The next few definitions in John’s unfinished dictionary contain a couple of curious items. I knew “limiting point” as a term in geometry, but hadn’t heard of it applied to the speed of light. And while I’d read descriptions of aliens with long fingers, I wasn’t familiar with it as a “generic term.”
POSTSCRIPT: I’ve just learned that Archives for the Unexplained have posted many of John’s articles for Saga here. A feast for Keel fans!
This next group of definitions contains some terms unfamiliar to me, particularly “invo” and its related words “invof” and “invoh.” Donald Menzel was an early and active UFO debunker, beginning with his 1953 book Flying Saucers. Philip Klass began his debunking career in the late ’60s. And once again, John didn’t finish one of the entries. How did karma fit into the Keelian view?
June 24 is St. John’s Day–a day to celebrate midsummer, Kenneth Arnold’s famous sighting, and everyone named John. Happy St. John’s Day!
Here are five more definitions for you to contemplate, plus one incomplete entry. It’s too bad we don’t have John’s thoughts on hypnotism, which was such an important part of the abductee culture. If you’re interested in inner-earth theories, I recommend Walter Kafton-Minkel’s fine historical survey Subterranean Worlds, published by the late lamented Loompanics in 1989. It’s out of print now, but maybe you’ll get lucky. As I recall, John was impressed with it, and curious about the author, who was unknown in Fortean circles. And John too received letters from the “International Bankers”; see here for an example.
Here are the next five definitions, plus two terms that John never got around to defining. As mentioned in the last post, the Romani have sometimes been linked to UFO sightings; unfortunately, John didn’t provide details here. Hallucinations, I should point out, can have other causes, including illness, drugs, and sleep deprivation. Holograms, I’ll also point out, cannot be viewed from all sides. I don’t know what a “humanid” is; maybe John meant “hominid.” It’s too bad he didn’t note how it differs from a “humanoid.” And I’m curious about that assertion that a hybrid human inherits the dominant characteristics of both species. Where did that idea come from?
The next five definitions take us from “Gold” to “Green men.” I don’t know what meaning gold has in this context; I suppose it could have many, given its many physical properties and rich cultural history. I had never heard of “Golden Eyes.” “LF,” as John explains later in this dictionary, means “Long Fingers,” defined as malevolent entities with “unusually long fingers.” I had also never heard of gravitational waves pulsating hourly. Finally, the “Green men” here sound more like the fairies of Celtic folklore than the little green men of science fiction–although the two traditions often overlap.
ADDENDUM: Here’s the classic image of a “little green man” from illustrator Kelly Freas. By 1955, little green men had turned from a sci-fi cliché to a comic trope (Brown’s novel is actually pretty funny).
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