Gatekeepers: On Whose Authority?

UFO Gatekeepers. They come from all sides; uber-skeptics, debunkers, as well as those who believe, but insist on scientific approaches to exploring all that is UFO. The Gatekeepers wrangle one tentacle of the UFO Kraken, ignoring the rest -- even while it strangles them -- rejecting the elements that annoy them.

They decide who gets to, what methods, which cases.

On what authority?!

There is none.

James Mcgaha, uber-debunker, asks UFO witness if "she's qualified to look at the sky"

There is no UFO Authority, no matter how desperately some want there to be. There is no Official Method, case, researcher, witness, spokesperson.

No one is more, or less, qualified than anyone one else in this realm.

As soon as someone starts spouting off a need for standards: academic, scientific, "legitimate" cases, etc. I do not take them seriously.

Honesty is expected, at all times. That's about all we should expect. Sincere desire to explore, to share, to research, while holding the ball of integrity.

Other than that, the rest is a form of bullying. Self-righteous and arrogant demands to join, if you don't, then you're not honest, sincere and legitimate.

I Feel a Rant Coming On . . .

(cross posted at my blog The Orange Orb)

I Feel a Rant Coming On...

Which is one aspect of this blog -- all about ranting on some days. Migraine fueled rant at that.

What I posted on UFO Updates:

"Only $90.00?" That's a lot of money for some of us. MUFON, once upon a time, a long time ago, they did good things, good intent. Now they're in bed with Bigelow, and, oh dear. Individuals remain who do good work but as an entity, MUFON, no thanks. As to UFO events; the skies are busy busy busy these past decades with our own lights and it's hard to distinguish between the truly strange and "just" one of ours. Of course, "one of ours" often has its own sinister implications, but that's another track. Meanwhile, there are witnesses to really weird events -- myself included -- that have to do with UFOs. Aliens, or what, who knows, but the experiences are real, and I, for one, am not lying when I report on them. So I will continue to ponder and ask and wonder and delve. Sometimes it means looking at the light in the sky, if only to realize it's nothing. Other times it means asking -- demanding! -- hey, just what the hell was that whole missing time thing about?! Witnesses need to keep exploring and investigating, and researchers need to stop putting limits on what is acceptable and what isn't. True, Roswell slides mysteriously present showing real aliens is a huge and silly distraction, but knowing the players promoting such stunts helps and then we can move on.

The $90 reference was to the supposed cost of MUFON's official UFO investigation kit.

Things in UFO Land have been busy lately, what with the Roswell alien slides and TV programs about aliens and UFOs in general. On one hand, we have such a lot of popular culture stuff out there about UFOs. Within UFO Land, lots of the usual debating and in-fighting and arguments.

Distractions.

Meanwhile, the real questions and experiences seem to be ignored. Relegated to the fringe of the fringe. Unasked, not pursued. In fact, demands are shouted. Demands for science to step up. Demands for everyone else involved to be more scientific in the pursuit of UFO knowledge. As if that approach will answer, once and for all, The UFO Question.

Feh. And meh.

I'm not bored. I'm not giving up. I'm not shutting up. I encourage every witness, from the Bigfoot-UFO witness to the reptilian alien witness to the spinning lighted disco ball mother ship witness to report, write about, talk about, discuss, argue, defend, explore, investigate. Just be honest and clear. Hold your intent and focus. Compare and contrast.

Check yourselves. Check your religions, your belief systems. You do the work; don't let others dictate to you what that is. Now that's a hard one, because it's very difficult to be honest in that context.

But don't shut up. Don't stop. Don't let others tell you your story is unacceptable because it's too weird or that you're not a scientist.

David Jacobs to Speak at MUFON Los Angeles: A Message From Jeremy Vaeni

As I posted on Orange Orb, David Jacobs is going to speak at MUFON in L.A. He's slated to talk about the psychology of the abductee. We will remind the reader Jacobs is a Dr. of history, not psychology. Following are some words from Jeremy Vaeni:

Alright, this has to stop. MUFON LA is promoting a speaking engagement with David Jacobs. The title of his lecture--tellingly enough--is, "Abductees and their Involuntary Tasks." This is set to take place on Tuesday the 15th. Read all about it here:

http://www.mufonla.com/meetings-mufonla/

Now, Steve Murillo is the section director for MUFON LA. He knows all about the Emma Woods case. In fact, she tried to warn him about Jacobs when he was previously scheduled to give a lecture entitled, “Hybrids: New Research into the Integration Program.”

She gave him a brief description of what had taken place between her, Jacobs, and Elizabeth along with links to her website and audio backing up her claims, to which he responded in email:

[i]Emma,

Your website has a ton of information to go through. It's going to take a while to go through it. Suffice it to say that your remarks here regarding Dr. Jacobs are duly noted. Forgive me if I seem obtuse, but are you a hybrid as well?

Steve Murillo
State Section Director

MUFON LA[/i]

Clearly, this man is not a serious researcher and does not care. So who do we turn to? Is anyone above Steve Murillo? Do [i]they[/i] care? Well, Jeremy Vaeni wrote about him in the Woods/Jacobs cover story for [i]UFO Magazine[/i] and he's still got his job, so draw your own conclusion there.

What can we do, then?

I urge everyone to call or write to the Unitarian Church in which this is supposed to take place. Let them know who the man is they are welcoming into their fold.

That phone number is: (818) 769-5911
Their email address is: info@uustudiocity.org

Send them a link to Emma's website: http://www.ufoalienabductee.com/

Tell them that this was the big shocker of the year in ufology and although they may be unfamiliar with the issue, it is unacceptable that this man be given a platform in their church!

Steve Murillo, California State Section Director of MUFON, actually had the classless chutzpah to ask Emma Woods if she was a hybrid. Doesn't this astound anyone else out there?

The Orange Orb: Leah Haley on the Abduction Mythology

if she's telling her truth, she is not to blame for anything.

I comment on Leah Haley's recent opinions on abductions, thanks to Jack Brewer's post at his blog The UFO Trial: The Orange Orb: Leah Haley on the Abduction Mythology

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.

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.

UFOlogy Is Not Dead

I responded to something on Facebook, just thought I’d share. Sums it up, maybe I’ll put it on my business card!

UFOlogy is not “dead,” no one should be the Great UFO Decider, it ain’t all that serious, and it is all VERY serious, science will never embrace us saucer heads, but that’s okay because like Groucho said: (paraphrasing) “I don’t want to be a member of any club that’d have me”, one person’s embarrassing fruitcake is another person’s tasty brownie, some of us are stuck with weird experiences and we’re trying to figure it out, no, we won’t shut up, far too many smug stuffed shirts pontificating their way through UFO Land, judgments, classism, self-importance, and not listening to the witnesses. I’d hate to go off on a rant though!

Clebrune, Texas UFO (and MUFON Is ...?)

News of a UFO seen in Texas over Christmas; Kithra at the Krystal Kave blog has a personal connection to the sighting: UFO Over Clebrune, Texas on Christmas Night.

Related to this news is what I heard the MUFON representatives Mark Easter and Chuck Reever, on Coast to Coast say last night about UFO sightings in Texas. Host George Knapp asked about any updates on the Stephenville, Texas UFO sightings. Angelia Joiner, the reporter who broke the case and has her own UFO radio show, was cited. But the MUFON researchers said there isn't anything new going on in Texas, UFO wise. Unless I missed something -- and I do have a habit of drifting in and out when listening to C2C at night -- I wondered how it could be MUFON seemed to be so ho-hum about UFO activity in Texas? Stephenville has died down but there have been reports coming in from that area, and other areas in Texas as well, ever since.

Speaking of disatisfaction with MUFON, Joseph Capp at UFO Media Matters discusses his issues with MUFON in MUFON's 600 lb Gorilla: Common Sense.

On the other hand, all these organizations, Peter Davenport's NUFORC, MUFON, and so many more, operate only because of the dedication of those who run these groups. Very little, if any, money is made, and what money is made, goes to research and costs of running the thing. Investigators do what they can; after all, there's no pay, it costs money to travel to sites, and then there are the realities and responsibilities of family and the day job. 

These groups contribute what they will, and we get the benefit of more data. That's not to say that's all the data, or the research was the best, or that even denial or rejection of reports occur, based on personal bias or agenda.

We get stories, and as we know, there are more stories behind the stories.  

New Rules

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

MUFON's Reaction to Ian Brockwell's UFO Article

Ian Brockwell recently wrote this piece for American Chronicle, UFO Photographed in Thunderstorm Reveals Alien Life!, about entities inside a UFO that was photographed during a thunderstorm.

On UFO Digest, Brockwell writes about MUFON's response to the above article MUFON's Reaction To My UFO Article

All very interesting. I like what Brockwell says about MUFON in the article:

It is somewhat disappointing that the MUFON site states:

"..one reason people join MUFON is because they want to be trained and have the opportunity to investigate cases. They want the hands-on, personal experience of interviewing witnesses, collecting information and analysing it themselves, instead of just reading about what others have done." Elaine Douglass, Co-State Director, Utah MUFON.

And when a member does just that, he is told that he "does not represent MUFON as a whole" and Carrion says "We have a standard process for investigation that is outlined in our field investigator manual, a certification process for field investigators and a mentoring program to hone their investigative skills. We have a body of consultants that assist in research. People join MUFON because they want to be part of this process."

You are wrong James, people join MUFON (and organizations like yours) in the hope that this will improve their chances of obtaining the truth, not to be told that they can´t try new methods (valid or not) just because you don´t personally approve.

MUFON also attacks American Chronicle, stating that American Chroncile ""has no standards for who writes for them." As Brockwell points out, American Chronicle publishes UFO stories. We need all the UFO info we can get. Mainstream media isn't doing it for us.

The point seems to be that MUFON attacks Brockwell for not being upfront, though Brockwell says he is, and from what I can see, he is. Agreeing with him or not, that's another issue. But as long as one is honest, that's all we can expect in this field.

Why MUFON seems to have a big buzzing bee in their bonnet lately is something I don't understand.

It's always good to do self checking and see what needs improvement; this is obvious and true in any field, including UFOs. But no one gets to tell anyone else what to do or say in UFOlogy, no matter how hard some might try bully others.

Instead of fighting each other, we should really acknowledge the diverse work being done by often equally diverse individuals.