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Gray barker
- Thread starter MikeDolin
- Start date
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Sentry
Paranormal Adept
I think Keel was genuinely confused by some of these prank calls and even letters from Gray Barker. Being a practical writer, he didn't let this material go to waste and folded into the Men In Black mystery, and added it to the Mothman story and other articles and books..
Check this link for the John Keel site for some of his correspondence with Gray Barker:
barker « Search Results « JOHN KEEL: NOT AN AUTHORITY ON ANYTHING
Check this link for the John Keel site for some of his correspondence with Gray Barker:
barker « Search Results « JOHN KEEL: NOT AN AUTHORITY ON ANYTHING
E. L. Wisty
Skilled Investigator
As anyone who has read "Jadoo" must know, John Keel was always more concerned with telling a good story than a true one. Professional stage magicians have utterly demolished his claim in that book to have performed the Indian Rope Trick (which seems to be absolutely mythical, and to have been invented by an American journalist with space to fill) on the grounds that the way he claims to have done it was both wildly impractical and wouldn't have been remotely convincing. Much else in the book is also unlikely to say the least - but hey, how could anybody check the truth of what he allegedly got up to in remote parts of India?
Under the circumstances, whether Gray Barker was pranking him or not - and if he was, Keel was plenty smart enough to know it and run with the gag - is beside the point. Keel's book on Mothman is famous, whereas Barker's, despite being technically the better book, is utterly obscure, for a very good reason. Barker basically suggested that, because Mothman had supposedly been seen numerous times in the run-up to the Silver Bridge disaster, but was hardly seen at all afterwards, he must have been in some way connected with it, or trying to warn everybody, or something. That's a perfect example of the logical fallacy of "post hoc ergo propter hoc" - Event A was followed by Event B, therefore Event A caused Event B. Unfortunately, with absolutely zero causal connection between these two events, it's embarrassingly easy for a skeptic to blow that idea out of the water with the screamingly obvious argument that Mothman was a small-town rumor that fizzled the moment they had something to talk about that genuinely mattered.
Keel, on the other hand, managed to add an actual plot. Of course Mothman and the bridge collapse were linked, because he - though not Gray Barker or anyone else - was privy to secret information in the form of telephone calls from a mystery man with a silly name who probably wasn't human. Unfortunately this information wasn't anywhere near specific enough to allow him to guess before the Silver Bridge broke that it was going to, and make a fuss which might have prompted the authorities to check it out, or anything like that. The connection was only obvious in retrospect. But he DID establish a connection, allowing him to plausibly speculate that Mothman was either the most ineffective warning sign ever, or some kind of parasite that fed on impending disaster. So Keel sold more books than Barker.
But did Indrid Cold ever exist, even as a prank call from from Barker to Keel? Surely a man capable of writing up what he must have known was a gag as if it was fact was equally capable of making the whole thing up without receiving phone-calls from anyone? Keel was always far more aware than Barker that books, whether they're supposed to be fiction or non-fiction, are more readable, and therefore more profitable, if they have an actual plot. Wasn't it nice of Indrid Cold to phone him up (while conspicuously ignoring Gray Barker, who, incidentally, had probably the best/worst name a ufologist possibly could have) and provide him with enough information to give his book that much-needed narrative structure, though sadly not enough to be the slightest bit useful for any purpose other than boosting the bank-balance of one guy called John Keel?
Oh, and by the way, is it just me, or does that very first Mothman sighting sound suspiciously like a bunch of panicked teens trying to outrun the reflection in the rear windshield of their own tail-lights?
Under the circumstances, whether Gray Barker was pranking him or not - and if he was, Keel was plenty smart enough to know it and run with the gag - is beside the point. Keel's book on Mothman is famous, whereas Barker's, despite being technically the better book, is utterly obscure, for a very good reason. Barker basically suggested that, because Mothman had supposedly been seen numerous times in the run-up to the Silver Bridge disaster, but was hardly seen at all afterwards, he must have been in some way connected with it, or trying to warn everybody, or something. That's a perfect example of the logical fallacy of "post hoc ergo propter hoc" - Event A was followed by Event B, therefore Event A caused Event B. Unfortunately, with absolutely zero causal connection between these two events, it's embarrassingly easy for a skeptic to blow that idea out of the water with the screamingly obvious argument that Mothman was a small-town rumor that fizzled the moment they had something to talk about that genuinely mattered.
Keel, on the other hand, managed to add an actual plot. Of course Mothman and the bridge collapse were linked, because he - though not Gray Barker or anyone else - was privy to secret information in the form of telephone calls from a mystery man with a silly name who probably wasn't human. Unfortunately this information wasn't anywhere near specific enough to allow him to guess before the Silver Bridge broke that it was going to, and make a fuss which might have prompted the authorities to check it out, or anything like that. The connection was only obvious in retrospect. But he DID establish a connection, allowing him to plausibly speculate that Mothman was either the most ineffective warning sign ever, or some kind of parasite that fed on impending disaster. So Keel sold more books than Barker.
But did Indrid Cold ever exist, even as a prank call from from Barker to Keel? Surely a man capable of writing up what he must have known was a gag as if it was fact was equally capable of making the whole thing up without receiving phone-calls from anyone? Keel was always far more aware than Barker that books, whether they're supposed to be fiction or non-fiction, are more readable, and therefore more profitable, if they have an actual plot. Wasn't it nice of Indrid Cold to phone him up (while conspicuously ignoring Gray Barker, who, incidentally, had probably the best/worst name a ufologist possibly could have) and provide him with enough information to give his book that much-needed narrative structure, though sadly not enough to be the slightest bit useful for any purpose other than boosting the bank-balance of one guy called John Keel?
Oh, and by the way, is it just me, or does that very first Mothman sighting sound suspiciously like a bunch of panicked teens trying to outrun the reflection in the rear windshield of their own tail-lights?
Burnt State
Paranormal Adept
Still, Keel ended up dying miserable & in poverty despite all the many touchstone texts that he wrote and which continue to inform ufology today.
So whether you are barking gray or just keeled over, the real lesson to be learned is there is no sustainable financial future to be gained by hooking your car onto the Ufological space train. In fact, it seems that misery and backbiting is the only thing to be gained. I wonder how it is that Micah Hanks stays so pleasant all the time - must be the banjo playing.
It is an interesting idea but I was under the impression that the voices on the phone knew things no-one was supposed to and also predicted some things? I am sure Keel would have remembered if he had informed Barker of where he was going to be staying? If he had mentioned it to Barker, I doubt he would have been puzzled that someone knew he was in a motel room that he himself had not even planned to stay in? (If I remember it all correctly - feedback?)