Mothman Sighting – Picture Taken In Point Pleasant, West Virginia, True Or Hoax?

The mothman, the giant supposedly human-like flying creature first spotted in Point Pleasant, West Virginia back in the 1960s has made its return to the popular consciousness once again it seems — with images recently taken (on 20 November 2016) by an unidentified man now making the rounds on the internet.

While certainly nowhere near as crane- or heron-like as the first pictures released back in the mid-1960s, I have to say that the new image looks fairly ambiguous and/or heavily manipulated.

Picture of mothman

Despite the fact that the sightings are, as most such sightings are, likely the result of a wide variety of different personalities, animal sightings, psychological projections, and also likely lingering folk beliefs/memories of the regions in question, coming together in a bizarre form/mix, the Mothman sightings are particularly interesting.

Mostly because of how ambiguous the ties between reported sightings of the Mothman, and it’s supposed victims (including those associated with the Silver Bridge collapse over the Ohio River) are.

As with all such ambiguous stories and sightings, one always seems to be able to find corollaries that match the reported creatures or spirits fairly easily when one looks back into the earlier history of the regions in question, or into prehistory (the stories concerning the unicorn, elasmotherium, for instance, or those concerning various human-like figures — e.g. the Denisovans and Neanderthals).


So back to the Mothman… Large human-like flying figures are actually featured in some relatively local stories of various peoples from the region. The stories concerning the giant flying-head, for instance, come to mind, though there are clearly differences there as well.

Then there are the giant teratorn birds that once lived throughout the Americas, and were roughly the size of small airplanes.

With his line of thought, though, you have to wonder what leads to some cultural memories persisting, and some not — as most people living in the region now are probably unaware that jaguars lived there as recently as the 1700s (and all the way up through Michigan and Pennsylvania as well.)

So if people can’t even recall the jaguars that were there as recently as a few hundred years ago how could they “remember” earlier animals? Who knows.

An important thing to remember with stories such as this, especially now that we are living in the “Information Age” — people love their pranks, they love to think that they are smarter than those around them, and they love to imagine things that makes their wage-slave lives seem more interesting. Whether consciously, or unconsciously.

There’s probably nothing that people love more than to project their own unacknowledged perceptions, thoughts, natures, and desires. So what does that say about a giant flying “Mothman?” God knows.

A final note here — the recent Mothman photo taken in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, was supposedly taken by the unidentified man in question on State Route 2, on November 20, 2016. The local news station WCHS then aired the pictures on November 21.

It should be remembered here that the town has gained quite a lot of notoriety from the Mothman sightings, and now even hosts a festival relating to the Mothman. (There’s even a statue of the Mothman in town now.)

Also, this is essentially the 50th anniversary of the first sightings, and there’s money to be made.

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