MUFOB ARCHIVE/NS04 Winged Creatures
Nigel Watson
MUFOB New Series 4, Autumn 1976
Winged entities are not uncommon in the UFO literature. Perhaps John Keel has done most to bring this phenomenon to our attention, particularly with the publication of his investigations into the activities of the enigmatic 'Mothman'. Pre-Mothman sightings are listed in Peter Rogerson’s INTCAT. (1, 2) More recently, we have a sighting report from Vietnam, where three US soldiers on duty saw “What looked like wings, like a bat’s only it was gigantic compared to what a regular bat would be…”
The witness who reported the incident, Earl Morrison, went on to describe the creature he saw: “….it looked like a woman, a naked woman. She was black, her body was black, the wings black, everything was black. But it glowed.” (3)
This account prompted another winged entity report (4). A Mr V K Arsenyev heard “the beating of wings. Something large and dark emerged from the fog and flew over the river.” According to the account, this took place on July 11th, 1908, at the mouth of the River Gobilli. In many ways the winged entity functions as a archetype. Several examples spring to mind. There is the famous vampire legend:
“The belief in vampires, or blood-sucking ghosts is a very ancient one and appears to have emanated from Eastern Europe. A vampire is believed to be the soul of a dead man, which leaves the body by night in the form of a bat, bird, or spider to suck the blood of the living, who slowly decline and die.”
Bram Stoker’s Dracula arose from these legends and later the film-makers cashed in, with a never ending series of blood-filled drama!
However there are many more legends connected with winged beings. Tribes of Central Australia believe the eagle-hawk is a form of wizard and the Apaches claim there are spirits of divine origin in the eagle and other birds. And in many other ancient cultures, spirits assume the bird form in many of their adventures, Other cultures believe the demon of depth assumed the form of a fly.
The winged being can also be the bringer of superior insight. Carl Jung had a vision of a figure he named ‘Philemon’. He first appeared to Jung in a dream, which he described thus:
“There was a blue sky, like the sea, covered not by clouds, but by flat brown clods of earth. It looked as if the clods were breaking up, and the blue water of the sea were becoming visible between them. But the water was the blue sky. Suddenly there appeared from the right a winged being sailing across the sky. I saw that it was an old man with the horns of a bull. He held a bunch of four keys, one of which he clutched as if he were about to open a lock. He had the wings of a kingfisher, with its characteristic colours.”
Further on Jung states that “Philemon and other figures of my fantasies brought home to me the crucial insight that there are things in the psyche which I do not produce but which produce themselves and have their own life.” (5)
In the UFO frame of reference we have the contact experience. Mollie Thompson has written about her own contact with an entity of great wisdom: “The contact was telepathic and the name Philemon was agreed upon because human mind required this as a focal point.” (6) Surprisingly we do not learns great deal from this rather banal version of Philemon.
To Jung, Philemon was the bringer of superior insight, a type of messenger angel, who helped and guided him and possessed the key to the lock of life. For centuries man has dreamed of flight. The creatures that have this power, be they birds or extensions of mans psyche, are regarded as superior beings who command our respect or fear. Unable to conquer something in reality, man tries to master it in imagination and in dream.
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- References:**
1. KEEL, JOHN. _Strange Creatures from Space and Time_. Neville Spearman, 1974; KEEL, JOHN. 'West Virginia’s Enigmatic Bird'. _Flying Saucer Review_, 14,4. 2. ROGERSON, PETER (Comp.) International Catalogue of Type I Reports. _MUFOB_. Cases numbered 5, 9, 188, 191, 272 and supplementary cases Al and A4. 3. WORLEY, DON. The Winged Lady in Black. _FSR Case Histories_, No. 10 4. PETRENKO, YURIJ. Mailbag. FSR 19,2. 5. JUNG, CARL. _Memories, Dreams, Reflections. Routledge_ & Kegan Paul. 6. THOMSON, MOLLIE. Discussions with Philemon. _Gemini,_ vol. 1, nos. 3, 4, 5
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