Paranormal Researcher
Biography
Name:	John A. Keel
Born:	March 25, 1930(1930-03-25)
Resume
Field:	journalist
Paranormal Area:	parapsychologist, ufologist

John Alva Keel (born Alva John Kiehle March 25, 1930) is a Fortean author and professional journalist currently residing in New York City, New York, USA. Events 1199 - Richard I is wounded by a crossbow bolt while fighting France which leads to his death on April 6. Year 1930 ( MCMXXX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display 1930 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. A journalist (also called a newspaperman) is a person who practices Journalism, the gathering and dissemination of information about current events trends Parapsychology is a discipline that seeks to demonstrate the existence and causes of Psychic abilities and life after death using the Scientific method Ufology is a Neologism coined to describe the collective efforts of those who study Unidentified flying object reports and associated evidence John Alva Keel (born Alva John Kiehle March 25, 1930) is a Fortean author and professional Journalist currently residing in New Events 1199 - Richard I is wounded by a crossbow bolt while fighting France which leads to his death on April 6. Year 1930 ( MCMXXX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display 1930 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. A journalist (also called a newspaperman) is a person who practices Journalism, the gathering and dissemination of information about current events trends The City of New York

John Keel's first published story was in a magician's magazine at the age of 12. He later moved to Greenwich Village and wrote for various magazines. Greenwich Village (ˌgrɛnɪtʃ ˈvɪlɪdʒ often simply called the Village, is a largely residential area on the west side of downtown (southern Manhattan ^[1] His first published book was Jadoo in 1957 that was serialised in a men's adventure magazine. Men's adventure is a genre of Magazines that had its heyday in the 1950s and 1960s The book is his account of travelling to India to investigate the alleged activities of fakirs and holy men such as the Indian rope trick and being surviving being buried alive. India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country A fakir or faqir is a Sufi, especially one who Performs feats of Endurance or apparent magic. The Indian rope trick is Stage magic said to have been performed in and around India about the 1800s

John Keel is arguably one of the most widely read and influential ufologists since the early 1970s. Ufology is a Neologism coined to describe the collective efforts of those who study Unidentified flying object reports and associated evidence ^[2] Although his own thoughts about UFOs and associated anomalous phenomena have gradually evolved since the mid 1960s, Keel remains one of ufology's most original and controversial researchers. It was Keel's second book, UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse (1970), that alerted the general public that many aspects of contemporary UFO reports, including humanoid encounters, often paralleled certain ancient folklore and religious encounters. Keel also argues that there is a direct relationship between UFOs and psychic phenomena. He says he does not call himself a ufologist and prefers the term Fortean which encompasses a wide range of paranormal subjects.

Contents 1 Initial UFO Investigations 2 Divergence 3 The Mothman Prophecies 4 Health Concern 5 References 5.1 Bibliography 6 External links

Initial UFO Investigations

Influenced by writers such as Charles Fort, Ivan Sanderson, and Aimé Michel, in early 1966, John Keel commenced a full-time investigation of UFOs and paranormal phenomena. Charles Hoy Fort ( 6 August, 1874 &ndash 3 May, 1932) was a Dutch-American writer and researcher into anomalous phenomena Ivan Terence Sanderson ( January 30, 1911 – February 19, 1973) was a naturalist and writer born in Edinburgh, Scotland Over a four-year period, Keel interviewed thousands of people in over twenty U. S. states. More than 2,000 books were reviewed in the course of this investigation, in addition to thousands of magazines, newsletters, and newspapers. Keel also subscribed to several newspaper-clipping services, which often generated up to 150 clippings for a single day during the 1966 and 1967 UFO "wave".

Divergence

Like contemporary 1960s researchers such as J. Allen Hynek and Jacques Vallée, Keel was initially hopeful that he could somehow validate the prevailing extraterrestrial visitation hypothesis. Josef Allen Hynek ( May 1, 1910 - April 27, 1986) was a United States Astronomer, Professor, and ufologist Jacques F Vallée, PhD ( September 24, 1939) is a French -born Venture capitalist Computer scientist, ufologist and former However, after one year of investigations, Keel realised that the extraterrestrial hypothesis was untenable. Indeed, both Hynek and Vallée eventually arrived at a similar conclusion.

As Keel himself wrote, "I abandoned the extraterrestrial hypothesis in 1967 when my own field investigations disclosed an astonishing overlap between psychic phenomena and UFOs. The extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH is the Hypothesis that some UFOs are best explained as being creatures or space aliens from other planets The word psychic (ˈsaɪkɨk from the Greek psychikos—"of the soul mental" refers to the claimed ability to perceive things hidden from the normal senses . . The objects and apparitions do not necessarily originate on another planet and may not even exist as permanent constructions of matter. It is more likely that we see what we want to see and interpret such visions according to our contemporary beliefs. " ^[3]

In UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse Keel argues that a non-human or spiritual intelligence source has staged whole events over a long period of time in order to propagate and reinforce certain erroneous belief systems. For example, the fairy faith in Middle Europe, vampire legends, mystery airships in 1897, mystery aeroplanes of the 1930s, mystery helicopters, anomalous creature sightings, poltergeist phenomena, balls of light, and UFOs. A fairy (also fay, fey, fae, faerie; collectively wee folk, good folk, people of peace, fair Vampires are mythological or folkloric revenants who subsist by feeding on the blood of the living The Mystery Airships were a class of Unidentified flying objects the best-known series of which were reported in Newspapers in western states of the U (from German poltern, meaning to rumble or make noise and Geist, meaning " Ghost ", " Spirit " Keel conjectures that ultimately all of these anomalies are a cover for the real phenomenon.

Keel takes no position on the ultimate purpose of the phenomenon other than that the UFO intelligence seems to have a long-standing interest in interacting with the human race.

The Mothman Prophecies

In 1976, Keel published The Mothman Prophecies, an account of his 1966-1967 investigation of sightings of the Mothman, a strange winged creature reported in and around Point Pleasant, West Virginia. The Mothman Prophecies is a 1975 book by parapsychologist John Keel, described as nonfiction The Mothman is the name given to a creature reported in the Charleston and Point Pleasant areas of West Virginia between November 12, 1966 Point Pleasant is a city in Mason County, West Virginia, United States, at the confluence of the Ohio and Kanawha Rivers West Virginia ( is a state in the Appalachian Upland South, and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States, bordered by

The book was loosely adapted into a 2002 movie, starring Richard Gere and Alan Bates, who played two parts of Keel's personality. The Mothman Prophecies is a 2002 film directed by Mark Pellington, adapted from the 1976 book of the same name by parapsychologist and Fortean Richard Tiffany Gere (born August 31, 1949) is a Golden Globe - and Screen Actors Guild Award -winning American Actor. Sir Alan Arthur Bates CBE (17 February 1934 – 27 December 2003 was a British Actor. Bates's character was "Leek," which was "Keel" spelled backwards, and Gere's character was a newspaperman, "John Klein," also a play on Keel's name.

In the May/June 2002 issue of Skeptical Inquirer, journalist John C. The Skeptical Inquirer is a bimonthly American Magazine published by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI with the subtitle Sherwood, a former business associate of UFO researcher Gray Barker, published an analysis of private letters between Keel and Barker during the period of Keel's investigation. In the article, "Gray Barker's Book of Bunk," Sherwood reported finding significant differences between what Keel wrote at the time of his investigation and what he wrote in his first book about the Mothman reports, raising questions about the book's accuracy. Sherwood also reported that Keel would not assist him in clarifying the differences.

Health Concern

Keel suffered a heart attack sometime before October 13, 2006. He admitted himself to New York City's Lenox Hill Hospital on Friday the 13th of October, and underwent successful heart surgery on October 16, 2006. Keel then was moved from the hospital to a rehabilitation center on October 26, 2006, according to his friend Doug Skinner who remains in contact with him and who requested that well wishers contact Keel by mail in order to give him time to recover. Doug Skinner is an American composer writer and performer Music Skinner has written music for many dance companies including ODC Dance/San Francisco and Margaret Although annoyed by postings of his premature death, Keel continues to improve and is well on the road to recovery, wit intact.

References

External links

• Mothman Central
• SciFi Online Interview with Keel
• The Great UFO Wave of '73: Interview with John A. Keel
• John A. Keel articles
• FortFest tapes
• "Gray Barker's Book of Bunk"

The Mothman Prophecies is a 1975 book by parapsychologist John Keel, described as nonfiction

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