THE MEN IN BLACK

Sunglasses at night
Black suits, black ties, no smiles
“I look good in this.”

Good things of day begin to droop and drowse,
While night’s black agents to their preys do rouse.

WHO ARE THE MEN IN BLACK AND ARE THEY REAL?

The 1997 movie Men in Black put a different spin on the Men in Black story: They were not aliens. They were human agents whose duty it was to monitor alien activity on Earth and in nearby galactic space. It was a clever “interpretation” of one of the most pervasive elements of UFOlogy.

Reportedly, the Men in Black usually travel in groups of two or three and they appear shortly after someone officially reports a UFO sighting or an abduction experience. (Not all UFO percipients of abductees are visited by the Men in Black, but many are.) In some cases, the Men in Black have shown up at someone’s door after they have had a UFO sighting, but before they have had an opportunity to report it to anyone. It was as though they knew everything that had gone on and wanted to stop the person from talking about it.

In 1947, the same year as Kenneth Arnold’s Washington state UFO sighting and the Roswell crash Harold Dahl cam forward with the first official account of a visit from the Men in Black. (Dahl was my ex husband’s cousin!) Dahl reported that he had witnessed a UFO discharging “metallic” substances into the ocean off the coast of Maury Island, Washington, and that the following morning he was visited by a stranger clad in a dark suit. This ominous-looking “person” hinted that Dahl and his family would be harmed if he continued to speak about what he had seen. Dahl’s story was eventually revealed to be an elaborate hoax, and yet conspiracy theorists embraced the story and charged a cover-up of the truth - which was, of course, that Dahl had been visited by he real Men in Black.

In September 1953, Albert Bender, the founder of the International Flying Saucer Bureau, claimed that he was visited by three men in dark suits after he confided a UFO theory to one of the people with whom he corresponded. This was the true beginning of the Men in Black legend and became known in UFOlogy as the “Bender Mystery.”

The Men in Black always wear black suits. Sometimes the suits are impeccably clean and pressed; other times the suits have been reported as dirty and wrinkled.

Sometimes they have a heavy accent; sometimes they use very formal language; sometimes they attempt to speak in a gangster dialect.

The Men in Black seem amazed by ordinary terrestrial objects like spoons or combs.

Some people who claimed to have been visited by the Men in Black reported being very frightened and said that the Men in Black threatened them with violence if they did not keep their mouth shut.

The Men in Black apparently cannot afford new cars, for they are always said to drive old black Cadillacs (occasionally some other models, like Lincolns or Buicks are mentioned) that were in quite good condition. (If they were government agents, wouldn’t they be driving Tauruses or Impalas?) Also, witnesses report that their vehicles seemed to be illuminated from within by an unearthly green light.

Some witnesses claim that the Men in Black wear heavy makeup and and lipstick and have weird facial features.

The legend goes on....

The Men in Black can disintegrate coins in the palms of their hands. They are impervious to cold and are often seen in below freezing weather wearing nothing but their black suits. And speaking of their suits, many report that they seem to be made of some weird shiny material that is unlike anything any of the witnesses had ever seen.

It is possible that the Men in Black can levitate. There are accounts of them being seen walking across sloppy, muddy fields and appearing at someone’s door without a speck of mud or dirt anywhere on them -- including their spotless, polished shoes.

Are the Men in Black actors hired by the government and instructed to behave in as odd a manner as possible as part of an ongoing disinformation campaign?

Or are they robots or androids from another planet whose job is to keep track of UFO activity on Earth?

Or are the Men in Black aliens themselves or even from another dimension?

We do not know the answers to these questions.

But there are many people today who believe that the Men in Black movies starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones are documentaries.
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Long ago when I lived in Seattle a Man in Black wearing a fedora hat and in an old black Cadillac was seen by a person on the side of the road. The Man in Black was leading a huge dog by a collar and chain out the side of the window. He went on by the person watching and shortly came back down the road without the dog. When the person walked up the road to see what happened to the dog he found it cut in half and the half cut in pieces, piled up along the side of the road!

That was only one case, there have been many.
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This article was taken from The Weird 100 by Stephen Spignesi