119: Indrid Cold, the Truth about Planet Lanulos and the Mystery of the Smiling Man
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Hey, it's your buddy AJ from the Y-Files. And Hecklefish. Right, and Hecklefish. We just wanted to tell you that if you want to start a podcast, Spotify makes it easy. It'd have to be easy for humans to understand it. Will you stop that? I'm just saying. Spotify for Podcasters lets you record and edit podcasts from your computer. I don't have a computer. Do you have a phone? Of course I have a phone. I'm not a savage. Well, with Spotify, you can record podcasts from your phone, too.

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you to hurry up with this stupid commercial. I got a packed calendar today. I'm sorry about him. Anyway, check out Spotify for Podcasters. It's free, no catch, and you can start today. Are we done? We're done, but you need to check your attitude. Excuse me, but I don't have all day to sit here and talk about Spotify. Look, this would go a lot faster if you would just let me get through it without...

On November 2nd, 1966, Woody Derenberger was driving home from a business trip when he encountered an extraterrestrial being named Ingrid Cold. Cold communicated with Woody telepathically, and the two went on to be lifelong friends. Other people close to Woody, including family, friends, and even his therapist, claimed that they too had experiences with Ingrid Cold.

Woody wrote and published a detailed account of his experiences and never went back on his story. And since the 1960s, the legend of Inred Cold has become one of the most famous in all of UFO lore. And take it at face value, the story sounds strange. But the real story, it's much stranger.

Woodrow Wilson Derenberger, who went by Woody, was from Mineral Wells, West Virginia. And he was an ordinary Appalachian man in the 1960s. He worked as a salesman for a sewing machine company. In early November 1966, Woody was returning from a business trip

when his life changed forever. Around 7:30 p.m. on Route 77 in Parkersburg, West Virginia, Woody heard a crashing sound behind him. He looked in his mirror and saw a brightly lit vehicle charging behind him at great speed. Woody thought it was a car until the vehicle flew over his van and stopped in the road in front of him. Woody hit the brakes and the object hovered in front of him a few feet off the ground. Woody was paralyzed, terrified.

He had never seen an object like this. He described it as looking like an old-fashioned kerosene lamp sitting on its side, a tube with a bulge in the middle. It was dark gray like charcoal, and the craft made a deep humming sound that reminded Woody of a helicopter. Then Woody started to panic. A door on the side of the craft opened and out walked...

A man. Just an ordinary looking man, maybe about 40 years old. Average height, average build, and dressed in dark colors. As soon as the man stepped out of the craft, the door closed and the object shot straight up into the air. The man walked directly to Woody's van and came right up to the passenger side window. The man looked completely average, though he had a tan and dark, slick back hair. He was smiling amiably and then gestured to Woody to roll down the window, which he did.

The man said, "Why are you frightened? We mean you no harm." Woody heard the words and understood them, but the man's mouth didn't move. He just kept on smiling like this. The man asked Woody his name and said he's called Cold, and he was a searcher from the planet Lanulos. Then Mr. Cold asked Woody some mundane questions about the town they were in, what kind of work Woody did, and basic small talk. And after a few minutes of friendly conversation, Mr. Cold said telepathically that he had to be going.

The craft then came down nearby and the door opened. As Mr. Cold climbed back aboard the ship, he turned back and said telepathically, "It's been nice talking to you, Mr. Derenberger. We'll be seeing you soon." The door closed, then the ship shot into the air and out of sight.

Woody Derenberger was in shock for a few minutes, but soon he was able to compose himself. He went home and told his wife what happened. He then went to the police. But Woody didn't have to wait very long for Mr. Cold to keep his promise. Because the very next day, Mr. Cold was back.

what woody darrenberger didn't realize at the time was he wasn't the first to see the strange visitor he was seen a few weeks earlier on october 11th in elizabeth new jersey about an eight hour drive from that west virginia highway at about 10 pm a ufo had been reported in the area the first eyewitnesses to this event

were a police officer and his wife. They described the object as a blazing white light as big as a car. It almost crashed into a television tower, then slowly disappeared behind some hills nearby. The UFO was then seen on the opposite side of the hills. This time, the witnesses were two police officers on patrol. It was so bright, it almost blinded them.

The light was brilliantly white. It lit up the whole area for about 300 yards. In fact, it blinded me when I got out of the patrol car to look at it, and I couldn't see for about 20 minutes afterwards.

That same night, a woman in the next town over saw a flash in the sky. Then a cylinder-shaped craft landed in the lot where her car was parked. The ship opened and two ordinary-looking men came out. They asked her strange questions in a weird dialect, then they got back in the ship and flew away. At about 10:30, again on that same night, two teenage boys were on their way to play pinball. They were crossing underneath the New Jersey Turnpike,

when they saw the strangest man they'd ever seen. He was standing directly across the street behind a fence. They thought maybe his car had broken down, but he was in a place no one could get to. Accessing the spot would have required crossing a very busy highway and then climbing a steep 30-foot embankment. It would be crazy to try. The boys said this was the biggest man they'd ever seen, almost seven feet tall and broad. He was wearing green coveralls that glittered.

He was originally facing away from them, but then he slowly turned around. He had beady, wide-set eyes and a giant, unnatural grin. The boys bolted.

At first, they didn't tell anyone about this experience, but then they heard about the encounter in the parking lot that same night and figured they'd better report it. A week later, the boys were interviewed by John Keel, a writer from New York City. John had been drawn to the area by this rash of UFO sightings all happening around the same time. After interviewing the teenagers separately as well as together, John Keel believed they were telling the truth.

Keel would name this entity the Grinning Man and write about him in his book Strange Creatures from Time and Space. A few weeks later, John read about Woody Derenberger's encounter in the newspapers and saw he had given an interview on television. Woody seemed to be describing the same entity seen in this area of New Jersey. And now the entity had a name. He's called Cold.

To viewers of the Y-Files, John Keel is a familiar name. Keel was an investigator and author most well known for his theories about ultra-terrestrials, specifically the Mothman. If you didn't see that episode, it's linked below, but here's a quick recap. The Mothman is a large winged creature with red eyes that's been spotted all over the world. But the first sightings were in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, beginning on November 15th, 1966.

That's three days after Woody's first encounter with Mr. Cold and just an hour's drive away. Kiel was in town investigating Mothman sightings, as well as all kinds of other paranormal events happening in the area. One of those events happened at the home of James Lilly and his family.

The Lillies had been reporting strange noises and poltergeist activity. They thought maybe their house had become haunted. Doors and cabinets would slam in the middle of the night. There was the sound of a distant baby crying. And every night about 5:00 PM, the phone would ring.

And when they answered, they would hear what they described as a bizarre metallic voice speaking in an incomprehensible language. They reported the calls to the phone company, but there was no explanation. They'd also been seeing unusual lights above their house almost every single night. We've seen all kinds of strange things. Blue lights, green ones, red ones, things that change color. Some have been so low that we thought we could see diamond-shaped windows in them. And none of them make any noise at all.

But the most terrifying incident happened to the Lily's daughter, Linda, who is 16 years old. One night, Linda heard a noise in her room that woke her up. She opened her eyes and there was a man leering down at her. It was a man, a big man, very broad. I couldn't see his face very well, but I could see that he was grinning at me. He walked around the bed and stood right over me. I screamed again and hid under the covers. When I looked again, he was gone.

Whether the grinning man was Inred Cold is hard to say, but the events all happened during the same week. The night of Woody's first encounter, two construction workers were driving south from Marietta, Ohio, heading to their homes near Point Pleasant, West Virginia. Then a strange flying object appeared over the highway and settled in front of their car.

A man in shiny coveralls stepped from the object, walked over and engaged the men in a seemingly pointless conversation. He wanted to know where they were from, what they did for work, and where they were going. He didn't offer any information about himself, and the men were too frightened to ask questions. After a few minutes, the stranger returned to the object, and it floated quietly into the night sky.

The two men decided to keep their mouths shut because they didn't think anyone would believe the story. They only came forward after Woody went public with his story. One family saw the ship right after it stopped Woody Derenberger. They watched the object for about five minutes until it flew out of sight.

And later, a young man driving on the same stretch of road reported the object hovering over his car and blasting him with extremely bright light. He reported this to the police. The day after Woody's and these other encounters with cold, a TV producer came to the store where Woody worked and asked him to go on television that afternoon, which he did. Whether or not you believe in unidentified flying objects or not is not the point.

Whether you believe in what you hear or see on this program is not the point. We are here to talk to a man that allegedly did make contact with such an object within the Parkersburg area last evening. Mr. Doenberger, in your own words, would you please relate what happened last night? And this man stood there and he first asked me what I was called. And I knew he meant my name and I told him my name.

And he asked me, he said, why are you frightened? He said, don't be frightened. We wish you no harm. He said, we mean you no harm. We wish you only happiness. I told him my name. And when I told him my name, he said he was called cold. Woody was peppered with questions for half an hour, but he remained calm, consistent and believable. Did he ask you what you did for a living, where you were? He asked me if I worked for a living.

And I told him that I was a salesman. And he told me that he was a searcher. A searcher? A searcher. But he didn't tell you what he was searching for? No, he didn't. But two or three times he did tell me. He said, Mr. Dernberger, look at me. And he said, do not be frightened. Look at me. I was very nervous. I was very upset after this happened. Do you believe in flying saucers?

I have never have believed in frying saucers before. I honestly never did believe in it. Do you believe in them now? I believe in what I seen last night. I believe it was, I don't believe it was a saucer, but I believe it was an alien, some kind of an aircraft or spacecraft or something.

While driving home that evening, Cole reached out to Woody telepathically. He told Woody his name was Indrid, and he went on to mention a few details about his planet Lanulus. Lanulus was a lot like Earth. Similar water, air, similar plants and animals. Indrid Cold was part of a crew of searchers

sent to learn more about the people of Earth. Their brief conversation ended and Woody finally got home. Woody was surprised to see a crowd of people had gathered on his porch, all very excited to ask him questions about his encounter. And Woody's phone was ringing off the hook. Everyone wanted to speak to him, researchers, journalists, and other people who had similar experiences.

The story became an instant sensation and was picked up by media all over the country. Every day, dozens of people would appear on Woody's property at all hours of the day and night. Many would ring the doorbell and ask Woody to tell the story again. Some people just lurked through his backyard watching the skies. And this went on for months. All the attention put a strain on the Derenberger family. Woody's children were harassed at school. People in town called him a liar or crazy or both.

Finally, Woody's wife took the children and moved to Cleveland. The Therenbergers would divorce soon after that. Then one evening, Woody came home from work late. The usual crowd had gone. Woody parked by the side of his house, and as soon as he opened the door of his truck, he heard a voice say, "Don't be frightened, Woody. It's Indrid, and this is my friend Carl." Indrid Cole was back, and he brought company.

When Woody Derenberger arrived home from work late that evening, he found Inred Cole waiting for him, and Inred had brought his friend Carl. Despite the late hour and cold weather, Woody Derenberger sat on the porch with his visitors for two hours. They discussed life on their home planet Lanulus, which is in a distant galaxy called Ganymede. Lanulus, as described by Inred and Carl, is a world of profound peace, unity, and compassion. The concept of conflict and hatred is unknown to them, and from childhood, Lanulotians, as they're called,

are taught to think of all beings as family. - These alien planets are always these peaceful hippie colonies where everybody gets along. - Yeah, that does happen a lot. - I guess aliens don't use Twitter. - On Lanulos, they believe in a single universal God, the creator of all worlds and life. Discrimination has no place in the universe,

where all are equal children of this one God. Each Lanulosian shares the collective purpose to serve the community and help each other. The inhabitants of Lanulos are technologically enlightened. Their understanding of gravity and space manipulation has been perfected through centuries of dedicated research.

And mental telepathy is a skill all annulotions learn early. They believe that if people of Earth could learn telepathy, there would be worldwide peace. Telepathy discourages dishonesty and allows everyone to understand how a person really feels. That's a terrible idea. Oh yeah, you don't want people to know your thoughts? Are you kidding? They'd throw me in jail! Your thoughts are that bad? Oh, you couldn't handle these thoughts, Cupcake. Not for a second. I'd haunt your dreams.

The ability to communicate telepathically, according to legend, came into being when a group of Earth explorers crash-landed on Lanulos many, many years ago. Their loneliness and longing for companionship sparked the latent telepathic abilities that all humans have.

This meeting was the first of many Woody would have with Ingrid Cold and others from Lanulos. And these meetings are detailed in the book Visitors from Lanulos that Woody Derenberger released in 1971. One evening after a long conversation, Woody was invited to see the inside of the ship. It contained technology Woody didn't understand, like doors that can open and close on their own. There were panels on the walls with cryptic writing made of blue light. And in the book, it

it sounds like he's describing flat panel displays, though he couldn't understand what the symbols were. Woody was fascinated with the machine, how it worked, how it flew. So, Indrid asked him if he wanted to go for a ride, and there was no way Woody would refuse. Indrid Cold said, "Name a place and we'll go there." And Woody doesn't know why, but the first thing he thought of was the Amazon jungle.

The door closed with a hiss and then there was a gentle vibration. And in a few seconds, windows on the side of the craft slowly opened. But Woody didn't feel them take off or fly. They were now over the jungle. He looked down and saw treetops and villages and people walking around. Woody was ecstatic. So Ingrid Cold asked him, "Do you want to see our planet?" Woody smiled and nodded. The windows closed, the ship vibrated, and within moments, they were on their way to another world.

During the journey, Ingrid Cold introduced Woody Derenberger to the rest of the people on board. Woody had already met Carl Ardo, who he learned was second in command. He met crew members Tani and Darrow. Ingrid's wife, Kimmy, was also on board. Eh, rookie mistake. Never take the wife on a business trip.

When the ship was within 600 miles of the moon, it docked with a larger vessel. Woody called this the mother ship, but Ingrid called it the flagship. The flagship was bigger than anything Woody could imagine flying. It was eight or nine stories high and at least 300 feet long. The flagship got within 50 feet of the surface of the moon where other ships were parked.

The windows closed and in a few seconds, opened again. Now they were above Saturn. Woody didn't see signs of life, but he was told there was agriculture on the planet. The windows again closed and they were off to Lanulos. Because of their ability to bend space and time, Indrid Cold's people could travel almost anywhere very quickly. The trip to Lanulos took about 30 minutes. When they arrived, Woody, Indrid and the crew returned to their craft and disconnected from the flagship.

As the smallest ship zipped over the planet, Woody could see many cities that Inred called gatherings. There were huge fields and forests. He saw rivers and streams, and there were hundreds of people walking around the gatherings. There were vehicles on roads and highways, but Woody saw they didn't have wheels. They hovered about a foot off the ground. Soon the craft landed, and Woody was taken to Inred Cold's home. Woody was awestruck by the house that was made of brick and glass.

There were modern devices in the house, like an automated kitchen and laundry, and everything ran on nuclear power. Next, Indra took Woody to a nearby city called Number 27 Gathering. There were hundreds of people moving from building to building, but they used moving sidewalks. There were shops lining the streets, not unlike stores on Earth, including what Woody described as "large department stores." Everything was very Earth-like, except for one very big difference.

Everyone was naked. What? Well, annulotions believed in being seen exactly as God intended. They get freaky on this planet. I love it! Chicka-dow, chicka-dow-dow, chicka-chicka-dicka-dow-dow. So they never wore clothes, except when dancing or during cold weather. Two very logical times to put on clothes. It is. Shrinkage. I got it. So to better blend in with the people, Woody disrobed. Get it, boy. Let it all hang out.

Woody only felt slightly self-conscious. He was a little overweight, and everyone he saw was in very good shape. Andrew told him that they are physically human, but because of their healthy and peaceful lifestyle, they typically live 125 to 175 years. From childhood, they learn to control the volume of food they eat and eat very healthy. All the food is grown organically with no chemicals of any kind. They don't eat chocolate, pork, or bleached flour. They do eat lean beef but prefer seafood, but

But their diet is mostly fruits and vegetables. Now, coffee is very popular on the planet, but only decaf. You know,

Yeah, you don't want to give those up. I don't know, Woody didn't mention it. He wasn't a drinker. The society is very focused upon happiness and understanding. Children remain in school until they're 28 years old. Pretty much. After school, they're allowed to choose whatever job they want.

If they want to change jobs, they can do that at any time. Woody said that the thing that impressed him the most was their monetary system. People were paid not according to their skill or talent, but according to the size of their family and general needs. From each according to his ability, to each according to his need. That's exactly right. That's Marxism! Yeah, well I guess it works on their planet. It sure doesn't work on this one. Lanulos was a paradise.

But Lanulos was only one inhabited planet out of many. After Woody returned home, he would come into contact with beings from a different planet. And these beings weren't so friendly. One evening, Woody and his friend Jim had gone to a location known for UFO sightings. They had seen a craft there the night before and wanted to see if it would come back. After a short time, a pink UFO landed on a nearby field and two beings that looked human stepped out.

Woody and Jim began walking toward the beings, but a short distance away, Woody saw the silhouettes of three figures. It was Indrid Cold, Carl Ardo, and another member of the crew named Demo Hassan. Telepathically, Indrid told Woody that these beings were not from Lanulos. Indrid asked Woody to cause a distraction so Indrid and his crew could get behind them. Woody began a fake argument with Jim to draw attention.

Ingrid's crew flanked the other crew and began to confront them. And Woody thought the altercation was going to become violent, but the beings got back in their ship and were escorted away. Ingrid told Woody that these beings were called humanoids and were from a planet in another galaxy. And from a distance they look human, but up close there are some differences. The skin around their eyes is very red and wrinkled, and they don't have hair, but something like small pin feathers like a bird has.

And they aren't necessarily dangerous, but they tend to steal anything they can get their hands on.

including humans. Ingrid Cold said that the aliens who abducted Betty and Barney Hill were this species. A few months after this encounter, there was a standoff between the humanoids and Ingrid's people involving 11 ships. Again, the situation ended peacefully, but the humanoids were escorted to the edge of the galaxy and told to never return. At some point during his time with Ingrid Cold, Woody Derenberger asked the obvious question,

Why him? What did Indrid want with him? Indrid simply wanted Woody to talk to people and share his experience. Indrid wanted the people of Earth to know how his people lived, how they lived without hatred and greed. Indrid wanted Woody to convince people to pressure Washington to tell people the truth about UFOs. So Woody Derenberger did this to the best of his ability. That's the main reason he wrote his book, "Visitors from Lanulos."

Woody did speak to the media whenever he could. He gave lectures. He tried to keep his word to Inred Cold. Woody Derenberger died in the year 2000, 23 years after Inred Cold stopped him on the highway that cold November night. But his daughter, Tanya, picked up the work where her father left off.

She met Ingrid Kold on many occasions, and she also wrote a book called Beyond Lanulos that gives even more details about Ingrid Kold, his family, his crew, and the people of his planet. And sadly, Tanya Derenberger passed away just a few weeks before this episode at the young age of 60.

But Ingrid is still here, presumably looking for someone else to carry his message. And this might be the best time in history to deliver that message. Disclosure is slowly happening, and people are more receptive to the idea of UFOs and aliens than ever before. So if one day you find yourself face to face with a quiet, smiling man, a man that somehow lets you hear his thoughts, don't be afraid. You know exactly who he is. He's called Cold.

The story of Indrid Cold is one of the most enduring stories in all of UFO history. It's an elaborate, detailed, and complicated story.

But is it true? Well, you can't really debunk the story because Woody Derenberger was the only witness. And because of that, we can't prove the story either. But we can look at things that Woody said and wrote and the things his daughter said and wrote and see how much of this adds up. I'll say right up front that most UFO researchers don't believe the story. They believe something happened to Woody on the highway that first night, but the rest, no. Even John Keel, who wrote about the Mothman, the Grinning Man, and Ingrid Cold, didn't believe the story.

But Kiel did write the foreword to Woody's book. In the foreword, he said, whether you believe Woody or not, it doesn't matter. He felt Woody believed he was telling the truth and deserved to be heard. The first clue that the story might not be true is how beings with advanced technology and an advanced culture are colored by the technology and culture of the time when the story is told. Like when you watch old Star Trek episodes from the 60s,

The bridge of the Enterprise looks modern and high-tech, but all the controls have big clunky dials and switches. You see the same thing in Woody's story. Yes, the door of the spacecraft could open and close on its own. Modern doors can do that. But the doors on Indrid Cold's ship had big hinges like you'd find on a car, and the door made a loud thunk when it was shut.

And the ship itself, for some reason, fire shot out of the sides, though Woody never explains why. And the culture of the 1960s, tinged with Woody's own beliefs, makes its way into the story.

For instance, everyone believes in God. The main purpose of all of Ingrid's people was to serve each other and serve God. The one God. Woody's God. Specifically, Jesus Christ. Now, maybe Jesus is the son of God for this planet and every planet. I don't know. But you'd think a planet in a distant galaxy would have a slightly different calendar than we have. But in Lanulos, Christmas is also celebrated on December 25th. So I guess they switched to the Gregorian calendar when we did?

It doesn't track. And by the way, Woody was very religious. He later became a Christian minister. So we shouldn't be surprised at how important God is in his story. Woody's story also reflects the politics of the time. When Indra Gold appeared, America was tearing itself apart dealing with the Vietnam War. The Civil Rights Movement was also causing a lot of conflict.

Indrid's culture implied that there is a solution to these problems. There is a path forward without war and without racial bigotry. It's a good message, but it's a very 1960s message. On Lanulos, women and men are treated equally. That's nice, but for some reason women aren't allowed to fly spaceships. Oh why? 'Cause they can't back into a parking space? That's rude. Women can back into parking spaces. Name one!

Uh-huh. On Lanulos, women seemed to have the same roles as women did here in the 1960s. They mostly stayed home and raised children. Woody loses me with another piece of technology. Henry Colt's people had cameras, but much more advanced than ours. They didn't use film. Okay, modern cameras don't use film. Well, that's true, but Henry Colt's camera was so advanced that when it took a picture, it was instantly printed on paper. Oh. Right.

The Polaroid camera was invented in 1948, but it wasn't until the late 1960s that instant cameras really took off. Now you think that on a planet in another galaxy, the plants and animals would be different, but they weren't. On Lanulos, they raised cows and pigs and chickens. They ate the same vegetables we did. They didn't drink Ractagino or some exotic alien beverage, they drank coffee. What'll it be boys, and don't ask for Ractagino. If I have to say we don't carry that one more time. Who ordered a Ractagino?

Then there's the issue of galaxies. Woody Therenberger didn't really know what a galaxy was. Initially, the planet Lanulos was in the Ganymede constellation, a constellation we presume that's in our galaxy, but there's no constellation by that name or galaxy.

Ganymede is one of Jupiter's moons, and this detail changed a little bit more over time. And Woody didn't know much about our planets either. He said Saturn was covered with vegetation and that the air was breathable on Mars and Venus, and none of those things are true. Woody was right that Venus is warmer than Earth, but he said it was usually about 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

Venus is actually almost 900 degrees Fahrenheit. Woody's book contains an appendix with some really interesting stuff. He included a few articles about himself. He included his UFO reports to the police and other groups. He even included results from a brain scan and a report from his psychiatrist. I assume to prove that he wasn't crazy. The psychiatrist found no sign of mental illness, but unmet.

But a month after meeting Woody, the shrink claimed that he also was in contact with aliens. So maybe a little biased. Also in the appendix was the alphabet that was used on Lanulos. The alphabet was actually used everywhere. It's the intergalactic alphabet. And it looks pretty cool. But the symbols match the standard Latin alphabet character for character. It's English, just with fun characters instead of letters.

Languages and alphabets vary greatly on our own planet. If there's an intergalactic alphabet, this isn't it. Woody said he had many friends who also saw Ingrid Cold and spoke with him, but I can't find any of those people. The author John Keel did say that he saw UFOs near Woody's house, but all the information about the Grinning Man and the UFO sightings in New Jersey, the only source for those is John Keel.

Kiel said there were sightings all over the area that week, but there's no evidence of that. Not in the newspapers, not even with groups like NICAP, who document every sighting they hear about. Kiel is also the only person to connect the grinning man with Indrid Cold. The young man who saw the grinning man said he was huge, seven feet tall or taller, and that he had no nose and no ears. Woody said Indrid Cold was maybe 5'10", 5'11", 185 pounds and looked perfectly normal.

Now, Kiel was known to exaggerate for the sake of telling a good story, and he admitted this. And even Woody's daughter, in a recent printing of the book, said her father embellished his stories to help book sales. Now, Woody never said he embellished, but he did say his publisher did. So the only other witness we have is Woody's daughter, Tanya. And she remembers spending a lot of time with Indrid and his crew. But when Indrid Cole was visiting, she was three years old.

The reliability of children's memories has been studied to help courts determine whether or not to include testimony from child witnesses. Studies have identified that children struggle with source monitoring, which is a cognitive process that has to do with attributing the source of information. Young children really can't tell the difference between events they experienced, events they dreamed, and events they just heard about. By the time Tanya was four, her mother had taken her and her brother to live in Cleveland. It's doubtful that she remembers any of this.

Side note, Woody's wife actually ran off with one of the UFO investigators working Woody's case. She ended up marrying the guy. Ouchie, really worked the hell out of that case, eh?

Now, Tanya's story about Indrid Cold has also fluctuated over the years. At one point, she said Indrid Cold was known as Valiant Thor. And Valiant Thor is a pretty famous alien story, but I think we did a pretty good job of debunking that one. A few years ago, Tanya said that Indrid Cold died. Now, I suspect she said this because she was getting a lot of attention from a new generation of UFO researchers, like the folks from the Hellier TV show. I just received two visitors carrying some devastating news.

Indrid Cold, age 92, Demo Hassan, and Carl Ardo died today. They wanted to get a message to Indrid Cold's people. And Tanya said they could, but it had to go through her. If we wanted to send a message to, you know, Indrid, he may have passed away, he may be in hiding, but to him or even, you know, his sons that have taken over, how do we do that? What would be the best way? Through me.

But earlier this year, Tanya said Indrid Cold didn't die, but he was in a bad accident. Still, the only way to talk to him was through her. Now, I don't know what he saw, but at first he loved the attention. He did TV and radio interviews whenever he could. Even from his very first interview, the facts weren't perfect. The UFO was hovering. Then it wasn't. Then it was. And if Indrid Cold could communicate telepathically...

why did he ask Woody to roll down the window? Oh, yeah. Now, Woody said that was so they could see each other better. Eh. Fine. But doing all this media started to get Woody in trouble. He did one TV interview that allowed regular people to call in. No, it was a mistake. I agree. A caller named Tom said that he, too, knew Ingrid Cold, and he had went to Lanulis. Woody asked Tom to describe what he saw to see if he was telling the truth. Tom gave Woody a bunch of details about the planet. Woody confirmed...

on TV that Tom was telling the truth. Woody even talks about this in his book. What Woody doesn't mention is that Tom was actually a college kid pranking him. Tom was actually Thomas F. Modiglione, who went on to become a well-known science fiction writer. And later on, Modiglione actually admitted to this. He even said he regretted it because of all the negative attention it brought him. The attention eventually got to Woody, too. He released his book just four years after his encounter with Indrid Cold.

But by the time the book came out, Woody's fame had fizzled. He'd lost his job and his family. People in his town thought he was crazy, so he eventually had to move to a different state. Now, defenders of Woody will say he had no reason to lie and that he never made any money from his story. Well, the reason to lie could have simply been he enjoyed the attention. Until he didn't. And he didn't make money from his story because, well, with all due respect to Woody Derenberger,

The book isn't very good. But Ingrid Cole still has many, many believers, and they're out there today telling the story and trying to make contact. I provided counterarguments here, but believers have their own responses to every one of mine, and I think that's okay. Whether you believe in the story of Ingrid Cole or not, it's not that important to me. What's important is Ingrid Cole's message.

He wanted the leaders of the world to be honest about extraterrestrial contact. He felt that the people of Earth were intelligent enough to understand and ready to believe. And according to Indrid Cold, once all of us accept that we're not alone and that it's okay, we can move into a new period of our history where wars for land and oil would be unnecessary, where borders between nations would just be academic.

and where all the races of the world would see themselves as one race, the human race. Now, I can't get myself to believe in the story of Enric Cold, but his message, that's something I can believe in. So I have to agree with John Keel. Whether the story is true or not, it's a story worth telling.

Thank you so much for hanging out with me today. My name is AJ. That's hecklefish. This has been the Y-Files. If you had fun or learned anything, do us a favor, like, comment, subscribe, share. I know it's annoying to hear me say that, but I promise it really helps the channel. Now, like most topics we cover on this channel, today's is recommended by you. So if there's a story you'd like to see or learn more about, go to the Y-Files dot com slash tips.

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I took a stroll downtown this evening. When I heard music echo through the night. The same old songs that I heard the night before. So I started running so I wouldn't be too late. I didn't think that I would ever see your face again. I was wrong. Yeah, I was wrong. I got close. My heart was beating.

I can't believe we're dancing in the street and I can't feel my feet.

♪ While we're dancing in this dreamy online ♪ ♪ Without you at night ♪ ♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh,

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