TGR 06.18.18. The Owls Are Not What They Seem

This week on The Gralien Report, an interesting news item this week has to do with a woman who is suing NASA… in order to be able to keep a vial of moon dust given to her years ago by astronaut Neil Armstrong. Elsewhere, some of the oldest frogs ever found in amber have us not only thinking about “Jurassic World,” but also a Fortean favorite of days past: the belief that frogs can sometimes survive for decades–possibly even longer–while entombed in stone, coal or cement. We weigh the differing perspectives against unique experiments which may have, at least in part, vindicated the idea somewhat.

Then shifting our days back to one of the stranger bits of Americana, we revisit George Van Tassel’s famous structure known as the Integratron, a dome-shaped building out in the southwestern desert which the famous American contactee believed was capable of time travel.

Then in hour two, with the popularity of a recent Netflix docuseries titled “The Staircase,” which details the investigations into how a novelist’s wife died after falling down a flight of stairs. In particular, we examine what is likely the strangest theory of all in relation to the story: that the woman was attacked by an owl prior to her fatal fall, which ultimately found novelist Michael Peterson in court, being charged for the murder of his wife.

Exploring the myth and folklore surrounding owls, we examine a number of traditions from around the world that date back to antiquity, having to do with the symbolism of owls. Many cultures saw them as signs of good fortune and intelligence, while in other cases, they were seen as being harbingers of death or ill fortune. In addition to perspectives from our friend Mike Clelland, who has authored books on his own synchronistic experiences with owls, of course, we couldn’t help but make reference to David Lynch’s classic series Twin Peaks, in which owls played a strange and foreboding role.