Time for a Bit of Slenderman Reading

The "New" Slenderman...

Having written a book on the Slenderman phenomenon earlier this year (The Slenderman Mysteries), this caught my eye. Very weird: the new Slenderman...

Beware of the Black Eyed Kid

So, there I was, speaking on my new book, The Slenderman Mysteries at the 7th Annual Texas Metaphysical & Paranormal Unity Fest in Glenrose, Texas last Saturday.

A great time was had!

As you can see, one of the Black-Eyed Children came up to me and claimed I was its dad......

More on the Slenderman

In a new article, I demonstrate that the Slenderman isn't actually the relatively recent phenomenon that most people assume it to be.

Here's the link...

 

New Article on the Slenderman...

Over at Mysterious Universe, there's a new article from me on the Slenderman phenomenon and my new book on the subject, The Slenderman Mysteries.

You can find the article here, and this is how it begins:

"Right now, I have a new book out on the Slenderman issue. Its title: The Slenderman Mysteries: An Internet Urban Legend Comes To Life. I interviewed various key figures who have dug extensively into the phenomenon, all of whom provided valuable insights into the phenomenon and how it has caught the attention and imagination of untold numbers of people – and provoked tragedy too. When it comes to the thorny issue of theorizing what the Slenderman really is, or may be, there are few more notable figures in the subject than Ian Vincent, who I spoke with extensively. His writings on the subject include “The Slenderman: Tracing the Birth and Evolution of a Modern Monster,” “Killing Slenderman,” and “Slenderman: Five Years.”

 "Vincent is a long-term student of the occult, a professional magician, and an exorcist. He says of the Slenderman: 'You can project whatever you want on it; it’s neutral. I mean, there is nothing more neutral than a guy in a black suit. But, that completely faceless aspect of it just makes it that little bit more creepy – and there’s the elongated arms, too. Then, there’s this juxtaposition of the mundane – a guy in a suit – into an unusual setting.'"

My New Book on the Slenderman

The Slenderman Mysteries: Now Available

Although my new book, The Slenderman Mysteries isn't officially published until February 19, the paperback is already available at Amazon. The Kindle version and the audio CD box-set will appear imminently...

And here's a bit of cool, Slenderman-themed artwork from artist Simon Wyatt, which appears in the book:

And here's the publisher's (New Page Books) info on the book:

It's the dead of night; you are fast asleep. Suddenly, you are wide awake but unable to move. Hunched over you in the shadows is an eight- or nine-foot-tall gaunt entity with spider-thin limbs, dressed in an old-style black suit, its pale face missing eyes, nose, ears, and mouth. You finally manage to cry out. The monstrous thing disappears as suddenly as it appeared.

You just had a terrifying encounter with the Slenderman.

Who--or what--is the Slenderman? His existence began on the Internet, but he didn't stay online. The Slenderman may be a tulpa, a thought-form that can stride out of our darkest imaginations and into reality if enough people believe in it. In May 2014, two young Milwaukee girls almost killed a friend in the name of the Slenderman. Perhaps, like the vast Skynet system in the Terminator movies, the Internet is turning against us--and attacking us with digital equivalents of our own online nightmares.

The Slenderman has come to life. For the first time, this book reveals the full and fear-filled saga.

The Slenderman Mysteries: My New Book

Copies of my new book, The Slenderman Mysteries, arrived in the mail today. Official publication date is just a couple of weeks away, but it's already available for purchase on Amazon.

The Slenderman Mysteries: Coming in February 2018

See this Amazon link for more info...

A "Slenderman" Development...

My latest Mysterious Universe feature is on a strange entity that began as an Internet meme in 2009, and which, many believe, strode right out of the domain of fantasy and into the real world. Its name: the Slenderman.

The article isn't an overview of the phenomenon, however. Rather, it highlights a Slenderman-type encounter that occurred specifically before the phenomenon began, something which leads to a notable question:

Did the 2009 creation of the Slenderman meme create a Tulpa-like, living equivalent? Or did a real, earlier Slenderman exist before the fictional one was looming on the horizon?

The encounter in question was published (and takes up a whole chapter) in my book, There's Something in the Woods, which was published in 2008, one year before the Slenderman phenomenon began. So, there's no chance that the witness could have been influenced by the Slenderman tales, since they hadn't even begun when the book was published. Plus, the incident itself occurred in 2001, no less than 14 years ago.

The article starts like this:

"You may have seen the recent publicity given to a story coming out of the U.K. of sightings in and around Britain’s Cannock Chase woods, of something described as looking like the legendary 'Slenderman.' It’s a fictional character created in June 2009 by Eric Knudsen (using the alias of 'Victor Surge,' at the forum section of the Something Awful website), who took his inspiration from the world of horror fiction.

"The Slenderman (also spelled as Slender Man) is a creepy creature indeed: tall, thin, with long arms, a blank (faceless, even) expression, and wearing a dark suit, it sounds almost like a nightmarish version of the Men in Black. While there is no doubt that Knudsen was the creator of what quickly became a definitive, viral, meme, people have since claimed to have seen the Slenderman in the real world."

Slenderman Weirdness

At his Twilight Language blog, Loren Coleman provides an excellent overview of the increasingly strange (and downright deadly) Slenderman phenomenon...

The Sinister Side of the Slenderman

Very disturbing...

At Mysterious Universe, Jason Offutt digs into a tragic and sinister saga involving the Slenderman phenomenon...