Welcome back to the next edition of the Paranormal Alphabet series where we have reached I. With I, I am going to talk about a purported being of possibly alien origin or who is part of or related to the infamous supposed Men in Black secretive government group. The being, known as Indrid Cold, otherwise referred to as the Smiling Man is a small piece of folklore that comes from the US states of New Jersey and West Virginia. The being has two main descriptions from the two most known encounters with him, the first is human-like in look, standing bipedally on two legs, with small beady eyes set far apart from each other, but without any nose, ears or hair. He was described wearing a green suit with a black belt and that the suit had reflective properties. He was also described as very tall, over 6ft.
The second encounter described him being much more human-like, this time with a nose and ears as well as hair that was slicked back and his suit was also blue instead of green, but still had the formers reflective properties. Of course, being known as the Smiling Man wasn’t for no reason, in the encounters the man was always described as having a wide creepy and unnatural smile/grin at those that saw him.
The first ever documented sighting of the being known as The Smiling Man was on October 16th 1966 in the US State of New Jersey spotted on a street two boys were walking down, Martin Munov and James Yanchitis. They described seeing an unnatural being standing by a fence, that gave them a “big ole’ grin” upon looking at him, when they moved closer to this man it begun to chase them until the two boys lost it. It wasn’t until later on when telling about their encounter that they remembered the stranger details, such as the man having no nose or ears.
The second documented encounter with the being is where his name, Indrid Cold, was apparently discovered by the person who witnessed it. Happening near Parkersberg, West Virginia on November 2nd of the same year as the previous sighting. Note that this sighting also occurred during the time of the Mothman sightings and this sighting of Indrid Cold was close to those sightings. Woodrow Derenberger says that he was driving home on Interstate 77 when he heard a sudden crash upon which he stopped his truck. This is when he claims that an unidentified and very strange craft landed in front of his truck while he was stopped, he said the craft looked like an old-kerosene lamp chimney, with it flaring at both ends, then narrowing down to a small neck and the center part of the craft then bulging out. He said that the Smiling Man emerged from the craft and then spoke to Derenberger using telepathy, saying that his name was Indrid Cold, that he meant no harm and was interested in learning about humans, he also said he would visit Derenberger again. That was the end of the encounter. Later on, Derenberger also said that Indrid Cold was from the planet Lanulos in the Genemedes galaxy. Woodrew Derenberger described his encounter with Indrid Cold in a video which can be found on Youtube.
There was also a third lesser known sighting of the Smiling Man also in West Virginia. This happened around about the same time In Point Pleasant (right where the Mothman sightings were also happening) where the Lilly family had been complaining about poltergeist activity for some time. Their daughter, Linda, described a short encounter with the Smiling Man in her bedroom one night upon waking, seeing him stand over her, obviously scared the daughter screamed, as the man grinned at her, she upon hiding under her covers and then looking again found that the man had vanished. (Who says that hiding under your bedroom covers doesn’t work?)
From the third sighting some suggest that Indrid Cold may even have been a spirit or poltergeist rather than an alien being. Other theories have suggested hysteria from the Mothman sightings at the time, pranksters, a mentally ill man and mis-identification as explanations for Indrid Cold.
There have been other alleged sightings of Indrid Cold/The Smiling Man but the three above sightings remain the most prominent even until this day.
Other suggestions include him also being part of the secretive but unconfirmed Men In Black group deep within the US Government that is involved with keeping people who have witnessed aliens and other related phenomena such as UFO’s, silent. The Men In Black were often described as very unusual robotic-like beings, some even suggest that they themselves were aliens. Including having strange abilities and lack of emotions and also unnatural human features.
But in the end, we can at least conclude that this being, whatever it may have been, whether real or not, is one of the stranger mysteries out there. Reports of strange humanoid encounters though are very common across the world. There are many from the apemen, to aliens, the lizardman, demons and terrifying monsters, among many others. Even a number of cities have stories of humanoid encounters, places you would not really expect. So, I will most certainly be touching on the subject of mysterious humanoids once again in the future. But until then, sleep tight and walk around with a more open mind, as you never know what may be lurking nearby… maybe even in your very house.
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