John Alva Keel (born
Alva John Kiehle March 25, 1930 - July 3, 2009) was a
ForteanFortean refers to:*Charles Fort's ideas and philosophy and the people and things inspired by it*Fortean Society, formed by New York's literati led by Theodore Dreiser, Booth Tarkington, Ben Hecht...
author and professional
journalistA journalist is a person who practises journalism, the gathering and dissemination of information about current events, trends, issues, and people while striving for viewpoints that are not biased.Reporters are one type of journalist...
.
Keel wrote professionally from the age of 12, and was best known for his writings on
unidentified flying objectUnidentified flying object is the popular term for any aerial phenomenon whose cause cannot be easily or immediately identified...
s, the "
MothmanThe Mothman is a creature reportedly seen in the Charleston and Point Pleasant areas of West Virginia from November 12, 1966, to December 1967. Most observers describe the Mothman as a winged man-sized creature with large reflective red eyes and large moth-like wings...
" of
West VirginiaWest Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, and Pennsylvania and Maryland to the northeast...
, and other
paranormalParanormal is a general term that describes unusual experiences that lack a scientific explanation, or phenomena alleged to be outside of science's current ability to explain or measure...
subjects. Keel was arguably one of the most widely read and influential
ufologistsUfology is a neologism coined to describe the collective efforts of those who study unidentified flying object reports and associated evidence. While ufology does not represent an academic field of research, UFOs have been subject to various investigations over the years...
since the early 1970s. Although his own thoughts about UFOs and associated anomalous phenomena gradually evolved since the mid 1960s, Keel remained one of ufology's most original and controversial researchers. It was Keel's second book,
UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse (1970), that popularized the idea that many aspects of contemporary UFO reports, including humanoid encounters, often paralleled ancient folklore and religious encounters. Keel coined the term "
men in blackMen in Black , in popular culture and in UFO conspiracy theories, are men dressed in black suits who are government agents who attempt to help or destroy UFO witnesses are put to silence. It is sometimes implied that they may be aliens themselves...
" to describe the mysterious figures alleged to harass UFO witnesses and he also argued that there is a direct relationship between UFOs and psychic phenomena. He did not call himself a ufologist and preferred the term
ForteanFortean refers to:*Charles Fort's ideas and philosophy and the people and things inspired by it*Fortean Society, formed by New York's literati led by Theodore Dreiser, Booth Tarkington, Ben Hecht...
, which encompasses a wide range of paranormal subjects.
Early life and career
Keel's first published story was in a magician's magazine at the age of 12. He later moved to
Greenwich VillageGreenwich Village , often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families. Greenwich Village, however, was known in the late 19th – earlier to mid 20th...
and wrote for various magazines.. He was
draftedConscription is a general term for involuntary labor demanded by an established authority. It is most often used in the specific sense of requiring citizens to serve in the armed forces...
into the
United States ArmyThe United States Army is the branch of the United States Military responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military and is one of seven uniformed services...
during the
Korean WarThe Korean War is a war that started between North Korea and South Korea on 25 June 1950 and paused with an armistice signed 27 July, 1953...
, but served in Frankfurt, Germany on the staff of the Armed Forces Network. He was then employed as a press correspondent for several years, before resigning to tour
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
and the
Middle EastThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, southeastern Europe, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East...
. His first published book,
Jadoo (1957), was serialised in a men's adventure magazine.
Jadoo details Keel's travels to
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
to investigate the alleged activities of
fakirA fakir or faqir is a Sufi, especially one who performs feats of endurance or apparent magic. Derived from faqr .In English, the term is often used to refer to Hindu ascetics as well as Sufi mystics. It can also be used pejoratively, to refer to a common street beggar who chants holy names,...
s and holy men who perform the
Indian rope trickThe Indian rope trick is stage magic said to have been performed in and around India about the 1800s. Sometimes described as "the world’s greatest illusion", it involved a magician, a length of rope, and one or more boy assistants.-The trick:...
and who survive being buried alive.
Initial UFO Investigations (1960s)
Influenced by writers such as
Charles FortCharles Hoy Fort was an American writer and researcher into anomalous phenomena.Fort's books sold well and remain in print. Today, the terms "Fortean" and "Forteana" are used to characterise various anomalous phenomena....
, Ivan Sanderson, and Aimé Michel, in early 1966, John Keel commenced a full-time investigation of UFOs and paranormal phenomena. Over a four-year period, Keel interviewed thousands of people in over twenty U.S. states. He read over 2,000 books 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". Keel wrote for several magazines including
Saga with one 1967 article
UFO Agents of Terror referring to the
Men in BlackMen in Black , in popular culture and in UFO conspiracy theories, are men dressed in black suits who are government agents who attempt to help or destroy UFO witnesses are put to silence. It is sometimes implied that they may be aliens themselves...
.
Rejection of Extraterrestrial hypothesis
Like contemporary 1960s researchers such as
J. Allen HynekDr. Josef Allen Hynek was a United States astronomer, professor, and ufologist. He is perhaps best remembered for his UFO research. Hynek acted as scientific adviser to UFO studies undertaken by the U.S. Air Force under three consecutive names: Project Sign , Project Grudge , and Project Blue Book...
and
Jacques ValléeJacques F. Vallée, , is a French-born venture capitalist, computer scientist, author, ufologist and former astronomer. He currently resides in San Francisco, California in the United States. Jacques F. Vallée, (born September 24, 1939, Pontoise, France), is a French-born venture capitalist,...
, Keel was initially hopeful that he could somehow validate the prevailing extraterrestrial visitation hypothesis. However, after one year of investigations, Keel concluded 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
The extraterrestrial hypothesis is the hypothesis that some unidentified flying objects are best explained as being extraterrestrial life or space aliens from other planets occupying physical spacecraft visiting Earth.-Etymology:...
in 1967 when my own field investigations disclosed an astonishing overlap between psychicA psychic is a person who claims to have the ability to perceive information hidden from the normal senses through extrasensory perception, or is said to have such abilities by others...
phenomena and UFOs... 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.
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
fairyA fairy is a type of mythological being or legendary creature, a form of spirit, often described as metaphysical, supernatural or preternatural.The word fairy derives from the term fae of medieval Western...
faith in Middle Europe,
vampireVampires are legendary creatures said to subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, generally by drinking their blood. Although typically described as undead, some minor traditions believed in vampires that were living people....
legends,
mystery airshipThe 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.S., starting in 1896 and continuing into 1897....
s in 1897, mystery aeroplanes of the 1930s, mystery helicopters, anomalous creature sightings,
poltergeist, or recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis denotes an ostensibly paranormal phenomenon attributed to an an invisible spirit or ghost that manifests itself by moving and influencing objects, generally in a particular location such as a house or room or place within a...
phenomena, balls of light, and
UFOUnidentified flying object is the popular term for any aerial phenomenon whose cause cannot be easily or immediately identified...
s. Keel conjectured that ultimately all of these anomalies are a cover for the real phenomenon.
In
Our Haunted Planet, Keel coined the term "Ultraterrestrials" to describe the UFO occupants. He discussed the seldom-considered possibility that the alien "visitors" to Earth are not visitors at all, but an advanced Earth civilization, which may or may not be human.
Keel took 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 1975, Keel published
The Mothman PropheciesThe Mothman Prophecies is a 1975 book by parapsychologist John Keel, described as nonfiction.The book's subject matter mostly concerns events in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, during 1966 and 1967, focusing on sightings of a creature dubbed Mothman...
, an account of his 1966-1967 investigation of sightings of the
MothmanThe Mothman is a creature reportedly seen in the Charleston and Point Pleasant areas of West Virginia from November 12, 1966, to December 1967. Most observers describe the Mothman as a winged man-sized creature with large reflective red eyes and large moth-like wings...
, a strange winged creature reported in and around
Point PleasantPoint Pleasant is a city in Mason County, West Virginia, United States, at the confluence of the Ohio and Kanawha Rivers. The population was 4,637 at the 2000 census...
,
West VirginiaWest Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, and Pennsylvania and Maryland to the northeast...
.
The book was loosely adapted into a
2002 movieThe Mothman Prophecies is a 2002 film directed by Mark Pellington, adapted from the 1976 book of the same name by parapsychologist and Fortean John Keel. The film stars Richard Gere as John Klein, a reporter who researches the legend of the Mothman....
, starring
Richard GereRichard Tiffany Gere is an American actor. He began acting in the 1970s, and came to prominence in 1980 for his role in the film American Gigolo, which established him as a leading man and a sex symbol...
,
Laura LinneyLaura Leggett Linney is an American actress of film, television, and theatre. Linney has won three Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. She has been nominated for the Academy Award three times and once for the BAFTA Award.-Personal life:Linney was born in New York City...
and
Alan BatesSir Alan Arthur Bates CBE was a British actor of stage, screen and television.-Early life:Bates was born in Allestree, Derby, England on 17 February 1934, the eldest of three sons of Florence Mary , a homemaker and a pianist, and Harold Arthur Bates, an insurance broker and a cellist...
. Those two actors played two parts of Keel's personality. Bates's character was "Leek," which was "Keel" spelled backwards, and Gere's character worked for a newspaper, "John Klein," also a play on Keel's name.
In the May/June 2002 issue of
Skeptical InquirerThe Skeptical Inquirer is a bimonthly, American magazine published by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry with the subtitle: The magazine for science and reason....
, journalist John C. Sherwood, a former business associate of UFO researcher
Gray BarkerGray Barker was an American writer best known for his books about UFOs and other paranormal phenomena. His 1956 book They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers introduced the notion of the Men in Black to UFO folklore. Recent evidence indicates that he was skeptical of most UFO claims, and mainly...
, 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, who was well known for writing humorous and outrageous letters to friends and associates, would not assist him in clarifying the differences thus raising doubts about Sherwood's supposition.
Health
On Friday October 13, 2006, Keel admitted himself to
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
's Lenox Hill Hospital, having suffered a heart attack, and underwent successful heart surgery on October 16. Keel then was moved from the hospital to a rehabilitation center on October 26, according to his friend
Doug Skinner-Music:Skinner has written music for many dance companies, including and . He has often written for the theater: in particular, he has had a long association with the actor/clown Bill Irwin; he wrote and performed the music for Irwin's Murdoch , The Regard of Flight , The Courtroom , The Clown...
who remained in contact with him and who requested that well wishers contact Keel by mail in order to give him time to recover. Although annoyed by postings of his premature death, Keel continued to improve for some time. In early 2009, Keel moved into a nursing home near his apartment on the Upper West Side.
He died on July 3, 2009, at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, at the age of 79.
External links