This year for my April 1st column I am going to reveal a paranormal phenomena illustrated in rock art that has been covered up – the Flying Rod.
“Flying rods are a phenomena in
which mysterious rod-shaped objects appear in video footage or photographs.
Some people believe these rods to be an unknown form of life, perhaps
extraterrestrial in origin. Skeptics believe most flying rods are actually
insects or small birds that only appear to have the mysterious rod shape
because they are blurred by photographic exposure time.
A typical flying rod includes the
following features:
• A
central rod-shaped “torso.”
• Multiple
fins or wings.
• May be anywhere from a few centimeters to a few meters in length.
• Travel at high velocities, changing direction at will.
•
Invisible or barely visible to the
human eye without the aid of photographic or video equipment."
"Flying rods are also known as Sky Fish
or Solar Entities. Flying Rods were popularized by film maker Jose Escamilla.
On March 19th 1994 Escamilla filmed some unexplained flying objects
in Midway, New Mexico. These were the first images to be interpreted and
labeled as flying rods, and the flying rod theory was born. Many people assumed
the rods to be a new form of cryptid (unknown or unexplained life form).” (Paranormal Encyclopedia)
We obviously have a mysterious phenomena which many believe to be
completely new.
At this
point the cover-up began, the powers that be, for some reason, went out of
their way to explain away these sightings.
“Robert Todd Carroll (2003), having
consulted an entomologist (Doug Yanega), identified rods as images of flying
insects recorded over several cycles of wing-beating on video recording
devices. The insect captured on image a number of times while propelling itself
forward, gives the illustion of a single elongated rod-like body, with bulges.
A 2000 report by staff at “The Straight Dope” also explained rods as such phenomena, namely tricks of light which result from how (primarily video) images of flying insects are recorded and played back, adding that investigators have shown the rod-like bodies to be a result of motion blur, if the camera is shooting at relatively long exposure times.” (Wikipedia)
“In August 2005, China Central Television (CCTV) aired a two-part documentary about flying rods in China. It reported the events from May to June of the same year at Tonghua Zhhenguo Pharmaceutical Company in Tonghua City, Jilin Province, which debunked the flying rods. Surveillance cameras in the facility’s compound captured video footage of flying rods identical to those shown in Jose Escamilla’s video. Getting no satisfactory answer to the phenomenon, curious scientists at the facility decided that they would try to solve the mystery by attempting to catch these airborne creatures. Huge nets were set up and the same surveillance cameras then captured images of rods flying into the trap. When the nets were inspected, the “rods” were no more than regular moths and other ordinary flying insects. Subsequent investigations proved that the appearance of flying rods on video was an optical illusion created by the slower recording speed of the camera.” (Wikipedia) So what are they all covering up?
This phenomenon has been photographed literally all over the world since 1994, but is that really when they first appeared as some cryptozoologists have maintained? Flying rods have indeed been observed and recorded for centuries before photography and video technology existed. They are recorded in petroglyphs and pictographs all over. Here in the western United States I have examples from Nine-mile Canyon and Cedar Mesa in Utah, and Council Rocks in Arizona.
Others, from Colorado and California, either show different species of flying rods, or, because the portrayals are different, perhaps they represent differences in how their observers perceived them. In any case, they seem to be omnipresent – at least on April Fool’s Day.
NOTE: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.
REFERENCES:
Paranormal Encyclopedia, Flying Rods, https://www.paranormal-encyclopedia.com/f/flying-rods/. Accessed online 6 March 2023.
Wikipedia, Rod (optical phenomenon), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/rod_(optical_phenomenon).
Accessed online 6 March 2023.
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