the timboucher experience

I’m re-reading Brad Steiger’s paranormal anecdote collection, Out of the Dark: The Complete Guide to Beings from Beyond. He has a chapter called “Inner Earth Empire of Evil” which deals mainly with accounts of mysterious hooded figures, especially ones which appear out of the shadows in a bedroom, but also some interesting accounts of such entities encountered in abandoned mines.

He even has a story which claims that Napoleon himself was visited by such a figure on multiple occasions, starting with his campaign in Egypt. On page 226, Steiger relates:

The strange visitor who materialized in the French military genius’s bedchamber claimed that he had given sage counsel to the rulers of France in years past and that he had now come to warn him of certain errors in his planning.

“You have become far too ambitious,” the Red Man admonished Napoleon. “The French people are growing to be wary of your overwhelming lust for power.”

When Napoleon objected to such an analysis of his motives, the mysterious entity smiled and shook his head. “I have been at your side since you were a schoolboy,” he chided him. “I know you better than you know yourself.”

The Red Man then told him that certain battle orders he had given had not been obeyed, and predicted future turmoil upon his return home. The Red Man allegedly returned to him on two other occasions with similar predictions and warnings for Napoleon. I’m curious if anybody has ever heard of this account before anywhere. I tried looking around for it online. The only thing I came up with was an online copy of Honore de Balzac’s “Folk-Tales of Napoleon.” I’m not sure if this is the primary source Steiger is basing his work off. But based on what it says, I’m guessing he’s got another one, because Balzac’s account is a little different:

But there is one thing that it would not be fair not to tell you; and that is about the RED MAN. While Napoleon was still in Egypt, in a desert not far from Syria, the Red Man appeared to him on the mountain of Moses (Sinai), and said to him, “It’s all right!” Then again, at Marengo, on the evening of the victory, the same Red Man appeared to him a second time, and said: “You shall see the world at your feet: you shall be Emperor of France; King of Italy; master of Holland; sovereign of Spain, Portugal, and the Illyrian provinces; protector of Germany; savior of Poland; first eagle of the Legion of Honor–everything!”

This Red Man, you see, was his own idea; and was a sort of messenger whom he used, many people said, as a means of communication with his star.

I’ve never believed that, myself, but that there was a Red Man is a real fact. Napoleon himself spoke of him, and said that he lived up under the roof in the palace of the Tuileries, and that he often used to make his appearance in times of trouble. On the evening of his coronation Napoleon saw him for the third time, and they consulted together about a lot of things.

I don’t know enough about Balzac or this piece to know what his intentions were with relating this folk-tale. The context in which Steiger relates it though is during a section where he’s discussing otherworldly visitations by a variety of world leaders from Hitler to Washington. Seems like an interesting line of inquiry nonetheless. I think I have a John Keel book somewhere where he talks about Hitler’s ultraterrestrial visitations. I’ll have to look for it later.

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