The Mimics

By M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories​
When we think of aliens, we picture something strange with large black eyes. Something that doesn't look human. But in some cases these beings have learned very well how to mimic us.

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The Grinning Man is a disquieting person seen in the oddest places

Is it mimicry, camouflage​ or are they partly like us, at least how they look on the outside?

How do they betray themselves? Perhaps with an evil grin, at the most inappropriate time. Think of The Joker in the Batman comics, or a clown that despite the face paint they can't quite hide that it's all a lie.

There is the Grinning Man connected to the true life events which took place at Point Pleasant, West Virginia in 1966. Many are familiar with the movie The Mothman Prophecies (2002) in which the movie culminates with the collapse of the Silver Bridge.

There is a character in the backstory of this true life event, which is known as Indrid Cold AKA The Grinning Man.

It started on November 2, 1966, when Woodrow Wilson Derenberger, a sewing machine salesman left Parkersburg heading to his home in Mineral Wells, West Virginia. 

He stopped once to secure one of his sewing machines in his van, and continued on Interstate 77. Then he stopped for a second time when he saw was looked like an large, old-fashioned kerosene lamp, land on the road.

A door opened, and a man, average looking with dark hair and a deep tan came to the passenger window. He wore a dark overcoat, and beneath it something that looked metallic. His arms were folded, and his knuckles appeared to be nestled within his armpits in an uncomfortable position. He said his name was Indrid Cold and he came from a place "less powerful than the United States." He told Derenberger he was not special, and a being of flesh and blood. He wanted the encounter to be reported to the authorities, and that this would be the first of many meetings. All this was delivered via telepathy.  After this, the being entered the UFO and left.

Derenberger told the story to his wife, and then the police and the press.

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Woodrow Derenberger (1916-1990) authored Visitor from Lanulos

Within 48 hours he started to receive other communications from Indrid Cold, who said he came from the planet Lanulos in the "galaxy of Ganymede." He said people on this planet lived from 125 to 175 Earth years. 

Derenburger had another UFO sighting on November 4.

In 1967, Derenberger was taken for a ride in a spaceship and visited Lanulos. On a second visited to the planet, he saw the inhabitants did not wear any clothes.

In 1971, with the help of Harold W. Hubbard he wrote a book about his interaction with Indrid Cold, titled Visitor from Lanulos. After one of these visits he communicated with UFO investigator John Keel who authored a book about Mothman. During Keel's investigation he received phone calls from persons calling themselves Indrid Cold. Keel wrote the forward to Derenberger's book.

The same night Derenberger stopped for Indrid Cold, on the same toad two other men saw a long object land in front of their car. Having no choice but stop, they saw a man leave the UFO and come towards them. His description matched Derenberger's. He asked nonsensical questions before he returned to the craft and left.

Several weeks before Derenberger met Indrid Cold, two boys James Yanchitis and Martin "Mouse" Munoz, were walking home along Fourth Street in Elizabeth, New Jersey. They came to a local landmark known as the Turnpike, which was an area with a high fence and steep incline. They said behind the fence stood the "strangest man" they had ever seen. They couldn't understand how he came to be where he was, and that he just stood there grinning at them.

The legend has persisted about Indrid Cold, but it has never reached a conclusion.

Perhaps the appearance of the Grinning Man predates the encounter with Indrid Cold.  

In November, 1966, it was noted that the 150th anniversary of the founding of the London Trustee Savings Bank was being celebrated in England. The Guildford Trustee Savings Bank joined the London bank in 1919. It was opened in 1816, and moved in 1828 to a premise over a late 13th-century crypt. It was described this way:

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The crypt which supports the building above is of particular interest because it has two columns with very well preserved grotesques, one a grinning man, the other a medieval woman in a wimple.

Shadow Man or Hat Man have been seen wearing a top hat

Shadow People are another type of creature that imitate humans, but which aren't. The most common setting for Shadow Man encounter is the bedroom, either when you're sleeping or have just woken up. Since most of the time they are wearing some type of old-style hat, such as a cowboy hat, a fedora or a top hat they have received the moniker of Hat Man. In some instances, they are seen with a cowl over their head like a monk.

According to the late Rosemary Ellen Guiley she believed Shadow People were a variation of creatures known as Djinn. They are mostly associated with negative paranormal experiences.

​In her research she found a correlation between persons that have seen shadow people with ET experiences, especially those that have claimed to be abducted.

The lore of the Djinn originates in the Middle East. It was made out of the winds and smokeless fire. They have the ability to shape-shift, but cannot make themselves look 100% like a human being. Guiley's theory was that they wore a hat to disguise their imperfect heads. The eyes of a Djinn can switch to a reptilian appearance or to an odd color.

​The reason for their animosity against humans is they were pushed out, into a parallel universe because of mankind. Like fairies they pretend to help, but always for a price.

It is common to see shadow people out of the corner of your eye. Once they are seen in full, they are many times described as having red eyes.

In some instances, an unexpected sighting of a shadow man is seen as a harbinger of impending doom.

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Are Black-Eyed Kids really human?

Another example of creatures imitating humans are black-eyed children.

In 1996, Brian Bethel a reporter for The Abilene Reporter-News had his own eerie encounter. It was after dark, and he sat in his car scribbling a check. Then two boys about 10 to 11 years old came and knocked on his car window.  He described one as "somewhat suave, olive-skinned, curly-headed young man" and the other "a redheaded, pale-skinned, freckled young man." They both wore hooded pullovers.

They told him they had come to watch the movie Mortal Kombat  but forgot their money. They asked for rides to their mother's house to get the money. Bethel noticed that based on the showtimes on the marquee, there were no films that would start by the time they returned.

Bethel felt an "irrational fear", and they assured him by saying, "It wouldn't take long, they were just two little kids, they didn't have a gun or anything."

It was then he noticed the solid black eyes of the boys. He described their eyes as: "The sort of eyes one sees these days on aliens or bargain-basement vampires on late night television. Soulless orbs like two great swathes of starless night."

He tossed an excuse at them and drove away. When he looked in his rearview mirror they had disappeared.

He said another person had a similar experience in Portland, Oregon.

Black-eyed Kids (BEK) are normally young, not more than 15 or 16 years old and have pale skin, in contrast to their dark eyes. They are frequently reported as begging or hitchhiking.

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MIB are known to stalk those who have witnessed UFO phenomena

Men in Black (MIB) are so well known they've had movies made about them.  They're always dressed in dark suits, some think they're human, others think they just look human. Their origins are varied, starting with members from a government black-ops agency, extraterrestrials, time-travelers, energy vampires and demons. There have been MIB look-a-likes dressed in military uniforms that give off the same aura of weird.

They usually show up after someone has seen a UFO, or has been a witness to some type of otherworldly experience.

In the 1950s, Albert Bender has his own experience with the MIB. He served in the military during WWII. After his discharge he moved to Bridgeport, Connecticut. In 1953, he worked at the Acme Shear Co., and lived in the attic of his stepfather's home. In his 20s he enjoyed collecting macabre memorabilia and reading ghost stories. 

During the late 1940s there were several flying saucer sightings in the western United States. In 1952, he started the International Flying Saucer Bureau (IFSB), and he extended invitations to notables of the day. Eddie Rickenbacker the CEO of Eastern Airlines became an honorary member, but Albert Einstein said no thanks. Eventually he had 600 members worldwide.

As soon as IFSB was organized odd things started to happen to Bender. He got strange calls, suffered ill health, bad headaches and received telepathic messages. At the same time UFOs were seen over Connecticut. In 1952, he described a man with glowing eyes was watching him at a movie theater, and he was followed as he walked home. On another occasion he levitated and felt to be hypnotized. The smell of burning sulphur filled his attic bedroom.

The telepathic messages he got were warnings to stop studying UFOs.

This would be the first of many visits from the MIB.

Eventually being stalked by the MIB forced him to close the IFSB in October 1953. In the final issue of his magazine Space Review, he wrote: "All of them were dressed in black clothes. They looked like clergymen but wore hats similar to [the]Homburg style." He had been visited at his home by three of them in July, 1953.

Bender went on to describe the MIB as mind-manipulating silencers.

He abandoned UFO research and moved to California in the 1960s. He died on March 29, 2016, at the age of 94.

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