Mothman Revisited

Whether this should have been posted in the SkunkWorks forum was a question I debated, but since it deals with a "crypto" legend, I'll drop this here.
I've been mulling over the mothman this past week or so.
There have been articles and researchers attributing the creature to a misunderstood barn owl, dismissing the Silver Bridge collapse as nothing more than a coincidence. Others have pointed to the possibility that the entire Mothman experience was a psyop involving a laboratory-modified creature released to gauge the reactions of the residents of Point Pleasant, WV, along with a few other select locations and control groups. I have no problem with these theories, but there is another possibility that seems to not have been discussed in any depth.

Mothman: Project Brown Owl

The military, government has been shown to have few boundaries when it comes to testing of various novel concepts to weaponize. MKUltra is a prime example. Back in the 60s and 70s, technology was developing at a breakneck pace, as various militaries around the globe raced to utilize it in the most efficient ways to gain an edge on the battlefield.
An interesting concept would have been to weaponize infrasound--sound below the low-end threshold of human hearing (typically below 20hz)--which has been shown to have effects on human perception ranging from discomfort and awe to hallucinations and panic attacks.
Studies have shown significant effects on the brain using infrasound, see
littlefield.co...
clinicaltrials.gov...

To quote the first link,

Infrasound has resulted in a large amount of interest within the creation of NLW. It is apparent that given the technical depth that infrasound can be applied to within weaponry, a very in depth analysis of each device would be required.

Project Brown Owl, a military psyop meant to test the effects of infrasound on a small population, would have utilized large barn owls, the largest specimens they could find. The combination of the psychological effects of the infrasound and the sightings of the extra-large owls would combine to cause a widespread panic and awe among the residents of the town(s) involved in the operation. They'd release them around towns like Point Pleasant, WV while operating the subwoofers capable of producing high decibel infrasound. Where would these bass-blasting machines have been housed or hidden?
An ideal spot happens to be near or within the place where the Mothman was, by some, rumored to have lived. See this photo:
www.wvgazettemail.com...

Infrasound, perhaps not unlike Tesla's oscillator, otherwise known as the "earthquake machine" (en.wikipedia.org...), may have also played a part in the mysterious collapse of the Silver Bridge. The infrasound applied over a prolonged period of time may have resonated directly with the bridge and weakened it structurally to the point of collapse. The resonance from the infrasound combined with that of the vehicle traffic may have resulted in a deadly combination, leading to stress cracks and eventual collapse. It wouldn't have taken much, given the design of the bridge was, to a point, flawed: en.wikipedia.org...

Low redundancy, high strength The eyebars in the Silver Bridge were not redundant, as links were composed of only two bars each, of high-strength steel (more than twice the tensile strength of common mild steel), rather than a thick stack of thinner bars of modest material strength "combed" together, as is usual for redundancy. With only two bars, the failure of one could impose excessive loading on the second, causing total failure — which would be unlikely if more bars were used. While a low-redundancy chain can be engineered to the design requirements, the safety is completely dependent upon correct, high-quality manufacturing, assembly, and maintenance.

Note that the sightings of the mothman decreased significantly for quite some time directly following the bridge collapse--the organization conducting the tests on infrasound likely did not intend to collapse the bridge, and halted their experiment immediately upon the incident. Some have theorized that the bridge itself was a possible source of infrasound, which isn't impossible, but unlikely given the level of sound would likely have been too low to cause widespread psychological effects.

Men In Black: The Team

Witnesses during the mothman events in the Point Pleasant area reported visits and encounters involving the mysterious Men In Black, a popular phenomenon tied to UFO and other paranormal-type sightings. There are many variations of MIBs reported in relation to various cases over the past decades, and John Keel, author of The Mothman Prophecies, conducted extensive research and interviews on the subject. These MIBs, however, appear tied to Project Brown Owl (name chosen in reference to the Brown Note, a yet-unfound "note" in infrasound theorized to cause a complete loss of human motor control), and may well have been very human--but again, in conjunction with the infrasound, would have caused an unusual amount of alarm. They may have even deliberately sported unusual haircuts, shoes, accessories, in attempts to further study the malleability of the witness's thoughts and reactions under the infrasound's psychological "spell."

Participants/victims such as John Keel and Mary Hyre would have been played like a fiddle, if they weren't hired as part of the research themselves. The more they could convince the residents of an unusual phenomenon, the more successful the experiment... up until the tragic loss of 46 lives when the bridge went down.

It's hard to know exactly the extent of the government's willingness to manipulate the minds of unsuspecting civilians, their desire to massage the minds of the general population in hopes of developing advanced weaponry, psychological, physical, or even biological... the quest for power in human nature is far too strong to deny, and the actions driven by war and the possibility of wars to come have had a devastating effect on the idea of government leadership for many years. It is very possible that many popular legends and conspiracy theories were, indeed, psyops, not unlike MKUltra or the theorized "Project Brown Owl." I'll leave it to you, the readers, to think about it, discuss it, etc. Meanwhile,
Happy Holidays.
SV

Nice OP. Way to string unusual things events and circumstances together! Thank you for this

a reply to: servovenford

To this day few things sends chills down my spine like Mothman stories..........

I had created a thread on this previously; check out the Coast2Coast episode where Art Bell hosted John A. Keel, the journalist who wrote the book on the Mothman prophecies.



Very intriguing....

a reply to: servovenford

I looove Mothman theories. Infrasound is such a cool idea and fits so well with the story.

a reply to: servovenford

If the bridge collapsed due to an infrasound resonance, then the frequency of that sound is a function of the dimensions of the bridge and the 'brown note' can be calculated exactly as a first order, or primary, resonance..

originally posted by: chr0naut
a reply to: servovenford

If the bridge collapsed due to an infrasound resonance, then the frequency of that sound is a function of the dimensions of the bridge and the 'brown note' can be calculated exactly as a first order, or primary, resonance..

The "brown note" in theoretical acoustic science is different than a resonance note, what resonates a bridge and what resonates a human body are two very different frequencies. The "brown note" would not be found unless it directly impacted a human's motor coordination. I don't think I quite clarified the difference in my OP, sorry about that... you are correct however that the frequency of the infrasound USED could indeed be calculated from the bridge's specs. Excellent point,
The only thing that could hold that up is if the frequency "swept" in any way, only brushing the bridge's resonant frequency once every so many intervals of time.
There's no way of telling whether they used a single frequency, a sweep, or several staccato notes in the experiment...

a reply to: servovenford

Looking in to the design and cause of failure, It is not very likely that the bridge collapsed due to acoustic resonance.

The design was a suspension bridge held up by chains of 50 foot long 'eye bars'. It was one of these eye bars that was identified as the point of failure. The eye bar (number 330, the first link from the top of the Northern Ohio end tower) had a crack about 2.5 mm deep in the 25mm thick bar, at the bearing end (a resonance failure would be close to the center of the bar, not at the end). The crack propagated from the inside surface of the link connector, such that it was radiating outward through the link. It is suspected that the crack propagated along internal stress lines induced during manufacture and due to mechanical 'fretting corrosion' wear.

At the time of the failure, the bridge had been consistently carrying more than its designed maximum loads of bumper to bumper traffic, it was fully laden at the time, and it was cold weather. The failure was a brittle failure rather than a stretch beyond the steel's proportional limit.

Once the suspension mechanism failed, the rest of the bridge came down as there were no redundant load bearing mechanisms.

So, as far as failing from infrasound, no. Scratch that theory, but a good try, none the less.



BTW, if it had been a resonance, it would have been at the frequency of f=v/λ, where 'v' = the velocity of sound in 1degree steel = 5,940 m/s (got that from engineering tables), and 'λ' = the chord length of the bar = 15.24 m. So the frequency would have been 389.76 Hz. This is an audible frequency, so that doesn't fit, either.

a reply to: chr0naut

Ah yes, I agree, but in my OP I stated it was a combo of bad engineering and possibly infrasound, not by any means infrasound alone, but you're completely right about the construction of the bridge, it was, for lack of a better phrase, a piece of crud. It was going down one way or the other and it may have been a combination of things that brought it down.

The whole point here is, there isn't anything paranormal about MM. Whether infrasound or not played any part in the collapse doesn't negate the fact that it's far less mysterious than legend would have. It's just a possible connection and infra could have been the straw that broke the camel's back... on a cold day... with overload.

People do get nervous and having heard a story become afraid, it could have been a bat type some are big, wingspan 5.5 ft.
How about a bat hybrid from a lab, caught again so it disappeared.

a reply to: SeaWorthy

There were a number odd, unexplained phenomena that took place around the West Virginia region during that time period; it wasn't just limited to the "Mothman" apparition.

UFO activity, MIBs, encounters with odd "visitors", strange animal sightings, quite a number of bizarre paranormal occurrences.

Mr. Keel's book chronicles all of it, and there's much more that he covers beyond what was presented in the Hollywood film on the topic.

a reply to: SleeperHasAwakened

Right,
not saying it wasn't a bat; it very well could have been. It could have been a barn owl, a bat, etc.

The MIB factor as I wrote in my OP is a huge tip off that the whole act was a psyop. One of the things about the Point Pleasant MIBs in particular (differing in some way from other MIBs) is they appeared to be pushing buttons with the witnesses (asking Mary Hyre, for example, what she would do if they told her to stop writing about the Mothman, UFOs, etc). Of course, the witnesses (and Mr. Keel) are human and the human mind is subject to imagination and "truth stretching" -- all of which can be further manipulated using infrasound or similar psychoacoustic technology. When the mind perceives fear, the entire stimuli around the witness can be perceived differently. To quote Laurel, a character in Stephen King's "The Langoliers,"
"The situation seems strange, therefor everything seems strange."

There's no reason that the study couldn't include other phenomena including perceived UFOs, etc.

ETA: not speaking for all MIBs. I'm particularly pointing at the Point Pleasant and other directly related occurrences.

Another related and interesting point about the MIBs comes from a paragraph I had locked and loaded in my type-o-matic 2020:
"In many cases, the MIBs, such as those involved with the Mothman sightings in Point Pleasant, WV, appeared to work tirelessly to silence those who bore witness to the Mothman and related phenomena (UFOs, other cryptos, etc). However, with later sightings, such as the 2017 resurgence of Mothman sightings in the Chicago area, few MIBs if any, nor related unexplained phenomena, ensued.
There seems to be a point where they simply give up on a case. Perhaps they recognize when the "horse has left the barn" and neglect to bar the door after it, then proceed to enact certain damage control/information control procedures after (cover stories, debunking articles, so on).
It always appears they're keen to stop the flow of information from the initial source, but once another knife begins to spread the same butter, it's game over and they don't bother to stop it."

Perhaps it's another tipoff that these mysterious visitors were indeed part of the brief psyop and neglected to pursue witnesses and cases further than the duration of the experiment...

originally posted by: chr0naut
a reply to: servovenford

If the bridge collapsed due to an infrasound resonance, then the frequency of that sound is a function of the dimensions of the bridge and the 'brown note' can be calculated exactly as a first order, or primary, resonance..

There was an episode of Mythbusters (because of course there is) that worked around Tesla's earthquake device. Now that device worked by physically moving an object, but the frequency should be about the same. Worth giving it a try.

Also something that get's over looked a lot when it comes to the Mothman event. What was the weather like in the days and weeks leading up to the events? Has those weather conditions happened since in a similar area, and if so has a Mothman or Owlman been reported during those conditions?

During the resent Jersey Devil reports that popped up in Michigan, I had noted that the weather in the Pine Barrens seem to have gotten colder, but the the weather in Michigan was now like that in the Pine Barrens. After that change in weather patterns Jersey Devils were seen in outlying areas of Michigan. Could the same thing be going on with these Mothmen?

originally posted by: chr0naut
a reply to: servovenford

If the bridge collapsed due to an infrasound resonance, then the frequency of that sound is a function of the dimensions of the bridge and the 'brown note' can be calculated exactly as a first order, or primary, resonance..

But wouldn't the bridge itself have to be isolated to create a damaging resonance? Not sitting on concrete pillars in a river? The famous Tacoma Narrows bridge collapse in 1940 was a result of high winds. The Silver Bridge at Point Pleasant supposedly collapsed because it was poorly maintained, carried a much greater load than it was designed for, and had just one of the suspension cables snap to start the collapse.

I don't think people understand harmonic resonance that well.

Another thing. Why did the Mothman select that particular bridge collapse to monkey with? If it was interested in catastrophes, it seems like ol' Mothy would be showing up to all kinds of horrible explosions and collapses. Silver Bridge killed some people, but not like a thousand or anything. So where was he for 9/11? Or some of the other big catastrophes that have happened over the years?

Unless it was interested in killing (or witnessing the death of) just one person and was willing to take other people with him to get it done. Kind of like the Tylenol Killer. I wonder who Mothman had it out for.

a reply to: Blue Shift

Yes!

High winds, infrasound, combination of high winds, infrasound, poor engineering, overload... whatever you may, that bridge was toast--and the mothman had nothing to do with it, unless it had any connection to the "experiment"--

It would take a very special frequency to down to bridge alone using infrasound. In fact, it would have to be luck and or a combo of circumstances to use IS to bring a bridge down, but let me clarify a point here since you guys are bringing up such excellent topics,

The bridge was a goner, we all figured that out, and it's no surprise that it went down. But the timing of it is suspicious, brought to light by researchers including John Keel. An explanation of the collapse could still be that IS or something related to the experiment may have "finished off" an already poorly built/maintained bridge.

Had the bridge been well built, I doubt any infrasound or resonance of any kind, wind or not, would have brought it down. The point of bringing up infrasound as a possible trigger of collapsing an already fragile bridge at a vulnerable time lays entirely upon the fact that the bridge was, indeed, fragile. Otherwise, no toast.

Anyone remember the collapse of the bridge in Miami not too long ago? Another example of terrible engineering, but no possible connected events (no UFOs, etc). www.nytimes.com...

Finally, Figg and its partners — the builder, Munilla Construction Management; the builder’s engineering consultant, Bolton Perez and Associates; the university; and the Florida Department of Transportation — failed to recognize that the cracking had reached unacceptable levels, and decided to keep the street open while workers tried to fix the problem, worsening the impact of the collapse.

Bridges go down.
Just the timing of the Silver Bridge collapse, inevitable or not, was intriguing, but it's easy to see that any experimentation could have triggered the fall of a ready-to-die bridge without any effort.


That or it really is just a coincidence. But that doesn't deny the fact that IS could well have been a combination with a large animal (bat, owl, etc) and other light sources, agents (MIBs), etc to cause a mass event as a psyop. Even leaving the bridge out of it altogether.

IIRC
the gummint conducted nuclear tests on US soil (Nevada?), not understanding the fallout effects.
and there were '___' experiments done before full effects of the drugs were known (one reason they were doing them)

so it's a bit plausible that the gummint might experiment with earthquake sound device without realizing what it could do

and they packed up everything and trashed the records after the bridge accident.

there was a 'Project Mogul' which involved huge intercontinental balloons. supposedly the spooks encouraged UFO speculation cuz they didn't want people to know what they were really up to. so its possible all this men-in-black stuff was to divert attention from what they were really up to.
perhaps 'Indrid Cold' was an actor / CIA plant sent to confabulate.

star and flag. great post.

I have relatives that lived there and actually saw this creature, and although the theory you present is possible, they believed this thing was dropped off by some other world visitor for whatever reason, and it might still be around, although I doubt it. The Air Force investigated this thing as well and told people they got rid of it, but then it was seen after that.

This world Earth has no shield and is actually wide open to anything coming here. There's a lot of things out there far more advanced than the Earth is. Anything is possible AND likely.

originally posted by: Blue Shift

originally posted by: chr0naut
a reply to: servovenford

If the bridge collapsed due to an infrasound resonance, then the frequency of that sound is a function of the dimensions of the bridge and the 'brown note' can be calculated exactly as a first order, or primary, resonance..

But wouldn't the bridge itself have to be isolated to create a damaging resonance? Not sitting on concrete pillars in a river? The famous Tacoma Narrows bridge collapse in 1940 was a result of high winds. The Silver Bridge at Point Pleasant supposedly collapsed because it was poorly maintained, carried a much greater load than it was designed for, and had just one of the suspension cables snap to start the collapse.

I don't think people understand harmonic resonance that well.

Most bridges, due to their span, are really only 'fixed' at one end this allows them to expand and contract, without which, simple thermal expansion would bring a bridge down.

In the case of a suspension bridge, the expansion isn't even constrained by rails and sliding plates. The bridge is literally just hanging there in free space.

In the case of the Tacoma Narrows bridge, the wobble built up to the point where it was very visible before it failed and the frequency of the wobble was about 0.3 Hz, well below audible and in the infrasound range. This was an infrasound failure, but was not generated elsewhere, it was an unwanted function of the bridge design and prevailing winds.