Episode 34: High Strangeness in the Hudson Valley with Professor WHAM

Hello, y’all—welcome to episode 34 of 6DJK.

This episode came about because I read Dr. CS Matthews’ book, Mysterious Beauty: Living With the Paranormal in the Hudson Valley, and was fascinated by the similarities between the high strangeness events she recorded there and the ones we experience here in Athens, Ohio. I found it interesting that both “window areas” (as John Keel called places that have recurring waves of high strangeness activity over decades) were in river valleys.

Dr. Matthews, also known as Professor WHAM, has advanced degrees in Religious Studies and American Cultural Studies and teaches at local colleges. And she knows a lot of really interesting things, and she was a fascinating guest.

The conversation covers a long list of interesting comparisons of activity between the two places—little lights are commonly seen, ghost activity, bigfoot activity, UFOs and lights in the sky, and of course, the Little People of Native traditions as well as fairies.

Speaking of Native traditions, we talked a lot about the Indigenous peoples and their experiences in the two regions. Professor WHAM has experience with Native teachers and has read widely on the cultural history of the peoples of the region. She informed us of a tribal migration that happened when the moundbuilders of Ohio moved up into the Hudson Valley region to become the Munsee people.

Professor WHAM suggested the books of Barbara Alice Mann, who writes from both a Native American traditional perspective and the perspective of an academically trained historian. She particularly suggested to us Native Americans, Archeologists and the Mounds, but in addition mentioned her other works. As Professor WHAM noted, the aforementioned book is out of print and pricey, but you should be able to find it in libraries, especially through interlibrary loan.

(My copy of the book was reasonably priced, but it came from France.)

We hope you enjoy this episode where you get to hear more about Athens, and a lot about the Hudson Valley. We had a lot of fun making it.

Other Barbara Alice Mann books mentioned on the podcast:

George Washington’s War on Native America
Iroquoian Women: The Gantowisas
Land of the Three Miamis: A Traditional Narrative of the Iroquois in Ohio