Historically, science has been used to help prevent us from jumping to irrational conclusions, especially conclusions drawn about whether mysterious aircraft are controlled by extraterrestrial beings. Some would argue that the scientific method helps humans stay grounded in material reality and doesn’t lead to flights of fancy.

But in one of his lectures, ethnobotanist and mystic Terence McKenna shares a more controversial theory, asserting that “masculine” rationalism and science may have caused UFO sightings. He says UFOs could be hallucinations intentionally brought on by the “Divine Feminine” part of the universe, and this feminine entity wants to shake our foundations and challenge what we know. It wants to warn us, McKenna says, that being too “science-minded” is causing us to be cold, unfeeling rationalists who will continue to destroy our planet.

“What [UFOs] are doing is eroding faith in science, [a system] which has led us to the brink of global catastrophe,” McKenna says. “I really believe that we have moved so far from an awareness of the feminine portion of our psyche that now, the [Divine Feminine] must present itself in consciousness under the guise of an extraterrestrial or interdimensional invader.”

To clear up some of this counter-culture hippie-speak, the definition of “the Goddess” varies across religions and philosophies. But from McKenna’s point of view, the Goddess, sometimes referred to as the “Divine Feminine,” seems to function as an emotional, sensing and feeling archetype, whereas the masculine “God” is a rational materialist who considers personal and sensory experience to be unimportant. To upend the supposedly masculine scientific paradigm, McKenna suggests, the Goddess has taken on the role of a kind of court jester, poking fun at the masculine King Science, causing people to question what they think they know.

“The UFO is nothing more than an assertion of herself, by the Goddess into history, saying to science and paternalistically governed and driven organizations: ‘You have gone far enough. We are going to turn the world upside down. Your science is going to be shown for what it is, nothing more than a pleasant metaphor,’” McKenna says. “[Science] is not some metatheory at whose feet every point of view from astrology to acupressure to channeling need be laid, to have the hand of science announce thumbs up or thumbs down.”

McKenna says that when a society begins to evolve in a “lethal direction” as our world has, the “Overmind” (a term used in science fiction to refer to a hive mind or collective consciousness) will make the decision to corrode ideologies that are having a detrimental effect.

“Rationalism and scientific technology which began and came out of the scholasticism of the Middle Ages and the wish to glorify God turned into kind of a demonic pact leading to atomic weapons, male dominated organizations flying messages of lethal destruction and inevitable historical advance, and into this comes an anomaly which cannot be explained,” McKenna says. “I believe that is the purpose of the UFO, to inject uncertainty into the male dominated paternalistic rational solar myth under which we are suffering.”

McKenna, who claims to have seen UFOs up close and has met with entities from other dimensions, isn’t moved to take a strong position and say that aliens are real. He engages other possibilities, like perhaps we share Earth with alien beings, or extraterrestrial civilizations are visiting, or even that UFOs could be manned by Earth time travelers, our children from the future coming back to warn us to change our ways. But he sees these theories as unlikely.

Behold the divine power of the Divine Feminine… mushroom?

He suggests, as a well-known proponent of psychedelics, that we use mushrooms to help distance ourselves from this materialistic, rational experience of the world. And in doing so, we will tap into the wisdom of the Goddess which will allow us to examine what UFOs really mean. He says that psychedelics could provide as much insight into UFOs and consciousness as a telescope provides rocket scientists, and that when scientists discount sightings reported under the influence of psychedelics, they’re crippling our understanding of the phenomenon and contributing to UFO hallucinations.

“The repression of those compounds and their use by science has created a neurotic energy dynamic in the mass psyche. And the mass psyche has begun to hallucinate because the destiny of human beings is to live in the imagination in the hands of the Goddess. And wherever that thrust is impeded, psychopathy will result,” McKenna says. “I believe that until we form a resolution to conduct an unfettered and mature exploration of human psychology, using all the tools available to us, that the skies of Earth will continue to be haunted by flying saucers.”

The largest lake on Saturn’s largest moon Titan may be deeper than a thousand feet. Even though it’s been more than three years since NASA’s Cassini spacecraft finished orbiting Saturn (when it dove down into the planet’s atmosphere), experts are still finding valuable information from the data that it collected.

In one of Cassini’s last flybys of Titan (specifically, the 104^th flyby of the moon on August 21, 2014), it was able to capture significant data of the moon’s largest lake called Kraken Mare. Based on preliminary data, it was believed that the lake was at least 115 feet deep but according to more in-depth analysis, it has been revealed that it is much deeper – at least 1,000 feet. In fact, it is so deep that the radar on board the spacecraft couldn’t probe all the way down to the bottom of the lake.

They were able to figure this out by calculating how long it took the radar signal to bounce back from the lake and by considering the type of liquid the lake is comprised of as it would absorb a portion of the energy emitted from the radar signal.

Kraken Mare

There is a mixture of methane and ethane in Kraken Mare and scientists are still optimistic that they will solve the mystery of where the liquid methane originated from because based on the fact that Titan is so far away from the sun, it should have cycled through all of its methane in 10 million years. While there is a lot of debate on the exact age of Saturn’s moons, they are certainly much older than 10 million years.

And Kraken Mare is not only deep, but massive in size as it would cover all five of North America’s Great Lakes if it was situated here on Earth. In a statement from the Cornell University Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science, Valerio Poggiali, who is a research associate at the university and the lead author of the study, explained this further, “Kraken Mare … not only has a great name, but also contains about 80% of the moon’s surface liquids.”

At a thousand feet deep, NASA should have no problem putting a submarine down into the depths of Kraken Mare which is currently being discussed for a future mission to Titan sometime in the next decade.

Titan

And Kraken Mare wasn’t the only lake that the spacecraft collected data on. Specifically, researchers were very interested in finding out more about Ligeia Mare and its “magic island” that continuously disappears and reappears. They were also curious about an estuary called Moray Sinus that has a depth estimated at 280 feet. The spacecraft probed the surface of the moon with a radar altimeter at a distance of about 600 miles away.

• The study was published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets where it can be read in full.

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Back in the day, the United States and the Soviet Union both had their eyes to the sky. Space was seen as the last frontier for the Cold War they had long been waging, and they constantly sought to one-up each other. Space was a potential battle ground not just for trying to gain an upper hand, but also as a stage on which they could flex and pose for the world stage, constantly trying to show who was best. It was in this climate of competition and trying to master the domain of space that the Soviets would build a tactical armed space station, and become the first, and so far only, nation to actually fire a space cannon.

There was a time when the Soviets were winning the space race. Initially they came out of the gate strong, with many decisive victories. The launching of the Sputnik on October 4, 1957 was the first manmade object placed in space, followed by putting the first living animal in space in the form of a dog named Laika, and then there was the Soviet unmanned space probe Luna II, which on September 14, 1959 became the first manmade object to land on the moon. They followed this up on April 12, 1961, when Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was launched into orbit for 108 minutes, becoming the first human being in space. At this time the Soviet Union were showing that space was their domain, which made the United States very nervous indeed. At the time space was being increasingly seen as sort of the battlefield of the future, with all manner of potential uses for reconnaissance satellites or even proposed orbital weapons. The early Soviet early dominance of space was alarming and unacceptable for the Americans, not only militarily but also ideologically, as it showed that communism was winning, so they did what they were good at and started throwing tons of money at their space programs.

Laika, the first Earth creature to go to space

Flush with cash from its newfound industrial and economic surge in the wake of World War II, the United States doubled their efforts in the space race, and it paid massive dividends. In quick succession they launched their own satellite, put astronaut Alan Shepard into space, and then performed their coup de grace on July 20, 1969, by landing astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon. In short order The United States had upped the ante and clawed ahead of the Soviets to leave them reeling. The U.S. now had the upper hand, and the thought of American satellites circling the globe unchecked terrified the Soviets, only made worse when the U.S. began preparations for a manned space station called the American Manned Orbital Laboratory (MOL) program. This just wouldn’t do, so they began a space station program of their own.

The Orbital Piloted Station (OPS), code-named Almaz, meaning “Diamond,” was a top-secret program launched in 1964 and carried out by the Soviets to put their own manned space station into orbit for the purpose of military reconnaissance. To this end it was to be fitted with cutting edge spy equipment, cameras and radar, and it was designed to be able to be resupplied while in orbit. It was to be the first of several planned military space stations, and money was poured into it. All of this was very hush hush, of course, hidden behind the façade that it was to be a part of the civilian space station program called Salyut. They didn’t want the Americans getting wind that they were planning on putting a military apace station in orbit, but they had to be sure their investment stayed safe. At the time, both sides were very concerned with anti-satellite and space station weapons, paranoid that anything put up into space was liable to be shot down or straight out stolen, so the Soviets made sure that one aspect of the Almaz was developed, and that meant they wanted to mount a big space cannon on it.

In order to arm their fancy space station, the Soviets designed the R-23M Kartech, basically a modified version of the Rikhter R-23, which was a 23mm, fully automatic tail gun designed for the Tupolev Tu-22 Blinder supersonic bomber. The new modified cannon weighed 37 pounds and could supposedly fire up between 950 to 5,000 rounds per minute, that could hit targets with accuracy up to two miles away. It was designed to be mounted on the forward belly of the Almaz station, but firing the weapon was the tricky part. As the cannon was to be mounted in a fixed position, actually aiming it would require the entire space station to be moved into a firing position. Another problem was that thrusters would be needed to counterbalance the recoil of the weapon, as every shot fired would potentially push the space station out of orbit, a big problem in the weightless vacuum of space. Nevertheless, the Soviets went ahead with arming their space station.

Between 1973 and 1976, the Soviets would launch three crewed military reconnaissance stations with the Almaz program, which were disguised under the civilian Salyut program and launched under the names Salyut 2, Salyut 3 and Salyut 5. While the Salyut 2 failed shortly after achieving orbit, the Salyut 3 and 5 were successfully tested, and the Salyut 3 managed to be a historic first when it actually test fired its space cannon in orbit. The test occurred on January 24, 1975, and although the cannon had been tested on land, since no one had ever fired it in space no one was really sure how the weapon was going to affect the station. For this reason, the test was scheduled for shortly before the Salyut 3 was to deorbit and long after the crew had left. The station was at the time being remotely operated, and when the weapon was fired thrusters were used to counteract the recoil. According to reports, approximately 20 rounds in one to three controlled blasts, all of which purportedly burned up in orbit, although the exact results have remained classified. To this day, the Almaz program represents the only armed and crewed military spacecraft ever flown, a rather interesting and somewhat unsettling milestone.

At the time of this space cannon test, the U.S. had no idea that any of this was going on. They of course knew about the Salyut 3, but at the time they were unaware that it was a military spacecraft and certainly knew nothing about the fact that it was armed or that the Soviets planned to actually test the weapon. In fact, it was not until long after the Cold War had ended and the end of the Soviet Union, that the information on the test firing would get out with the Russian Defense Ministry finally revealing it on the Russian military show Voennaya Priemka. However, the test results are still classified, the footage from the experiment was destroyed on reentry, and there is only one known photo of the actual cannon used aboard the Salyut 3.

Although we don’t know the exact results of the test firing, it must have been successful enough for the Soviets to see space-based weapons as viable, as they planned for future space stations to be armed with interceptor missiles. However, in the end the Almaz program never really caught on. Manned space stations were increasingly seen as to cost-inefficient, and the military lost interest, instead focusing on automated satellites for reconnaissance purposes. The Almaz program was grounded and absorbed into the civilian Salyut program, but much of it still remains classified. This was the first, and as of yet as far as we know the last time anyone tried to fire weapons from space, but make no mistake the interest is still there, and who knows how many secret programs there might be. Although there are many laws now in place to keep this sort of thing from happening, there will likely always be those who see space as a potential battleground, and now you know that the Soviets took the first step with their clandestine operation.

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Grey and Nordic (tall white) aliens get all the love and Reptilians get all the fear, so there’s not much left to give the Mantis aliens, even among insect lovers. The experience of a man in England who claims he not only witnessed a 7-foot-tall alien mantis exiting from a spacecraft (which he photographed), it forced evil thoughts into his mind and caused him to lose his job at a dog food company. Is that last part a reason to love or to fear Mantis aliens?

“On a Thursday morning at 5am I was cycling home from work and I saw something odd in the sky. It was a glowing orange sphere just hovering on the horizon. At first I thought it must be Venus or a satellite, but it seemed to be much closer than either of these things.”

So begins the 7-foot mantis tale of Paul Froggatt, a resident of Warwick and a former night shift employee at a local dog food warehouse. Froggatt shared his alleged encounter with The Daily Star and no other accounts appear to be available, so take that into consideration as describes the encounter.

This sounds interesting.

“I stopped on my way to take some photos – the object looked a fair bit bigger in person than visible in the photos. This is when the object started to move around and rotate in shape. I could see it was circular with a part sticking out from the main body. When this started, I got the chills down my back and felt like there was something wrong here, I hurried on my way home.”

Froggart’s photos (see them here) appear to be closer to dawn than 5 am and the object definitely looks like a planet from afar and a balloon closer up. He claims it seemed to follow him until he entered the forest, which he remembers was unusually quiet. That’s when he saw it.

Paul Froggatt holds up his drawing of the 'evil 7ft alien mantis' 

(Image: Paul Froggatt)

Paul Froggatt is appealing for witnesses to get in touch 

(Image: Paul Froggatt)

“Standing a few meters ahead is what I can only describe as a humanoid praying mantis. This thing was at-least 7 foot tall, light green with triangular head and big oval black eyes. It had all the features of a mantis but stood on two legs and had a somehow human like shape about it. I was completely frozen with fear. For what felt like an age – but was probably only seconds – I stared into this creature’s eyes and it stared back. I felt like it could read my mind and I could read its. My fear was replaced with completely alien thoughts of utter hatred and evil I felt projected from this thing. I suddenly snapped out of this hypnotic kind of state and it made a step back as if it was gonna pounce on me.”

Unfortunately, that’s the end of his account – except for the picture he drew of the creature. (See it here.) That depiction and his account adhere pretty closely to the description of mantis aliens by other witnesses and abductees. Believed by many to be from the Draco (dragon) constellation, they’re generally described as being 6-7 feet tall with bodies identical to but bigger than insect praying mantises, with dark brown or black slanted eyes. The article doesn’t give a color and the drawing is in black pen, but most accounts describe mantis aliens as being brown or green, with some having them in colored robes. They’re bipedal and said to communicate with each other using clicks and with humans using telepathy. They’re believed to be shapeshifters, are sometimes seen with small Grey aliens which follow them and are said to be evil beings harvesting DNA in order to conquer humanity, possibly in conjunction with Reptilians.

Most of that description matches what Froggart to the Daily Star, which could mean he had a real encounter with a Mantis alien, had a very real hallucination or he knew quite a bit about their alleged description and behavior ahead of time. Again, the photo of the UFO doesn’t clarify anything – it may be a coincidence and not associated with the alleged mantis – and the drawing doesn’t either. There are no other witness reports as of this writing.

Will they be back?

Froggart didn’t have any answers so he asked his co-workers — who he claims instead nicknamed him the “Mantis man of Warwick” and tormented him so much that he had to quit the job at the dog food warehouse. Did the evil Mantis alien play a part in this? If this is true (again, no other accounts pop up), it shows Froggart was serious enough about the encounter to put his job in jeopardy.

Is this a real Mantis encounter or a hoax? The needle is still on the ‘Skeptical’ side.

Was the story planted in the media by the Mantises to get more publicity for their species? Now THAT’S evil!

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Today’s article is on the subject of some of the weirdest government projects that span more than a few decades. I’m going to focus on the United States and the United Kingdom. I’ll begin with the U.K. and reveal some of its strange secrets. And tomorrow I’ll focus on the U.S. In the heart of North Wales, U.K., there exists a body of water called Lake Bala. You may say, well, there’s nothing particularly strange about that. You would be correct. Lake Bala is not out of the ordinary, in the slightest. But what is rumored to dwell in its dark depths most assuredly is out of the ordinary. It’s the domain of a violent lake monster called Teggie. Or, is the story born out of secret, military experiments? It all very much depends on who you ask and who you believe. There are longstanding rumors in and around the Bala area that in the build-up to the First World War, the British Royal Navy clandestinely let loose a group of seals into the lake. The reason: to strap them with dynamite and train them to attacks specific targets, namely warships.

It should be noted that the dynamite was not real and the “warships” were just small rowing boats. In other words, the project was a test-run, in the event that the Royal Navy might find itself at war with Germany (which it did in 1914, when the First World War broke out), and suicidal seals, strapped with explosives, might be required to fight for their country.  So the story goes, the seals proved impossible to train, and the project was abandoned. And, so today, what people are seeing today are brief glimpses of the original seals that bred and bred and so on. Of course, it’s very possible this is nothing more than a tall tale, passed on through the generations and without any actual facts to support it. Thus, the legend of Teggie continues to thrive. Now, onto the matter of Aleister Crowley.

Aleister Crowley, the “Great Beast” who died in 1947, was the subject of sensitive files that are said to have been destroyed, but which may not have been. In this case, the records were said to have originated with MI5, which is the U.K.’s equivalent of the FBI. Richard B. Spence, of the International Spy Museum, has done his utmost to try and unravel the connections between Crowley and the intelligence community. Spence says of Crowley: “He was such a disreputable and even evil character in the public mind that arguably no responsible official would think of employing him. But the very fact that he seemed such an improbable spy was perhaps the best recommendation for using him.” Another theory is that during the Second World War, British Intelligence planned on using the world of the occult to try and prevent the Nazis from invading the U.K.

It was thanks to Spence that in 2003 something extraordinary happened. That was the year in which Spence found not a file on Crowley per se, but a file on another topic, but which referenced Crowley’s MI5 file. The claim that there had not been an MI5 file on Crowley, now had no merit. Caught in an awkward situation, MI5 went back on its previous stance and claimed that, yes, there had been a Crowley file, after all. But, it had been destroyed back in the 1950s. Spence dug deeper and found further references to Crowley-based files. They, too, had been destroyed, claimed MI5. W. Adam Mandelbaum, who worked for U.S. Intelligence, said that: “Given the political fallout that would have resulted from making this involvement public, it should be no surprise that there is a paucity of documentation concerning Crowley’s intelligence efforts.” Now, let’s look at a similar situation but a different person.

There are rumors that secret files exist within the U.K.’s MI5 – which is the British equivalent of the United States’ FBI – on “Britain’s Most Famous Witch.” Her name was Sybil Leek, who was rumored to have undertaken work of a very weird kind to help defeat the Nazis during the Second World War. I have tried to secure such files, but with no luck. But, there’s a chance they exist. The BBC says: “One of the most incredible claims about her is that she was recruited by the British Government during the Second World War. According to the Second World War author Michael Salazar, her role was to provide phony horoscopes for the Germans who believed in Astrology. She apparently wrote a chart which convinced the Nazi Rudolf Hess to fly to England, where he was captured.” Maybe, one day, we’ll know for sure the truth of this weird affair.

• Part-2 is coming!
  

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