The Hellier Effect: Exploring High Strangeness and The Nature Of Synchronicities (Opinion)
For those who have heard the old saying, “Truth is stranger than fiction”, you will be questioning what is true and what is fiction the second you watch the acclaimed documentary series Hellier.
For those who haven’t seen this series yet, Hellier follows a group of paranormal investigators who go in search of unexplained encounters with creatures the media have dubbed “goblins”. After a bizarre chain of emails from a man from Hellier, Kentucky makes claims of alien creatures who have been terrorizing his family lead investigators Greg and Dana Newkirk to begin investigating the claims made in the initial emails, the story takes a strange turn when the emails suddenly stop coming, and the man responsible disappears.
From there, the team goes down the rabbit hole as the team began to investigate UFO sightings, strange creatures, a connection to the infamous Mothman case and a mystery man who identified himself as “Terry R. Wriste”. The series has had two seasons thus far, and the mystery has only gotten deeper and deeper as the team searches for the meaning behind “the phenomena”.
What the series boils down to is the concepts of high strangeness, synchronicities and perhaps more importantly, how we as individuals view the world. For many such as myself who have already watched the second season of the series, the concept of synchronicities is more relevant now than ever before.
Synchronicities were introduced as a concept by analytical psychologist Carl Jung, who described it as meaningful coincidences that occur with no causal relationship to one another yet seem to be meaningfully related at the same time.
A real-life example of this can be found everywhere, but for this article, I’ll stick to my own experiences. After viewing the show’s second season, I had been doing some online shopping for the holidays and found a shop that made merchandise related to the Mothman case. As a fan of the case, knowing its history with the show Hellier and with a family member being a fan of the case as well, I decided to order a gift from this shop.
To my surprise, not only was the shop located in Morgantown, WV, a town I’d just the previous day got a spam call from, but the package that arrived with the gift had the number 31 written in black marker on it. This is something fans of Hellier will recognize as the same number written on an important document/clue the team received during the investigation. It is also tied to Liber Thirty-One, a book annotated and worked on by Hellier’s person of interest Allen Greenfield.
This is one of several synchronicities that have come about for me and my family after watching the series. Whether or not they are just coincidences or true synchronicities is a matter of perspective, which is why it’s fun yet not necessarily a piece of “evidence” one would consider in any investigation.
What makes the series stand out for many is the detailed investigation the team takes into the phenomena and the original claims overall. A series like this typically sparks creative devices like some chase scene by an unseen force or claims of demons or monsters lurking in the shadows or some other sinister claims. However, this series is refreshing in it’s a direct and honest approach to the case, never holding back when a lead doesn’t pan out or when the questions begin stacking up while the answers are few and far between.
It is this approach to the paranormal and supernatural that has inspired so many to take up the case themselves, or at least apply the methods and idea of high strangeness and synchronicities to other mysteries that remain unsolved or even unlooked at. For instance in an area not far from me in Southern California lays an area around the Mojave Desert known as the “High Desert”, consisting of towns like Victorville, Hesperia, and Apple Valley to name a few.
One thing that could be another synchronicity between the Hellier case and what the High Desert has going for it is the unusual rate of disappearances in both areas. The team noted in season two a large number of missing people or unusual deaths in the areas these instances of high strangeness occurred. The same seems to be true of the High Desert, where every couple of years a series of disappearances will occur one right after the other, only for the disappearances to remain unsolved.
The sad reality is these cases remain unsolved for most people. Others find their loved ones have passed on, only for the mystery of how and why to remain just that, a mystery. For the sake of the families and privacy, I won’t name anyone in particular, but anyone interested could research the area and find several cases like this are still unsolved.
Now am I saying these disappearances are a direct result of the supernatural or some UFO case, or even tied directly to the case of Hellier? Of course not. However, what Hellier has done has been to allow me and others who have their mysteries they wish to solve to look at the problem from a new perspective. To witness the team tackle the Hellier case with the amount of research, dedication, and passion that they did only inspires me to do the same. Whether the cases are unrelated or perhaps some strange instances of the paranormal or even human intervention are involved, either way, the team has changed the game for investigative teams everywhere.
This is the nature of synchronicities and the high strangeness in general. Whether directly related or not, the lens for which we view the world is what defines our search for the unexplained as a whole. Even details like the importance of caves in Hellier and the fact an abandoned mine sits not far from the location of one of the few missing people’s remains having been found in the High Desert showcase how the Hellier team has changed the standard for documentary filmmaking, paranormal investigations and the pursuit of the truth overall.
As time goes on and new mysteries begin to unfold, the story of Hellier will always stand out as unique. It’s the ability to connect others to the larger phenomena, the case’s nature of giving others a new lens to view other mysteries with, and finally, the pursuit to reignite humanity’s curiosity for the greater universe as a whole that makes Hellier a must-watch documentary to view. You can use the links down below to learn more about the series and to watch the show as well. Before long, you won’t be able to help to ask yourself and others, “Who the hell is Terry Wriste?”
