; Phantoms and Monsters: Pulse of the Paranormal

Thursday, January 03, 2013

Reader Inquiry: Vietnamese Flying Woman

A reader inquired about the Vietnamese Flying Woman that was reported by a U.S. serviceman during the Vietnam War. The only reference that I was aware of is from John Keel's The Mothman Prophecies:

The case was investigated by Don Worley, an experienced student of the unknown, who interviewed the witness in depth.

“He is a reliable observer,” Worley notes, “and he swears that this event is well beyond the capacity of his imagination.“

Earl Morrison, the witness, was serving as a private, first class in the marine corps in Vietnam in the summer of 1969.

He and two buddies were sitting on top of a bunker near Da Nang on a warm summer evening.

“All of a sudden—I don’t know why—we all three looked out there in the sky and we saw this figure coming toward us. It had a kind of glow and we couldn’t make out what it was at first. It started coming toward us, real slowly. All of a sudden we saw what looked like wings, like a bat’s, only it was gigantic compared to what a regular bat would be. After it got close enough so we could see what it was, it looked like a woman. A naked woman. She was black. Her skin was black, her body was black, the wings were black, everything was black. But it glowed. It glowed in the night—kind of a greenish cast to it.

“There was a glow on her and around her. Everything glowed. Looked like she glowed and threw off a radiance. We saw her arms toward the wings and they looked like regular molded arms, each with a hand, and, fingers and everything, but they had skin from the wings going over them. And when she flapped her wings, there was no noise at first. It looked like her arms didn’t have any bones in them, because they were limber just like a bat.

“She started going over us, and we still didn’t hear anything. She was right above us, and when she got over the top of our heads she was maybe six or seven feet up.

“We couldn’t do anything. We didn’t know what to do. We just froze. We just watched what was going over because we couldn’t believe our eyes. … So we watched her go straight over the top of us, and still she didn’t make any noise flapping her wings. She blotted out the moon once—that’s how close she was to us … As we watched her—she got about ten feet or so away from us—we started hearing her wings flap. And it sounded, you know, like regular wings flapping. And she just started flying off and we watched her for quite a while. The total time when we first saw her and could almost define her until we lost sight of her and were unable to define her was between three or four minutes.” - The Mothman Prophecies

There has been a tradition of flying woman spirits / cryptids throughout Southeast Asia. The Krasue is said to be an attractive female flying, entrail-eating, disembodied head. By day, it looks human, but at night it separates its head from its body and hunts for blood, flesh, fecal matter, placentas, and baby fetuses.

There are various names that this entity is identified by including Leyak [pronounced ‘leak’] (Indonesia), Penanggalan (Malaysia), Ap or Arb (Cambodia) and Phi-Kasu or Kasu (Laos).

Some people believe that the Krasue came from a rich female who was possessed by an evil spirit which turned her into this ghost. Others believe that it is a demon that has possessed a female because she followed black magic. In Lao black magic, there are certain rules you have to follow. If you break them, turning into a Krasue is unfortunately one of the consequences.

People in the countryside dress their doorways and windows with thorny vines to protect themselves from this entity. The Krasue is afraid of the thorny vines because she doesn't like getting her entrails stuck in them. For a Krasue to transform a person into one, the Krasue must trick you into ingesting her saliva or flesh. The Krasue would usually either trick you into drinking a glass that has her saliva on it or trick you into eating food that has her flesh mixed into it. - pseudoparanormal.com

NOTE: I'd be interested in reports of related or other cryptids / unexplained phenomena. Feel free to forward to lonstrickler@phantomsandmonsters.com. Thanks...Lon

Mothman and Other Curious Encounters

Passport to Magonia: On UFOs, Folklore, and Parallel Worlds

Unexplained!: Strange Sightings, Incredible Occurrences, and Puzzling Physical Phenomena