State of the Unknown | Documentary Stories of Real Unexplained Encounters

Join host Robert Barber as he explores the case that gave rise to one of the most enduring legends in UFO history—the Men in Black.

In the early 1950s, Albert K. Bender founded the International Flying Saucer Bureau, one of America's first civilian organizations devoted to investigating reports of unidentified flying objects. Through its newsletter, Space Review, the Bureau quickly attracted members from across the country who...

Join host Robert Barber as he explores the second half of the Travis Walton case, one of the most discussed alien abduction stories in American history.

Five days after disappearing in the Arizona wilderness, Travis Walton returned alive.

His coworkers had spent nearly a week under suspicion. Search crews had searched the forest. Investigators had tried to determine what happened on the night Walton vanished near a reported blue-whit...

Join host Robert Barber as he explores the disappearance of Travis Walton, one of the most discussed alien abduction cases in American history.

On November 5, 1975, Travis Walton and six fellow loggers were driving home through the Apache–Sitgreaves National Forest in Arizona when they reported seeing a strange blue-white light in the woods. According to the witnesses, Walton left the truck and walked toward it. Moments later,...

In September of 1952, a group of boys in Flatwoods, West Virginia looked up from a football game and saw something bright cross the sky.

It appeared to come down beyond a nearby hill.

What happened next became one of the most famous creature encounters in American paranormal history.

Join host Robert Barber as he explores the Flatwoods Monster, also known as the Braxton County Monster or the Phantom of Flatwoods. The reported encounte...

Join host Robert Barber as he examines one of the most unsettling modern paranormal phenomena: reports of Black Eyed Children.

The story begins with a reported encounter in Abilene, Texas, where journalist Brian Bethel claimed two mysterious boys approached his car late at night and repeatedly asked to be let inside. What happened next would become the foundation of a phenomenon that spread through paranormal communities, online for...

In November of 1957, drivers on the rural roads around Levelland, Texas began reporting something strange.

Their engines sputtered. Their headlights went out. Their vehicles stopped working near strange lights or glowing objects on or above the road. And when those lights disappeared, the cars and trucks reportedly came back to life.

Join host Robert Barber as he explores the Levelland Incident, one of the most compelling UFO vehicle...

In 1958, an ordinary family home in Seaford, Long Island became the center of one of America’s strangest poltergeist cases.

Join host Robert Barber as he investigates the Seaford incident, the famous Long Island haunting remembered as Popper the Poltergeist, where bottles reportedly opened by themselves, caps flew off, liquids spilled, figurines broke, furniture moved, and rooms were found disturbed after no one was supposed t...

Join host Robert Barber as he examines the Enfield Horror, also known as the Enfield Monster or Enfield Creature, one of Illinois’ strangest reported cryptid encounters.

In April 1973, Henry McDaniel reported hearing scratching at the front door of his home in Enfield, Illinois. When he went to investigate, he said he saw something outside that he couldn’t identify: a grayish creature with large pink eyes, an awkward bod...

Robert the Doll is one of the most famous haunted objects in the United States.

For decades, the doll has been connected to stories of movement, strange sounds, changing expressions, camera malfunctions, visitor misfortune, and apology letters sent by people who believe they disrespected him.

But before Robert became a museum exhibit in Key West, he was connected to Robert Eugene “Gene” Otto, the Otto home...

Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery has a reputation, and it didn’t come from stories alone. Visitors have reported seeing figures moving between the headstones, unexplained lights in the trees, and one photograph that captured something no one could explain.

Join host Robert Barber as State of the Unknown examines the documented history of Bachelors Grove Cemetery in Illinois, one of the most well-known haunted cemeteries in the ...

The St. Louis exorcism shaped what many people think possession is supposed to look like, but what do real cases actually report?

In this bonus episode of State of the Unknown, Robert Barber steps back from a single case to look at the broader question of possession and exorcism. Drawing on documented accounts and recurring patterns across different cases, this episode explores the gap between what people expect to see…and wh...

In 1949, a teenage boy in St. Louis became the center of one of the most documented exorcism cases in American history.

What followed involved multiple priests, medical observation, and handwritten records describing events that have never been fully explained.

Decades later, the case would inspire The Exorcist.

But the version most people know doesn’t come from the full record.

In this episode of State of the Unknown, we go back...

In the 1980s, the Snedeker family moved into a house in Southington, Connecticut, looking for space and stability while their son Philip underwent cancer treatment. What they didn’t fully understand at the time was what the house had been before they moved in.

It wasn’t just an older home.

It had once operated as a funeral home.

Rooms that didn’t quite make sense. Doorways wider than expected. A basement built around...

A young girl said the haunting was a hoax. But police were inside the house when objects reportedly moved….

In 1974, police were called to a small home on Lindley Street in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Inside, they reported objects moving on their own. Furniture shifting. Activity that continued while people were in the room watching—and without a clear source.

What started inside that house didn’t stay there.

Neighbors ...

On December 29, 1980, three witnesses driving along a rural road outside Dayton, Texas reported one of the most unusual UFO encounters ever documented in the United States.

Betty Cash, Vickie Landrum, and Vickie’s seven-year-old grandson Colby Landrum were returning home after a night of bingo when they noticed a bright light ahead on Farm-to-Market Road 1485. As they drove closer, the light revealed a massive diamond-shaped c...

In the late 1960s, a quiet home in the Black Forest area near Colorado Springs became the center of a disturbing series of events. The family living there claimed objects moved on their own, household items were thrown across rooms, and unexplained disturbances seemed to occur while people were standing there watching.

In this bonus episode of State of the Unknown, join host Robert Barber as he examines the reported events surroundi...

The L-8 Ghost Blimp is one of the strangest unsolved aviation mysteries of World War II — a Navy patrol airship that returned from a mission over the Pacific with its engines running and its crew missing.

In August of 1942, a U.S. Navy patrol blimp lifted off from Naval Air Station Treasure Island for what should have been a routine anti-submarine patrol along the California coast.

Hours later, the aircraft drifted inland over ...

In the late 1980s, a family living in San Pedro, California reported a series of unexplained disturbances inside their apartment. Objects allegedly moved without physical contact. Items fell from shelves. Activity was said to occur in front of multiple adult witnesses who later stated they were standing in the room when it happened.

The incident became known as the San Pedro Poltergeist, one of several Southern California poltergeis...

In November 1966, residents of Point Pleasant, West Virginia began reporting encounters with a tall, winged figure near the McClintic Wildlife Management Area, known locally as the TNT Area. Police documented statements. The local newspaper recorded names. Witness descriptions were consistent: a figure six to seven feet tall, wings folded behind its back, and red eyes reflecting in headlights.

Sightings continued for more than a yea...