Welcome To The Unknown
A brief introduction of what's to come.
What do you know?
I know that sounds like a loaded question, but it’s not. It’s an earnest one: What do you know to be true in this world?
Science has given us a fundamental, irrefutable understanding of how life on this planet can thrive—and how it can die. And we also know that the variety of life on Earth is vast; scientists estimate that there are 8.7 known species here. But here’s something else to consider: a more precise estimate suggests that more than 80 percent of species on this planet are still undiscovered. That means that there’s a lot more unknown on this planet than there is known.
“The three hardest words for human beings to utter are I don’ know. We demand an accounting for every claim or experience, and when no accounting is available, someone will invent one for us.” That comes from the introduction of Unexplained! 347 Strange Sightings, Incredible Occurrences, and Puzzling Physical Phenomena a book published in 1993 by Jerome Clark, an investigator of anomalous claims and occurrences who sits on the board of the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies. I think that speaks to what fascinates me so much with the unknown. Humans are an arrogant species. We fear what we don’t know and thus contort what we do know to come up with logical explanations when faced with a mystery. And by doing so, sometimes, ignoring the possibility of something extraordinary.
For as long as I can remember I’ve been drawn to the paranormal. I remember sitting in the computer lab in grade school stealthily scrolling through UFO and cryptid message boards for reports of sightings. And as I grew older, that burning desire to know the secrets and mysteries of the universe only grew stronger. But it’s not so easy to blindly believe something with out any tangible proof. I don’t know if any of these things exists, but to quote a certain ’90s television show that was probably as pivotal for anyone reading this as it was for me, well, I want to believe.
But this project isn’t intended to unravel the mystery of the Loch Ness Monster or track down the Mothman once and for all. It’s about the culture of these mysteries. Across the world, famed cryptids like Bigfoot are celebrated not just as fabled lore but as a part of regional identity. Each year, the town of Kecksburg, Pennsylvania celebrates a mysterious occurrence that took place on Dec. 9, 1965 when residents claimed that something extraterrestrial crashed into the woods outside of town. In the center of Point Pleasant, West Virginia there’s a statue commemorating the winged legend known as Mothman. There are countless Bigfoot festivals held across the country, each one celebrating supposed local sightings that have since drawn thousands of tourists and enthusiasts to otherwise sleepy towns. We don’t know if any of these things are real, but that doesn’t matter: they’re already a part of our culture, and that makes them real enough.
Welcome to Cryptid Letters, a monthly newsletter that explores the history and culture of cryptozoology, extraterrestrial sightings, unexplained phenomena, and other paranormal shit. If you like what you’ve read so far, I implore you to subscribe and come on this journey into the unknown with me. Who knows what we’ll discover.