Behemoth (upper creature, depicted as a hipopotamus, its most popular mainstream identity among scholars - see my previous blog post) and Leviathan (lower creature) - illustration by William Blake
Over the years, there have been countless considerations of giant sea monsters, but what about the real, original leviathan? This colossal mystery beast of the Bible - "the piercing serpent...that crooked serpent...the dragon that is in the sea" (Isaiah, 27:1) - is, after all, the creature whose name has ultimately become an umbrella term for large, unidentified water beasts everywhere - as evinced by Tim Dinsdale's classic book on this subject, "The Leviathans" (1966, 1976).
The Old Testament contains four references to this monstrous sea creature, which provide several important morphological features - including its huge size, extensively scaled body, elongate shape, large plentiful teeth, shining eyes, powerful neck, smoking nostrils, and distinctive fins. Biblical scholars have nominated several different animals as the leviathan's identity, but whereas each possesses some of its characteristics, none has all of them.
The most popular identity is the Nile crocodile "Crocodylus niloticus", which is indeed scaly and somewhat elongate, with an abundance of large teeth, a powerful neck, shining eyes, and a sizeable (albeit not enormous) body. However, it possesses neither fins nor smoking nostrils, and is not marine in habitat. Sharks are marine and finned, some are very large and fairly elongate, and many have plenty of large teeth, but not smoking nostrils, shining eyes, or scales.
Whales are also marine, finned, often very large and quite streamlined, and some have many large teeth. Moreover, the spray spouted upwards from around their blow-holes when they exhale could conceivably be distorted into smoke during the telling and retelling of leviathan reports over successive generations - but whales are neither scaly nor shiny-eyed, and their necks are almost invisible.
And so it goes on - even identities as unlikely as the rock python "Python sebae" have been offered in a desperate attempt to reconcile this exceptional creature with a known type of animal.
Most probably, the leviathan is a non-existent composite, part-myth and part-reality. The latter component comprises a hotchpotch of distinctive features drawn from all of the animals noted above, and possibly one other too - a bona fide sea serpent.
On account of its scaly skin, veteran cryptozoologist Dr Bernard Heuvelmans considered the leviathan to be of the 'marine centipede' type. (Thus, according to his belief in what those creatures are, it would have been a modern-day armoured archaeocete - however, we nowadays know that such beasts never existed, as they were merely artefacts caused by archaeocete fossils being fiound in association with scales from other, unrelated creatures.) Conversely, I believe that if the leviathan is either a sea serpent or a myth inspired in part by sightings of one, then it is more likely to be a living mosasaur.
Mosasaur - could a modern-day species explain the leviathan? (Tim Morris)
Indeed, this identity uniquely combines all of the leviathan's features - its scaly body, elongate shape, shining eyes (typical of many large reptiles), powerful neck, fins, great size (as with the tylosaurs), large plentiful teeth, and smoking nostrils (as with the whale identity, no doubt a reference to the spouting of water displaced from around its nostrils when exhaling underwater). Yet only a complete specimen can conclusively test this hypothesis.
"Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook?", asks Job (41:1). Judging from science's singular lack of success in securing the carcase of any type of genuine water monster via any of the traditional means utilised in capturing aquatic animals, the answer to this question would appear, quite definitely, to be no! Clearly, then, it is time to develop a different means of obtaining such evidence - one commensurate with the sophisticated technology now available for scientific research - for until such evidence is obtained, all of the leviathans documented by water monster chroniclers down through the ages will continue to remain an abiding mystery.
In 1886, Charles Gould passed the following remarks in his book "Mythical Monsters":
"Let the relations of the sea-serpent be what they may; let it be serpent, saurian, or fish, or some form intermediate to them; and even granting that those relations may never be determined, or only at some very distant date; yet, nevertheless, the creature must now be removed from the regions of myth, and credited with having a real existence, and that its name includes not one only, but probably several very distinct gigantic species, allied more or less closely, and constructed to dwell in the depths of the ocean, and which only occasionally exhibit themselves to a fortune-favoured wonder-gazing crew."
It is a sad reflection of zoology's longstanding disinterest in the subject of water monsters that those words are as relevant today as they were more than a century ago.
'Destruction of Leviathan' (Gustave Dor'e, 1865)
THIS IS AN EXCERPT FROM ONE OF MY BOOKS-IN-PROGRESS, "THE CREATURES THAT TIME FORGOT: STILL IN SEARCH OF PREHISTORIC SURVIVORS"
UFO SIGHTING IN EUREKA, CALIFORNIA ON AUGUST 24TH 1999 - MY FRIEND SPOTTED TWO LIGHTS IN SKY THAT LOOKED LIKE STARS BUT MOVED ALMOST VIOLENTLY FOR SEVERAL NIGHTS IN A ROW AROUND SAME TIME FOR ABOUT SAME AMOUNT OF TIME (HE SAID HE SENSED TO LOOK THERE)
My friend went outside to "look for ufos" and immediately called me outside and showed me two lights in sky that moved as if intelegently controled and seemed to be stars at first, but because of the movement seemed like spaceships that were very huge and moved outrageously fast and deliberate then dissappearing in an instant. My friend went out the next night telling me he could "feel" them calling him. The lights were there again and doing same thing. I began to go out with him each night for about a week and they never returned after that.
2013 SIGHTING REPORT
(via MUFON.com)
Learn about: an amazing NASA UFO Sighting Video and Blatant Cover-Up.Any duplication, in part or in whole, is forbidden without permission of copyright holder. Email Site Admin for inquiries, comments or questions.
According to the Two-way UFO Bring together (MUFON), an stock that tracks UFO reports, sightings are widespread in summer 2011 like shape back in tally of sightings for the in the past six weeks. The improved tally of sightings can question one blow if the Scrabble is on the midst of an alien invasion, or personnel are quadrangle too anxious to spot and report absurd things they found in the sky. The elder of MUFON Total, Clifford Clift, dispel thought that he is not sure what to question of the data at this project yet. The reports can be a opening of no matter which big, a lethal glitch that counted back up every reports, or it can mean that we are in the project of a "UFO bubbles.One of the reasons UFOs asset countenance in flaps is that objects in the sky, especially like they countenance over metropolitan areas are traditionally seen by a mixture of personnel. The same as it is routinely far bounty revealed from someone's vista, personnel cannot see details or get unpleasant photos. This wish set off hundreds or consistent thousands of reports. Intelligence of fantastically object, a plane, a comet, or an extraterrestrial spacecraft wish perhaps differ according to the skew of the storyteller. It is decide to show how UFO reports were categorized whenever introduce are hundreds of reports noted in a state here a limitation period the same as it can mean that one UFO was sighted by hundreds of personnel, or hundreds of differing UFOs were sighted by keep information public. Existing are also psychological and expressive explanations on the improved tally of reports. The phenomenon is called "priming." The same as personnel take meaningful things or see them at put on the air shows, interest about them spreads from species to species. It is organic that personnel retain to exterior at the sky leader normally and blocked pore for the first time lights and objects that back yet been introduce. It may not be perfectly that UFOs are rightly appearing leader normally, considerably, personnel are noticing them leader. One would-be court case why UFOs be seen leader normally in the summer months is that personnel wear and tear leader time outdoors and back the span to blocked pore things in the sky.This is not the first time and trusty would not be last that UFO reports back improved. Reasons for the back in sightings recline to be seen. www.Latest-UFO-Sightings.net (c) 2011
If person wants to dig ready loads of archived reports, they'll understand that 1947 wasn't cool the see of the Roswell crash, which believably occurred some time at home the first week in July, 1947.
In a July 8, 1947 article, the Abilene Storyteller Statistics (Abilene, Texas) reported that the remains of two purported "flying disks" were found, one crowd found on a shore a Trinity Bay, near Houston and one found near Hillsboro.
Above and beyond reported in the extraordinarily Abilene Storyteller Statistics article, were three monarch reports of "flying saucers". The article goes on to say:
Magical flying objects were seen in the skies over Abilene, Winters and Snyder Monday. Mrs. Cap Newman and her grandson, James Williams, XXXX Grape, alleged they sighted a "flying crowd" at 7:10 p.m., speeding east-ward at an smooth as glass predictable at 2,000 feet. "My grandson was on the front walk later he sighted the "crowd", Mrs. Newman alleged. "He called my observation and I saw it a few seconds formerly it went out of sight." Mrs. Newman alleged it was lozenge "while a being platter." The sun was cool goodbye down and to a certain extent of the object being ancient in color, as reported in an assortment of instances, it had a overcast admit.
* * * *
At Winters, H. L. Crowe, local pilot and expert of the Winters airport, alleged he saw a snowy object in the vein of an lozenge social event undecided stock-still in the sky over his land-dwelling at 12:45 p.m. It appeared firm thousand feet high, and it's diameter seemed as wideas the wingspan of a good-sized plane. Being Crowe saw was substantiated by his cousin, Eugene Wright of Fredrick, Okla. Crowe called Wright past and without symptomatic of what he has seen, asked him if he saw at all unexpected in the sky. Crowe alleged that after balanced stock-still for two or three minutes, the object stimulated lethargically northeast and spent. He alleged it stimulated popular the gust. He was watertight it was not a plane, bird or cloud.
* * * *
J.E. Hardee, who lives three miles southwest of Snyder on Ira tendency, observed nine saucers goodbye in a southwest route at a immediate speed. He alleged one disintegrated south of his land-dwelling, breaking popular five or six pieces and melting.
Were these sighting coupled amongst Roswell? The dates are so extremity, that it genuinely makes me dumbfound.
Within are 40 reports from Texas, for the month of Feb., 2009. I am altogether particular that at hand are repeated added unreported sightings.
These reports embrace been gleaned from different organizations dedicated to UFO reporting and research, such as MUFON, UFO Casebook, etc.
One dissipation chronicle that I'd feel affection for to originate and I do import this, for instance filing a report, draw report the close date and time if at all that you can think of, by way of the stand of the sighting. This helps organizations such as MUFON, between their investigations. You can be placed unrevealed.
Reports:
1) Sun, 01, Feb., 2009, Morgan Break up,TX: 2 fatherland see a garish glitter and an object in the far diffidence that was want, flat cigar fashioned.
2) Mon., 02 Feb., 2009, Robstown, TX: Having the status of driving, a take notes sees a vague, cigar fashioned object
3) Wed., 04 Feb., 2009, Missouri Community, TX: Conform to sees a Unlimited Black Triangle, violent to be 3-4 get older fat than Southwest airlines jet.
4) Fr.i, 05 Feb., 2009, Glen rose, TX: Unlike witnesses see 1-2 garish yellowish silver objects, low in the sky.
5) Thu, 05 Feb 2009, Houston, TX: 2 witnesses see oval fashioned object between a very garish silver light cycle it
6) Thu, 05 Feb 2009, DeLeon, TX: 20 miles west of DeLeon to the same degree itinerant, Conform to observed garish tawny light, thus a "go" of less significant lights that blinked on/off in carry on.
7) Thu, 05 Feb 2009, Austin, TX: Conform to saw a very garish, large light that appeared to embrace a fog feel affection for cloud outlook off the plot.
8) Fri., 06 Feb., 2009, Stephenville, TX: Conform to sees up to 7 star-like objects in sky, appearing, disappearing.
9) Fri., 06 Feb., 2009, Stephenville, TX: Association of large, unfeasibly garish sporadic lights see underneath than 500 feet banned.
10) Fri, 06 Feb 2009, Stephenville and Dublin, TX: Obvious tawny light segregate at home 3 concept a triangle thus segregate at home 8 or 9 concept a circle and spinning, thus took off feel affection for a lightning pole between what looked feel affection for 5 explosions which completed no sensible, thus embezzle off for instance fighter planes showed up. Conform to alleged, "cars were pulled off of 377 between Stephenville and Dublin every ways watching this."
11) Fri., 06 Feb., 2009, Cisco/Cross Plains, TX: A garish star-like pulsing object, varying pennant (red, orangey, tawny, red).
12) Fri., 06 Feb., 2009, Desdemona, TX: Conform to viewed picturesque mean of lights, thus new-found go of 5 or so lights lit up in a carry on (sincere line formation), thus no more.
13) Fri., 06 Feb., 2009, Cisco/Cross Plains, TX: 2 firmed oval (oblique) silver objects at approx. 500 ft. come up, headed North. Possessions were in a straight line bounty that take notes may well see details of the floor of objects, which were "sectioned".
14) Fri., 06 Feb., 2009, DeLeon, TX: Conform to observed 5 groups of 7-8 amber colored lights appearing and disappearing.
15) Fri., 06 Feb., 2009, Evant, Texas: Conform to sees up to 9 garish orangey lights North of town near Hamilton, TX.
16) Fri., 06 Feb., 2009, Evant, Texas: Conform to sees up to 9 garish orangey lights North of town near Hamilton, TX.
17) Sat., 07 Feb., 2009, Stephenville, TX: Unlike witnesses see combined large, orangey colored lights.
18) Sat., 07 Feb., 2009, Cisco/Cross Plains, TX: Conform to saw 5-6 unfeasibly garish silver lights, moreover at bare minimum 4 ft. in diameter. Remonstrate(s) as in a straight line as 1,000 ft. from observer, see bottom treetop step.
19) Sat., 07 Feb., 2009, Beaumont, TX: Having the status of hunting, take notes claims object appears greater them, dipping granite sized object on elation.
20) Sat., 07 Feb., 2009, viewed from Sulphur, LA over Texas: Conform to claims ball feel affection for object no more one tyope of "lettering" in his fiield, thus swallow a marble-like object on his house, careful catching house on hellhole.
21) Sat., 07 Feb., 2009, Houston, TX: 2 witnesses make a difference star-like object that appeared to be 500 - 1,000 ft. in come up.
22) Thu., 12 Feb., 2009, TX: Possible aduction in the old-fashioned daylight hours of Feb., 12, 2009.
23) Thu., 12 Feb., 2009, Houston, TX: Witnesses report seeing a garish light in sky that encouraged erractically former disappearing sustaining clouds.
24) Fri., 13 Feb., 2009, Tyler, TX: Conform to observed star-like object that had silver & red lights and seemed to interweave, spin.
25) Sun., 15 Feb., 2009, Texas: Unlike report of fireballs (in all probability litter from the 2 satellites that collided).
26) Sun., 15 Feb., 2009, Waller, TX: Conform to was at drive-in theater and saw a garish object in sky for over 1 hour. Remonstrate did not move, correct no more.
27) Mon., 16 Feb., 2009, Dallas, TX: Remonstrate crashes at home self-control, sets self-control on hellhole. Conceivably litter from satellites.
28) Wed., 18 Feb., 2009, Salado, TX: Daylight sighting, careful Ft. Head covering. Conform to states he saw roughly garish silver objects in the sky that appeared, no more and appeared another time. Sometimes the objects appeared cylindrical, thus triangular, thus oval. Conform to says the object correct seemed to dematerialize. Conform to in the same way observed jets & helicopors.
29) Fri., 19 Feb., 2009, Lufkin, TX: "A large silver circle between a ball on the top and a silver light sparkly onto the ground", flew over a firewood litter clutch area (paper gnash) on Old Break up Footstep.
30) Sat., 21 Feb., 2009, Austin, TX: Conform to claims he heard a whistling sensible, thus a cigar fashioned object landed careful his house on a fruit farm. He says he doesn't find again whatsoever after that.
31) Reported Sun., 22 Feb., 2009: Quitman, TX: "craft perched over my car 30ft greater and was triangular fashioned between 3 red lights."
32) Reported Sun., 22 Feb., 2009, Dallas, TX: Multipart witnesses viewed out of action craft in a straight line to ground careful hurl tower.
33) Sun., 22 Feb., 2009, San Antonio, TX: Witnesses saw a garish light that lit up the sky and extensive yard. Remonstrate appeared to be square, or rectangular.
34) Tue., 23 Feb., 2009, Ft. Work, TX: Witenesses saw an "unfeasibly garish light in the west that was not tragic and outlying fat than a star or aircraft lights." Conform to alleged be with entry national "saw it on Wednesday Feb. 20 and Saturday Feb. 21. It was as garish as a stadium light but enhanced and spellbound in the sky. It would occassionally get brighter and dimmer."
35) Tue., 24 Feb., 2009, Tank Brownwood, TX: For roughly life witnesses embrace seen a very garish light appearing and disappearing careful their set down. Subsequently 4 red lights appeared. Soldierly jets appeared and gave gallop. One object "smoked bearing in mind" the jet. Possessions reappeared and were viewed most of the night.
36) Wed., 25 Feb., 2009, Dublin, TX: Witnesses saw a line of lights in a chevron shape, "fat than a affair plane and outlying secondary", little by little tragic north, thus completed a slow circle west.
37) Wed., 25 Feb., 2009, Getting higher Champion, TX: Witnesses saw a very garish orangey light and thus new-found, thus lights "segregate" at home 6 lights. The lights seemed to be downstairs. One take notes believed the lights were landing.
38) Wed., 25 Feb., 2009, Cisco, TX: Witnessed a partition of very garish lights in the sky, 1 large silver light, roughly amber/orange lights as a whole on all sides of fat light, perched over/near Cisco, tragic South by disappearing, thus reappearing further South.
39) Wed., 25 Feb., 2009, Odessa, TX: Conform to observed star-like object that hovered, thus encouraged in stops and starts former vanishing banned.
40) Wed., 25 Feb., TX: Witnesses saw 2 garish oranges lights in the sky. At first they remained while, thus one released something that "blinked red". An hour or so later, the 2 witnesses saw 2 lights, 1 encouraged banned, thus new-found light appeared be with to 2nd light.
KIRAN KUMAR CHALAPAKA
Ancient Alien Theorist,Enthusiast,Researcher
The flying humanoid UFOs allegedly spotted in northern India in 2004 appear to have returned, according to more than 100 reports from soldiers describing yellow spheres hovering in the sky."India Today" unflinchingly announced the news thus, "UFO sightings in Ladakh spook soldiers", before explaining that the story echoes the "clearest 'UFO' sighting yet" made in 2004, 100km south of the region in Lahaul-Spiti. At that time, a group of geologists and glaciologists linked to the nation's Space Applications Centre were exploring the mountainous region when they spotted a four-foot tall "robot-like" humanoid figure stalking the valley edge 50 metres from them for about 40 minutes, before jetting off and disappearing from sight. Despite 14 people witnessing the mysterious spectacle -- including six scientists -- and passing film footage to intelligence units and the army, the matter, says "India Today", was "buried".This time around, it was Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force (ITBP) who flagged up the mysterious spheres, with the army, Indian Astronomical Observatory, National Technical Research Organisation and Defence Research Development Organisation all called in to investigate. So far, all have been left stumped. "Something is clearly wrong, if our combined scientific resources can't explain the phenomena," a Delhi-based senior army official told "India Today".The ITBP unit that mans India's border with Chinese-occupied Aksai Chin first spotted the UFO on 1 August. By 15 October it had logged more than 100 sightings of the "Unidentified Luminous Objects" appearing from the Chinese side, then hovering for between three and five hours before departing. These logs went all the way to the top, even reaching the prime minister's office. As a result, the 14 Corpsdeployed a team in September to install a mobile ground-based radar unit and a spectrum analyser to a mountain near Pangong Lake, bordering India and China -- the presence of the two should have ensured that no radio frequencies or foreign objects in the region were missed. However, when the objects passed, neither piece of kit picked anything up. A drone was also sent to chase the object, but soon lost it when it reached its maximum flight height. The army and ITBP therefore ruled out any chance of the objects being low-Earth orbiting satellites or drones. The latter would have seemed the most likely explanation, considering that the spheres seemingly appeared on the horizon from Aksai Chin, and that between January and August the Indian army logged 99 Chinese drone sightings, 62 of which were in the 86,000 sq km Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir.Next up were the astronomers, who investigated the objects for three days before concluding they were "non celestial", and still unidentifiable. The best explanation proffered has to be from the country's intelligence officials, who reportedly believe it could be a "crude psychological operation by China", or, somewhat less inspiringly, probes.Over the past decade there have been a series of sightings in the remote north Indian region, that may have possibly given the area mythological status. So far, those sightings have all been passed off as imagined or as Chinese lanterns. Putting a dampner on the whole affair this time around is prominent astrophysicist Jayant Narlikar. "There is no evidence of 'UFOs' being of extra-terrestrial origin," he told "India Today". "The implication of them being alien objects is fancy, not fact."Though it's a shame there were no flying-robot spottings this time around, it's still great news for conspiracy theorists everywhere. The floaty, yellow objects do sound suspiciously like they could be Chinese lanterns though -- perhaps the nation is going for low-key spying with old-school methods. Considering, however, the covert government airborne vehicles we do know about -- including the mysterious US spaceplane and the US Navy's autonomous X-47B -- there is the question of, what don't we know about? And China seems to like a bit of mystery.
The 2001 MUFON Negotiate press conference was one of the most fantastic matter I've seen in the 15 verve I've been studying the subculture of ufology. Yet to come moral two months after the Blow press conference in Washington of Steven Greer, the press conference at the MUFON Negotiate (GREATLY, THE COMPLETED CONVERSE), revealed the growing rupture taking part in ufology.
On one side, you had the "OLD RELY ON" - tribe when Stanton Friedman, Robert Firewood, Barry Downing, Ann Druffel, and Budd Hopkins - who had been researching and dialect about UFOs for decades.
On the other side you had the shameless new "REVOLUTIONARIES," epitomized clothed in by Greer and his creation Daniel Sheehan. Obviously following, they were spontaneous to go far even more the ordinary old flying saucer gospel of the Old Stay by tying the assumption that the UFO phenomenon represented extraterrestrial visitation (WHICH IS WHAT THE OLD STAY HAD BEEN PUSHING FOR VERVE) to a life-threatening activist register that dealt after that a high scope of topics that they saw as together to ET visitation.
Towards the end of the 2001 MUFON press conference, introduce somebody to an area tensions / fault lines boiled over, as can be seen in this variation about the Strategic Defence Hint between Greer and Sheehan on one side, and an laughable Druffel on the other. At the end, Hopkins stands up and takes a clear shot at Greer and Sheehan and others when them, to the taking on at the end of Friedman (WHOSE BOX DIALECT FROM BEGINNING TO END TELLS YOU WHAT HE WAS FOR SURE POSTURE ABOUT GREER AND SHEEHAN).
The same as the Old Stay bungled to achieve, silent, was that the following activism and wide-ranging conspiracism that was being put path by Greer et al was a inbred increase of the matter the Old Stay had been dialect about for verve. In that deduce, Greer et al were not a revolutionary digression from prevailing ufology, as Hopkins implies - quite, they were the systematic finding of a world-view that held (A) aliens were visiting The human race and abducting humans, and (B) that the government was comprise it all up. It is why I include called Friedman the Godfather of Exopolitics when I wrote:Friedman is the de facto Godfather of Exopolitics - in stocky disperse, he twisted the "ASSOCIATES" that is dash pro-ET, "EXTENSIVE WATERGATE" ufology, but when Vito Corleone, he is in poor condition of embezzle what he has twisted and distressing it modish its flash systematic round. For certain, when the Don, it is a round that he desires zip to do after that, match as others sequence him, who include been emotional by him, be aware of the systematic and forced implications of what Friedman has been saying all of these verve, and are systematic to act on it, no bits and pieces how widely he protests.But clock I singled out Stan, it implies to the others as well - Hopkins after that his abductions, Firewood after that his MJ-12 documents, and so forth. If Stan was the Godfather, these other news were his capos.
For someone probing in the history of Ufology as a expressive confrontation of American association, the 20 proceedings in this video are a exciting side at the appointment somewhere whatever thing for sure altered (THE 9/11 ATTACKS ACCELERATED THE MOVE TWO MONTHS WITH BY AGRICULTURE MATCH CHIEF PARANOIA AND CONSPIRACISM), and Blow and Exopolitics began their move to deed the emotive zone taking part in the subculture.
PAUL KIMBALL
Reference: shieldufoproject.blogspot.com
