Edward Crabtree: Back in 1967 a child called Paul Nelson took a holiday with his parents and another male friend in Catalina Island off the coast of California. His buddy and he had bought some comic books and they seated themselves in Paul’s father’s boat to enjoy them, when the missing time event happened. The next thing they knew was that they had awoken the next morning without even remembering having fallen asleep.
Later, as an adult and out of touch with his friend, this odd event troubled Nelson, who now worked as a doctor. He had read up on UFO abduction claims and took the plunge in arranging a hypnotic regression to relive this evening of his life.
Sure enough, a textbook abduction scenario was recovered from Nelson’s buried memories. There was however one detail that differed from the norm and which Nelson had no foreknowledge of: his abductors, in tight fitting tunics were insect-like, with large bulging eyes (Dennet, p-192).
Dr Nelson’s situation is not unique. Abduction stories feature not only the usual Greys and some reptilian denizens but sometimes more repulsive forms such as beings compared to Praying Mantises.
Investigators using both hypnotic regression and straight interviews have, in particular from North America from the late Eighties, logged Close Encounters of the 4th and 5th kinds involving these ‘Mantises’. Moreover, some have been seen without any associated UFO craft. They feature in altered states of consciousness and, according to some, crop up in ancient artefacts. One has even been captured on camera.
Bug Eyed Monsters.
In the seventies I owned a pulp novel called ‘Eat Them Alive’ by Pierce Nace. The dust jacket described this fictional farrago, which concerns a man revenging himself on his enemies with the help of a troop of giant Praying Mantises, as a ‘new peak in horror’, which is about right. Long before that though, insect-like monsters had formed a cheesy part of science-fiction iconography.
Despite this, these green and brown short-lived carnivores number among the few insects that we keep as pets. There exist 2,400 species of manta religiosa (named after their long legs) and they are all harmless to humans, and indeed can help us in pest control.
The ones described by abductees are tall, sometimes have six legs and appear to communicate with clicks and wear garments. (To those who say that such a big Mantis would be a biological impossibility it might be countered that the name is a comparison only. The sea horse, for example, does not belong to the equine family. Indeed some abductees argue that the Mantis beings possess some distant humanoid link). They appear alongside the more traditional humanoid entities and some say they fulfil the role of ‘examiners’ (Donderi, p-128).
Read More – The real aliens: a survey of ‘praying mantis’ entity reports
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