MiB & Me
This is kind of a part of the “your true tales” series. Since, however, I tend to just tell my own stories (still not getting a whole lot of user-submitted stuff since I updated the website) I figure I’ll just treat these like regular blog posts going forwards. Once this post becomes readable, there should also already be a new sorting method up on the blog such that, when user-submitted stuff returns, you’ll be able to just click a button and get all these blog posts categorized for easier consumption. I need to do that anyways, as the blog is starting to fill up with posts.
This story takes place on November 14th, 2023.
My girlfriend (now fiance) and I were in the middle of our second trip to Point Pleasant, WV. This day was to be our big one for the trip: the day where we go out on the town and do everything there is to do before we hole back up in the cabin we normally stay at and enjoy this short-lived secluded forest life. We currently live fairly smack dab in the middle of Huntsville, so that quiet, country living is not something we get to experience that often, though we do long for it.
While we were out on the town, we obviously stopped at the Mothman Museum. If you ever go to Point Pleasant, you have to stop by. Not only is it super cheap (it’s only four or five dollars per adult), but it’s got a great little atmosphere. Despite the small size of the place, I often get the feeling that I’ve never seen all there is to see in the museum. To give you a feel as to what it’s like out there (and in the museum) I’m attaching a video I made for the group’s tiktok account during our latest trip. It’s not entirely filmed in the museum, but the video really captures how the whole town feels.
I’d love to share the longer cut of this video (which had more scenes from the museum, and the scenes currently featured were a little lengthier, too), but I don’t have limitless storage space on the site and, with the release of the show getting closer and closer, I need to be more careful about how much footage I’m uploading.
Here’s my account of the encounter that I wrote for the website right after it happened (1) (I’d retype it but I feel like my earlier thoughts on it are a little better than any I could recreate right now).
The men in black predate Point Pleasant and the Mothman, but it wasn't until that flap of sightings (when the Ohio River Valley was suddenly inundated with UFO sightings, the Mothman, and visits from the enigmatic Indrid Cold) that the men in black really entered the ufological zeitgeist. Mary Hyre, John Keel, Gray Barker, Woody Derenberger, and countless other locals and visitors who were in some way connected to the weirdness of the time were approached, followed, or threatened by the men in black (who, despite the name, didn't always dress in black).
Anyways, I say all that to say that we had something of a weird encounter this afternoon. We'd pulled into one of the parking spots just in front of the Mothman Museum when, seemingly out of nowhere, a man walked into the street about a hundred feet in front of the car (we were already stopped and had been for a moment). His hair was black, slicked back, and he was fairly well dressed. He threw something away in the trash can near the car and walked off around the corner.
We got out of the car, paid for admission to the museum, and walked in. Just after we did, the well dressed man pays for his own admission and comes in just behind us. He very quickly walked through, sticking close to us the whole time, and at one point seemed to take a handful of pictures of me with his phone (I couldn't find any good reason for him to have done so). He left really quickly. Couldn't have been in the museum for five minutes. He really didn't seem like someone who would want to be there.
We're on our way out and into the gift shop when two other men come in, dressed similarly to the first guy. You know the air that cops have about them? These two most definitely felt like cops. They walked up to the counter, asked if the attendant had seen the first guy (the attendant claimed he hadn't seen anyone like that today), and started saying, "Well, he's our friend and he told us he was here. He's supposed to be here right now." The man speaking had a large camera bag around his waist with his camera out and in his hands, obviously on.
Eventually, they walked out and sat on the bench by the car. Katlyn and I, obviously feeling a little weird about the whole encounter, waited for them to leave before heading out. Had us thinking, did we just see the men in black?
I don't want to come off like I'm not considering other possibilities or explanations (for all I know a couple locals could have seen us go in and decided to mess with us) but it was definitely weird, and definitely within the parameters of a sighting of the men in black (even down to the somewhat matching clothes, slicked back hair, and traveling in groups of three).
Not saying they were there for us but, since I started taking my paranormal stuff a little more seriously a few years ago, it definitely seems that I've had more weird encounters.
It was a strange trip for us.
The night prior I had attempted a very early version of the method of meditation/focused visualization that we made use of during our UFO encounter. If you’ve read some of my write-ups about that night, you’ll know that it was very successful. Though I hate to say it, you’ll have to wait until the show comes out to hear or see anything else from that night (I’ve already revealed more than I should have).
I’ve had a lot of time to think about these men and our encounter in the year or so since. More than anything, I find myself wondering why the first one took pictures of me. It makes me uncomfortable to think about, honestly.
We saw them, as they left, walk into the alleyway between the museum and the building next to it (this is the same alley where the mothman statue stands). The initial thought is “obviously, these are just weird tourists who want to take pictures of the statue”, right? The weirdo I am, I decided to look to see where they went. We left the building, I leaned around the corner, and they weren’t there. To this day I have no idea where they went.
The Mothman Museum, notably, has a 24/7 livestream on their youtube channel. The camera points down that alley and at the mothman statue. When we made it back to the cabin, I decided to check their footage from the day. You can see the two of us taking pictures by the statues, but those three men never appear in the footage. It’s like they never went down the alley (or at least knew where the camera was, hugged the wall, and carefully slipped by it).
I’m left with a couple possible solutions:
These are locals who work with the museum to try to give their patrons something like a “true” experience
These are just very strange, vaguely menacing people
These are actual members of the men in black
I’m not at all discounting the experiences of dozens (if not hundreds) of fellow researchers when I say this, but I’d wager that most run-ins with the men in black mostly fall in the second category that I’ve listed above. Not everyone has good social skills, not everyone agrees with people doing stuff like this, and some people just want to scare others. I’d very gladly be proven wrong. If the men in black are real, I welcome an encounter with them just like I welcome encounters with all other aspects of the paranormal.
Maybe, if they are real, it made sense at the time to threaten would-be truthseekers into not sharing encounters or research, but in the modern era (given how instantaneously information about this kind of stuff spreads now) it almost doesn’t make sense for the men in black to still be active. I mean, the government openly admits to the reality of UFOs now. But who knows.
I’ll probably never know for sure the agenda of those men we encountered (and it’s worth noting that we didn’t encounter any similar persons before or after in WV) (2) or who they were, but, again, if they were actually members of the men in black, I welcome further encounters.
Just, ya know, don’t be too creepy about it next time.
Stay weird!
-Scott
(1) Despite writing this for the website, I never actually came back to that version of the site to post it. Not sure why, actually. I’ve got a lot of good data from that trip, including a recorded estes session from inside of one of the domes on the anniversary of the first encounter. My team picture on the GHPR page actually comes from that session. I’ll post it one of these days, it just still needs some minor editing.
(2) I think I’ve mentioned it before but I did receive some strange emails following our UFO experiments. Once again, regrettably, I’ll only have more to say about that once the show comes out.