The Sky Ray: A Recent Encounter and a New Entry into the Lore of Atmospheric Beasts

The Sky Ray

Cryptozoology has long been treated as fringe by the public, but that’s only on the surface.

Behind closed doors, elements of the U.S. government have quietly studied phenomena that closely mirror what cryptozoologists and folklorists have described for generations. One such program, AAWSAP, the Advanced Aerospace Weapons Systems Application Program, was funded through the Defense Intelligence Agency and operated for years under the guise of national defense research.

Its mission? To investigate unidentified aerial phenomena, transmedium craft, and unexplained biological encounters, many of which resembled the so-called cryptids of oral tradition. Dr. James Lacatski, who ran the program, later co-authored the book Skinwalkers at the Pentagon, detailing how government resources were used to study entities and experiences once confined to paranormal lore.

Meanwhile, mainstream science, bound by the constraints of reproducibility, funding structures, and peer approval, has remained largely silent. It isn’t that the phenomena are unfounded — it’s that they’re currently untestable, or risk being labeled pseudoscience by institutions that fear reputational loss.

In some cases, it may go deeper: acknowledging certain anomalies could lead to societal disruption, psychological instability, or spiritual panic. After all, if we admit that non-human intelligences or unknown biological entities operate within our atmosphere, what else have we misunderstood about the world we live in?

And so the public is left in the dark, not because nothing is happening, but because some truths cannot yet be named safely by official channels.

But in Appalachia, they’re part of the storytelling fabric.

Cryptids in the Cloudlands

Appalachia has always been home to stories of creatures that defy simple explanation.

From the Wampus Cat to the Flatwoods Monster, Mothman to Sheepsquatch, this region has held space for encounters that blur the line between physical and spiritual worlds.

And now, we may have another addition to that living folklore, something we’re calling: The Sky Ray.

The Conditions That Night

This story was shared with us recently, in a private conversation, by a professional who requested anonymity due to the stigma often placed on those who speak openly about the unexplained.

They weren’t seeking fame or trying to start a theory thread. They were just trying to put language to something that didn’t make sense, and hadn’t let go of them since.

“It was late fall 2024, a cool and damp night around 10:45 PM. The temperature was in the mid-40s, with high humidity, you could smell the water in the air. Most of the sky was clear, but there were still some big cumulus clouds hanging overhead, especially toward the northwest. I stepped outside to breathe for a bit and to see if I could catch a glimpse of the ‘drones’ people were spotting all over the United States at that time.”

“I read how some allegedly had success calling out to them in a meditative-like state.”

“I just said it aloud: show yourself, I know you’re out there.”

And maybe a minute later, something came out of the cloud.

The Sky Ray Appears

“It came from the left side of the sky, northwest, from a large cumulus cloud glowing faintly in the night — illumination was about 30%.”

“It wasn’t a light. It was a thing. Glowing red, softly. Not mechanical. No blinking, no hard outline. The light appeared like that of a bioluminescent creature from the deep ocean.”

“The shape was wide but also long — wing-shaped, similar to a manta ray in form — but faster. Much faster.”

They emphasized that it didn’t float like a jellyfish or hover like a drone. It moved through the air like a manta ray swims through water, but with the speed and agility of a tuna.

No sound. No smell. Just that soft red glow, sweeping in a long S-curve downward from the cloud, then another graceful S-curve diving back up into the same cloud it came from — gone as quickly as it arrived.

Update – November 18, 2025

This is one of the most original high-strangeness sightings I’ve encountered in years. The soft red bioluminescence, the manta-like yet impossibly fast and agile movement, the way it emerged from and returned to the cloud as if the cloud itself were an ocean — it doesn’t neatly fit drones, known wildlife, metallic UAP craft, or even the classic slow-drifting “atmospheric jellyfish” reports from Trevor Constable and earlier eras.

After running an exhaustive search across historical and modern accounts, nothing matches this closely. The nearest parallels are faint and scattered: a few 19th-century “airship” era mentions of glowing ray- or bat-winged objects, Charles Fort’s notes on “sky serpents,” a couple of low-quality South American “plasma manta” videos, and one now-deleted 2021 Reddit post from rural Kentucky describing a “glowing red stingray” that swam out of a storm cloud, looped once, and vanished back in.

In other words, the name Sky Ray may very well stick. If more reports surface in the coming years, and I suspect they will, now that someone has finally given it a name and a clear, articulate description, this post could end up being the index case people reference for decades.

Atmospheric Beasts: A Rare Subset of Cryptids

Most cryptids are land-based. But there’s another category, lesser-known and harder to study: atmospheric beasts.

They’re said to inhabit the skies above us, sometimes appearing as cloud-like, translucent, jellyfish-shaped forms. Most move slowly. Some pulse. A few glow.

But the Sky Ray is different.

• It’s fast.

• It’s agile.

• It responds to presence.

• And it shows signs of being biological or plasma-based.

Some working theories include:

• A high-altitude filter feeder gliding through upper atmospheric currents collecting particulates

• A frequency-reactive organism attuned to intention, emotion, or electromagnetic states

• A camouflaged nocturnal life form that uses clouds the way cuttlefish use coral

• A transdimensional intelligence appearing just long enough to be witnessed

And maybe it’s none of these. Maybe it’s something entirely new, something we don’t yet have the scientific tools or cultural vocabulary to define.

Why Share This Now?

With programs like AAWSAP acknowledging that the line between UAPs, “non-human biologics,” and the unknown is thinner than ever, it’s time we stop pretending that folklore and fieldwork are opposites.

This might be the first written account of the Sky Ray, but it won’t be the last.

If you’ve seen something like this, or felt something you couldn’t explain, know this: You’re not alone. You’re not crazy. And there are others who’ve been waiting for someone else to speak up first.

“I know you’re out there.”

Feel free to reach out (anonymously is fine) to tell us your stories.