to charter a Russian Nuclear Icebreaker into the Arctic sea.

The notion that “mirages of land” can be visible stem from a variety of interesting sources. Apparently, Russians were some of the earliest to claim to have sighted what was dubbed “Sannikov Land”, north of the New Siberian Islands. Sannikov Land, in essence, is regarded by most historians as a pseudo-historic “phantom island” that may have existed in the Arctic Ocean. Yakov Sannikov and Matvei Gedenschtrom made the initial claim during their 1809-1810 cartographic expedition to the New Siberian Islands. Being first to report the sighting of a “new land” north of Kotelny Island in 1811, Sannikov’s name was also given to the supposed land mass.
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Several years ago, I remember Joshua Warren informing me about a phone call he had received on the L.E.M.U.R. office line from a woman in Burnsville, North Carolina, who shared a strange story. In her message, she had described an encounter with a “strange little man” in the backwoods between her home and the nearby town of Spruce Pine. I made a follow up call within a few days, and was able to speak to the witness about her peculiar experience. While camping in the area, a remote region with one primary highway winding throughout heavily wooded valleys, she described how a strange, fur-covered little man had appeared and leaped onto her car one evening. “My boyfriend and I had been hearing weird noises, and we put out the fire and went and got in the car,” I remember her telling me. “Around that time, this little thing came running out of the woods and leaped up onto the hood. In the darkness it was too difficult to get a good look at it, as it was mostly in silhouette. It climbed onto the top of the car, and I remember hearing it scratching around up there right before we took off.” Needless to say, they left in a hurry.

Based on what was described, I’m not convinced that what the witnesses actually saw wasn’t a raccoon. I asked if this creature had appeared to move upright or on four legs, to which she said she wasn’t certain. As for the mysterious “scratching” sounds on the roof of her car, the clawed paws of a raccoon certainly would be the most likely solution, and the raccoon hypothesis nonetheless explains the fur she and her boyfriend described seeing in the creature’s silhouetted outline also. Whether or not the folks who shared this story were actually accosted by a strange little “man”, North Carolina and many other parts of the world nonetheless have folk traditions and histories that involve “little people”, presumed to be spirit folk, which sometimes do appear to cause mischief. Read the rest of this entry »

Earlier today my buddy Nick Redfern sent me a link to a photo (right) of a humanoid “cryptid” he had posted on his blog recently, which in reality is one of a bizarre series of statues that adorn the twists and turns of a particular cave system open for tours below England. “What was interesting was the intricately woven tale that accompanied the picture when it was mailed to me,” Nick recounts. “I forget the precise details now, but it all revolved around the claim that intelligent, sword-wielding cryptids were roaming the many and varied caves that exist deep below the British Isles. The letter ran to 2 or 3 pages – and was, of course, all complete nonsense. So, if you too have ever been on the receiving end of this photo, just enjoy it for what it is: a piece of man-made entertainment and nothing else!”

Recently I also received an email from a Gralien Report reader named Jacob with some questions about my views regarding the biblical Nephilim; especially in conjunction with reports of hominid relics and cryptozoology, as well as tensions building in the great surge toward 2012. According to Mark Wickstrom in his book The Gospel of Grace, there are three common views regarding what the Nephilim were:

1) They were the offspring of fallen angels and human women.
2) They were the hybrid offspring of descendants of Seth with those of Cain.
3) They are not historical figures and are ancient imagery with questionable meaning.

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There are many theories (and fantasies) that involve planet Earth in large-scale operations far beyond human comprehension, namely those like the well-known Gaia theory, which proposes Earth as a self-contained living organism. Of course, in abductee lore, as well as many notions presented in John Lear’s Dark Hypothesis and other UFO literature, Earth acts as a Matrix-style “farm” of sorts, from which humans are harvested by evil aliens who operate from beneath Terra Firma in vast underground bases.

Still, following the logic of a planet like Earth being utilized by aliens for resources of some kind, blogger Geoff Manaugh of the BLDGBLOG Web site proposes yet an even stranger speculative use for which aliens may be able to source our planet: a geological harddrive.

Manaugh describes the notion where “perhaps someday we won’t actually need harddrives at all: we’ll simply use geology itself. In other words, what if we could manipulate the earth’s own magnetic field and thus program data into the natural energy curtains of the planet.”

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When I was a child, I always enjoyed watching reruns of the popular 1970s television program In Search Of… (so much, in fact, that to this day as I conduct research I imagine Leonard Nimoy narrating my endeavors… just kidding). Of all the fascinating subjects that were divulged by Alan Lansburg and Co. during the run of the program, one of my favorite subjects dealt with what was called the “Coso Artifact.” Essentially, this was a small stone which, according to Wallace Lane, Virginia Maxey, and Mike Mikesell who discovered it, had been mistaken for being a geode up until the destruction of a diamond cutting tool used while trying to slice through the mineral. Upon realizing something hard was encased within, X-ray photography later revealed that, curiously, the stone contained a spark plug. Supposition as to how a manufactured object could have been present so many centuries ago, especially long enough for mineral formations to occur around it, created a sensation that would last several years.

The object was eventually proven not to be of the vintage once believed, as evidenced by other instances where similar findings could be ruled out more easily. J.M. Cronyn’s 1990 book The Elements of Archaeological Conservation discussed many instances where modern-looking machined objects have been discovered within stone or hard mud (called nodules) obviously encased during a period spanning mere decades, rather than centuries or more.

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That’s no joke: as reported yesterday by the San Francisco Chronicle, the Martian lander has detected snowflakes falling from the skies above the red planet:

Scientists studying the coded signals from the lander Phoenix on the planet’s arctic surface detected the snow falling lightly from clouds drifting across the sky some 2 1/2 miles above the spacecraft, said James Whiteway, an atmospheric scientist from York University in Canada.

“Nothing like this has ever been seen on Mars before,” he said.

So one must ask; if indeed snow can fall on the red planet, then how soon until Hell DOES freeze over? Probably not until the evil Deros that live in Earth’s center finally perfect the cold fusion devices they plan to implement in their plans for world domination…