Tag: Kepas

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Christopher Schorerum Dragon Sighting in 1619

The “dragon” sighting in Switzerland, by Christopher Schorerum, may be related to modern sightings of certain flying lights. I mentioned this in the second edition of Live Pterosaurs in America:

Woetzel’s paper includes an account . . . the eyewitness was Christopher Schorerum:
“On a warm summer night in 1619 . . . I saw a shining dragon of great size in front of Mt. Pilatus [Switzerland] . . . [flying] rapidly . . . with a long tail, a long neck, a reptile’s head . . . [the creature] scatters sparks.”

Of course nobody has a scientific test to verify that Christopher Schorerum saw a large flying creature that was glowing over central Switzerland. But we do have eyewitnesses in modern times, many ordinary persons from various countries, of various cultures, believing in various religious traditions, and speaking various languages. The descriptions they have given me, however, descriptions of flying creatures that Western traditional teachings proclaim are long extinct—those are not nearly so varied. And some of the descriptions of flying lights may be related to what was seen by Christopher Schorerum.

Jacob Kepas, native of Papua New Guinea and a Baptist minister, has helped several America cryptozoologists in exploring on the mainland and on Umboi Island; they interviewed many eyewitnesses of apparent pterosaurs. When he was about twelve years old, he himself saw a seklo-bali, as it flew overhead one night, in his village on the mainland of Papua New Guinea, near Wau. In a videotaped interview in the city of Lae, late in 2004, he described to Garth Guessman and Mary Blume the sparkles that fell from the flying creature as it flew over Jacob’s village. It may have been similar to the falling “sparkles” that Christopher Schorerum had seen three centuries earlier.

Many oceanic organisms use bioluminescence, and a few non-equatic organisms do as well; mechanisms may differ, but the result is organically-produced light. Perhaps the falling particles observed by Schorerum and Kepas (and others) relate to a different mechanism of bioluminescence in pterosaurs: perhaps a secretion or secretions that produce glowing in the surface of the creatures’ bodies but which sometimes drop off of their bodies during flight.

Real Dragons

Set aside the word “dragon,” . . . as we consider the fiery flying serpent of the Old Testament. A common explanation includes a ”burning” wound from a venomous bite and a ”snake.” But what does the record actually say about “fiery serpent?” Those animals bit many of the Israelites and many died from those bites. What scripture makes a direct reference to any detail about any bite or detail about those bites in general? I have never seen any such scripture. “Fiery” is used for the animal, not for the bite on a victim. Why should anyone object to the suggestion that bioluminescence was involved, with small long-tailed winged creatures that glowed while they flew at night? Many accounts suggest bioluminescent Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaurs still live, albeit nocturnally, in a number of areas in this modern world.

Schorerum does not stand alone, in his sighting of a glowing dragon, for many eyewitnesses support his declaration. Whether called “dragon,” “pterosaur,” “flying dinosaur,” or “pterodactyl,” these long-assumed-long-extinct flying creatures still live among us, even if they are mostly active only at night.

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From Chapter Two of the third edition of the cryptozoology book Live Pterosaurs in America:

When I returned from Papua New Guinea, in 2004, I knew almost nothing about reports of apparent pterosaurs, or “dragons,” in California. I . . . assumed they live [in the western Pacific] because of the vast tropical wildernesses, providing them warmth, food, and seclusion. I also assumed that the few reports that I had read [“pterodactyls”] were of a few stragglers from Central America. But after publishing many web pages about living pterosaurs in Papua New Guinea, I received emails and phone calls from eyewitnesses: sightings in California, Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland-Virginia border, Pennsylvania, New York, Rhode Island, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Kansas, and Washington State. I became a believer in American pterosaurs.

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Jacob Kepas, minister, explorer, and living-pterosaur eyewitness

Jacob Kepas of Papua New Guinea, Baptist minister, explorer, and cryptozoologistLate in 2006, Pastor Jacob Kepas (a Baptist minister) was interviewed by Paul Nation, in a hut in Tawa Village, deep in the mountainous interior of the mainland of Papua New Guinea. Kepas had recently climbed up a hill adjacent to a cliff where some of the nocturnal flying creatures sleep during the day. He was accompanied by a local villager who confirmed that what was on that cliff was indeed an indava, the creature that glows at night.

During the videotaped interview, Kepas and his guide described how they had observed the sleeping winged creature. They had tried to videotape it from the hill they had climbed, but the resulting footage was poor, perhaps from a combination of inexperience of the camera operators and the distance involved (Kepas was observing it through binoculars). But even with binoculars, Kepas had been uncertain that it was the creature that they sought until his guide climbed up higher for a better view, confirming that it was an indava.

But that was not the first time that Kepas had observed a strange flying creature. When he was a boy, in another area of the mainland of Papua New Guinea, he had seen a seklo-bali as the glowing creature had flown overhead. Researchers believe that the seklo-bali, ropen, and indava may be closely related or even the same species of bioluminescent flying creature, apparently living pterosaurs.

Regarding the objectiveness of Kepas, in his 2006 sighting of what was identified as an indava, consider this: Kepas himself voiced his uncertainty that what he was observing was the creature that they had sought; the distance and viewing angle made identification difficult. After the other man had climbed higher, obtaining a better viewing angle, it was confirmed to be an indava. This confirms that Kepas is capable of objectiveness in his observations, for he did not force a conclusion when the conditions were inadequate for certainty.

In this 2006 expedition, Nation and Kepas were flown into the remote mountainous area by missionary pilot Jim Blume, who has been a great help, for many years, in living-pterosaur investigations.

See also “Fight With a Kor in Northern Papua New Guinea”

This Baptist minister has worked with the Baptist missionary James Blume, in assisting American ropen searchers and in helping the living-pterosaur investigations in general.