Nick Redfern December 2, 2021

In the latter part of 2002 and into the early months of 2003, the U.K. was inundated with reports of Bigfoot-type beasts. From the southernmost parts of England to practically the tip of Scotland, people claimed encounters with large, hair covered, man-beasts – many of a marauding and violent kind. One of those who was determined to get to the heart of the mystery was Jonathan Downes. He is the director of the Woolsery, England-based Center for Fortean Zoology – which is one of the very few, full-time groups in the world dedicated to the study of strange creatures, such as the Chupacabra, the Loch Ness Monster, and the Abominable Snowman. Without doubt, the most intense wave of activity occurred in the north of England at a town called Bolam – or, more specifically at Bolam Lake, a large body of water that is itself a definitive hotspot for young lovers on Friday and Saturday nights. It was on a freezing cold morning in January 2003 that Downes and his team of monster-hunters drove up to Bolam from Downes’ home in Devon – a mammoth convoy-style drive, to be sure. High-strangeness hit the team – and in sinister fashion – just about as soon as they arrived. To his consternation, Downes found that all of his electrical devices – his computer, his cell-phone, his audio equipment, and his cameras – were completely and utterly drained of power. All of them had to be charged before they could be used. This further bolsters the idea that energy-“eating” entities – in the form of Bigfoot – were wildly on the loose and had already got their claws into not just Jon Downes and his crew, but into his devices, too.

(Nick Redfern) Monster-hunter Jonathan Downes

Of the many and varied accounts given to Downes during his time at Bolam Lake, one of the most intriguing came from a man named Neil. In his 2004 autobiography, Monster Hunter, Downes says: “Possibly the most astounding story that [Neil] had to recount had taken place a couple of summers before our visit. He had been in the woods at the opposite side of the lake with his girlfriend. They had been making love when his girlfriend told him she that she could see what she thought was a man in a monkey suit watching their sexual adventures from behind a bush. Neil, unsurprisingly, looked around the area but could find nothing.” It should be noted that tales of monsters suddenly appearing when sex is going down are curiously intriguing. Indeed, there are numerous such cases. And, I’ll share some of the stories with you.

It was back in the summer of 1969 that sightings of a strange creature began to surface from the city of Lake Worth, Texas – which takes its name from the local, large lake of the very same name. Although many of the reports suggest that the creature may have been a nomadic Bigfoot, it soon became known to one and all as the Goat-Man – on account of the fact that some eyewitnesses claimed it had goat-like horns protruding from its hair-covered head. Hardly the kind of thing that you see every day! Most of the stories had one thing in common: for the most part they came from couples parked in their cars late at night, deep in the woods of the lake, and doing what couples have done ever since the car was invented. One such couple were John Reichart and his wife. Along with a couple of friends, who were also there to have some fun, they found themselves confronted by the weird beast, and at the stroke of midnight, no less. It leapt onto the car’s hood and left deep scratch marks along the side of the vehicle. The beast then quickly bounded off into the darkness. The fun was definitely over and all four quickly, and filled with panic, headed to the local police station. The story was taken very seriously by the local cops, who had no doubt that the four were in states of deep fear.

(Nick Redfern) Hanging out at the lair of the Goat-Man: Lake Worth, Texas

It wasn’t long before the story reached the local media: the first story on the creature was titled “Fishy Man-Goat Terrifies Couples Parked at Lake Worth.” It appeared in the pages of the Fort Worth-based Star Telegram, on July 10, 1969. The article was written by none other than the late conspiracy theorist, Jim Marrs, who died in 2017. It’s intriguing to note that one of the witnesses to the Goat-Man – a man named Jack Harris, a resident of Fort Worth – attempted to take a picture of the creature, only to find that his camera suddenly died on him, which is near-identical to the situation Jon Downes found himself in an Bolam lake, England in January 2003 – decades later and on the other side of the world. The mystery of the Goat-Man soon came to a sudden end; although, it’s worth noting that reports still continue to surface even now and again, suggesting that the monster is far from being done with the people of Lake Worth. One final thing on the Lake Worth Goat-Man: for many of the witnesses, the closest thing they could liken the creature to was a satyr of ancient Greek mythology. It’s worth noting that satyrs had powerful sex drives.

Between late 1966 and December of 1967, the people of Point Pleasant, West Virginia found themselves in the icy grip of a fear-inducing monster. It became infamously known as the Mothman. Its name was most apt: the creature was described as being humanoid in form, but with a large pair of dark wings, and a pair of eyes that blazed menacingly. Numerous encounters with the beast were reported, all of them creating overwhelming terror in those that crossed its path. People saw the man-beast soaring the sky late at night, lit up by a powerful moon. It chased terrified drivers on the dark roads around town – and matters all culminated in the collapse of Point Pleasant’s Silver Bridge, in December 1967. Dozens of those on the bridge at the time lost their lives, their vehicles plummeting into the churning waters below. Today, there are two prevailing theories: that either the Mothman caused the disaster; or that, in its strange, own way, it tried to warn people when the tragedy was looming large. The jury is still very much out on that one.

(Nick Redfern) One of the world’s most famous monsters

It’s most interesting to note that the bulk of the initial sightings of the monster occurred at – yes, you’ve guessed it – Point Pleasant’s very own Lovers Lane. It was a place that, locally, was known as “the TNT area.” There was a very good reason for that. And it had nothing to do with explosive fun on the backseats of cars. Today, the area is called the McClintic Wildlife Management Area. Back in the Second World War, though, there existed around five miles outside of town a processing plant for the production of TNT – hence the name. As for the storage area of the TNT, it was a nearby place in the woods where a number of secure, igloo-like buildings were constructed to house the highly dangerous and volatile materials. It was a bustling area, an important military facility that helped the Allies to overcome the hordes of crazy Adolf Hitler. Indeed, at the height of things, more than 3,000 people were employed at the factory. But, that was then. By the 1960s, the area was very different.

Friday and Saturday nights were when the woods were filled with cars. Guys and girls, playing music, sex,drinking beer, and having a blast. That’s until the Mothman put paid to all of that. In November 1966, one of the most spectacular encounters with the monster was reported by Roger and Linda Scarberry and Steve and Mary Mallette. It wasn’t long after the four reached the old plant when they encountered in the shadows an approximately seven-foot-tall monster glaring at them. They wasted no time in exiting the area: the accelerator was floored and it wasn’t long at all before they breathlessly shared their story with Deputy Millard Halstead, of the local sheriff’s office. The media had a field day with the story – a story which, arguably, set the scene for the mayhem that was to follow, and which culminated with the collapse of the Silver Bridge. Today, the area is even spookier: the old TNT plant is no more, as it has been razed to the ground and the area is fenced off. As for the now-decades-old igloos, they are empty, abandoned and covered in overgrown bushes, vines and moss, and hidden by the trees. Graffiti adorns most of the igloos – some with imagery of Mothman himself. The setting – and particularly so at night – is apocalyptic, to say the least. Indeed, the ruined, run-down area looks like the kind of locale one might expect to see in the likes of The Walking Dead. And, decades later, it still oozes a sense of hard to describe menace.

(Nick Redfern) Beware!

Notably, at the very same time that the events in Point Pleasant, West Virginia were afoot, very similar things were going down in New York – in Huntington, specifically in the area of Mount Misery. Like Point Pleasant, the area is steeped in weirdness and an atmosphere of high-strangeness prevails. Strange creatures – such as “black panthers,” and ghostly black dogs with eyes like burning coals – roam the heart of the woods. Ghostly children have been seen wandering the old lanes after the sun has set. Pale-skinned Men in Black have knocked on the doors of locals late at night, warning them not to discuss the supernatural activity that dominates the area. And, for years, Mount Misery – with its thick, dense canopies of trees – has been a beacon for lovers. Midway through May 1967, John Keel reported in his 1975 book, The Mothman Prophecies, that a young couple – Richard and Jane – after an evening of hanging out and making out were driving to Richard’s home when he suddenly fell sick. He was overcome by weakness and nausea and briefly passed out at the wheel. Fortunately, because of the tight corners on the small, winding roads, Richard was barely driving at fifteen miles per hour, something which allowed Jane to quickly grab the wheel and bring the car to a halt. The next thing Jane remembered was seeing a bright flash, followed by a groggy sense of missing time and a feeling of memories of…well, something…erased from her mind. For Jane, all of this led her to believe that the light had come from a UFO and that she and Richard had been taken on-board the craft – a definitive case of what today we would call an alien abduction.

So, why should there be “sex and the supernatural”-type situations, at all? Well, the answer to that important question lies in the work of Wilhelm Reich and his research into what he termed Orgone energy. Reich’s work was truly groundbreaking and, today, provides a strong and logical explanation for how and why supernatural entities are so reliant on us, from the perspective of sucking in sexual energy. From the days of the monsters of the Sumerian culture to the present era, it is Orgone on which so many of our monsters feed. But, before we get to the issue of this mysterious energy itself, let’s first take a look at the life, work and ultimately untimely death of the man who uncovered it and named it. Wilhelm Reich entered this world in 1897, specifically on March 24. The location? Dobrianychi, Galicia, in central-eastern Europe; although, German-speaking Reich was a citizen of Austria until the age of forty. By all accounts, Reich’s fascination for science and technology went right back to the early days of his childhood. Even by the age of just eight, he had his very own lab, in which he bred numerous different kinds of insects. Reich was fascinated by the reproductive processes of such creatures, something which most assuredly had an impact on his interest – in later life – in human sexuality and reproduction.

An important question is, of course: how did Reich reach this particular conclusion? The answer is both simple and controversial. Reich used both male and female volunteers to monitor their levels of electricity when their genitals were stimulated. By comparing those volunteers with people in non-aroused states, Reich noted something amazing: that not just sex itself, but sexual arousal and fantasizing led to profound increases in energy levels. Or, as Reich, himself, worded it, “a bio-electrical discharge,” which he concluded was present in all living organisms. It became famously known as Orgone, which was derived directly from the word “orgasm.” Dr. Paul Chambers, in his 1999 book Sex & the Paranormal, stated: “Sexual arousal, said Reich, was like a thunderstorm, with the orgasm being like a lightning strike, discharging all the built-up sexual energy from the body.” Now, you know why – when sex surfaces – so do monsters: they are feeding on us.

MU*