Future Theater

Thanks to Lesley Gunter, who posted this at Women of Esoterica;I'm passing it along. . .


UFO Magazine publishers, Bill and Nancy Birnes, are starting their own  weekly radio show - Future Theater.  Here is some information from Bill about  the show:

This  Saturday evening at 6PM Eastern on Future   Theater, Dr. Ted joins us  for a UFO Hunters reunion along with Dan   Zarenkiewicz, our producer.  You can catch the live broadcast at  futuretheater.com or ufomag.com or lanlamphere.com. We'll have a  chat   room and open lines, too.

Visit The Orange Orb
http://orangeorb.blogspot.com

New Rules

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

Lesley on "Fantasy vs. Reality"

Lesley's Grey Matters on Binnall of America this week is Fantasy vs. Reality. She discusses the idea some hold that abductions and other UFO events are "hallucinations or some sort of fantasy and not real events."

What she has to say about the "paranoid state" of people with schizophrenia is interesting; I've often thought the same thing but haven't come across too many that have shared those ideas in terms of alien intelligences.

UFO Magazine Blog -- and Photo Gallery

Just promoting UFO Magazine's on-line blog and site; stop by!

Lesley on "Powerless Policing"

Lesley has a good piece on "the wannabe Ufology Police" for her Grey Matters column at Binnall of America.

Grey Matters: Esoterica and Social Networking Sites

Lesley Gunter (Beyond the Dial, The Debris Field, etc.) has a good article up at Binnall of America for her Grey Matters column: Esoterica and Social Networking Sites Like Lesley, I enjoy Facebook, much more than I thought I would. I found it hard to figure it out at first, still do sometimes, but it's more personal and fun, silly, things to do on it. I also, like Lesley, thought a couple of years ago paranormal networking sites were a good idea, but they seem to have gone under pretty quickly. One thing I like on Facebook are all the environmental and political causes that you can join up with and get the message out, and donate things to.

Seriously, Don't Be So Damn Serious. Seriously.

Lesley has a great Grey Matters column this week at Binnall of America. “Seriously” addresses the stuffed shirts of UFOlogy; those who think having fun are doing a disservice to UFOlogy. (Just what is "UFOlogy" anyway?)

There are some who just won’t ever get it; that the exploration of the UFO phenomena is for everyone, no one gets to decide who can, and who cannot, join in the UFO mystery chase.

The UFO phenomena is certainly a grassroots, folklore (of the folk type entity) phenomena: while it’s necessary to have all sorts involved, including scientists and nuts and bolts field researchers, etc. to believe that this is the only valid approach is nonsense.

What inspired Lesley to write her column were the recent comments on UFO Updates about the use of the word “Festival” in context of UFO conferences:

Recently on UFO Updates there was a little discussion about the term "UFO Festival." Certain people don't like the word "festival" to be associated with UFOs, the feeling being that this would somehow keep people from taking the subject seriously. They may have been kidding, but there are people who feel that way

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The UFO phenomena has always been, at least in modern times, subversive to mainstream society. Its very nature is a huge “bleeeeeeeeech!” in the face of institutions, religions, academia, politics, the media. Dressing up in suits, chiding others for not behaving properly or insisting there be some Official UFO Police are ways to cause divisions, not achieve answers. (at least some of the answers anyway.) Of course, many who advocate for suits and ties, somber tones, UFO Guilds and a UFO etiquette would like this very much. Get rid of the embarrassing riff raff and they can carry on, being coddled and taken seriously (uh huh) by the very institutions that ignore -- and worse -- their UFO quest.

Lesley points out something that I don’t think is pointed out enough; that a lot of people (“the folk”) take UFOs pretty seriously:

I would say that 9 out of 10 people I meet have some belief in ETs or some other intelligence that is not what we would term as a human or Earthling and that may be flying around in the skies. You might not find them posting about it on the Internet or attending a festival or conference, but that doesn't mean that they don't take it seriously or don't believe something strange is going on. Most of them just don't have much extra time to devote to the subject.

The mainstream media may still have a ways to go, certainly academia, politics and science do, but the people are interested. They’re the ones with the experiences (I should say, we’re the ones with experiences; I include myself in that category.)

The purpose of a festival is to have fun of course, but it always serves a cultural need, including one that subverts the mundane. Lesley writes:

By the way, "festival" is a proper term for something like Roswell's annual event. You can call it whatever you want, but it is still a festival. It brings together all kinds of people and all ages and they hopefully have some fun as well as learn a few things. I see nothing at all wrong with that. Frankly, stuffy conferences mostly only attract those that already believe and the people there might take it all very seriously, but I don't see it convincing anyone else that Ufology should be taken seriously.

I hope UFO researcher and author Richard Dolan doesn’t mind my saying this, but both he and Karyn Dolan agreed that the Oregon, McMinnville UFO Festival last May was great. (Richard was the main speaker.) They enjoyed themselves very much, found it relaxing, and yes, fun. This from one of the most serious of UFO researchers when it comes to the work he does.

Speaking for myself, I am very serious about UFOs. This is something I’ve been experiencing my entire life. I have lots of questions about things I’ve experienced. Don’t you think that makes me extremely “serious” -- damn serious -- about this stuff? One way to be “serious” is to maintain personal integrity, and be yourself. If you have a sense of humor, can’t abide suits or pantyhose, or think, like Lesley does, that The Weekly World News is sometimes funny, because that’s who you are, you’d be a liar if you pretended otherwise. Which means you no longer have integrity, and in that case you would’ t be “serious.”

The Personal: Some Links

I have a post on Women Of Esoterica about a recent OOBE that was both surprising and wonderful:
My Utterly Completely Wondrous New Age OOBE


And Alfred makes a many times before said, but always good to be reminded (because we need to be so damn often) comment on UFO Magazine's The Green Room: Shift Happening. I also have a post there about those who demand "accountability" over there.

Lesley comments on Prophet Yahweh and "diversity and UFOlogy" in Diversity in UFOlogy:
Oh yes, I know there are some out there cringing. They think people like Yahweh make everyone involved in Ufology seem like a nut. Speak for yourselves, it is my personal belief that nobody aside from yourself can make you look like a nut. So what if you do look nutty, why do you care? We should have all learned that from our families, almost everyone has that one crazy uncle or some relative that is a total nut, it only causes a few small minded people to think the entire family is nutty.


There is so much more; the world is literally in a "UFO Flap" right now. Scan any of the UFO/Fortean news sites, like The Anomalist, and you'll find many more links that lead to individual sightings, videos of UFOs, personal accounts, news on disclosure, tantalizing hints of things both deeper, darker, heavier, as well as things lighter, brighter, exhilarating, spiraling outwards.

UFO Mafia: WOLVES IN THE FOLD…CAN YOU TRUST YOUR FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD UFOLOGIST?

At UFO Mafia, a post about the so called UFO researchers we need to be aware of. As Lesley points out in her blog The Debris Field, where I found the link to UFO Mafia, this is a sore subject a lot of us have been ranting about for a long time.

Many of these people are obvious. I'm not going to name names, but they are the ones I call "thugs" or sometimes "new thugs" -- they pretend they're aren't sitting on the fence, that they aren't hob nobbing with the trolls, that they aren't exhibiting nasty troll like behavior themselves much of the time, that they aren't wasting time and spreading negative energy by insulting others.

Here's a bit from UFO Mafia:

Bottom line is I’ve run into many a notable UFO researcher who just doesn’t fit into the equation of wanting to solve the mysteries involved. Instead they gripe, make bizarre accusations, try to publicly invalidate another person’s reports and theories, just real underhanded tactics one would think would come from the skeptics and debunkers.