Indrid Cold, aka The Grinning Man, is one of the most enigmatic figures in paranormal lore. He straddles the line between extraterrestrial visitor, ultraterrestrial trickster, and men-in-black-style entity.
Who (or What) Is Indrid Cold?
👽 Core Identity:
Name: Indrid Cold
Also called The Grinning Man
First and most famous encounter: Woodrow “Woody” Derenberger, November 2, 1966, in Parkersburg, West Virginia — just weeks before the Mothman sightings began in nearby Point Pleasant.
🛣️ Derenberger’s Encounter (The Origin Story)
📍 Location:
Interstate 77 near Parkersburg, WV
📆 Date:
November 2, 1966
🛸 What Happened:
Derenberger, a sewing machine salesman, was driving home at night when a strange craft flew past and landed on the road.
A tall man with a dark, metallic blue suit and a permanent, eerie grin approached his car.
The man did not speak aloud, but communicated telepathically.
📢 Key Messages:
He introduced himself as “Indrid Cold”
Said he was from a place called Lanulos, in the constellation of Ganymede (a moon of Jupiter, oddly)
Told Derenberger not to be afraid and that he meant no harm
Derenberger claimed that Cold smiled the entire time — but not in a friendly way. The grin was unnerving and almost inhuman.
🤯 Aftermath:
Derenberger had multiple follow-up encounters, including visits to Lanulos (by craft), and even claimed Cold visited him at his home.
He was interviewed on TV and radio, passed lie detector tests, and stuck to his story until his death.
Wrote a book: "Visitors from Lanulos" (1971)
😬 The Grinning Man Phenomenon (Beyond Derenberger)
📆 October 11, 1966 — Elizabeth, New Jersey:
Two boys, Martin Munov and James Yanchitis, saw a tall man in a green suit, grinning ear to ear, standing near a fence.
He didn’t speak — just stared and grinned.
He reportedly had no visible nose or ears.
👁️ Other Grinning Man Sightings:
Often seen in proximity to UFO sightings or high-strangeness zones.
Described as tall, expressionless except for the grin, with bulging eyes, strange suits, and bizarre movements (sometimes robotic).
Behavior is frequently socially awkward, as if mimicking humans poorly.
👥 Theories
👽 1. Extraterrestrial Being
Indrid Cold is a benevolent alien ambassador.
His awkward grin is an attempt to seem friendly — a mistranslation of human expression.
Tied to UFO landings and sightings in West Virginia and Ohio during the mid-1960s.
👁️ 2. Ultraterrestrial / Interdimensional
Some believe Cold is not from another planet but another plane of existence, like John Keel's theories in The Mothman Prophecies.
Possibly connected to the same intelligence behind Mothman, Men in Black, and trickster entities.
🤖 3. Psychological or Psyop Phenomenon
Cold could be a government experiment, mass delusion, or military psychological op — especially during the Cold War era.
The consistent description suggests a scripted persona, possibly deployed to test reactions or cover up actual tech sightings.
🧠 Cultural and Symbolic Interpretations
The grin is unsettling because it's too perfect, too frozen — evoking the uncanny valley.
Cold has become symbolic of paranormal deception — a being that appears benevolent but masks something deeply alien underneath.
His presence often precedes or overlaps with chaos (like the Mothman incidents or strange deaths in Point Pleasant).
📚 Pop Culture
He features (heavily fictionalized) in The Mothman Prophecies (both book and film).
Inspired characters in comics (The Question, Rorschach), CreepyPasta stories, and various paranormal podcasts and games.
🌌 What is Lanulos?
📍 Claimed Location:
A planet in the Ganymede constellation — which is strange because Ganymede is actually a moon of Jupiter, not a star system.
Some say this confusion could be due to language differences, translation errors, or intentional obfuscation.
👽 First Source:
Woodrow Derenberger, the man who met Indrid Cold, said Cold claimed to come from Lanulos.
Cold allegedly took Derenberger to Lanulos on multiple occasions via spacecraft.
🛸 Descriptions of Lanulos
🌿 Society & Culture:
The Lanulosians are described as peaceful, kind, and telepathic.
Their society is free of war, poverty, and crime — essentially a utopia.
They wear simple robes, are non-violent, and place high value on personal freedom and love.
Marriage is common, nudity is not taboo, and their way of life is communal yet individualistic.
🏙️ Planet Environment:
Lush, Earth-like landscapes with rolling hills, trees, and clear skies.
No mention of large cities or industrial tech — it's more like a pastoral Eden than a high-tech alien world.
🧠 Communication and Travel:
Lanulosians communicate telepathically, often projecting soothing emotions or pure intent instead of words.
Their craft are described as silent, light-based, and capable of dimensional travel.
Derenberger claimed time moved differently during these visits.
🔥 Key Figures in the Mythology
👤 Indrid Cold
The most famous Lanulosian.
Seen as a kind of scout, ambassador, or even a guardian.
He seems deeply interested in human psychology and emotion, and in forging peaceful contact.
👤 Karl Ardo
Another Lanulosian who allegedly contacted Derenberger.
Claimed to be a colleague or friend of Indrid Cold.
Continued contact even after Cold became less active.
📖 Derenberger’s Book: Visitors from Lanulos (1971)
Details his encounters with Cold, the trips to Lanulos, and the lessons he learned.
Reads more like a spiritual or philosophical New Age text than a standard UFO book.
Derenberger insists everything happened physically — not a dream or hallucination.
🧬 Mythological and Esoteric Interpretations
🕊️ 1. Utopian Archetype
Lanulos may represent the idealized human future — peace, love, telepathy, harmony.
Echoes similar "Space Brothers" messages from the 1950s Contactee era (like George Adamski, Truman Bethurum).
🧠 2. Psycho-Spiritual Realm
Some researchers (especially post-John Keel) think Lanulos isn’t a physical planet at all — but a higher dimension, mental construct, or collective astral world.
Could be a projection of Derenberger’s unconscious or a co-created space between minds.
🌀 3. Ultraterrestrial Origin
Lanulosians might be ultraterrestrials — entities that live parallel to us but phase in and out of reality.
Their mission: Monitor, guide, and subtly influence human consciousness.
btly influence human consciousness.
🧩 Connections to Other Phenomena
Mothman — Indrid Cold sightings coincided with Mothman events in Point Pleasant
Men in Black — Cold resembles some MIB types; humanoid but not quite human
Contactee Movement — Similar to 1950s narratives about benevolent aliens warning Earthlings
Near-Death Experiences — Descriptions of Lanulos share overlaps with "life review" and utopian afterlife landscapes
Fairy Lore — Lanulos = “fairyland of the stars”? Otherworldly beings leading humans into altered states?
🧠 Legacy and Modern Takes
Derenberger’s family (especially his daughter, Tanya Derenberger-McCoy) maintains that the encounters were real and continue today.
Indrid Cold has become an underground icon — especially among those who lean more spiritual or metaphysical in their ufology.
He's sometimes seen as the "smiling prophet" trying to warn or awaken humanity through strange means.
👁️ Final Thought
Perhaps Lanulos is less about "where" and more about "what" — it’s a mirror to our dreams, our fears, our hopes, and our yearning for peace in a chaotic world. Whether it’s real in the physical sense or not, the Lanulos mythos taps into something deep and archetypal.
