S7: The John Keel Mysteries: UFO's, Hidden Realms and Other Strange Phenomena

My special guest tonight is author and researcher Brent Raynes, who's here to discuss the late John Keel and the many years he spent looking into strange phenomena.     Brent Raynes is the author of Visitors from Hidden Realms (2004), On The Edge of Reality (2009), and John A. Keel: The Man, The Myths, and the Ongoing Mysteries (2019). He is the editor of the online magazine Alternate Perceptions (apmagazine.info) and has been researching and investigating UFOs and other high-strange phenomena for 55 years, going back to age 14. He has worked with the Dr. Edgar Mitchell Foundation for Research into Extraterrestrial and Extraordinary Encounters (FREE), contributed a chapter for their book Beyond UFOs (2018), and worked with the UFO Contact Center International.     John Alva Keel, born Alva John Kiehle (March 25, 1930 – July 3, 2009), was an American journalist and influential UFOlogist who is best known as the author of The Mothman Prophecies.  Early life[edit]  Keel was born in Hornell, New York, the son of a small-time bandleader. His parents separated, and his grandparents raised him. He was interested in magic and had his first story published in a magicians' magazine at age 12. He left school at 16 after taking all the science courses.  He was a freelance newspaper contributor, scriptwriter for local radio and television outlets, and author of pulp articles such as "Are You A Repressed Sex Fiend?" He served in the US Army during the Korean War on the staff of the American Forces Network in Frankfurt, Germany. He claimed that while in the Army, he was trained in psychological warfare as a propaganda writer.[1]  Career[edit]  After leaving the military, he worked as a foreign radio correspondent in Paris, Berlin, Rome, and Egypt.  In 1957, he published Jadoo, a book describing his time in Egypt and India investigating the Indian rope trick and the legendary yeti. 1966, he produced the "spy and superhero" spoof novel The Fickle Finger of Fate. Influenced by writers such as Charles Fort, he began contributing articles to Flying Saucer Review, investigated UFOs, and assorted Forteana as a full-time pursuit. Keel analyzed what he called "windows" and "waves" (or flaps, as they are often called) of reported UFO events, concluding that a disproportionate number occurred on Wednesdays and Saturdays.[2] A member of the Screenwriters Guild, Keel reportedly wrote scripts for Get Smart, The Monkees, Mack & Myer for Hire, and Lost in Space.[3]  In 1967, Keel popularized "men in black" in an article for the men's adventure magazine Saga, entitled "UFO Agents of Terror."  Rejection of Extraterrestrial Hypothesis [edit]  Like contemporary 1960s researchers such as J. Allen Hynek and Jacques Vallée, Keel initially hoped to validate the prevailing extraterrestrial visitation hypothesis somehow. However, after one year of investigations, Keel concluded that the extraterrestrial hypothesis was untenable. Indeed, both Hynek and Vallée eventually arrived at a similar conclusion. As Keel himself wrote:  I abandoned the extraterrestrial hypothesis in 1967 when my field investigations disclosed an astonishing overlap between psychic phenomena and UFOs... The objects and apparitions do not necessarily originate on another planet and may not even exist as permanent constructions of matter. We ar

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