Tracie Austin is a long-time friend of mine who I first met back in 1995. At the time, Tracie and I only lived about a 45-minute-drive from each other in central, rural England. As a result, we spent a lot of time traveling to UFO conferences in the U.K. and having a good time. Tracie moved to the United States a couple of years before me and now lives in Las Vegas, Nevada.

In the summer of 2016, Tracie invited me and David Weatherlyto be on her The Tracie Austin Show. The plan was to have Tracie first interview us separately: I would be interviewed on the MIB and David on the Black-Eyed Children. And, then, there would be a round-table discussion on both phenomena, noting the undeniable links between the two. A date was soon fixed: September 22. The high-strangeness wasn’t just limited to the show, however. Tracie herself had a trio of stories of her own to relate to me concerning the Black-Eyed Children. They were, of course, as bizarre as they were disturbing. She told me:

“With me doing the show on the Black-Eyed Kids, I was reading David’s book every day before we did the show. So, it was on my mind. And it only happened the one time, but I had this dream that we had a friend over and there was a knock at the door, and the friend that came over opened the door. And I saw a black-eyed kid standing at the door; one single boy. And the friend asked him to come in, and I said ‘No, no, no; you can’t let him in!’ But, he wandered in, slightly. It was a kid with a hoodie and jeans; the typical kid. And I pushed him out the door and said again, ‘No, you can’t let him in!’ It shook me a bit when I woke up.”

The skeptic might be inclined to say that because Tracie was focusing on the BEC at the time, and diligently preparing for the show, that all of the data she had digested had now spilled over into her dream-state and her subconscious. I knew that such a thing was not at all implausible. I also knew, however, that the MIB had the uncanny ability to, essentially, “invade” our dreams and turn them into absolute nightmares. Maybe, the Black-Eyed Children could do likewise, too, I considered. That was far from being the end of the story, however.

Tracie continued with what she had found out: “I have a friend named Dana; she works in timeshare, at a resort out here in Las Vegas, on the far end of the strip. She was working one day – this was in April 2016 – when she said this lady was sent over to her, with two kids: a young boy and a girl. The girl was about six or seven and the boy was about four or five. The woman was wearing dark brown pants and had long brown hair. And the reason why the woman was sent over was because Dana gave the gifting in the timeshare company. When you listen to a presentation, you’re given a gift. But, the woman said she didn’t want a gift and Dana said, ‘When she looked at me and said that, I saw that she had total black eyes.’ There were no whites whatsoever. And the kids were exactly the same. But, in every other sense they were completely normal; they weren’t wearing the hoodies.

“Dana commented, ‘I wish I had said something, like how do you see with those eyes?’ When she said that, I thought you can’t really ask them something like that. Maybe you could say, ‘Wow, your eyes are beautiful.’ But, maybe that’s bringing attention to something they don’t want you to know about. But, they could wear sunglasses all the time and no-one would know. So, maybe they are testing our reactions, they want their eyes to be seen. The kids were quiet; they didn’t say anything to her. Dana asked the woman how long she was going to be staying at the resort. And she said just one night and then they left.

“Dana said to me, ‘I couldn’t believe it, Tracie; I saw after that that you were going to be doing a show on the Black-Eyed Kids.’ She reached out to me on Facebook and said, ‘I had an encounter with a Black-Eyed Woman and Black-Eyed Kids.’ Then, a couple of months after encountering this woman, Dana asked me if there was some connection between seeing them and people dying, when they have an encounter with the Black-Eyed-People. Right around a month or two after her encounter, her parents – who were both in their seventies – died. They hadn’t been sick, weren’t ill. Her father had developed kidney failure, out of the blue, and then her mother developed pneumonia. She said to me: ‘Tracie, this is freaking me out, as I hear [the Black-Eyed Children] can be omens of death.’ I said I didn’t know, as I didn’t want to scare her.”

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Like me, the late Brad Steiger had a deep interest in the phenomenon of the Men in Black. One of the more thought-provoking accounts he shared with me demonstrates just how incredibly weird the whole MIB phenomenon really is. Brad began as follows: “After more than 50 years of research in the UFO and paranormal fields, I have come to the conclusion that many of the mysteries that bedevil us are products of a reflexive phenomenon.  This reflexive action does not usually occur in the more mundane pursuits of architecture, industry, mining, agriculture and the like, but once one begins actively to pursue Ufology or psychical research, one runs the risk of entering a surreal world in which the usual physical laws do not apply.”

Now, without interruption, I’ll let you read the rest of Brad’s thoughts, along with a couple of very strange events that impacted on his life: “In the case of the mythos of the Men in Black, I suggest that that eerie enigma may have begun with the machinations of a human agency assigned to investigate the actions of the more high profile investigators of the phenomenon and the more convincing witness of UFO activity with the goals of learning more about the growing interest in a worldwide phenomena.  Somehow along the way, this activity of the human surveillance of other humans caught the interest of a nonhuman, paraphysical agency that has for centuries pursued goals that remain elusive, even sinister, to the individuals whom they visit.  Whether motivated by a bizarre sense of humor, an essentially malicious nature, or a desire to learn how much some humans know about their eternal secrets, the Others began knocking on the doors of those who had witnessed or who had investigated UFO activity.

“Some of my experiences with the MIB seem most certainly the product of human surveillance that in most instances was conducted with awkward fallibility. Once in the golden era of MIB activity in the late 1960s while speaking to a fellow researcher on the telephone, our con­versation was interrupted by a metallic-sounding voice chanting: ‘Ho, ho, UFO!’ Because it seemed that this got a rise out of us, this merry chant was repeated on a number of telephone calls with other investigators.

“A friend who had been doing a great deal of research on my behalf told of the time when he was anticipating a visit from me. He picked up the telephone to make a call on his private line, only to hear the following bit of conversation:

“‘Has Steiger arrived in town yet?’

“‘Not yet.’

“‘What motel will he be staying in?’

“‘The [correct name of the motel in which I had made reservations].’

“‘Don’t worry. Everything is set.’

“At this point my friend broke in and asked who the hell was on his private line. There was a stunned silence, a click, then the steady buzzing that indicates a clear line. I had my own experience with the awkward telephone spies when I checked into a hotel and found that the bell man had missed one of my suitcases – the most important one with the slides for my lecture.

“I picked up the receiver to hear a man’s voice inquire: ‘When is he supposed to check in?’

“‘He is already in his room,’ I said in reply, though I knew the query wasn’t asked of me.’

“‘Oh, s—t!’ was the profound response, followed by two rapid hang-ups.

“Other experiences with the MIB are not so easy to place in either the Human or Non-Human category. A friend of mine was traveling in England before starting on an around-the-world junket with a layover in Vietnam to visit his son in the armed forces. He was walking near a railway station in London when he noticed three men dressed completely in black staring at him.

“When my friend returned their collective stare, they approached him and asked him which train they should take for such-and-such a city. My friend calmly pointed out that he was a tourist, and it made a good deal more sense for them to ask at the information booth just a few feet away.

“My friend turned on his heel and walked away from the odd trio, but a glance over his shoulder told him that they were still standing there staring at him, unmindful of checking with the information booth. Sud­denly ill at ease, my friend hailed a taxi and went directly to his hotel.

“When he got to his room, an uncomfortable sensation prickled the back of his neck and he glanced out his window. On the street corner, looking up at his room, were the three men. Baffled, he tried to push the incident from his mind.

“A day or so later, though, he was confronted by one of the men who told him straight out: ‘You are a friend of Brad Steiger. Tell him we shall visit him by Christmas.’ My friend had only a peripheral knowledge of the UFO can of worms, but he returned to his hotel room and wrote me a long letter with the above details.

“Not long after I had received his letter, I visited a friend in another city and told him about the bizarre experience my correspondent had encountered in London. ‘Humph!’ Jim snorted over the lunch we were sharing. ‘If those monkeys come to see you this Christmas, send ‘em down to talk to me. I’d love to get one of those characters in my hands. I would solve this man-in-black mystery you’ve been telling me about!’

“I laughed and warned him that he had better be careful or he might get his wish.

“I had not returned from my trip by more than a few minutes when the telephone rang.  It was Jim calling. Wondering if I might have left something at his place of business, I was informed that I had indeed left a most peculiar something behind me.

“Jim told me that I had no sooner started my homeward journey than he was told that a gentleman wished to see him. A secretary ushered a man of average height into Jim’s office. But my friend said that his visitor was the thinnest human being he had ever seen.

“‘He was cadaverous, Brad,’ Jim told me. ‘He looked like those World War II photographs of someone in a concentration camp. But he seemed alert enough, and so involved in his quest that he ignored my proffered hand of greeting. In fact, I tried to push shaking his hand, but he refused to touch me.’

“‘I hear you want to be the head of UFO’s in Iowa,’ he said quickly.

“‘He took out a wallet, flipped it open, then shut, before I could see any identification. I can’t really recall anything else he said, because it was all so damned nonsensical. Soon he was gone, and I was still sitting there dumbfounded.

“‘I jumped to my feet, though, when I heard his car starting. I got a good look at his automobile and I wrote down its license number. I can’t tell you what make of car it was. It looked like a combination of three or four different makes and models, but it didn’t really look like anything I had ever seen before. And the license number didn’t check. The High­way Patrol said there was no such Iowa plate registered. A friend in another branch of state government, who owed me a favor, said the plate wasn’t registered to any government agency, either.’”

“In January of 1978, I was stationed at McGuire AFB, N.J. One evening, during the time frame of 0300 hrs. and 0500 hrs., there were a number of UFO sightings in the area over the air field and Ft. Dix MP’s were running code in the direction of Brownsville, N.J. A state trooper then entered Gate #5 at the rear of the base requesting assistance and permission to enter. I was dispatched and the trooper wanted access to the runway area which led to the very back of the air field and connected with a heavily wooded area which is part of the Dix training area. He informed me that a Ft. Dix MP was pursuing a low flying object which then hovered over his car. He described it as oval shaped, with no details, and glowing with a bluish-green color. His radio transmission was cut off. At that time in front of his police car, appeared a thing, about 4 feet tall, grayish, brown, fat head, long arms, and slender body. The MP panicked and fired five rounds from his .45 cal. into the thing, and one round into the object above. The object then fled straight up and joined with eleven others high in the sky. This we all saw but didn’t know the details at the time. Anyway, the thing ran into the woods towards our fenceline and they went to look for it. By this time several patrols were involved.

“We found the body of the thing near the runway. It had apparently climbed the fence and died while running. It was all of a sudden hush-hush and no one was allowed near the area. We roped off the area and AFOSI came out and took over. That was the last I saw of it. There was a bad stench coming from it too. Like ammonia smelling but wasn’t constant [in] the air. That day, a team from Wright-Patterson AFB came in a C141 and went to the area. They crated it in a wooden box, sprayed something over it, and then put it into a bigger metal container. They loaded it in the plane and took off. That was it, nothing more said, no report made and we were all told not to have anything to say about it or we would be court-martialed.

“I will be getting out of the Air Force in about two months. Do not disclose my name as I could get into trouble. I am interested in pursuing this and other matters if you need help. Forgive me for not signing this but I can’t take any chances. Please reply to the above address and my parents will forward it to me or I will be home already. Don’t send it here because they monitor all mail closely and I again don’t want to take any chances.”

Stringfield dug deep into the story, checking things out for himself and enlisting the help of the late UFO investigator, Richard Hall. Stringfield was able to chat with “Morse” on the phone just a few weeks before Christmas 1983. Hall met with “Morse,” in January 1985, in Washington, D.C. Hall told Stringfield shortly afterwards that he, Hall, “…detected nothing in his manner, or story, to cause skepticism.” In addition, “Morse” provided a military document (DD Form 1569) that detailed the shooting of the alien. Unfortunately, the document was a photocopy – which made it worthless, since anyone could have concocted it. It would have been far more impressive had it been an original.

There is very little doubt that this case is bogus, even though there is a degree of data suggesting “Morse” really was employed at McGuire AFB. Indeed, he provided a name of one person connected to the base – and allegedly connected to the affair, too – at the time of the alleged incident, and which did prove to be accurate. But, I’m still not impressed.

I refer you to a lengthy report prepared by NIDS, the National Institute of Discovery Science. Its title: “Preliminary Investigation Into The Alleged Shooting Of A Non-Human Entity At Ft. Dix/McGuire Air Force Base On January 18, 1978.” The report states (after a great deal of in-depth digging was over): “NIDS’ working hypothesis (which is subject to change based on further emerging evidence) is that the 1978 McGuire AFB incident did not happen. Further, the putative fabrication of the DD form 1569 suggests that the Fort Dix/McGuire incident may be a hoax.”

Due to the near-unfathomable distances between most of the objects in the known universe, it may take millions of years for attempts at extraterrestrial communication to succeed. That hasn’t stopped us from trying, though. Numerous messages intended to break the ice between humankind and potential alien civilizations have been sent into space, from the rather crude Arecibo message beamed into the cosmos via radio waves in 1974 to the slightly more advanced “Golden Record” sent along on NASA’s Voyager spacecraft.

While experts from a wide variety of fields weigh in on the content of these messages, we have no Earthly idea whatsoever how any potential alien races might interpret these messages. Communication in all of its forms is culturally or biologically bound, and we don’t have any precedent for how interstellar communication might function out in the universe.

What if the Golden Record is found by a species which eats gold? That’s an expensive interstellar snack.

For that reason, our attempts to send messages into space have consisted mostly of basic mathematical and scientific knowledge and brief snapshots of what life here on Earth is like for humans and animals. I mean, we wouldn’t want to offend our cosmic neighbors with any culturally-specific information which might be potentially misinterpreted as a threat or act of intergalactic war, would we?

No, we wouldn’t, which is why the idea to blast a distant planet with electronic dance music is horribly misguided. Throughout May 2018, electronic dance music (EDM) was beamed into deep space in the direction of GJ 273, otherwise known as Luyten’s Star, as part of a project being led by the Sónar Music Festival, the Catalonia Institute of Space Studies, and METI International (Messaging to Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence). Luyten’s Star is in the Canis Minor constellation only about 12 light-years away and is orbited by two planets, one of which is believed to be a “Super Earth” in the Goldilocks zone which can hypothetically support life.

Luyten’s Star is a red dwarf star with a mass of about a quarter of the Sun’s.

Last year, the same festival beamed two messages at Luyten’s Star, but they consisted of two brief pulses of radio signalsmeant to symbolize a musical interval and the human perception of time. This year, 35 different EDM songs were sent along with the typical mathematical and physics tidbits meant to display our intelligence. Although given that we also included music, I’m not sure that will go over well.

How will any potential intelligent aliens there feel about EDM from the likes of Daedelus and other electronic musicians? Music, like all art forms and communication media, is a cultural activity which might not have the same meaning for a completely different species. Could this percussive, bass-heavy music be interpreted as a threat or some kind of interstellar weapon? Or will any aliens orbiting Luyten’s Star go on believing that EDM is the dominant form of communication on Earth? What would they think of us?

They’d probably think we need to stop twiddling knobs and pick up some real instruments for a change. Yeah, I said it.

Unfortunately, all of these questions are impossible to answer due to the socially constructed nature of music. Ultimately, any message we send into space could be interpreted or misinterpreted in ways we can’t even imagine. Is it wise to send music into space?