Black Eyed Children: Revised 2nd Edition

You are coming home after along days work and you are about to leave your car to go into your house. You look through your window and you see two children standing there. Definitely something strange about those kids. They are wearing goodies or mismatched old clothes, and for kids aged 10 to 12 they sure do give you the heebie jeebies. You ask them some questions and they don't respond. Let us in they say. They keep on insisting. These kids are making you super uncomfortable. It is like part of your mind wants to lock your car door and drive away, yet these children have some kind of hypnotic hold on you. Feeling creeped out you look at them a little closer. Long arms that hang down to their sides, their skin is pale and maybe even pasty, but most of all it is their eyes. Their eyes are jet black. Now your freaked out and you scrounge the car for your cellphone so you can call for help. As you begin to dial you notice something else, they have disappeared into thin air.Stories like this are becoming more common place, more people are seeing these black eyed children. Brian Bethel a journalist was the first to write about his story in the 1990s. Since then the reported sighting of Black Eyed Children have skyrocketed. Encounters with these children leaves on traumatized. Bad dreams, paranoia and overall discomfort are left in their wake. Sometimes even bad luck follows. These kids have left behind and awful bad smell. People who have encountered them feel an evil presence like something predatorial. Yet they must ask your permission to come inside and they will not get to break in and attack you. Who or what are these kids?Speculation runs the gamut from the extraterrestrial hybrids meant to take over the planet all the way down to being men in black, hungry ghosts from Japan and China to even being vampires. These children could be offshoots of other creatures like fairies, succubi, djinn, the angel of death and demons.David Weatherly has done a bang em up job of researching this urban legend. He has collected stories of various encounters and he has researched modern and past connections to this phenomenon. You may not be entirely convinced but always check your doors before leaving.

I found the book to be both interesting and creepy. However, it was a bit repetitive with the author pretty much wasting page space saying the same thing over and over again. Plus it already was a very short book. Dont get me wrong, it is a creepy, interesting read. And I could not read it at night. I would have given it 5 stars if it had been less repetitive on the author's blathers and contained more stories. Also there were some discrepencies- for example the author states that most encounters with the BEKs happen to people in high security or govt jobs, yet not one story in his book involved such a person. Little things like that. Nonetheless, a creepy little read that left me paranoid for days. LOL.

Author David Weatherly explores the rather new phenomena of Black Eyed Kids which are normal looking humans with the exception of their eyes being pitch black. The first story can be traced to an internet forum around 1998 by a man named Brian Bethel. Was he writing fiction or did it really happen to him?The author then gives us many accounts of such beings and they are creepy to read. The set up is basically the same: A group of children from the ages of ten to fourteen approach a person or knock on the door. They ask to come inside and use the phone, bathroom or in some cases to watch television. The person who looks at their eyes feels a sense of dread and says no. We do get some accounts of what happens if someone says yes and bad things happen.Many of the accounts are from the internet and others are people who the author interviews or even knows. They are people from all walks of life and all professions. They remember these encounters quite vividly and most of the incidents are a bit creepy.This all seems fine and well for the most part however many of us want evidence of these encounters. There are photographs of these entities all over the place but most have been photoshopped or are from movies. Many skeptics believe the stories are caused by youngsters pulling pranks on people or are entirely made up. It is hard to tell these days what to believe.The author does discuss the possibilities of the incidents being pranks. He also states to have found an incident which happened in the 1950s. The problem with that story is it is unverifiable it actually happened that long ago. Many may have adapted a local folklore tale to fit the BEK format. If the author found this incident in a book or magazine dated before the internet then he would have something.I enjoyed this book as the author did do his homework and researched all sorts of things that go bump in the night to try and explain this phenomena. I also liked the anecdotes in the book. However, the problem is trying to convince the readers this is real. We only have anecdotal evidence so far. (People would dismiss videos and photos as being touched up or being pranks.)If anecdotal evidence is what we must go on then we must judge those who are relating to us the incidents. Most of them appear to be of sound mind and come from good professions which rely on keen observation. There are also incidents involving more than one witness which can help a case. Some people claim memory can play tricks but I do believe a very powerful positive or negative experience is one that is not forgotten. Therefore, I do think there is something to these incidents. I cannot discount all the eyewitness accounts to the author himself.If one is a skeptic that is fine. This book is good as a scary read. If one believes in this then this book will be good to have on the shelf. If one is on the fence, this book may not be enough to convince them.There are many explanations given as to what these entities may be by the author. I do think it is a mixture of them myself. There was a classified program many refer to as Project Montauk. The name may not be real but one can find many programs done to young people by our government. Maybe there is a modern version of that program that is dealing with things best left alone. Maybe they are using institutionalized, homeless and/or orphan children for these programs. Does it sound far fetched? Remember when the government acknowledged they fed mildly retarded children food tainted by radiation without anyone's consent? Look it up. Then come back to me and say this can't happen.

Black eyed children, or "BEK" -- black eyed kids. This has to be the oddest phenomenon in the whole category of "paranormal" experiences" reported in modern times.There hasn't been a lot published on the subject and of what there is, this book seems to be the most comprehensive report and analysis.It's well-written and interesting. It alternates narrative accounts with analysis of the phenomenon. It can easily be read in a day. I found it very interesting.

Fascinating, documented stories of people's experience with the strange phenomenon of Black eyed kids suddenly appearing asking -then insisting to "come in" -- your house or car- saying "This won't take long..." - creepy, unreal looking with solid black eyes -- and they vanish just as quickly as they appeared...Personally I believe it's demons.....

This is a really enjoyable read. Wetherlys writing style makes it very interesting and very readable.

This book is wonderfully written. The subject matter is a fairly recent phenomenon that is quite terrifying. I will no longer answer my door when I hear knocking...

This book provides an interesting compilation of witness accounts regarding what are known as ‘black-eyed children’ or ‘black-eyed kids’ (BEKs). A typical encounter might proceed as follows:Shortly after arriving home from work, you hear a steady knocking on your front door. You wonder why the caller hasn’t rung the bell. When you open the door, you see two children, who look about 12-14 years old. They want you to invite them in. But you’ve never seen them before, and something about them doesn’t seem right. The one acting as their spokesman repeats the request for you to invite them in, but doesn’t respond to questions from you seeking more information. Then, they look up, and you notice that their eyes are completely black. Shocked, you close the door on them. For a while, you hear further knocking on your front door. Badly shaken, you fear that you may encounter these sinister-looking BEKs again. (In fact, though, it seems that, for most witnesses, BEK encounters are one-off incidents.)There’s a commonality about many of the tales that David Weatherly cites. Of course, in part, that may be because he’s selected cases with similar characteristics. But certain features appear to be part of the BEK phenomenon or occur frequently in these cases. ‘It seems’, he notes, ‘that under any conditions, these beings need to receive an invitation to come in before they can do so’ (p. 149). Arguably, that’s reassuring, because it means that, unlike some other paranormal entities (‘alien greys’, ghosts, incubi, etc.), BEKs won’t show up, uninvited, WITHIN people’s homes!Although it’s not an invariable feature, witnesses may notice a foul smell just after BEK encounters, in the spot where the entity or entities were.Sceptics have suggested that BEKs are an ‘urban myth’ that originated in 1998, when a journalist called Brian Bethel posted on the Internet a report of an encounter that he’d allegedly had with two BEKs in Abilene, Texas, in or around 1996. However, it seems that the phenomenon predates 1996. One of the cases that Weatherly discusses concerns a man he refers to as ‘Harold’. It dates back to around 1950. Harold was dead by the time the case came to Weatherly’s attention, but Weatherly was able to speak to several of Harold’s relatives (pp. 43-47).Although the BEK phenomenon has a degree of consistency and coherence, there are overlaps with other types of anomalous phenomena (such as encounters with ‘Men in Black’). Weatherly discusses these, and considers various theories about the BEK phenomenon. These range from the sceptical (e.g. the idea that incidents may have involved hoaxers wearing black contact lenses) to paranormal notions (e.g. that BEKs may be tulpas – materializations created by the mind).I spotted some grammatical and punctuation errors in the book, but the text is generally very readable. I think the structure of the book could have been better. For example, I noticed some headings that should have been subheadings. Regarding the witnesses cited, there’s a high degree of anonymization – in most cases, only first names are given. (If witnesses are prepared to go on the record, under their own names, their testimony will carry more weight.) The book has no index, and there are no photographs in the main part of it. However, the case material is very interesting.

Loved this book, it was very well written and thoroughly researched. David has lots of first-hand accounts of visits from the BEK. He also looks at various theories into what they may or may not be which I liked. The only issue I have is the blank pages throughout the book over 40 of them, between chapters at one point there was a totally blank page at the end of a chapter the next page had 'Part two" another blank page then text. I don't know if this was to pad the book out or what. In an age of depleting natural resources, I thought the number of blank pages excessive. The Book did not need filling out it was full of loads of information and clear a lot of work had gone into writing it. This was only a slight niggle and not enough for me not to give it 5 stars. Well worth buying.

The Author has done his research well. A must get.

Great