It's Been a Long Time

 A long time since I posted here. Too many blogs. Too many projects. And, blogger/google messing with me all the time about passwords and different sign ins for different blogs, and not knowing it is still me so when I try to . . . oh never mind.

I've been very busy clearing out the "book room" also known as the "room of doom" and it's actually been fun. Once I got going. Only took me ten years. But now I'm going through all the hundreds -- literally -- of books on UFOs, paranormal, metaphysical and related topics. Organizing by genre/theme, mostly, but some by author. Example: all the Keel books in one group, all the Vallee. For a library book nerd like myself (I was so happy when the school I worked for gave me the library job!) this is a fun project.

Books going back to the 1940s. Same old, one might say, dismissively. What's the use in going over old stuff? Well, we can learn from the past. There's a difference between rehashing old stuff just because you're lazy or it's easy and going over it because it's interesting and one might learn something in comparing/contrasting with the current.

There's also something interesting about comparing different editions of the same book. Vallee, or The Interrupted Journey.

So the gatekeepers who would ignore the past need to get over themselves. 

Living in UFO Land: Call Me a Hippy, But . . .

So many researchers, investigators, organizations, pundits, witnesses, UFO television programs, books, theories, speculations, …

So many categories of experience. Genres of aliens and contact.

And an equal amount of disagreement about all of the above. "Disagreement" ranging from mild difference of opinion to out and out attacks of the most vile nature, verging on the illegal.

Then there is the Drawing Of Lines In The Sand. UFO groups (Gatekeepers, UFO Police, Scientific Organizations) get together and make damn sure they keep out any person or theory they don't like. They insist their take is the right take. They insist that "we'll never get anywhere" unless… unless their theory is accepted, unless the rest of us agree that such and such -- take your pick; contactees, abductions, ET, disclosure, -- is ridiculous. But more to the point, not just ridiculous but not to be entertained. Not to be included.

I'd like to see, not a "rigid scientific" UFO organization, or one that keeps all but one or two ideas within, but one that includes a diverse bunch. Call me a hippy, (which wouldn't be wrong) but the only way to begin to maybe get at It All is to look at the UFO phenomena/phenomenon with compassion, respect, and patience. That does not mean agreement. 

Regan Lee with friend, Venice Beach CA 1971, photo by John Lee

Instead, the majority of UFO people are running around fighting, attacking, sneering at others within. In other words, as had been said many times by others, the inhabitants of UFO Land are eating our young. With friends like that who needs enemies?

I think part of the problem is the crazy need to be accepted by mainstream society, by the institutions considered respectable (Big Science, academia, politics even) and main stream media. If only, think many UFO Land residents, we stick to …. pick your favorite: rigid scientific methods, and so on. Then we'd be accepted and taken seriously and everything will be cool and oh yeah, we'll also find out what it's all about.

Not one bit likely. All that will happen if we stay on that road is the continual fighting amongst ourselves, as well as the hoaxes, attention seekers and cheesy carny-like creeps that infest our fringes. Which is a part of the whole thing anyway, so not much use in bemoaning that reality.

This is what happens in UFO Land. An individual, or often enough, a few individuals who get together, find a little plot of land that has a sign on it: "ET", "Disclosure," "Abductions", "MILABS," "Fairies", "Mind Control", "Nazis" -- you know. Then a barbed wire fence is erected around this little bit of land. Often, rocks are thrown at the neighboring plots of land. No one shares, everyone fights, and the Big Answer is still a long ways off. Which brings us to . . .

The Big Answer. Expecting there is a Big Answer is equally futile. There might be one, I'm optimistic, but that's not my priority. It's the process, the quest, the journey, the effect of these still unexplained encounters upon not just the individual but the culture surrounding the individual, that is the issue. For now.

Of course, there is much more beyond that, but baby steps, baby steps. Such as agreeing to disagree while working together, not apart.

"Absurd Bits" in Fortean Phenomena

 My current Trickster's Realm column for Tim Binnall's site. My new column will be up Monday. 





"Absurd Bits" in Fortean Phenomena

Reading one of my favorite esoteric Fortean authors Colin Bennett right now: Flying Saucers Over the White House; The Inside Story of Captain Edward J. Ruppelt and His Official U.S. Airforce Investigation of UFOs. I'm only just into it, but, as usual when I read Bennett, there is so much rich, juicy and insightful right on stuff it's exhilarating. It's almost too much, one quick brilliant statement after another. One of the numerous gems is the "psychosocial filter" as Bennett calls it concerning UFO (and, I'll add, paranormal events in general) witness experiences: It is an amusing feature of the Western mind that those people who have had a UFO experience of any kind are judged to be people least worthy of analyzing that experience." The witness is often treated as an afterthought, or even an embarrassment. And all is lost if the witness has things that clogs up that "psychosocial filter": The courts of "proper" debate rule out any odd, highly individualized, comic, or ludicrous or absurd elements. Here we see the most tragic-comic emblem of mankind's philosophy: get rid of the nutcases and there will be revealed the shining truth. [Bennett: 39] It seems obvious that without UFO witnesses we wouldn't have UFOs to investigate in the first place. The UFO investigator wasn't there, nor the Sasquatch explorer or the ghost hunter. The witness was there, and she knows of her experience. The problem is with interpretation and assumption. But that's different than what happened, no matter how crazy it may sound. The researcher brings her or his own bias as well. The whole thing is -- I don't want to use words like contaminated or polluted because those words frame UFO and paranormal events as a negative -- but it's all messed up, turned inside out and upside down, from the moment it started. That's okay. That in itself is part of the phenomena. Instead, there are a lot of people out there chasing UFOs and ghosts and Bigfoot who believe they'll get to the truth of things if they reject anything that hints of those "absurd elements" Bennett refers to. That, and bringing along a lot of clanking high tech equipment that lights up and does other cool stuff. I don't remember where it was that I read a suggestion from Jacques Vallee, who commented that many UFO researchers were going about things all wrong. Instead of asking the witness about measurements, size, yards, feet, longitudes and latitudes and behaving in somber UFO Investigator mode, just give the witness a pad of paper and a pencil and have them draw what they saw. In their own words, in their own way. Stand back, don't talk much, and just let them relate their experience. Then go from there. It's a symbiotic relationship between witness and chroniicler of the event. Despite the insistence of some, Fortean phenomena isn't scientific (not to be confused with complete rejection of using scientific methodologies when desired), it's not objective, and it's nothing to be embarrassed about. You're either in it or you're not. You're in it and that means you take in the "absurd elements" along with the rest. The moment you start rejecting bits from a report because it's too weird or subjectively stupid, you've "contaminated" the research. The UFO Police (and the Bigfoot Police) pop up with regularity, with new mission statements and rules about what will, and what will not, be accepted into their (always) scientific minded organization. Embarrassed by most all of UFOlogy UFO Police want to be treated with respect by the residents of Debunkerville and the MSM (mainstream media.) Those invites will never happen, because the phenomena won't let it. Which the UFO Police would realize, if they stopped rejecting the "absurd elements." Meanwhile, witnesses continue to have UFO sightings that often contain high strangeness. I can only speak for myself, but I take it very personally when a stuffed shirt UFO investigator condescends to me that they only consider "hard evidence" and my experience is "only anecdotal." Well kid, it's all I got. But really, in my case, as with many other witnesses, that's a lot. It's actually huge. Lately I've been chronicling all of the strange UFO events in my life, going back to my childhood, (including those pesky "absurd" bits) and it's startling how connected and big this all seems to be. The "problem with UFOlogy" as some like to say, isn't with the "absurd bits." It's with the idea there's a "problem" that needs to be fixed.

Imbrogno: Just a Baby Kraken

Uber skeptoid feels very proud of himself for revealing that Imbrogno lied about his degrees:UFO Magazine - UFO Magazine Blog - A Phil-a-buster He who released the Kraken is gloating, comments right and left.. including two by me.

I really hope this is the last I'll say on this, but I'll watch where this goes. While it's naturally disappointing to find that Imbrogno lied about his background, I also find it intriguing to watch how news of his exaggerations and lies unfolded. Waiting for any chance to pounce and devour, said uber-toid did so, almost channeling the spirit of Imbrogno while staring, once again, at Imbrogno's MIT shirt in photo after photo. Said channeled spirit told the debunker to go forth and reveal the truth, which he's done on many a forum. This wasn't done for any idealistic or altruistic reason or wrapped snugly in the vibe of truth; simply one more item brought to the Skepti World for the show and tell segment. It's all kooksville to them, all of it (as the skeptic who outed Imbrogno proves at his blog, opening with a rant against the contactees, as if that has anything to do with Imbrogno.) Look! The contactees were lairs, frauds! Look! Imbrogno's ideas about the phenomenon are wacky! Look, Imbrogno lied about his education! That proves it's all bunk!

Really, show's over.

Meanwhile UFO sightings and UFO witnesses and UFO stuff of a thousand different manifestations -- good, bad, ugly, beautiful, honest, dishonest, scary, benign, and oh so much more -- continue. But you know, who cares about any of that stuff? I mean, seriously? Not the debunkers. They're rational after all.

(If you weren't sure, that last was sarcasm.)

No prizes awarded here for any great truth telling. Truth had nothing to do with this latest whirlpool in UFO Land. Or Skepti World. No one's won anything. No one's lost much either. The fact of things Imbrogno brought to us exist. Details may have been fudged; but diligent research is a part of the UFO journey; whatever grime may cover some of what Imbrogno has contributed can be washed off. His ideas on things still stand as highly interesting and, by the way, they are not unique. Call them Djinns, demons, "the Devil," ultra terrestrials, or any number of labels, the esoteric theories of energies manifesting as "other" and manipulating the human experience has been around for a very long time.

In UFO Magazine: Jeremy Vaeni's 'Aliens vs. Predator: The Incredible Visitations at Emma Woods

There is so much to say about the fantastic article by Jeremy Vaeni in this issue of UFO Magazine. (Aliens vs. Predators: The Incredible Visitations at Emma Woods.)

But for now, please, please, go and get yourself this issue, and read the article. Vaeni has done an excellent job with unraveling the seeming madness that is David Jacobs, the always precarious method of hypnosis used by some researchers to get at the submerged bits of missing time and nebulous memories of aliens, examinations, trips aboard saucers, and all the rest of "Abductions 101", and subject/witness Emma Woods.

From the beginning of this episode in UFO culture, I wondered why there wasn't more outcry from the UFO community. And yet, there still isn't; what there mainly seems to be, still, are a few stubbornly standing up for Jacobs, and misogynist pronouncements about Emma Woods' sanity, and worse. Other than that, little has been really said about this.

Richard Dolan at X-Conference 2010 (A.D. Disclosure)

On Orange Orb: My Truth Can Beat Up Your Truth

More on James Carrion and CUT on The Orange Orb: My Truth Can Beat Up Your Truth.

James Carion's New UFO/NOT UFO Organization

Ex-director MUFON director James Carion announces a brand new UFO organization: CUT. CUT stands for Center for UFO Truth.

Here’s what I wrote on Facebook:

Oh dear. Not "affiliated in any way with UFology" yet "CUT" (there's an interesting Fortean twilight language kind of word to use)  studies "early days of UFOs ... answering the question long ignored by historians -- was the UFO subject purposely created by the United States. .. part of a cold war operation?" That's been asked before. But anyway, how is this NOT to do with UFology?! It'll be interesting for sure but how far is one willing to go in trusting government sources? Der.  And this gem: "CUT will work outside of the three ring circus that is Ufology and will not accept the contributions of anonymous individuals or alleged whistleblowers nor will it examine alleged leaked documents." So he's distancing himself yet once again from the unwashed masses and "...circus" of UFology, going so far as to call what he's doing - studying an aspect of UFOs --- not UFology.  Newsflash Mr. Carion, you ARE part of the "circus," -- we all are. How an ex-director of MUFON, who is currently involved in a new organization exploring an aspect of UFOs, say with a straight face he is not part of the "circus" is a deliciously ironic, er, circus like, stance to take.

I’ll add that the word UFO is in the name of the group! UFO is part of the acronym, yet, Carion insists, this new enterprise (heh, talk about twilight language) contains the word UFO in its very title. The title is also fun, in its ironic pot/kettle black way, for its word "truth." What a display of arrogance and self important stuff shirted puffery!

Carion never did like saucer heads. He reiterates his distaste for the distasteful and bothersome UFO witnesses and UFO explorers of various kinds:

CUT will work outside of the three ring circus that is Ufology and will not accept the contributions of anonymous individuals or alleged whistleblowers nor will it examine alleged leaked documents.

Yes, why bother with interviewing witnesses to see if they are credible or do the work involved to determine authenticity of documents? 

This is the problem with would be UFO Police; they set up their own little paradigm, decide to reject a good portion of what’s out there, and all the time, they’re congratulating each other on finally getting to the “truth.”

When you combine a systems like that with a dismissive attitude that reeks of classism and an obvious distaste for 90% of the thing you’re studying, you cannot possibly get to any “truth.” 

The Big Lie
Recently, the cyclic meme that “UFOlogy is dead” has been making the rounds, and I wonder: is this thing we loosely call UFOlogy really dead? Or is it just something people say out of frustration? I think the latter. UFOlogy is constantly shifting, and in fact, some big shakeups have been happening recently (David Jacobs, Cherry, and, um,  Carion. . . ) but that doesn't make it dead.

Do some think UFOlogy is “dead” because of the oft bemoaned statement that, “after such and such many years, we don’t have any answers?”

Carion remarks:

Ufology has nothing to show for more than 60 years of amateur investigation and research. By not establishing professional evidentiary standards, Ufology will neither join the halls of academic "ologies" nor will it discover the truth of what lies behind the subject of UFOs.

The us of the qualifier “amateur” is unfair. It’s snide. We’re all amateurs. Does he mean amateur in the popular sense: meaning, less than? Or in the true sense, meaning not paid for one’s work? Amateur has come to mean the former, more often than not, but being “amateur” does not always mean inferior. You cannot take away the study of UFOs from “the people” no matter how much you want to. And if you do, why do you want to? What's the intent?

We don’t have the Big Final Answer That Fits All to the UFO phenomenon. Carion’s mistake, as with many others: thinking there is one.

I don’t know what halls of “ologies” he means, probably the institutions of science, academia, and ironically, the very governmental agencies he plans on getting all this information from, but the reality is: CUT, too, is just another UFO group in the eyes of those “ologies.”

But back to the meme that “after sixty years we haven’t found the answer” -- I wonder if that’s true. No, we don’t have full disclosure, or the Beyond a Doubt UFO From Outer Space craft or an alien body. Well, not one revealed to the world on CNN anyway.

The UFO phenomenon has layers upon shadowy layers upon deeper darker layers. It’s a given UFOs and aliens are “real” and here,  We’ve moved way beyond that. We know they are; we don't’ know what they are.

Parsing the UFO experience down to a small segment --   U.S. government agencies intentionally creating false UFO scenarios to distract  -- is not a new idea, nor a surprise. And finding further proof that was the case at times won’t definitively provide an answer to what UFOs are.

New Rules

From UFO Media Matters, "New Rules" -- I love it. Thanks to Lesley at Debris Field for the link.

Robert Anton Wilson on Channeling and ET Contact

Explains All Reticence

UFOs are everything! From ancient times they wail and sing. Through the years they've shown themselves, we've pictures, film we've stacked on shelves. Anecdotes abound in waves, from Presidents without disgrace, to airline captains coming clean — these craft are NOT a specious dream!

Indeed! Alfred does it again; I really liked this one. For more visit the UFO Magazine blog, The Green Room, and read the rest of Alfred's post.

It's astounding, simply astounding, that there are still those who deny the fact of UFOs. Worse, are the ones who acknowledge the reality of UFOs, but play disingenuous head games around the fact. Those pathological skeptics who shrug and say "UFOs, lights in the sky, so what?" or yawn after hearing a witness relate an incredible sighting, mumbling something about classified military craft. . .

Reptilians on the Beach

Bonnie Jean Hamilton on Reptilians on the Beach, on UFO Casebook.

On UFO Digest: "A Little Experiment: Pendulums, Aliens and Telepathy

I have an article up at UFO Digest on my personal experience with UFOs and aliens: A Little Experiment: Pendulums, Telepathy and Aliens

Three different times I’ve had the eerie experience of knowing that “they” were in the room with us. Who “they” are, I’m not sure, but a few things I just know to be true are: “they” are related to UFOs, “they” are not human, and yet have a connection to us, and “they” are very much aware of us; far more than we are of them

.



You might be wondering what Popyeye and Jeep have to do with anything; well, read it and you'll find out!

Joseph Capp, UFO Media Matters: Part 2 Barney and Betty Hill Encounter

As promised, Joseph Capp at UFO Media Matters has posted Part 2 of his thoughts on the Barney and Betty Hill event. Betty And Barney Hill Part 2: Light, Action, Camera! Capp doesn't think the experience was an encounter with literal aliens from outer space, nor does he think it's some sort of fantasy prone, collective subconscious theater of the mind projection either:

It stretches the imagination beyond belief that star-traveling ETs have no advanced methods --including less painful methods-- of performing these medical tests.

The Relax, It’s Just The Trickster Myth At Work people claim this entire terrifying scenario shared in part, yet distinguished by particular differences between both individuals’ experience, was a projection of collective conscious. And so the Trickster Myth people would have us join their collective delusion that these terrifying claims of Barney and Betty Hill are nothing more than iconic mind projections.

That would be nice if we could leave it there. Unfortunately these myths and iconic projections have...been recorded on radar, killed our pilots, disabled our missiles, and destroyed at least one of our missiles --representing the most advanced weaponry on Earth.

MILABS? It's likely, especially given that the Hills knew some very interesting people in the military. If this is true -- that MILABS are the cause of many abductions (as they were with many Contactees) -- that doesn't discount the reality of actual aliens in flying saucers.

It's more than one thing, and both deceptively simple as well as complex.

One Person's "Abduction Memory"

Abduction Memory, by Daniel J. Burkhart, of the Rochester Paranormal blog.

Back in the Fifities . . .

And sixties, and seventies . . . for none of this exists in a vacuum . . . it seemed the only ones reporting UFOs in our skies were "the people." Of course, that's all it ever is; "the people." Including politicians, academics, scientists, for in the end, we're all proletarians. Yeah, I'm just another Jew pinko commie, so there. Seriously, though. . .

All we have is ourselves, where ever we may be at any time, and some of us -- far more of us than would be acknowledged -- experience the unexplained. And some of us from that category go further, forever trying to figure it out. Others join in, out of sincere curiosity, regardless of their own personal weird factor experience.

When it comes to the weird, including UFOs, it's all open, since the only thing we can say for sure is, we don't know what's for sure. Even with the idea that, yep, let's just admit it and say ET is here (which I pretty much will say is the case) that doesn't answer anything, really. Just that "they" aren't "us." Or hell, they could be us in some way . . . see what I mean?

Those goofy amiable types from the Golden Age of Flying Saucerdom were experiencing something (most of them) in genuine ways. And even if they weren't so what? Most of them meant well.

Sure, most everybody was going through Post War Anxiety syndrome -- I remember the Friday sirens and Duck and Cover -- but as I said, nothing exists in a vacuum. Part of the problem in UFO studies is the idea that we can isolate segments of the UFO phenomena and then we'll find The Big Answer. This idea often includes eliminating the witness from the thing. Feh! dahlings, we're in this together.