Ep 29 - Brian Bethel: Black Eyed Kid Phenomenon

Somewhere in the Skies

Ep 29 - Brian Bethel: Black Eyed Kid Phenomenon

10/27/2017

Episode Summary: Ryan speaks with Brian Bethel, arguably the first ever witness to come across the Black-Eyed Kids (BEKs) phenomenon. In 1996, Bethel was parked in a desolate parking lot when two young boys began to knock on his window, begging and pleading for a ride home. What happened next would completely terrify Bethel and change the rest of his life.

Since this first account of these mysterious black-eyed children, thousands of stories have permeated through both word-of-mouth and online lore, sparking a phenomenon that has grown in both mystery and debate. Bethel recounts that harrowing night, how his story ultimately was leaked and went viral at the advent of the internet, and just exactly what he believes may lay behind the dark, soulless eyes of the black-eyed kids.

Guest Bio: A mild-mannered reporter by day, by night Brian Bethel is a mild-mannered reporter (usually) home from work. He likes a variety of things, from computers to video games, from comic books to role-playing games, to reading to board gaming. He likes games a lot, come to think of it. He also enjoys writing, and he hopes someday to become not “the next” anybody but someone entirely himself.

To hear bonus content with Brian Bethel, including a disturbing ghost encounter and a separate case where a couple actually let black-eyed children into their home, consider becoming a Patreon subscriber today! To learn more and to help SOMEWHERE IN THE SKIES continue and grow, visit: www.patreon.com/somewhereskies

Feature Image by Sam Shearon. Find his work by CLICKING HERE
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Website: www.somewhereintheskies.com
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Twitter: @SomewhereSkies
Instagram: @SomewhereSkiesPod
Opening Theme Song, "Ephemeral Reign" by Per Kiilstofte
Episode Edited by Jane Palomera Moore
SOMEWHERE IN THE SKIES is produced by Third Kind Productions, in association with Antica Productions

4 Comments

Allen

11/6/2017 06:44:57 am

The main interview with Brian Bethel was a good one.

However, the lead-in submission from a listener named Luke - Ryan, did your BS detector's batteries die? That was an obvious piece of fiction.

Ryan, you're a writer - did you pay attention to the voice of this piece? I'm not talking about Luke's speaking voice or merely the fact that he was reading a prepared account, but the literary voice of what he was reading? That was absolutely not someone recording his recollections of an actual event but rather was someone engaging in a creative writing project to get an audience for his story. Notice the word choice that Luke used - no one telling about his genuine experiences would have used that sort of vocabulary.

Please, stick to interviews with people that actually have credibility, like most of your guests. Leave less-credible types (e.g. Luke, the guy who tried claiming some sort of connections between owls and ... was it UFO's?) to other, farther-out-there podcasts. If they don't have a seemingly authentic clear photo or high definition video, showing a Gray walking hand-in-hand with a 'squatch up the ramp of a flying saucer, let's leave the bigfoot-UFO connection proponents to themselves.

The most important characteristic for anyone who researches or broadcasts about Fortean phenomena isn't doggedness, intuition, technical knowledge, or ability to put subjects at ease, it is credibility. The establishment - academics, scientists, and the public at large - like to band together in lemming-like fashion to preserve the ordinary, traditional and accepted mainstream views, which they promote to heap scorn down on the novel, unknown or alternative views and theories out of arrogance and/or seeking comfort in numbers. The goal of all of those who research unknown phenomenon should be to promote reports that are backed up by evidence and by believable accounts from people who seem more prone to honesty and accuracy than to mistake or exaggeration. All coverage is good coverage may work for those hoping to break into Hollywood or the media spotlight, but it is not a sound adage for those hoping to prove the existence of the previously mysterious and dubious. We should give little credence or attention to those who have a history of lack of candor, who exaggerate or dissemble, who ignore facts and sound weight of evidence and instead crave attention and declare sensational speculation to be fact (e.g. David Paulides, Justin Smeja, Scott Wolter, Giorgio Tsoukalos, etc...).

It's better to miss a week or give us less than an hour of content on your podcast than to fill the space with someone who simply isn't credible.

Thanks for doing a typically very solid job on your podcast. I've thought that ITF has been the best podcast on unknown phenomena out there in the year and a half or so that I've been subscribing (although in the past few months Shannon has had a few kookier guests) and I'm glad to see that Somewhere in the Skies is right up there in all-around high standards of guests, interviews and production. You're doing good things here on SITS and I've been subscribed for a while.

Luke Johnson

12/5/2017 08:43:32 am

Allen thanks for calling me a liar. Hey before you engage your high horse you might want to consider that people who have experienced the paranormal have a real tough time stringing the events together without stuttering. Out of respect for someone like Ryan, someone who gives these people a place just to be heard without arrogant ass wipes like you slandering their name and calling them liars, its often times best to write it so it's concise, so the account doesn't take time away from Ryan's main guest. I also didn't know, thank you for self righteously clearing it all up, that all people who have demonic encounters also have average or below average vocabulary. Please cite these findings, I'm interested in reading those case studies. Good riddance.

Allen

12/16/2017 07:24:14 am

Luke, if you were concerned about someone associating your name with an opinion that you are less-than-credible, why did you choose to publish your full name with your comment? If you just stuck with your first name, no one would know who you are because there are tens of thousands of people named Luke out there.

Sorry, but I'm not buying your story. The issue isn't that you used vocabulary beyond a 6th grade level, it is that your overall word choice does not reflect a person telling a genuine account of a real event that he experienced. I am confident that most of my friends and family possess neither intellects nor educations that are inferior to yours, and over the years I have heard them tell hundreds of first-hand, real life stories from their pasts. Not a single time did any of them sound remotely like you. People recalling actual events speak with more direct language without embellishments - their organization may become tangential, but their styles do not stray from straightforward language. Your story contained the sort of literary-style flourishes that one sees in fiction, not an actual recollection of a real event. Your story was from the prospective of someone creating a story, not recalling events from his past.

It's no stretch of the imagination to find that someone who believes so fervently in Bronze and Iron Age mythology may try to create more of his own. Or that such a person could easily be fooled by a frustrated teenager acting out or possibly having a significant mental health issue that would be beyond the comprehension of most high school-age youths.

I believe that UFOs are real (most probably are super advanced, ultra-secret US military projects), but there is absolutely no reason at all that there are not other intelligent life forms out there in the universe, some of whom are more technologically advanced than humans and who may have visited and continue to visit earth. I'll even admit that if one looks deeply enough into the topic, the quantum of credible accounts of a large bipedal hominid in the woods of North America would seem to exceed the numbers that could be explained by misidentification or hoaxes (but if no proof more conclusive than the P-G film is discovered by the end of my lifetime, I'll probably write it off as non-existent).

However, I find that accounts of demons are little more credible than claims the Tooth Fairy is real. Most of the accounts I have heard of demons and fairies on these various Fortean phenomenon podcasts and websites are by individuals who seem to be heavily religious and susceptible to accepting dogma without questioning it. They also seem desperate for attention. Perhaps if I viewed a phenomenal, life-changing event, I too might be very eager to share my encounter with others, but I would be cognizant of using word choice that makes my account seem credible. Many of the people reporting their past bizarre encounters do seem very credible (e.g. Ryan Sprague, Shannon LeGro, many of their guests, probably at least half of the guests on Sasquatch Chronicles). In contrast, this narrated recitation sounded like a short story, not a real memory.

Allen

12/16/2017 08:38:27 am

And let me be clear that when I am talking about what friends and family have told as stories, I am talking about ones in which they are intending to relate actual accounts. I do have a few friends and family who tell "fishing tales" or other exaggerated stories for the sake of humor and entertainment in which it is obvious that their intent is more to get laughs than to convince people they are accurately telling an account of a real event. I am not talking about those sorts of stories.

Ep 29 - Brian Bethel: Black Eyed Kid Phenomenon

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