Nick Redfern October 6, 2021

Making mention of the Men in Black to most people will likely provoke imagery of Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, who made the MIB famous in the hugely successful movie-trilogy, Men in Black, Men in Black II, and Men in Black III. In the movies, the MIB are the employees of a secret organization that operates outside of government – and outside of the law – and whose job it is to silence UFO witnesses, terrorize UFO investigators, and silence those with important data on UFOs. The real Men in Black, however, are very different. In fact, a strong case can be made that the MIB are part of a secret order designed to snuff out any and all research into the world of the supernatural. For example, we see the MIB linked not just to the UFO phenomenon, but also to the domain of the Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, and even alchemy. The late Brad Steiger, who dug deeply studied the history of alchemy noted the following: “Helvetius, the grandfather of the celebrated philosopher of the same name, was an alchemist who labored ceaselessly to fathom the mystery of the ‘philosopher’s stone,’ the legendary catalyst that would transmute base metals into gold. One day in 1666 when he was working in his laboratory at the Hague, a stranger attired all in black, as befitted a respectable burgher of North Holland, appeared and informed him that he would remove all the alchemist’s doubts about the existence of the philosopher’s stone, for he himself possessed such an object.”

In 1852, Charles Mackay wrote of this affair that the Man in Black “…asked Helvetius if he thought he should know that rare gem if he saw it. To which Helvetius replied, that he certainly should not. The burgher immediately drew from his pocket a small ivory box, containing three pieces of metal, of the color of brimstone, and extremely heavy; and assured Helvetius, that of them he could make as much as twenty tons of gold. Helvetius informs us, that he examined them very attentively; and seeing that they were very brittle, he took the opportunity to scrape off a small portion with his thumb-nail. He then returned to the stranger, with an entreaty that he would perform the process of transmutation before him. The stranger replied, that he was not allowed to do so, and went away.” This action of enticing people, and then denying them, is a typical tactic of the MIB, and particularly so as they seek to create frustration and a sense of failure in the minds of their targets. Let’s now take a look at Bigfoot.

Stan Gordon’s 2010 book, Silent Invasion, is a first-class study of a truly weird wave of Bigfoot-UFO activity that swamped the good folk of Pennsylvania in the period from 1972 to 1974. The book is a swirling cauldron filled with dark and ominous woods; glowing-eyed beast-men prowling the countryside by night; strange lights in the sky; UFO landings; neighborhoods gripped by terror and fear; and much, much more, too. And, it’s thanks to Stan’s research, as well as his in-depth files prepared back when all the dark drama was going on, that we’re now able to appreciate the curious chaos and calamity that collectively hit the unsuspecting folk of Pennsylvania all those years ago. But, that’s not all: paranormal activity, psychic possession, secret government interest in Bigfoot, and prophetic visions of a dark and foreboding future all come to the fore in a book that is guaranteed to make you think twice about the true nature of Bigfoot. And then there’s the Men in Black. Stan reels off the facts concerning more than a few cases where witnesses to Bigfoot received mysterious and intimidating phone-calls, threatening visits from the MIB, and warnings to stay away from the world of Bigfoot. Now onto the matter of the world’s most famous lake-monster, Nessie of Loch Ness, Scotland.

In 1974, a Nessie researcher named Ted Holiday – who uncovered evidence of a secret “dragon cult” at Loch Ness in 1969 – traveled to the loch and encountered not the monster, but a Man in Black – and near the shores of the loch itself. The man appeared to be dressed in what Holiday described as black plastic. His hands were gloved (black, too), and his head was covered by something that looked like a motorcycle helmet. No surprises on its color. Goggles covered his eyes, and even his nose and mouth were covered – by a black band, possibly made of cloth. Holiday tentatively walked towards the definitive Man in Black. Even when Holiday was mere feet away, the MIB neither moved nor acknowledged his presence. Most terrifying of all, there appeared to be no eyes behind the goggles. Shocked, Holiday continued walking for about ten feet and then stopped.

It was Holiday’s quickly thought out intention to pretend to fall on the grass and reach out to the man for support as he did so – specifically to see if he was physical in form, or some kind of intangible specter. Holiday was prevented from doing so, however, when the sounds of whistling and unintelligible whispering filled the air, and the MIB vanished – as in de-materialized, literally. As Holiday – now petrified out of his wits – shakily scanned the half a mile of open road that dominated the landscape, it became clear to him that there was simply no way the man could have made good a stealthy escape in conventional fashion. Stunned to his core, Holiday tried to reconcile the whole thing as nothing but a bizarre hallucination – a theory that, he knew deep down, simply wasn’t viable. Most ominous of all, one year later – to the exact day – Ted Holiday had a serious heart-attack at the very same spot. He died in 1979, still only in his fifties. To be sure, a warning to all Nessie-seekers, and MIB-seekers, too. And, it seems, to just about anyone and everyone who dares to cross paths with the secret order of the Men in Black.

MU*

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