I received an email on Monday in reference to a strange sighting in northwest New Jersey. I contacted the witness for more information. The actual correspondence follows:
Lon--I have recently been doing research regarding an encounter I had about five years ago.
Fly fishing on the Musconetcong River in New Jersey with my boss, I saw briefly what I could only describe as "a Praying Mantis Man".
Although the water was clear, there had been heavy rains the past couple of days. We should not have been out there; the river was "smooth" but the current was exceptionally strong. I was leaning backwards and digging my heels into the the gravel but the river was still kicking me along pretty good. Sketchy navigating.
Please know, I am "privy to the paranormal" and always have been. Shadow people, ghosts, whatever. But what I encountered that day was not Spirit. It was a "biological", living creature. But it disappeared into thin air almost as soon as I saw it.
For whatever reason, my searches at the time turned up nothing. But then by chance I came across an 'Alien Race' type video on Youtube and there in the artwork I saw what I saw: "Ancient Mantis Leaders". So when I began searching "Mantis Alien" instead of "Praying Mantis Man", I found a lot more.
They say they are "Inter-dimensional", whatever that means, but I did not get that impression. No, this creature was cloaked and because of both my inate sensory perception skills and the particular physical circumstances at the time, (important), --I can add details if you are interested-- I just "Caught it". Movement out of the corner of my eye to my left and there it was---
Humanoid. Tall. 6 foot at least --no reference points-- but I sense 6'6" - 7'. Moving away from me back up the bank. (I am chest-high in the river) The first thing I see was the 'grasshopper' thigh, but bending forward like a human. Then the whole form. He is looking at me over his shoulder, moving up the bank, astonished, amazed. What, that I am in the water in a strong current, that I can see him? But yes we lock eyes and this creature is astonished-- I get the sense that he can't believe I am in the water, that he can't believe I have seen him, that I am not perturbed at all-- something of all three, I still don't know-- just astonishment and he is actually trying to get away from me and the water!
Triangular Head. Huge, slanted black eyes. Just like a Praying Mantis. It's whole body was gangly, nobby, ((Nobby!) but you could still sense it was powerful, and no-- I would not say it was a "Big Bug"-- it was definitely humanoid despite the mantis/insect qualities...
No, I did not tell my boss about this, who was in the water too about fifty yards behind me at the time. Being "privy to the paranormal" you just see these things and sort of go "okay". No fear, no nothing-- but I do get the sense that my "whatever" attitude contributed to this creature's astonishment. Frankly, I didn't give the encounter much though until recently.
I can forward more details. I just believe now that this encounter was somehow very important.
I wrote back to the witness (I am not going to reveal a name at this time) requesting further detail:
This took place in Hackettstown, NJ. The stretch of the Musconetcong River here is unusual in that it's west bank borders Rt. 46, (a local highway, congested with lots of stores) but the east bank where we were fishing borders fields and farmlands.
No bank to speak of on the developed side, but the sloping bank on the rural side was high (ten feet?) A strip of trees about 10 - 20 yards thick separated the river from the fields beyond, but there was the occasional gap/path, each about 20 yards wide that allowed clear access to the river.
Like I mentioned, the weather had been bad the previous several days, and the sky was white and heavy. It was mid-afternoon.
When I saw The Mantis Man, it was in one of these gaps, moving back up the bank towards the fields, looking back at me over its left shoulder. About 15 - 20 yards away.
So understand that it was several feet above me (I looked up at it) and framed clearly against that blank/white sky. Like a full ghost apparition, it was indeed clear but nevertheless nearly transparent and fading fast. Then it "evaporated" mid-stride.
Again, I stress the strong impression that The Mantis Man was cloaked and I "caught it" just right; it abruptly found itself against a "new"/blank background and was adjusting quickly. No, I do not believe it "slipped" into another dimension/plane.
I detected movement and first saw that strong left thigh, (and strong right calf) then the whole thing and immediately those eyes/face. The whole encounter was only a couple of seconds. I can not tell you with any strong certainty what its feet or hands looked like --I wasn't looking there-- but I can tell you that its arms were "normal", and not the literal Mantis forelegs I have recently seen in drawings of these "Aliens".
That's really about it. If you have any questions please contact me.
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The following is an initial CMS report case from September 2009 that MUFON PA Regional Director Bob Gardner subsequently investigated:
Three Foot Tall TriPed Object, Man-Size 'Praying Mantis' - Philadelphia, PA
(Witness drawing)MUFON witness statement: "On 8-15-2009 at 2:45am I was buzzed for about 5 seconds by a 4 foot round luminescent orb on the roof of the building that I work in, in Philadelphia . It materialized about a foot away from me, blocking my way and making a buzzing sound, it then took off and dematerialized in approximately a 6 feet distance. At this time I decided to turn around and leave the roof.
I found a photo of the object hereAbout an hour later at 3:45am I was walking through a machine room on the roof, near the same location of the orb, when I encountered a 3 foot tall triped creature. It was standing by an electrical transformer looking up at the conduits. I observed it for about 30 seconds from a distance of four feet before it turned around and noticed me. I was looking down at it! It had a beautiful baby blue eye which was moving rapidly, just one, a long eye lid and rubbery looking legs with bulbous feet. I could see it was starting to panic because it started stomping his feet like a mad skunk or jumping up and down and making a high pitch squeaking sound almost like a cats toy. I was blocking it’s way to the open roll up door leading to the roof behind me. I put up an open hand in a gesture to let it know that I wouldn’t hurt it and backed up towards a different part of the machine room, away from it’s path to the door, but kept my eye on the creature. I watched it walking down the isle slowly when it started to move. It stopped where I had turned to get out of its way, it then turned and looked me over for a couple of seconds. I couldn’t help myself and started to laugh at it. I felt like a child who saw a monkey for the first time or something! I got the impression that it was thanking me but I think I also offended it because it started to leer at me and it's eye changed to a lighter color. I could be wrong, it may have took a bow! The triped then took off running in the direction of the door disappearing behind machinery in the area. I didn't feel threatened in any way by this creature but I was quite sure that cornering it was a bad idea! In hindsight of this encounter I'm left with a feeling a of wonder. The buildings electrical generator was permanently shut down about a year ago.
On this same morning I'm doing my paper work in the control booth, and a larger than man sized Praying Mantis comes up to the window and just stairs at me for about a minute. I did not feel comfortable with this encounter considering the nature of this kind of insect. I sat there and didn’t move a muscle until it left. I have also heard screeching sounds in the roof machine room, in the direction of the roll up door which made my hair stand up on the back of my neck around the same time for 2 nights.
The next night 8-16-09 I'm mopping the floor in the machine room, on the roof and I come back to the sink to fill my bucket and there was a little springs and clip neatly arranged next to each other on the floor in front of the sink. I think the triped came back. There was no one else in the machine room. Was it trying to tell me something, were they gifts or was it trying to help me? I don’t know. Its a mystery! The triped may have been back the next night too, but I didn’t see it! It had moved stuff around like a toddler would have. It was into everything exploring I guess.
On 8-18-09 at around 3:00am I was witness to a giant bird above Eakins Oval with a 40 foot wing span or better, it had rectangle shaped wings and no tail feathers, I didn't see any feet or head either. All I could make out was the huge wings with all of the feathers moving in the breeze and there were hundreds of them, there were no primary feathers that I could see. It looked like a enormous kite. I'm a bird watcher and never seen a bird like this before. I was really quite fed up with all the paranormal stuff happening to me at this time so I watched it for about 4 minuets and decided to just ignored it and go on about my business before it did something really weird and unexplainable. "Wow " A Sumerian god come to earth! An angle maybe? I can take see an alien off my bucket list! Nothing else has happened since."
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Alien Close Encounter - Monahans, Texas - 12/11/09
MUFON witness report (unedited): We were having a family/friends get together to celebrate a birthday. During the celebration two of my nephews and a niece came tearing into the house, screaming at the top of their lungs, saying that a plane crashed in one of the adjacent pastures. My brother, myself and about 3 others walked outside to see what was causing all the ruckus.
We didn't see anything out of the ordinary except a strange burning smell that smelled like burning mesquite. we didn't think anything of it since it was kind of nippy and someone could have been burning some wood in their fireplaces. We told them to show us where they saw the plane go down and we walked over to the place they showed us.
The first thing we noticed was that all the dogs in the area were going bonkers. They were barking up a storm, like they were all seeing the same thing.
The area we live in is pretty much a rural community, unless you live in the city of Monahans, TX many of the houses are set on large plots of land, usually 4-5 acres per house. Although we can see the houses of many of our neighbors and we do have traffic on the road, you do get the feeling of being all to yourself out here. Some of the land by our house is over run by wild mesquite tree's. only a small portion of the land surrounding the house is cultivated and cleared out. Beyond the stand of trees runs a small barbed wire fence that separates us from our neighbors, who I could see were home from the lights on in the house.
We walked around the edge of the trees, not wanting to really go into the stand at night. Even though its technically winter, there could be rattlesnakes seeking shelter in amongst the tree's, not to mention that mesquite trees have some wicked thorns that protrude from them, they are razor sharp and quite capable of punching through a pair of jeans or boots and they hurt like hell to get out.
As we looked around, we started noticing a sort of electrical charge to the very air around us. Almost like the kind you feel when you approach a large electrical substation or a charged and active radio antenna.
As we made our way around the trees, one of my brothers noticed some light peeking through the trees, I told him it was probably one of the neighbors leaving or coming home. He promptly told me that it couldn't be head lights because the light seemed too defused and not as concentrated as a car's headlight.
We moved around and as we cleared the stand of trees, we were shocked to see an oval shaped object hovering, maybe 4-5 feet off the ground. We stood there in total shock, and awe. I can only imagine that our jaws were probably on the ground. As we stood there watching this object hover there without a sound, I took note that the object was maybe about 30-40 feet from front to back, it was maybe the same dimensions around. The object seemed to be of a highly polished material that reflected the area around it. The reflection of the distant street lights from the surrounding neighbors properties seemed to reflect off the surface of the object. There was also a small dull glow to the object, barely noticeable unless you were really looking, almost like an aura of sorts, a iridescent blue of sorts.
As we stood there in total shock, My brother next to me expressing his disbelief, we saw two strange looking "Men" appear from around the object. They at first didn't notice us, they were busy running around and gathering objects from the ground, from the trees. They didn't seem to notice us at first. They looked to be about the size of my oldest nephew, about 4 feet tall, but they looked very skinny, like they had no meat on their bones. Their heads were large and their arms were long, skinny and hung down around their knee's. About this time my two nephews came walking up behind us (scaring the hell out of us). They saw the object and the strange "men" and in a voice that only a kid can project, screamed out loud "WHAT ARE THOSE THINGS!".
That's when the creatures turned and noticed us. The sight of these creatures was something that will haunt me till the day I die. It turned and looked right at us. It's eyes were large, almost like the eyes of a praying mantis, except they were jet back and wrapped around its head. the two creatures looked at us for about 7 seconds, not an ounce of movement, before they calmly walked around the craft, one right after the other. they disappeared behind the craft and we never saw them again.
A few seconds later the craft lifts up, not a sound coming from the object, no rush of wind, not even a swaying of the nearby branches of a mesquite tree. It rose quietly and hovered about 40 feet from the ground, and shot out like a bat out of hell. As it zoomed away, it started glowing and made it easier to track as it zoomed away getting higher and higher till it faded away.
We stood there in complete silence as we tried to make heads or tails of what the hell we just saw. My brother finally piped up and said "Should we call the police?" After which, I burst out in laughter and replied to him " And tell them what?" My nephew looked like he had just seen the devil himself, which considering what we just saw I don't blame him.
He didn't want to talk about it, and after we made our way back to the house, he still didn't talk about. I tried to ask him about it yesterday and he basically told me that he didn't want to think about it yet, he was still processing what had happened to him. I was more than happy to leave it at that.
I never really believed in the subject of UFO's or Alien's, but after the events of this night, I'm seriously going to re-evaluate that belief.
I know that I plan to keep my mind open, and start looking up towards the sky a little bit more from now on.
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The following is an email I received in late 2009:
Hello. The night before last at approx. 8:30 PM, I was watching television in my living room near a window. I felt like someone or something was watching me. I glanced to my right and there was a being in a gray suit standing outside my window watching me. It had to be 7' tall or so. (I measured in the morning). I had been discussing this feeling of being observed while watching television with a friend just the day before. I know it was not a human, but someone or something entirely different. This being was only there for a second or two and fled the instant I had noticed it. So I only got a fleeting glimpse of it, but I saw that it was dressed in gray and had a large head that I describe as that of a praying mantis. I was not fearful sensing a feeling of calm, almost protected. As I have not been able to go out and watch the stars for nearly two weeks. It could not have been a reflection of any kind and not a reflection from my TV either. Any thoughts on what it was? Thanks from Florida
NOTE: please forward any information or comments that you may have on similar type cryptids or manifestations...Lon