There are plenty of cases of mysterious disappearances which I have covered here on many occasions. Yet while these all seem to be people who seem to have been lost or have wandered off there are some cases that are all together stranger. These are those instances when people have just seemed to have spontaneously been wiped from existence at a momnent's notice, and I don't mean that they have just vanished, but that they have just evaporated on the spot. It is something I have delved into ever since I had my own experience with what I call "deleted people." 

My first introduction into this phenomenon came to me by chance. This happened around over a decade ago in the early summer. I was out at a wilderness area not far from Tokyo, at a place which draws quite a few people to come out for a variety of outdoor activities, so this is not a remote area in the middle of nowhere, and it is actually quite crowded in the spring and summer months. Although there is camping there, for me this was just a day trip, picnicking and hiking. I was with some other people having a picnic in a large open meadow area with picnic tables and BBQ facilities, where many families were out enjoying the sunny, warm day. There were people everywhere, in fact, and we were even commenting on how crowded it was. Near this picnic area there was a creek that meandered by and pushed against a rather steep drop, and I remember thinking that this was sort of dangerous considering how many people were milling about not too far away and how many kids were running around the general area. We were sitting quite near this drop off, practically right next to it, and I couldn’t even really enjoy my lunch because sometimes a kid would run past and I was worried that eventually someone was going to go over. I was even telling my friends that we should mention it to the officials who ran the area. It was nerve wracking.

After awhile we were going to actually pack up and be on our way, and I was sort of walking along that ridge checking it out and thinking how they needed a railing or something there. At this point I was walking back to our spot to help pack up and a young girl of around 8 years of age goes running by laughing and heading right for that creek area. I wasn’t totally alarmed at this point, as there were kids everywhere, but I kind of kept an eye on her and was wondering what her parents thought of this. As she was running full speed in that direction I sort of went over in that direction as well, and as she got closer to the danger zone I yelled out in Japanese “ki wo tsuketa hou ga ii yo!” which means “You better be careful!” At around that moment I went around a boulder and the girl ran by it on the other side, and as this was practically right on the cusp of the drop off, I was now quite concerned. Yet, when I rounded the boulder she was gone. Considering her path and speed and position, as well as the fact that she was out of sight for not even a second, she should have been right there on the other side, but she was nowhere to be seen. She had simply vanished.

Thinking that she may have fallen down the ridge, I looked down and there was nothing, no sign of her, and even if she had fallen the creek was not fast flowing enough for her to have been totally swept away in such a short span of time. Looking back towards the meadow also showed me that she was nowhere, even though if she had somehow changed course and returned she had only been out of sight for a split second and I should have seen her doing so. I was baffled, and I walked about looking around but that girl was nowhere to be found. I wondered who her parents were or where they were, but I didn’t know. I was pretty puzzled by it all, but in the end I suppose I just wrote it off as having some explanation, not really believing it myself. I just sort of assumed that the girl had somehow escaped my attention and gone off back to her family in that fraction of a second that it took me to round that boulder, even though part of me knew that it was impossible.

We stayed at that area for a little while longer and I did not see anyone in a panic or looking for someone, and then we left and I sort of put it out of my mind. That evening my mind turned back to that mysterious girl I had seen and I became more and more convinced that what I had witnessed was very strange indeed. I became sort of obsessed with it, and I actually checked the news everyday looking for anything about a missing girl in that area, thinking that if something came up I would notify authorities, but nothing did. To this day I have no idea what I saw. All I know is there is no way that that girl could have run behind that boulder and escaped my attention. She was out of sight for a fraction of a second and then absolutely nothing. Just there one moment and gone the next. I often wonder what I actually saw and if there is some family out there wondering whatever happened to their daughter. I don't know. Was this someone vanishing? Was it a ghost? Was it just my mind playing tricks on me? I have no idea, but I believe it is at around that point that I developed a keen interest in mysterious disappearances.

I was so confused by this particular experience that I went about looking up other similar accounts and I was surprised to find that there were plenty to be had, all describing people who just seemed to have flashed out of reality, and it drew me deeper into this weird world. One report of someone just seeming to blink out of existence was given by Reddit user “mzzsanchezx3,” who says this happened when she had gone out to have a meal with her fiancé at a Wendy’s fast food joint. At some point during their meal, she claims that a woman basically just appeared and disappeared out of nowhere, and that both of them clearly saw it. She explains what happened:

This is where it gets important. I was sitting with my back facing the side the register was on, meaning the entrance of the Wendy's was on my right side. I can see anyone who comes in and out by simply turning my head/POV slightly to the right. The entrance consists of the door, which leads to a small "manhole" and to go out to the parking lot you need to make a quick left turn where you immediately reach the door. You can't go straight in the manhole because right in front of the door you just walked out from is a ceiling to floor window looking out to the parking lot. When you step outside of the door to the parking lot, immediately there's a fence on the right side, meaning you need to continue walking straight and around the fence if you're trying to reach the right side of the parking lot. Also, if anyone walks out of the restaurant door to the parking lot and walks straight, I'd be able to see them through the windows along the side of the building after the entrance way. There are no other entries or exits.

Ok now that we have those details, we were eating and enjoying our meal when all of a sudden we see a lady who we knew didn't make any orders because we'd been people watching the line and she was never on line and she was not with anyone else. This woman was wearing a pastel blue button down shirt, white capris and tennis shows. She walks from the middle of the restaurant where they keep the sauces and napkins to the bathroom which is behind the table we're sitting at and comes out about 2-3 minutes later, but this time with a Wendy's drink in her hand. She makes her way around the current line at the register, and right before she reaches the exit she slightly turns back and looks at us. She opens the first door and continues walking straight. Then she was gone. My fiance and I looked at each other at that exact moment and looked back to the door and started questioning out loud if we both saw the same thing we think we just saw. He said he saw it too. He immediately got up from our table and ran to the exit door, and out to the parking lot and said she was absolutely no where to be found.

We didn't see where she went when she walked into the window. We didn't see her on the other side of the window walking through the parking lot. We didn't see her opening the 2nd door to the parking lot and walking straight. We literally saw her walk into the window. We continued discussing it and both made the point about the window being there and how it's not possible for her to walk through it and exit. We also discussed how she literally appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the restaurant. We discussed how she literally glanced over at us before she left the restaurant. To this day we don't know what happened to her, how she appeared in the restaurant or even how she left the restaurant at all. We sort of joked that she was a time traveler but I really have no idea what to make of that situation.

Who was this woman, where did she come from, and where did she go? Were they both just imagining things? Another weird case appears on the same thread, with a witness who claims that an elderly man with a cane disappeared, reappeared, and then vanished again within moments. He says this happened when he was on vacation with his family, and explains of it:

We stopped at a rest area somewhere in Alabama to let our dogs out and to head to bathroom ourselves, and I was left in charge of the dogs while everyone else went in, so when my turn came around I walked/ran in pretty fast. This is when I first spotted the disappearing man, he was this older guy with a cane, and the only reason I noticed him was because of the bright green jacket he had on. Well I walked past him while he was on a bench and I had turned around because the green caught my eye and he was gone. Sure he could’ve gotten up fast, maybe he was just a fast old dude I didn’t know, so I head in and use the bathroom. So when I finish in the bathroom I’m walking out and see the same guy walking in front of me out the doors, I look down at my phone and when I look up the guy is gone, I sped up and looked out the doors left and right to see if I could spot him, but he was completely gone out of nowhere. One of the weirdest experiences I’ve had really, it may not seem like much but it was quite odd.

There one second and gone the next. Again, how to explain this? Another case comes from Redditor “NotDeadNotforSale,” who claims that a person walking next to him on the street just suddenly and inexplicably evaporated. He reports:

I went out for a walk to do my regular shit, and there was this person in all black with his head covered with a hoodie, he was walking perpendicular right across from me on the other sidewalk, I glanced once at the guy and didn’t think anything of it, than I looked back and there wasn’t anybody where he should’ve been, all I could think was holy fuck. To further elaborate, no way in hell could of he been literally anywhere, he was walking right next to an empty parking lot, at first I thought he might’ve crossed and was behind me but no, this isn’t my first time experiencing a glitch or whatever you’d wanna call it.

Such cases can leave someone baffled, frantically looking around trying to figure out where the person has gone or what could possibly be going on and coming up empty. As someone who has experienced this myself it can be extremely disorienting and puzzling. In another case, Reddit user “Ashseniy” explains how a man vanished right in front of him and he is at a loss for how to explain it. He says:

Okay. So, one late evening i was walking down the sidewalk, minding my own business, listening to some tunes in my headphones. It had rained a bit that day, so there was a lot of puddles. Walking in front of me was a man, nothing unusual, just a man. I remember how he was dressed, straight jeans, slightly wet near the heels, a short puffed down jacket and a backpack, specifically “columbia”. I was kinda in my own headspace, walking and staring at the said “columbia” tag. After a few minutes of walking i had to step over a puddle, i looked down at it, overstepped it, looked back up and the man had vanished. Yes, i know what you are thinking about, he could have turned, but the same thing crossed my mind at the same second i didn’t find him in front of me. There is why everything that explains it doesn’t work: to our left is a small field with a couple of benches, no trees(!), lots of lights. To our right is a four lane road with also lots of light. It was late, so me and the man were the only one walking, and he had nowhere to hide (why would he want to in the first place?), and if he ran across the road i would of seen him do that.

From yet another witness called “mayfushii” there is the case of a vanishing boy who just seems to have poofed right out of existence. The witness says:

I was going out with my friends, and we were taking the apples from random tree back in time there. As we were collecting them, we saw the boy who walked with our path forward. He looked like a 12 year old, he wasn't looking at his phone or anything, he just walked. We didn't gave it too much attention and continued on with the apples. After around 5 or 10 seconds we noticed that he was gone. We looked at the way that guy was walking, and he wasn't anywhere near us. We would have seen him going far away, but no, he disappeared in nowhere. I thought he turned and went random other way quickly, but it turned out that there was only one path here. He didn't even looked at us while going, although there was 3 of us and we all saw him with my friends. We still find it weird and random how he just appeared and disappeared out of nowhere. The place we were at was actually empty and abandoned, we just decided back then to go random way from our street.

Strange, indeed. Another Redditor called “MTVChallengeFan” claims that he is quite a sleptical person and has never really believed in strange phenomena or the paranormal, but that he did have one inexplicable experience involving a woman who seems to have just stepped off the face of the earth. He says of what happened:

I've lived in the same city my entire life in the USA, and there was this Circle K convenient store very close to where I lived. At the time, I knew the same four, or five employees at the story. The store only has one entrance (which also serves as the exit), and the parking lot in front of the store in the only parking lot. The store also only has one bathroom which is designed one for one person at a time. Back in March of 2011, I drove to this Circle K, and right about the same time, this white car next to me pulled up (I'm not sure what kind of car it was, but it was quite a "beater" to say the least). Right when I was getting out of the car, the woman driving the white car had gotten out of it. She walked in the Circle K. I took some time to empty out some trash from my car, and I entered the store about a minute later. Keep in mind, this woman hadn't left the store yet (and there was only one entrance, which also served as the exit).

Aside from the woman who worked there, I was the only one in the main part of the store, so I just assumed the woman I saw walking from the car was in the bathroom. I got my snacks, and went up to the counter. I already knew the clerk well (we would open up to each other about many things), and I had to ask if a woman walked in, and was possibly in the bathroom. I just thought it was odd that this woman was using the restroom for close to ten minutes at this time.

Anyway, I described what the woman looked like to the clerk: She was very pale (white, obviously), had black hair, brown eyes, she was medium height, and as soon as I mentioned her very low waist to hip ratio(she has an abnormally large butt, and huge hips, and thighs compared to her little waist), the clerk gasped. She told me she knew exactly who I was talking about, and she also told me she was a regular customer, but what she said to me gives me chills to this day: She told me this woman hadn't entered the store on this day. I told her I saw her walk in right before I did, and she told me she was at the counter, and never saw her. We were both baffled. I obviously wasn't just "seeing things", because the clerk told me I described a regular customer (and this was somebody I had never seen before). When I walked out of the Circle K, her car was still there, so I just sat in my car for five minutes, but left (because I didn't want to seem creepy anyway), and I never found out if she came back for that car. The only thing I can think of is the woman from the car walked in the store, was doing something "shady" in the bathroom (maybe drug-dealing, drugs, etc.), and was in cahoots with the clerk, and the clerk was playing dumb with me. Even though I knew the clerk, this doesn't mean she didn't have any secrets she wouldn't tell me. Other than that, I don't know. She disappeared into thin air.

Another type of report I’ve found while looking into the phenomenon of these “deleted people” seems to be related, and it involves people just sort of fading from existence retroactively or without being directly observed to do so. A fairly creepy case of this was related by Reddit user “BittahZamurai,” who says that one day a person who she knew in college just seems to have faded away without anyone really realizing how or why. She says:

Back in college, my friends and I would always all go to the cafeteria across campus together for lunch. There were about 8-10 of us on any given day so normally you had 3-4 of us in a huddle followed by the other 3-4. I was in the back group and we passed between these two bushes then the weirdest feeling just washed over me. Something felt changed and I was a bit disoriented. We all kinda just stopped and looked at each other while the first group just kept going. Someone was missing. We all kinda just knew it. To this day, I have no idea who it was. Everyone was accounted for, but we couldn't shake the feeling that someone was just gone. Miss you, mysterious friend who just vanished. It was a weird spot near those bushes in general. We always avoided it after that. I remember another time we all seemed to notice a light post there at the same time and none of us could remember if it had always been there or not even though we walked that path at least twice a day. Could probably just chalk that up to busy college students not paying attention but it is weird that it's the same spot that we lost someone a few weeks later.

A similar case comes from Redditor “daydreamer373,” who says that a person he knew in college seems to have just been wiped from existence. He explains:

There was a guy that I went to school with that has now disappeared! I have the strongest memory of him hanging out with our whole group back in the early 2000s, and then, gone! He’s not in any yearbooks. I haven’t confused him with someone else. He’s just...gone! Here’s the weird part. I don’t live in a huge town, but the girl I know was his sister and both of his parents still live here. She’s on Facebook saying how grateful she is to her parents that she has the life she does, only child, etc. I have known her literally my whole life. For the first 17 years, she had a brother. I have been tripping on this! Along with Nelson Mandela not dying in the 80s, this kid just disappears! And it’s like my brain physically hurts when I try to recall the full memory of our last hang out too. I asked two of his friends what happened to him and they said they never knew a guy with the name I gave them...I asked if that family had a son...they said “no; only the hot girl from school”...I’ve never been so confused.

Along the same lines is the rather odd report from Redditor “Thunder_54,” who was baffled by a class he took in which several people seem to have just flickered out of existence without explanation. He says of what happened:

I was in my biology recitation class yesterday and I had just read this lifehacker article about being more observant before class. One of the things it talks about is counting the number of people in a room and marking exits in a room. So I thought it would be fun to do this silently to myself as class started. I counted 22 people, including the TA and myself. So 21 students, including me. This is a small classroom. The TA took informal roll by counting by twos out loud (we have a sign-in sheet, he just wanted to know about how many people were missing, so no names needed). He got to 21--the same as me. He marked it on the sheet and then began talking about what we would do in class. He was going to take questions about the test, however due to the way the professor (lecturer, not this TA) structured the test schedule, it was possible that some people had taken the test and others had not. He took a quick poll asking who had already taken the test. I had already taken the test so I raised my hand and he counted and said, "Alright so of you have taken it out of..... 19?". I was confused because I had just counted 21 students, and heard him count 21 as well. He was also noticeably confused and recounted. He got 19 students again and asked "Did a couple of you all wander out when I wasn't paying attention?" No one answered and I knew no one had (I sat next to the door this day). It was weird. It was weirder because I would NOT have cared at all about this TA's counting mistake if I hadn't been observant and counted the people in the class myself. I've tried to think of an explanation but I just can't. We both counted 21, and then suddenly there were 19. Yes I recounted too, in disbelief.

It is hard to know what to make of such cases, but there seem to be a lot of theories going around. One is that these are “glitches in the matrix” so to speak, which is to say perhaps we are living in a computer simulation and these are just examples of some sort of problem, glitch, or just lazy programming. There is also the idea that in the case of people just vanishing in seconds these could be examples or interdimensional “walk-ins,” in a sense, meaning that they have somehow wandered or bled over from another parallel dimension, only to spirit away back to where they came from. In the case of people who have retroactively faded away, one Redditor called “mrsjojoxx” gives an interesting idea, saying:

Ok so I just finished reading a book called The Three Waves of Volunteers and the New Earth by Dolores Cannon. In this book it talks a lot about how we are starting to vibrate on a higher frequency and one by one people will sort of change dimension from this to a higher one as they raise their vibration. In the beginning it will be people here and there and it mentioned that these people who go will be a distant memory and you sort of drift apart for no reason, and you won’t find them. I wonder if this is really the case and that’s what has happened!

Other ideas have included that these are time travelers, portals, or even some mysterious force messing and tinkering with reality as we know it. There is no way to really know for sure and such bizarre accounts remain firmly lodged within the world of the strange. What is going on here and what are we to make of this? Are these explainable or are they perhaps revealing cracks in our reality? We may never know for sure. 

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When it comes to UFOs and natural disasters, the first thing that comes to mind is all of the UFOs that seem to appear around volcanoes, both active and inactive. The very active Popocatépetl stratovolcano located in central Mexico is a prime example – the ring of cameras surrounding it to provide early warnings of eruptions to local residents regularly record unusual objects and shapes that seem to be entering, exiting and flying over Popocatépetl. Because the quality of these video cameras is low, the objects could be ash, erupted rocks, birds, bugs, planes, drones or other flying objects. However, that doesn’t cover all of them, and the high number of UFOs around other volcanoes suggests to many that they may be ships using the volcano to travel to and from an underground base where extraterrestrials may be refueling or monitoring Earth. Another natural disaster often linked to UFOs is earthquakes, especially the phenomenon known as “earthquake lights.”

These luminous flashes appear similar to auroras and there is no consensus as to what part of seismic activity may be causing them – from tectonic plates scraping to electrical grids sparking. While earthquake lights generally appear during or after the seismic events, a former CIA agent and UFO researcher has come forward recently with the claim that pre-earthquake UFOs are actually warnings of pending quakes … and both we and seismologists should start paying more attention to them. In fact, one scientist has long agreed with him. Could these phenomena also explain some of the Popocatépetl and other volcanic UFOs?

“It is widely acknowledged that as much as 95% of publicly reported UFO activity can be linked to secret, classified, or sensitive projects and airborne national security operations.”

Andrew Bustamante describes himself as a former covert CIA intelligence officer, a US Air Force combat veteran, and Fortune 10 corporate advisor. He is perhaps best known as a speaker and consultant – through his “Everydayspy” Program, he offers to teach others how to use the mental, physical, and social spy skills he learned in the CIA to “master their mind, leverage their talents, and achieve their potential.” Bustamante is also a UFO researcher and explains in a report from Everydayspy how all governments take UFOs very seriously – despite what we’ve been led to believe. That interest is at an all-time high due to rapid advancements in air travel, drone technology, and the commercialization of space travel. This has resulted in a historic worldwide high in aircraft crashes, inflight emergencies, near-miss collisions, and unidentified aerial phenomena sightings. Bustamante says that 95% of these are caused by humans. He discusses some of the other 5% on a recent podcast hosted by Shawn Ryan, a former U.S. Navy SEAL and CIA Contractor.

“There's so much in the sky that they see it all the time and we don't know what we're looking at. A satellite looks pretty clear – it moves in a straight line – but the stuff that's up there isn't always a satellite. I've seen strange glowing orbs, like balls of light that change direction, and I have no idea what that is. Could it be an alien aircraft or a domestic aircraft that forgot to turn off its headlights? Maybe.”

Or maybe not. Bustamante first brings up the idea of ball lightning – another unexplained luminescent aerial phenomenon shaped like balls or orbs that are most often seen with thunderstorms but rarely behave like conventional lightning. Besides their different shapes and colors, they are visible longer (up to a minute), travel slower, move erratically in all directions and behave in other ways that defy conventional weather or electrical science … so it is no wonder that they are often thought to be of alien or sometimes demonic origin. Bustamante then moves to another natural phenomenon and the strange unidentified aerial phenomena associated with them … earthquakes and earthquake lights.

“There's also pre-indicators of earthquakes, such as a geological effects that release electromagnetic energy into the atmosphere. When the energy comes up from a fault line and comes into contact with certain conditions in the atmosphere it creates lights in clouds, and all of a sudden lights in clouds are floating.”

While most earthquake researchers say the earthquake lights occur during the actual quake activity and aftershocks, Bustamante’s experiences and research suggest to him that these earthquake UFOs occur BEFORE they happen and should be studied as harbingers of upcoming seismic activity – both earthquakes and volcanoes.

"Every time the earth moves violently, which happens pretty often, there's a strong possibility of you seeing a UFO. They can produce a number of things like luminosities, electromagnetic disturbances which some people may interpret as unusual observations or sometimes even UFOs."

A recent article about UFOs and their connections to natural disasters in The U.S. Sun quotes the late Dr. Michael Persinger, a professor of psychology at Laurentian University who studied how subtle changes in geomagnetic activity could cause parapsychological phenomena, and how tectonic movement in the Earth's crust could cause luminous phenomena attributed to UFOs. His Tectonic Strain Theory (TST) suggested that luminous phenomena and associated physical effects in humans were caused by manifestations of tectonic strain and could precede earthquakes by as much as weeks.

"They can produce a number of things like luminosities, electromagnetic disturbances which some people may interpret as unusual observations or sometimes even UFOs."

Persinger did not like calling these luminous phenomena “UFOs” because they have natural causes and are not extraterrestrial. However, he confused the issue by attributing so many other psychological phenomena with earthquakes and seismeic disturbances.

"You can get paralyses, feelings of foreboding, dream-like states, and a number of peripheral effects."

We could defintiely use an earthquake warning system

Former CIA covert intelligence officer Andrew Bustamante thinks all leading governments are well aware of UFOs and studying them intently. He believes that 95% of UAP are explained by human-made technology. He also believes that some of the other 5%, particularly orbs and luminescent UFOs, are warnings of impending earthquakes and other seismic activities. The late Dr. Michael Persinger believed that low level seismic activities could cause lights as well as psychological forces which might cause humans to interpret these lights as extraterrestrial UFOs when they’re actually earthquake warning signs.

With the recent huge losses of life and damages caused by quakes and volcanic eruptions around the world, is it time to listen to Bustamante and Persinger and link some UFO orbs to earthquakes and volcanoes and treat them as early warning signs?

Those who have followed the UFO phenomenon for sometime are well aware how these strange aerial machines befuddle us with their seemingly weird and unpredictable movements, which are completely unlike those of standard commercial airliners or military aircrafts. The fact that eye-witness reports from all over the world mention a similar set of bizarre behavior associated with UFOs, tells us that something inexplicable has been going on in our skies for a long time. A long, long time, indeed, if we turn over the pages of the ancient records of humanity. For UFOs are not a new phenomenon at all, and have been observed, recorded and passed down through the oral traditions of many cultures. One of the UFO hotspots of the ancient world was India, where aerial vehicles called “vimanas” have been mentioned in the legends time and again. 

But, before we go there, let me quickly jot down some of the key features of UFOs from the full gamut of recorded sightings over the past few decades. I shall refer back to this list later, when I start discussing the UFO war described in the ancient Indian text.

UFOs appear to have a metallic body, with light reflecting ability. They come in different shapes viz. disc-shaped, spherical, cylinder, triangle etc. Certain reports indicate that UFOs can also change their shape.

UFOs can move away and disappear at extremely high speeds, far exceeding the speed of sound. Yet, they do so noiselessly, without producing the expected “sonic boom”. How they defy the known laws of physics is anybody’s guess.

They can accelerate / decelerate or ascend / descend vertically extremely quickly. The UFO occupants, obviously, don’t seem to mind very high G forces.

They are highly maneuverable. They can change directions drastically in an instant, and sometimes move in a zigzag motion.

UFOs have been seen standing still in mid air and hovering over a specific place.

A UFO spotted at night generally has a bright array of flashing lights of different colors.

Sometimes a single UFO may split up into multiple UFOs, which whiz off in different directions. Conversely, a number of UFOs with flashing lights could come together and give the appearance of a single object. Sometimes a bunch of UFOs can move in a V-shaped formation.  

A UFO can turn off its lights and become invisible. This typically happens when fighter planes get too close to it to investigate. In such cases, the lights are turned on again once the fighter planes move away.

Sometimes a UFO sends down brilliant beams of light to the ground or into water bodies. They have the ability to lift up heavy objects by means of the light beam, including cars, humans and animals. They have been seen descending into water bodies like lakes and oceans.

Many people have seen small balls of light coming out of a UFO in mid-air and dart around, as if they are intelligent, conscious entities. 

UFOs cause electronic interference with car radios, engines, and aircraft communication systems. There are reports by airline pilots that their weapons systems were temporarily disabled, only to come back online after the UFO was gone.

These are some of the UFO characteristics that recur in various eye-witness reports. It is possible to add to this list, of course, since UFOs keep surprising us with their behavior from time to time, but this will do nicely for now. Quite amazingly, some of the features listed here were observed and recorded thousands of years ago in an incredible story of a UFO battle from ancient India.

The story that I am going to relate has been documented in an ancient text called Srimad Bhagavatam [1], the composition of which is attributed to the sage Vyasa – the same person who composed the Indian epic, the Mahabharata. It tells of a king named Salva, who had propitiated Lord Shiva through his penances and acquired a vimana i.e. an aerial vehicle. In Hinduism, Shiva is the patron god of yoga and meditation, who takes on the fierce form of a “destroyer” at the end of a Yuga. The vimana that Salva obtained was called Saubha, and it was built by an “asura” called Maya or Mayasura. This is what the text tells us:

The great Lord Umapati [Shiva] is known as “he who is quickly pleased,” yet only at the end of a year did he gratify Salva, who had approached him for shelter, by offering him a choice of benedictions. Salva chose a vehicle that could be destroyed by neither demigods, demons, humans, Gandharvas, Uragas nor Raksasas, that could travel anywhere he wished to go, and that would terrify the Vrsnis. Lord Siva said, “So be it.” On his order, Maya Danava, who conquers his enemies’ cities, constructed a flying iron city named Saubha and presented it to Salva.

Maya - who built this flying city of iron - was not an ordinary human being. He was a “danava” i.e one of the sons of the primeval goddess of the waters, Danu. The danavas, along with the daityas (i.e. the children of the goddess Diti) were classed as “asuras” or “titans” in Hindu mythology. The term “asura” means “powerful” or “mighty”, and may be linked to the “aesir” of Norse legends, where it means “lord” or “god”. The asuras are powerful beings with magical powers, and although they are generous and pious by nature, they are also prone to being beset by pride, anger, jealousy, lust, greed and other egoic tendencies, which brings them into frequent confrontation with the gods (devas).

Maya was one of the leader of the asuras, and was famed for his architectural and astronomical skills. Whether he had any linkage to the Maya civilization of Mesoamerica is conjectural, for nothing specific is mentioned in the Indian texts along these lines. However, considering that the Mayans were also expert builders and astronomers, it would not be far-fetched to think that the asura Maya had a role to play in the evolution of their civilization.

Coming back to the story, on acquiring the Saubha vimana, Salva immediately attacked Dvaraka, the golden, fortified city built by Lord Krishna on the western coast of India. As per Hindu beliefs, Lord Krishna was an incarnation of the Supreme Being who had taken birth towards the end of the Dwapara Yuga (Silver Age), in order to cleanse the planet of the many bloodthirsty, powerful warriors and tyrants, and to re-promulgate the sacred wisdom to serve as a beacon of light for humanity during the dark age of Kali (Iron Age) that was soon to follow. Salva regarded Krishna as his enemy, since Krishna had killed many of his powerful allies. The text tells us:   

This unassailable vehicle was filled with darkness and could go anywhere. Upon obtaining it, Salva went to Dvaraka, remembering the Vrsnis’ enmity toward him. Salva besieged the city with a large army, O best of the Bharatas, decimating the outlying parks and gardens, the mansions along with their observatories, towering gateways and surrounding walls, and also the public recreational areas. From his excellent airship he threw down a torrent of weapons, including stones, tree trunks, thunderbolts, snakes and hailstones. A fierce whirlwind arose and blanketed all directions with dust. Thus, terribly tormented by the airship Saubha, Lord Krsna’s city had no peace, O King, just like the earth when it was attacked by the three aerial cities of the demons….

At one moment the magic airship built by Maya Danava appeared in many identical forms, and the next moment it was again only one. Sometimes it was visible, and sometimes not. Thus Salva’s opponents could never be sure where it was. From one moment to the next the Saubha airship appeared on the earth, in the sky, on a mountain peak or in the water. Like a whirling, flaming baton, it never remained in any one place. Wherever Salva would appear with his Saubha ship and his army, there the Yadu commanders would shoot their arrows…As the Yadus and Salva’s followers thus went on attacking one another, the tumultuous, fearsome battle continued for twenty-seven days and nights.

In this passage we find a number of striking correlations between the descriptions of Salva’s vimana, and the characteristics of UFOs which I had listed out earlier. Let me go through them one by one. Firstly, the vimana acquired by Salva has been described as a “flying city of iron”, which is capable of going anywhere. UFOs, on the other hand, have mostly been described as metallic objects with a shiny surface. So, apparently, these aerial vehicles are made of some kind of metal, possibly with a high iron content.

Salva’s vimana sometimes appeared as a single object, and sometimes in many identical forms. This happens frequently in case of UFO sightings. A number of bright UFOs may bunch together and give the appearance of a single object, and then, suddenly, split up into multiple bright objects that fly off in different directions. 

Salva’s vimana was sometimes visible, and sometimes not. UFO witnesses have said that these objects can suddenly turn off their lights and become invisible. UFOs can also accelerate away at tremendously high speeds and disappear almost instantly.

Finally, Salva’s vimana was said to constantly dart from one place to another, never remaining still in any one place. This agrees with the extreme maneuverability of UFOs. Many sightings mention that UFOs can change their direction drastically and rapidly, which, in turn, makes it very difficult for fighter planes to trail them. 

These correlations make it quite obvious that the vimana described in the Srimad Bhagavatam is what we today know as a UFO. Of course, to the ancients, it was not an “Unidentified” Flying Object. They knew very well who built it, and how king Salva got his hands on it. However, they wouldn’t have had any idea as to how these machines were built, for, as the text tells us, it was built by Maya, the leader of the asuras. Humans had no part in their construction. Let us now return back to the story, to see how this aerial assault on Dvaraka finally ended.

The reason why Salva’s attack on Dvaraka had lasted twenty seven days is because, Krishna, who was the foremost warrior of the Yadus, had gone to Indraprastha (near modern-day Delhi) to attend a royal sacrifice. After he returned, the battle ended quite swiftly. 

Invited by Yudhisthira, the son of Dharma, Lord Krsna had gone to Indraprastha. Now that the Rajasuya sacrifice had been completed and Sisupala killed, the Lord began to see inauspicious omens. So He took leave of the Kuru elders and the great sages, and also of Prtha and her sons, and returned to Dvaraka…After He arrived at Dvaraka and saw how His people were threatened with destruction, and also saw Salva and his Saubha airship, Lord Kesava [Krishna] arranged for the city’s defense and then addressed Daruka [Krishna’s charioteer] as follows: “O driver, quickly take My chariot near Salva. This lord of Saubha is a powerful magician; don’t let him bewilder you.”

Thus ordered, Daruka took command of the Lord’s chariot and drove forth…Lord Krsna then pierced Salva with sixteen arrows and struck the Saubha airship with a deluge of arrows as it darted about the sky…While Salva continued to hurl torrents of weapons at Him with great force, Lord Krsna, whose prowess never fails, shot His arrows at Salva, wounding him and shattering his armor, bow and crest jewel. Then with His club the Lord smashed His enemy’s Saubha airship. Shattered into thousands of pieces by Lord Krsna’s club, the Saubha airship plummeted into the water. Salva abandoned it, stationed himself on the ground, took up his club and rushed toward Lord Acyuta [Krishna]…Employing His disc weapon, Lord Hari [Krishna] removed that great magician’s head with its earrings and crown, just as Purandara [Indra] had used his thunderbolt to cut off Vrtra’s head.

Thus, the magical Saubha vimana, fashioned by Maya asura and given as a boon to Salva by Lord Shiva, was eventually destroyed by Lord Krishna using his club. This suggests that, even modern-day UFOs are liable to crash or may be brought down by suitable weapons. There have been a few stories of UFO crashes, the most famous being the Roswell incident of 1947, although it is difficult to be certain of the facts of that case and of others of a similar nature. 

Another important insight that can be gleaned from this story is that the ancient UFOs were not built by some prehistoric Boeing company, but by the “asuras” or “titans” - a race of powerful, semi-divine beings with magical abilities. If you are wondering where the asuras live, you need not venture very far; for they don’t live on another planet, but right below our feet in an underground realm called Patala, a Sanskrit term which means, “that which is below the feet”. 

As per the ancient Indian texts, Patala has seven realms, which are occupied by the asuras, along with other supernatural entities such as the nagas (human-serpent hybrids), rakshasas (giants), yakshas (dwarfs) etc. In the Bhagavata Purana, these seven realms are described as the seven subterranean paradises (bila-svargas), which are filled with beautiful houses, groves, lakes, lovely maidens, splendid jewels and unlimited opulence. Mayasura has constructed many brilliantly decorated cities in Patala. Life here is one of perpetual pleasure and sensory enjoyments. There is no old age, no decay, and no disease in Patala. Even though there is no sunshine in these regions, the effulgence of the brilliant jewels with which the residents of Patala decorate themselves, light up the entire region. It is due to the absence of sunlight, that the concept of time does not exist in Patala, whose inhabitants enjoy enormously long lives, free of anxiety or fear.[2]

Patala sounds like the perfect destination for the next vacation! Except that, it is not easy to get there. The entrances to this underworld paradise are camouflaged and heavily guarded. In Tibetan Buddhism, Patala (meaning, “the Underground”) can be entered through specific Asura caves in the sacral landscape, which are closely guarded by dakinis (“sky goers”) - the Buddhist counterparts of the British faeries. Robert Mayer of the Oxford University writes, “Once in Patala, the yogin could gain such boons as longevity, magical knowledge, fabulous material treasures, and, not least, extraordinary pleasures, especially erotic ones.”[3] This almost sounds like one of those exotic travel brochures that you read on a long, boring flight.

So, we are basically talking about of a hidden, underground dimension of great opulence and pleasures whose entrances are guarded by invisible faeries. No wonder this stuff passed into the realm of fantasies and legends over time. At some point, I guess, you simply couldn’t talk about it with a straight face. And yet, now we have this global UFO phenomenon, and the ancient texts tell us that UFOs are built by the supernatural beings of Patala. And to add to that, UFOs have been seen entering into water bodies, and many eye-witnesses have reported dwarf alien beings, the dwarfs being one of the members of the faerie folk.

It’s definitely time to bring the topic of Patala out of the cupboard, dust it off and take a fresh look at similar beliefs from around the world. For, it is quite possible that some of the UFO and alien sightings could be of subterranean origin. As to what their plans are for humanity, why they feel the urge to abduct humans and poke them with needles, or what they gain by mutilating animals – these are questions that will continue to baffle us for the time being. 

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References

1. Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 10, Chapters 76 & 77. (SB 10.76.2 – 10.76.33; 10.77.1 – 10.77.37), https://www.srimadbhagavatamclass.com/srimad-bhagavatam-canto-10-chapter-76-text-01/
2. Bhagavata Purana 5.24, https://web.archive.org/web/20100104040631/http://srimadbhagavatam.com/5/24/en
3. Robert Mayer, "The Importance of the Underworlds: Asuras' Caves in Buddhism, and Some Other Themes in Early Buddhist Tantras Reminiscent of the Later Padmasambhava Legends", Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, 2007.

Arthur C. Clarke once said "How inappropriate to call this planet Earth, when it is quite clearly Ocean." How true this is. Our world is mostly comprised of vast, largely unexplored water plunging into an even vaster, even more unexplored perpetual twilight. Just what lies hidden down in this darkness that makes up most of our planet? We have scarcely managed to uncover even a fraction of the myriad organisms that call these abyssal places home. There in this zone of black and amidst the flickering constellations of bioluminescent lights lie ancient mysteries that remain and perhaps always will. The deep, dark seas of our world are a realm of extreme pressure and eternal darkness, abyssal chasms soaring down into a domain that is so inhospitable and unreachable that it may as well be the surface of some alien world, and if some reports are to be believed there are massive alien things lurking about down there that defy understanding. 

A curious finding was dredged up from abyssal depths off of South Africa in 1930. The Marine Investigation Expedition was an extensive round the world research expedition led by a Professor Johannes Schmidt aboard the vessel Dana. During the last year of the expedition, the ship fished up a colossal eel larva, or leptocephalus, in water over a thousand feet deep off the Cape of Good Hope. Due to the extreme depths, the animal was dead upon reaching the ship, but nevertheless shocked all those who examined it. The larva was measured as being 184cm long (just over 6 feet), which is large, but all the more so when considering that the larvae of a common eel typically measures only 2 to 4 inches in length, which in turn grows into an eel around 4 feet long. When extrapolating from the typical growth rate of eels, the 6 foot leptocephalus was theorized to become an adult that would measure around 80 to 100 feet in length, although a more conservative estimate would be more like 70 to 80 feet, gigantic no matter which way you cut it. In the freshwater eels of North America and Europe, adults can be a dozen times the size of their larval forms. According to an article in The Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 47, 24 February 1934, Page 24, the South Africa specimen was subsequently preserved and sent to Marine Biological Laboratory in Copenhagen, Denmark where it was put on exhibit. 

A similar find would later be made in New Zealand when another large leptocephalus, this time around 3 feet long, was pulled up out of the depths in 1959. In this case the larva was assigned the name Leptocephalus giganteus, and the South African specimen was later also classified under the same name even though it was not clear whether the two were actually of the same species. Since no other specimens of Leptocephalus giganteus have ever been collected, there is little data to go on. However, judging from known growth rates of similar creatures, it would appear that the deep seas could be home to some truly monstrous eels indeed. The giant eel larva fits neatly into the theory postulated by the cryptozoologist Bernard Heuvelmans of giant eels of this sort, what he referred to as "super eels," accounting for many reported sea serpent sightings.

While dredging up something mysterious from the depths is exciting enough, with the advent of new diving technology people were actually able to see such monsters up close. American naturalist, ornithologist, marine biologist, entomologist, explorer, and author Charles William Beebe was one of the driving forces of penetrating into the new frontier of the deep, dark sea. In 1928 he was given permission by the British government to establish a research station on Nonsuch Island, in Bermuda, from which he planned to launch an in-depth study of the animals inhabiting an eight-square-mile (21 km2) area of ocean, from a depth of two miles (3.2 km) to the surface. In order to see the lifeforms down there in their natural habitat, he soon realized that the usual method of using helmet diving and dredging wasn’t going to cut it, as the deepest humans could safely descend in diving helmets in those days was several hundred feet, and normal submarines could only descend to a maximum of 383 feet (117 m) and had no windows. He wanted an up close look at what was down there, and so with the help of American engineer Otis Barton he invented a spherical diving submersible known as the Bathysphere, which could be lowered down into the abyss by cable. Beebe would break several consecutive world records for the deepest dive ever performed by a human in his contraption, the deepest being 3,028 feet (923 m), in the process of these pioneering dives being the first human to ever lay eyes on this dark alien realm. He would find many new species down there, and some of these were stranger, and much larger, than others.

On September 22, 1932 Beebe and Barton were down in their Bathysphere some three miles out from Nonsuch Island at a depth of 2,100 feet (640 m). During the dive, Barton heard Beebe shout out in surprise, and although he didn’t see what all the fuss was about due to being busy maintaining the bathysphere at the time, Beebe would claim that he had seen a pair of mysterious fish measuring at least 6 feet in length, which was far larger than anything they had seen before, and indeed larger than anything that was thought to be able to live at such depths. Beebe would write of the account in his book Half Mile Down:

Several minutes later, at 2100 feet, I had the most exciting experience of the whole dive. Two fish went very slowly by, not more than six or eight feet away, each of which was at least six feet in length. They were of the general shape of large barracudas, but with shorter jaws which were kept wide open all the time I watched them. A single line of strong lights, pale bluish, was strung down the body. The usual second line was quite absent. The eyes were very large, even for the great length of the fish. The undershot jaw was armed with numerous fangs which were illumined either by mucus or indirect internal lights. Vertical fins well back were one of the characters which placed it among the sea-dragons, Melanostomiatids, and were clearly seen when the fish passed through the beam. There were two long tentacles, hanging down from the body, each tipped with a pair of separate, luminous bodies, the upper reddish, the lower one blue. These twitched and jerked along beneath the fish, one undoubtedly arising from the chin, and the other far back near the tail. I could see neither the stem of the tentacles nor any paired fins, although both were certainly present. This is the fish I subsequently named Bathysphaera intacta, the Untouchable Bathysphere Fish.

If his observations were correct, then this would make it not only the largest fish to live at such a depth, but also five times as large as the biggest recorded dragonfish. What did he see down there? Considering that neither man was able to take photographs of the fishes because the Bathysphere's low light was inadequate for photography, we may never know. Another strange account comes to us from 1953, when Australian diver Christopher Loeb was in the South Pacific testing a new deep-sea diving suit when out of the murky darkness came floating up a creature like something out of an HP lovecraft story. He would say of it:

All the way down I was followed by a fifteen-foot shark which circled around full of curiosity but made no attempt to attack. I kept wondering how far down he would go. He was still hanging around some thirty feet from me, and about twenty feet higher, when I reached a ledge below which was a great, black chasm of enormous depth. It being dangerous to venture farther, I stood looking into the chasm while the shark waited for my next move. Suddenly the water became distinctly colder. While the temperature continued to drop with surprising rapidity, I saw a black mass rising from the darkness of the chasm. It floated upwards very slowly. As at last light reached it I could see that it was of dull brown colour and tremendous size, a flat ragged edged thing about one acre in extent. It pulsated sluggishly and I knew that it was alive despite its lack of visible limbs or eyes. Still pulsating, this frightful vision floated past my level, by which time the coldness had become most intense. The shark now hung completely motionless, paralyzed either by cold or fear. While I watched fascinated, the enormous brown thing reached the shark, contacted him with its upper surface. The shark gave a convulsive shiver and was drawn unresisting into the substance of the monster. I stood perfectly still, not daring to move, while the brown thing sank back into the chasm as slowly as it had emerged. Darkness swallowed it and the water started to regain some warmth. God knows what this thing was, but I had no doubt that it had been born of the primeval slime countless fathoms below.

What was going on here and what was this thing? In 1965 there was a bizarre encounter reported by the crew of the deep-ocean research submersible Alvin, owned by the United States Navy and operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. In this year engineers Marvin McCamis and Bill Rainnie were engaged in test diving the new submersible off the Bahamas, doing test runs through the “Tongue of the Ocean,” a very deep stretch of water separating the Bahamian islands of Andros and New Providence, when they came across something they could barely fathom. McCamis would later report on the encounter:

We were down about 5000 feet and then I went down into a crevasse about 300 feet deeper under a slight outcrop. We went deeper because the cable we were following spanned the crevasse. It was right there that I spotted it. The first thing I noticed was the movement. I thought we were moving along the cable and checked for drift but found that the sub was stationary and that it was the object that was moving. It then occurred to me that perhaps it was a utility pole, especially because of its thick shape. I swung the sub in an arc to get a better view along the cable or pole or whatever it was, when I was astonished to see a thick body with flippers, a long neck, a snakelike head with two eyes looking right at us. It looked like a big lizard with flippers - it had two sets of them. Then it swam upwards with its back turned before we could get the cameras angled. They were set to photograph 15 to 25 feet in front of the submarine and the thing had already swum out of the camera angle but was still around. I didn't like the way things were happening, so I came up. I couldn't believe what I was seeing but I didn't want to hang around.

McCamis would later explain that the creature looked just like an extinct long-necked ocean going dinosaur known as a plesiosaur. Rather oddly, the log book page with this sighting mysteriously went missing, and without any further evidence or sightings we are left to wonder what they saw down there. The following year there were several large, anomalous deep sea monsters allegedly witnessed by the U.S. Navy/civilian deep-submergence vehicle Deepstar 4000, which was designed by none other than Jacques Cousteau and was able to take a crew of up to three to a staggering depth of 4,000 feet (1,200 m). During a June 1966 research dive in the San Diego Trough, pilot Joe Thompson, marine biologist Gene LaFond, and instrumentation engineer Dale Good were oprating at a depth of around 4,000 ft (1,219 m) in order to lay hydrographical instruments on the seafloor, when they saw something that shocked them.

As they went about their work on the sea floor, something enormous disturbed the silt on the bottom, and when they looked to see what it was, a massive fish bloomed out of the darkness into their submersible’s lights. The fish was described as being 25–40 feet (8–12 m) in length, with enormous eyes, gill plates, huge pectoral fins 2 ft (60 cm) in length, a rounded grouper-like tail fin, dark and mottled gray-black in color, and somewhat resembling a sea bass in body form. Unfortunately, the Deepstar 4000 was not able to photograph the giant fish. The following year the submersible would have another strange sighting when Thompson was on another mission when he spotted what he called a “giant grenadier fish” measuring 10 feet (3 m) in length, far larger than any known grenadier species. 

In 1969, Fortean researcher Richard Winer was on a deep dive doing oceanographic work for General Electric off the coast of the Bahamas along with a diver named Pat Boatwright. At some point during their dive, they were startled when what seems to have been a very massive jelly-fish like creature came up through the gloom beneath them. Winer would say of the encounter:

Pat Boatwright, grabbed me by the shoulder and pointed downward. It was late in the afternoon, and the rough seas were distorting the light that penetrated into the depths. What I saw was phenomenal. How deep it was or its size I couldn't tell. It might have been 100 feet beneath us–maybe 150 feet. Its size I could only guess at–maybe a hundred feet across, possibly seventy-five, but no less than fifty feet in diameter. It was perfectly round. Its color was a deep purple. It was moving slowly up toward us. At its outer perimeter there was a form of pulsation, but there was no movement of water. As we started for the surface, it stopped its ascent. Then slowly it began to descend into the blackening depths. Awestricken, we watched until it was no more.

He was unable to take any photos because he had allegedly used up all of his camera film, so there is sadly no way to really know what is going on here. Was this a giant jellyfish, a giant squid, or what? Who knows? In the 1970s there was a similarly hard to classify report given to cryptozoologist Chad Arment, from a person who claimed his friend had encountered a mysterious predator in the depths of the Gulf of Mexico. The witness had been a deep sea welder and reportedly often saw “giant headless glowing living firehoses” that were fed upon by a very bizarre and monstrous creature, indeed. The report reads:

My friend George Hale was unable to describe the predator in detail. It was too big and too close to him. It was as big to him as you are to an ant. As a matter of fact, he had to ascend PDQ because he was in fear of being crushed like a bug. But the predator had a pallor and skin texture like a sea anemone and it might have been built along the lines of a starfish or a freshwater pond hydra. And it was eating the firehose entity by swallowing it. It's method of propulsion is a mystery.

It’s hard to say what this could have possibly been, and it is a pretty damn strange account. In more recent years we have a report from 1992, off southeastern Japan in the Pacific Ocean. During a deep sea surveying expedition in a diving bell by British diver Mike Cleary, at a depth of 1,700 feet (518 m), he was allegedly confronted by an immense “unknown creature.” The bizarre creature was described as being 25 feet (7 m) long, with a single elongated dorsal fin, no neck, and a head “like a seahorse's, with cow-like eyes and barracuda-like teeth.” Strangest of all it was said to possess two webbed limbs protruding from its torso. The outlandish monstrosity circled the diving bell before fading off into the darkness from whence it came. It has been suggested that this might have been an unknown giant species of lobe-finned fish, like the coelacanth, but there is no way to know for sure.

An even more recent oddity also comes from Japan, at the Mariana Trench, a massive undersea canyon stretching around 2,550 km (1,580 mi) along the western Pacific Ocean. Dropping down up to 7 miles into darkness at its deepest point, the yawning chasm of the Mariana Trench is the deepest part of the world’s oceans, and remains mostly unexplored. Along the outer edge of the Mariana Trench lies the extremely deep Suruga Bay, Japan. It was here that in 2008 researchers caught footage of a truly monstrous shark while studying the marine life of the area. Japanese marine biologists studying sea life at the bottom of a deep and little explored part of the bay set up a container filled with potently smelly bait designed to lure in a wide variety of sea life even from great distances away. The container was placed at a depth of 1.5 km (nearly 1 mile), and a camera was attached nearby to capture footage of any sea life in the vicinity. The plan was to take video of and catalog the different types of creatures that showed up.

At first, the bait attracted numerous small fish and some crustaceans, nothing particularly unusual. Things got more exciting when a shoal of rare, deep water sharks measuring around 2 meters (6.5 feet) long moved in and enthusiastically fed on the bait. Researchers were surprised when the shoal of sharks suddenly and inexplicably darted off in all directions as if they were afraid of something. At first, it was unknown what could have caused such large sharks to scatter like that away from such irresistible bait. The reason soon became apparent when a humongous shark dwarfing the others loomed into view from the surrounding murk. The incredibly large shark proceeds to slowly soar in front of the camera and show interest in the bait before gliding off again. The scientists who viewed the mysterious shark were puzzled by its sheer size, and nobody was sure just what exactly they had seen.

It is apparent upon viewing the footage that whatever the shark is, it is gigantic, although it is difficult to say for certain just how gigantic. When trying to ascertain its size, researchers took into account the dimensions of the bait container, as well as the length of other sharks that can be seen in the footage before the monster shows up, which were judged to be around 2 meters (6.5 feet) long. Using these as size comparisons, the mystery shark was estimated as being at least 30 feet long, with more exaggerated estimations putting it at more like 50 or 60 feet long. The footage taken by the underwater camera near the bait station became quite popular in Japan, and it has gained some notoriety in cryptozoological abroad as well. It is unclear just what is seen in the video, and some have jumped on the explanation that the mega shark is a surviving megalodon. The researchers who originally took the video are inclined to believe it to be a very large specimen of the rare Pacific sleeper shark, and other scientists have concurred. Sleeper sharks can get quite large, and are believed to be capable of reaching lengths of up to 7 meters (23 feet) long, yet if the shark in the video is of this species then it would represent by far the largest specimen ever recorded. What was this thing? 

Adding to all of these reports are various accounts over the years of exceptionally enormous squid lurking in the depths. We know the seas have big squid. The once legendary Kraken, now known as the giant squid, of the genus Architeuthis, and the even more massive colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni) are famous for their enormous sizes. Giant squid, for instance, are estimated to reach total lengths (including tentacles) of up to 13 meters (43 feet) and perhaps even larger, with colossal squid being even more massive. However, is there an even more monstrously huge type of squid lurking in the unexplored depths of our oceans?

The famed cryptozoologist Bernard Heuvelmans, often referred to as the father of modern cryptozoology, certainly thought so. Inspired by reports from outsized specimens of giant squid washed up in Newfoundland, some of the more outrageous reports mentioning squid 80 or 90 feet long, Heuvelmans wondered if there were specimens of giant squid out there, or even a new species that were far larger than the proposed size limits. Another report from 1924 further added fuel to his theory. On October 25, 1924, a Mr. White and Mr. Strachan found what they described as a "record octopus" washed up on near Baven-on-Sea, Natal, South Africa. Pieces of the carcass had been missing, including the mantle and long portions of the tentacles, making size estimations difficult, but judging by illustrations of the animal Heuvelmans estimated that the total length of the animal would have been a monstrous 115 feet long.

A fair amount of sightings reports also fascinated Heuvelmans. One such sighting occurred at night during WWII by an A. G. Starkey off the Maldives. He was allegedly alone on deck and saw a squid laying alongside the 175 foot (53 m) boat that was nearly the same length. He said the arms were 2 feet wide (0.6 m) and that the beak was visible. A canadian by the name of Charles Dudoward also reported spotting a squid washed up on shore in 1922 that had arms 50 feet (15.2 m) long and one tentacle 100 feet (30 m) long. The tentacle apparently ended in a hook 10" (25 cm) wide and 12 in (31 cm) long. Dudoward's own grandfather had also made a sighting in British Columbia of a squid which had arms over 100 feet (30 m) with suckers ranging from the size of saucers to basin plates.

Heuvelmen's also considered as evidence of giant squid the existence of sucker marks on sperm whales far larger than normal which he took to imply truly humongous squid lurking in the depths. Upon hearing of sucker marks 4 inches in diameter, Heuvelman's extrapolated that into a squid with a body length (excluding tentacles) measuring at least 30 feet long. Even larger sucker marks had also been recorded, with the famed cryptozoologist Ivan Sanderson writing of sucker marks measuring 18 inches long. Sanderson had also made mention of sucker marks measuring all the way up to 2 feet in diameter, all of which would imply gigantic squid far, far larger than any known thus far. It was pointed out by skeptics that these extra-large sucker marks may have been marks made by lampreys rather than those of squid, or that they could have been wounds inflicted on young whales that grew to appear larger as the animals matured, but Heuvelmans was not convinced by these arguments. Heuvelmans also took reports of tentacles measuring 45 feet long and speculated that they were short arms rather than the long tentacles, from which he calculated that the creature itself would reach the truly mind boggling total length of 140 to 240 feet if male and up to 300 feet if female.

Based on all of these observations, plus various sightings reports of super-sized squid from around the world, Heuvelmans proposed that there were squid that measured well over 100 feet and in some case up to 300 feet lurking in the world's oceans. This seems perhaps a little farfetched, yet even if they are not hundreds of feet long it is entirely feasible that squid at least larger than any currently known are out there prowling the depths. It is a sobering thought, and makes one wonder just what is lurking out there in those depths that we do not understand. In the end, all such cases as we have looked at here serve to make us wonder just what might be down there in the deep, dark places of the world. It is a realm we have only scratched the surface of, and there is no way of knowing just what our light into that darkness might catch in its beam. 

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Every once in a while there is a strange case concerning a person who just seems to appear from the ether, only to die and leave behind nothing but cryptic clues. Such people popuklate history, taunting us with their enigmas and never able to be fully understood. One such case is that of a man who appeared one day in the foggy moors of England, springing out of the mist to then turn up dead and leave behind a compelling unsolved mystery. 

At around 2 p.m on December 11th, 2015, an unassuming, smartly drtessed elderly man walked out of a cold, misty day into the Clarence Pub in Greenfield, located at a moorland in North West England called Saddleworth Moor, in the Dark Peak area of the Peak District National Park. Something immediately seemed off about him, with his out-of-place appearance, as he was not dressed like the other hikers who frequented the pub, he kept to himself, had no backpack or bag of any kind, and he did not order a drink, not even a glass of water. His eccentric demeanor was made even stranger when he cryptically told the pub landlord, Mel Robinson, that he wanted to “go to the top of the mountain.” Robinson would say of the odd encounter:

It was cold outside, and going dark already. Overcast. It rained all day the day before, and it rained all day the day after. It being the quiet period after lunch, he was sitting at the end of the bar. He got up, but the stranger didn’t want a drink. He wanted to walk to ‘the top of the mountain’. It was unusual, the way he was dressed. He was wearing just a light mac, normal trousers and shirt, and slip-on shoes. The top of the mountain. That was unusual, too. Walkers often come in for directions, but this isn’t mountain country, and the locals don’t use the noun of even the highest escarpments. He didn’t say Indian’s Head, he didn’t say Dovestone reservoir. He just said ‘the top of the mountain’.

Saddleworth Moor

Seeing as it was already getting relatively late in the day and the mysterious stranger was not dressed or equipped for a hike out there in the moorland, Robinson advised against trying that day to go to the summit of the nearby peak at the Chew reservoir, which is what he assumed the man meant. The stranger said nothing to this, merely thanking him and heading out into the cold rain without another word. At the time it was all a bit weird, but Robinson was used to various slightly off-kilter travelers and hikers coming through his doors from all over the place, so at the time he did not think much of it. Little did he know that he would be one of the last people to see the stranger alive. The stranger was seen by two Royal Society for the Protection of Birds staff climbing up the Wimberry Stones, a rock feature known locally as "Indian's Head" overlooking the reservoir, after which he would walk right off into a strange unsolved mystery that has not really been solved to this day.

The next day, at about 10:50 a.m., a passing cyclist stumbled across the man’s dead body near the Chew reservoir, not far from where he had last been seen. The body was lying on its back, with his arms crossed comfortably over his stomach as if he was cloud watching, and by police estimates it seemed he had walked around 2.5 miles (4 km) from the pub, much of it uphill. In his right trouser pocket was £130 in £10 notes, and his coat pocket held three train tickets from the previous morning: a single from Ealing Broadway to London Euston and a return from Euston to Manchester Piccadilly, although it was not clear how he had travelled the 11 miles (17km) from Manchester to Greenfield. Also found in a pocket was a medicine box made of card, and within this was an empty bottle of thyroxine sodium, a drug for the treatment of hypothyroidism, with a label printed in both English and Urdu. There was no ID, no wallet, and no cards, keys, phone, watch or driving license, no way at all to identify who he was. There was no sign of a struggle, the body was in a peaceful state, with no visible injuries, and it seemed almost as if he were just taking a nap. It was all pretty odd, and although police suspected he had died of a heart attack no one could figure out who he was or why he had been climbing around on that moor. It would later be found that he had actually died of a lethal dose of strychnine, which made it even odder still. What was going on here?

Police began trying to find out who the man, who was given the placeholder name “Neil Dovestone,” was, but this would prove to be easier said than done. Cross-referencing the man’s DNA against the national criminal intelligence and missing persons databases failed to provide a match, his fingerprints were not on record, and appeals to the public for information went unanswered. It was as if he were a ghost. Unable to figure out who he was, authorities began trying to track his movements in the days leading up to his death. The train tickets and CCTV footage tracked his journey from Manchester Piccadilly to London Euston to Ealing Broadway, and at Piccadilly he went back and forth between the station shops for approximately 53 minutes, bought a sandwich, and spent about four minutes at the station information counter, although it is not clear what he was talking about there for so long. He left the station at around 1 p.m. and after this, there is no more CCTV footage and his movements are unknown. It wasn’t much help in determining what was going on or how he had come to arrive in Greenfield at that pub. Who was this guy and where did he come from? No one had a clue.

Another perplexing mystery was why he had gone all the way out into that moor to turn up dead. One theory doing the rounds at the time was that Dovestone was actually a man named Stephen Evans, who was a survivor of an airplane crash on the moor in 1949 that had killed 24 of the passengers and crew on board. The idea was that he had for whatever reason come to that moor to pay his respects and to ultimately kill himself there, possibly over survivor’s guilt, but it would turn out that he was not, in fact, Evans because Evans would turn out to be very much alive and well. It was then thought he might be another of the only eight survivors of the crash, Michael Prestwich, aged two at the time of the disaster, but he was found to have died decades before. Another intriguing idea was that he was a spy who had gotten in over his head and been assassinated with the poison. However, why do that all the way out there on the moor? Why would he go out there? In the end, this was all pure speculation with nothing to back it up. 

It was purely by accident that a big lead would be found. It had been discovered during a secondary postmortem that Dovestone had at some point had hip surgery to install a metal plate, but what had been missed at first was that the particular type of plate in this case was only legal in Pakistan. This, plus the bottle with Urdu printed on it, heavily suggested that Dovestone had come to Britain from Pakistan. With this new information, police were able to track the plate down to a hospital in Lahore, and eventually they finally were able to put a name to the body. It was found that “Neil Dovestone” was actually a David Lytton, who was 67-years-old at the time of his death, and was born to Jewish parents as David Lautenberg in London, and in 2006 he had suddenly gone off to live in Pakistan. Now the body had been identified, but this did little to solve the overall mystery, and indeed it offered up even more questions than answers. For one, there could be found no known connection between Lytton and the Saddleworth Moor, no reason at all for him to be there or to want to go there. Then there was his long trip from Pakistan, and when this was added to the other odd clues such as his inappropriate clothing and mysterious death it begged the question- why come all the way from Pakistan to a moor he had no connection with and turn up dead there? 

At this point the main police explanation was that Lytton had committed suicide, and this makes sense in a way because he was found to have been prone to bouts of depression, but there are a lot of problems with this. The most obvious is why would he come all that way to climb up a remote peak in a moor he never been to in clothes completely unsuitable for the environment in order to kill himself? There is also the fact that he died of a fatal dose of strychnine, which is a slow and painful way to die, with death coming by asphyxiation as the muscles spasm and contract uncontrollably, so why would he choose that method of suicide? As a matter of fact, if he had really died an agonizing death by strychnine then why was his body in such a peaceful state as if he had been sleeping? It was also found that he had bought a return ticket to Pakistan while in England, so why do that if you want to off yourself? This was starting to get people talking about the spy theory again, with the idea being that a mission had gone south and he had either been assassinated or had killed himself with what is called an “L-pill,” given to agents to avoid torture or information falling into enemy hands. This could be why he carried no identification and also explain the fact that he had bought a return trip to Lahore, meaning perhaps he was trying to run from someone. Still, why that moor? Indeed, why England at all? If he wanted to kill himself, why not just do it in Pakistan?

In the end there are no real answers. Although we know who "Neil Dovestone" really was, he has truly left a mystery in his wake. What brought him out to that remote moor from faraway Pakistan? How did he end up dead and what is the meaning of all of the weird clues? Just what is going on here? We may never know for sure. 

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