RyanX
The Living Force
I just wanted to mention that I finished reading Keel's book The Mothman Prophecies last night. I had read three of his other books half a year ago (Operation Trojan Horse, Eighth Tower, Disneyland of the Gods). While these later three books do an excellent job describing Keel's more refined theories on what the ufo and high strangeness phenomena represent, The Mothman Prophecies is more of the microcosmic of his experiences in Point Pleasant WV leading up to the Silver Bridge collapse, and all the related events and phenomena (of which there is a lot!) The events and happenings Keel relates in The Mothman Prophcies are largely out of sequence, but more coherent in terms of the phenomena he describes. For instance, Keel might write in one part about problems with hearing strange beeps like Morse code on the phone and then jump to another time and place where another contactee experienced similar phenomena. So, the book jumps around a lot. Despite this I still found the book an engaging read. It's also balanced with a good deal of outlandish situational humor that Keel seems to be the butt of in his dealings with certain hyperdimensional tricksters. Overall the book gives the impression of a man struggling with a constantly shifting reality as well as his own internal struggles to not fall into any particular belief system. If you've read the second-to-last chapter in Operation Trojan Horse called "Breakthrough!", much of The Mothman Prophcies is an elaboration of the events described here.
When comparing the movie The Mothman Prophecies side-by-side with the book, there is not much similarity in terms of the storyline and only a vague similarity in terms of the actual characters. It appears that the movie was created with a certain level of Hollywood myth-making in mind, since most of the personal events portrayed in the movie, never actually happened. For instance, Keel (or Klein -- his movie name) was never married and he never worked for the Washington Post. Also, the lady, Laura Linney in the movie was not a cop, but a newspaper reporter named Mary Hyre in the book. The paranoid contactee, Gordon Smallfoot, in the movie also seems to be a composite character representing a number of contactees that Keel was dealing with at the time at Point Pleasant. The character Klein is much less sophisticated in his reasoning and methods than Keel appeared in his books. So, there are obviously some significant character and storyline differences between the book and movie.
However, the movie does do a good job of capturing some of the high strangeness phenomena that Keel elaborates on in more detail in his book. Missing time, strange phone calls, calls from 'non-persons', swollen eyes, bleeding ears, prophecies by certain entities, and prophetic dreams. Sadly, this phenomena in the movie is spun in a typical psychological horror movie fashion with the Mothman at the center, while in the book, Keel speculates that the Mothman sightings were primarily a diversion when compared to the totality of strange events happening in Point Pleasant (and elsewhere) at the time. The movie, sadly, does not tie in the connection between the paranormal phenomena and the ufo sightings, MIB reports (there were tons of these), cattle and other animal mutilations going on at the time. This is unfortunate, but understandable considering this would crush a lot of popular memes about Aliens, Ghosts, Monsters and the like. Such reasoning as Keel used is still largely unpopular among UFO and paranormal investigators alike.
Overall, The Mothman Prophecies reads like a case study centered around a particular time frame with the Silver Bridge collapse in Point Pleasant as the climax at the center. It is much more of a personal account by Keel than any of the other three books mentioned above. Keel was personally acquainted with several of the people who perished in the bridge collapse and many of these individuals he had interviewed due to their experiences with high strangeness. Keel also notes that many of the other significant contactees and other players in the events he recounts met untimely deaths after the bridge collapse anyways including the star newspaper reporter Mary Hyre.
In my own ponderings with what I've read in Laura's books and the C's transcripts, I wonder if the events surrounding Point Pleasant at the time would be a good example of 4D bleed through event on a large scale. Could something like these events in The Mothman Prophecies be similar to what the C's give as a description of what might happen when parts of the planet start to go into 4D? Reading the book gives one the impression of a people submerged in a dangerous and confusing new reality, kind of like a fish who suddenly finds itself out of water.
I noticed that this book is not on the recommended list while the other Keel books, which are largely out of print, are on the list. It seems that the movie has largely propelled copies of The Mothman Prophecies book into many bookstores, making it easy to find today (at least where I live, anyways). I would suggest that if you can find a copy of this book, get it before the mystique over the movie wears off and people forget all about it. Just my $0.02
When comparing the movie The Mothman Prophecies side-by-side with the book, there is not much similarity in terms of the storyline and only a vague similarity in terms of the actual characters. It appears that the movie was created with a certain level of Hollywood myth-making in mind, since most of the personal events portrayed in the movie, never actually happened. For instance, Keel (or Klein -- his movie name) was never married and he never worked for the Washington Post. Also, the lady, Laura Linney in the movie was not a cop, but a newspaper reporter named Mary Hyre in the book. The paranoid contactee, Gordon Smallfoot, in the movie also seems to be a composite character representing a number of contactees that Keel was dealing with at the time at Point Pleasant. The character Klein is much less sophisticated in his reasoning and methods than Keel appeared in his books. So, there are obviously some significant character and storyline differences between the book and movie.
However, the movie does do a good job of capturing some of the high strangeness phenomena that Keel elaborates on in more detail in his book. Missing time, strange phone calls, calls from 'non-persons', swollen eyes, bleeding ears, prophecies by certain entities, and prophetic dreams. Sadly, this phenomena in the movie is spun in a typical psychological horror movie fashion with the Mothman at the center, while in the book, Keel speculates that the Mothman sightings were primarily a diversion when compared to the totality of strange events happening in Point Pleasant (and elsewhere) at the time. The movie, sadly, does not tie in the connection between the paranormal phenomena and the ufo sightings, MIB reports (there were tons of these), cattle and other animal mutilations going on at the time. This is unfortunate, but understandable considering this would crush a lot of popular memes about Aliens, Ghosts, Monsters and the like. Such reasoning as Keel used is still largely unpopular among UFO and paranormal investigators alike.
Overall, The Mothman Prophecies reads like a case study centered around a particular time frame with the Silver Bridge collapse in Point Pleasant as the climax at the center. It is much more of a personal account by Keel than any of the other three books mentioned above. Keel was personally acquainted with several of the people who perished in the bridge collapse and many of these individuals he had interviewed due to their experiences with high strangeness. Keel also notes that many of the other significant contactees and other players in the events he recounts met untimely deaths after the bridge collapse anyways including the star newspaper reporter Mary Hyre.
In my own ponderings with what I've read in Laura's books and the C's transcripts, I wonder if the events surrounding Point Pleasant at the time would be a good example of 4D bleed through event on a large scale. Could something like these events in The Mothman Prophecies be similar to what the C's give as a description of what might happen when parts of the planet start to go into 4D? Reading the book gives one the impression of a people submerged in a dangerous and confusing new reality, kind of like a fish who suddenly finds itself out of water.
I noticed that this book is not on the recommended list while the other Keel books, which are largely out of print, are on the list. It seems that the movie has largely propelled copies of The Mothman Prophecies book into many bookstores, making it easy to find today (at least where I live, anyways). I would suggest that if you can find a copy of this book, get it before the mystique over the movie wears off and people forget all about it. Just my $0.02