tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81046004502254065972024-03-18T09:56:00.713-07:00Bad UFOs: Skepticism, UFOs, and The UniverseReflections on UFOs, skepticism, and practically anything else by Robert Sheaffer, author of the book "Bad UFOs," plus the "Psychic Vibrations" column in The Skeptical Inquirer).Robert Sheafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324537021429419111noreply@blogger.comBlogger307125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8104600450225406597.post-4003942598108918592024-02-07T10:51:00.000-08:002024-02-07T22:15:43.944-08:00Disclosure Warriors Uncover a Vast UFO Coverup Conspiracy: Guerrilla Skeptics on Wikipedia!<p><span style="font-size: small;">We have just recently witnessed one of the funniest episodes of UFOlogical stupidity in recent memory: Some of UFO's top Disclosure Warriors dramatically announce they have uncovered a "secret cabal" manipulating Wikipedia articles about UFOs. Matt Ford of the Good Trouble Show <a href="https://twitter.com/GoodTroubleShow/status/1749172454466199756" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">posted this dramatic announcement on TwitX on January 21</a>:</span><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqPyqgFbDeWH_E6YuCSCvTMKQLe2T8M8pNT7wYw2luG36vtiGGPA9nhqmpqiSj2Vd0I819fqtAeThCl5aQ2U1QivbSu71uPq80WCqcHpEWs_DQUd8vP8nEpo2rNQwsmpC6yR-85WwHIS31jzlOLCSA2FIqLQhuRo5tMnKOGnGI06BlfyjJLi-inGiVWPIk/s937/Clipboard01.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="937" data-original-width="597" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqPyqgFbDeWH_E6YuCSCvTMKQLe2T8M8pNT7wYw2luG36vtiGGPA9nhqmpqiSj2Vd0I819fqtAeThCl5aQ2U1QivbSu71uPq80WCqcHpEWs_DQUd8vP8nEpo2rNQwsmpC6yR-85WwHIS31jzlOLCSA2FIqLQhuRo5tMnKOGnGI06BlfyjJLi-inGiVWPIk/w408-h640/Clipboard01.jpg" width="408" /></a></div> <br /><div style="text-align: justify;">This was <a href="https://twitter.com/GoodTroubleShow/status/1749479817580568987" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">followed up the next day by the following</a>:<br /></div><div><div style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;">TODAY 530pm Pacific. @RobHeatherly1<br />joins
us as he exposes the Secret Cabal of debunker Wikipedia Editors run by a
non-profit 501(c)3 targeting Wikipedia pages on UFOs with a written
statement by @LueElizondo<br /></div>.</div><div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghs4OanORHs1tBlFxKZtvp0e0uEM9Fxbc9UFxYeMRGxIW9DZdd1pETko6xkktiCOXNWnierRGtFFfPOKRA3ecxwC5CVDWgMLerriYxPEos5iuQq-1I_g2pR7yvzWREvsoKg1DNO0e3GXwjmSgz6UOF13strEOTRvIQF1AH3IyvU4OnzUfA-Y-LpzTLa8pL/s889/Clipboard02.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="889" data-original-width="595" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghs4OanORHs1tBlFxKZtvp0e0uEM9Fxbc9UFxYeMRGxIW9DZdd1pETko6xkktiCOXNWnierRGtFFfPOKRA3ecxwC5CVDWgMLerriYxPEos5iuQq-1I_g2pR7yvzWREvsoKg1DNO0e3GXwjmSgz6UOF13strEOTRvIQF1AH3IyvU4OnzUfA-Y-LpzTLa8pL/w429-h640/Clipboard02.jpg" width="429" /></a></div><br /></div><div> </div><div> </div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2OKpm_gp9mOFBie-__2Qk6fBI7-5euuk8BNAh8fzEg_kcqkIJuG4utmu7UnF1UZ8irrrspdybecBe2V09I0Uj1fJCD72YtO8r0c9zFxTsuDmwl8kpH16Ae19Zee3NOLunxdIkxtAIkx7y3WrbTUQOpBAAIXC9iuoKjI5laY0cRbwrcLD9AqGTcZSmFV4B/s917/Clipboard03.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="917" data-original-width="620" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2OKpm_gp9mOFBie-__2Qk6fBI7-5euuk8BNAh8fzEg_kcqkIJuG4utmu7UnF1UZ8irrrspdybecBe2V09I0Uj1fJCD72YtO8r0c9zFxTsuDmwl8kpH16Ae19Zee3NOLunxdIkxtAIkx7y3WrbTUQOpBAAIXC9iuoKjI5laY0cRbwrcLD9AqGTcZSmFV4B/w432-h640/Clipboard03.jpg" width="432" /></a></div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">So there we have it - these Disclosure Warriors,<b> including the esteemed Lue Elizondo himself</b>, dramatically announce to official Washington, and to the world, that they have uncovered a major "Cabal" covering up UFO truth! So dramatic!!! Elizondo claims to have headed up the Pentagon's AATIP UFO investigation program, which unfortunately never had any budget. He later worked with Tom DeLonge, who promised to build spacecraft that would go "To The Stars." <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOB/comments/19dg25p/statement_from_lue_elizondo_regarding_wikipedia/" target="_blank">Here is what Lue had to say about GSoW:</a><br /><br /></span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCeIV4UAI6v9nOFQQG44_PGpM4o5sum7VkbMaa0ry0mk4rorSApitGiFURwxrKSBNcn8obiflQegQkKUF2CZn1bQ9PO60jGfoprupIpZjeXqr6M2BXdFvWLgUrHSzmPvNvcEs0MbQX69eG1NV-YjqUHS7ULL94_3I7lNqqbmGaFbmwe6YwGS4kNKUuYO4P/s960/statement-from-lue-elizondo-regarding-wikipedia-edits-v0-dfbh9jf2b4ec1.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCeIV4UAI6v9nOFQQG44_PGpM4o5sum7VkbMaa0ry0mk4rorSApitGiFURwxrKSBNcn8obiflQegQkKUF2CZn1bQ9PO60jGfoprupIpZjeXqr6M2BXdFvWLgUrHSzmPvNvcEs0MbQX69eG1NV-YjqUHS7ULL94_3I7lNqqbmGaFbmwe6YwGS4kNKUuYO4P/w640-h360/statement-from-lue-elizondo-regarding-wikipedia-edits-v0-dfbh9jf2b4ec1.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Guerrilla Wikipedians must be good saucer pilots, since they are "wreckless."</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">The only problem is: this is a "Cabal" that was never "secret" in the first place! Guerrilla Skeptics on Wikipedia (GSoW), headed up by skeptic Susan Gerbic, has been around since 2010.<a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2012/07/skepticism-at-2012-mensa-annual.html" target="_blank"> I wrote about it in this Blog in 2012</a>, and <a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2013/06/guerilla-skepticism-now-we-have-klass.html" target="_blank">again in 2013.</a> It was <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/guerrilla-wikipedia-editors-who-combat-conspiracy-theories/" target="_blank">the subject of a major article in Wired magazine in 2018,</a> among other places. So anyone who thinks they have uncovered a "Wikipedia secret cabal" has the investigative skills not of a Sherlock Holmes, but of a Mr. Magoo. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xufFRbmhpLc" target="_blank">Here is a video from 2020 of Susan explaining what GSoW is all about</a>. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b> </b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Disclosure:</b> Technically I am a member of GSoW, although I have not participated in it very much. I did add some info to a few pages, and I have uploaded a number of my photos to Wikimedia Commons that might have relevance to UFO history.<br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"> <br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8vkTNSpiZQ8qDKXsswRZQqa578uoI9YUIj88f6Q4euyXKpy58zQBQkzh5-g86NOXPhhuYKbfdawpwwQ7H8bPJVpL7x8jeql9oJjmgLraRlBrdglKtbTTPpvw5u5zAUPCFWu_JcX9Mg1bud9FzkzEtQun5CJ0mY9D3RP8sJNw75cehCtJYSZpfKYxT6bHH/s1024/SDC10243.JPG" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8vkTNSpiZQ8qDKXsswRZQqa578uoI9YUIj88f6Q4euyXKpy58zQBQkzh5-g86NOXPhhuYKbfdawpwwQ7H8bPJVpL7x8jeql9oJjmgLraRlBrdglKtbTTPpvw5u5zAUPCFWu_JcX9Mg1bud9FzkzEtQun5CJ0mY9D3RP8sJNw75cehCtJYSZpfKYxT6bHH/w640-h480/SDC10243.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">Susan Gerbic, with her camera as always, making friends with the Dinosaur in the Creation Museum in Santee, California in 2012.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">These UFO warriors seem to think that the skeptical Wikipedians are just arbitrarily changing article texts, and creating misleading articles. What they don't seem to understand is that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Ten_simple_rules_for_editing_Wikipedia" target="_blank">Wikipedia has rules</a>. You need to have citations, you also need to avoid copyright infringements, self-promotion, etc:<br /></span><div style="margin-left: 40px;"><span style="font-size: small;">To maintain the highest standards possible, Wikipedia has a strict inclusion policy that demands verifiability. This is best established by attributing each statement in Wikipedia to a reliable, published source (but see Rules 7 and 8 on excessive self-citing).... All articles in Wikipedia should be impartial in tone and content. When writing, do state facts and facts about notable opinions, but do not offer your opinion as fact. Many newcomers to Wikipedia gravitate to articles on controversial issues about which people hold strong opposing viewpoints.</span></div><div style="margin-left: 40px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">There is a "talk" page for many articles, to discuss or debate the application of these rules to the contents of that page. These sometimes turn into big debates for controversial articles, so if you have a problem with something you read in a Wikipedia article and want to change it, you'd better be able to solidly back up your claim. Given many UFOlogists' propensity for making exciting but unfounded claims, it is frankly no surprise that the articles they write would run afoul of Wikipedia rules, and end up removed or re-written.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">Meanwhile, for any UFOlogist who believes that GSoW has been inaccurate or unfair in what it wrote in a Wikipedia article -<b> then challenge them on the article's Talk page.</b> If you can make a good case that they are not correct, it will get changed, and the change will remain. Plus, you can brag to all your friends about how you defeated the nasty Debunkers on Wikipedia. But I don't see this happening, and I think we can figure out why. đ<br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>Robert Sheafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324537021429419111noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8104600450225406597.post-30585052721116994012024-01-08T21:36:00.000-08:002024-01-08T21:36:54.655-08:00The Strange Life and Death (?) of Al Seckel (Part 2)<p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-strange-life-and-death-of-al-seckel.html" target="_blank">(Continued from Part 1) </a><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Seckel was enjoying a lot of success posturing as an âexpert,â or at least as a âcollector,â of illusions, primarily visual. He spoke before many audiences, wrote (or plagiarized) articles and books, and traveled across the globe to share his presentations. Many of the illusions Seckel presented were invented by the magician Jerry Andrus (1918 â 2007). Andrus was a well-known and well-loved figure in the skeptic community, as well as with magicians, and often spoke at skeptic conferences. I learned that, following Andrus' death, Seckel's Eye Wonder wanted to buy the rights to all of Andrus' illusions and other works. I recommended against it.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqB2kd1mHyvHIYUgDs5_cGyDJzJb4q_sJy3WfXBgMSU-5i3KB7QLthMYeWZTk1_E3MCTSSvthM-5DiSL9WMV_nFL0CKxkDA5pKVqheHPCl76TfPrAxott_UMvunmu_bawoBXirc95bTkMv_EXeMNun5wxB3iRJguKWKGBtcs6JyNfRRwJL_5u9A3nW-AqM/s1328/TEDxUSC.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1053" data-original-width="1328" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqB2kd1mHyvHIYUgDs5_cGyDJzJb4q_sJy3WfXBgMSU-5i3KB7QLthMYeWZTk1_E3MCTSSvthM-5DiSL9WMV_nFL0CKxkDA5pKVqheHPCl76TfPrAxott_UMvunmu_bawoBXirc95bTkMv_EXeMNun5wxB3iRJguKWKGBtcs6JyNfRRwJL_5u9A3nW-AqM/w400-h318/TEDxUSC.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2004 Seckel was invited to give a TED talk on visual illusions. His Bio calls him an âexpert on illusions.â<a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/al_seckel_visual_illusions_that_show_how_we_mis_think" target="_blank"> It notes, </a><br /></div><p style="margin-left: 80px; text-align: justify;">"A previous version of this biography described Seckel as a "cognitive neuroscientist," which was not accurate".<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">However, Seckelâs 2010 TEDxSCS talk â[Y]Our Mind's Eyeâ describes him as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BU8WEVn_LMg" target="_blank">âCognitive neuroscientist Al Seckel, formerly of the California Institute of Technology.â</a><br /><br /><br /></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBHj679jo0BPX74kV-VssoxPSL-o5FFV3xlBuDKr7UrnbBup9Mr3KNQlbnohM0gNntos1IC_6AjMqowEiBnVvjStLThKHZqrJYbNf2jw4ZQhglRQNXhYAMBl6zNgrG-14GPeGH_L0kiZevSWhfQCmhHf8LIgZWa2xdE3tvS7QkvKf18zqSqLUW8x1rCsAC/s792/DeniceLewisCover1988_3.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="792" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBHj679jo0BPX74kV-VssoxPSL-o5FFV3xlBuDKr7UrnbBup9Mr3KNQlbnohM0gNntos1IC_6AjMqowEiBnVvjStLThKHZqrJYbNf2jw4ZQhglRQNXhYAMBl6zNgrG-14GPeGH_L0kiZevSWhfQCmhHf8LIgZWa2xdE3tvS7QkvKf18zqSqLUW8x1rCsAC/s320/DeniceLewisCover1988_3.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Denice Lewis, 1988</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;"> </p><p style="text-align: justify;"> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">After two divorces, in June, 2004 Seckel married Denice D. Lewis, who was reportedly "Europe's highest paid catwalk model" for over a decade. They move into a custom home in Malibu that rented for $13,500 a month. She files for divorce just four months later. (Probably he told her âIâm a scientistâ and âIâm rich,â both of which were false.) <br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Seckel successfully postures not only as an âexpertâ on illusions, but also as a futurist and visionary, giving many talks. His financial status was always rather dodgy, but he somehow managed to keep borrowing enough from Peter to pay Paul. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"> </p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5KzALXieaq8mq4jhRLnDe-VFq6AJBT82jj5UBXLtf_NeHTQCsJQPpjNCOM-QWptajeGw90R4L_E7Ok2ofc2fQrwzd874-8fs0vmtmF34zUjq6qZmCdjaB5tLKzNZlh0DBmUnVhjRTD0oJjzl48vabzem__9HiGiiGn619THK1elm6jrBSJIJ7Qk9pKwYq/s499/AlSeckel_IsabelMaxwell.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="349" data-original-width="499" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5KzALXieaq8mq4jhRLnDe-VFq6AJBT82jj5UBXLtf_NeHTQCsJQPpjNCOM-QWptajeGw90R4L_E7Ok2ofc2fQrwzd874-8fs0vmtmF34zUjq6qZmCdjaB5tLKzNZlh0DBmUnVhjRTD0oJjzl48vabzem__9HiGiiGn619THK1elm6jrBSJIJ7Qk9pKwYq/s320/AlSeckel_IsabelMaxwell.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr align="justify"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: small;">Al Seckel and Isabel Maxwell speak
at the <br />
World Economic Forum (WEF), 2011<br /></span></td><td class="tr-caption"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2007 Seckel married Isabel Maxwell, daughter of the late billionaire fraudster Robert Maxwell, and sister to Ghislaine Maxwell. She had many connections in the world of high tech.<br /></div><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;">In January, 2011<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110415012053/http://www.jeffreyepsteinscience.com/2010/11/jeffrey-epstein-to-host-mindshift-conference/" target="_blank"> Seckel organized a âMindshift Conferenceâ on Jeffrey Epsteinâs infamous private island</a>. The participants were Murray Gell-Mann, Christof Koch, Catherine Mohr, Gerald Sussman, Frances Arnold, Leonard Mlodinow, Paul Kirkaas, Brock Pierce, Ron Reisman, Pablos Holman, Dan Dubno, and Reichart Von Wolfsheild. Isabel was there with him.<br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs8Opx8gNc311cg082C00hLASLZ8jb2TbuiRH6O1mrQMgOMT5YDQAgZ1EwcNwRv5A3etiSNq46F0YYk6j4_T4TXkCNz7Ry3KwD7q072YyoZqypf8lydLYm_sloQrBQaLLCErFtdhFaaWeJlzgwSjDJmOYPrC4XoBJjA0TRyi0zRX4HG2mdUOw7yJL1V4cg/s1056/EpsteinSeckelMindshift2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="629" data-original-width="1056" height="382" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs8Opx8gNc311cg082C00hLASLZ8jb2TbuiRH6O1mrQMgOMT5YDQAgZ1EwcNwRv5A3etiSNq46F0YYk6j4_T4TXkCNz7Ry3KwD7q072YyoZqypf8lydLYm_sloQrBQaLLCErFtdhFaaWeJlzgwSjDJmOYPrC4XoBJjA0TRyi0zRX4HG2mdUOw7yJL1V4cg/w640-h382/EpsteinSeckelMindshift2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">"Jeffrey Epstein and Al Seckel have assembled a diverse and eclectic intimate group of exceptional thinkers and achievers to discuss various topics...."</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Sometime around 2010, Seckel and Isabel moved permanently to France, living for a while in a Chateau that was owned by a friend, and moving around to other places. Seckel and Isabel repeatedly use the excuse that they are "destitute" to avoid traveling to the US for court depositions and hearings involving their bankruptcy filings and other ongoing court cases.</p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxnzp6KyFSqErwn0fPPNCBty3-PQFxl47onvoM0I6N6DSc43yQUvusc2AHqVpkQGG0kXgmBwwqlQ5UOgzohcxhMpuvuEgAeDZ_35RCvExZXDdu4mH_zIRME7lgLKL6UqbKAL0nLba1UalQw8kZyNwklZj_8fAN_RrhYEY0RKvILNf2XK-dsbuGvrBu2W6_/s335/IsabelAlElizabethHawkingZeroG.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="222" data-original-width="335" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxnzp6KyFSqErwn0fPPNCBty3-PQFxl47onvoM0I6N6DSc43yQUvusc2AHqVpkQGG0kXgmBwwqlQ5UOgzohcxhMpuvuEgAeDZ_35RCvExZXDdu4mH_zIRME7lgLKL6UqbKAL0nLba1UalQw8kZyNwklZj_8fAN_RrhYEY0RKvILNf2XK-dsbuGvrBu2W6_/s320/IsabelAlElizabethHawkingZeroG.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Al Seckel & family join Stephen Hawking
<br /> for a Zero-G flight.</span> <br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">Seckel had been suing skeptic Tom McIver for "libel," i.e., revealing some of Seckel's frauds and impostures. In 2013 McIver contacted journalist Mark Oppenheimer, who had interviewed Seckel a few times previously concerning atheism, humanism, etc., and had attended some of Seckel's parties. In 2000 the interview was for an article on atheist history. Seckel was one of the early officers of Atheists United in Los Angeles, which is still active today. Seckel was with that group when it broke off from the atheist group founded by Madelyn Murray OâHair, who was very much a control freak.</div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">McIver suggested that Oppenheimer interview Seckel again, to look into the many accusations of financial impropriety. Seckel apparently did not like the questions that Oppenhiemer was asking, and the article's October, 2014 publication was cancelled because of legal threats from Seckel. Seckel realized that Oppenheimer would not be writing a puff piece (like most journalists nowadays do), and cut off all contact with him. <br /><br /></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkJYC7Ta-slxgk1NhRrqM4Oprli_FJBJ2d1beP7TTsbiu5xDwF02ENwP00QMGaVnXmPWeYRDEtYoKkTZcPma5pgYttwTONTtIVLBSc3MMY2IhzxSHUB0qjEiov-fIB2G7hs6EIVqyC0GwTIxJq7D4TuthsCs426nt2Rcu7cXQZltbayXRJ7inAaWsSsySa/s1330/TabletJuly_20_2015.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="615" data-original-width="1330" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkJYC7Ta-slxgk1NhRrqM4Oprli_FJBJ2d1beP7TTsbiu5xDwF02ENwP00QMGaVnXmPWeYRDEtYoKkTZcPma5pgYttwTONTtIVLBSc3MMY2IhzxSHUB0qjEiov-fIB2G7hs6EIVqyC0GwTIxJq7D4TuthsCs426nt2Rcu7cXQZltbayXRJ7inAaWsSsySa/w640-h296/TabletJuly_20_2015.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Article that Ended Seckel's Career as a Con-Man, and Perhaps his Life. (July 20, 2015)</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Finally, On July 20, 2015: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160307052442/http:/www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/191806/the-illusionist-al-seckel" target="_blank"><i>Tablet </i>online magazine publishes Mark Oppenheimer's article on Seckel, "The Illusionist."</a> Tom McIver<a href="https://undeceive.weebly.com/" target="_blank"> describes the significance of this article:</a><br /></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;">Article focuses on Seckelâs obsession with befriending, socializing with, and gaining the confidence of celebrities and powerful and influential people in science, academia, entertainment, media, and the entrepreneurial world, often hosting them at his eclectic parties. Among his guests not mentioned elsewhere on this timeline: biologist David Baltimore (Nobelist, Caltech president), billionaire Elon Musk (PayPal, Tesla Motors, SpaceX), actress Sharon Stone, and musician Slash. Mentions that Gell-Mann, Koch, and Shimojo no longer endorse Seckel, and that Pearce Williams' wife was pleased he has been exposed as owing money to them. Also mentions that it is "remarkably easy to find people who believe Seckel took their money," naming several. Quotes Gerald Sussman as saying "I don't feel good about it" when asked if he'd given money to Seckel, implying he had. Mentions that Seckel now trying to sell Robert Maxwell's papers, without success. Includes quote from Denice Lewis that their divorce was never finalized (and Seckel denying they had been officially married). Notes that Seckel's attorney in Seckel v. McIver (Nicholas Hornberger) admitted that Seckel never paid his legal fees.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;">After publication of the Oppenheimer article, Seckelâs career as a
wheeler and dealer among the rich and famous would be over. After reading
this account of one person after another complaining that Seckel had
cheated them of significant sums of money, no serious person would ever
again enter into a business deal with Al Seckel.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The Oppenheimer article dropped an even bigger bombshell â Denice Lewis told him that<b> she and Seckel were still legally married!</b> Their divorce was never finalized. Therefore, Seckelâs marriage to Isabel Maxwell was never valid, a fact she apparently did not know until then. You can imagine how she reacted to this!</p><div style="text-align: justify;">The world didnât hear much about Seckel for a while after this. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160303212623/http://www.alseckel.net/" target="_blank">Then suddenly on Sept. 19, 2015, a memorial website appears for Seckel,</a> saying<br /><br /><div style="margin-left: 40px;">Al Paul Seckel, who died at the age of 57 near his home in France, is best known for helping to make optical illusions a household name throughout the world.<br /></div><br />No time or place of death, or cause of death, is given in this anonymous announcement. Who wrote it? Isabel? Possibly even Seckel himself? Seckelâs alleged death was noted in various internet postings, but not in any actual news reports. As time passed, the paucity of details on the fate of Al Seckel became widely noted and remarked upon. No death certificate was ever presented, even to this day (and many people tried to find it). It was widely speculated that Seckel did not die but went into hiding, perhaps with the assistance of Epsteinâs circle. But apart from rumors, there was no evidence whether Seckel was alive, or dead.<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10712491/Mystery-death-Ghislaine-Maxwells-brother-law-finally-declared-suicide.html" target="_blank">Then, finally on April 14, 2022 the <i>Daily Mail </i>headline blared</a>,<br /><br /><div style="margin-left: 40px;">EXCLUSIVE: 'A hand and a foot were missing, probably eaten by wild boars.' Mysterious death of Ghislaine Maxwell's con-man brother-in-law is finally declared a suicide SEVEN YEARS after he jumped to his death from a 100-ft. cliff in France<br />Al Seckel's disappearance in 2015 has finally been solved â he flung himself off a high cliff outside a picturesque French village<br />Seckel claimed to be the husband of Ghislaine Maxwell's older sister Isabel, but in fact he had not divorced his third wife <br />It was originally believed that he might have faked his own death when a major expose about how he conned buyers of rare books was about to be published<br />His body lay unnoticed for weeks before it was finally found on July 1, 2015<br />'It was the smell of putrefaction that eventually led to the corpse,' former deputy mayor Roland Garreau told DailyMail.com.<br /> 'A hand and a foot were missing, probably eaten by wild boars or foxes,' Garreau told DailyMail.com<br />By RORY MULHOLLAND IN SAINT-CIRQ-LAPOPIE, FRANCE, FOR DAILYMAIL.COM<br /><br />PUBLISHED: 10:52 EDT, 14 April 2022 | UPDATED: 10:52 EDT, 14 April 2022<br /></div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Seckel eaten by pigs? Maybe I do believe in Karma.<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">But this is the only news source to offer any information about Seckelâs fate. The article contains what it calls Seckelâs âdeath certificate,â but it actually appears to be a statement from the Mayorâs office, partially handwritten, based on a police report. It is not a formal certificate as is found in vital records.<br /><br />At present I would say that the âpreponderance of evidenceâ suggests that Seckel probably did die in France in 2015, but I wouldnât say that it is established âbeyond a reasonable doubt.â On the one hand, it is entirely reasonable to think that a person who has just suffered a devastating , irreparable setback might become suicidal.On the other hand, remember that Seckel's reported death was inexplicably kept secret for two months, then reported anonymously. There is also the lack of a formal death certificate. When dealing with the likes of Jeffrey Epstein, Al Seckel, and the Maxwells, it is reasonable to believe that somebody might have gone to a lot of trouble to deceive you.<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">During the 2021 trial in New York City which found Ghislaine Maxwell guilty of sex trafficking and other charges, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/29/ghislaine-maxwells-sex-trafficking-trial-in-pictures" target="_blank">Ghislaine's sister Isabel was seen, faithfully attending every session and supporting her sister in every way</a>.<br /><br />Iâm wondering when we will see a Netflix documentary series about Seckel, maybe âThe Great Illusionist?â</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNj2bQeZKfrw8LxavTxLw2BPIRdMu3ES9PTeLyMXK4BepJdx2xFxtETXYwSyCCwMKM1jx6Ej-50kC7xpB4USR8kOFvOPx4qwKP1NNKEtHyjrRu18MjSM-smooVTgFfpUABJ-34PQBgCKMQDo3o3hi3x1io0iARog9dIl9rWtW0K7qvH6XsKmHh4S1vQQry/s1024/gettyimages-1360257468-1024x1024.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="683" data-original-width="1024" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNj2bQeZKfrw8LxavTxLw2BPIRdMu3ES9PTeLyMXK4BepJdx2xFxtETXYwSyCCwMKM1jx6Ej-50kC7xpB4USR8kOFvOPx4qwKP1NNKEtHyjrRu18MjSM-smooVTgFfpUABJ-34PQBgCKMQDo3o3hi3x1io0iARog9dIl9rWtW0K7qvH6XsKmHh4S1vQQry/s320/gettyimages-1360257468-1024x1024.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Isabel Maxwell arrives at her sister's trial, 2021.</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">(End)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />[Much of the material used in this report is drawn from <a href="https://undeceive.weebly.com/ " target="_blank">Tom McIverâs exhaustive "Seckel" compendium</a>] <br /><p></p><br /></div>Robert Sheafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324537021429419111noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8104600450225406597.post-3238680582234173812024-01-05T14:49:00.000-08:002024-01-08T21:38:15.773-08:00The Strange Life and Death (?) of Al Seckel (Part 1)<p style="text-align: justify;">This article veers just a bit from our usual dose of UFOlogy to talk
about a man who was both a skeptical activist and a con-man, whose
exploits sound like the script of an implausible movie â except it
all really happened. Al Seckel was (or perhaps still is?) a very strange
and interesting character. He founded the Southern California
Skeptics in 1985, as a local affiliate of CSICOP (Committee for the
Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, now just
âCSIâ). He claimed to be a âphysicist,â sometimes a
âcognitive neuroscientist,â but never completed even a year of
college. He claimed to be a graduate student working on a PhD in
physics (and History of Science) at Cal Tech in Pasadena, but had actually just been âhanging aroundâ there (during which time he
became friends with the famous physicist Richard Feynman, and
arranged lectures for the Southern California Skeptics at Cal Tech).
Soon accusations of financial improprieties were swirling around
Seckel, although CSICOP didnât pay much attention, and reflexively
defended âtheir guyâ from attacks. The attacks mostly came from
critics of CSICOP - Erik Beckjord, James Moseley, George Hansen - but in this case the critics were correct. When
Seckelâs deceptions finally led to the collapse of the Southern
California Skeptics, he disappeared from sight (supposedly because he
was dying of leukemia, or else cancer). Seckel did actually have leukemia, although
his illness didnât occur until after SCS had already collapsed. He later
made a complete recovery.
</p><p style="text-align: justify;">
Seckel surfaced again a few years later as a TED talker and a famous
scholar of optical illusions, writing (and
sometimes plagiarizing) books and articles, again claiming bogus
degrees and affiliations. He rubbed shoulders with many famous
people, and after two divorces Seckel (somehow!) married supermodel
Denice D. Lewis, who previously had dated George Hamilton, Dodi Fayed,
and Pierce Brosnan, among others. (The marriage only lasted a few
months.) Later Seckel married Isabel Maxwell, the daughter of the billionaire media mogul (and disgraced fraudster) Robert Maxwell, who has a more famous
sister named Ghislaine. Seckel became an associate of the notorious sex offender Jeffrey
Epstein, in 2011 organizing a science-related conference on Epsteinâs
(in)famous private island (although no sexual improprieties have been
alleged concerning this conference). About 2011 Seckel and Isabel moved from
California to France, apparently to
better escape
creditors and avoid testifying for their pending bankruptcy. Then in September, 2015,
Isabel publicly announces that her husband Al Seckel was dead, having
fallen off a cliff in France two months earlier. (Why she would wait
two months to announce his death has never been explained.) However,
no documentary evidence of Seckelâs reported
death was then produced â although we may have something like that now.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101112051416/http://www.jeffreyepsteinscience.com/2010/10/jeffrey-epstein-talks-perception-with-al-seckel/" rel="nofollow" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="420" data-original-width="544" height="494" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimXf0mIpqzcyyHtRhqtQqbiAvXbUbfZ1awPSoTGDdJVgPbYkChTXp_9DRQNiqWAgNG5WyQxK7WBmQxMvvTg8r6uBTjqFkWVCaD5Et6RLoLpEdR3F7Eh7Cn8EJZMMwcSalV-xHKbi3M4rwxYukunXqCSx5wN6mELV-0x2Ksu0zRT7o6CYLBgE853z0ezQ/w640-h494/EpsteinSeckelPerception3.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101112051416/http://www.jeffreyepsteinscience.com/2010/10/jeffrey-epstein-talks-perception-with-al-seckel/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">From Jeffrey Epstein's Website<br /></a></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p>And that, in a nutshell, is the crazy story of Al Seckel. Skeptic Tom McIver,
who had been sued and harassed by Seckelâs lawyers for exposing
Seckelâs
frauds, maintains a complete chronology of Seckel-related events at
<span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="https://undeceive.weebly.com/">https://undeceive.weebly.com/</a>,
</u></span></span>from
which much of this information is taken.
</p><p style="text-align: justify;">
I first met Al Seckel at the 1984 CSICOP Conference, held at Stanford
University. He was then an enthusiastic young man of twenty-six,
claiming to be a graduate student in âphysicsâ and âhistory of
scienceâ at Cal Tech. He sought me out because I had
been a co-founder of the Bay Area Skeptics
(along with magician Bob Steiner) just two years earlier. Seckel
explained that he was in the process of founding a similar group in
Southern California, and wanted to discuss our experiences, and
get my advice. Soon afterward, he invited me to
come down to Pasadena (I was then living in San Jose) to deliver the
very first lecture for Southern California Skeptics, held at Baxter
Auditorium on the Cal Tech campus in Pasadena. To motivate me, Seckel
told
me that his friend Richard Feynman was very
interested in hearing what I had to say about UFOs! I certainly could
not turn down such an opportunity. My
talk was well-received, but there was no sign of Feynman. Oh,
something came up, Feynman couldnât make it, Seckel said.</p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNATq3Tdheob0E_oR0F8JDs65fAvo56GdPRmBd8Zc8-Y7ThsJd-4wV_tdRnGYpXpHku8OmOBJmXVa2Gxw_ommR84jmD1PvCYcEKx7jnfWyfJwWIU-CQq1UH9CWPm0F1y8hT9KHhnFEwP8TDtb_57ONVJzDvfKbWjLIAJSqpxRL16Dx4sgO4xyQLw8t8g/s958/SheafferTalk_1985.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="958" data-original-width="760" height="825" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNATq3Tdheob0E_oR0F8JDs65fAvo56GdPRmBd8Zc8-Y7ThsJd-4wV_tdRnGYpXpHku8OmOBJmXVa2Gxw_ommR84jmD1PvCYcEKx7jnfWyfJwWIU-CQq1UH9CWPm0F1y8hT9KHhnFEwP8TDtb_57ONVJzDvfKbWjLIAJSqpxRL16Dx4sgO4xyQLw8t8g/w655-h825/SheafferTalk_1985.jpg" width="655" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">The flyer Seckel made to promote my inaugural talk for the Southern California Skeptics</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">
On a
later trip that I made to Los Angeles, I visited Seckel in his home,
in Pasadena or thereabouts. It looked ordinary from the outside.
However, the inside was filled with a dazzling assortment of valuable
antiques. Not 1920s furniture, or anything like that. Instead,
furniture pieces that were apparently hundreds of years old, looking
like they were imported from castles and estates
in Europe. I had not seen anything like that before (or since!).
Seckel explained that he was an antiques broker, buying and selling
such pieces for clients. Of course I was impressed. Later it turned out that Seckel was embroiled in many lawsuits concerning ownership of these valuable antiques.<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"> I was among the many people plagiarized by Seckel.<a href="https://www.debunker.com/texts/CleverDog.html" target="_blank"> I wrote an account of a "clever dog" tested by the Bay Area Skeptics, published in their July, 1987 newsletter</a>. "Clever animals" - a horse, or a dog - can supposedly do arithmetic and answer questions far beyond the mental ability of any animal. But invariably, they can only perform when in sight of their trainer, as we found was the case with the Clever Dog Sunny. Seckel called me, saying he wanted to use that story in the newspaper column he was than writing for the Los Angeles Times. I agreed, but I had no idea that <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120120104450/http:/articles.latimes.com/1987-12-21/local/me-20359_1_sunny" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">he was going to write me out of the story completely,</a> presenting it as his own (which was impossible, since he was not there). <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150921162344/http:/articles.latimes.com/1987-10-19/local/me-10336_1_claim" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Seckel also appears to have appropriated a story from James "The Amazing" Randi,</a> published without attribution. I also understand that Seckel swindled Randi out of a sum of money, although I never inquired about the details.
<br /></p><p></p><p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJeZGgApWcM_k6UXL4eHUUppI71JwFz06sLZaU3UU23rFmrO5tGdZbQ13OAW0r7tUpVy-kiJu4HBLY2OvOi7rrOcGBnE6aS6o9wVvoPzUjlHCYnNq4zzlPAxs_xPBD6hGgIRzOcL7YGYwrImH_Gor3gbHa1Agl8sAWj07ITStTvnunnFiLmY4DAZJ4jw/s644/SkepticalInquirerCreationism.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="644" data-original-width="541" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJeZGgApWcM_k6UXL4eHUUppI71JwFz06sLZaU3UU23rFmrO5tGdZbQ13OAW0r7tUpVy-kiJu4HBLY2OvOi7rrOcGBnE6aS6o9wVvoPzUjlHCYnNq4zzlPAxs_xPBD6hGgIRzOcL7YGYwrImH_Gor3gbHa1Agl8sAWj07ITStTvnunnFiLmY4DAZJ4jw/w538-h640/SkepticalInquirerCreationism.jpg" width="538" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">One of Seckel's articles in CSICOP's <i>Skeptical Inquirer. </i>He claimed credit for organizing this statement of Nobel Laureates.</span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table>
<br />
<p style="text-align: justify;">
For several years Southern California Skeptics (SCS) seemed to be a
big success story, and CSICOP gladly trumpeted Seckelâs
apparent successes. Seckel publicly debated creationist Duane Gish,
and claimed to have soundly boxed his ears. He claimed to be the
inventor (later, claimed co-inventor) of the Darwin Fish (like the
Christian fish symbol, but sprouting legs). But soon problems became
evident. In December, 1987 the State of California revoked SCSâs
nonprofit status because Seckel had failed to file the required
financial forms. Nonetheless, Seckel continued to represent SCS as a
ânonprofitâ organization for years. SCSâs checks bounced, and
money disappeared. Pat Linse (1947-2021) was a volunteer with SCS,
later working as an artist and editor for <i>Skeptic</i> magazine.
She warned CSICOP about Seckelâs shenanigans, but was largely
ignored. After SCS had collapsed in 1990, two years later Michael
Shermer founded the Skeptics Society, based at that time in Pasadena,
and bringing in many of the same people who had been part of SCS,
even continuing the monthly lectures in Baxter Hall originally
organized by Seckel. However, by this time Seckel had moved on from
skepticsâ organizations, finding bigger fish to fry. Seckel had
nothing to do with <i>Skeptic</i> magazine or with Shermer, who has
always run the Skeptics Society as a proper organization.
</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">
Soon, Seckel had re-branded himself as the âworldâs leading authority
on visual and other types of sensory illusionsâ, claiming, at
various times, academic affiliations with Cal Tech, or Harvard. He
founded IllusionWorks, and later EyeWonder publishing. During
his career as an expert on visual illusions,
Seckel wrote (or plagiarized) many articles and books, gave many
lectures, and rubbed shoulders with the rich and famous, including
Murray Gell-Mann, Marvin Minsky, Nathan Myhrvold, Larry Page, Arno
Penzias, Steve Wozniak, Stephen Hawking, Matt Groening, Mike Farrell,
Arianna Huffington, Paul MacCready, Burt Rutan, Craig Venter, Richard
Branson, Robin Williams, Sergey Brin, Peter Diamandis, James Cameron,
among others.
</p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib8CPCO0jDx3fH_q3mgLT3Wfijmw6pwbf38ApAPrfqYrc8I9h0zDz7SZ7u--Y3r3j-_iPShfuTvxrBIzlxaGTJAs6R0nQqhqlTjVWp87rr1kXq2U8sYCwOZk0oacYTQm5jRpugbCggk61KkZzjzpRQ2kxjdICvXRpGw_exm7eLE6-VBCSY4vc6fjCT7g/s300/SeckelHomeGathering.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="206" data-original-width="300" height="440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib8CPCO0jDx3fH_q3mgLT3Wfijmw6pwbf38ApAPrfqYrc8I9h0zDz7SZ7u--Y3r3j-_iPShfuTvxrBIzlxaGTJAs6R0nQqhqlTjVWp87rr1kXq2U8sYCwOZk0oacYTQm5jRpugbCggk61KkZzjzpRQ2kxjdICvXRpGw_exm7eLE6-VBCSY4vc6fjCT7g/w640-h440/SeckelHomeGathering.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Famous guests at a party in Seckel's home</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"> </span>
</p><div style="text-align: justify;">
About this gathering in his
home, Seckel wrote,
<br /><blockquote>This was one of the great intellectual gatherings that I held
in my home in Pasadena in the 80s. In the back row (starting from the
left) was the distinguished microbiologist Dr. Elie Shneour, then
Manny Delbruck (wife of Max Delbruck, the "father of molecular
biology") and noted comedian and former late night television
host Steve Allen. Bottom: Legendary engineer Paul Macready, myself, Nobel Laureate
Francis Crick (co-discoverer of the structure of DNA) and my friend
John Edwards.
</blockquote></div><p style="text-align: justify;"> I knew Elie Shneour
(1925-2015) from skeptic meetings in San Diego and elsewhere. He was
obviously a very brilliant man. Yet he defended Seckelâs reputation
until his death. And he was not the only one â several other
skeptics have somehow continued to defended Seckelâs reputation.
The Dean of UFO skeptics, Philip J. Klass, defended Seckel almost reflexively, until finally
admitting in 1994 that Seckel had lied about his academic background. Michael Shermer had written to Klass, "If I never hear from him or about him again it
will be too soon. I have never met anyone who can evoke such venom
from so many people. A week does not go by that someone doesn't tell
me another horrible Seckel story."
<br /><br />Seckel leased a Ferrari (but ended up owing $70,000, which was never paid). He rented expensive houses in Pasadena, Malibu and elsewhere, and ending up owing $100,000 for the one in Malibu. The list of people suing Seckel for non-payment was quite long. One of Seckelâs biggest legal battles was with Ensign Consulting Ltd., in which an investment fund claims it was conned by a self-described "master illusionist" who persuaded it to invest in rare books and artâincluding a portrait of Sir Isaac Newtonâand<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160304100510/http://www.courthousenews.com/2011/03/10/34803.htm" target="_blank"> then absconded with more than $543,000 and a bunch of the loot.</a><br /><br /></p><br /><div style="text-align: center;">
[<a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-strange-life-and-death-of-al-seckel_8.html" target="_blank">Continued in Part 2]</a></div>
<p></p>Robert Sheafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324537021429419111noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8104600450225406597.post-79920721323639867382023-10-12T20:27:00.001-07:002023-10-12T20:35:12.392-07:00Netflix's "Encounters", Episode 2, Promotes Sensational Claims but Ignores Answers<p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;">In the previous posting, we examined how <a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2023/10/netflixs-encounters-episode-1-leaves.html" target="_blank">the first episode of Encounters presented the 2008 sightings in Stephenville, Texas in loving detail,</a> but ignored the already-known explanation for all of it. Second verse, same as the first!</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Episode 2 of Netflix's <i>Encounters</i> (one of whose Executive Producers was.Steven Spielberg's Amblin Television) covers the alleged 1994 UFO and alien sightings by as many as 62 school children (but no adults) at the Ariel School in Zimbabwe. A great deal has been written about this case, I won't try to repeat that in any detail. <br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9G5J5zCTiiEyU2yyQr9ZA2idSAMdTGOOdRj7geH39WD65fkog3rc6-NFVHjlHUWVSXMeMvvp4SA2pmy54LP7iqXniXODEdAexaSKCBNL-1YKk2_s__jb2t773TbCF956r4KFPKpKOOeo3wPJQ9Sf6bW_M-Wh3-a58qrGA3SQAcjvhuoKlJpkJ7Bck-BVY/s900/arial-phenomenon.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="506" data-original-width="900" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9G5J5zCTiiEyU2yyQr9ZA2idSAMdTGOOdRj7geH39WD65fkog3rc6-NFVHjlHUWVSXMeMvvp4SA2pmy54LP7iqXniXODEdAexaSKCBNL-1YKk2_s__jb2t773TbCF956r4KFPKpKOOeo3wPJQ9Sf6bW_M-Wh3-a58qrGA3SQAcjvhuoKlJpkJ7Bck-BVY/w640-h360/arial-phenomenon.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">One of the children drew this Spaceman, with his Spaceship.</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">As described in <a href="http://www.ufoevidence.org/cases/case127.htm" target="_blank">UFO Evidence,</a><br /></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;">On 14th September, 1994, a UFO streaked across the sky over Southern Africa. Two days later, something landed in a schoolyard in Ruwa, Zimbabwe, with three or four things beside it, according to journalist Cynthia Hind. This was witnessed by 62 schoolchildren, who had little or no exposure to TV or popular press accounts of UFOs. Cynthia Hind interviewed them the day after the encounter and made them draw pictures of what they had seen.<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The case has since gone on to become a classic. The Harvard psychiatrist and UFO abductionist Dr. John Mack (1929-2004) came to Zimbabwe two months after the incident, and spent two days at the school interviewing the children, and the school staff. Interestingly, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9pH3cEF3VA" target="_blank">while there were about 250 children playing outside at the time, only 62 claim to have seen it.</a> Not all 62 children were interviewed by Hind or Mack. (It should be noted that Cynthia Hind was a dedicated UFO author and investigator.)<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">What might have been causing such extraterrestrial excitement? A "UFO streaked across the sky over Southern Africa" on Sept. 14? Newspaper reports described it as a "meteor shower," but there was no meteor shower. Not until several weeks later was it determined that the object widely seen across southern Africa was, in fact, the fiery re-entry of a Zenit-2 rocket that had launched Cosmos 2290. This then-unexplained sighting had caused a great stir and great UFO interest across the area.<br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrX3-kHr3UzAOCsnsO6SVgl2NjRarm56ewTB_WGYrBH7jkoHU5_VEDlmUtoswNdmdI69aFPxd1CXlxeGofGhFgZwK2AhiehvSnIsxZQQwKKwcRGBHyMfXNbX-LZznOQnbbU8gIFmvzwNaVqQqkM3vgXjcqyX-SQy1H2xrwioVArXWufg-ZovCRZne7rSKc/s1056/Cosmos2290r.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="436" data-original-width="1056" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrX3-kHr3UzAOCsnsO6SVgl2NjRarm56ewTB_WGYrBH7jkoHU5_VEDlmUtoswNdmdI69aFPxd1CXlxeGofGhFgZwK2AhiehvSnIsxZQQwKKwcRGBHyMfXNbX-LZznOQnbbU8gIFmvzwNaVqQqkM3vgXjcqyX-SQy1H2xrwioVArXWufg-ZovCRZne7rSKc/w640-h264/Cosmos2290r.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Satellite guru Ted Molczan recorded this visual observation of the rocket's fiery re-entry.</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://threedollarkit.weebly.com/ariel-school.html" target="_blank">Charlie Wiser has written a very detailed account of the Ariel School incident,</a> from a skeptical perspective.<a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2016/07/a-new-investigation-of-1994-ariel.html" target="_blank"> I wrote about this case in 2016</a>, some of which is reprinted here. <a href="http://skepticversustheflyingsaucers.blogspot.com/2016/06/rencontre-rapprochee-ariel-school-ruwa.html" target="_blank">The French psychologist Dr. Gilles Fernandez reviewed all of the written and recorded material concerning the children's interviews</a>. He wrote that</p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;">Interviewing children has been the subject of numerous scientific papers and experiments, adaptations and creations of interview standard protocols, in psychology or criminology, to well avoid or minimize biases that occur when such interviews (or questionnaires) "pollute" the evidence. Cynthia Hind's interview methodology with children is very far from these standards.... Cynthia Hind and an adult (Headmaster?) debrief and discuss "other planets", "space travel", etc. while children are in the room and hear everything ...</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT4MB5zUIhV2PZDFznfOeZ_MQQ22TyL41HF6icTCwm3I9z13slSpnXor-zXGlp5CLInbXg7W65PCwrGhIkoOPahBvmb4JH6Y8BcHncVJ6NDkmcjt8dcEt8TiRVFZANtb5GbWLH61q7Ure-fi-R09goOnbEVWwwhfrBsCUgdaRM-eB_3EOyvhBZdJXIPkrb/s1600/Clipboard01.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT4MB5zUIhV2PZDFznfOeZ_MQQ22TyL41HF6icTCwm3I9z13slSpnXor-zXGlp5CLInbXg7W65PCwrGhIkoOPahBvmb4JH6Y8BcHncVJ6NDkmcjt8dcEt8TiRVFZANtb5GbWLH61q7Ure-fi-R09goOnbEVWwwhfrBsCUgdaRM-eB_3EOyvhBZdJXIPkrb/w640-h180/Clipboard01.jpg" width="640" /></a><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Cynthia Hind interviewed the children all together, not separately</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT4MB5zUIhV2PZDFznfOeZ_MQQ22TyL41HF6icTCwm3I9z13slSpnXor-zXGlp5CLInbXg7W65PCwrGhIkoOPahBvmb4JH6Y8BcHncVJ6NDkmcjt8dcEt8TiRVFZANtb5GbWLH61q7Ure-fi-R09goOnbEVWwwhfrBsCUgdaRM-eB_3EOyvhBZdJXIPkrb/s1600/Clipboard01.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table>Fernandez notes that the children were not being interviewed individually, but instead all together:<p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;">The child must be interviewed individually (again following proper procedure). Now, in the video-recorded excerpts above, it is striking to see that children are interviewed in a "line" from four to six. Sometimes other children are in the background and listen to another child being questioned. The adults talk to each other or "debrief" while the children are still very close and present ... Also, children hear what others say (including adults), and therefore are likely to influence each other. Even worse, a child who has seen very little or nothing, sees his classmates details and that this is something that greatly interests adults (verbal and non-verbal rewards). This could encourage them to participate in the "game".<br /></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;">These collective sessions have therefore enabled children to hear each other and even to copy each other, caught in a game where they see adults and a nice lady interested in the narratives. We must therefore deliver in our turn, not be excluded or unwelcome in this "game" that took place. This potential participation or having participated give a certain homogeneity to the stories and therefore reported details ...<br />Also, Cynthia Hind conducting the interview is constantly interrupting the children and not allowing the free narrative. We must also wonder if the fact that the interviews as drawings sessions were held in the school, this did not lead them precisely, encouraged or "biased" them to make what would be compilations of stories ... kinds of school events, where, for example, the child thinks he must absolutely answer questions, produce a drawing, the adult (or authority here) will be waiting for answers and therefore it happens.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Then, as if the problems in the interrogation technique were not bad enough, Fernandez notes</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;">Finally, and this is rarely mentioned or noticed, there was also a session where the children were invited [by Hind] to draw on the board this time around-and not just on paper. Again, this does not back it literally "to send the child to the table" ? And it is still in my opinion a methodological error: the child is placed as in a school exercise status, "forcing him to produce" adult authority and waiting for something (and "authority" that the reward verbally or non-verbally) ... John Mack also, two months later, again invited children to draw ..</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://skepticversustheflyingsaucers.blogspot.com/2016/06/rencontre-rapprochee-ariel-school-ruwa.html" target="_blank">Dr. Fernandez' article detailing all of the problems with Ms. Hind's and Dr. Mack's interviews </a>is well worth reading (in French, which Google can translate).</p><p style="text-align: justify;">But then, unexpectedly, <i>Encounters </i>shows us a fellow named Dallyn (all of the students were identified by first name only. Later he was identified as Dallyn Vico) <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/aliens/comments/16tm06w/thoughts_on_dallyn_from_netflix_encounters_ep_2/" target="_blank">who claims to have made up the entire ufo/alien story to get out of class.</a> He claims it was a âshiny rockâ and somehow supposedly persuaded the other students they were seeing spacemen. To say that this guy was disbelieved on social media would be an understatement, and I don't believe him, either. <a href="https://twitter.com/ArielPhenomenon/status/1709669489271361719" target="_blank">Journalist Nicky Carter interviewed Dallyn Vico and other students two weeks after the event in 1994.</a> At that time he made no mention of making anything up. He said that he had seen the "meteorite" the night before, and the object he supposedly saw at the school looked like that, so he thought it was a meteorite, too. Asked if he believed that people could live on other planets as well as earth, Dallyn replied "yes." <br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM_Mw8T_tzvnQLQby5FuoSzDHFAQenXWMZySUm6_CQl5TvLJzVUcTCpRh2iy0lpQQWC4whx01IxT_WD1BkPk0PD2iQJlgzZCUbu4vwBy7Mh9-dGSSeWJknPgFG5Ecq9cLiMw7p0yxV2flRiNImeDdfep5cogTQzBHkhVkd-jfFeiSgtN5JcH2l61ZaJ1vr/s413/Clipboard01.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="316" data-original-width="413" height="306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM_Mw8T_tzvnQLQby5FuoSzDHFAQenXWMZySUm6_CQl5TvLJzVUcTCpRh2iy0lpQQWC4whx01IxT_WD1BkPk0PD2iQJlgzZCUbu4vwBy7Mh9-dGSSeWJknPgFG5Ecq9cLiMw7p0yxV2flRiNImeDdfep5cogTQzBHkhVkd-jfFeiSgtN5JcH2l61ZaJ1vr/w400-h306/Clipboard01.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Dallyn Vico in 1994</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://twitter.com/ArielPhenomenon/status/1707201471593238824" target="_blank">In a second interview in 2008, Dallyn said</a>,</p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;">I believe that the Ariel sighting, although we do not fully understand what happened, there was something definitely that did occur there that was out of the ordinary... I looked up into the sky and I saw these lights in the sky, but they weren't fixated in one area..."The lights were flashing like different colors, blue, red, yellow, purple. But they would like flash and then disappear and then they would flash again, but maybe a kilometer or a large distance in the air. They would reappear and flash again, in a different area.<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">He made no mention of his alleged role in any of this. When the story told by an alleged witness changes in such a major way, that person is a liar. Either he was lying before he changed his story, or else he is lying afterward. Which it is doesn't matter.<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">So what actually triggered the Ariel School incident? It is difficult to say for sure. But let us recall that this is far from the only incident of apparent mass contagion or mass hysteria, especially among children: <br /></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voronezh_UFO_incident" target="_blank">"The Voronezh UFO incident was an alleged UFO and extra-terrestrial alien sighting reported by a group of children in Voronezh, Soviet Union, on September 27, 1989. </a>The area has been popular with UFO-hunting tourists. <br /><br />"According to TASS, boys playing football in a city park "saw a pink glow in the sky, then saw a deep red ball about three metres in diameter. The ball circled, vanished, then reappeared minutes later and hovered". The children claimed to have seen "a three-eyed alien" wearing bronze coloured boots with a disk on the chest, and a robot, exiting the object.According to the children, the alien used a ray gun to make a 16-year-old boy disappear until the object departed."</li><li style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://www.theblackvault.com/casefiles/father-gill-1959-papua-new-guinea-ufo-sighting/" target="_blank">"In 1959 Papua New Guinea was still a territory of Australia. June of that year saw the spectacular sightings by Father William Gill,</a> an Australian Anglican missionary, and 37 members of his Boianai mission. Gill made notes about the experience, which the media obtained. Stories appeared in August, causing a sensation...One above the hills west, another over- head. On the large one two of the figures seemed to be doing something near the center of the deck, were occasionally bending over and raising their arms as though adjusting or âsetting upâ something (not visible). One figure seemed to be standing looking down at us (a group of about a dozen). I stretched my arm above my head and waved. To our surprise the figure did the same.... Hynek and Allan Hendry, the the [CUFOS] centerâs chief investigator, concluded the âlesser UFOsâ seen by Gill were attributable to bright stars and planets, but not the primary object. Its size and absence of movement over three hours ruled out an astronomical explanation." While this account does not involve children, the fact that Father Gill was the spiritual leader of this religious community makes it very likely that his followers would simply agree with what he claimed they saw. Chapter 22 of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ufos-Explained-Philip-J-Klass/dp/0394492153/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3VYCC8OWV9024" target="_blank"><i>UFOs Explained </i>by Philip J. Klass</a> discusses this case, and gives compelling reasons why these claims should not be taken seriously.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBIL54jCtBtFg2LOYe64-Bxm1rOg4FHTgiRFQN0zNwO0suqE3aoQlBfyD3EuKQlxXmwFpLziybX_xhOMdcgq0mr2_WM7guwoB_a009mO6CwS-HdaOEphXlUYg_iRP5wtVYvefrKnynV3EfiHuYA3JzHYXjsbEs7EmnlRHYx3kSclArHuq4AOiR2b8KojR5/s1280/Clipboard01.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBIL54jCtBtFg2LOYe64-Bxm1rOg4FHTgiRFQN0zNwO0suqE3aoQlBfyD3EuKQlxXmwFpLziybX_xhOMdcgq0mr2_WM7guwoB_a009mO6CwS-HdaOEphXlUYg_iRP5wtVYvefrKnynV3EfiHuYA3JzHYXjsbEs7EmnlRHYx3kSclArHuq4AOiR2b8KojR5/w640-h360/Clipboard01.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /></li><li style="text-align: justify;">More recently, <a href="https://www.skeptic.com/reading_room/strange-ailment-in-kenya-sets-social-media-alight/?mc_cid=23e5cc9b02&mc_eid=2a27b59530" target="_blank">"On Monday October 2, 2023, news reports from western Kenya told of a bizarre condition that had swept through St. Theresaâs Eregi Girlsâ High School.</a> At least 62 students were hospitalized after exhibiting uncontrollable twitching of their arms and legs, including rhythmic muscle contractions and spasms. At times the girls were reported to appear as if possessed by spirits and complained of headaches, dizziness, and knee pain. Many were unable to walk and had to be taken in wheelchairs to waiting ambulances. The strange outbreak occurred in the town of Musoli, about 230 miles northwest of Nairobi...Samples of blood, urine, phlegm, and stool were taken, along with throat swabs. All proved to be unremarkable. By Thursday, Kenyan health officials also ruled out the role of infectious disease and instead concluded that they were suffering from âhysteriaâ in response to stress from upcoming exams." Psychologist and skeptic Robert E. Bartholomew suggests that it was "mass psychogenic illness... Motor-based outbreaks are most common in less developed countries. They evolve more slowly, often taking weeks or months to incubate. They typically occur in the strictest schools where there is tension between students and administrators or some other conflict. Under such prolonged stress, the nerves and neurons that send messages to the brain become disrupted, resulting in an array of neurological symptoms such as twitching, shaking, convulsions, and trance-like states. This is the same type of outbreak that affected the young Puritan girls in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692 and led to the infamous witch craze." Which brings us to:</li><li style="text-align: justify;"><i>Saducismus Triumphatus</i> by Joseph Glanvill might be thought of as "The Scientific Study of Witchcraft," as it attempted to prove the reality of witchcraft on purely empirical grounds. In the 1689 edition, we read that in 1669, reports reached the Swedish king concerning a large-scale outbreak of witchcraft in the village of Mohra. The king dispatched some commissioners, both lay and clergy, "to examine the whole business." They found that the Devil had apparently drawn hundreds of children into his grasp and had even been seen "in a visible shape." After a careful investigation, they found no fewer than seventy adult witches in the village, who had managed to seduce about three hundred children into the practice of black magic. The commissioners interviewed each of the children separately (they were wiser than John Mack), and found that "all of them, except some very little ones" told stories that were highly consistent, of being supernaturally carried away to the witches' fest, riding through the air on the backs of animals (see chapter 7 of my book <i>UFO Sightings,</i> which can be <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ufo-Sightings-Evidence-Robert-Sheaffer/dp/1573922137/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3L0GIBNJ2XZDG" target="_blank">purchased on Amazon, </a>or "borrowed" from <a href="https://archive.org/details/ufosightingsevid0000shea" target="_blank">the Internet Archive library.</a>).</li></ul><p>So, whatever you choose to call it, "mass hysteria" and "social contagion" are not at all unlikely as explanations for bizarre incidents such as this. <br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p>Robert Sheafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324537021429419111noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8104600450225406597.post-86218516490066009082023-10-01T18:32:00.003-07:002023-10-01T18:40:35.394-07:00Netflix's "Encounters", Episode 1, Leaves Out Something Important - The Explanation!<p style="text-align: justify;">So much has been happening in UFOOLogy of late, stuff that is so silly and so widely-reported elsewhere, that I can't see any reason to write about it. Many have finally woken up to the fact that David Grush and other "whistleblowers" tell dramatic tales, but have no proof at all - a situation that has persisted for decades. (<a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2023/07/more-credible-eyewitness-testimony.html" target="_blank">In the 1970s and 80s, Len Stringfield of MUFON was telling almost identical tales</a> - also without proof). The Peruvian "alien mummies," presented to the Mexican Congress by Jaime Maussan, are being soundly and deservedly mocked as the frauds they are. <a href="https://www.livescience.com/62045-alien-mummies-explained.html" target="_blank">These mummies have been known to be non-alien for at least five years now;</a> so anyone involved in their promotion either didn't do any research, or else didn't care and wanted to promote fakery.<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjor6kguj0UQ8HettHaNUfu08s1ksdxF3XN_XEyCKB7_QNd8ZQjskkq9nJZFokJE0EedTYR1MyXBf0icYki7vaNHIlWU9kiu1_az3buOLlPM4Y85cHADTUvZWQBeNBqOepMi6atLZ1FhdKDXZd5WN4A_KZasDTK2f8mU9hJKJNs0tavHXCyaePiOu__DnB/s499/Clipboard01.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="402" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjor6kguj0UQ8HettHaNUfu08s1ksdxF3XN_XEyCKB7_QNd8ZQjskkq9nJZFokJE0EedTYR1MyXBf0icYki7vaNHIlWU9kiu1_az3buOLlPM4Y85cHADTUvZWQBeNBqOepMi6atLZ1FhdKDXZd5WN4A_KZasDTK2f8mU9hJKJNs0tavHXCyaePiOu__DnB/w516-h640/Clipboard01.jpg" width="516" /></a></p><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Which brings us to the new series <i>Encounters</i>, which premiered on Netflix on September 27. There were high hopes among UFO proponents for this series, one of whose Executive Producers was.Steven Spielberg's Amblin Television. I suspect many were disappointed. I have only seen the first episode so far, and found it tedious and boring. Its primary case is the well-known and widely-witnessed incident from Stephenville, Texas on the night of January 8, 2008. Far more time was spent telling us how people <b>felt</b> about what they saw, than trying to analyze <b>what </b>they saw.<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">It's strange that Encounters would put so much emphasis on the Stephenville case. There is no longer any mystery about what happened in Stephenville on January 8, 2008. UFO skeptic and retired Air Force pilot James McGaha investigated, and submitted his findings to <i>Skeptical Inquirer</i> editor Kendrick Frazier, who published them in the January/February, 2009 issue. <a href="https://cdn.centerforinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/2009/01/22164446/p56.pdf" target="_blank">The article is on-line here.</a> It turns out that the sightings occurred inside a "MOA", a Military Operations Area, where military training routinely goes on.</p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;">The FAA informed McGaha on January 18 that a group of four F-16s from the 457th Fighter Squadron entered the operating area at 6:17 pm local time. A second group of four F-16s entered the same area at 6:26 pm. They departed at 6:54 and 6:58, respectively. The time the aircraft were flying in the MOA accords with the time of the sightings....<br /></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;">What were the aircraft doing? McGaha says they were flying training maneuvers that involved dropping extraordinarily bright flares. The LUU/2B/B flare is nothing like the standard flares you might think of. These flares have an illumination of about two million candlepower. They are intended to light up a vast area of the ground for nighttime aerial attack. Once released, they are suspended by parachutes (which often hover and even rise due to the heat of the flares) and light up a circle on the ground greater than one kilometer for four minutes. The flare casing and parachute are eventually consumed by the heat. At a distance of 150 miles, a single flare can still be as bright as the planet Venus. McGaha also describes the testimony of a medical helicopter pilot, a retired U.S. Army pilot, flying that night, who saw the lights. He said: âI saw multiple military aircraft, with some dropping flares, in the area of the Brownwood 1 MOA.â<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;">That episode also showed us radar returns, supposedly demonstrating the presence of unknown objects inside the MOA at that time. <a href="https://cdn.centerforinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/2009/01/22164446/p56.pdf" target="_blank">What does this mean? </a><br /></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;">These raw data contain 2.5 million points of noise and scatter. MUFONâs report selected just 187 of these points to contend that radar had tracked a huge âobjectâ at least 524 feet in size, traveling near the Western White House (the Bush ranch, which is fifty miles southeast of Stephenville). âMUFONâs radar analysis is nothing more than cherry picking the 187 targets out of 2.5 million points of noise and scatter to make a track moving forty-nine mph for over one hour,â says McGaha. âThis analysis is absurd!â<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Case closed. The Stephenville case was a flare drop, essentially a repeat of <a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2014/01/arizonas-amazing-telepathic-flying.html" target="_blank">the flare drop responsible for the second part of the famous Phoenix Lights in 1997</a>. That flare drop <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_M._Goldwater_Air_Force_Range" target="_blank">also occurred in a military training area</a>. The writers of <i>Encounters</i> either chose to leave out the obvious explanation, or else did not bother to even look for one. After all, why risk losing a really good "unexplained" case by looking for explanations?</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPM-0NRrJmdnNnLqpKNiRUn3f39KCDEK8ZPprF2slsmYGTV0MigV_SEz1uLTDVm54N_dYs-hL9bphaXIZJG8QMHxOUoIF43As8j4rYntFNY2VA0FPHPLFCjhh1RKtQQv3xBOxz_EmgPue3iSnHHfhMXeMZMN4Vc9kXmFPY6DdQ6O5CpiijztYrSqrC7ZdL/s1407/Clipboard03.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="841" data-original-width="1407" height="382" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPM-0NRrJmdnNnLqpKNiRUn3f39KCDEK8ZPprF2slsmYGTV0MigV_SEz1uLTDVm54N_dYs-hL9bphaXIZJG8QMHxOUoIF43As8j4rYntFNY2VA0FPHPLFCjhh1RKtQQv3xBOxz_EmgPue3iSnHHfhMXeMZMN4Vc9kXmFPY6DdQ6O5CpiijztYrSqrC7ZdL/w640-h382/Clipboard03.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">A blurry UFO photographed by a Stephenville witness, weeks after the main sighting.</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p> I'll try to watch Episode 2 of <i>Encounters</i> soon, if I feel I can stomach it.<br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Another Famous Flare Drop - The UFO From 29 Palms<br /></span></b></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/now/video/group-investigates-mystery-triangle-ufo-spotted-above-u-s-marine-base-176261701642" target="_blank"><span style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="785" data-original-width="1050" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJUXWLenP7ulDWRscirKBDnXt5Yv2XZhgVKCGStuOueX_8rBBod-SEeCvmQQyMa0byOkXLT-iVMVfUV_4SCIA4UKvhzOV-TrPBcmZYVbY2q-OukuB2nvLN8vinMD316vX1zta3E0fQ29TTgaa0MRxH3dvFvbuX9YN8fXBfQBUaFktMShaKCsIaxt2h9Q/w640-h478/Clipboard01.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/now/video/group-investigates-mystery-triangle-ufo-spotted-above-u-s-marine-base-176261701642" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: small;">May 23: NBC News reports on the UFO From 29 Palms</span><br /></a></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Back in May, the major news media were filled with breathless accounts of a "mass UFO sighting" in the California desert, at Twentynine Palms two years earlier. Now, that fact alone should have raised one's eyebrow, because it is well-known that this is the location of a major training base for US Marines. So it'd be reasonable to suspect from the beginning that the Marines had something to do with this.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">But the Usual Suspects were <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/watch-video-footage-recorded-by-marines-shows-ufo-over-military-base/ar-AA1bAwgn" target="_blank">hyping the incident as if it were something utterly amazing:</a><br /></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;">Multiple videos appear to show a UFO flying over Camp Wilson in Twentynine Palms, California. The videos were recorded in April 2021 but only recently released by Jeremy Corbell and George Knapp during an episode of their podcast, <i>Weaponized</i>.<br /><br />Corbell and Knapp said that at least 50 people, including dozens of Marines, reported seeing the triangular object with lights on its edges. The object was in the air for about ten minutes and prompted a response from military officials, who dispatched helicopters and dozens of trucks to the area.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://youtu.be/PpVkN6SaLjw" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="202" data-original-width="357" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLF9b5-vG-_TzGf33c_DleLHyXttotcKjCZGzoO8t6vS0OmM_6V2DFZk-CFW_6I_STnRLcVZAF7N7dEcb4KPYMZhA38emjA7JudXgKif8S_RAZcR2yMkRA2PGZ5VCrzBQ5ZB4GxAcWM3AK3nMXJ_MOZM_ZJu_ce44MA_1Fp8SAsULk-K34Ahe1WwS-XrZJ/w640-h362/Clipboard01.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://youtu.be/PpVkN6SaLjw" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: small;">Jeremy Corbell's Podcast</span><br /></a></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;">It sounded too good to be true, and indeed it was. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEkRpXuqZqo" target="_blank">Research by Mick West of <i>Metabunk</i> and John Greenewald Jr. of <i>The Black Vault</i></a> showed that there indeed was a big training operation involving flare drops going on during the night in question, and that photos taken of the flare drop match perfectly with photos by those who believed they were seeing UFOs. Like the Stephenville incident, and the Phoenix Lights incident, a military flare drop has again been shown to be the cause of a highly-publicized UFO case.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">While this UFO case was all over the news, I was listening to an oldies radio station, and they played <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9Hl1zVGVHw" target="_blank">a 1947 hit by the Andrews Sisters, <i>The Lady From Twentynine Palms</i></a>. It tells about one young lady:<br /> </p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;">She left twenty-nine broken hearts<br />Broken in twenty-nine parts<br />Now there are twenty-nine fellas complainin' to their moms<br />About the lady from 29 Palms<br /><br />She got twenty-nine Cadillacs<br />Twenty-nine sables from Sach's<br />They came from twenty-nine fellas who never had their arms<br />Around the lady from 29 Palms<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The point being that, with so many unmarried young men in the Marines in Twentynine Palms, an attractive available woman might be showered with gifts by all the men pursuing her. <br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9Hl1zVGVHw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi07Fy6N72gxPtTQmMVYNzjIzciUz_ZhFagCoONCRJKwqo9ryVqxPbvRYZo25Lfc0LtavgEIVAqrtUDEthTw4K0I0Xs4mwxZUGjgEprDu_12brvO9Zxs1Rm-PX9aZ-h5fwc4zHRihWEsuhjfV1L4xH0Qo40JoMf9petdaxNzqC9X0s4K8AHdui4e8m5k_X/w640-h360/Clipboard02.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">So it occurred to me that this UFO ought to have its own version of the song. With a little help from my Muse (that's like a Moose, only smaller), I settled on this, as a beginning.</p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;">It had twenty-nine flashing lights<br />Gave twenty-nine people a fright<br />And now it's on the news for twenty-nine nights,<br />It's the UFO from 29 Palms!</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Perhaps you can think up some more verses? <br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"> </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p><br /></p><p></p>
Robert Sheafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324537021429419111noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8104600450225406597.post-40795622852552876382023-07-06T11:09:00.004-07:002023-07-09T15:50:36.347-07:00More Credible Eyewitness Testimony about Crashed Saucers & Dead Aliens!!!<p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Since UFO "confidential sources" and "whistleblowers" are now all over the news, let's examine some cases you might not have heard about. "Psychic" spoon-bender Uri Geller recounts how<a href="https://twitter.com/theurigeller/status/1676578428881973256" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> he was supposedly taken by his good friend Dr. Wernher Von Braun to see the alien bodies</a> from a saucer crash. </p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;">Friends I saw them with my very own eyes I was there in a refrigerated vault with Dr Wernher Von Braun, I had an encounter with them when I was 5, there are none human built vehicles, there are bodies and there are living aliens among us. The Israeli government knows about everything I have seen so does #NSA. I had photos which I took with my #MINOX camera that were stolen from my 57th apartment in NY. Wait until I find the negatives. <br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Wow! That always happens when somebody gets a good, clear photo of UFOs or aliens - something "happens" to the photos! Is this credible? <a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2014/01/discovery-canadas-close-encounters-mars.html" target="_blank">Robert Salas, of "UFOs and Nukes"</a> fame, <a href="https://twitter.com/keptycho/status/1676614424336142336" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">says he believes Uri </a>. So there you have it! I'm wondering if <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/xye5xw/that-time-the-cia-investigated-a-magician-to-see-if-magic-was-real-id" target="_blank">Hal Puthoff has anything to say about his old colleague's </a>claims? <br /></p><p></p><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikhDjHtmyUfxWIrmDthzMJ5QsHNGezAYcumo4y1UfeK7wLWdQFk6e087uMYuk_GYJEBv7s2iI-J0acQDUhMT-mv2z5S-FhfMzKzzCC4Q5JBvlzJzmKl6o5B2_eFSuZjne3oAiGyuIJB-OZPPLEDRl5FmUGp1X96W2PkbH2J9w9xvDPrIzQr2frQSWcY4sF/s1006/UriGellerET.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1006" data-original-width="609" height="760" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikhDjHtmyUfxWIrmDthzMJ5QsHNGezAYcumo4y1UfeK7wLWdQFk6e087uMYuk_GYJEBv7s2iI-J0acQDUhMT-mv2z5S-FhfMzKzzCC4Q5JBvlzJzmKl6o5B2_eFSuZjne3oAiGyuIJB-OZPPLEDRl5FmUGp1X96W2PkbH2J9w9xvDPrIzQr2frQSWcY4sF/w460-h760/UriGellerET.jpg" width="460" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Uri Geller says this Tik Tok video of a living alien is authentic!</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;">[Update July 9: Scott Brando of ufoofinterest reminds us that <a href="https://twitter.com/ufoofinterest/status/1272890361850052613" target="_blank">back in 2020,</a> he showed us that this "alien video" is <a href="https://www.facebook.com/shaban.havuzsalim/videos/881878152283928/" target="_blank">an acknowledged 'artistic creation' by Shaban Havuzsalim</a>. ]<br /> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCDrxN_VoA7WCIOQEL3BFnDo_20jtzf283qYcok0MC40Qm5cjvFF3lkUGuAMzael-8IEIw0DNFjUwOt-wdocOeeYtQBbOq-QBWV3yoyYyPgkxJ6nIBvyJidAmUpM-k6EMw1M0DgUpJ2I3pxx22LOxHoiFPD0xfK72OZjsIPmEkilMAEegwjScWMHCnZoAc/s924/Eao6PwNWAAcaKq2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="754" data-original-width="924" height="522" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCDrxN_VoA7WCIOQEL3BFnDo_20jtzf283qYcok0MC40Qm5cjvFF3lkUGuAMzael-8IEIw0DNFjUwOt-wdocOeeYtQBbOq-QBWV3yoyYyPgkxJ6nIBvyJidAmUpM-k6EMw1M0DgUpJ2I3pxx22LOxHoiFPD0xfK72OZjsIPmEkilMAEegwjScWMHCnZoAc/w640-h522/Eao6PwNWAAcaKq2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Those of us who are not UFO newbies are well aware of the times when we have been through all this before. Most significant were the many claims of<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_H._Stringfield" target="_blank"> the well-known UFO researcher Leonard Stringfield (1920-1994),</a> who worked with NICAP, MUFON, and CUFOS. In the 1970s, Stringfield began chasing down claims of "crashed saucers," and it seems that the more people heard about his investigations, the more people he heard from to make such claims. Here is an excerpt from a 1978 interview of Stringfield:</p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;">on several occasions in the past 30 years UFOs have crashed and the bodies of dead entities have been taken from them. The bodies have been examined and preserved. My sources describe the beings as from three to four feet in height and of humanoid appearance ..... What I have been getting lately are growing numbers of reports from reliable military people who claim to have seen all this firsthand.... There's a 1948 crash, another from 1951 or 52, something in 1953, one in 1958, and two incidents in the 70s.<br /></p><p>This was published forty-five years ago, almost a decade before the current celebrity "whistleblower," David Grusch, was born. <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtU1BH2hjodj0SS7l35d8lHKMCx1hyaZLzklgDsx7bmPzmwxsSOsvi90KACD5V6u_OigMGoIQDCFRW90w1F9B0BAzSBIPGXiaQSLwQrJKzbW_0HYoMbXAw9AQ2meaMqwzAMpkGIk-21CG4eOdHfKfhAf3CupVfifY6OmdEb0xHw3kiP88zQdC7a_PE8fXG/s958/StringfieldClarkJuly1978.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="958" data-original-width="722" height="715" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtU1BH2hjodj0SS7l35d8lHKMCx1hyaZLzklgDsx7bmPzmwxsSOsvi90KACD5V6u_OigMGoIQDCFRW90w1F9B0BAzSBIPGXiaQSLwQrJKzbW_0HYoMbXAw9AQ2meaMqwzAMpkGIk-21CG4eOdHfKfhAf3CupVfifY6OmdEb0xHw3kiP88zQdC7a_PE8fXG/w538-h715/StringfieldClarkJuly1978.jpg" width="538" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Here Stringfield says that he has a total of 24 different sources, although only four are first-hand witnesses. When Jacques Vallee spoke with Stringfield in 1989, that number of "first-hand" sources had reportedly increased to 37. <br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBpGHnRrY5aEtsrVH9RXPpg6LfozKOeqmIycgJzPOSKDiy6PrFyrXtYJAvEcpvdTwMmTW9xrb_k3Ld_RofkaEtoHv8kuaCj8PJBvEsITTrMXoKg3gr9v-5UxTy0e-NJwisDwuwgZYtnwjfUiHCcEfj7SRiU2Wn1H8Qjs5QLIG4nESCYJ3dPvB3vvVDoI8l/s677/StringfieldVallee2_1989.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="180" data-original-width="677" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBpGHnRrY5aEtsrVH9RXPpg6LfozKOeqmIycgJzPOSKDiy6PrFyrXtYJAvEcpvdTwMmTW9xrb_k3Ld_RofkaEtoHv8kuaCj8PJBvEsITTrMXoKg3gr9v-5UxTy0e-NJwisDwuwgZYtnwjfUiHCcEfj7SRiU2Wn1H8Qjs5QLIG4nESCYJ3dPvB3vvVDoI8l/w640-h170/StringfieldVallee2_1989.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;">And what has happened to all these "informants," and the secret ET projects they supposedly worked on? Did it all just 'evaporate' into the haze of history?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Of course, Stringfield was not the only one to gain attention by claiming knowledge of Crashed Saucers and dead aliens. In 1974, <a href="https://thesaucersthattimeforgot.blogspot.com/2018/06/inside-hangar-18-with-dr-robert-carr.html" target="_blank">Robert S. Carr made headlines by telling stories about alien bodies in the deep freeze</a> at Hangar 18 of Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio. And of course,<a href="http://www.debunker.com/Scully.html" target="_blank"> the famous hoax in Frank Scully's 1950 book <i>Behind the Flying Saucers</i>,</a> claiming that a saucer crashed near Aztec, NM in 1948. <br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">So, you can see why those of us who are familiar with UFO history are pretty much all saying, "Same old, same old!" in this matter. <br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">And now, just for fun, here is the Flying Saucer Physicist, Stanton T. Friedman, predicting impending 'Disclosure' in 1968, fifty-five years ago!<br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSCRmhI8VGtIeZNs0g5gTjMZYJbkG1CKKC3QNEv-CmZGLo9HYo5djn2UlqIXMDK-YWzEgk8ZHuKEVQxnrbdEsQG2MMS-Oz0YqcFQ8JuMoi7sSsm36-w7nsgT3SUwNSapl2pvPtiSBav4PzJurit-ke3LukzfalTTBG0L0clChb6IvI_fL7C83F7IIsMbbM/s798/FriedmanDisclosure1968.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="671" data-original-width="798" height="538" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSCRmhI8VGtIeZNs0g5gTjMZYJbkG1CKKC3QNEv-CmZGLo9HYo5djn2UlqIXMDK-YWzEgk8ZHuKEVQxnrbdEsQG2MMS-Oz0YqcFQ8JuMoi7sSsm36-w7nsgT3SUwNSapl2pvPtiSBav4PzJurit-ke3LukzfalTTBG0L0clChb6IvI_fL7C83F7IIsMbbM/w640-h538/FriedmanDisclosure1968.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">from the Dallas Times Herald </span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Robert Sheafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324537021429419111noreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8104600450225406597.post-86305269692670442762023-06-29T11:04:00.001-07:002023-06-30T09:19:25.746-07:00He Sees Dead People. "The Key â A True Encounter" By Whitley Strieber<p style="text-align: justify;">Now that <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeqEPzJHVis" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Whitley Strieber has come forward to talk with Jeremy Corbell and George Knapp,</a> taking advantage of the current UFO infatuation to peddle his usual woozy stuff, it made me recall the review I wrote of Strieber's later book, <i>The Key</i>. I am wondering how much of Whitley's wacky claims Corbell and Knapp even know about. Do they still think that Strieber is credible? <br /><br />By the way, in this interview posted June 27, Whitley says, "I think we're right on the edge of the truth coming out, I think we're very close" to UFO Disclosure. Let's add this to the long, long list of Disclosure predictions. Maybe this time he'll be right? đ<br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif5H1M8JO3LeemJ6xyHOSwcswH7ZDi7y9Sbm2Nf96mkrKZUwdYjOETT9Djsj4rbAXm4aRrP9NbWRVGui-iot34WZQHcF9cA3vXM9QfcorEGlo9RHuiIOqXhF_LQAIx7oTm1Xw2q3nMoRkgxNrjWHxd5kueE0WYMRvt58Qh371DYiNPaWlYwfD3y0V6AM72/s1620/Clipboard01.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="957" data-original-width="1620" height="378" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif5H1M8JO3LeemJ6xyHOSwcswH7ZDi7y9Sbm2Nf96mkrKZUwdYjOETT9Djsj4rbAXm4aRrP9NbWRVGui-iot34WZQHcF9cA3vXM9QfcorEGlo9RHuiIOqXhF_LQAIx7oTm1Xw2q3nMoRkgxNrjWHxd5kueE0WYMRvt58Qh371DYiNPaWlYwfD3y0V6AM72/w640-h378/Clipboard01.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeqEPzJHVis" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Jeremy Corbell, Whitley Strieber, and George Knapp.</a></span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: center;">( My review of Strieber's book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Key-True-Encounter-Whitley-Strieber/dp/1585428698/ref=sr_1_1" target="_blank"><i>The Key â A True Encounter</i>. </a>New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin Group 2011. ISBN 978-1-58542-869-4. 256pp, $15.95)</p><p style="text-align: center;">Reprinted from <i>The Skeptical Inquirer</i>, July/August, 2011 <b><span style="font-size: large;"> <br /></span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">He Sees Dead People</span></b><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">In 1987 Whitley Strieber, already well-known as a writer of fantasy and science fiction like <i>Wolfen, The Hunger</i>, and other tales published the supposedly non-fiction book <i>Communion </i>about his ongoing encounters with ET-like beings he calls âthe visitors.â It was on the <i>New York Times</i> bestseller list for many weeks, followed up by <i>Transformation</i> in 1988, and then by numerous other paranormal-themed books, some admitted to be novels, others not. Imagine if Steven King had written a masterful horror novel, but claimed that all of the ghostly goings-on really did happen to him, although he could offer no proof of any of it. Thatâs where we stand with Strieber.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7HEJxpEFyycUPboZtd9PkAvnbr3gFUp13aoKoZGsrPP98sHDHsRImh5NRnoXeLgNBY0fPdGWTIY00fokT1q8rDK3Gkmz_he5UoefOFRekQVyPAGV96WDJeM2rW_bpzrBOb_lcKbgJibvQDjZWaU6iZU9WGZze8cb25XC2LH9l8UZOpKirUFFsveCsG2Ce/s816/WhitleyAnne3.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="740" data-original-width="816" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7HEJxpEFyycUPboZtd9PkAvnbr3gFUp13aoKoZGsrPP98sHDHsRImh5NRnoXeLgNBY0fPdGWTIY00fokT1q8rDK3Gkmz_he5UoefOFRekQVyPAGV96WDJeM2rW_bpzrBOb_lcKbgJibvQDjZWaU6iZU9WGZze8cb25XC2LH9l8UZOpKirUFFsveCsG2Ce/s320/WhitleyAnne3.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Whitley with his late wife, Ann Strieber, in 2012.</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">In <i>The Key</i>, Strieber writes, âmy experience between 1985 and 1993 with creatures that appeared to be alien was associated with a surprising side effect, which was simultaneous contact with the dead, who would appear along with the visitors, and not as ghosts.â What a pity he didnât mention those dead people when he wrote about âthe visitorsâ in Communion or Transformation.<br /><br /><i>The Key</i> begins in 1998 when Strieber says that, late one night during a long and grueling book promotion tour, a mysterious man unexpectedly knocked on the door of his hotel room. Against his better judgment he let the man in, who proceeded to engage Strieber in âthe best conversation Iâve ever had,â described as âdeeply, profoundly newâ and ârichly textured.â What did this ordinary-looking man, who came to be called âThe Master of the Key,â have to say? Gems like âThe energetic body has a spin, or vibration. This can go infinitely fast. It can reach beyond the speed of light, and exit time altogether.â Or, âAll being includes all elements of the earth, and thus all are part of all bodies. We are the consciousness of the planetary level that it has spent all of its life evolving, each and all of us.â The Master would seem to be on the fast path to a Nobel Prize in physics, except for being disqualified by his admission that he was dead.<br /><br />There is also some dark conspiracy about Mars that is only hinted at in statements like âMars was murdered by you.â As for crop circles, they are âtwo dimensional portraitsâ created by dead people. The Master also warned âWarmth being retained near the surface by greenhouse elements results in cooling aloft. A massive and extremely powerful convection can arise that results in a storm so great that it changes the climate permanently. The next ice age will begin soon, and this will lead to the extinction of mankind.â Strieber is the co-author of the ridiculous eco-disaster novel, <i>The Coming Global Superstorm</i>, along with Art Bell, the late night conspiracy talk show maven, from which was made the movie <i>The Day After Tomorrow</i>. <br /><br />As you might surmise from a skilled storyteller, The Master walks out the door, and disappears mysteriously into the night. Say what you want about Strieberâs credibility, but he does know how to turn a fine phrase, and how to spice up a story. Still, Strieber, the Masterâs ventriloquist, comes across as a rather loopy and preachy social activist, but as the late George Adamski surely realized, nobody would care about his political statements unless they actually came from the Venusians. And however preachy, at least The Master isnât as long-winded as John Galt. <br /></p>
<hr /><p style="text-align: justify;">
Strieber had more to say about seeing Dead People when <a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2012/03/skeptic-at-2012-international-ufo.html" target="_blank">he spoke to the International UFO Congress in 2012.</a> <br /></p><blockquote>Streiber returned to the theme of contact with the dead that he first began to promote in his book <i>The Key.</i> Dead people, he says, dress in a brown monk's cowl, "Jesuit clothing." Some of the visitors think it is possible for mankind to Evolve, while others apparently are not so optimistic. That is why the visitors are so cautious and stealthy. Afterward, mankind will be changed completely, and come face-to-face with the dead. Strieber still says he does not know exactly who "the visitors" are, but he knows that The Dead play a large role.</blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">
(This book review also appears on my Debunker website, along with another piece describing<a href="https://www.debunker.com/texts/strieber.html" target="_blank"> my Close Encounter with Whitley Strieber</a> in 1988.)<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p>Robert Sheafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324537021429419111noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8104600450225406597.post-5428565635408289472023-06-13T09:45:00.002-07:002023-06-13T11:12:33.989-07:008 Foot Tall Aliens Land in Las Vegas Back Yard!!!!<p style="text-align: justify;">So, you've probably seen wild stories about this on the news: <br /><br />"Big, shiny eyes. Towering nearly 10 feet tall. 100% not human." the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-06-09/las-vegas-police-investigate-reports-of-alien-sightings" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Los Angeles Times</a>.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">"Vegas police respond to report of '10-foot creature' in yard after green flash across sky."<a href="https://edition.cnn.com/videos/us/2023/06/10/las-vegas-alien-ufo-backyard-report-police-orig.cnn" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> CNN</a>.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">"Aliens among us? Vegas UFO report latest in UAP sightings investigated worldwide." <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/06/09/uap-sightings-recent-ufo-reports/70308410007/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">USA Today</a>. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">And many other places. UFO stories are good for "clicks", for ratings, and the wilder, the better. <br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MRfdMinB2Y" target="_blank"><span style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1076" data-original-width="1920" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoNcKalEHVtbquU-6ftoY3N_dnljXCUx2E9bHChveATyQSIqr1Kt_BONcrr6tFF6SvxyIY-gm6sIYQTw6XbU_2XPcZKJMP-rGgRcIh7VkFvwo614xyJ4sBdJAfsf_9mHK-ysTbBOeB_j7H-uCTnOGzoFti1rPgb1Qwk1J4susaMPAeOaze0ObHk8mAuQ/w640-h358/Clipboard01.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MRfdMinB2Y" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: small;">Note the time stamp: 2023 May 1, 06:49 UTC</span><br /></a></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;">But let's look at this carefully. From this video, it is obvious that the object is a brilliant meteor fireball. I've seen many such videos before, and even a few such fireballs with my own eyes. Now in this copy of the video, we can see the time stamp (for some reason George Knapp's Channel 8 seems to have chopped it off in their copies). And when I saw the time stamp, I realized, since the American Meteor Society records such fireballs, this gives us something to investigate.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIr0iXzlGfLKJ7kiYrrmRls_P9hiQXqaLlXFejvC9Y1PV7fEng7Ko7L-vBKc31RgXl6BRX8SLczK69uAmH3wSaUJra7WOjImshQ9Zc1iZ6ftnQZBH0ejckyYnL_azL7vPL0G2OddTOiGybVdIdMjbKnGRnDTbRbIYnSBCPdDzGEXpcZTCMtrt0A99TTg/s1838/Clipboard01.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="694" data-original-width="1838" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIr0iXzlGfLKJ7kiYrrmRls_P9hiQXqaLlXFejvC9Y1PV7fEng7Ko7L-vBKc31RgXl6BRX8SLczK69uAmH3wSaUJra7WOjImshQ9Zc1iZ6ftnQZBH0ejckyYnL_azL7vPL0G2OddTOiGybVdIdMjbKnGRnDTbRbIYnSBCPdDzGEXpcZTCMtrt0A99TTg/w640-h242/Clipboard01.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">American Meteor Society map showing observers' locations. Trajectory was east-to-west.</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://ams.imo.net/members/imo_view/event/2023/2408" target="_blank">The American Meteor Society states, "We received 21 reports about a fireball seen over AZ, CA, NV and UT on Monday, May 1st 2023 around 06:48 UT."</a> This exactly matches the time stamp on the above video. There is no doubt remaining, what people saw that night, all across the Western states (and not just in Las Vegas), was a brilliant fireball. <a href="https://ams.imo.net/members/imo_video/view_video?video_id=12818" target="_blank">Watch the video on that AMS page</a>, and you will see how absolutely brilliant the meteor became for just a second.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">What about those 8-foot-tall aliens reportedly seen in the back yard? Well, it turns out that Angel, the guy who claimed to see the aliens, now has a<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdsYfGvIznM" target="_blank"> YouTube channel named "Alien Society 51." </a>On it, he tells his yarn about how two giant alien creatures supposedly invaded his back yard. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W11r_PTT-Y" target="_blank">Here is another interview with him</a>, where he tells how the alien went into his fork lift. Believe it, if you can.<br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbblHg67g-WV01y7u0Lky88I0h5YIiAZe20VuukyhxlG8ToKei7m20DW4hROng7nFRwA20xMpYVuAPZOWCcVuS3OOIkK20SXrppb_HKxixAwu3ZdRa-6UYCqu-jC4KJEPkyFeuVkbi3V8xANZ1kN126cYdebg8jZqhNnVyKUhvHsETPJyGd16XStMZKQ/s1366/Clipboard01.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="978" data-original-width="1366" height="458" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbblHg67g-WV01y7u0Lky88I0h5YIiAZe20VuukyhxlG8ToKei7m20DW4hROng7nFRwA20xMpYVuAPZOWCcVuS3OOIkK20SXrppb_HKxixAwu3ZdRa-6UYCqu-jC4KJEPkyFeuVkbi3V8xANZ1kN126cYdebg8jZqhNnVyKUhvHsETPJyGd16XStMZKQ/w640-h458/Clipboard01.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Honest, I'm not making this stuff up!</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;">Some people are suggesting that a circular pattern in the gravel in his yard was left by the saucer landing, although Angel did not strongly make such a claim. In any case, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSPu70YLQNk" target="_blank">photos from Google Earth reveal that this pattern already existed more than a year before the supposed incident</a>. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">In January, 2022, <a href="https://twitter.com/Alien51NFT/status/1481761495025397765" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">a twitter account called "Alien Society 51 NFT" was created,</a> and some have attempted to link it to Angel. NFTs ("Non-Fungible Tokens") are a type of digital ownership certificate, pertaining to works of art. While a few people have profited greatly from such "investments," they remain highly speculative. That NFT account never went beyond its initial posting. Other than the name similarity, I have not seen anything to connect "Alien Society 51" to "Alien Society 51 NFT."<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"> When a transparently bogus story like this makes national headlines, usually without a hint of skepticism or investigation, it shows the sorry state of UFOOlogy, and so-called "journalism," today.<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /><br /></p>Robert Sheafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324537021429419111noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8104600450225406597.post-84144517923658497962023-06-07T19:35:00.001-07:002023-06-07T19:35:29.783-07:00Story of Dramatic New "UFO Whistleblower" Begins to Crumble<p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">So, unless you have been living under a rock these past few days, you have seen the breathless, uncritical news coverage about the latest "UFO whistleblower" making extraordinary claims. His is a former Intel guy named David Grusch, who has recently been turning up all over the credulous media, making claims of 'secret government crashed UFO retrieval programs.' How to know which reporters are credulous and foolish? That's easy: if they ran with this story on the basis of no evidence at all, that's them. And Grusch admits all this is only hearsay - he says he hasn't seen any crashed saucers, or even any photos of them. Or of the alien bodies that he says were found inside......<br /></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://youtu.be/ZSj7QsHRxHQ" target="_blank"><span style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1023" data-original-width="1610" height="406" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7tO7cRBidRhxtQhFaKLUXvoJv3QcXfxXws_tNO-EJ0frWt5z7g-yZtl3LRWpBoEFmpGPqxyzBOqDNAMrDTMHJKCyVjXjvf7sEd7WoacxxsmLJSstjQQjRWuJTgKojzr1GUtTaPT7KlbL4NEC4Q6V_qasHHdINQBGqgiQZnOXmQ1LJX6y5z8YKoLrWzw/w640-h406/Clipboard03.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://youtu.be/ZSj7QsHRxHQ" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: small;">David Grusch</span><br /></a></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;">It began with an article in The Debrief by Leslie Kean and Ralph Blumenthal,<a href="https://thedebrief.org/intelligence-officials-say-u-s-has-retrieved-non-human-craft/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> "INTELLIGENCE OFFICIALS SAY U.S. HAS RETRIEVED CRAFT OF NON-HUMAN ORIGIN."</a> Where have we seen those names before? Yes, the authors of <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/03/21/ufo-believing-pentagon-bosses-missed-spy-craft-for-years/" target="_blank">the now-discredited 2017 New York Times story that launched the UFO mania about Tom DeLonge, Lu Elizondo</a>, etc. (<a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2020/11/the-ghost-and-ms-kean.html" target="_blank">Kean is now also a major promoter of belief in Spiritualism and ghosts</a>, but that is the subject of another posting.)<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The problem for Kean is that her 'respected source' can't keep his mouth shut. <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/government-whistleblower-claims-us-has-recovered-alien-bodies-is-covering-it-up/ar-AA1cc7vH" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">"Government Whistleblower Claims U.S. Has Recovered Alien Bodies, Is Covering It Up."</a> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TE7uJCFlGBc" target="_blank"><span style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="896" data-original-width="1444" height="398" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-JQNmYLXgtWSVypYs53FKBz080-IV-Ilx3Chh2G9X5lB94jxAIVQEAY-mfu57bIaXtPedimwAeB4nsCys0hS8f7jFNvuyrqfFJhxr2FWCzsmPVIygsTkoM5MaMVcm8fE_w9f0KoAgFC3N4hxW6LBG2xBRtljuKj--qZIQ2dz8Vcbw9gfDsY8el5HnuQ/w640-h398/Clipboard02.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TE7uJCFlGBc" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: small;">I don't care what lies he is telling other people, what he told us is TRUTH!</span><br /></a></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;">This has caused Leslie Kean to back away from her earlier, breathless endorsement
of Grusch's tales. <a href="https://twitter.com/blackvaultcom/status/1666486906094501889" target="_blank">John Greenewald, Jr. of The Black Vault writes,</a></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>Kean states that the "UFO whistleblower"'s claim about "dead pilots" and bodies from the "non-human craft" was never discussed with her, she doesn't want to talk about it, nor would she have published it.<br /><br />How could you not have heard about that during the vetting process, and why would you not publish something that could change the human race if you felt the source of your story was credible and his claims were true?</blockquote></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">In other words, Kean is saying, "My source only lies half the time." đ
</p><p style="text-align: justify;">And the more interviews Grusch gives, the more wild stuff comes up. <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/143ev70/david_grusch_interview_with_french_paper_le/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">In an interview with the French newspaper<i> le Parisien</i>, Grush said,</a></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><blockquote>In 1933, a bell-like craft, around ten meters in size, was recovered in Magenta, northern Italy. It was kept by Mussolini's government until 1944 when it was recovered by agents of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS, a former US intelligence agency). Ironically, it predates anything the public has heard about for decades, such as Roswell, etc. I was authorized to talk about it by the Department of Defense's Office of Prepublication and Security Review.</blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Well, if Hitler could have his Nazi flying saucers, why can't Mussolini have his, too?</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKQayfLHyvzWHrbF4rIHUX8-WjARu4GfSjOi5UHuOFRZkWv-I7gX2NSVNvvsZT2MQhSg0fdIAGuETtsHGM-c7x-39NBQa_1w6NFrD2t6ZXNzhXaau183h5eQb8n9Ud5R8BS46OOx7cZTA3GceAJFuvRNjXH3FPRP8UKjWP4FzQx5Frs8dK6VafafgPBg/s536/NaziOfficers.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="425" data-original-width="536" height="508" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKQayfLHyvzWHrbF4rIHUX8-WjARu4GfSjOi5UHuOFRZkWv-I7gX2NSVNvvsZT2MQhSg0fdIAGuETtsHGM-c7x-39NBQa_1w6NFrD2t6ZXNzhXaau183h5eQb8n9Ud5R8BS46OOx7cZTA3GceAJFuvRNjXH3FPRP8UKjWP4FzQx5Frs8dK6VafafgPBg/w640-h508/NaziOfficers.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Nazi flying saucer</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://twitter.com/DrStevenGreer/status/1666452566190829568" target="_blank">UFO grifter Dr. Steven Greer wrote</a>,</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><blockquote>Dr. Greer met with this whistleblower in March 2022 in Culpepper, VA and has been providing him with information about facilities and operations.</blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">So Greer claims that he has been providing information to Grusch, and not the other way around! "In fact, Dr. Greer mentored this key whistleblower David Charles Grusch." <a href="https://twitter.com/disclosureteam_/status/1666085217009008642" target="_blank">To which Grusch replied,</a><br /></p><blockquote>I have not been mentored by anyone, and my public disclosure has been done independently under my own free will. I emphatically request that Steven Greer cease using my name to promote his personal agendaâ.</blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">But it is beginning to appear that Grusch's entire tale might be just be recycling the same old stories we've been hearing for years. Citing comments made elsewhere, <a href="https://twitter.com/RealArea503/status/1666231343078940677" target="_blank"> Area503 notes on Twitter that </a><br /></p><blockquote>Grusch's insider information comes from Hal Puthoff's employee at Earth-Tech International: Eric Davis??<br /><br />No wonder <br />@DoD_AARO<br /> found his testimony to lack credibility.<br /><br />This is getting downright silly now.</blockquote><p>As more 'connecting links' between the old cover-up tales and the new begin to be noted, <a href="https://twitter.com/TheUFOTrail/status/1666241708659449857" target="_blank">Jack Brewer add</a>s,</p><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><blockquote>Looking like Kean's "multiple insiders" are Elizondo, Puthoff, Davis... because of effing course they would be. If so, what a complete waste of time, of which these people should be ashamed of themselves.</blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">In other words, these are the same, familiar old claims, from people who have been involved with Bigelow, TTSA, etc. The collapse of the current extreme Disclosure mania will surely rank as one of the worst black eyes in the history of UFOOlogy. Persons seeking to hasten the general acceptance of UFO belief by hastily embracing welcome (but dubious) claims will have damaged that acceptance almost beyond repair, once the dust settles from this fiasco.<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">UFO newbies apparently have no idea that<a href="https://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread1264719/pg1" target="_blank"> this "Disclosure tease" has been going on for more than seventy years</a>, and always comes up empty. Every few years (at least), some new set of rumors begin to swirl, usually based on some dramatic claim, that 'government secrecy about UFOs will soon be ending!'. But of course, it never does. You can't "stop" something that never started.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p>Robert Sheafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324537021429419111noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8104600450225406597.post-87688952630294439152023-05-19T17:54:00.001-07:002023-05-20T15:29:39.433-07:00"Trinity UFO Crash" Story Crashes - and Vallee Melts Down!<p style="text-align: justify;">Those who follow developments in UFOdumb are probably familiar with the book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/TRINITY-Best-Kept-Jacques-F-Vall%C3%A9e/dp/B094ZQ1GW5/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1QWLRIK6WIP3Q&keywords=jacques+vallee&qid=1643143131&s=books&sprefix=jacques+vallee%2Cstripbooks%2C127&sr=1-2" target="_blank"><i>Trinity, The Best-Kept Secret,</i> self-published by Paola Harris and Jacques Vallee.</a> I wrote only a little about it early last year. It's the story of a supposed saucer crash in New Mexico in August, 1945 not far from the site of the Trinity nuclear test, the world's first. It's primarily based on the accounts of two young boys who supposedly witnessed the saucer crash, saw still-living aliens, and then watched as the army carried it all off. <br /></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTZ-ybqZI7hURlR0pgNSl59MvSjdlQ8c0C2QzwqMDH5IZvm6jKJE_OlVJV-luMStmSM-LaTfbhc_2R4xxOsTU4LkRpuKDLdk2Tf80Dy8HKz4eV7ddFyy4SGasUyo31HeqlTUoF1g4zSkjwafCHOHmAaPvwIwGZHLq0kGNIEPyHHRwhqcZ_9h8uRRZUYg/s396/9781387710799_p0_v1_s600x595.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="396" data-original-width="274" height="305" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTZ-ybqZI7hURlR0pgNSl59MvSjdlQ8c0C2QzwqMDH5IZvm6jKJE_OlVJV-luMStmSM-LaTfbhc_2R4xxOsTU4LkRpuKDLdk2Tf80Dy8HKz4eV7ddFyy4SGasUyo31HeqlTUoF1g4zSkjwafCHOHmAaPvwIwGZHLq0kGNIEPyHHRwhqcZ_9h8uRRZUYg/w211-h305/9781387710799_p0_v1_s600x595.jpg" width="211" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Second Edition<br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhhFk2xX948mUo51YQRcVPE1YGNkhmzxA6dBcevnm-L-3tgDkk5ofEaRVPj-xYNeeNdaLUZRneJ8a4HGR_f0WAoDHx029fIWsvcVXtpnq3Lnd_0UAQxxf2U1VDdT0mKftB1gKSB3RX0hvm6lLpfKSq1QK_T48zWWyxGPSlT_L6mcbNIXf2L6Wkud4R93g=s373" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="355" data-original-width="373" height="305" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhhFk2xX948mUo51YQRcVPE1YGNkhmzxA6dBcevnm-L-3tgDkk5ofEaRVPj-xYNeeNdaLUZRneJ8a4HGR_f0WAoDHx029fIWsvcVXtpnq3Lnd_0UAQxxf2U1VDdT0mKftB1gKSB3RX0hvm6lLpfKSq1QK_T48zWWyxGPSlT_L6mcbNIXf2L6Wkud4R93g=s320" width="320" /></a></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Paola Harris and Jacques Vallee</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"> </p><p style="text-align: justify;"> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">When the book was first published, to say it was not well-received by serious researchers would be an understatement. Longtime researcher <a href="http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2021/06/x-zone-broadcast-network-jacques-vallee.html" target="_blank">Kevin Randle interviewed both authors in 2021, and wrote</a>, </p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>Iâll just point out that Vallee and Paola said that there was no documentation, the physical evidence that was talked about didnât exist in todayâs world, other than a couple of pieces that, when analyzed didnât demonstrate an extraterrestrial origin. </blockquote></div><p style="text-align: justify;">Not exactly a ringing endorsement. Others were less generous.<a href="https://skunkworksblog.com/2021/06/01/they-know-not-what-they-do-what-to-make-of-trinity-the-best-kept-secret-by-jacques-f-vallee-and-paola-leopizzi-harris/" target="_blank"> Bryan Sentes wrote on <i>the Skunkworks Blog</i></a>, </p><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>On finishing VallĂ©eâs and Harrisâ <i>Trinity,</i> the reader would be forgiven if they wondered if the âJacques VallĂ©eâ who co-authored this book were the same âJacques VallĂ©eâ credited with writing Revelations or the recently re-issued Passport to Magonia. Where the last volume is, at least in certain circles, highly-prized for being inventive and groundbreaking and Revelations is a focussed, critical examination of the stories about alien abduction, crashed flying saucers and dead aliens, secret alien bases and cattle mutilation, Trinity is an unfocussed, raggedly-composed, eye-rollingly credulous mess of a book.<br /><br />It would be a tedious exercise to catalogue its manifold failings. While VallĂ©e speaks of himself as a scientist and even imagines scientists reading the book (286), Trinity is no work of science, scholarship, or even investigative journalism. Indeed, it reads like a first draft, in sore need of a thorough editing for content and structure, let alone a proof-reading.</blockquote>And<a href="https://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/new-book-from-jacques-vallee-claims-evidence-for-1945-new-mexico-ufo-crash" target="_blank"> Jason Colavito wrote</a>, </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>The San Antonio crash story is rather unbelievable, even by UFO standards. According to the most common version of the story, Jose Padilla and Reme Baca, then aged 9 and 7, witnessed a nearly thirty-foot-long spacecraft crash into the desert. They ran to the crash site and saw two little men emerge and begin running about in a panic. One of the boys took a piece of debris from the crash site. Then, the U.S. Army arrived, built a road out to the crash site, and retrieved the spaceship. The boys never knew what became of the little men from inside the ship.</blockquote></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSFqAJCejE360avwPYWf_QdhZ2JJk6C2i6y_RPVUtg4ewAa5mR429FiBSkoKsAbDlPGq2mf_biKOV9MfwgUq5AaOD7zxvUYRuI6JBn842U9TBSwGV_UIjOFHJU-Am4mf-dbUit0BKD2zcxPecY4vaTIqSwmf1YCDx9-9pc9001W8CT_2PMB0KpmV8ypA/s400/sa1.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="298" data-original-width="400" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSFqAJCejE360avwPYWf_QdhZ2JJk6C2i6y_RPVUtg4ewAa5mR429FiBSkoKsAbDlPGq2mf_biKOV9MfwgUq5AaOD7zxvUYRuI6JBn842U9TBSwGV_UIjOFHJU-Am4mf-dbUit0BKD2zcxPecY4vaTIqSwmf1YCDx9-9pc9001W8CT_2PMB0KpmV8ypA/w400-h297/sa1.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.phantomsandmonsters.com/2014/03/sixty-seven-miles-from-roswell.html" target="_blank">Illustration of the crashed UFO at Trinity by James Neff, based on the boys' description.<br /></a></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">So the Trinity UFO Crash story was on pretty thin ice, from the time of its release in May, 2021. But now it has been blown apart completely. A very diligent researcher named Douglas Dean Johnson has dropped a whole boxcar of dynamite on the yarn, and blown it to smithereens. <i><b>Johnson did the research that Vallee and Harris should have done before publishing this outlandish tale</b></i>. <br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">
I first heard of Johnson about two years ago, <a href="https://douglasjohnson.ghost.io/the-research-director-of-project-starlight-speaks-out-about-his-long-ago-association-with-ray-stanford-and-what-he-thinks-about-stanfords-ufo-evidence-claims/" target="_blank"> when he sent me material critical of the UFO claims of Ray Stanford</a>. Now he has published a<a href="https://douglasjohnson.ghost.io/crash-story-the-trinity-ufo-crash-hoax/" target="_blank"> very careful and detailed refutation of the principal claims of the Trinity Crash story</a>, mortally wounding it. He writes,</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>This article, <i>Crash Story: The Trinity UFO Crash Hoax</i>, and the linked Crash Story File series, are based on my journalistic investigations (extending over three months, as of May 1, 2023). I present extensive documentation establishing that all three of the claimed âeyewitnessâ sources â Baca, Padilla, Brophy -- have propagated lies and/or fantasies that are absolutely fatal to their credibility. Because I have demonstrated, in my opinion, that the three primary sources have all engaged in multiple gross fabrications, it would be folly to attach any credence whatever to any of the oft-conflicting versions of the UFO crash-recovery events that they have described....</blockquote><p></p><blockquote>the Trinity UFO-crash story is a tale dreamed up by a serial pretender, Remigio (Reme) Baca, AKA "Ray Baca," now deceasedâ who faked a history as a political "kingmaker" and senior aide to a governor, and fabricated a story about viewing an ultra-secret government file about his fake UFO crash. Baca enlisted a man who faked a history as a police officer and wounded veteran, Joseph Lopez (Jose) Padilla. These two fakers hijacked the names and personas of a real policeman (Eddie Apodaca) and a real governor (Dixy Lee Ray) as characters in their shoddy work of fiction.... The tale has grown and morphed over a 20-year period. The current Vallee-Harris presentation incorporates claims that flatly contradict early statements by Baca and Padilla that have been overlooked, ignored, or forgotten.<br /></blockquote><p></p></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The New Mexico State Policeman who supposedly witnessed the crashed saucer, <a href="https://douglasjohnson.ghost.io/crash-story-file-eddie-apodaca-the-real-policeman-who-cracked-the-trinity-ufo-crash-case/" target="_blank">Eddie Apodaca, was still serving in the US Army in Europe in August, 1945. He did not become a state policeman until 1951</a>. <br /></div><div><p style="text-align: justify;">Johnson's findings were for the most part embraced by the UFO community. <a href="https://lifeinjonestown.substack.com/p/a-legend-falters" target="_blank">Journalist Billy Cox, a staunch UFO promoter, wrote</a> "Based on three monthsâ worth of scouring public records, contemporaneous newspaper articles, myriad podcasts and consultations with experts, Johnsonâs fact-checking revelations are absolutely devastating." And <a href="https://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2023/05/the-truth-about-vallees-trinity-best.html" target="_blank">Kevin Randle wrote that Johnson's research </a>"should be the stake in the heart of this tale."<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">For a few weeks, everyone wondered - what would Vallee and Harris say about this? Would Vallee admit his mistakes, apologize, and move on? Harris herself of course said nothing, then <a href="https://paolaharris.com/latest-news-paola-harris/trinity-the-inconvenient-reality-a-response-to-douglas-dean-johnsons-crash-story-by-jacques-vallee-may-15th-2023" target="_blank">on May 15 she published a reply from Vallee to Johnson on her website</a>. Vallee writes that the history of UFO research</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>is littered with interminable fights, meaningless boastings and pretentious proclamations, more often designed to denigrate an opponent than to elevate a debate.<br /><br />The attack against the work that Mrs. Harris and I have conducted in New Mexico since 2018 with the guidance of a scientific research team is a case in point.</blockquote>There was no "attack" in anything Johnson wrote; he was simply noting the discrepancies between what V&H wrote, and verifiable facts. And Lord knows that one must never dispute "the guidance of a scientific research team"!! Vallee continues,</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>The accusation of naivety and negligence against us made in « Crash Story » is inaccurate: As the primary author, I only used the recorded data originating from Reme Baca when it could be compared and verified against other statements of fact. Why support the fictitious tale that our book relies primarily on Bacaâs version of the story ? That is simply inaccurate. </blockquote></div><p style="text-align: justify;">To which Johnson replies with a quote that is in both editions of Trinity:<br /></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>From "Trinity: The Best-Kept Secret" (1st Ed. p. 317; 2nd Ed. p. 337): "The primary reference to the events described here [in Trinity] is a monograph by Reme Baca and Jose Padilla, entitled, <i>Born on the Edge of Ground Zero</i>..."</blockquote>So Vallee apparently does not even remember what he wrote about his own sources.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One clear demonstration of Vallee's "naivety and negligence" was how he ignored all the Red Flags about the research of Ms. Paola, who did not have a reputation for careful research; in fact, quite the opposite. <a href="http://www.ufowatchdog.com/paola_harris.htm" target="_blank">The UFO Watchdog told us all we need to know about her over ten years ago</a>. She told a UFO conference that "Billy Meier is the real deal." <a href="https://exopolitics.org/the-journey-from-ufo-research-to-exopolitics-pioneer/" target="_blank">She was hailed by Michael Salla as a "Pioneer" of Exopolitics.</a> What is "Exopolitics"? It deals with the "Political Implications of the Extraterrestrial Presence." They have no doubts about ETs being here - it is fact!<br /></div></div><div><p style="text-align: justify;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitAtUnH3bTh4rBxXmzHp07mp8_Gfwt_w90rJLnjC-vX6faxB4UBSjJNClnkS50XLRr6hFtJ6AT4O17PqXm1em02DRjl_yqHIzgzhOIu0UoevmKjedxGTDeFrsUiWo9KlvFciSWxvrcz_gtdYwgy5bcSilZH0VaqKwxar8lKObm-XAajqgAG1GXVPvhpQ/s1194/HarrisExopoliticsPioneer.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="839" data-original-width="1194" height="450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitAtUnH3bTh4rBxXmzHp07mp8_Gfwt_w90rJLnjC-vX6faxB4UBSjJNClnkS50XLRr6hFtJ6AT4O17PqXm1em02DRjl_yqHIzgzhOIu0UoevmKjedxGTDeFrsUiWo9KlvFciSWxvrcz_gtdYwgy5bcSilZH0VaqKwxar8lKObm-XAajqgAG1GXVPvhpQ/w640-h450/HarrisExopoliticsPioneer.jpg" width="640" /></a></p><div style="text-align: justify;">In fact, Ms. Paola is so far into "Exopolitics" that she is teaching a course in the "Exopolitics Institute," titled <a href="https://exopoliticsinstitute.org/certifications/exo-109-messages-space-past-present-contact/" target="_blank">"Exo-109 â Messages from Space â Past and Present Contact." </a>From the course description:<br /><blockquote>This course takes us back to the early days of contact and the messages given to early contactees. It examines the geopolitical structure of the world in a cold war era. It focuses on the giant Rock conventions and the mission of people like George Van Tassel , Howard Menger and George Adamski. Then the course will shift to present day human alien contacts in both Italy and Latin America. Contactees such as Sixto Paz, Ricardo Gonzales and Luis Fernando have given us messages about the shift that is taking place and the current evolution of man in the context of an inhabited cosmos.</blockquote>Got that? The messages from the Space People given to "Classic" contactees like Adamski and Menger were authentic, and so are those of later contactees, as well. How Vallee could simply ignore such absurdity strongly suggests that his discernment, his reasoning, is not what it used to be.<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Reading <a href="https://www.amazon.com/s?k=jacques+vallee+forbidden+science&i=stripbooks&crid=172EQLY8V3LV5&sprefix=jacques+vallee+forbidden+science%2Cstripbooks%2C137&ref=nb_sb_noss_2" target="_blank">Vallee's autobiographical volumes <i>Forbidden Science,</i></a> it is apparent that the Vallee of old was not one to simply accept fantastic tales, and he was told plenty of them over the years. He would react with sort of a bemused smile, and a suggestion that their story might be more compelling if they had any actual evidence. In 1977<a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2022/03/jacques-vallees-invisible-college.html" target="_blank"> I wrote in the <i>Skeptical Inquirer </i>a rather dismissive review of Vallee's book <i>The Invisible College</i></a>, which teaches "Metalogic." Given the opportunity to reply, Vallee wrote a few calm lines, noting that "a great deal of my time is spent precisely in exposing the contradictions of contactee stories," and he ended it with a silly poem he wrote about the recently-deceased Dr. Donald Menzel. He was unflappable under criticism, which is so different from the Vallee we see in this current screed<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Also, in reading <i>Forbidden Science</i>, one is constantly reminded how close Vallee was with his wife Janine, who died in 2010. Her death must have been a tremendous blow to him. One suspects that Janine's death, combined with age-related mental issues, has left Vallee in a rather vulnerable state, prone to being unduly influenced by others. The fact is that Vallee, come September, will be 84, and mental confusion and decline is extremely common among persons of that age. It would be ironic if Vallee's reputation in UFO history were to be largely determined by this absurd screed written in his dotage. It is reminiscent of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his foolish embrace, in his old age, of the Cottingley Fairies. <br /></div><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9W9bjCdEyzhbk_SsOhZDqiRq7ZP4roN3kIsPKhrAhemHRSYIjFUmFfVqBc55FRNBur5APKfxDr12Bkfmc3-alTWBgE5tThay3T-kgkzy__M_rvipvpYlHcNJ-LYs8h_BizAtzTQqed2BUb-PlVYG_MAsfFI6Lg2xlXKNJnS2bMNVagorCd0ZAsQjraQ/s791/FrancesAndTheFairy.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="594" data-original-width="791" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9W9bjCdEyzhbk_SsOhZDqiRq7ZP4roN3kIsPKhrAhemHRSYIjFUmFfVqBc55FRNBur5APKfxDr12Bkfmc3-alTWBgE5tThay3T-kgkzy__M_rvipvpYlHcNJ-LYs8h_BizAtzTQqed2BUb-PlVYG_MAsfFI6Lg2xlXKNJnS2bMNVagorCd0ZAsQjraQ/w640-h480/FrancesAndTheFairy.jpg" width="640" /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /><p></p><p></p></div><div style="text-align: justify;">
<hr />
Update May 20, 2023: Douglas Dean Johnson has done it again!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">He has just published a new article titled <a href="https://douglasjohnson.ghost.io/crash-story-file-the-reme-baca-smoking-gun-interview/" target="_blank">Caught in the Act - The Reme Baca Smoking-Gun Interview.</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote><div>Less than a year before going public with what became the Jacques Vallee-Paola Harris story of the 1945 crash of an avocado-shaped UFO, Reme Baca was tape-recorded peddling a very different story about a boyhood encounter that he and Jose Padilla had with a very different sort of UFO: a tale of their discovery of a classical flying saucer, crashed-- in 1946. And that's just the start.</div><div style="text-align: left;"></div></blockquote><p>Reme Baca contacted Roswell author Tom Carey peddling a different "crashed saucer" yarn. This one took place in 1946, not 1945, and involved different circumstances. Johnson posts the recording and the transcript. There is no 'wiggling away' from this one. </p><p>I wonder what rationalization Jacques Vallee will use to dismiss this one? đ</p><p><br /></p></div><div><p></p><p></p></div>Robert Sheafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324537021429419111noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8104600450225406597.post-11562745180345065182023-04-17T22:52:00.002-07:002023-04-18T10:00:20.701-07:00A Flying Saucer Named Floyd <p style="text-align: justify;">In honor of the 57th Anniversary of a truly "classic" case, I am posting an analysis from my book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=1573922137/thedebunkesdomai" target="_blank"><i>UFO Sightings</i> (Prometheus Books, 1998)</a>. This analysis was first published in my 1981 book <i>The UFO Verdict</i> (also Prometheus, <a href="https://archive.org/details/ufoverdictexamin0000shea" target="_blank">which can be "borrowed" online from the Internet Archive library</a>), and was republished with only minor additions and updates.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">In the late 1970s I made a very Deep Dive into this case, which was being promoted big-time. Here is the result. </p>
<hr /><p class="western" style="text-align: center;"><b>A Flying Saucer Named Floyd </b></p><p class="western" style="text-align: justify;">We now turn to the story of a famous flying saucer whose name
is Floyd. Very few flying saucers can boast of proper names,
but that is not the only reason that Floyd is famous. Floyd reportedly
was chased by two sheriffs policemen for eighty-six miles through
Ohio and Pennsylvania just before sunrise on the morning of Sunday,
April 17, 1966 . They say it played cat-and-mouse with their
car even as they traveled at speeds of up to 103 miles per hour. Several
other Ohio and Pennsylvania officers say that they saw the object too.
The late Dr. James E. McDonald, an atmospheric physicist who
launched a crusade for scientific recognition of UFOs, considered this
case to be one of the most impressive on record and he has endorsed
the Floyd papers as "an outstanding contribution to present knowledge of the UFO phenomenon." [1]. <a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2022/01/galileos-galore-now-including-jacques.html" target="_blank">Allen Hynek (dubbed by several national magazines the "Galileo" of UFOlogy</a> [2]), cited this case in his book <i>The UFO Experience</i> as the prime example of a "close encounter of the first kind."
Floyd received his name from Deputy Sheriff Dale F. Spaur, 34, of
the Portage County, Ohio, Sheriffs Police. He tired of referring to the
object he reportedly sighted as "?" and began calling it by his own
middle name. Coining this name for the UFO doubtlessly proved to be
quite a time-saver, because Deputy Spaur had to repeat his story many
times in the weeks following the morning that he and Deputy Sheriff
Wilbur Neff, 26, reportedly chased an unknown object.
The number of semi-independent witnesses to this incident
(linked only by radio) is truly impressive. If all of these "reported"
observations can be verified as actual observations, consistent in time,speed, and direction, then the UFO chase that began in Portage County, Ohio, must be regarded as one of the strongest possible proofs for the reality of the UFO phenomenon.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMlPhTyZ5hQRMzHbD9ee1as-nPcqjmtFEdG05rUyPrd90TxFnFVsD5oxWs0G-NHgxam_pLayvmSErrrwwipR7s2GIC_MGktHYjcrEebKsurO4awEb6DiF6yDu8TkUUoarg-VBemtj4uh1BGhd7wgyvxV4Zl3N6D1EqrTT2dR4AwPSwY6jpIOwvbKLhHw/s1819/DaleSpaurFlashlight.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1819" data-original-width="1104" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMlPhTyZ5hQRMzHbD9ee1as-nPcqjmtFEdG05rUyPrd90TxFnFVsD5oxWs0G-NHgxam_pLayvmSErrrwwipR7s2GIC_MGktHYjcrEebKsurO4awEb6DiF6yDu8TkUUoarg-VBemtj4uh1BGhd7wgyvxV4Zl3N6D1EqrTT2dR4AwPSwY6jpIOwvbKLhHw/w387-h640/DaleSpaurFlashlight.jpg" width="387" /></a></div><p class="western"></p><p></p><p class="western" style="text-align: justify;">In the weeks and months leading up to the "Great UFO Chase of
April 1966," the country was in the grip of a wave of mounting UFO
excitement. Sightings had begun in the summer of the previous year,
and the momentum was slowly building. The news media had been
filled with reports of UFO sightings, gradually leading up to the "Incident at Exeter" wave in the fall of 1965 (chapter 10).
During the winter sporadic sightings continued, only to explode in
March of 1966 with a rash of sightings in Michigan. Nearly a hundred
people, including police officers and college students, reported seeing
glowing objects hovering over fields and marshes. Hynek hastened to
Michigan, where he reported that "the entire region was gripped with
near hysteria" about UFOs. Making the rounds with some police officers, Hynek confessed that "occasionally even I thought I glimpsed
'it,'" so heavily UFO-laden was the atmosphere. Police officers excitedly radioed "I see it" back and forth from car to car. Stopping at an
intersection, they frantically gestured skyward, indicating a "moving" object, only to have their multiply-witnessed UFO shot clown by
astronomer Hynek as the bright star Arcturus. [3] </p><p style="text-align: justify;">On March 25, just three weeks before the Floyd incident, Hynek created a nationwide sensation by proposing "swamp gas" as an explanation for many of the Michigan sightings. Michigan Congressmen
Gerald R. Ford and Weston Vivian, outraged by the Air Force's handling of the sightings, demanded a congressional investigation into
the matter, a demand that was widely echoed by journalists and radio-TV commentators. It is against this turbulent background that the
stage was set in April 1966 for the Ohio UFO chase.
The major investigative role in this case was played by William B.
Weitzel, a philosophy instructor at the University of Pittsburgh. At the
time he was chairman of NICAP's Pennsylvania Unit No. l. The previous year Weitzel had received much attention for his investigation of
the famous Beaver County, Pennsylvania, UFO photograph, taken by
the Lucci brothers, which Weitzel pronounced to be "one of the most
valid of the UFOs on record." (However, three years later, the chief
photo analyst for the Condon Report, Dr. William K. Hartmann, had
no trouble duplicating these photos by holding a plate on his hand,
and illuminating it with a flashlight. Subsequent investigation has left
little doubt that the Beaver County photos are in fact a hoax. But there
is no record of Weitzel withdrawing his endorsement of them. Shortly after the famous Ohio chase, when Weitzel showed Spaur the as yet
unrefuted Beaver County photographs, Spaur pronounced the hoax
UFO in the photos to be "almost identical to the one we saw." [5] )
</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Unfortunately, Weitzel's enthusiasm for the UFO phenomenon
caused him to overlook some obvious inconsistencies in the evidence
and, worse still, to be blind to significant changes in the witnesses' stories as time passed. Nonetheless, Weitzel's interpretation of the Ohio
UFO chase is universally accepted among serious UFO investigators as
being the definitive account. Yet before I made my own analysis, no
one appears to have taken the trouble to critically examine Weitzel's
account of the incident, for if one had one could not possibly have
overlooked the highly significant inconsistencies it contains.
On Sunday morning, April 17, 1966, at 4:50 A.M., Portage County
Deputy Sheriffs Dale Spaur and Wilbur Neff were at the scene of a
traffic accident along Route 183 near Atwater Center, Ohio, where an
automobile had smashed into a utility pole. The driver had been
injured. Spaur and Neff had called in an ambulance and a tow truck,
and when these had departed the policemen had remained for a short
while to talk with the repairman who was working on the damaged
lines. Sunrise was just under an hour away and, even though it was still
quite dark, the purple glow of dawn was steadily brightening in the
east. The sky that morning was quite clear, and the brilliant planet
Venus was shining like a searchlight in the east-southeast. Near its
maximum elongation from the sun, the bright morning star was a
beautiful and striking sight to early risers.
About 4:50 a report came in over the police radio that a woman in
Summitt County, to the west, had reported seeing a strange bright
object, "higher than a streetlight but lower than an airplane," reportedly headed east, toward Portage County. (The sheriff's police of the
various counties operate a statewide radio linkup, and hence can listen
in on reports that do not originate in their own county.)
From the description of the object and from its supposed direction
of "travel," it seems quite likely that the UFO the woman reported
seeing was simply the planet Venus. Misidentifications of this type are
quite common, as UFO proponents readily admit, especially during
periods of intense UFO excitement. The three men good-naturedly
joked about the reported UFO sighting; the "weird ones" are really out
tonight, Spaur observed.
</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Officers Spaur and Neff then got into their car, Cruiser P-13, and
drove off. They started "east" on Route 224, or so Spaur said in his testimony to the Air Force. [6] But he must have meant to say west, because he never would have reached the starting point of the chase had he
actually gone east from the scene of the accident. Spaur confuses east
with west a second time when he tells of encountering an old car by the
side of the road two miles "east" (actually west) of Route 183. This may
seem to some to be nit-picking, but the accuracy of Spaur's ability to
recall directions is of crucial importance to his later testimony, when he
describes the UFO as appearing at nearly every point on the compass.
This east-west mix-up, made twice and not corrected until a transcript
of the interview had been prepared ("I was a little mad at this point" is
how Spaur later explained the error; Neff was present, but failed to correct him), demonstrates that we must allow room for error in Spaur's
recollection of the reported behavior and travel of the UFO.
Traveling west (not east) on U.S. Route 224, the the police officers
saw a car parked on the other side of the road. They made a U-turn.
and pulled up behind it. Cruiser P-13 was now facing east. Deputy
Spaur walked up to the car while Neff remained behind, standing next
to their cruiser-standard police procedure.
Scouting the area, Spaur looked behind him - to the west - and
reportedly saw a bright object in the sky coming as if from the wooded
area on the side of the road. Spaur called out to Neff, who also observed
the object. It appeared to be coming toward them. It reportedly passed
overhead, making a noise like an "overloaded transformer." In Spaur's
earliest written UFO testimony, signed just hours after the chase, he suggests that the humming that was attributed to the UFO "might have
come from a power line." But in later versions of his story, all doubt concerning the origin of the sound appears to have vanished. During the
chase itself, the object reportedly made no sound whatsoever.
Upon first sighting the object, Spaur was "mildly surprised,â
according to Weitzel. He mused that this must be the UFO that he had
heard so much about. But when the object appeared to come toward
them, the two officers became frightened and scrambled back into the
car. They reported that the object, large and glowing, had stopped in
the east, directly ahead of them.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">There is good reason to doubt that the object moving from west to east was as low and as close as the deputies reported, for it was sighted
by another witness more than a hundred miles away. The declassified
Project Blue Book records contain a report filed by a woman in Vandalia, Ohio, to the southwest of Ravenna, describing a starlike object
that "swiftly" crossed the sky, traveling from west to northeast. A possible discrepancy exists in the time of the report, which is given as 5:30
A.M., some twenty-five minutes later than the time of the deputies'
sighting. But because of the great similarity of the two reports, and
their proximity in location and time, it seems likely that both describe
the same event.
</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Apparently a brilliant meteor streaked across the predawn sky, visible over a wide region. It did not pass just over their heads, as Spaur
and Neff believed, but was many miles up. Experience has shown that
it is impossible for anyone to be accurate in judging the distance from
such an object. Witnesses will often report "close encounters" with
objects that later turn out to have been many miles away. Klass cites
several incidents of this tvpe. One of them involves an experienced airline flight crew that reported a near-collision with an object that
turned out to have been a brilliant daylight meteor, at least 125 miles
north of their position. [7]
So bright was the object, Spaur says, that the entire area around
their car was lit up. Since it was now 5:07A.M., less than forty minutes
before sunrise, there is no doubt whatsoever that the area around
their car was indeed lit up, though not necessarily by any UFO. Only
the brightest stars, those of the first (and possibly second) magnitude,
remained visible at this time. Venus, however, nearly five magnitudes
(ninety times) brighter than a first-magnitude star, was still shining
like a beacon in the east. By a remarkable coincidence, this is exactly
where Spaur reported the UFO was hovering. If a genuine UFO had
indeed been present, the deputies should have seen two bright objects in the east
at this point, Floyd and VĂ©nus. But they saw only one. It is hard to avoid
the conclusion that Floyd was Venus, at least at this point. The planet
Venus does not, of course, zip rapidly from west to east, but there is no
compelling reason to believe that a single object was responsible for
every aspect of this complex UFO sighting. (In fact, there are some
excellent reasons not to believe this, as we shall see.)
</p><p class="western" style="text-align: justify;">The officers had been alerted a few minutes earlier that a UFO was
supposedly in the vicinity. Add to this the nationwide hysteria that had
prevailed for the past few weeks, and you have the optimum psychological conditions for sighting UFOs. Every planet and every airplane
is scrutinized as a potential interloper. The two men must have taken
their eyes off the object that moved from west to east as they scrambled
into their car. When they looked up and saw Venus ahead of them,
they mistakenly concluded that it was the same object they had just
sighted. From the time they entered the car, until after they crossed
the Pennsylvania line, their attention was riveted to a brilliant object
in the east-southeast: unquestionably the planet Venus.
Spaur hit the button on his microphone and radioed back to headquarters
that the unidentified object, "the one that everybody says is
going over," appeared to be hovering in front of their car. The radio
operator asked Spaur if he was carrying his service revolver. He was.
"Take a shot at it" was the helpful suggestion. (The radio operator later
explained that he thought the object might be a weather balloon, and
that a bullet might bring it down.) Spaur decided against that course of
action, because he believed the object to be "as big as a house," and he
didn't want to risk angering it. After ascertaining that they did not have
a camera with them, the two deputies were ordered to keep the object
in sight until a camera car could be dispatched to photograph it.
</p><p style="text-align: justify;">
Spaur put the cruiser in gear, inched forward a little, and then a
funny thing happened. Floyd appeared to inch forward too. This
should not surp1ise us if we remember that celestial bodies appear to
"pace" a moving vehicle. Every child at some point asks his parent why
the moon seems to be "following" their car, and it is a wise parent who
can explain, in simple terms, that a distant body like the moon or
Venus shows no noticeable displacement due to the motion of the
vehicle, as nearby objects do, and hence appears to follow the observer.
(This explanation, however, appears to be beyond the comprehension
of some of the well-known "scientific" UFO investigators, who naively
interpret every reported following of a vehicle by a bright celestial bodv
as a "close encounter of the first kind.") No matter how fast Cruiser P-13 approached the object, Floyd appeared to move away at exactly the
same speed. Spaur, a former race-car driver, quickly picked up speed
and roared after the object. The Great UFO Chase was on. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrFYQ9rX-bAV0GSKokz1U2RkRqKy-Fkf6m0mXlEZLE92Yu6KPAUqMTH_2gcCrNFa1nIEDoFB8S_u4zntrePjUmMz4MxG-kW2ciu0vHjtO465aj-CJE05lbWambuR9F_G3r4UoozsgXxayT8WNzNpyCa_lU9oHsgbXDdF7ra0nvsaGokrtNBztBpMQkiw/s1579/OfficersRoute.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="958" data-original-width="1579" height="388" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrFYQ9rX-bAV0GSKokz1U2RkRqKy-Fkf6m0mXlEZLE92Yu6KPAUqMTH_2gcCrNFa1nIEDoFB8S_u4zntrePjUmMz4MxG-kW2ciu0vHjtO465aj-CJE05lbWambuR9F_G3r4UoozsgXxayT8WNzNpyCa_lU9oHsgbXDdF7ra0nvsaGokrtNBztBpMQkiw/w640-h388/OfficersRoute.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">This
is the route taken on the morning of April 17, 1966 by two Portage
County, Ohio police officers, who chased a supposed UFO into
Pennsylvania at speeds of up to 103 MPH. The direction of travel of the
officers almost precisely matches the apparent direction of Venus,
suggesting that they were in fact chasing that brilliant morning star.</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;">The two policemen raced eastward on U.S. Route 224 (which later merges with Ohio Route 14) at speeds up to 103 miles per hour. Floyd,
ever obliging, appeared to follow this road exactly, reportedly just a
few hundred feet in front of their car. For over twenty miles theâą
reportedly chased the object due east, over an almost perfectly straight
road. Yet nowhere along Route 14-224 did they report seeing Venus.
This was truly a remarkable feat of non-observation.
Deputy Neff reported that between Atwater Center and Deerfield
Floyd kept a bearing somewhat south of east. This exactly describes
Venus's position, which was then at an azimuth of about 115°. Meanwhile, a very understandable confusion between Route 14 and Route
14A sent the camera car down 14A, miles away from the position of
Cruiser P-13. Had the two police cars actually met, one suspects that
the chase might have ended a great deal sooner than it did.
Shortly after passing Atwater Center, Spaur observed that the UFO
bad "gained altitude," which is exactly what Venus was gradually
doing. From the initial sighting at 5:07 to the time they reached
Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, at about 5:45, Venus rose from an elevation
of 12" to 19". Anyone watching Venus during this interval would have
seen it rise slowly and steadily. This is exactly what Floyd is said to have
done during that interval.
At Deerfield Circle, Spaur says that he had to pass between two big
trucks: "between a tractor and a trailer" is how he describes it. Yet neither of these drivers seems to have noticed a giant UFO, "as big as a
house," which reportedly passed just a few hundred feet over their
heads. The two deputies likewise encountered "occasional traffic" (in
Weitzel's phrase) between Canfield and Columbiana, around which
they had to maneuver at very high speeds. But again we have no indication that any of these other drivers saw anything at all unusual.
Crossing from Portage to Mahoning County, on the bridge over
the Berlin Reservoir, the UFO reportedly "picked up probably another
150 feet." (Venus had risen a little too.) Floyd allegedly wavered from
the south side of the road to the north side, and then back again as
they entered Mahoning County. However, a careful examination of a
map reveals that the road curves to the south, then north again, at this
point. This will cause an object keeping a fixed bearing to behave
exactly as was described. Indeed, every change in direction attributed
to Floyd appears to correspond to a turn made by the UFO chasers. </p><p class="western" style="text-align: justify;">At Canfield, as the deputies turned south-southeast on Ohio Route 14-46, the UFO was reported by Neff to "come across in front of us"
over to the left side of the cruiser, then afterwards return to the right
side. This again suggests to anyone who examines the map that the object kept a constant bearing. After turning south on Route 183,
Spaur reports that the object appeared to be due north. Venus cannot,
of course, appear in the north, any more than a policeman driving
south at breakneck speed can possibly see an airborne object directly
behind him (which, by the way, would then be chasing him, causing
one to wonder why, if this account is correct, Spaur did not stop and set
up a roadblock). Spaur's mixup of his directions, and his later
"improvements" to his original UFO narrative, serve to caution us
against taking such reported details too literally. As soon as they made
the next turn, and headed east, Floyd promptly returned to his favorite
position in the southeast, exactly where Venus ought to have been seen.
It is well known that UFOs are supposed to stop automobile
engines, short out headlights, and cause radio equipment to fail, but
Floyd displayed none of these disagreeable characteristics. Not only
did cruiser P-13 perform like a tiger, cruising smoothly at 103 m.p.h.
despite the UFO's alleged nearness, but its radio operated perfectly, so
well, in fact, that officers throughout Ohio listened to every detail of
the chase. Not surprisingly, many of them looked for the object, and
some imagined that they saw it too.
Police Chief Gerald Buchert of Mantua, Ohio, was twenty miles
north of where Floyd was reported to be. But when he went outside.
he thought he saw it too, and he even managed to obtain a photograph. Afterward, Weitzel was keenly disappointed to discover that
Buchert's supposed UFO photo turned out to be nothing more than
a processing defect. Buchert described the position of his UFO with
respect to the moon (which was then a thin crescent, low in the sky).
It matches perfectly with the known position of Venus. But Weitzel
hesitates at concluding that Police Chief Buchert's UFO was in fact
Venus, because the UFO was reported to wobble around a little. Floyd.
meanwhile, if it really were where Spaur claims it was, would have been
more nearly due south and would have appeared to Chief Buchert to
be just skirting the horizon if it were visible at all. It would not haw
been at the 10°-plus altitude he reports.
To the south, in Salem, three police officers drove to the top of a
hill in the hope of seeing the UFO, which was reportedly heading
directly into their town. They, too, incorrectly believed P-13 to be
approaching on Route 14A, when it was in fact nearly ten miles to the
north on Route 14-224. But it does not matter that the Great UFO
Chase never reached Salem, for these officers claimed that they saw
the object too. They reported seeing three jet airplanes, coming from
the north, chasing the object at a terrific speed.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Weitzel ignores the obvious absurdity of equating an object supposedly thousands off feet in altitude traveling south at jet-airplane speed, with something
reportedly just above the ground, traveling east no faster than an automobile.
Instead, he cites the Salem report as further confirmation of Spaur's
observations. Even more improbable is the report coming from police
headquarters in Salem, telling of an airplane pilot's voice, loud and
dear, which reportedly burst in over the police radio, saying, âl'm
going down for a closer look... it's about forty-five feet across." [8] The
Salem incidents demonstrate the intensity of the UFO hysteria that
exploded into a fever pitch in Ohio that morning.
As Spaur and Neff passed Canfield, the UFO reportedly gained
altitude once again (as did Venus, the object they have still failed to
notice). Outside East Palestine, Ohio, near the Pennsylvania line.
Patrolman Wayne Huston was listening to the chase on his radio. He
realized that P-13 was not far from his present position and was closing
in fast. Spaur told Huston where to look to see the UFO, and Huston
duly acknowledged seeing it. Huston reportedly watched the object
approach from the northwest - which Venus could never have done - but Weitzel makes this same claim about Pennsylvania Officer Frank
Panzanella, a claim I subsequently found to be quite incorrect.
It can be shown, however, that Huston's account of the object's
approach is internally inconsistent. Huston claims that he first sighted
the object when cruiser P-13 was about five miles away. But he told
Weitzel that the UFO appeared to pass overhead in a matter of seconds, leaving him little opportunity to observe the object. If Huston
actually did spot Floyd when it and its pursuers were reportedly five
miles away and if the object's speed did in fact match P-13's 80-85
m.p.h. velocity at this point, Huston would have had the object in view
for at least three and a half minutes. This would give him plenty of
time to observe the object carefully and to describe its appearance
over the radio, for he was standing outside his police cruiser, extension
microphone in hand. But since he reports that the object approached
in '"seconds," leaving no time to study its appearance, either Huston's
account of the object's approach is seriously in error or else he could
not have been observing the same "Floyd" that Spaur and Neff were
reportedly chasing. Weitzel ignores this contradiction in his search for
confirmation, as does Hynek, who considers Huston's account of the
object's approach to be the most critical part of the case.
Huston, alone in his cruiser OV-1, joined in the chase as Spaur and
Neff roared by. He said that he probably never would have caught up to
them if they had not been delayed in traffic on the narrow, winding road.
None of the occupants of the cars that slowed them down (who were of
course unaware that a wild UFO chase was in progress in the next lane)
has ever come forward to confirm the allegation that a giant UFO flew
just over their heads, being followed by two speeding police cars.
Coming into Chippewa, Pennsylvania, near Beaver Falls, Huston
reports that the chasers were again forced to slow down in traffic,
because of a 6:00 church service that was about to begin. Not one of
these fine and sober early-rising citizens subsequently reported having
seen a giant flying saucer, as big as a house, buzzing the top of their
church steeple. [9]</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Approaching Brady's Run Park, near Beaver, the UFO chasers
encountered so much traffic that they were forced to stop. Huston
turned on his siren. A Volkswagen had exited from the park, triggering a traffic signal. Three trucks were approaching the traffic light,
now red, from the east, and two more trucks waited at the light, ahead
of the two cruisers, forcing them to suddenly screech to a halt. (Floyd,
ever obliging, was reported to slow down and wait whenever his pursuers were delayed in traffic.) None of these other six drivers seemed
to take the slightest notice of the giant UFO which, if the officers'
account is to be believed, flew not far over their heads. [10]
Shortly after the three officers crossed the state line, the UFO was
reported to have elevated a little more, achieving its greatest altitude
of the en tire chase. It also became difficult to see. This is not hard to
understand. As Venus rises higher in the sh, the sun also rises, making
the planet more difficult to see against the brightening sky. When they
crossed the state line, the sunrise was only five to ten minutes away.
Venus is bright enough to be seen even after sunrise, but around
sunrise the planet becomes much more difficult to see. No longer conspicuous, one must search for a moment in order to find it. Thus at
this point in the chase they lost sight of Floyd. Spaur expressed the
fear that it had eluded them for good. Spaur was driving in unfamiliar
territory. He had to rely on Huston's instructions, telling him where to
turn and when to slow down. This left him little time to watch the
UFO. "We thought we'd lost it," Spaur later reported. "This will be it,
we're going to lose it right here," they thought. The Great CFO Chase
might weil have ended here. But Floyd (or Fate) had other plans.
A half-hour earlier, around 5:20 A.M., Conway, Pennsvlvania,
Patrolman Frank Panzanella left a restaurant where he had stopped
for a cup of coffee after finishing a night's duty. As he drove up the hill
on 11th Street in Conway, heading northeast, he reportedly saw an
object to his right (in the east) which looked like a "reflection [of sunlight off a plane." He stopped upon reaching the top of the hill (he
was still inside the town) and noted that the object was not moving.
Panzanella then turned around, came back down the hill, and parked
his cruiser at the Atlantic service station on 10th Street and Route 65,
where there were fewer nearby buildings. He watched the object for
about thirty minutes. From this position, the rooftop of a nearby
house provided an excellent reference that has enabled later investigators to pinpoint the apparent position of the object. lts elevation
when first sighted was only about 11 degrees, and it remained just a few
degrees south of due east.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Panzanella's testimony is also touted bv UFO proponents as an
independent confirmation of the observations of the other
policemen. After all, he had not been listening to the frenzied UFO
chatter over the Ohio police radio channels. But they ignore the fact
that the object sighted by Panzanella was reportedly observed to the
east of Conway, Pennsvlvania, at the same time that Floyd was reportedly
hovering above the hood of Cruiser P-13, which was still in Ohio to the west.
Even the staunchest UFO enthusiast would find it difficult to explain
how an object supposedly in Ohio might be seen to the east by
someone in Pennsylvania.
Whatever it was that Panzanella saw (a high-altitude balloon is a
good possibility), it could not possibly have been Floyd, if Spaur's
account of the object's position is correct. This irreconcilable discrepancy poses an obvious difficulty to those who wish to prove that a UFO
was actually being chased. How to resolve it? An erroneous statement
will do nicely. Weitzel asserts that Panzanella first sighted the object in the
southwest [11] (he later changed this to "west" [12]), even though the map in
his own report to NICAP plainly shows otherwise - east.
Weitzel also claims that Panzanella drove dawn the hill to avoid a
"collision." This seems improbable in light of that officer's April 17
interview with reporter Tom Schley, in which Panzanella said that,
when he sighted the UFO from the top of the hill, he "hadn't thought
much about it at the time." [13] Weitzel's statements flatly contradict the
signed testimony that Panzanella gave to NICAP, which unambiguously indicates the object as being in the east, and makes no mention
whatsoever of any near-collision. That a person driving northeast
(which is indeed "uphill," exactly as described) could hardly fear a collision with an object supposedly coming from the southwest seems
never to have been noticed. Even if we accept the claim that the object
did indeed arrive from the west, it reportedly arrived far too soon for
it to have conceivably been Floyd, because Panzanella's sighting began
when the UFO chasers were still dozens of miles to the west.
That Panzanella's account of the reported direction of the object's
arrival should be so grossly distorted in a way that just happens to
better fit in with Spaur's account casts strong doubt upon the similar
testimonv - arrival from the northwest - attributed to Huston. It also
raises some very interesting questions: Who is responsible for these
misrepresentations, the investigators or the witnesses? Did the witnesses actually change their stories, or were they altered without their
knowledge or consent? Did Panzanella perhaps gradually change his
story with each retelling, subconsciously wishing to please those persons who were conferring celebrity status upon him? Or was it deliberately misrepresented to make it fit better with the "known" facts?
This incident provides an excellent example of how the accounts of
UFO sightings to be found in even the most respected and supposedly
reliable UFO sources are often grossly in error. When all of the facts
appear to fit together so well, it may be because some of them have
been reshaped.
Near Rochester, Pennsylvania, UFO chaser Dale Spaur had finally lost sight of the object. The sun had just risen, and Venus faded meekly
into the sunlit sky. But after emerging from a series of bridges and tunnels, first Huston, then Spaur claim to have seen Floyd once again. But
it wasn't the same Floyd: "it had lost probably half its altitude," Spaur
reported. [14] This is most significant. When Venus faded to near-invisibility, the UFO chasers transferred their attention to some other object, almost
certainly to the same object that Panzanella, now only about five miles
away, was watching. At this time Venus had an apparent altitude of
about 20 degrees. If Floyd-Venus were to lose "half its altitude," that would put
it near the 11 degree apparent altitude of the object reported by Panzanella.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The Great UFO Chase passed through Freedom, Pennsylvania.
and entered Conway. Spaur's cruiser was running low on gas. They
spotted Panzanella sitting in his cruiser, parked at a gas station on the
other side of the road. The two automobiles made U-turns, parked
behind Panzanella, and the three men got out. Panzanella at first was
hesitant to admit that he'd been watching something unusual, until
Huston exclaimed, "We've been with it all the way from Ohio!"
The four policemen watched the object, and later sketched its
position with respect to a nearby rooftop TV-antenna, the thin crescent moon, and Venus, which was still faintly visible. Hynek and other
UFO proponents make much of the fact that Floyd was reportedly seen at the same time as Venus, implying that the object being chased
could not possibly have been that brilliant planet. But they neglect to
mention that the simultaneous sighting of the two objects did not
occur until the very end of the chase, after the UFO had reportedly
"lost half its altitude." Prior to this time, Venus was supposedly not
seen at all; only Floyd was visible. This, of course, is absurd. Why
should Venus only be spotted after it had faded to near-invisibility after
the sunrise and be totally ignored at the beginning of the chase, when
it was the most conspicuous object in the heavens?
Another compelling reason for believing that the deputies were
chasing Venus is seen when the path thev chose is plotted on a map. As a result of the UFO chase, Spaur's cruiser P-13 ended up
forty-nine miles east and twenty-five miles south of its original position.
This corresponds to an average direction of travel of 117 degrees (to the east-southeast). The average apparent azimuth of Venus was 115 degrees during
this same interval. Thus we see that the UFO chasers followed a route
exactly as if they were chasing Venus; approaching an intersection, they
would turn onto whatever road took them closest to the apparent
direction of that brilliant planet.
What was the object to which the UFO chasers transferred their
attention after Venus faded from prominence? The overwhelming
probability is that the object was a high-altitude research balloon
launched by some university or research agency. Such balloons can
travel many hundreds of miles, and they can be almost impossible to
trace. The accounts of the object almost perfectly describe the appearance of such a balloon. Upon first seeing it, Panzanella said he
thought the object was a reflection of the rising sun off an airplane;
reflections from a balloon look quite the same. The period of maximum visibility of such a balloon is, of course, just before sunrise or
just after sunset, when the balloon is in direct sunlight because of its
altitude but when the sun is below the horizon for ground-based
observers. On several occasions I have seen high-altitude balloons
under these circumstances, and their appearance is nothing short of
dramatic: a dazzlingly brilliant star, shining by reflected sunlight in a
bright twilight sky. Panzanella's observation that the object slowly
increased in altitude exactly describes the familiar behavior of a balloon being warmed by the rays of the rising sun; the gases inside gradually expand, causing the balloon to rise slowly.
Deputy Spaur later told the Air Force investigators that, as they
stood watching Floyd from the gas station in Conway, Panzanella
reached the radio operator in nearby Rochester. He requested that
the airport be contacted to see if a jet interceptor were available to
take a closer look at the object. When the response came back that two
planes were supposedly going to be sent up (they never were), the
UFO reportedly accelerated straight upward-as if it had heard what
had been said-and quickly disappeared. "When they started talking
about fighter planes, just as though that thing heard every word that
was said, it went (psshew) straight up. And I mean it didn't play no
games, it went straight up," Spaur reported. [15] This of course strongly
suggests that the object was under intelligent control and did not wish
to be closely examined.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Weitzel, Hynek, and Blum have accepted as fact the claim that the
object shot "straight up" in this manner. [16] If this is true, it would
appear to rule out any natural explanation for the object. But this claim
directly contradicts the testimony given by all three of the officers available for
interview immediately after the sighting, Neff having gone "into seclusion."
This contradiction has been ignored by all of the "scientific" UFO
investigators, even though this information is readily available in the
NICAP files. Indeed, one of these interviews was conducted by one of
Weitzel's key UFO collaborators, Tom Schley of the Beaver Count_,
Times. In three separate newspaper interviews, which must have taken
place within hours of the end of the chase:
(1) Spaur said that they watched the object at Conway for about twenty minutes. It was still visible when he and the others went inside to make a telephone call.
When they came back outside, they were unable to find it [17]
(2)Huston said that when the police officers left, "the object was still hovering." [18]
(3) Panzanella said that the four of them stood watching the
object until it was "barely visible" after it had risen higher in the sky [19].
Furthermore, Spaur and Neff, in filling out a UFO sighting report.
were asked, "Did the object disappear while you were watching it?â
Both men answered no.[20]
Thus we see that this extremely significant original testimony
strongly suggesting that the object was a balloon, has been carefully
ignored by UFO proponents. They prefer to have us think that the
object behaved as if it were under intelligent control and contained a
sophisticated propulsion system, when in fact it faded into invisibility
exactly as a balloon does when the sun rises higher.
Here we see a second major instance in which a witness in this case
appears to have altered his original testimony, or has had it altered for
him. It is significant that the testimony is always changed in such a way
as to increase the strangeness of the object. This incident should serve as a
warning against accepting any UFO testimony too uncritically, especially after it has been repeated many times. Stories told by UFO witnesses, like fine wines, tend to improve with age.
After the UFO had faded from view, the four officers stopped at
the police station in Rochester, where they spoke briefly with an Air
Force officer by telephone. Spaur, Neff, and Huston then returned to
Ravenna, the Portage County seat.
The stationhouse was bombarded with phone calls and reporters.
Although no announcement of the chase had been made, apparently
some reporters who cover police beats had been listening on the
radio, and the story was quickly picked up by the wire services. William
Weitzel arrived later that same day, as did a number of other UFO
investigators and newspaper reporters. Interviews were obtained with
each of the principal witnesses except Neff. (Neff was quoted in a Pittsburgh newspaper article, however, which also stated that the object
"greatly interested Deputy Neff, who reportedly believes in flying
saucers." [21] ) Spaur was obviously exhausted, yet he was anxious to cooperate with the investigation. There can be little doubt that Spaur and
the other witnesses at this phase were quite sincere in their account of
the sighting. They plainly believed that they had indeed been chasing
a giant UFO.
</p><p style="text-align: justify;">In 1966 the Air Force was on the UFO hot seat. There was nothing
they would have liked better than to ignore the Great UFO Chase and
indeed forget about the whole UFO business, but this was impossible.
The great public clamor for answers to the UFO enigma caught the
Air Force squarely in the middle. Many persons had accused the Air
Force of covering up the supposed truth about the reality of UFOs.
The demand for a congressional investigation into UFOs-and the Air
Force's handling of them - grew daily. Hardly anyone had a good word
for the Air Force on the subject of UFOs (and perhaps deservedly so).
They were criticized by some for being too negative about UFOs and
by others for even bothering with such things in the first place. And
criticism is the one thing that a bureaucracy-whether military, government, or otherwise-simply cannot live with.
It is the very nature of the bureaucratic animal to do its utmost to
keep popular dissatisfaction with it to an absolute minimum. It knows
that when the situation gets too "hot" somebody must be sacrificed, a
scapegoat to be offered up in an attempt to placate the public furor.
Criticism jeopardizes not only promotions but next year's budget as
well. Thus all controversies must appear to be resolved, all questions
must appear to be answered, regardless of the actual facts. This is the
real reason for the Air Force's often hasty investigations of UFOs, for
its practice of grabbing at the first explanation for a UFO sighting to
come along, regardless of whether it fits the facts. The U.S. Air Force
was not attempting to explain UFOs, to cover them up, or to do anything except to get out of the spotlight.
The day after the sighting, Spaur received a brief, low-keyed telephone call from Major Hector Quintanella Jr., head of the Air Force's
Project Blue Book. According to Spaur, the conversation began with
Quintanella requesting him to "tell me about this mirage you saw." [22]
Quintanella appeared to be unfamiliar with many of the significant
details concerning the incident, although the story of the chase had
been widely reported in the papers and on radio and TV; certainly one
would expect the Air Force's chief UFO investigator to keep himself at
least reasonably well informed on such significant developments.
Spaur was disappointed at what he felt was the brevity and superficiality of Quintanella's telephone interview.
Several days later, after an almost negligible investigative effort, the
Air Force released its conclusion: the deputies had seen the Echo satellite and had then transferred their attention to Venus, which they then
"chased" into Pennsylvania.[23] While this hypothesis appears to be at
least partially correct, as the present analysis shows, Quintanella had
based his conclusion upon a superficial analysis of a very complex UFO
sighting, and he was unable to defend his analysis when it was challenged. In fact, the Blue Book file on this case actually contains a
"Memo for the Record" that states, "Definitely not Echo 1 or Echo II.
They were over the southern hemisphere at the time of the sighting."
Blue Book was unable to establish the presence of any bright satellite
over Ohio at that time. The superficiality of the Blue Book investigation is further revealed by their half-hearted attempt to determine the
position of the Pegasus satellites. They gave up after two phone calls,
convinced that the information was not available. [24] Yet James Oberg was
able to locate these records for me without difficulty some ten years
later. Neither Pegasus nor any other bright satellites had been visible.
</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Weitzel and the other UFO proponents correctly jumped all over
Quintanella for the many aspects of the sighting he had ignored, for
example, the alleged changes in the object's direction and the simultaneous sighting of Floyd and Venus. There was in principle no reason
that Quintanella could not have launched an in-depth investigation
into the sighting, and after a period of weeks or months he might have
produced an entirely satisfactory explanation for every major aspect of
the sighting. But the news media pressure was on. The Air Force didn't
need the correct answer in six months, when all the headlines would
have been forgotten and the crisis would be past. They needed an
answer in a hurry, any answer: Congress was beginning to stir!
After chatting with Spaur for a few minutes on the telephone, the
Air Force would have been perfectly happy to let the incident die right
there: superficial investigation, superficial conclusion. But the pro-UFO forces, led by William Weitzel, were stirring up a storm. Ohio
Congressman William Stanton began to pressure the Air Force for a
reevaluation of the incident, and he was joined by a number of other
prominent local citizens. Political clout, the only force capable of prevailing against bureaucratic inertia, began to work its magic: Quintanella would travel to Ravenna to interview the witnesses.
It seems that both sides intended to play silly games with this interview. Quintanella came only because he had to, out of concern for the
Air Force's public image. He did his best to "snow" Spaur and the
other deputies with impressive scientific facts and figures that sounded
none the less convincing for being absurd and incorrect. Spaur, meanwhile,
had evidently been carefully "coached" by the pro-UFO forces.
(Weitzel and several of his UFO colleagues were in the building at the
time, but they were not permitted to be present at the interview.)
Someone else clearly must have prepared little speeches for Spaur,
which he recited in singsong fashion, and not very successfully at that.
The ensuing interview, recorded by Weitzel, reveals the depth to which
the "science" of UFOlogy can sink when it degenerates into a game
and is played by partisans who are more interested in scoring points
than in finding the truth.
"Venus, Venus," muttered Quintanella as he rattled some papers,
"Venus today rises at 02:49 in the morning, and it rises at 110 degrees azimuth
and 25 degrees elevation." This is absurd. On the morning of the chase, Venus
rose at about 4:00 A.M., at 100° azimuth; the figures he cites are not
correct for the day of the interview either. The Major also seems to
have forgotten that, by definition, everything always rises at exactly
zero degrees elevation! Quintanella was obviously putting on a show to
impress the deputies. "It doesn't have to rise low on the horizon," he
added knowledgeably, "it can rise high. But it's on the ecliptic, yes, it's
always on the ecliptic." Spaur was snowed. "Okay, so it's on the
ecliptic," he meekly conceded. (I wonder if either of the two men
could have defined the ward ecliptic.) Score one for Quintanella.
But Deputy Spaur was not prepared to give up without a fight. He
had been provided the ammunition that (it was hoped) would permit
him to demolish the satellite-Venus hypothesis, if he could only deliver
it without slipping up. "First of all," Spaur boldly began, "as I understand it, a satellite orbits at about seven thousand, three hundred and
sorne miles an hour, to seven thousand, five hundred. I may be wrong."
He is. Spaur had rattled off the numbers admirably, but he had accidentally left out a syllable throughout his recitation: satellites orbit at
seventeen thousand miles an hour not seven thousand. But no matter,
because Quintanella didn't know the difference. Score one for Spaur.
"Second of all," Spaur continued, any satellite that came as low as
Floyd reportedly did would quickly burn up in the atmosphere. This is
true, but totally irrelevant, since UFOlogical experience clearly indicates that there is little relationship between the estimated altitude of
an unidentified object and its actual altitude.</p><p class="western" style="text-align: justify;">"Second of all," continued Spaur (he meant "third of all"), "our
satellite doesn't stop and go, and go up and dawn." "No, they zig-zag,"
Quintanella soberly stated. The Major paused for a moment and realized what an idiotic thing he had just said. A correction: they only appear
to zig-zag, he somewhat sheepishly restated. Score another for Spaur. </p><p class="western" style="text-align: justify;">"Second of all" (by now Spaur should have reached "fourth of
all"), 'Tm under the impression that Venus rises out of the east as the
morning star. Now this is probably another thing that's wrong, I'm not
sure." Spaur is quite correct, but he should have stuck to his guns: he
who equivocates is lost. "Depends ... depends," Quintanella slyly asserted, "sometimes it'll rise right over you." That is ridiculous, of
course, but Spaur was defeated; his pro-UFO allies were not present to
come to his rescue. "Oh, okay," he reluctantly conceded. Score
another for Quintanella.
In the end, the interview counted for nothing. No minds were
changed because none were open for an impartial examination of the
evidence. Both NICAP and Quintanella stubbornly held to their previously stated positions, each of them refusing to take note of the
serious inconsistencies in their own analyses. We are fortunate, however, that the Great UFO Chase has afforded us an unparalleled
opportunity to observe both the Air Force's Project Blue Book and the
pro-UFO forces in action and to note the shortcomings of each.
Although the Air Force happened upon a substantially (though not
completely) correct hypothesis to explain the sighting, they did not
assemble enough information to justify their conclusions. Hence they
were incapable of defending them when challenged. It must be conceded that even though the NICAP forces led by William Weitzel had
reached an erroneous conclusion and defended it vehemently, there is
no question that the thoroughness of their investigation was more
impressive than the slipshod work done by the Air Force on this case. </p><p class="western" style="text-align: justify;">Even the aftermath of the Great UFO Chase was suitably dramatic.
Six months after the incident, on October 9, 1966, the Associated
Press issued a story by John De Groot that was widely carried in newspapers from coast to coast. It alleged that the flying-saucer incident
had changed Spaur's life into a "nightmare." In it we read that his personal life was shattered by the publicity and ridicule that descended
upon him in the wake of the Great UFO Chase. "He is no longer a
deputy sheriff. His marriage is shattered. He has lost forty pounds. He
lives on a bowl of cereal and a sandwich each day." Spaur was depicted
as living in a lonely motel room, estranged from his wife and children,
having literally no money left from his meager paycheck as a painter
after he paid for his motel room and court-ordered child support.
And he blames everything on Floyd: "Saucer... ##@@!' Spaur
said bitterly. If he could change any or all of his past life, he reflected.
only one thing would need to be changed: "the night we chased that
damned thing."</p><p class="western" style="text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWrI5svC5z4CaICrkuZ8o_TOXFfBncZ5RJUq6zDTh8sUO_XtLd0hgCeDmbRc6sY55Lxn4n6WRXBKlaY6TZ3f2nGZp6EGi3vVyt9wT1z2t0mgZCuRF7Hut3dqaLGLDAA1rYE1XwbgTFePKwxntmkH8RnZv5JVwR_UbxFL6GAsznYgrtB7AXyugg8dCnAA/s1918/CE3K_PoliceChase.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="935" data-original-width="1918" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWrI5svC5z4CaICrkuZ8o_TOXFfBncZ5RJUq6zDTh8sUO_XtLd0hgCeDmbRc6sY55Lxn4n6WRXBKlaY6TZ3f2nGZp6EGi3vVyt9wT1z2t0mgZCuRF7Hut3dqaLGLDAA1rYE1XwbgTFePKwxntmkH8RnZv5JVwR_UbxFL6GAsznYgrtB7AXyugg8dCnAA/w640-h312/CE3K_PoliceChase.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">The scene in "Close Encounters" where police cars chase UFOs was obviously inspired by this case. </span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /> I do not claim to have any inside information concerning the private life of Dale F. Spaur, either before or after the UFO chase.
Nonetheless, it does seem to me that it is all too convenient for a lonely and bitter man to blame all of the troubles in his life on a flying
saucer. It cannot be denied that the publicity following in the wake of
such a famous UFO incident may well prove to be difficult and upsetting. But to suggest that such an incident alone could be responsible
for turning an otherwise healthy family life topsy-turvy is exactly the
sort of psychological crutch to which a person in a difficult situation
might well cling. There are too many instances in which reports of
famous UFO sightings do not cause such disastrous upheavals in the
witnesses' lives to lead one to believe that the UFO incident was the
only reason for this unhappy outcome. (Spaur's personal difficulties in
the wake of his UFO sighting appear to be the inspiration behind
UFO-buff Steven Spielberg's portrayal of the Neary family breakup
after the father's UFO sighting in the movie Close Encounters of the
Third Kind. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MW3KJUa8FQ" target="_blank">Another scene in this movie, where several police cars
chase a UFO across a state line, is an obvious dramatization of Spaur's
experience</a>.) </p><p class="western" style="text-align: justify;">Daniese Spaur filed charges of assault and battery against Dale on
August 2, but when the case came to trial on October 17, it was dismissed by the prosecutor, with the costs to be paid by the complainant:
Daniese wound up paying $14.90 in court costs. The results of the
"divorce" proceedings are even more curious. Daniese Evonne Spaur
vs. Dale Floyd Spaur, Court of Common Pleas, Ravenna, Ohio,
October 21, 1966: "The court finds that no common-law marriage
existed between the parties. Therefore it is adjudged and decreed that
this case be dismissed at plaintiff's cast." Apparently Dale and Daniese
had never actually been married! [25] </p><p class="western" style="text-align: justify;"></p><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTL6YiPsKnTW8QQbHd_DISpNsZatidl3yh-O9yAEe_pWbAI03FGGT45gB4FroNuuCcf2_VVWn9A8-MO3JCn1p-1mkBuO_PMofK3oSxN22YKHj4Hpmim01kySrFEdKvOHoHp55F2j92MlpQUEYqEwKUhs_HmkujXJja3tpJojyRE6T3j7KukLSPJ0mhag/s936/SpaurHaunted.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="403" data-original-width="936" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTL6YiPsKnTW8QQbHd_DISpNsZatidl3yh-O9yAEe_pWbAI03FGGT45gB4FroNuuCcf2_VVWn9A8-MO3JCn1p-1mkBuO_PMofK3oSxN22YKHj4Hpmim01kySrFEdKvOHoHp55F2j92MlpQUEYqEwKUhs_HmkujXJja3tpJojyRE6T3j7KukLSPJ0mhag/w640-h276/SpaurHaunted.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <p></p><p class="western" style="text-align: justify;">Following publication of the De Groot story, Spaur appears to have
completely vanished. In 1972 the Dayton Daily News attempted to locate
him for a follow-up story, without success.[26] Spaur reportedly turned
up at a meeting of a UFO organization in Cleveland in February of
1975. He claimed to be earning a living as a professional race-car
driver in Erie, Pennsylvania. He was still hoping for a reevaluation of
his UFO chase. [27] The latest accounts say that Spaur is now living in a
small town in West Virginia. (Weitzel had earlier noted Spaur's racing
experience, which reportedly "paid off" during the chase. Spaur's
enthusiasm for automobile racing might go a long way toward
explaining the zest with which he pursued a supposed UFO at speeds
of more than a hundred miles an hour.) </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Such is the story of the flying saucer named Floyd. It is a classic
sighting. It is also full of holes. Dr. J. Allen Hynek rated this case as a
"strong unidentified." Hynek writes, "I have presented aspects of this
case in sorne detail because although it is just one of a great many similar cases, it is a fine example ... of a Close Encounter of the First
Kind." [28] Hynek's evaluation of this case is especially perplexing.
During March of 1966 he witnessed firsthand the "near hysteria" (his
own words) over UFOs in Michigan, as police officers imagined celestial objects to be brilliant "moving" UFOs. But when the same scenario
was repeated a month later in Ohio, Hynek, who was not present this
time, reached the conclusion that the policemen must indeed have
sighted a genuine UFO!
The late Dr. McDonald considered the evidence assembled in support of this case to be "outstanding." Yet none of these recognized UFO
authorities seemed to take the slightest notice that Spaur was revealed
in the De Groot piece to be a UFO "repeater," a clear sign that a
person's UFO testimony had best be taken with a grain of salt. It is
remarkable how readily such well-known UFO "experts" can be misled
by inaccurate data, inaccurate reporting, and a powerful will to believe.
In <i>UFOs and the Limits of Science</i>, Ronald Storv examines and rejects
an abbreviated prepublication version of this analysis, maintaining
that the Spaur case "stands as one of the 'top ten,' an embarrassment
to the Air Force and to the UFO debunkers." [29] If this tattered and torn
case is held forth as one of the ten most convincing of all time, it demonstrates dramatically how flimsy the many thousands of weaker ones must be. After reading <i>The </i><i>U</i><i>FO Verdict</i>, however, Story wrote me that he has lost confidence in several of his "top ten" cases, and planned to
say so publicly.
</p><pre class="western"> </pre><pre class="western">NOTES
<span style="font-size: small;">1. James E. McDonald's endorsement was given to NICAP, October 30,1966.
2. J. Allen Hynek was called the âGalileo of UFOlogv" by <i>N</i><i>ewsweek</i>, November 21, 1977, p. 97;<br />
the "Galileo of UFO Studies" bv <i>Oui</i>, April 1977, cover.
3. Hynek, "Are Flying Saucers Real?" <i>Saturday Evening Post</i>, December 17, 1966, p. 20.
4. Flying Saucers (New York: Look Special Publication, Cowles Communications, 1967), p. 39.
5. Edward U. Condon, Scientific Study of Unidentified Objects, Case 53;
<br /> supplement to Ravenna Record Courier, April 18, 1966.
6. Spaur and Neff's interview with the Air Force's Project Blue Book was
taped by William Weitzel, and copies were widely distributed.
7. Philip]. Klass, <i>UFOs Explained</i> (New York: Random House, 1974), p. 42.
8. William Weitzel, "Into the Middle of Hell," <i>UFO Reports</i>, October
1967, p. 45.
9. East Liverpool (Ohio) <i>Review</i>, April 18, 1966. Interview with Huston.
10. Weitzel, Report of NICAP Pennsylvania Unit No. 1, April 8, 1967.
11. Weitzel, Report to NICAP, June 23, 1966.
12. Weitzel, <i>UFO Reports</i>, October 1967, p. 41.
13. Tom Schley, Beaver County Times, April 18, 1966.
14. Project Blue Book interview, May 10, 1966.
15. Project Blue Book interview, May 10, 1966.
16. Hynek, <i>The UFO Experience</i>, chapter 8; Blum, <i>Beyond Earth</i>, chapter 9.
17. <i>Cleveland Plain Dealer</i>, April18, 1966.
18. East Liverpool Review, April18, 1966.
19. Beaver County Times, April18, 1966.
20. U.S. Air Force Project Blue Book files.
21. Pittsburgh Post Gazette, April 18, 1966.
22. Weitzel, UFO Reports, October 1967, p. 44.
23. Weitzel, UFO Reports, p. 45.
24. Memo for the record, Project Blue Book files.
25. State of Ohio vs. Dale Spaur, State Case No. 62775; Court of Common Pleas, Case no. 34849.
26. Dayton (Ohio) Daily News, May 26, 1972.
27. Joseph Wittemer, personal Correspondence.
28. Hynek, The UFO Experience, chapter 8.
29. Ronald Story, UFOs and the Limits of Science (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1981),
<br /> p. 173.
30. Personal correspondence from Ronald Story, August 6, 1981.
<p style="text-align: justify;"> </p></span></pre>Robert Sheafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324537021429419111noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8104600450225406597.post-2237780997849362342023-02-18T15:06:00.000-08:002023-02-18T15:06:57.201-08:00Do Pilots Make 'Relatively Poor' Witnesses?<p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Believe it or not, that is true.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">A lot has been happening in UFOdumb these past few weeks. I didn't write about it because the media coverage was omnipresent, and I didn't really have anything to add to the cacophony. <a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2022/12/the-ufo-bubble-goes-pop.html" target="_blank">On December 3 I noted that the report required to be sent to Congress on UFOs (or "UAPs") by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) on October 31 was late</a>. When it was finally released on January 12, it was a huge disappointment to all. As the Canadian UFO researcher Chris Rutkowski noted on Facebook's UFO Updates,</p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/Unclassified-2022-Annual-Report-UAP.pdf" target="_blank">Yes, the long-awaited AARO report on UAP is out</a>. Long on verbiage but short on case details, as I and others predicted. Including the 144 cases noted in the first report in 2021, this new report notes 510 cases were received by the end of August 2022. One significant point is that there are no details or case breakdowns in this unclassified version of the report.... However, we can see that the AARO UFO case data is just as difficult to parse as that received by civilian UFO groups. The AARO report notes: "...many reports lack enough detailed data to enable attribution of UAP with high certainty."</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSYgDNGG-ksI7PTY4wy9mCLCjlrpYsZJjBRMwanlP1mhb8Qii__TsxqLzZOrbVT7u8ATW_ALTCXpRiBnGlHh0OPxIOavbp7DNFiCh8Xvw0zHrfwIqHGrXMZlwSeZvoj9AK1OP2q7RcQq1slonHpCVZVbgsX5POukiivkLikoLfGP7zDxK-vHXTdlDRKw/s671/dni2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="432" data-original-width="671" height="413" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSYgDNGG-ksI7PTY4wy9mCLCjlrpYsZJjBRMwanlP1mhb8Qii__TsxqLzZOrbVT7u8ATW_ALTCXpRiBnGlHh0OPxIOavbp7DNFiCh8Xvw0zHrfwIqHGrXMZlwSeZvoj9AK1OP2q7RcQq1slonHpCVZVbgsX5POukiivkLikoLfGP7zDxK-vHXTdlDRKw/w640-h413/dni2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">"Long on verbiage but short on case details." Exactly. The Pentagon now has 510 cases of reported UAPs (UFOs). While this might sound impressive, recall that Project Blue Book, which ended in 1969, had amassed 12,618 reports, and none of them amounted to anything significant, or added to our knowledge of any subject, even after more than 50 years of investigation. Project Blue Book listed a total of 701 cases as "unidentified" (5.6%), many of which have now been investigated and explained by further analysis. (<a href="http://www.astronomyufo.com/UFO/SUNlite.htm" target="_blank">Tim Printy has resolved a lot of these Blue Book "unknowns."</a>) Most of the cases in the DNI report are supposedly "unexplained," which suggests that the investigators really don't understand what they are doing, and have little or no understanding of UFO history. <br /></p><p></p><div style="text-align: justify;">Now, we are suddenly in the midst of some Balloon Mania (or perhaps, "Ballonacy"), after a Chinese spy balloon was allowed to cross over all of North America, from Alaska to South Carolina, before finally being shot down, and falling into the ocean. Perhaps because Biden's response to this incursion has been characterized as anemic, or even "wimpy," the administration now seems to be rushing to the opposite extreme: find every unidentified balloon over North America, and shoot it down. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfM5CqQVs-DUZTuHVyOdu_s1JXDykp5swX8510hB0kdXVuIxjH_pQinXDCPzgavqzmkK6O7RfySDCb6zRM7VCJz3NtqVM2LVmqGZM_R6uR89sc9u2qyvK9HbrRlXz1AAYTfwGOBVj0m2S5kATjjABY4SlADz8enTc_94jr_3RKHcufVCLUTP3NBrSttw/s496/Clipboard22.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="496" data-original-width="495" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfM5CqQVs-DUZTuHVyOdu_s1JXDykp5swX8510hB0kdXVuIxjH_pQinXDCPzgavqzmkK6O7RfySDCb6zRM7VCJz3NtqVM2LVmqGZM_R6uR89sc9u2qyvK9HbrRlXz1AAYTfwGOBVj0m2S5kATjjABY4SlADz8enTc_94jr_3RKHcufVCLUTP3NBrSttw/w199-h200/Clipboard22.jpg" width="199" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">An Octagonal balloon.</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">So far, three more "unidentified" objects have been shot down in recent days, not counting the Chinese spy balloon. <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/3-objects-flying-us-canada-balloons-schumer-congress/story?id=97055660" target="_blank">According to some accounts, all of these objects have been balloons</a>, which sounds very plausible. Other accounts, however, insist that the objects remain unidentified. <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/11/politics/unidentified-object-alaska-military-latest/index.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">As noted in a CNN report,</a> "Some pilots also claimed to have seen no identifiable propulsion on the object, and could not explain how it was staying in the air, despite the object cruising at an altitude of 40,000 feet." <b>Do some pilots really not understand that an object that is lighter than air does not need "propulsion" to remain aloft?? </b><a href="https://www.newsweek.com/ufo-octagon-shaped-shot-down-mystery-1781166" target="_blank">One pilot described a balloon he shot down as "octagonal,"</a> a common shape for party balloons. It has also been suggested that <a href="https://www.rtl-sdr.com/the-us-airforce-may-have-shot-down-an-amateur-radio-pico-balloon-over-canada/" target="_blank">the Air Force may have shot down an amateur radio "pico" balloon over Canada</a>. Such balloons are only about a meter in diameter, and carry lightweight electronics powered by solar panels.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Yet the pilots involved in the shootdown were unable to identify the objects sighted, <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/02/16/ufo-shot-down-by-400k-us-missile-may-have-been-a-12-hobby-balloon/" target="_blank">even as they fired a $400,000 missile at what was likely a $12 balloon</a>. How can that be? <a href="http://www.debunker.com/texts/kean.htm" target="_blank">According to Leslie Kean,</a> the <i>New York Times</i>' trusted UFO author (<a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2020/11/the-ghost-and-ms-kean.html" target="_blank">and ghost promoter</a>), pilots</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;">represent the worldâs most experienced and best-trained observers of everything that flies⊠these unique circumstances potentially transform any jet aircraft into a specialized flying laboratory for the study of rare anomalous phenomena. <br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">She seems to actually believe that pilots are some sort of super-observer, whose reported observations cannot be disputed. Unfortunately, that claim is based on assumptions, not on facts. J. Allen Hynek, the scientific advisor to the Air Force's Project Blue Book, had the opposite view. He wrote,</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpDuxwChEVeVyQl-KgrnRQHiyT8NdGt78yoGfsRe0so9kAKlMiRnVSH88lItNKUitWhAJI3YAIY7fvxmcl9ur_mPpQZHjWWJf2biRRLjZBEZlhq34LVKVtGLE1HvdGzS-v8kViZg_qww9h2REVjztD8MxgvyfddpyCprIg_VqXUkEIVt8KvnkOt1vMqg/s958/Hynek_UFO_Report.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="958" data-original-width="576" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpDuxwChEVeVyQl-KgrnRQHiyT8NdGt78yoGfsRe0so9kAKlMiRnVSH88lItNKUitWhAJI3YAIY7fvxmcl9ur_mPpQZHjWWJf2biRRLjZBEZlhq34LVKVtGLE1HvdGzS-v8kViZg_qww9h2REVjztD8MxgvyfddpyCprIg_VqXUkEIVt8KvnkOt1vMqg/s320/Hynek_UFO_Report.jpg" width="192" /></a></div>Surprisingly, commercial and military pilots appear to make relatively poor witnesses (<i>The Hynek UFO Report</i>, Dell, 1977, p. 271<i>)<br /></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.jamesoberg.com/ufo.html" target="_blank">Space writer and skeptic James Oberg</a> gives us an explanation of this:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;">I just think we need to keep in mind that fighter pilots are NOT 'trained observers', they are 'trained SURVIVORS". They live to retire and get their pensions by interpreting all visual cues in the most hazardous possible form, as embryonic indications of somebody trying to kill you. They 'don't think twice' in such cases, they are better-safe-than-sorry in their immediate instinctive actions. If it turns out the visual cues were NOT dangerous, at worst there is some embarrassment and teasing, but it beats the alternative -- funerals. I've seen recent cases where they got into dogfight mode over visual stimuli hundreds of miles away -- AS THEY SHOULD, if in doubt at all. <br /><br />As Hynek and others have repeatedly discovered, pilots are not dispassionate nature-viewers, they are survival-focused specialists in avoiding lethal hazards in the air, and as such they properly interpret visual stimuli in the most hazardous [and closest] manifestation, AS THEY SHOULD. As early as the 1930s scientists realized that pilots were POOR observers of mid-air objects such as meteors and they continue to be poor observers of missile and space events, and we WANT them to be, in order to enhance the chances of them and their passengers staying alive -- better too many 'false-positive' avoidance reactions, than a single false-negative in a genuine collision-course event.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Oberg cites a 1936 article,<a href="https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=1936PA.....44...45N&db_key=AST&page_ind=0&data_type=GIF&type=SCREEN_VIEW&classic=YES" target="_blank"> <i>Air Pilots and "Meteor Hazards"</i> by H. H. Ninger</a>, published in <i>Popular Astronomy</i> (V. 44, p. 45). It notes,</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;">Press reports lead us to believe that air pilots are subject to a rather serious hazard because of meteors. Recently the newspapers carried a startling account of how a resourceful pilot battled a shower of meteors and by an ingenious series of dips and swerves averted what would have proved to be a major disaster had the plane been piloted by a less dexterous hand. The culmination of this amazing feat of aerial acrobatics was a plunge for safety into a canyon. Thus, by the preservation of eleven lives and a valuable aircraft, a new name was added to the already long list of aerial heroes! Only a few months ago, another keen-witted pilot saved himself and his precious of mail by dipping the right wing of his plane to avoid one of those dreadful blazing projectiles in Nebraska. In March, two years ago, two pilots in the southwest related their hair-raising experiences as they found themselves facing an aerial inferno; but fortunately both of them were spared.<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The article relates several such more incidents, then goes on to show that the pilots were many miles from the actual location of these meteors. Also, all such visible meteors occur high in the stratosphere, "far above any height ever reached in ordinary flying." So these pilots' breathless accounts of their narrow escape from approaching meteors are, sorry to say, wildly inaccurate.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So the next time you hear someone say that the accounts of unidentified aerial objects told by pilots must be assumed to be accurate, remember that the correct answer is: not necessarily!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p style="text-align: justify;"> </p><p style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></p>Robert Sheafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324537021429419111noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8104600450225406597.post-90255073758978187022022-12-03T18:48:00.001-08:002022-12-03T18:48:57.947-08:00"The UFO Bubble Goes Pop."<p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Those who care about such things have been noting that<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/latest-us-defense-intelligence-report-ufos-be-made-public-soon-2022-11-04/" target="_blank"> the report required to be sent to Congress on UFOs (or "UAPs") by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) on October 31 is late</a>. By now, more than a month late! Just before the deadline <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/28/us/politics/ufo-military-reports.html" target="_blank">The <i>New York Times </i>reported (October 28) </a>that "Many Military U.F.O. Reports Are Just Foreign Spying or Airborne Trash." That would seem to be a big embarrassment to those claiming that UFOs represent something mysterious and unknown.<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiLa7bhY3Nh391s6k7gqOlGcwJsPpb0zFAZsfuEkM5HPdmkiBXyVpE2l8mVeI-5yLaFe3H87_H2-2JJ0Gg6SVut1eRknTOuU-YmsOU4xl4FUvA_QkmuA7cr5fcbU8ZXOEz9bWb9DeWkEMyTPaQJB4l4LXuV7zj7N5coB-AUjTTqvp2guGcESilROtCKg/s991/Clipboard02.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="398" data-original-width="991" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiLa7bhY3Nh391s6k7gqOlGcwJsPpb0zFAZsfuEkM5HPdmkiBXyVpE2l8mVeI-5yLaFe3H87_H2-2JJ0Gg6SVut1eRknTOuU-YmsOU4xl4FUvA_QkmuA7cr5fcbU8ZXOEz9bWb9DeWkEMyTPaQJB4l4LXuV7zj7N5coB-AUjTTqvp2guGcESilROtCKg/w640-h258/Clipboard02.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Now the <i>Wall Street Journal</i> has popped the Government UFO bubble, so to speak. <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-ufo-bubble-goes-pop-disinformation-pentagon-uap-sightings-china-nelson-nasa-secrets-11670010814?fbclid=IwAR27qflOyYbLzgE9C0ReSykkV0sZktWBA6VxlyS8T0obuySjncYekZA7xUk" target="_blank">In an article published December 2, columnist Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. writes,</a> "The UFO Bubble Goes Pop. Watch the skies? No, watch our intelligence agencies and their penchant for disinformation."</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>A month has passed since its leaked contents were detailed in the New York Times, and still the document has not appeared and itâs not hard to guess why. Its findings will be surprising only to those who imbibed previous official disinformation on so-called UAP, or unidentified aerial phenomena. The most credible and widely trumpeted sightings by Navy pilots now are explained as illusions. Though Chinese surveillance drones do operate in areas where U.S. training flights occur, these are conventional drones, with no unusual capabilities. They arenât the uncannily speedy, supernaturally maneuverable objects mentioned in previous accounts...</blockquote></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>the document has not appeared and itâs not hard to guess why. Its findings will be surprising only to those who imbibed previous official disinformation on so-called UAP, or unidentified aerial phenomena. The most credible and widely trumpeted sightings by Navy pilots now are explained as illusions. Last yearâs first mandatory intelligence report in what now seems a misdirection claimed several sightings âappear to demonstrate advanced technology.â</blockquote></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZUhISxP8WFAE7-AL2Ky3A8AFHeoDh6KL4NvoylBBGBc3D0CA-11Xt3sqKKWeAuF3msDiHUUX3o95ryFBdon7xlXOx7XvjB_chR6k4BpCPCW4ewiSDBMIsAZFYTcwGZQgKWjSrhj1OvWNvtaF5Vsqu7DFHs-EM6HRnX-3ReEBz4LnBw1IOQakIQArVJA/s1016/Clipboard03.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="502" data-original-width="1016" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZUhISxP8WFAE7-AL2Ky3A8AFHeoDh6KL4NvoylBBGBc3D0CA-11Xt3sqKKWeAuF3msDiHUUX3o95ryFBdon7xlXOx7XvjB_chR6k4BpCPCW4ewiSDBMIsAZFYTcwGZQgKWjSrhj1OvWNvtaF5Vsqu7DFHs-EM6HRnX-3ReEBz4LnBw1IOQakIQArVJA/w640-h316/Clipboard03.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Reason Magazine, December 2022</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;">Jenkins cites Mick West's just-published article in <i>Reason</i> Magazine, "<a href="https://reason.com/2022/11/15/the-military-ufo-complex/" target="_blank">The Military-UFO Complex - How a motley crew of saucer hunters got a place at the public trough</a>." West relates the story of "paranormal pork," whereby Robert Bigelow, James Lacatski, and Senator Harry Reid deceptively schemed to get Pentagon funding for their far-out program to investigate the spookernatural:</p><p></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>After this otherworldly vision, Lacatski became convinced that there was a phenomenon worth investigating. He knew that his Pentagon bosses were unlikely to authorize such a thing. Nor could they publicly request funding to investigate a haunted ranch. So he and some allies invented a new program, the Advanced Aerospace Weapons Systems Application Program (AAWSAP)...<br /><br />AAWSAP was to be a front. Nominally it was set up to study potential novel developments in aerospace weaponry. The public solicitation makes no mention of UFOs or ghosts. It simply discusses aerospace technology and lists a variety of fields that needed investigating, such as "propulsion," "lift," "power generation," and the only real oddity, the ambiguously phrased "human effects."</blockquote></div><div style="text-align: justify;">They're all in here: Luis Elizondo, Tom DeLonge, Christopher Mellon, etc., all those who had a finger in this. He writes that Elizondo "at one point had been head of AAWSAP," which is not correct. Elizondo claims to have been the head of AATIP, the "Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program", a supposed successor program to AAWSAP. However, <a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2022/06/skinwalkers-at-pentagon-book-review.html" target="_blank">AATIP was not actually a program, as it had no budget - AAWSAP, by comparison, received over $22 million in government funds</a>, paid to Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Systems (BAASS). To the extent that AATIP was anything, it appears to have been a private, off-book UFO study group. It had no publications, and left little if any trace of its existence.</div><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;">If you think West is tough on the UFO grifters, wait until you see this podcast by Steven Greenstreet of the <i>New York Post</i>, which lays bare the deceptions underlying the Pentagon UFO saga. Greenstreet pays careful attention to inconsistencies and contradictions
of the AATIP narrative, which few have noted. One very important point
made by Greenstreet is where he quotes Leslie Kean, prime mover behind
the highly influential Fake News stories about AATIP in the <i>New York Times</i>,
explaining that she did not mention that ghosts, werewolves, etc. were
being studied because "the angle I was taking in my reporting was to try
to get credibility for the subject." So she admits that she was writing
not as a journalist, but as an advocate. The <i>New York Times</i> has
yet to correct or retract any of the articles she wrote, which
deliberately misrepresent the Pentagon's UFO investigation program. </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XD4gQS_-qY" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="197" data-original-width="359" height="352" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXiwqkqPaM8542cSdgde_ZIvj570CqxvQzYKwcp8S2Ygh5zK2FW0YWbkYHs9d9lbTAMgzeQEtQyjY96iMI0moj-Stz-2gzZLKPoDnWMmtOXPpN_ReIkac5akN7HkeDkq-21Sl9Sy87o-8KcDUNz3oZc6QbabhcikAOPsuGmd_v4D8uLiL9AZpbiU_7Fw/w640-h352/Clipboard01.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XD4gQS_-qY" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: small;">NEW! UFOs, Werewolves & Ghosts | Shocking truth of Pentagon AAWSAP program</span></a></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;">While "misdirection" may indeed sometimes be involved in intelligence matters, I don't think that is what happened here. Never attribute to "misdirection" that which can be explained as simple incompetence. Indeed, such incompetence has been glaringly obvious for some time.<a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2022/06/meet-face-of-pentagons-uap-task-force.html" target="_blank"> The "chief scientist" of the Pentagon's UAP Task Force, Dr. Travis Taylor, is a well-known star of paranormal entertainment shows </a>such as <i>Ancient Aliens</i> and <i>The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch</i>. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/pentagon-ufo-study-led-researcher-who-believes-supernatural" target="_blank">Keith Kloor wrote in <i>Science</i> (June 29, 2022)</a> , "Pentagon UFO study led by researcher who believes in the supernatural Critics dumbfounded by reality TV star Travis Taylor's position as âchief scientist.â </p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;">The revelation shocked UFO skeptics in the science community. They note that Taylor has made extraordinary claims during TV appearances, including to have "seen more UFOs than I can count," and that heâs been tracked by supernatural entities that caused his car and appliances to malfunction. "I find it very difficult to believe" federal authorities gave Taylor a prominent role in preparing the UFO report, says Seth Shostak, an astronomer at the SETI Institute who is familiar with Taylor's involvement with Ancient Aliens, a cable TV show that promotes far-fetched UFO narratives.<br /></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcHAqdqbCU1PoGWwsxcFGhSH1Rvb-VUyie-nxhunXjtn2jDZRAkVgC7G0aR80DqEe_0z7VNroTh6TpYgYR2umCM75AVKaMdcp5kM3ZnKjKCkU8FrTkQeWb2JrMSrsKOY86saUrdwK7ns_SH1oU0uC5x7Oiy2J-9NjAGI2VXJ8H_VLpxhtd5KZT_3KlOw/s640/TravisTaylorAncientAliens2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="430" data-original-width="640" height="430" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcHAqdqbCU1PoGWwsxcFGhSH1Rvb-VUyie-nxhunXjtn2jDZRAkVgC7G0aR80DqEe_0z7VNroTh6TpYgYR2umCM75AVKaMdcp5kM3ZnKjKCkU8FrTkQeWb2JrMSrsKOY86saUrdwK7ns_SH1oU0uC5x7Oiy2J-9NjAGI2VXJ8H_VLpxhtd5KZT_3KlOw/w640-h430/TravisTaylorAncientAliens2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Dr. Travis Taylor (left), Chief Scientist of the Pentagon's UAP Task Force, checks out a supposed Ancient Alien aircraft design, with Giorgio Tsoukalos. </span><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"> I wrote back in April that<a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2021/04/the-navys-triangle-bokeh-ufo-video.html" target="_blank">
the Navy's top photo analysts mistook stars and planets and the effects
of "bokeh" (out-of-focus image rendering) for a whole swarm of "UAPs"</a> surrounding a Navy ship. It was also widely noted <a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2021/04/new-navy-ufo-photos-party-balloons.html" target="_blank">that several of the Navy's photos of supposedly unknown flying objects look suspiciciously like party balloon</a>s. Such incompetence makes it abundantly clear that <a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2022/04/pentagon-ufo-papers-more-releases-more.html" target="_blank">whoever was performing analysis of the military's supposed photo and video unknowns had no clue what they were doing</a>.</p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xGrTCbuDnYA/YHNMP1OknwI/AAAAAAAADSs/DTAgwv0VswYQ-tQiDWY2CPOxLEl_k6fEACLcBGAsYHQ/s640/ThreeNavyUAPs.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="369" data-original-width="640" height="370" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xGrTCbuDnYA/YHNMP1OknwI/AAAAAAAADSs/DTAgwv0VswYQ-tQiDWY2CPOxLEl_k6fEACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h370/ThreeNavyUAPs.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Three Navy UAP Photos: The "âMETAL BLIMP W/ PAYLOADâ, the âSPHEREâ, and the "ACORN." Apparently a 'shark balloon' (left), some out-of-focus balloon, and a Batman party balloon.<br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">I think this provides a much better explanation for what has happened. When the adults in the room finally began paying attention to what has been happening in DOD UAP-land, they were appalled to see such foolishness. They realize that they had stepped deeply into something very messy, and are still wondering how to get it off their shoe.</p><p><br /></p><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Robert Sheafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324537021429419111noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8104600450225406597.post-41760464803040083412022-11-19T13:14:00.001-08:002022-11-21T11:05:38.464-08:00Quintillions and Quintillions of Alien Probes - Or None at All?<p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The question of SETI and Extraterrestrial Intelligence has now been debated at length for more than fifty years. Are there other intelligent civilizations in our galaxy, and elsewhere? If so, is it possible to communicate with them? Can they possibly even send spacecraft here? The controversy rages on.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgauuNAaaLh6meXTFHU2J_7SMh9fXijHhw4i0dZ0aF3OCM7fUv085cTiJM4TBrNek-nigvGf_rtHGJoBTA7gJL9C2rjpZwkgnvxd5fH9BhOBFeW-q7oU0AA-EflViBHEH6HWdHq9ux8e4XlOiN0E9YeyHf1SHOekN8ndrs5nB10OxIkmuvkVfdjfYIHbQ/s255/11277_Jonnathan_Jiang.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="255" data-original-width="255" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgauuNAaaLh6meXTFHU2J_7SMh9fXijHhw4i0dZ0aF3OCM7fUv085cTiJM4TBrNek-nigvGf_rtHGJoBTA7gJL9C2rjpZwkgnvxd5fH9BhOBFeW-q7oU0AA-EflViBHEH6HWdHq9ux8e4XlOiN0E9YeyHf1SHOekN8ndrs5nB10OxIkmuvkVfdjfYIHbQ/w200-h200/11277_Jonnathan_Jiang.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Jonathan H. Jiang</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11422947/NASA-says-humanity-avoid-Great-Filter-increasing-maturity-understanding-earth.html" target="_blank">A team of scientists working under a NASA contract at Jet Propulsion Laboratory has written a paper that is very pessimistic for SETI</a>. A group of five researchers led by Jonathan H. Jiang of NASA's JPL have written a paper (which is not yet peeer-reviewed), "Avoiding the âGreat Filterâ: Extraterrestrial Life and Humanityâs Future in the Universe." <a href="https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/2210/2210.10582.pdf" target="_blank">From the paper's abstract, </a> <br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p>
<blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Coupled with logical assumption and calculations such as those made by Dr. Frank Drake starting in the early 1960s, evidence of life should exist in abundance in our galaxy alone, and yet in practice weâve produced no clear affirmation of anything beyond our own planet. So, where is everybody? The silence of the universe beyond Earth reveals a pattern of both human limitation and steadfast curiosity. Even as ambitious programs such as SETI aim to solve the technological challenges, the results have thus far turned up empty for any signs of life in the galaxy. We postulate that an existential disaster may lay in wait as our society advances exponentially towards space exploration, acting as the Great Filter: a phenomenon that wipes out civilizations before they can encounter each other, which may explain the cosmic silence. In this article, we propose several possible scenarios, including anthropogenic and natural hazards, both of which can be prevented with reforms in individual, institutional and intrinsic behaviors. We also take into account multiple calamity candidates: nuclear warfare, pathogens and pandemics, artificial intelligence, meteorite impacts, and climate change.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">What is the "Great Filter"? In brief, it is the supposed tendency of intelligent civilizations to die off, either because of their own actions, or unavoidable disasters like pandemics or asteroid impacts. They conclude that the best way to try to escape the Great Filter "begins with collaboration," whatever that actually means.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The first person to propose the Great Filter in the late 1990s was Robin Hanson, an economics professor at George Mason University. <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/nasa-has-a-theory-for-why-humans-might-be-the-only-intelligent-life-in-the-universe" target="_blank">And he doesn't agree with the recommendations in this pape</a>r. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The global cooperation Jiang and company advocated as the means of our survival could be the very thing that ends up destroying us, Hanson told The Daily Beast. âClearly they recommend more centralized control and governance of our civilization,â Hanson said. âBut I actually see excess governance centralization as the most likely contribution to our future Great Filter.â</p><blockquote>In Hansonâs conception, the more we decentralize, the more likely some of us to survive and thrive.</blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">And I tend to agree with that. The more power held by a centralized government, the more likely it is to march us over a cliff. Seth Shostak, the senior astronomer with the California-based SETI Institute, isn't buying it, either. He told The Daily Beast, âThe Great Filter theory depends on the assumed observational result that nobody is out there. But that conclusion is far too premature. Weâve just begun to search.â</div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">But if you thought those guys were too pessimistic about SETI, wait until you hear this next one! Dr. Edwin L. Turner is an Emeritus Professor of Astrophysics at Princeton University.<a href="https://www.astro.ucla.edu/astrophysics-colloquium.html" target="_blank"> He recently spoke at a colloquium of the UCLA Division of Astronomy and Astrophysics.</a> Here is the abstract:<br /></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS6EQ_1C26Y4ZdaWoudZJGqEBvJ80yTo9Xri7sXP2QY-6o1-oHkbZdSr4UkaygUkjx6_Ifxb8ZWCLZRXo0T48ctwOL2Tj79y2j3QS_GCSkr6kTlMe4v43PAsqBk6cgQwgzR2EUS1JFtN_S5DHfnDKiEn6b_OO2885InGIYhUh4V18G3Iymlzsa3-1mig/s605/Clipboard01.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="605" data-original-width="382" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS6EQ_1C26Y4ZdaWoudZJGqEBvJ80yTo9Xri7sXP2QY-6o1-oHkbZdSr4UkaygUkjx6_Ifxb8ZWCLZRXo0T48ctwOL2Tj79y2j3QS_GCSkr6kTlMe4v43PAsqBk6cgQwgzR2EUS1JFtN_S5DHfnDKiEn6b_OO2885InGIYhUh4V18G3Iymlzsa3-1mig/s320/Clipboard01.jpg" width="202" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://web.astro.princeton.edu/people/edwin-l-turner" target="_blank">From Turner's Princeton page</a><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><blockquote>November 16, Ed Turner (Princeton University)<br /><br />The Hubble Volume May Well Be Entirely Devoid of Extraterrestrial Life, Intelligence or Technological Civilizations </blockquote><blockquote>Abstract: The two most common and apparently compelling arguments for the existence of extraterrestrial life, intelligence and technological civilizations are the (probable) extremely large number of exoplanetary environments similar to the Earth's and the application of the Copernican Principle to abiogenesis, evolution and sociology. On closer examination both of these lines of reasoning are shown to have fundamental flaws. Thus, it remains entirely plausible that the Earth is unique in the observable universe as a home to any or all of these three astrobiological phenomena. The discussion will also illuminate a major unresolved question in our understanding of nature which deserves serious attention independent of the specific topic considered in this presentation.</blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">At first I thought that "the Hubble volume" meant the entire volume of space that is visible to the Hubble Space Telescope. But researcher Nablator points out <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_volume" target="_blank">that actually references the much larger region of the universe as determined what is essentially an event horizon, where the expansion of the universe (from our viewpoint) would reach c,</a> the speed of light. It is an enormous expanse billions of light years across, and filled with gazillions of galaxies, each one containing billions of stars. "Nobody there, except us," he says. I was not able to listen to Dr. Turner's talk on Zoom, and the recording is not yet posted on-line. However, I understand that he placed very heavy emphasis on biophysics, explaining the near-impossible odds against amino acids and other molecules forming in exactly the right way for complex life to evolve. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">A 2011 paper by Turner, co-authored with David S. Spiegel, is titled<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22198766/" target="_blank"> "Bayesian analysis of the astrobiological implications of life's early emergence on Earth."</a> Its somewhat confusing abstract states,</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><blockquote>Life arose on Earth sometime in the first few hundred million years after the young planet had cooled to the point that it could support water-based organisms on its surface. The early emergence of life on Earth has been taken as evidence that the probability of abiogenesis is high, if starting from young Earth-like conditions. We revisit this argument quantitatively in a bayesian statistical framework. By constructing a simple model of the probability of abiogenesis, we calculate a bayesian estimate of its posterior probability, given the data that life emerged fairly early in Earth's history and that, billions of years later, curious creatures noted this fact and considered its implications. We find that, given only this very limited empirical information, the choice of bayesian prior for the abiogenesis probability parameter has a dominant influence on the computed posterior probability. Although terrestrial life's early emergence provides evidence that life might be abundant in the universe if early-Earth-like conditions are common, the evidence is inconclusive and indeed is consistent with an arbitrarily low intrinsic probability of abiogenesis for plausible uninformative priors. Finding a single case of life arising independently of our lineage (on Earth, elsewhere in the solar system, or on an extrasolar planet) would provide much stronger evidence that abiogenesis is not extremely rare in the universe.</blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-d3S5RbCMetk/YMmVLi_BgWI/AAAAAAAADao/SY9BiJ_YWG0eWG3453ivxdIN8bifWlWCgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/81mdbaATinL.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1356" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-d3S5RbCMetk/YMmVLi_BgWI/AAAAAAAADao/SY9BiJ_YWG0eWG3453ivxdIN8bifWlWCgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/81mdbaATinL.jpg" width="212" /></a></p><div style="text-align: justify;">Voicing a very different opinion on the matter is <a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2021/08/some-thoughts-on-new-galileo-project.html" target="_blank">Harvard's Dr. Avi Loeb, head of the Galileo project,</a> which plans to search for evidence of alien space probes <i>in our own solar system</i>. Dr. Loeb seems to think that the strange object called Oumuamua, which drifted into our solar system five years ago before drifting out again, was likely an alien probe from an interstellar civilization. He plans to set up cameras to detect such objects, as if nobody had ever before set up cameras to survey objects in the sky.</div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/2209.11262.pdf" target="_blank">In a recent paper that has not yet been peer-reviewed,</a> Dr. Loeb and his Harvard colleague Carson Ezell calculate that, based on our ability to detect such objects,</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>our estimate for the total quantity of âOumuamua-like objects bound by the thin disk if they are not targeted is 1.91 Ă 10^^26 objects, which aligns with previous estimates for the abundance of similar objects. This estimate applies both in the case of âOumuamua being of natural origin, and âOumuamua being artificial space debris that is not targeted towards a particular location in space.</blockquote></div><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>However, the inferred abundance of probes is distinctly different in case of âOumuamua-like objects being targeted towards particular regions of the galaxy, specifically habitable zones containing planets. âOumuamua was detected at a distance of 0.2 AU from Earth, and it passed through the habitable zone of our solar system. The estimated total number of âOumuamua-like objects would then fall to 1.91 Ă 10^^10. </blockquote></div><p></p><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">By "the thin disk," they mean the relatively thin disk of our Milky Way galaxy, i.e. stars near the galactic plane. What this says is: If âOumuamua-like objects are wandering randomly in the thin disk of our Milky Way, then we calculate that there are 191,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 of them; but if they are targeted toward habitable solar systems such as our own, then that number falls to just 19,100,000,000. Doing the same calculations based on "Interstellar Meteor 1," a much smaller object, </p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>We then estimate 7.59 Ă 10^^34 IM1-like objects bound by the thin disk of the Milky Way. However, if objects with the properties of IM1 were targeted towards habitable zones containing planets, we estimate 7.59 Ă 10^^18 such objects.</blockquote></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/harvard-astronomer-avi-loeb-says-there-might-be-4-quintillion-alien-spacecraft-in-our-solar-system" target="_blank">The Daily Beast misreported the conclusions of this paper</a>, saying that Ezell and Loeb calculated that "in and around the solar system" there could be "as many as 4,000,000,000,000,000,000 (or 4 quintillion) of them." Actually, that was the calculated number of interstellar meteors (or spacecraft!) of one meter size or larger in our Milky Way galaxy, not just our solar system. <br /></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>Given the aforementioned properties of chemically-propelled rockets and a hypothetical detection rate of c = 0.1 yr-1 for interstellar meteors of meter size that collide with Earth, equation (21) estimates a total of 3.65 Ă 10^^34 such objects bound by the Milky-Way thin disk if they are not targeted, or 3.65Ă10^^18 objects if they are targeted.</blockquote></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/was-interstellar-object-oumuamua-a-chunk-of-exo-pluto/" target="_blank">But an article just published by <i>Sky and Telescope</i> </a>pours cold water on the idea that âOumuamua is artificial. Recent analysis of light curves of the object suggest that its shape is more like that of a pancake, rather than a cigar. The best available evidence suggests that âOumuamua is a fragment of a Pluto-like object, composed primarily of nitrogen ice:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote> if `Oumuamua were made of nitrogen ice, it would have the right albedo and the right mass to produce the exact amount of non-gravitational acceleration observed by astronomers as it retreated from the Sun. And if it were nearly pure nitrogen ice, it would exhibit this cometary behavior without any of the hallmarks of comets, neither reflecting sunlight from dust nor lighting up with emission from water or other gases.<br /><br />Hypothesizing pure nitrogen ice for Oumuamuaâs composition solves some other puzzles, too. The body passed within 0.2 astronomical units (a.u.) of the Sun (20% of the distance from the Sun to Earth), and yet it survived to exit the solar system. But only barely, according to Desch and Jacksonâs model. A nitrogen-ice `Oumuamua would have lost 95% of its mass by the time it exited the inner solar system; evaporative cooling would have insulated the remaining morsel through the harrowing passage.<br /><br />That much mass loss also explains the extreme shape. If you add 20 times the present mass in concentric layers around the present pancake, reversing its evaporation by the Sun, the original body would have had a much more normal 2:1 aspect ratio.</blockquote></div><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/was-interstellar-object-oumuamua-a-chunk-of-exo-pluto/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="822" data-original-width="1054" height="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGGy5SFz_oHxggApT5m61BZ7znmaAIw9HNZ7jJSFtnB0HFYxAFtx3Mv_xfV31eKVCWqls9LDEfCOdkDzkzynmKnuztK09VDwX7LekEmYM7IPOlmdTsphXy4BEy4ayZI9QmBwK1y9R7hK293Io9R11XJdBjW-w9gXJB_kM_hgWNp7CIt0TZlENqKZnHAg/w640-h500/Oumuamua-painting-Hartmann.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/was-interstellar-object-oumuamua-a-chunk-of-exo-pluto/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: small;">The pancake-like âOumuamua, as depicted by William K. Hartmann</span></a></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;">So, what is the number of space probes wandering the disk of our galaxy (not counting our own probes)? Is it in the quadrillions in each galaxy? Or is it zero in the entire Hubble Volume? Or likely something in-between? <br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">A trivia question for UFO buffs: Who is William K. Hartmann, what is he known for in UFOlogy? No fair to look him up. Who can provide the first correct answer in the comments, from their own memory? đ</p><p style="text-align: justify;">And here is something that amazed me when I saw it:<a href="https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/galileo/people/edwin-l-turner" target="_blank"> Edwin Turner is a member of the Galileo Project's "research team"</a> (along with Jacques Vallee, Garry Nolan, and many, many others). I can just imagine what the Zoom call of the Galileo Project's researchers and consultants must be like:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Avi Loeb: We need to set up cameras, lots and lots of cameras, to capture the quadrillions of alien probes floating around.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Edwin Turner: No, you're wasting your time. There are no aliens out there, not in the entire Hubble volume.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2022/01/galileos-galore-now-including-jacques.html" target="_blank">Jacques Vallee:</a> I heard that an alien craft crashed at Trinity in 1945. We should try to find the wreckage of that one!</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2021/11/harvards-galileo-project-meets-tom.html" target="_blank">Luis Elizondo</a>: I can't confirm this officially, but I remote viewed an alien craft at an undisclosed location, some inspecific time ago.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/galileo/organization/advisory-boards" target="_blank">Seth Shostak:</a>You guys are all jumping to conclusions!</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br />Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /><br /></p><p> <br /></p><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p>Robert Sheafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324537021429419111noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8104600450225406597.post-45477565242079023502022-09-27T14:19:00.001-07:002022-09-27T14:27:45.163-07:00The Enigma of the Calvine-Like UFO Photos<p></p><p>The Calvine UFO photo was said by Nick Pope to be "the most spectacular photo ever sent to the Ministry of defence. It's also missing." But since David Clarke found a print of one of the photos, it has been subject of a lot of attention, <a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2022/09/whither-calvine.html" target="_blank">which I wrote about in the last post</a>.<br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;">After the Calvine photo was revealed it didn't take long for <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=609170107268450&set=pcb.609170170601777" target="_blank">Scott Brando on "UFO Of Interest" to note its similarity to a hoax photo taken in Puerto Rico in 1988 by Amaury Rivera Toro</a>. <br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA6WK6X_9xc6QdJ9rgdIZAFzFZL4HZ16q_fa79hOMCJGNq_fZqHn3I3c-4u5piHc0NrAr8igUkmC2bKoZblpVdk8_ftvX1KFFm9Kuyc2qDnG9alPuGOreP8jNi6f0c4LP8GrCsSbZxUgW-VwKWQ9ZeHiQvjUiuuyiCqrLS3rs77_lyeXCMbtacp-GdbQ/s650/PuertoRicoHoax1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="442" data-original-width="650" height="435" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA6WK6X_9xc6QdJ9rgdIZAFzFZL4HZ16q_fa79hOMCJGNq_fZqHn3I3c-4u5piHc0NrAr8igUkmC2bKoZblpVdk8_ftvX1KFFm9Kuyc2qDnG9alPuGOreP8jNi6f0c4LP8GrCsSbZxUgW-VwKWQ9ZeHiQvjUiuuyiCqrLS3rs77_lyeXCMbtacp-GdbQ/w640-h435/PuertoRicoHoax1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Hoax photo taken in Puerto Rico by Amaury Rivera Toro, 1988.</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Rivera was a young man from New York City working a part-time job in a restaurant in Puerto Rico, when<a href="http://www.hoaxorfact.com/Pranks/alien-contact-and-ufo-sighting-at-a-local-restaurant-in-puerto-rico-hoax.html" target="_blank"> he claims to have been abducted by a UFO, and to have gotten this (and several other) photos</a> as the aliens departed. <p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Compare Rivera's photo with the Calvine photo, below.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf6v0wqufVwnB6auxMNkn8qJoPbmeYjfQpwpJK4nA6n0Suj7FL1V2Kyw2ZLyPdrRWvm0RE1PmYmOUe-sk3k-AO6O1n9IQYZhWaovODV2FZumJeGbXxPD3eRSMJTMxPYbzWJtuXplOUXYRRhlL4YNyNNcXUp5lNHp-UbaYp_TFiGekG14FCvwNPHxQpxw/s3103/watermarked-jpeg-2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2480" data-original-width="3103" height="512" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf6v0wqufVwnB6auxMNkn8qJoPbmeYjfQpwpJK4nA6n0Suj7FL1V2Kyw2ZLyPdrRWvm0RE1PmYmOUe-sk3k-AO6O1n9IQYZhWaovODV2FZumJeGbXxPD3eRSMJTMxPYbzWJtuXplOUXYRRhlL4YNyNNcXUp5lNHp-UbaYp_TFiGekG14FCvwNPHxQpxw/w640-h512/watermarked-jpeg-2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Calvine photo, 1990</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;">On August 23, this turned up: "<a href="https://anomalien.com/photos-depicting-a-ufo-being-chased-by-a-fighter-were-released-from-wendell-stevens-locker/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Photos depicting a UFO being chased by a fighter were released from Wendell Stevensâ locker</a>." UFOlogist Dustin Shutta shared photos on Anomalien showing a UFO and a fighter jet. <br /></p><blockquote>I
own these photographs of a fighter jet/B-1 chasing or being followed by
a ufo taken in 1994, location unknown. If anyone has any more info
about these series of photographs let me know. Also, these photographs
came from Colonel Wendelle Stevens storage locker.</blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">UFOlogist Wendelle Stevens (1923-2010) had earned, by the end of his life, a thoroughly dismal reputation. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/UFO-Contact-Pleiades-Wendelle-Stevens/dp/0937850020/ref=sr_1_3?crid=JH1ZJZFTS0E" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">He was a major promoter of the preposterous photo hoaxes of the Swiss contactee Billy Meier</a>. Stevens was also<a href="https://www.ufoexplorations.com/the-seedy-side-of-saucers" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> convicted of having sex with an underage girl,</a> serving time in prison. He boasted of having a huge collection of UFO photos, sacrificing (one suspects) quality for quantity. <a href="https://youtu.be/6uAjFBPRCC0?t=626" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">We know that Stevens interviewed Rivera in person</a>, so it is reasonable that Stevens might possess more works from Rivera's <i>oeuvre</i>. But that is just conjecture, albeit a plausible one. <br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZJ7Ztpyd1o1l4_M62W22274Vb5Z-64HAitUEgKvuCZs1FBNo1AxF06DrMbdc1ajLpSJD_hqZVTIPBeDY8PBQcXvYcMNUrNfGWT54ZEMo4GhhGRs2n_JfwSW4nP6yOEg2vUIDgy2TvVgapw6Ap11vHfq7AhetVRlFCKhqHsDiGRMT_kgzPyb9hLzsSXQ/s960/Stevens1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="718" data-original-width="960" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZJ7Ztpyd1o1l4_M62W22274Vb5Z-64HAitUEgKvuCZs1FBNo1AxF06DrMbdc1ajLpSJD_hqZVTIPBeDY8PBQcXvYcMNUrNfGWT54ZEMo4GhhGRs2n_JfwSW4nP6yOEg2vUIDgy2TvVgapw6Ap11vHfq7AhetVRlFCKhqHsDiGRMT_kgzPyb9hLzsSXQ/w640-h478/Stevens1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">1994 photo found in Wendelle Stevens' files. Photographer is unknown, but is suspected to be Rivera.</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Yet another Calvine-like photo has turned up (now that I am looking for them). It is taken from an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIe4VMtCREo&t=1s" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">anonymous YouTube video that looks very, very fake</a>, and has been published in various places. <a href="https://mystery.citestesitu.com/spanish-fishermen-recorded-military-jets-chasing-ufo-video/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> </a><br /><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5LC_F4XsBfAUeyeSCtjx0gKdkUXARzBw5HFjvHrO3WJ-uYjzomTATGeadLt6yC2BS3N0oWbEzt2mDLIoOSjhtR1mSXcazH_h5lUeDemUw8KgJ6IjZaS99NTNnSeMmNNdC_N6qt4abag6k9OssNdqMyReVXE0XCBlh52yBCixEVAi8Dh25rOFQbUzW9A/s912/SpanishFishermen.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="678" data-original-width="912" height="476" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5LC_F4XsBfAUeyeSCtjx0gKdkUXARzBw5HFjvHrO3WJ-uYjzomTATGeadLt6yC2BS3N0oWbEzt2mDLIoOSjhtR1mSXcazH_h5lUeDemUw8KgJ6IjZaS99NTNnSeMmNNdC_N6qt4abag6k9OssNdqMyReVXE0XCBlh52yBCixEVAi8Dh25rOFQbUzW9A/w640-h476/SpanishFishermen.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">This photo, taken from an anonymous video, shows two jets chasing a "UFO."</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;">What
do all these photos have in common? There seems to be a certain formula
or 'archetype' among UFO photos, that might be described as follows:<br /><br />1. Near the center of the photo is a dark UFO, either disc-shaped or diamond-shaped.<br /><br />2. At least one military jet is flying around, but not necessarily toward the UFO.<br /><br />3. There are tall tree branches near the top of the frame.<br /><br />4. Something is in the foreground, to help establish the scale of the photo.<br /><br />WHY this should be is anybody's guess. My guess is: some artist has a vision! </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Do
we conclude that Rivera is responsible for all these photos? That can't
be established. Perhaps he has a "fan club" among UFOlogists, who pay
homage to his work? </p><p style="text-align: justify;">If any reader knows of some other "Calvine-like" UFO photos, please let us know!</p><p> </p>Robert Sheafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324537021429419111noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8104600450225406597.post-44554685086110019792022-09-11T13:18:00.001-07:002022-09-11T22:15:58.028-07:00Whither Calvine??<p style="text-align: justify;">In the last post, <a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2022/08/calvine-1990-photo-missing-rumored-most.html" target="_blank">we looked at the legendary, long-lost Calvine UFO photo,</a> one print of which has just recently been found! As you might imagine, there have been a lot of people spending a lot of time poring over that photo. Higher-resolution, non-lossy scans are now available. However, they still do not show much detail. What are the latest findings based on expert analysis? There is no generally-accepted explanation as of yet. There appear to be three categories of explanation for that "UFO" at the present time.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjslcTl1YF9X86dzmtORfYFElwbFI7XolH37QUg2-jZ9hWhBFyaj9jdR-8OhO_GOv9yX-xC04h6OFtbv1o4yugp5ol8cPHRB0fIXZCWg1v22vRsQjVe5d5BWWGdDaMHwbk6aA81D23QQC6cpr1Dx6pkhmNZAdgrPmzbou5fTnvoGo5Jrejq40trqkJjPg/s1265/TiffSharpened.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="938" data-original-width="1265" height="474" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjslcTl1YF9X86dzmtORfYFElwbFI7XolH37QUg2-jZ9hWhBFyaj9jdR-8OhO_GOv9yX-xC04h6OFtbv1o4yugp5ol8cPHRB0fIXZCWg1v22vRsQjVe5d5BWWGdDaMHwbk6aA81D23QQC6cpr1Dx6pkhmNZAdgrPmzbou5fTnvoGo5Jrejq40trqkJjPg/w640-h474/TiffSharpened.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">From a higher-resolution, non-losssy scan of the print, I greatly enhanced the contrast and sharpness. Still not much detail is seen.</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>1. Unknown or Experimental Aircraft</b></span>. Dr. David Clarke,<a href="https://drdavidclarke.co.uk/2022/08/12/the-calvine-ufo-revealed/" target="_blank"> whose research led to the discovery of the lost Calvine photo</a>, is presently in that camp. Supposedly, it is a top-secret American supersonic experimental aircraft named "Aurora," which has been widely speculated about, but never shown to actually exist. And frankly, if some advanced aircraft was supposedly developed over thirty years ago, and has not been seen openly before or since, that is excellent reason to doubt its existence. One reason people accept this is simply that it was reported to be the conclusion of the UK MOD Intelligence officers who examined the photos. Perhaps some people see this as convincing, but if the UK MoD "experts" are anything like the Pentagon's UAP "experts," <a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2022/06/meet-face-of-pentagons-uap-task-force.html" target="_blank">remember that the "chief scientist" for the US DOD UAP task force is a guy from<i> Ancient Aliens</i></a>. So don't be too awed by "experts."</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The photographers told investigators that the object hovered motionless for about ten minutes, then rapidly shot straight up. If that statement is true, it rules out any advanced aircraft of human construction. Supersonic aircraft do not simply hover in place for minutes at a time. And if that statement is false, the case must immediately be considered a hoax - <i>Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus</i>. If a witness lies about one aspect of the case, everything else he says about it is dubious.<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>2. Reflection in Water Hypothesis.</b></span> This explanation seems all-too-clever, is counter-intuitive, yet it is attracting lot of attention. At first it seems impossible, but when properly understood it is indeed possible. Whether it is likely, however, is another matter. <br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixIbZ1hlzsajfru0cHtWeqXRNW166F0f_z9-SgZ_1vtWXAMmJmlFe0or_IdXaLZ32BTC48JXYGcspUuu6s1NTcKK4UJV3_vVLnEcovXdMAOfUCpb4pA83_QXVACeKc8GN-nuNVaXXHFTLtj0p5MzIcPjDINNvmApc3HNR1iq3t6OxKIXosWqQ2irl7bg/s1446/reflection%20theoryMickWest.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1404" data-original-width="1446" height="622" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixIbZ1hlzsajfru0cHtWeqXRNW166F0f_z9-SgZ_1vtWXAMmJmlFe0or_IdXaLZ32BTC48JXYGcspUuu6s1NTcKK4UJV3_vVLnEcovXdMAOfUCpb4pA83_QXVACeKc8GN-nuNVaXXHFTLtj0p5MzIcPjDINNvmApc3HNR1iq3t6OxKIXosWqQ2irl7bg/w640-h622/reflection%20theoryMickWest.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.metabunk.org/threads/calvine-ufo-photo-reflection-in-water-hypothesis.12572/post-276380" target="_blank">The 'reflection hypothesis,' as illustrated by Mick West on Metabunk. </a></span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;">Mick West's illustration shows how such a reflection might be possible. If the photographers happened to come across a pond reflecting the scenery as above, and if there happened to be a big rock sticking out of the water, then the rock, and its reflection, would appear to be an object in the sky, at least if we looked only at the reflection. They need just wait for the military jet to be in the right position, then "click." But it seems rather unlikely that random hikers would run across such a scenario (The site where the photo was taken is not known with certainty.<a href="https://drdavidclarke.co.uk/2022/08/12/the-calvine-ufo-revealed/" target="_blank"> David Clarke published a photo by Giles Stevens, purporting to show the actual location of the Calvine photo. </a>No pond is there.) Also, the surface of the water would have to be exceptionally still, to avoid seeing any ripples whatsoever in the water. Not impossible, to be sure, but very unlikely. I'd say, this hypothesis is too clever by half.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Another fact arguing against the reflection hypothesis is the matter of camera focus. The UFO is in better focus than anything else in the photo. This almost certainly means that the UFO is closer than everything else, and the camera was focused upon it. Now we do not know what kind of camera was used to take this photo, and what kind of lens, or what f/stop was used. So it is not possible to make definite depth-of-field calculations. <a href="https://www.docdroid.net/POxz6na/calvine-ufo-photographic-analysis-v2-pdf" target="_blank">According to the photo analysis by Dr. Clarke's colleague Andrew Robinson</a>, the camera used was most likely a 35 mm SLR, with a lens focal length between 35mm and 105mm. (That is a pretty large range!) Listing the possibilities, a camera like the one below is his first choice: a 35mm SLR, using a 50mm lens (which was standard on such cameras).<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4KjO0gFRC9DSeoP6_-biHzZB05_Z1nMGzMO-_cLAkJHbfuAb0A5e4U5RpAoPedyK-JezVVauMRaC48Lav1rlYNjEdINSL7k2kbAWVqlqry-KsvsXeV_GCiPNkjC6erTge2GleTIAJTmTu6pdtjL3xHMVf_qsrIkQbDSnx09wMXBdBGOloWWAJfNC5eg/s4000/Pentax.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1848" data-original-width="4000" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4KjO0gFRC9DSeoP6_-biHzZB05_Z1nMGzMO-_cLAkJHbfuAb0A5e4U5RpAoPedyK-JezVVauMRaC48Lav1rlYNjEdINSL7k2kbAWVqlqry-KsvsXeV_GCiPNkjC6erTge2GleTIAJTmTu6pdtjL3xHMVf_qsrIkQbDSnx09wMXBdBGOloWWAJfNC5eg/w640-h296/Pentax.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Calvine photos were most likely taken with a camera and lens like this, an 80s vintage SLR with 50mm lens.<br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">This lens helpfully has a depth-of-field indicator (center dial). If we choose f/8 for our f-stop (inner ring), we then rotate the outer focusing ring to where the "infinity" symbol is at f/8. On the other side of the center dial, we find that f/8 gives us good focus on objects as close as about 4 1/2 meters. This ensures that every object from about 4 1/2 meters to infinity will be in sharp focus.<b> So if the camera at f/8 is focused on a nearby object, rendering distant objects out-of-focus, that means that the camera must be focused on an object about 4 meters or less distant.</b> If f/11 is used, the depth of field extends from to 3 meters to infinity.<br /> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijBV82ryG8C8YCN7C2wUO7YkqGaM_IguoMG_8CSY2Di0LFYp7YQ-nKRYDb1AEvp6ceJ6Q-yxAb0GGdJEUaEQq12P4SKuUeD27gOzzBijkm9aLplGhXUZm4IeVBl3bKdg8bjwQn0TTOOLGdN8lg8OLoqzbvo1H3UvOC79D4rZjHsNa8yFdmKsCv_mTpVA/s3228/Pentax2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1842" data-original-width="3228" height="366" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijBV82ryG8C8YCN7C2wUO7YkqGaM_IguoMG_8CSY2Di0LFYp7YQ-nKRYDb1AEvp6ceJ6Q-yxAb0GGdJEUaEQq12P4SKuUeD27gOzzBijkm9aLplGhXUZm4IeVBl3bKdg8bjwQn0TTOOLGdN8lg8OLoqzbvo1H3UvOC79D4rZjHsNa8yFdmKsCv_mTpVA/w640-h366/Pentax2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Using this 50mm lens at f/8, objects from 5 meters to infinity can be in sharp focus.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /> In the reflection hypothesis, the rock would need to be at least 10 meters or so from the camera. In such a situation, the focus for the rock
would not be different from that of distant objects. This seems to rule out the 'water reflection' hypothesis.<br /><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>3. Small object near the camera. </b></span>This is, in my view, the most likely explanation. There are a number of different ways that it could be done. The Belgian investigator Wim van Utrecht thought that the object looked like a Christmas star set on its side. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuNfEtHqvQFVmgOtWV-b3WGmZ8ZaSHGbVPx43aldBF7ZnSGPXzbfliAgQIsXbWyARlzjUTGIYyBolKa1aPA2S1ucJf4JBteV48SedTW0QEd7fiZrJ82Ai8BcMNK0jTeahu13ImYPioIbQ-iMKPYDaNpC2VydIflJd2ElK2zpHFrOwJDki1F269GdaSAg/s599/UtrechtChristmasStar1.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="401" data-original-width="599" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuNfEtHqvQFVmgOtWV-b3WGmZ8ZaSHGbVPx43aldBF7ZnSGPXzbfliAgQIsXbWyARlzjUTGIYyBolKa1aPA2S1ucJf4JBteV48SedTW0QEd7fiZrJ82Ai8BcMNK0jTeahu13ImYPioIbQ-iMKPYDaNpC2VydIflJd2ElK2zpHFrOwJDki1F269GdaSAg/w400-h268/UtrechtChristmasStar1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">He decided to test that hypothesis. Photographing that star from the side, this was the result. I'd say that this is an excellent match-up for the object seen in the Calvine photo.<br /></div><div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikP1MDeN5iFHlSQBCO3BytSJkpkDCoBipex0edYN8LH2xODqS4tZPrT9pT7dfkUySqaI9Kt9tnQT2aF4AlpW7nvzUaVnvEUe6Fm7OOZXKU4Zb1UdtdWrX_1rmWF2P-AyaXi57iNb5AsPOVYuJTCAlTYX8uE3ZzTmhpryi70m4J0Y1n2HbF28-EoWUung/s640/UtrechtChristmasStar2.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="369" data-original-width="640" height="370" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikP1MDeN5iFHlSQBCO3BytSJkpkDCoBipex0edYN8LH2xODqS4tZPrT9pT7dfkUySqaI9Kt9tnQT2aF4AlpW7nvzUaVnvEUe6Fm7OOZXKU4Zb1UdtdWrX_1rmWF2P-AyaXi57iNb5AsPOVYuJTCAlTYX8uE3ZzTmhpryi70m4J0Y1n2HbF28-EoWUung/w640-h370/UtrechtChristmasStar2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">A Christmas star, photographed from the side (Wim van Utrecht).</span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p>
<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Researcher <a href="https://twitter.com/James_A_Conrad/status/1559498128985915392" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">James A. Conrad suggested that the object might be produced using the "glass shot" technique</a>, where an object is painted, or affixed, to a glass screen. He writes that this technique "has been used by filmmakers and photographers â and possibly some hoaxers â for over 115 years."</p><p></p><p></p></div><p></p><p></p><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOxSL03GDIjuM-o0CxK5QF3fnp44pbnX0JYWHpU78Cvh2XdQuKbOUXYHf_6y4gUrpqcAwMhUJtSa8M-SjaabeEBWlZ7_w1c6yjQfvm03zriD7SvheEdBzGYLoWAJMXQcrfqw9-pNhJ8eZsJeRj0hAQzXTSIQJK3FqgR4vkNMkmR7dNODsQ-x1oBohyIw/s640/FaRzRSMX0AA2af3.jpg"><img border="0" data-original-height="615" data-original-width="640" height="616" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOxSL03GDIjuM-o0CxK5QF3fnp44pbnX0JYWHpU78Cvh2XdQuKbOUXYHf_6y4gUrpqcAwMhUJtSa8M-SjaabeEBWlZ7_w1c6yjQfvm03zriD7SvheEdBzGYLoWAJMXQcrfqw9-pNhJ8eZsJeRj0hAQzXTSIQJK3FqgR4vkNMkmR7dNODsQ-x1oBohyIw/w640-h616/FaRzRSMX0AA2af3.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: small;">Over on Metabunk, <a href="https://www.metabunk.org/threads/calvine-photo-hoax-theories.12596/post-278933" target="_blank">user NorCal Dave has been attempting replications of the Calvine photo using various techniques</a>. The photo below uses a paper model. It definitely looks like he is on the right track.</span></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeNnnHfzEAm0lxMrrJA6GdBJVwRJK-79XfQ1lTc3tFPAHo4oxifzFpdnW6rmcC5bexiS6JVdFMtDLbRO8FVMz7VwNPEvnZrgzcQJqT7ufozizhhxhIQm3GgCrOTuQqKtrXRL8vCyRDsw0EYeFkkjnOKzODf-L6lwvnKPwZVBkWWlQS0TwiOPhUvIUlhg/s1600/IMG_3856.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="761" data-original-width="1600" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeNnnHfzEAm0lxMrrJA6GdBJVwRJK-79XfQ1lTc3tFPAHo4oxifzFpdnW6rmcC5bexiS6JVdFMtDLbRO8FVMz7VwNPEvnZrgzcQJqT7ufozizhhxhIQm3GgCrOTuQqKtrXRL8vCyRDsw0EYeFkkjnOKzODf-L6lwvnKPwZVBkWWlQS0TwiOPhUvIUlhg/w640-h304/IMG_3856.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span>NorCal Dave's replication of the Calvine photo, using a paper model. Note how the "UFO" is in better focus than anything else.</span></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /> </span><b><br /></b></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p>Robert Sheafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324537021429419111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8104600450225406597.post-62373386266466230192022-08-16T12:23:00.000-07:002022-08-16T12:23:10.535-07:00Calvine 1990 Photo: Missing Rumored 'Most Spectacular' UFO Photo Found!<p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;">It was only a week or so ago that I posted on a UFO group, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, "the Calvine UFO photo is the best 'classic' UFO photo that nobody has ever seen, except Nick Pope." That was then; this is now.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">UFO celebrity Nick Pope claims to have investigated UFOs for the British government,<a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20160322-my-time-as-a-ufo-investigator-for-the-government" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> a claim he repeats often</a>. Too bad it isn't true. <a href="https://nickpopewatch.wordpress.com/the-nick-pope-papers/" target="_blank">The reality is that Pope was little more than a file clerk for the UK Ministry of Defense</a>, who had <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfecJCDR9Sk&t=8s" target="_blank">no responsibilities for investigating UFO sightings,</a> or anything else. But a credulous media almost invariably accepts his claims, and hangs on his every statement, no matter how absurd. Just one example: in 2006, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20080722032958/https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-415514/Aliens-attack-time-warns-MoD-chief.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Pope, described as a "former MoD chief," warned in the <i>Daily Mail</i> that "the country could be attacked by extraterrestrials at any time</a>." Like Luis Elizondo in the US, Nick Pope claims to have led a UFO investigation program for his country's defense establishment. Both claims are equally bogus; neither of them was responsible for investigating anything.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Nick Pope wrote, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190331171512/http://www.nickpope.net/calvine-ufo-photo.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">"The Calvine UFO photo is the most spectacular UFO photo ever sent to the Ministry of Defence. </a>It's also missing." In brief, the story is: When Pope was working for the MoD, his boss had a poster-sized copy of one of the Calvine UFO photos hanging on the wall by his desk. Later it was taken down, and it (along with the photos themselves) had apparently disappeared. <a href="https://www.the-sun.com/news/1611324/ive-seen-the-top-secret-photos-showing-britains-most-significant-ufo-sighting-they-left-us-shell-shocked/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Here is what Pope wrote about it in 2020</a>. <br /></p><blockquote>The analysis was nothing short of sensational. The photos hadnât been faked.<br /><br />They showed a structured craft of unknown origin, unlike any conventional aircraft. There was no fuselage, no wings, no tail, no engines and no markings of any sort. </blockquote><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9RltLbzTA86rPeenIEr9BB5cjhZXCKfm_vbJoJWGyQAwEVBaChKfjblP5l1BtBJQ71L_y0RE0JnguQGXfCbGZnHouCQq990B2_EuTgH8hyAvJDdXjFuTyYusMA8hDWzZ0I2ARhe9I-40tiloHwNyiPyyIntJ9Zu45ft-nCEwXSEJorInqAfjv4R14Xg/s810/RecreatedCalvineColor.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="539" data-original-width="810" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9RltLbzTA86rPeenIEr9BB5cjhZXCKfm_vbJoJWGyQAwEVBaChKfjblP5l1BtBJQ71L_y0RE0JnguQGXfCbGZnHouCQq990B2_EuTgH8hyAvJDdXjFuTyYusMA8hDWzZ0I2ARhe9I-40tiloHwNyiPyyIntJ9Zu45ft-nCEwXSEJorInqAfjv4R14Xg/w640-h426/RecreatedCalvineColor.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Color image re-creation of Calvine UFO photo, by the Cynon Valley Leader. Not the real thing!</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;">Well, it appears that one of the Calvine photos has been found! Dr. David Clarke is a folklorist and skeptical researcher who teaches journalism at the Sheffield Hallam University in the UK. He is the author of the delightful 2015 book, <i>How UFOs Conquered the World - The History of a Modern Myth</i>. I<a href="https://skepticalinquirer.org/2015/11/on-her-majestys-secret-saucers/" target="_blank"> reviewed that book for <i>The Skeptical Inquirer</i></a>. <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYDDft15NvwxrBe0jT0fnKTdRqqgjXgpvH5nmdqPjvTjtnu-piIyWvZiU8t4bQcGJvaMbosQ0pB3XnxKaR8ODLq7ULPKNNZle67Qoxhq53UrKKR6p-pg1CLSjMcUwq7WLK_j_4LmovB-b2ERTIQ_iUZQyqCyYqMXOwkuaZaNKyiFrOFHlx44VqLGqwCw/s3103/watermarked-jpeg-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2480" data-original-width="3103" height="512" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYDDft15NvwxrBe0jT0fnKTdRqqgjXgpvH5nmdqPjvTjtnu-piIyWvZiU8t4bQcGJvaMbosQ0pB3XnxKaR8ODLq7ULPKNNZle67Qoxhq53UrKKR6p-pg1CLSjMcUwq7WLK_j_4LmovB-b2ERTIQ_iUZQyqCyYqMXOwkuaZaNKyiFrOFHlx44VqLGqwCw/w640-h512/watermarked-jpeg-2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">At long last, one of the actual Calvine UFO photos!</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table></p><p style="text-align: justify;">After a long and difficult investigation, <a href="https://www.mailplus.co.uk/edition/features/211532/revealed-after-32-years-the-top-secret-picture-one-mod-insider-calls-the-most-spectacular-ufo-photo-ever-captured" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Clarke finally located a print of the Calvine UFO photo, in the possession of the retired RAF officer Craig Lindsay</a>. Here is a video of David Clarke and other researchers<a href="https://youtu.be/IgekUVzMSCc" target="_blank"> going into the background of the photo in more detail</a>. After Clarke released the photo, Pope released the following gobbledygook statement in order to try to remain relevant:<br /></p><blockquote>Calvine UFO Photo: It's my policy not to comment on leaked information, especially if it might be classified, so until I receive Ministry of Defence advice, I can neither confirm nor deny if this is the picture that was displayed on my office wall when I ran the MoD's 'UFO desk'.</blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">It's not my intention to delve into an analysis of the photo yet. That will require more time, and better scans. The only scans of the photo available so far are.JPEGs, which is a lossy compression scheme and does not preserve fine details. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">So far, most serious UFO investigators seem to be "underwhelmed" by it. After so much hype, just another fakey-looking UFO photo. Some of my initial comments are:<br /></p><ul style="text-align: justify;"><li>The "UFO" seems to be the only object in the photo that is actually in focus. That suggests that it is small and close to the camera, which was focused for it.</li><li>Nick Pope wrote that <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190331171512/http://www.nickpope.net/calvine-ufo-photo.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">the Calvine photos consisted of "colour photographs</a>," but the print we have seen is black-and-white. What explains the discrepancy?</li><li>David Clarke is suggesting that the object is an authentic photo of a supposed US secret supersonic aircraft called "Aurora." I can't accept that for a number of reasons. This supposed aircraft was built over 30 years ago. Where has it been since? Why hasn't it been revealed? (Think of how many people must know about it, yet we have no leaks.) It flies only over northern Scotland, and nowhere else? And nobody sees it, except these two guys? New secret aircraft are tested over the deserts of Nevada and California, not half a world away. Also, I don't see how that thing can fly, it's not going to generate lift. While alien UFOs can reportedly use anti-gravity propulsion and Element 115, terrestrial craft must be built using the technology available at the time, more than 30 years ago. So what powers it, and how does it fly? Also, the photographers claimed that the object was "hovering" for about ten minutes. How does an aircraft do that?<br /></li></ul><p style="text-align: justify;">When more details are available about "the most spectacular UFO photo ever sent to the Ministry of Defence," you will read about it here.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"> </p><p><br /></p>Robert Sheafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324537021429419111noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8104600450225406597.post-10553596612760313022022-07-18T11:46:00.000-07:002022-07-18T11:46:06.379-07:00UFOs Blitz Mexico!
This is story of my 1996 Tour of 'UFO Hotspots' in Mexico. It is adapted from Chapter 21 of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ufo-Sightings-Evidence-Robert-Sheaffer/dp/1573922137/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1U8B4CE8DBC4T&keywords=ufo+sightings+robert+sheaffer&qid=1658112029&s=books&sprefix=ufo+sightings+robert+sheaffer%2Cstripbooks%2C112&sr=1-1" target="_blank">my 1998 book <i>UFO Sightings - The
Evidence</i> (Prometheus Books)</a>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<p style="text-align: justify;">
Probably the area of the greatest UFO activity and excitement in
the world today (1996) is in and around Mexico City. UFO proponents often
cite the UFO "evidence" from Mexico as the strongest
anywhere. When the head of the American UFO group CSETI, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzsjzS7O4cU" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Dr. Steven
Greer, appeared on the "UFO Coverup" TV special on Larry King Live,
October 1, 1994, </a>which was broadcast outdoors near the so-called
"Area 51" in the Nevada desert, Greer chided them that it
is not necessary go to inaccessible places to see UFOs: "In the
last three years there have been hundreds of video tapes of these
objects maneuvering over twenty-two million people in Mexico City."
A <i>National Enquirer</i> story of July 23, 1996, titled "UFOs Blitz
Mexico," made equally remarkable claims.</p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4GuV370WISFKiqseZVr_a0VE5N0kF0KD2Dq6u7qJsG_u0RS-iYahiV-CnVqt7Xo6577CyssRFmnKnOMb_NNAWLhlFuKa9DfD47Sof7qZLJFcEaS37cAaCPcoAVnprlbURjqsreyyh-b4kaz7ZaNfGqJS_TQjU4sutXbZKsRpv4KsjP1CFGpxRF0_uOg/s2952/NatlEnquirerJuly23_1996_4.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1630" data-original-width="2952" height="354" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4GuV370WISFKiqseZVr_a0VE5N0kF0KD2Dq6u7qJsG_u0RS-iYahiV-CnVqt7Xo6577CyssRFmnKnOMb_NNAWLhlFuKa9DfD47Sof7qZLJFcEaS37cAaCPcoAVnprlbURjqsreyyh-b4kaz7ZaNfGqJS_TQjU4sutXbZKsRpv4KsjP1CFGpxRF0_uOg/w640-h354/NatlEnquirerJuly23_1996_4.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i> </i><span style="font-size: small;">The<i> National Enquirer,</i> July 23, 1996</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><span style="font-family: inherit;">The modern phase of UFO activity in Mexico began with the total
eclipse of July 11, 1991. With a duration of totality lasting about
seven minutes, nearly the maximum possible, and crossing Mexico's
most populated regions, it was one of the great eclipses of the
century. </span><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span> <br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9fh9FnsQo-ABSYoa96H1tOUWg73IYfqC6jy4VWiGNgLojfXi2IvIl08bJcUn99xVCyFNlfDCdqDN0sIRAelRq0htOnU7xtgUHmQbR_4Wbnylp-iL7b2dIWGCTPqu6LvNTF4ZI6yuMsa_gAiK1tscUslr0pleDEcn4XxktC7aplzoh_uiCKIECiiK67g/s1012/EclipseUFOvideo.jpg"><img border="0" data-original-height="650" data-original-width="1012" height="412" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9fh9FnsQo-ABSYoa96H1tOUWg73IYfqC6jy4VWiGNgLojfXi2IvIl08bJcUn99xVCyFNlfDCdqDN0sIRAelRq0htOnU7xtgUHmQbR_4Wbnylp-iL7b2dIWGCTPqu6LvNTF4ZI6yuMsa_gAiK1tscUslr0pleDEcn4XxktC7aplzoh_uiCKIECiiK67g/w640-h412/EclipseUFOvideo.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;">The greatly-overexposed image of the eclipsed sun in Mexico, and its much fainter reflected image at left.</span><br /><div><br />
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDAU72IsTGkiZL0SAiV-ljFZD4iJTP9cEmi6a0aINySSlwF-Gog3zwE6lDyo95qQ9JHVfQdvMdsz7w0FAOia72sPNP9WXVSUQeZXR1lfdLULKZhUye4yhIS1JAVFlujMpmAXMan4lSO6OxE7lH0fFoClFKRRlcWOBO-K7PFSoHcDh1E0bOvyQQttaswQ/s958/Birthplace.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="958" data-original-width="651" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDAU72IsTGkiZL0SAiV-ljFZD4iJTP9cEmi6a0aINySSlwF-Gog3zwE6lDyo95qQ9JHVfQdvMdsz7w0FAOia72sPNP9WXVSUQeZXR1lfdLULKZhUye4yhIS1JAVFlujMpmAXMan4lSO6OxE7lH0fFoClFKRRlcWOBO-K7PFSoHcDh1E0bOvyQQttaswQ/w217-h320/Birthplace.jpg" width="217" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Birthplace of Quetzalcoatl</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">Many of
the photos showed artifacts like the one seen above. Several
were presented to us by a woman in Amatlan de Quetzalcoatl, in
complete sincerity, as a genuine UFO. (That place is supposed to be the birthplace of Quetzalcoatl, making it a sort of Aztec<b> </b>Bethlehem.)<b> </b>The greatly overexposed object, obviously an
image of the eclipse, was supposed to be a giant UFO, and the dimmer ring-like object, was supposed to be the eclipsed sun.
However, that analysis is backwards. The overexposed object is no
anomalous object, but rather the sun, which though only a tiny sliver
or "diamond ring" remains uneclipsed, is nonetheless quite
bright enough to overexpose the film when photographed directly. The
fainter image is in fact just an internal reflection of the eclipsed
sun itself, caused by light reflecting off the surfaces of the
individual lens elements, and onto the film plane. Many thousands of
people, photographing the eclipse with simple cameras, obtained
results similar to this. People concluded that they must have
photographed OVNIs (the Spanish acronym for UFOs), and enterprising
promoters perceived an opportunity to make some quick pesos. The
great Mexican UFO flap was on.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">In April, 1996 I had the opportunity to check this out for
myself when I went on a UFO-related Mexican tour organized by Beyond
Boundaries, a 'paranormal travel' agency. This group has also
organized trips to the U.K. to investigate Crop Circles, and to
Puerto Rico to check out an area reputed to contain chupacabras and
an Interdimensional Portal. A chupacabra, literally "goat
sucker," is a fabled creature said to attack farm animals and
drain them of blood. Actually, this story is just the familiar
"cattle mutilation" legend, told with a Latin twist. If a
rancher speaks English, his dead farm animals will have been molested
by space aliens; if he speaks Spanish, it will have been done by a
chupacabra.
<p>
One of the tour
organizers was Rubin Uriarte, of MUFON Northern California. Two of our tour members worked for the Bigelow-funded National
Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS) in Las Vegas. <a href="https://nexusnewsfeed.com/article/consciousness/jacques-vallee-on-the-national-institute-of-discovery-science/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">One of them was Air Force Lt. Col. Peter McDuff</a>, the other was nuclear engineer <a href="https://www.atomicheritage.org/profile/theodore-rockwell" target="_blank">Ted Rockwell (1923-2013)</a>, who I was familiar with
because of his earlier critiques of skeptics. Most of the other
people were âtrue believers;â in fact, the two NIDS guys and I
earned the reputation of the âgroup's skeptics,â as we were
unwilling to believe remarkable claims without seeing proof. At the time, claims were widely being
made that UFOs were being seen widely at certain places in Mexico,
including the airport in Mexico City. You only needed to go there if
you wanted to see them, it was said; of course, that wasnât
true. We flew in and out of that airport, and didn't see anything unusual. Our itinerary took us to some of the most UFOlogically-active
regions in the entire world, and we met with many of the leading
UFOlogists in Mexico. Was Mexico really experiencing a "UFO
blitz"? Here is what I found:</p></div><p></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
</p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr9sk8OOQI2EOXHa4sHkvy-QO_zz147RP_WsyO3D9SPDPxNiAzwTcEONxyzMOwupjMpKs9AM1NEpRz3d50YnjVEygWlUxjy4_8wGC7Cog0M05yJ_aaOrYsafIDUAvdq_lURnLuOjaEWU_zug933ecTrBQqkOnLeNKxSO9LGktkmptX65E0aFQCO91xCQ/s780/Maussan1996.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="661" data-original-width="780" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr9sk8OOQI2EOXHa4sHkvy-QO_zz147RP_WsyO3D9SPDPxNiAzwTcEONxyzMOwupjMpKs9AM1NEpRz3d50YnjVEygWlUxjy4_8wGC7Cog0M05yJ_aaOrYsafIDUAvdq_lURnLuOjaEWU_zug933ecTrBQqkOnLeNKxSO9LGktkmptX65E0aFQCO91xCQ/s320/Maussan1996.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Jaime Maussan met with us.</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We met with Jaime Maussan, a TV investigative reporter in Mexico
City now turned UFO promoter, who has made more money
off the UFO mania than anyone else in Mexico, and perhaps the entire
world. His lecture fee at the time of our visit was 60,000 pesos
(approximately US $8,000), a staggering sum for a single evening's
work, most especially in Mexico. <a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2015/05/roswell-slides-busted-mummified-body-of.html" target="_blank">In 2015, Maussan was one of the main promoters of the preposterous Roswell Slides hoax.</a> He runs an organization that
exploits belief in UFOs and other dubious claims. We also met, at
greater length, with his assistant Eduardo Viadas, who was filling in
for his boss while Maussan was in Tijuana, lecturing and
investigating chupacabras. Eduardo introduced us to Emilio Grenados,
one of los vigilantes, an organization set up by Maussan to gather
UFO evidence. Grenados explained how members of this group are
trained in the use of cameras, then sent out as part of an on-call
network of photographers to travel to wherever UFOs are reported. Jaime Maussan's company produces a 12-tape set of videos of
UFOs, several of them prominently featuring <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Spaceships-Pleiades-Kal-K-Korff/dp/0879759593/ref=sr_1_1?crid=11EOT1GKWLEHW&keywords=kal+korff+billy+meier&qid=1658123288&s=books&sprefix=kal+korff+billy+meier%2Cstripbooks%2C157&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Swiss UFO contactee Billy
Meier's widely-discredited 'UFOs From the Pleiades</a>.'
</div><p></p><div style="text-align: justify;">
Maussan also produces videos about Kennedy assassination
conspiracies, and "miracles" of the Virgin of Guadalupe. As
might be expected, his studio contains a great deal of
state-of-the-art, computer-ontrolled video enhancement equipment. The
problem is, however, that unless one is able to examine an original
UFO negative or video in its un-edited, original state, it is
worthless as "proof" of anything. Maussan displayed what
was either a distressing naivete, or else disingenuousness, when he
told us straight-out that "Mexicans do not make hoax UFO
photos." He quickly added, however, that Americans do.
Incidentally, Maussan told us that he does not believe the 'UFO
abduction' stories that are the rage in the U.S.; they are simply too
bizarre for him to accept.</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPq6joIKLc1yqvhEh1PKvIHNBwAe-nZwRv09y3DUdRJwX41qWRQuyQerbqE6N_BXNKQNIHz-eYGcN31mbK7XKN6Nj4QxhQh01egHAIoZEqagoCVbMSoKLcUE13_OF1_iE3R3jjcbVF675odXHmMSB9Dd7DXoVfLJRrjZXBXOy5dHBXWc0VH_HIg-gSOA/s1426/MaussansEmployees2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="958" data-original-width="1426" height="430" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPq6joIKLc1yqvhEh1PKvIHNBwAe-nZwRv09y3DUdRJwX41qWRQuyQerbqE6N_BXNKQNIHz-eYGcN31mbK7XKN6Nj4QxhQh01egHAIoZEqagoCVbMSoKLcUE13_OF1_iE3R3jjcbVF675odXHmMSB9Dd7DXoVfLJRrjZXBXOy5dHBXWc0VH_HIg-gSOA/w640-h430/MaussansEmployees2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Maussan's studio in 1996, where his employees produced video tapes promoting loopy stuff.</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span>
Maussan claimed to have access to huge amounts of radar UFO
evidence from the airport at Mexico City, and he seemed to be able to
contact the airport radar operator at any time on his cellular phone,
which he did while speaking to us. One of the NIDS people took a keen interest in getting
tapes and other data from the supposedly frequent appearances of
UFOs on the radar, for analysis in the U.S. However, when Maussan was
asked to provide hard data from the radar, suddenly for reasons that
were unclear to us that data became very difficult to obtain, when
just a moment before it was present in massive detail, albeit in
anecdotal form. Maussan talked about UFO evidence and hard data a
great deal, but none was seen. He promised to send us reams of UFO
evidence that his group had amassed, and took down the names and
addresses of interested researchers. However, nothing was ever
received.
</div><p style="text-align: justify;">
Maussan claimed that his organization uses a scientific process
of computer enhancement which distinguishes genuine UFO photos from
hoaxes, based on the presence of 'energy fields' which surround only genuine objects. He claimed that this enhancement
process, which was illustrated in an article in each issue of the
magazine <i>Contacto OVNI </i>("UFO Contact", a sensationalist UFO publication of which Maussan is
a consulting editor), would reveal the presence of magnetic fields,
energy fields, spectral luminescence, etc. surrounding a real UFO. I
strenuously objected that no such analysis was possible from an
ordinary video or photo, and Maussan seemed unprepared to confront a
knowledgeable critic. He fell back to the position that he was only a journalist, repeating what his
scientific consultant, a physicist, had told him. To save face with
the group, he arranged to have his physicist meet with us the
following day.
</p><p style="text-align: justify;">
We did meet with Mario Torres, Maussan's scientific consultant.
It turns out, however, that Torres is no physicist, but actually one
of the editors of <i>Contacto OVNI</i>. Torres claims that the software and
algorithms utilized to analyze the photos are his own. While he has
some education in science, and claims to have produced some patent-able inventions, Torres was quite unable to describe to us any
valid scientific principles on which his analyses were made. While he
claimed to be able to measure "thermal energy", "electromagnetic energy," and
"levels of energy" from photos or videos, after a little
questioning it became clear that he was unable to defend his
statements. Torres said he based his analyses upon a conversation he
once had with the late physicist Richard Feynman, who told him that
light is an electromagnetic phenomenon. All the rest of the
supposedly "scientific analysis" is based upon his own
conjectures as to what that implies about what a photograph will and
will not contain. Torres told us, as did Viadas and Maussan, that
he did not believe the 'UFO abduction' stories coming from the U.S.;
they were simply so bizarre as to defy belief.
</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUi_30gNveFlLFR8R6QG8r0aiFq_BxL_IWqWSvNlKtDV7b7JH37owycYCs5OAPOpiyWPswuF14pqfpn0pa348_TwQJV0Nyustovarz4jUssp6y3wmcFj0hW2-Wjp_lbcp9UJ7NhdwtpeJF675Aaqt-0-uf8hOFT31he0_w712B2jVvN8grXT5zuC_Q9Q/s1461/Pyramids5.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="958" data-original-width="1461" height="420" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUi_30gNveFlLFR8R6QG8r0aiFq_BxL_IWqWSvNlKtDV7b7JH37owycYCs5OAPOpiyWPswuF14pqfpn0pa348_TwQJV0Nyustovarz4jUssp6y3wmcFj0hW2-Wjp_lbcp9UJ7NhdwtpeJF675Aaqt-0-uf8hOFT31he0_w712B2jVvN8grXT5zuC_Q9Q/w640-h420/Pyramids5.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Great Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan, Mexico.<br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">
Near Mexico City are the great pyramids at Teotihuacan, built in
pre-Aztec times approximately 1800 years ago. The noted crop circle
guru Colin Andrews, prudently branching out into other fields of
paranormalism, had been on one of the earlier Beyond Boundaries'
Mexico trips. He claimed to have detected 'energy lines' while
standing on top the great Pyramid of the Sun, so we were told to be
alert for this. When we reached the summit of that magnificent
ancient monument, most of us said that we didn't feel anything, other than the exhilaration of having
climbed up to a magnificent place, at the high elevation of Mexico
City. However, one member of our group stood looking up at the sky,
his arms outstretched, as if 'drawing down energy'. This gesture
attracted considerable attention, and soon others were following his
example. As we were departing, some people were still 'drawing down
energy'. I wonder if perhaps our group started a new occult practice?</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhevRIA2MJDVtooC9MERJP6zh2BDt7km919JADHk4ApYuks_XcfPzJ-fJ3rzatkPPAFO3MUJn2ROh6lgv0PwupWx0NGDQZ62KXTFrOSDWz46C4G-uN3678x5bZ4IGMWkbQYurMqdIG39CGpTl9olVVY-SqCO6SQS9EDkMoK6y6XZzAFh53wo3VC0Az2mg/s1224/DrawingDownEnergy2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="918" data-original-width="1224" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhevRIA2MJDVtooC9MERJP6zh2BDt7km919JADHk4ApYuks_XcfPzJ-fJ3rzatkPPAFO3MUJn2ROh6lgv0PwupWx0NGDQZ62KXTFrOSDWz46C4G-uN3678x5bZ4IGMWkbQYurMqdIG39CGpTl9olVVY-SqCO6SQS9EDkMoK6y6XZzAFh53wo3VC0Az2mg/w640-h480/DrawingDownEnergy2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">"Drawing down Energy" atop the Pyramid of the Sun.</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table> <p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">From Mexico City we went to Tepoztlan, in the state of Morelos,
not far from Cuernavaca. This is the New Age center of Mexico, often
compared to Sedona or Taos. It contains many shops selling crystals,
New Age literature, etc. The Hotel Tepoztlan is a 'holistic health
resort', with its own naturopathic physicians and herbal pharmacy on
the premises. Its restaurant is entirely vegetarian. It offers its
guests very reasonable rates on alternative health services, and was
then offering a special discount on a colonic irrigation, which I nonetheless declined. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">
The mountains surrounding the town are said to 'glow' at night
with mystical energy, and in truth they sometimes seem to. The
town is surrounded by high, steep cliffs much like Yosemite valley, at
night the light-colored rocks reflect the lights of the town. Brush
fires were more or less continually burning somewhere nearby, and
isolated flames on the mountains were called out by some as suspected
UFOs, until calmer voices and a peek through binoculars persuaded
them that they were just seeing fires. In California, we spend
millions of dollars per year fighting thousands of brush fires in the
wilderness. In Mexico, however, lacking the resources to fund such
massive efforts, fires in sparsely-inhabited areas are usually
allowed to burn themselves out. We spent two evenings holding a
"skywatch" on the rooftop of the hotel, which offers an
unobstructed view of the UFO-infested town of Tepoztlan. No anomalous
objects of any kind were seen, in spite of the ready availability of
some very fine beer and Tequila.
</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZfXLXTc1J596BOXen8stEzDa1GaV5h3w10yET-jS-l1G9UE0q5UpldcXQvhaNDX5LnwkASvc2vwODymDhDipQ84UZ__HJ2mLqhL494lYUekbdA7IeIqD4XAMvGpjT2kOQyENn_OWOW14hTCjX0ORE6LS6NTdrs3SNFBQmt_5UtR21VHDN5US6SCdUyA/s1012/CarlosDiazTepoztlan.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="642" data-original-width="1012" height="406" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZfXLXTc1J596BOXen8stEzDa1GaV5h3w10yET-jS-l1G9UE0q5UpldcXQvhaNDX5LnwkASvc2vwODymDhDipQ84UZ__HJ2mLqhL494lYUekbdA7IeIqD4XAMvGpjT2kOQyENn_OWOW14hTCjX0ORE6LS6NTdrs3SNFBQmt_5UtR21VHDN5US6SCdUyA/w640-h406/CarlosDiazTepoztlan.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Carlos Diaz (facing camera), pointing out the mystical highlights of Tepoztlan from the roof of the hotel.</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">
Our main contact in Tepoztlan was perhaps that town's most
famous citizen, <a href="https://www.phantomsandmonsters.com/2022/02/ufo-photographs-encounter-account.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">UFO celebrity Carlos Diaz</a>. Carlos is a
professional photographer, who takes photos of what he says are
"plasma ships" piloted by extraterrestrials. When Shirley
Maclaine was in Mexico she stopped by to visit him; Carlos showed us
a photo of the two of them together, beaming. Carlos possesses a very
charming, boyish personality, and immediately becomes overly-friendly
with those he meets. No doubt many find this reassuring, but with me
it has the opposite effect of setting me on guard, as it calls to
mind the slick manner of a used-car salesman. Up on the rooftop of the
hotel, Carlos pointed out to us the UFO highlights of the town. He
indicated a rock feature that he said resembles the male organ. When
seen from the other side of the mountain, it resembles female organs,
he said. For this reason, he said, the Aztecs knew it as "the
Mountain of Life," although I wouldn't care to bet any money on
that statement. Near the base of that mountain is where the alien
spacecraft most frequently land.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">
The way Carlos tells his story, it has three levels. At each
level, you are kept unaware that he has even more bizarre stuff that
will later follow, things that logically he should have mentioned
earlier. Apparently this is so that he can lecture to different
groups, of different levels of gullibility. Our group got it from all three barrels. Some members of our group possessed
credulity of truly cosmic proportions, and the rest of us kept our
mouths shut.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH1y0qL5nm26M8XgwCF7TPSIYqDZZpS8VoxX8JXOya-Ovw1X91EtfyZrqqzDZ6VI9D7zJCtl5Y5T3q1SJA68YRec4FEjE-GNO37eovDg5T9J1DCb6bWaYrBb_cQeDI0ioI20Mp-2G29ySmWoWnbg7h30L0T0mrrZJtxROO0pGekkWSfVLCKmCwMDAkBg/s336/hqdefault.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="188" data-original-width="336" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH1y0qL5nm26M8XgwCF7TPSIYqDZZpS8VoxX8JXOya-Ovw1X91EtfyZrqqzDZ6VI9D7zJCtl5Y5T3q1SJA68YRec4FEjE-GNO37eovDg5T9J1DCb6bWaYrBb_cQeDI0ioI20Mp-2G29ySmWoWnbg7h30L0T0mrrZJtxROO0pGekkWSfVLCKmCwMDAkBg/w640-h358/hqdefault.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-CjgeOnAvstATZtz5u60t1b87a8qK8rX" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">One of Carlos Diaz' "plasma ships," shooting down a light beam</a>.</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">
The first level is the story of Carlos the UFO spotter, a
professional photographer who often sees and photographs alien Plasma
Ships on the outskirts of Tepoztlan. After about an hour of this, we
take a short break, then he begins the second level: the story of
Levitated Carlos, who has actually been taken on board the plasma
ships, a fact he somehow neglected to mention during the previous
segment. Unfortunately, when he was taken aboard he wasn't able to
see much. Apparently, the "Plasma" that comprises the alien craft is something like a combination of fog and
chewing gum. Walking in any direction was difficult, and no matter
where he would go all he could see was more plasma.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">
Following another short break, we heard the story of Carlos the
Adamski-style contactee. His outer space friend often lands, and they
go for long nocturnal walks in the desert, where the alien dispenses
cosmic wisdom. The evening concluded with an apocalyptic warning of
impending ecological doom unless mankind repents of its sinful
selfish ways and stops harming the planet. This obviously-heartfelt
message is especially significant coming as it does not merely from
Carlos, who might be safely ignored, but instead from the
extraterrestrials themselves!</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">
Carlos Diaz sells autographed offset prints - not photos - of
his supposed "Plasma Ships" for US $20 each, a price which
would strike me as quite high even in New York City, let alone in
Mexico. We were discreetly warned not to trust Diaz by paying in advance, as others had not received prints they had paid for. His UFOs look mostly like featureless blotches, and even
Jaime Maussan privately admitted that he has a difficult time accepting them as
authentic. Interestingly, Carlos told us that he does not believe the
"UFO abduction" reports coming from the U.S.; they're just
too bizarre for him to swallow.</p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijkdWQDn8IwfV4koPKXYrM0OzoPNmlBmTTLnuBZ6qvwFBEIh4ovwaChLpI1Dbmhk0RBmMAqvY1B5Y9UHqnktHEPwMNPW-D6Xg01QUz_ELCXn7bRcLfkFNCELx-lXJV-rVBWIH1aNLnjr_ZXSLiOhgn4Fy4v6Q6Cr_f7DPoy0WE8fbKiZq35lDm_HTQBw/s1435/Tepoztlan1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="958" data-original-width="1435" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijkdWQDn8IwfV4koPKXYrM0OzoPNmlBmTTLnuBZ6qvwFBEIh4ovwaChLpI1Dbmhk0RBmMAqvY1B5Y9UHqnktHEPwMNPW-D6Xg01QUz_ELCXn7bRcLfkFNCELx-lXJV-rVBWIH1aNLnjr_ZXSLiOhgn4Fy4v6Q6Cr_f7DPoy0WE8fbKiZq35lDm_HTQBw/w640-h428/Tepoztlan1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Warning! Evacuation of the Earth in Tepoztlan!</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><div style="text-align: justify;">
There was a huge banner strung across the main street of Tepoztlan,
proclaiming a coming "evacuation of the earth" via flying
saucer, under the supervision of the Ashtar command. I asked Carlos
what this was about. He shrugged and replied that he knows nothing
about it, as it was put up by a different UFO group.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">
Tepoztlan was also the site of another little-known but nonetheless
momentous UFO encounter: it is the site where the controversial
conspiracy-oriented Black Muslim minister, the Rev. Louis Farrakhan,
was swept up from the ground to a huge mother-ship hovering overhead. <a href="https://www.davidhalperin.net/ufos-louis-farrakhan-and-the-mother-wheel-the-scholarship-of-stephen-finley/" target="_blank">Farrakhan claims that on Sept. 17, 1985, he was beamed up from the Aztec pyramid on the mountain at Tepoztlan to a UFO</a>, where he was
warned by the voice of the late Elijah Muhammed of Ronald Reagan's
forthcoming "genocide plot" against Qadaffi's Libya (the air raids in retaliation for Libya's
support of anti-American terrorists).</div><p></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9So-DDLz8AsQtEJSIBtFId1QBnMpWORmTs7l5oWPMo5e7PrMr23eqN7eco8ZaSisbmOHW3wDldc9dC9UANsBWCA7C1rHeDGwMmC35JyFM_NRRAsq2ba6l7EPu_WmpVJ7vviXXpojVsKv2AUykOp0nG1mNnU1Icur6HnYrK95qx6Npx4VHOnJaLDCx9w/s1411/EnergyField2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="946" data-original-width="1411" height="430" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9So-DDLz8AsQtEJSIBtFId1QBnMpWORmTs7l5oWPMo5e7PrMr23eqN7eco8ZaSisbmOHW3wDldc9dC9UANsBWCA7C1rHeDGwMmC35JyFM_NRRAsq2ba6l7EPu_WmpVJ7vviXXpojVsKv2AUykOp0nG1mNnU1Icur6HnYrK95qx6Npx4VHOnJaLDCx9w/w640-h430/EnergyField2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Looking for "energy lines" on the spot where Diaz meets the Plasma Ships.</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">
We went to the soccer field near the supposed "Mountain of Life" (male side), where Carlos supposedly encounters the Plasma
Ships. On a previous trip, Colin Andrews had detected "energy lines" on this spot, too, and he traced them out in a
rectangular grid using his dowsing rod. Several people tried dowsing the "energy lines" without much success, until finally the
rod was picked up by a woman who claims a pattern of repeated UFO
abduction. She quickly dowsed a pattern of "energy lines"
on the soccer field, and people were directed to stand to mark the
positions where the "energy lines" crossed. What this
exercise accomplished, if anything, was unclear, as was the
definition of the supposed "energy" she claimed to dowse. No serious
attempt was made by the group to determine whether or not these
"energy lines" represent anything real. This was an
exercise in group psychology, not in physics.
</div><p style="text-align: justify;">
Leaving Tepoztlan for Metepec, in the state of Puebla, the
volcano Popocatepetl came into view, one of the largest in the world.
In fact, the area was on volcanic alert, and some minor eruptions had
occurred in recent months, showering the area with volcanic ash. This
volcano figures prominently in UFO lore of the region.</p>
<p>
</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglAc9pZsJy0Mwijw_tsbWy7kEjnYwzeK2Vq2zVwqvOv8juquCwEGhH1VykjCt5hhX2gq8rrOWZvhntWWl395nOnASLvQzRNBFvgyysGi_fNB01ev7TDwRmlkEMhekjIsLokzDWZssoyxcnrqcOojkGzBx3DFRWjou9t6fGflL6uQoyi3wkI_xECam-8A/s1430/MarioArminas.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="958" data-original-width="1430" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglAc9pZsJy0Mwijw_tsbWy7kEjnYwzeK2Vq2zVwqvOv8juquCwEGhH1VykjCt5hhX2gq8rrOWZvhntWWl395nOnASLvQzRNBFvgyysGi_fNB01ev7TDwRmlkEMhekjIsLokzDWZssoyxcnrqcOojkGzBx3DFRWjou9t6fGflL6uQoyi3wkI_xECam-8A/w640-h428/MarioArminas.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mario Arminas with one of his UFO drawings.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;">
UFO witness and investigator Mario Arminas of Metepec claims to have
made numerous sightings of UFOs in the vicinity of the volcano, and
showed us at least a dozen of his drawings. One of
them depicts an entire fleet of UFOs going down into the volcano's
crater. Another depicts a giant and very ornate UFO, reportedly 300
meters in diameter, with many windows. Mario offers to sell
individually hand-painted drawings of his UFOs, US$ 20 for the
smaller ones, $30 for the larger. These beautiful handcrafted watercolors offer better value than Carlos
Diaz' printed sheets.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">
Mario has a conspiracy theory involving UFOs and the volcano. The
last eruption was provoked, he says, by the earth's superpowers, to
obtain a supply of sulfur. (Apparently our country's sulfur
shortage has been kept well hidden from the public.) He and others
claim to have seen fleets of military helicopters flying up to the volcano, and back again. The former
administration of Carlos Salinas is rumored to have actually sold Popocatepetl to foreign interests, who covet its UFO secrets, as well
as its sulfur. Mario was worried that our group might have come down
to Metepec on behalf of the U.S. Government to obtain UFO secrets
from the volcano, and he was unwilling to talk with us unless we
swore we were not working on behalf of the U.S. government, or any
related agency. All of us gave him our solemn word.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUzbLNRDBF3s11rgryVU9fipMO1xMZxyNo0NZNY3gV0sNL_8LXWjrR0ZVp_P21LFV_l7H1Oiz-N2FnCUhOcnv2qtwkkLXlNI632jkchFxgrYH6hFVpr2aBVNRIeYcjQpnv8CKUSF8FROF49CIbulUc57EIRweTvUp1i-rML4O_LzaORuCrgYAMe_KuhA/s1400/Popocatapetl2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="950" data-original-width="1400" height="434" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUzbLNRDBF3s11rgryVU9fipMO1xMZxyNo0NZNY3gV0sNL_8LXWjrR0ZVp_P21LFV_l7H1Oiz-N2FnCUhOcnv2qtwkkLXlNI632jkchFxgrYH6hFVpr2aBVNRIeYcjQpnv8CKUSF8FROF49CIbulUc57EIRweTvUp1i-rML4O_LzaORuCrgYAMe_KuhA/w640-h434/Popocatapetl2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">The volcano Popocatepetl</span></td></tr></tbody></table>
<p style="text-align: justify;">
In Metepec, our primary contact was Norberto Gil, leader of the
group IFO-IEGA. The group gathers regularly for UFO skywatches at
Punta Marconi, a small farm on a hill just outside Metepec, offering
an unobstructed view of the sky, and a spectacular vista of
Popocatapetl. Even after dark, a volcanic plume could be seen rising
skyward from the crater. On this site the IFO-IEGA group has
constructed a shack or clubhouse for greater comfort during their UFO
vigils. This is one of the sites that was used by the American group CSETI on Mexican trips. We held a
skywatch there on two consecutive nights. The site is almost directly
under a main air traffic corridor between Mexico and South America, and some members of the group seem to have
difficulty distinguishing UFOs from airplanes. Often the UFOs are
said to keep to regular nocturnal timetables, which further compounds
the confusion between UFOs and scheduled international flights.
</p><p style="text-align: justify;">
People brought tapes of supposed "UFO noises" and
"crop circle noises," and practiced group meditation, all
in an attempt to communicate with, and hopefully summon, the UFO
beings. These are the techniques of CSETI, which IFO-IEGA learned well from their
American colleagues. Norberto led the group in meditation and
creative visualization. He told us to visualize ourselves slowly
rising up from our places in the field, to a series of points
successively higher above the ground, then finally out into space beyond the moon, where we would encounter a giant UFO. We
would implore it to come and reveal itself to us tonight, much as
one might implore any other celestial being. The effect of his talk was much like that of a minister leading his congregation
in prayer, imploring an unseen celestial being to grant us our
fervent wish.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9oeuNUe4za1vc3AGCSTYHLFzMvoK2A55atSy3MBBOgM9U6Ao4Le_dGAYKw9LLbh1H-KeeejqhGek3L6UfE5LO3_bSRllSxDn-4Olv8BzB9FHhkCHx2_N9GV6LlKqDYFi32N9G2Yb3LdA6WcOLvT7TKk6PwK5heSE5fU_U4pBHkPCu-JPgwevu_0wX7g/s1415/UFOclub.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="958" data-original-width="1415" height="434" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9oeuNUe4za1vc3AGCSTYHLFzMvoK2A55atSy3MBBOgM9U6Ao4Le_dGAYKw9LLbh1H-KeeejqhGek3L6UfE5LO3_bSRllSxDn-4Olv8BzB9FHhkCHx2_N9GV6LlKqDYFi32N9G2Yb3LdA6WcOLvT7TKk6PwK5heSE5fU_U4pBHkPCu-JPgwevu_0wX7g/w640-h434/UFOclub.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">The UFO Clubhouse in Metepec.</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">
When no UFOs were seen after we had been watching for about an
hour and a half, the group retired into the clubhouse to have snacks
and get comfortable. Norberto picked up his accordion and led the group in song. He later switched to his guitar. They sang
their songs, we sang our songs, the sense of camaraderie and good
spirits was unmistakable and infectious; all we lacked were UFOs to
make the night complete. The following morning, just before our
departure from Metepec, Norberto told us that a UFO had been seen
just ten minutes after we had left the previous night. Darn it! But UFOs are
like that, always cleverly concealing themselves whenever the danger
of their public exposure is the greatest. Like the other Mexican UFOlogists we met, Norberto told us
that he and the others in his group do not believe the American UFO
abduction reports; they're just too bizarre to accept.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdOxVP24DTgtdpDoV1tmuoWSDRTLuzRNu_cBC6dxu6hCsAPI0PPLP9ZqH-IbXpzrchvI9NDthm7002yvjVWC1cjhc8eFJRK8N6k9s-hqA9_YJ_0pUqucwQX-Bf9prBR1D_tvv_u_CvZ7G3iqJ0EqvH3BozWerZMxMRtPzNoUFvJDXdkqhwtx-iVz60cw/s1426/GravityAnomaly.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="958" data-original-width="1426" height="430" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdOxVP24DTgtdpDoV1tmuoWSDRTLuzRNu_cBC6dxu6hCsAPI0PPLP9ZqH-IbXpzrchvI9NDthm7002yvjVWC1cjhc8eFJRK8N6k9s-hqA9_YJ_0pUqucwQX-Bf9prBR1D_tvv_u_CvZ7G3iqJ0EqvH3BozWerZMxMRtPzNoUFvJDXdkqhwtx-iVz60cw/w640-h430/GravityAnomaly.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Looking for a gravitational anomaly.</td></tr></tbody></table></p>One morning in Metepec we stopped at the site of a supposed
"gravitational anomaly" near Punta Marconi. The tourbus was
supposed to roll uphill on what was said to be a downhill slope. A
complex pattern of local slopes confuses the eye as to where "level"
really is. Unfortunately, the bus refused to cooperate. Norberto
tried to illustrate the mystery and get the bus rolling, giving it a
heroic shove. He is a very strong fellow, but the tourbus refused to
keep rolling in any direction, up or down.
<p style="text-align: justify;">
In nearby Atlixco, we visited the home of Sr. Lino, an attorney,
in whose yard UFOs are said to have landed several times. A ring in
the grass was reportedly left as evidence of each landing, although
none were visible at the time of our visit. His 16-year-old daughter
Adrianna claims to have seen a UFO land in the yard outside her
window. She has since begun receiving apocalyptic visions of the
earth colliding with a giant asteroid, bigger even than Jupiter. The
most dramatic physical evidence presented to us on the entire trip
was when Sr. Lino displayed a small stick that he said had been
broken when the UFO landed.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhowclLCL02EPdYqgd1vOtjxIgtE4u1210myVFVDtND6CjRk6P0broHBlFJdtzsVY7eVxKz_9nIvxJJBBbkUwmMAvdxEJQNI0HLktv6T3wIYEwbYykKMGyanUnHNkSWGmgPcaX4ikXIqw7eVjqf2OGeLNQJJhRxAkMNESIFFosXkLeQldnUUR7y-eu6cA/s1426/LandingEvidence.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="958" data-original-width="1426" height="430" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhowclLCL02EPdYqgd1vOtjxIgtE4u1210myVFVDtND6CjRk6P0broHBlFJdtzsVY7eVxKz_9nIvxJJBBbkUwmMAvdxEJQNI0HLktv6T3wIYEwbYykKMGyanUnHNkSWGmgPcaX4ikXIqw7eVjqf2OGeLNQJJhRxAkMNESIFFosXkLeQldnUUR7y-eu6cA/w640-h430/LandingEvidence.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Landing evidence - a stick broken by a landed UFO.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">
We returned to the U.S. in good spirits, yet disappointed that
the primary objective of the trip was not met: to witness some of the
fabled Mexican UFO encounters with our own eyes. Despite holding four
evenings of Skywatches in two of the principal UFO hotspots in
Mexico, no anomalous objects of any kind were seen. We met with the
leading UFO proponents in Mexico, yet were shown no unusual physical
evidence of any kind, and saw no clear or convincing photos or
videos. We did see several photos and videos that appear to be
sincere misinterpretations of prosaic phenomena. It seems that
despite the stories we hear in the U.S. about the supposedly frantic
pace of UFO activity south of the border, if you actually go to the
hottest UFO hot-spots in Mexico and get the leading UFOlogists to
show you their best evidence, you will find nothing more remarkable
than the same blurry photos and hazy stories we are accustomed to
finding here.
</p><br /><p><br /></p>
<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p>Robert Sheafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324537021429419111noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8104600450225406597.post-19988960862465428872022-06-30T12:02:00.003-07:002022-06-30T13:17:15.203-07:00"Skinwalkers at the Pentagon" - a Book Review about Ghosts and Werewolves<p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Skinwalkers-Pentagon-Insiders-Account-Government/dp/B09HR54GQF/ref=sr_1_1?crid=VDADQUK7MTJK&keywords=skinwalkers+at+the+pentagon&qid=1656296263&s=books&sprefix=skinwalkers%2Cstripbooks%2C226&sr=1-1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">This book came out last October,</a> and I confess that for quite a while I paid little attention to it. 'Oh great,' I thought, 'more loopy stories and fairy tales.' (Which it does contain in abundance.) But after seeing a few excerpts from the book that had been posted, I realized that it was much more than that. After reading it, I realized that<b> this book is by far the most important thing that has yet been written on the subject of AATIP, AAWSAP, and all aspects of the Pentagon UFO/UAP story.</b> The authors are first-hand participants in the events, which they detail and document. James Lacatski administered the AAWSAP program for the Pentagon. <a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2022/04/pentagon-ufo-papers-more-releases-more.html" target="_blank">I wrote about the reports and other data delivered by that program</a>. Colm Kelleher was the contact person for the contract, working for Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies. George Knapp is a journalist who turns up absolutely anywhere there might be a good story about UFOs. And if you have been following the conventional AATIP story, this book pretty well upends everything you've previously heard on the subject.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5chxknLOuIuxBaZ-0WZG9bN0phIXHAllhbXxcuZvN6RafQxJgxW67s9q0pe9laS0tCxVkF0og9u-ZVaC2jKPTb9PnMnO6TRunRdvGtbQwMgkRlrRFG9xVyTxlwlQkh1VLLUS5rj6D-KLYdBzvCJiHEnSxq3fpT4erREbSRtorp4b9APFeGWI2elYPGA/s958/SkinwalkersPentagonCover.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="958" data-original-width="664" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5chxknLOuIuxBaZ-0WZG9bN0phIXHAllhbXxcuZvN6RafQxJgxW67s9q0pe9laS0tCxVkF0og9u-ZVaC2jKPTb9PnMnO6TRunRdvGtbQwMgkRlrRFG9xVyTxlwlQkh1VLLUS5rj6D-KLYdBzvCJiHEnSxq3fpT4erREbSRtorp4b9APFeGWI2elYPGA/w222-h320/SkinwalkersPentagonCover.jpg" width="222" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div style="text-align: justify;">The conventional Pentagon UFO story that everyone has heard from Luis Elizondo, Leslie Kean, Tom DeLonge and "To The Stars," etc., goes something like this:<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li>The military was getting concerned about Unidentified Aerial Phenomena seen by its pilots, sailors, etc. </li><li>They created the AATIP - the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program - to study UAPs. There was also a program called AAWSAP - Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program - which was the same thing, just a different name. Luis Elizondo headed up the program. Much of what Elizondo knows is classified and cannot be revealed. <br /></li><li>In 2017, Elizondo resigns his job at the Pentagon, and joins Tom DeLonge's "To The Stars" organization. </li><li>Starting in December, 2017,<a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2017/12/delonge-overload-and-secret-federal-ufo.html" target="_blank"> Leslie Kean, with co-authors Michael Blumenthal and Helene Cooper publish a series of articles in the <i>New York Times</i> </a>about "Glowing Auras and Black Money", telling the story of Elizondo and AATIP. This sets off a long-lasting media frenzy, resulting in countless media interviews, and a successful two-season series <i>The Unidentified</i> on the "History" Channel, starring Elizondo, DeLonge, and the "To The Stars" team.</li></ul>That is the Gospel of AATIP according to Elizondo (and many others). But as Lacatski, Kelleher, and Knapp show, practically none of that is true. And they give specifics about meetings, persons attending, communications, etc. supporting their account. The supposed history of AATIP we have been given has always been rather woozy and lacking details. In this book, however, you will find plenty of specifics. In this version, the history of the Pentagon UAP investigation goes something like this:<br /><ul><li>Pentagon scientist James Lacatski reads the 2005 book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Hunt-Skinwalker-Science-Confronts-Unexplained/dp/1416505210/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1656307969&sr=8-1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Hunt for the Skinwalker</a> by Kelleher and Knapp, which tells <a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2018/06/bigelows-researchers-disclose.html" target="_blank">of numerous supposedly paranormal events occurring at Robert Bigelow's so-called "Skinwalker Ranch"</a> in Utah. He is very impressed.<br /></li><li>Lacatski suggests to Senator Harry Reid (D-NV), and to Bigelow, that the government might fund an investigation into UAPs and allegedly paranormal phenomena "collocated" with UAPs, in the interest of national security.</li><li>Reid uses his political connections to create the AAWSAP program, with a budget of $22 million. Bigelow creates a new division of his company, BAASS (Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies), which submits the only bid for the contract. </li><li>AAWSAP investigates not only claims of UAPs, but alleged paranormal phenomena "collocated" with them. People claim to have 'brought home' poltergeist phenomena and such after visiting Skinwalker Ranch. Blue orbs are also said to menace those who get close to the phenomenon.</li><li>AAWSAP is funded for two fiscal years, 2009 and 2010. Reid, Lacatski, and others try to get additional funding, but are unsuccessful.</li></ul><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3TYoGSo9nNmZp3vwvxyk3R8k4iOSFg4fb-oucMoC6_dXfLyf6khSoCuCCckw8lD-Ehz4Tgr9RluzDyr_35ULTKZAVMs0Eba0HzRgEgtyCaq1DH-NPCKxCbn0ThDhdYSm24vZkTpkJ6onaL0sNAyw7XdMb_7uwTebcxUsFRB9nO7_6SWRJ6XdIKutWcQ/s1641/BasementOfficeParanormal2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="876" data-original-width="1641" height="342" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3TYoGSo9nNmZp3vwvxyk3R8k4iOSFg4fb-oucMoC6_dXfLyf6khSoCuCCckw8lD-Ehz4Tgr9RluzDyr_35ULTKZAVMs0Eba0HzRgEgtyCaq1DH-NPCKxCbn0ThDhdYSm24vZkTpkJ6onaL0sNAyw7XdMb_7uwTebcxUsFRB9nO7_6SWRJ6XdIKutWcQ/w640-h342/BasementOfficeParanormal2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">An illustration of AAWSAP investigations (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XD4gQS_-qY" target="_blank">from the podcast <i>The Basement Office</i></a>)</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />This is a <b><i>very different picture</i></b> than we have been shown before! There have long been hints of this side of AAWSAP, but because of there being so many conflicting accounts of the program(s), many people (including me) were inclined to dismiss them. Way back in May of 2018, KLAS in Las Vegas (where George Knapp works) <a href="https://www.8newsnow.com/news/statement-from-a-senior-manager-of-baass/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">published an anonymous "Statement from a Senior Manager of BAASS</a>" (who very likely is Kelleher): <br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>The investigations by BAASS provided new lines of evidence showing that the UFO phenomenon was a lot more than nuts and bolts machines that interacted with military aircraft. The phenomenon also involved a whole panoply of diverse activity that included bizarre creatures, poltergeist activity, invisible entities, orbs of light, animal and human injuries and much more. The exclusive focus on nuts and bolts machines could be considered myopic and unproductive in solving the larger mystery of UFOs.</blockquote></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Which is exactly what it says in <i>Skinwalkers at the Pentagon</i>. Apparently Knapp has been dropping bread crumbs for us to follow for quite some time.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">What does the book say about AATIP? "<b>AAWSAP was not AATIP</b>" (p. xxiii). AAWSAP had an allocated budget of about $22 million. AATIP had a budget of <b>zero</b>. "AATIP involved a small group of people working on the UAP problem, with direct knowledge of their superiors, when their day jobs allowed them to." (p. xxiii-xxiv. Although I seem to recall that Elizondo once said that his superiors did not know what he was doing with AATIP.). AATIP was also described as a "small unofficial effort" (p.27). Take that, Elizondo! And what does the book have to say about Elizondo? Very little. He is mentioned just a few times, in passing. About the only insight it gives us about Elizondo is,</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>As he enjoyed his steak tartare, Elizondo regaled those around him with some war stories, including one hair-raising exploit about how his advanced intuition and remote viewing ["psychic"] capabilities had saved his life and the life of his men while on a covert combat mission in Afghanistan (p. 49).</blockquote></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Oh my, so apparently Elizondo brags in private about his psychic powers? Strange that he has not mentioned this in public interviews. He obviously would prefer for this <i><b>not</b></i> to become public, so its inclusion suggests an agenda. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>The "Broad Scope" of AAWSAP Research</b></span></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The authors emphasize that </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>the decision to research paranormal phenomena that co-locate with UAPs and to examine psychic effects in UAP witnesses, in addition to scrutinizing the core UAP technology itself, was not taken lightly because of the controversial nature of the UAP-paranormal debate....[witnesses] frequently reported poltergeist effects, humanoid-shaped black shadows, loud footsteps, hauntings, discarnate voices, small flying orbs,or some combination thereof, in their homes. These people also regularly reported precognitive, clairvoyant, telepathic, or unusual electromagnetic phenomena, as well as occasional increases in meaningful coincidences in their lives in the aftermath of a UAP encounter (p. 161).</blockquote></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So with AAWSAP, we are getting not just reports of sightings, but a wide assortment of Things that go Bump in the Night. While some might see this as a bold new approach to UFOs, in fact<a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2022/03/jacques-vallees-invisible-college.html" target="_blank"> it has been a part of the writings of UFO theorists like Jacques Vallee,</a> John Keel, etc. for more than fifty years. There is nothing new here. (Vallee worked with AAWSAP on preparing its database.) </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Is this a dagger which I see before me?</b></span><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />We read of a mysterious incident occurring to Lacatski on his very first visit to the Skinwalker ranch:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggZuVCrqKl9PFXM1OFJlNpDVdUH47Dhm7wzdyt8kYCRoC4QtPxrBPLj0NpXgpleRoDG4OMCYsrwO8uKd5wq15zy2XtZJn6ORiqEqHG9RUlUyWVcqEZXE9VaEIBMSIxwMGqusjBarOo_P2eodx6Eudu7OJLZ7qcDaCe0l-OsZMPViawk89niyEc4PGs8w/s953/a91e33c831d1f946d794d17b1314a09e.953x953x1.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="953" data-original-width="953" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggZuVCrqKl9PFXM1OFJlNpDVdUH47Dhm7wzdyt8kYCRoC4QtPxrBPLj0NpXgpleRoDG4OMCYsrwO8uKd5wq15zy2XtZJn6ORiqEqHG9RUlUyWVcqEZXE9VaEIBMSIxwMGqusjBarOo_P2eodx6Eudu7OJLZ7qcDaCe0l-OsZMPViawk89niyEc4PGs8w/s320/a91e33c831d1f946d794d17b1314a09e.953x953x1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Mike Oldfield's album <i>Tubular Bells</i></span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table>Abruptly, Lacatski was transfixed by something behind where Bigelow and the [caretaker] couple were chatting: an unearthly technological device had suddenly and silently appeared out of nowhere in the adjacent kitchen. It looked to be a complex semi-opaque, yellowish, tubular structure. Lacatski said nothing but stared at the object, which was hovering silently. He looked away, looked back, and there it still was. It remained visible to Lacatski for no more than 30 seconds before vanishing on the spot (p. 39-40).<br /></blockquote></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Three other people were present, but did not see this. Lacatski later said that the object looked like the illustration on this album cover.<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b> </b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b> </b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>"Bringing Something Home - The Infectious Agent Model" (p. 80).<br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I wrote in 2018 that Dr. Eric Davis, one of Bigelow's science contractors, <a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2018/06/bigelows-researchers-disclose.html" target="_blank">claimed that a poltergeist followed him home from the Skinwalker Ranch</a>. Now we read that "Most people who spent more than a day of Skinwalker Ranch brought "something" home with them from the property. The effect was almost universal, and universally unpleasant" (p. 80). What kind of incidents and sightings are we talking about?<br /><ul><li>"The freakish hybrid of small dinosaur and large beaver had silently and suddenly appeared" (p. 56)</li><li>"nightmarish 'dogmen' appearing in their backyard" (p. 81)</li><li>"two wine bottles were flung across the room, ceiling fans would turn on," etc. (p. 81).</li><li>"a large wolf-like creature standing outside his bedroom looking in at him" (p. 84)</li><li>"strange blue lights flying around his backyard" (p. 84).</li></ul><p>Tied into the Skinwalker "mystery" somewhat peripherally is "the Geller effect", when in 1973 several scientists in California testing the Israeli spoonbender's alleged magic powers were supposedly plagued in their homes with UFOs, orbs, and "black shadowy forms" (p. 88). The authors correctly note that physicist <a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2020/05/a-not-so-brief-history-of-pentagon-woo.html" target="_blank">Dr. Hal Puthoff was a "central player" both in these tests of Geller,</a> and also "as an AAWSAP BAASS consultant and contractor, in the Axelrod and other post Skinwalker Ranch incidents" (p. 89). Russell Targ and Hal Puthoff famously investigated Uri Geller back in the early 1970s, and were very impressed by him.<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1975/12/13/archives/magicians-term-israeli-psychic-a-fraud.html" target="_blank"> Geller's supposed psychic powers were shown by James Randi and other magicians to be bogus</a>. </p><p>AAWSAP requested, but did not get, funding for a "remote viewing" program, but they conducted a "limited feasibility test." They asked the noted remote viewer Joseph McMoneagle to view a target allegedly unknown to him, which was actually Skinwalker Ranch. His descriptions of it "were excellent" (p. 121). The authors do not mention that back in 1984, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UD_VD3gyiWI" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">McMoneagle was working with the CIA, and attempted a remote viewing of Mars in the year 1 million B.C</a>. He described a "pyramid" that was 20,000 meters tall, and structures with large rooms, built by "an ancient people trying to survive." <br /></p><p>We are informed in Chapter 8 that "<b>Blue Orbs Are not Benign</b>" (p. 70), Several accounts are given of humans allegedly being injured or sickened by encounters with nasty Blue Orbs that are said to fly about like angry wasps. When three dogs on the Skinwalker Ranch allegedly disappeared after being menaced by a blue orb, "The rancher" [Terry Sherman] came upon "three black greasy lumps," and "presumed that his three dogs had been incinerated" (p. 76). <br /></p></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There is much more about the Spookernatural in <i>Skinwalkers at the Pentagon</i>, but this review is already long enough, and you get the picture. There is no actual evidence of paranormal phenomena presented, only reports. In several cases, we are told that photos or videos of the incredible phenomenon were taken, but somehow the phenomenon erased itself from the device(s). When I hear such an account, I say to myself, "this story is completely fabricated." But the authors seem to believe such accounts. <p>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /><br />Related to the above is is this very interesting Podcast by Steven Greenstreet of the <i>New York Post</i>. I seldom watch or listen to any podcasts, since I can read an author's article in just a few minutes, while their podcast requires thirty minutes or more. But this one is worth watching. First he tells the AATIP story as it's usually told (and I'm thinking "that isn't right). Then he says that all of that is wrong, and presents the actual history, as documented in <i>Skinwalkers at the Pentagon</i>. Strictly speaking, the book does not discuss "werewolves," but to apply that term to reports of a bipedal, wolf-like creature seems pretty appropriate. Likewise, the book does not discuss "ghosts," but does discuss "discarnate voices."<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XD4gQS_-qY" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="197" data-original-width="359" height="352" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXiwqkqPaM8542cSdgde_ZIvj570CqxvQzYKwcp8S2Ygh5zK2FW0YWbkYHs9d9lbTAMgzeQEtQyjY96iMI0moj-Stz-2gzZLKPoDnWMmtOXPpN_ReIkac5akN7HkeDkq-21Sl9Sy87o-8KcDUNz3oZc6QbabhcikAOPsuGmd_v4D8uLiL9AZpbiU_7Fw/w640-h352/Clipboard01.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XD4gQS_-qY" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: small;">NEW! UFOs, Werewolves & Ghosts | Shocking truth of Pentagon AAWSAP program</span></a></td></tr></tbody></table> <p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Greenstreet pays careful attention to inconsistencies and contradictions of the AATIP narrative, which few have noted. One very important point made by Greenstreet is where he quotes Leslie Kean, prime mover behind the highly influential Fake News stories about AATIP in the <i>New York Times</i>, explaining that she did not mention that ghosts, werewolves, etc. were being studied because "the angle I was taking in my reporting was to try to get credibility for the subject." So she admits that she was writing not as a journalist, but as an advocate. The <i>New York Times</i> has yet to correct or retract any of the articles she wrote, which deliberately misrepresent the Pentagon's UFO investigation program. <br /></p><div style="text-align: justify;">I love it! <i>The New York Post</i> is taking the <i>New York Times</i> to the woodshed over its fake news reporting, not long after the <i>New York Times</i> dismissed the <i>New York Post</i>'s explosive Hunter Biden laptop story as Fake News (now sheepishly admitted to be genuine). I'm thinking that perhaps the <i>New York Post</i> is becoming the new 'Newspaper of Record!'<br /></div><div><div><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p></div></div></div>Robert Sheafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324537021429419111noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8104600450225406597.post-76097852996385537372022-06-23T15:37:00.000-07:002022-06-23T15:37:02.687-07:00Meet the Face of the Pentagon's "UAP Task Force" - Dr. Travis Taylor!<p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">For some time now we have been hearing about the Pentagon's Task Force to investigate UAPs/UFOs. We didn't know who any of them were, but honestly we were not impressed by their investigative skills. They apparently were fooled by a Mylar balloon photographed by a pilot, <a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2020/12/disclosure-strikes-again.html" target="_blank">described as an âextremely clearâ photograph of an unidentifiable triangular aircraft (but looking very much like a Batman party balloon</a>). They did not understand that <a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2021/04/the-navys-triangle-bokeh-ufo-video.html" target="_blank">the 'triangle shaped objects' supposedly swarming US Navy ships were just out-of-focus images of an airplane, stars, and the planet Jupiter</a>. And the Task Force apparently made little or no effort to seriously investigate <a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2018/03/to-stars-releases-another-video-and.html" target="_blank">the original Pentagon "big three" UAP videos</a>, about which <a href="https://www.metabunk.org/home/" target="_blank">there is a great deal of analysis on Metabunk and elsewhere, </a>suggesting they are prosaic objects. If the UAP Task Force believed that the object in the "go fast" video was actually "going fast," then they didn't understand simple geometry.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">But on June 21, the UFO reporter with the mostest, George Knapp of KLAS-TV in Las Vegas,<a href="https://www.8newsnow.com/i-team/i-team-ufo-scientist-speaks-publicly-for-the-first-time-on-decades-of-work/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> revealed one of the members of that task force to be none other than Dr. Travis Taylor</a>: "Physicist reveals heâs a UFO hunter for the Pentagon".</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>Television viewers know astrophysicist Dr. Travis Taylor as an intrepid investigator of UFOs and the paranormal at Skinwalker Ranch and on other History Channel programs. Only a handful of people in the world knew that Taylor was leading a double life, secretly working as the chief scientist for the Pentagonâs UAP Task Force. </blockquote></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>âI would say other than the people who already knew on the task force, youâre the first person to figure it out, George,â Taylor said. <br /><br />As a scientific prodigy, Taylor earned advanced degrees at a young age and has spent his entire adult life working on classified projects, first for the U.S. Army, then for defense contractors. He wrote a book about how the U.S. government should prepare for alien contact which caught the attention of Jay Stratton, a high-ranking intelligence official who has been involved with each of the Pentagonâs Secretive UFO investigations including AAWSAP, the largest UFO program of all, managed by the Defense Intelligence Agency, based at Bigelow Aerospace in Las Vegas, funded with $22 million secured by late U.S. Sen. Harry Reid. Stratton worked with AAWSAP, then its successor program AATIP. Later, he took charge of a third effort, the UAP Task Force, long before Congress formally created that team. </blockquote></div><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk01C1kiuSP7J7tNe5p_QX6zSfw27Nny2_tGMqwgkcdEEWrK4r1p76GXfiXIu_OO0VJl8r5V8_RXXoAf5z9sjxYwrNnhcIqMYxS3u1TbxBXzqHNaGV-yS9VPswfD2-_O7aTmSuVb90acHEncyR5Ctwm5vsJvQtI9x1Cj5DhBtyLpHywRlfsgGlvp9j4Q/s1920/TravisTaylorOakIsland.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk01C1kiuSP7J7tNe5p_QX6zSfw27Nny2_tGMqwgkcdEEWrK4r1p76GXfiXIu_OO0VJl8r5V8_RXXoAf5z9sjxYwrNnhcIqMYxS3u1TbxBXzqHNaGV-yS9VPswfD2-_O7aTmSuVb90acHEncyR5Ctwm5vsJvQtI9x1Cj5DhBtyLpHywRlfsgGlvp9j4Q/w640-h360/TravisTaylorOakIsland.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Dr. Travis Taylor uses his knowledge of astronomy to help seekers of buried treasure (so far unsuccessfully).</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;">So now we know the names of two members of the UAP Task Force - Jay Stratton and Travis Taylor. <a href="https://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/travis-taylor-admits-to-being-a-paid-government-ufo-researcher" target="_blank">Blogger Jason Colavito wasted no time in responding:</a></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>Travis Taylor Admits to Being a Paid Government UFO Researcher... While serving in this capacity, Taylor appeared on CBS Sunday Morning in 2021 to analyze UFO videos and comment on the imminent UFO report without disclosing to CBS or to the audience that he was a paid government UFO researcher working on that very report. He has appeared since then on both <i>Ancient Aliens</i> and <i>The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch</i> to analyze and research UFOs without disclosing to the audience that he served as a paid government analyst of the same material he discussed on the History channel as an âindependentâ analyst. Taylor also works for a defense contractor analyzing UFOs for the federal government. Taylor and his former UAPTF boss both now work for the same contractor.<br /><br />The shocking lack of ethics astonishes even me, as does the incestuous relationship between government UFO âresearchâ and cable TV UFO media. This is the second time a star of a History channel show âinvestigatingâ UFOs admitted to also serving as a paid government UFO researcher. Lue Elizondoâs lawyer, Danny Sheehan, recently admitted that Elizondo has been the lead UFO analyst for Space Command, during a period when he presented himself in the mediaâincluding on 60 Minutes as well as his History channel show Unidentifiedâas an independent ex-government analyst...<br /><br />We should all be disgusted that the Pentagon and Congress continue to patronize the same crew of lying spooks and kooks orbiting Skinwalker Ranchâpeople who have turned up no evidence of aliens or space ghosts after decades of taxpayer-subsidized research, people who frequent shows claiming racist space aliens had sex with prehistoric women, people who grift across UFO conferences and media, people who have no compunction about lying to the public while collecting media and government checks. Itâs corrupt, and bright red line that should never be crossed.</blockquote></div><p style="text-align: justify;">Dr. Taylor is a big star on the "History" channel (I use parentheses because that channel no longer presents shows about actual history, but instead promotes far-out claims.) <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3_lzzoUVk4" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">He appeared on <i>The Curse Of Oak Island</i> (Episode "Rock Solid," Season 6) </a>to suggest that a constellation map superimposed over Oak Island yields the location of buried treasure of the Knights Templar. (Those avid treasure hunters have now been searching Oak Island for eight seasons, but have yet to find the treasure.)</p><p></p><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Dr. Taylor is a regular guest on <i>The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch</i>, where (among other feats) <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NE4L8NhCkto" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">he devised a "startling experiment" that "proves alien civilization." </a>(How it proves that is not explained.)<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKGsqld4pAq5RLjCmPnJOzBuFnFRSzg0JElcB-TKWJ8q7vRjkxhpLI6Hvi_zU1bzOaI7MqHQkzi6yuz9I5ZZ70sANfeXOlT2SZy-w4UmOAISIunr3VkideEbAwTlZEBJqynhmDdEEebG1bmbG8wykV1ISsbiE7DuDLpDxHAyO0xCW7kvAXZnWP_fbgZA/s1885/TravisTaylorSkinwalkerRanch.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1064" data-original-width="1885" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKGsqld4pAq5RLjCmPnJOzBuFnFRSzg0JElcB-TKWJ8q7vRjkxhpLI6Hvi_zU1bzOaI7MqHQkzi6yuz9I5ZZ70sANfeXOlT2SZy-w4UmOAISIunr3VkideEbAwTlZEBJqynhmDdEEebG1bmbG8wykV1ISsbiE7DuDLpDxHAyO0xCW7kvAXZnWP_fbgZA/w640-h362/TravisTaylorSkinwalkerRanch.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;">He has even appeared on Ancient Aliens, where <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpKIj4-bmt0" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">he teamed up with Giorgio Tsoukalos to test the flight characteristics of a model aircraft made from descriptions of sky vehicles called "Vimanas"</a> in ancient Hindu texts. They found that it's a good aerodynamic design!<br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcHAqdqbCU1PoGWwsxcFGhSH1Rvb-VUyie-nxhunXjtn2jDZRAkVgC7G0aR80DqEe_0z7VNroTh6TpYgYR2umCM75AVKaMdcp5kM3ZnKjKCkU8FrTkQeWb2JrMSrsKOY86saUrdwK7ns_SH1oU0uC5x7Oiy2J-9NjAGI2VXJ8H_VLpxhtd5KZT_3KlOw/s1342/TravisTaylorAncientAliens2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="901" data-original-width="1342" height="430" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcHAqdqbCU1PoGWwsxcFGhSH1Rvb-VUyie-nxhunXjtn2jDZRAkVgC7G0aR80DqEe_0z7VNroTh6TpYgYR2umCM75AVKaMdcp5kM3ZnKjKCkU8FrTkQeWb2JrMSrsKOY86saUrdwK7ns_SH1oU0uC5x7Oiy2J-9NjAGI2VXJ8H_VLpxhtd5KZT_3KlOw/w640-h430/TravisTaylorAncientAliens2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><span style="font-size: small;">Travis Taylor and Giorgio Tsoukalos check out a supposed aircraft design from ancient aliens</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Dr Taylor told George Knapp,</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>One of the primary jobs of the task force was to write a report to Congress summarizing the known evidence about UFOs. The team had already created a classified briefing consisting of the most intriguing military encounters, starting with the 2004 Tic Tac incident. The task force whittled down a huge database into 144 of the very best cases. Dr. Taylor helped write the final report.<br /><br />âWe picked sources that were, we knew had a chain of custody of the data,â Taylor said. âAnd out of those 144 to 143 of them, we still couldnât figure out what they were, where they came from and what their intent was.â</blockquote></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">I'm starting to see why the Task Force was so unsuccessful in identifying its UAPs! </p><p><br /></p><p></p>Robert Sheafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324537021429419111noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8104600450225406597.post-67654665044023868402022-05-18T11:41:00.000-07:002022-05-18T11:41:47.615-07:00"UAPs" Baffle Congress (and the DOD)<p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;">So, Tuesday, May 17 was the day that the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence held its hearings. This is the first public Congressional hearing about UFOs since 1968. <a href="https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/congress-holds-historic-open-hearing-on-ufos-5-17-22-transcript" target="_blank">You can read the transcript of the hearing</a> here. <a href="https://www.the-sun.com/news/5356929/us-wreckage-ufos-truth-congressman/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Some sources were promising dramatic revelations</a>. </p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;">Rep. Tim Burchett - a long term advocate for disclosure - told The Sun Online he has been informed by reliable sources that "material" has been recovered from the objects or craft that have been reported in skies over the US. The Tennessee Republican declined to elaborate further as he said the information had been passed to him in a "classified setting". "I've been told by multiple sources we have recovered something from these [crafts or objects]," Mr Burchett told The Sun Online.<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">But there were none. No secrets were "disclosed" - in fact, we heard from <a href="https://atlantacir.org/event-4533477" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Scott Bray, Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence</a>, that<i><b> the government has no evidence of ET visitations, and does not possess any wreckage, or biological remains</b></i> from supposed UAPs. He talked about 'range incursions,' i.e. supposed intrusions into military training areas by objects that don't belong there.<a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-pentagons-aatip-program-and-range.html" target="_blank"> I have written about this earlier.</a> It seems that the Navy only cares about unidentified objects supposedly entering their own private sandbox. If unidentified objects turn up elsewhere, the Navy apparently doesn't care. Actually, since the Tic Tac and the Gimble UAP videos probably show distant jets, we don't know how far away they are, and thus, whether or not they are actually inside the military training area. Maybe it would be better to speak of unidentified objects sighted from within such training areas, without making the assumption that such objects are actually inside the area.<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The hearing was, on the whole, rather dull. As you might expect, much of it was taken up with bureaucratic talk. Everyone promised that their investigations would be objective and scientific, and that they would reveal everything they have, except for information that might compromise intelligence sources or methods. All of which means nothing, because they could not get away with saying anything else! đ There was much talk about sensors and databases and such, as if such things have ever produced useful information about any UFO case. <br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;">UFO researcher Martin Kottmeyer noted on Facebook,</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzMTCQ5OLsGZr2TMO80sPzCtkPU9LNWvt_b0tKduqpx-2jTRPhryOBJjGbuc6wzqHltmPqiYiAP7Iphxuk2CZgDig7HEt_XMubt4D9-tsdC8xVIkwAJpMlMtlQ9ruTu46UrBiXsyz-lAQOB0dsLGeY0DYJ9F51ku0qI6A_tYKm2CNNgPsplUxJKOVUwQ/s572/Video1_UAP_2021_2.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="407" data-original-width="572" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzMTCQ5OLsGZr2TMO80sPzCtkPU9LNWvt_b0tKduqpx-2jTRPhryOBJjGbuc6wzqHltmPqiYiAP7Iphxuk2CZgDig7HEt_XMubt4D9-tsdC8xVIkwAJpMlMtlQ9ruTu46UrBiXsyz-lAQOB0dsLGeY0DYJ9F51ku0qI6A_tYKm2CNNgPsplUxJKOVUwQ/w400-h285/Video1_UAP_2021_2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Video 1 UAP 2021, the best UAP evidence that Naval <br />Intelligence has! Aren't you impressed???
</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><blockquote>Just a quick note to say I watched the UAP hearing held this morning. It was pretty droll stuff, but I did find incredibly amusing a five minute or so segment where a very short UAP clip was presented via a lap-top and it was obvious that people were having trouble finding the UAP in it. Eventually someone is able to stop it in the right place to see a small streak of light flitting past the plane.</blockquote><blockquote><div style="margin-left: 40px;">75 years of ufo mystery and we are still having to endure looking at blobs and specks of light like they prove anything.</div></blockquote></div><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Indeed. The object in their "Video 1 UAP 2021" was so insignificant and difficult to see that it had to be played over and over several times before the object <i><b>was even seen</b></i>. When finally it was caught in a freeze frame, it was just a tiny round object with no details. Very likely this was just a balloon that the aircraft flew past at a high rate of speed. <b><i>They show this as some of their best evidence, and we are supposed not to laugh?</i></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><i> </i></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Then Bray showed two videos "taken through night vision 'goggles,' with a single lens reflex camera." I was trying to envision how you attach a single lens reflex camera to night vision goggles, and finally concluded that you don't. I think he means, this was taken with a camera held up to the eyepiece of the goggles. High tech!!! The objects, he says, "remain unsolved." At least he seemed to realize that the triangular shape of the objects was an artifact of the camera diaphragm ("Bokeh," to be exact). But the objects themselves are, he said, unidentified. <br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Unidentified? <a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2021/04/the-navys-triangle-bokeh-ufo-video.html" target="_blank">On April 13, 2021 some dude calling himself Dylan the Villain posted this image on Twitter, identifying the objects seen at the start of the now-famous IR video as Jupiter, and several stars in Scorpius</a>. Mick West took the matter further, identifying more stars seen later in the video. As a longtime active amateur astronomer, I've checked this over, and it is indeed correct. Somehow this analysis was too difficult for Naval Intelligence to perform, it had to be left to civilian investigators on Twitter and Metabunk. Perhaps you recall the old joke about "military intelligence" being a contradiction in terms. Well, Naval Intelligence is proving that sometimes the "joke" is really truth.<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><br /></i></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ey4XJH3UYAAGhU8?format=jpg&name=large" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="522" height="800" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ey4XJH3UYAAGhU8?format=jpg&name=large" width="522" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Dylan the Villain posted this on Twitter, identifying the objects seen at the start of the video as Jupiter, and several stars in Scorpius. Apparently this was too difficult for Naval Intelligence to figure out.</span><b><i></i></b></td></tr></tbody></table></div><b><i></i></b><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Rep. Rick Crawford (Republican from Arkansas) sort of staked out his position as the skeptic on the committee. He began by saying that he is more concerned about studying Chinese and Russian hypersonic weapons than UAPs. But since studying UAP reports might yield information on such weapons, "I am on board. The intelligence community has a serious duty to our taxpayers to prevent potential adversaries such as China and Russia from surprising us with unforeseen new technologies." Later in the hearing, Crawford remarked to <a href="https://www.defense.gov/About/Biographies/Biography/Article/2764848/ronald-s-moultrie/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ronald S. Moultrie, Under Secretary of Defense Intelligence & Security (USDI&S)</a> that the resolution and details of the UAP images we've been shown are simply terrible. We are "calibrating" our sensors, Moultrie replied.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">What was perhaps the most distressing moment of the entire hearing was toward the end, when Darin LaHood (Republican from Illinois) asked, what are the consequences for individuals and groups who put out false information about UAPs? Moultrie replied that nobody has thus far been held legally accountable. What is the deterrent for such individuals for Disinformation or Misinformation? I don't know, Moultrie replied, Congress needs to decide this.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">In other words, some people are eager to have Biden's new Ministry of Truth adjudicate, censor, and perhaps punish, those promoting "false information" about UFOs. Now, I have been debunking "misinformation" about UFOs for many years, but <i><b>this is one of the worst ideas I heave ever heard on that subject</b></i>. Of course, much of what is said about UFOs by prominent UFOlogists is pure "misinformation," but I am terrified at the thought of some government agency deciding what is true and what isn't, and punishing offenders. I mean, Steven Greer and Corey Goode would be serving life sentences. This is the land of the free (or at least it used to be), and the idea of the government policing discourse, deciding what can be freely said and what cannot, would establish a full-blown political tyranny, where disagreeing with our rulers is punishable, just as in the days of the Divine Right of Kings. Liberals used to say, I might disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. Today's liberals say, if I disagree with what you say, you must be silenced, and maybe even punished. Be afraid, be very afraid.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">For those interested to compare today's Congressional hearing with the one 54 years ago,<a href="http://nicap.org/books/1968Sym/1968_UFO_Symposium.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> the full record of the 1968 hearings is on-line here</a>. The format was quite different from what we are seeing now. An impressive-looking list of 'UFO experts' was assembled to tell the U.S. House Committee on Science and Astronautics that UFOs are something very important, and need to be studied.<br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiobx-K0sjzHZfHIrP87qqXOhVUS-P0jCm2avX4fpmaHytcDBHnXZm1bBFH9qnjgx6f0Gos2gD22DULgjwWhbGpVuHCdmtRg3jezL77zMucs4LrbxL4XuMSxImo9cqbJi3jF7RHtpNqSHsqgOHKLfQm8G056S6cReBUs_5GcRiVDoOFzWq4yCxDA8ABsw/s846/1968_ExpertSpeakers.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="846" data-original-width="798" height="681" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiobx-K0sjzHZfHIrP87qqXOhVUS-P0jCm2avX4fpmaHytcDBHnXZm1bBFH9qnjgx6f0Gos2gD22DULgjwWhbGpVuHCdmtRg3jezL77zMucs4LrbxL4XuMSxImo9cqbJi3jF7RHtpNqSHsqgOHKLfQm8G056S6cReBUs_5GcRiVDoOFzWq4yCxDA8ABsw/w643-h681/1968_ExpertSpeakers.jpg" width="643" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">List of UFO experts who testified in the 1968 Congressional Hearings</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;">Seeing Carl Sagan among the speakers, you might think that he was invited as a 'token skeptic.' Alas, it is not so. In his testimony to the 1968 hearings, Carl Sagan said: </p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>I might mention that, on this symposium, there are no individuals who strongly disbelieve in the extraterrestrial origin of UFO's and therefore there is a certain view, not necessarily one I strongly agree with -- but there is a certain view this committee is not hearing today, along those lines.</blockquote></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">In other words, Sagan was saying that there were no strong skeptics on that panel. (Donald Menzel was solidly skeptical, but while he submitted a paper, he was not on the panel.) Since Sagan was himself on the panel, it's obvious that Sagan did not himself "strongly disbelieve" in the ETH at this time. </p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;">I do not think the evidence is at all persuasive, that UFO's are of intelligent extraterrestrial origin, nor do I think the evidence is convincing that no UFO's are of intelligent extraterrestrial origin. I think as each of the preceding speakers has mentioned, but perhaps not sufficiently emphasized, that the question is very much an open one, and it is certainly too soon to harden attitudes and make any permanent contentions on the subject. <br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">That sounds like something written by Marcello Truzzi! Klass referred to Sagan's ET ambiguity several times in private correspondence. Klass suggested that Sagan would say anything he thought would help to get his SETI funded. He didn't trust Sagan, as many others did not, in part because Sagan was blaming the Cold War and the arms race on US nuclear weapons policies (but not on Soviet ones). Sagan seemed to be rooting for the 'other side.' </p>Robert Sheafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324537021429419111noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8104600450225406597.post-68871243561902106872022-04-16T14:07:00.005-07:002022-04-16T21:32:09.290-07:00Pentagon UFO Papers - More Releases, More Confusion<p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">So by now probably everyone has heard about <a href="https://www.blueblurrylines.com/2022/" target="_blank">the latest round of UFO-related documents released by the Pentagon</a> via FOIA. And do they sound exciting, if the headlines are to be believed.<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10688573/Pentagon-says-UFOs-left-people-radiation-burns-brain-damage-time-suspension.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The tabloid Daily Mail reported,</a> "UFOs sightings have left witnesses with radiation burns, brain damage and 'perceived time suspension', according to interviews in newly released Pentagon report from 2010". Luis Elizondo, whose claims of having led the Pentagon's AATIP UFO investigation program are not supported by any documentary evidence, is said to have<a href="https://unknownboundaries.com/former-aatip-director-confirms-to-tucker-carlson-that-ufos-have-caused-harm-to-humans/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> "confirmed" to Tucker Carlson on Fox news that UFOs have "caused harm" to humans</a>. Even more surprisingly,<br /></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote><a href="https://unknownboundaries.com/former-aatip-director-tells-of-ufos-bringing-aircraft-carrier-offline-and-causing-positive-brain-changes" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The<i> second game-changing reveal</i> Mr. Elizondo shared</a> was shared during a discussion about how some pilots and other individuals who had come in close contact with UFOs had some <i>negative</i> brain damage and radiation burns. It was then that Mr. Elizondo pointed out that while this was indeed the case, <i>there were also cases where exposed individuals had positive effects from the close contact with UFOs</i>. <br /><br />Mr. Elizondo then said some of these individuals suddenly developed artistic abilities, such as being able to "play the piano," even though they never had a lesson. Some of them also developed Extra Sensory Perception (ESP) skills, he said</blockquote><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHkWfw1Eqc5wTOqd6J5qUOIOajdPFSNoM_RVL7VYjUjTXLKNFNE9tR8P7FHZ8mzCjPOm8RUkk4QdsC-s9N75Ymb3mkDp82UY0gReHnZW00KH9ZvE8mplrCuB58cSfdYc3p_EhOVL1TpaneD7t686I2ZtkAoksLLocS6F0g5zxJngkoDZC5wMnG7G-cZQ/s672/Clipboard01.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="560" data-original-width="672" height="534" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHkWfw1Eqc5wTOqd6J5qUOIOajdPFSNoM_RVL7VYjUjTXLKNFNE9tR8P7FHZ8mzCjPOm8RUkk4QdsC-s9N75Ymb3mkDp82UY0gReHnZW00KH9ZvE8mplrCuB58cSfdYc3p_EhOVL1TpaneD7t686I2ZtkAoksLLocS6F0g5zxJngkoDZC5wMnG7G-cZQ/w640-h534/Clipboard01.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;">Even <a href="https://www.space.com/ufo-report-human-biological-injuries" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">the normally-reliable <i>Space.com</i> wrote</a> </p></div><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><blockquote>Encounters with UFOs have reportedly left Americans suffering from radiation burns, brain and nervous system damage, and even "unaccounted for pregnancy," according to a massive database of U.S. government reports recently made public through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.</blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">citing as their authority <i>The Sun</i>.<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Well, that's not accurate. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Claims of physical effects following alleged UFO encounters are discussed in just one of the AAWSAP papers. Jack Brewer recently wrote a long posting for his Blog <a href="https://ufotrail.blogspot.com/2022/04/the-ufo-injury-study-that-wasnt.html" target="_blank"><i>The UFO Trail</i> titled "The UFO Injury Study that Wasn't</a>." In it he writes,</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>Dr. Christopher "Kit" Green is well known among those with an eye to the UFO genre for reasons including his work with the CIA and corporations controlled by Robert Bigelow. In approximately 2010 he provided a paper to Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies for inclusion in the Advanced Aerospace Weapon Systems Application Program. The AAWSAP contract was awarded to BAASS by the Defense Intelligence Agency. Green's paper, one of some 38 collected by BAASS at the time, is titled Anomalous Acute and Subacute Field Effects on Human Biological Tissues. </blockquote></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>The paper attempts to summarize evidence of injury to human observers by "anomalous advanced aerospace systems," and argues the possibility such systems can be reverse engineered through clinical diagnosis of the injured observers. The paper was recently included among a batch of documents released by the DIA in response to FOIA requests but is not entirely new to those closely following the saga. <br /><br />The newfound attention propelled the paper to be mischaracterized rather far and wide, misrepresented as portraying DIA official conclusions that people were seriously injured during otherworldly UFO encounters. In actuality, the paper was authored by a consultant who unequivocally stated during the April 6 phone call he absolutely believes the cases he studied are indicative of human technology.</blockquote></div><div style="text-align: justify;">
So, according to the author of that paper, even if the reported physiological effects following a supposed UFO encounter are indeed accurate and relevant, they are the result of human technology, not of aliens. And remember that correlation does not imply causation. Also remember that <a href="https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2019/12/close-encounters-of-the-healing-kind/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">such claims have been circulating in UFOlogy for many years</a>,
reported by Jacques Vallee and many others. In one such case (the
"Doctor X" case), a war veteran's serious wounds allegedly were
immediately healed after he was struck by a beam of light from a UFO. But extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof, which clearly is lacking here.<br /></div><div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Then there are accounts of an "unexpected pregnancy," "gynecological problems," or a woman's "missing pregnancy," after a UFO abduction. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4oUI5ANtRHjTpzLam7CWL41tcsMVRUdIvpuGidpUvuEzom6H88eh8TDIPqGDNgLHmpriJ29dKON5SEchrED6vx6WZ9aVgA5Y9mqcVLDf-4QDtZBtJ96rZg6VULBLPfz23AiOh0ISp_ttetf8t1grnckD756n_2bpDjDJNhYWUCrDxH0T4v7AKv6ukgA/s600/278315893_3171633509745558_7379014006813203920_n.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="363" data-original-width="600" height="389" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4oUI5ANtRHjTpzLam7CWL41tcsMVRUdIvpuGidpUvuEzom6H88eh8TDIPqGDNgLHmpriJ29dKON5SEchrED6vx6WZ9aVgA5Y9mqcVLDf-4QDtZBtJ96rZg6VULBLPfz23AiOh0ISp_ttetf8t1grnckD756n_2bpDjDJNhYWUCrDxH0T4v7AKv6ukgA/w640-h389/278315893_3171633509745558_7379014006813203920_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKQDuOq3P0b4Gpjvi2Pypw6y-wZ1tYBc3VJXbRGhKTSSCq2zQP8LSzELbwpuRK_b2rL6EqgRYP6Pi5c4lC0L69QIAolvZC3lFPf5Tb00jStjlZX3MfGVEpDOGwykH5eDU2BGhOjb1shms0W10UnULKa4S3VcKmTvl09dIyCxEVEOz6n42F5Tun0gI5Lg/s598/278110925_3171633946412181_5247167919909914633_n.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="598" height="578" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKQDuOq3P0b4Gpjvi2Pypw6y-wZ1tYBc3VJXbRGhKTSSCq2zQP8LSzELbwpuRK_b2rL6EqgRYP6Pi5c4lC0L69QIAolvZC3lFPf5Tb00jStjlZX3MfGVEpDOGwykH5eDU2BGhOjb1shms0W10UnULKa4S3VcKmTvl09dIyCxEVEOz6n42F5Tun0gI5Lg/w640-h578/278110925_3171633946412181_5247167919909914633_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Marty Kottmeyer dug up these references for one of Dr. Green's 'unexplained pregnancy' cases.</span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The veteran Canadian UFO researcher Chris Rutkowski wrote on the Facebook group "UFO Updates" (April 11), "It's pretty sad, yes, that a wild claim by a Canadian contactee made it into a US government report without vetting of any kind. It makes you wonder if other "data" in the Pentagon reports are similar." Indeed. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">And while we're on the subject, we should note that <a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2021/08/the-case-of-missing-fetus-starring.html" target="_blank">Travis Walton has also reported the UFO abduction-related "missing pregnancy" of his (unnamed) girlfriend</a>.<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Then there is the matter of, what exactly did the Pentagon get for the $22 million that it gave to Bigelow Advanced Aerospace in accordance with AAWSAP? For some time, the only known output of<a href="https://ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com/2019/01/back-to-those-38-defense-intelligence.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> the program was the 38 papers on weird science</a> (known as DIRDs, "Defense Information Research Documents"), with subjects like "warp drives" and "positron propulsion." But wait - now there's more!<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>NEWSTALK BREAKFAST [Ireland], April 1, 2022.<br /><a href="https://www.newstalk.com/news/meet-the-irishman-who-headed-up-the-pentagon-search-for-ufos-1327563" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Colm Kelleher is interviewed: "Meet the Irishman who headed up The Pentagon search for UFOs"</a>. Kelleher worked on the Bigelow side of the $22 million AAWSAP contract.<br />https://www.newstalk.com/news/meet-the-irishman-who-headed-up-the-pentagon-search-for-ufos-1327563<br />"And by the end of the two-year programme, which the Defence Intelligence Agency funded, for $22m we had submitted 104 separate technical reports on UFOs." <br /></blockquote>If there were only 38 papers funded by the DIA under AAWSAP, I asked, what about the other 66 papers we hadn't heard about?
Researcher Curt Collins pointed out that the recently-published book <i> Skinwalkers at the Pentagon: An Insiders' Account of the Secret Government UFO Program</i> by James Lacatski, Colm Kelleher, and George Knapp,<a href="https://read.amazon.com/kp/kshare?asin=B09J484KYD&id=gfkoqo44irhwfg6hj46ipbugru&reshareId=G3CQQDK56FHTNERGAR3N&reshareChannel=system" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> contains an appendix listing a jumble of papers supposedly representing all of AAWSAP's output</a>, all thrown together in a way that makes them almost impossible to read or analyze. I took the liberty of inserting numbers and formatting characters into this list (below). All 38 of the DIRDs are included, and are so labelled. Here we see 106 items, not 104. Which brings up the question: When can we see the still-unreleased 68 remaining items?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Another thing that turned up in the recent documents: <a href="https://www.blueblurrylines.com/2022/" target="_blank">As Curt Collins observes</a>, </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>The disclosure finally makes it clear that the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Application Program (AAWSAP) and the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) were the same entity. AATIP was the âUnclassified Nicknameâ used by Senator Harry Reid when asking for Special Access Program status and funding for the project.</blockquote></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Perhaps, but it is difficult to reconcile this with certain previous statements by Lacatski, who we know headed up AAWSAP. <a href="https://www.ufojoe.net/c2c-transcript-lacatski/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">He said,</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>But there was a difference between the two programs [mine and Elizondo's]. Ours [AAWSAP] had $22 million dollars in funding, his [AATIP] had zero. Ours looked at military and civilian investigations, his looked at military exclusively. And we had, of course, contractor and subcontractor support. He had no contractor support. But he did his thing, we did ours. But I can say that in direct answer to your question, we were the only game in town, I would say from 2008 through 2012</blockquote>So far as I am aware, Elizondo has never disputed this statement, and has had only praise for Lacatski. So how to reconcile the question of comparing AAWSAP and AATIP? <br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div><div><hr />
Appendix I <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09J484KYD?ref_=k4w_ss_store_lp" rel="nofollow" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="318" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9Bc3hgIQZmrrEcTxLyfHMltN4ZOOwbO7Vk8Y5anDyYZ2KHGqgL0BeZkwaeXjYs4vwkfHkgRM6MEJr9HkT2grM93XG8y6L1Su370UraoUg13jjEOETkR9k3iFr1jQnamlaNZHsWxfF-ZXZnFUfp_Y7DyckfHxIIf8fzKcHoVjqonwbLX_IZbR63FggjA/w255-h400/41jsbkfDImL.jpg" width="255" /></a></div><br /> 1. AAWSAP Contract Information AAWSAP Solicitation HHM402-08-R-0211, DIA, 18 August 2008 (39 pages) BAASS Proposal Volumes I, II, III, BAASS, 8 September 2008 (53 pages)<br /><br /> 2. AAWSAP Contract HHM402-08-C-0072, DIA, 22 September 2008 (5 pages) <br /><br /> 3. AAWSAP Contract HHM402-08-C-0072 Modification P00001-Option Year 1, DIA, 2 September 2009 (3 pages) <br /><br /> 4. AAWSAP Contract HHM402-08-C-0072 Modification P00002âOption Year 1, DIA, 2 February 2010 (6 pages) <br /><br /> 5. AAWSAP Contract HHM402-08-C-0072 Modification P00005âExtension, DIA, 28 September 2010 (4 pages) <br /><br /> 6. AAWSAP Contract HHM402-08-C-0072 Closeout-Completion 20 December 2010, U-0384, DIA, 3 June 2011 (2 pages) <br /><br /> 7. AAWSAP Designation of Contracting Officerâs Representative, U-988-08/ AE-2D, DIA, 20 October 2008 AAWSAP Contract HHM402-08-C-0072 Facility Clearance-BAASS, DSS, 4 March 2009 (11 pages) <br /><br /> 8. AAWSAP Special Access Program Request LetterâSenator Harry Reid (Majority Leader) to William Lynn III (Deputy Secretary of Defense), 24 June 2009 (4 pages) <br /><br /> 9. AAWSAP Production BAASS September 21âOctober 31 2008 Report: Facilities, Recruiting, Subcontracts (7 pages) <br /><br /> 10. AAWSAP Technical Studies 1-12 ApproachesâEarthTech, November 2008 (125 pages) <br /><br /> 11. AAWSAP Technical Studies 1-12 ApproachesâMUFON, November 2008 (26 pages) <br /><br /> 12. BAASS November 2008 Monthly Report: Facilities, Recruiting, Clearances, Project Management Plan, and Acquisition of UAP Databases (9 pages) <br /><br /> 13. BAASS Project Management Plan (Overview), 2 December 2008 (49 pages) <br /><br /> 14. AAWSAP Technical Studies 1-12 Approaches-John Schuessler, 23 October 2008â5 December 2008 (164 pages) <br /><br /> 15. AAWSAP CAPELLA Data Warehouse Development PlanâJacques Vallee, 10 December 2008 (42 pages) <br /><br /> 16. BAASS December 2008 Monthly Report: Recruiting, Clearances, Acquisition of UAP Databases (8 pages) <br /><br /> 17. BAASS January 2009 Monthly Report: Recruiting, Clearances, Development of UAP Databases, Project Northern Tier, UAP Files at Los Alamos and DIA (13 pages) <br /><br /> 18. BAASS February 2009 Monthly Report: Recruiting, Clearances, Development of UAP Databases, UAP Files at Los Alamos, EarthTech Contract, Reporting from FAA, and British, Canadian, and Danish Governments UAP Reports Assessment (19 pages) <br /><br /> 19. BAASS March 2009 Monthly Report: Recruiting, Clearances, Development of UAP Databases, EarthTech Contract, Reporting from FAA, MUFON Contract, The UFO Assault on Brazil with its Epicenter at Colares (1977-2003) by John Schuessler, and British, Canadian, and Danish Governments UAP Reports Assessment (42 pages) <br /><br /> 20. Unmanned Autonomous Surveillance PlatformâPrototype Design, BAASS, 6 April 2009 (7 pages) <br /><br /> 21. RAF Lakenheath F-15C Investigation, BAASS, 21 April 2009 (15 pages) <br /><br /> 22. BAASS April 2009 Monthly Report: Recruiting, Clearances, EarthTech Contract, MUFON Contract, Project Northern Tier, and British, Canadian, French, and Danish Governments UAP Reports Assessment (50 pages) <br /><br /> 23. Tic Tac (Nimitz Carrier Strike Group) Investigation, BAASS, 7 January 2009â18 May 2009 (28 pages) <br /><br /> 24. BAASS May 2009 Monthly Report: Additional Facilities, Recruiting, EarthTech Contract, MUFON Investigations, Deployment to Brazil, and British, Canadian, French, and Danish Governments UAP Reports Assessment (39 pages) <br /><br /> 25. CAPELLA Data WarehouseâNIDS Database Completion Summary, BAASS, 17 June 2009 (2 pages) <br /><br /> 26. BAASS June 2009 Monthly Report: Additional Facilities, Recruiting, EarthTech Contract, MUFON Investigations, Deployment to Brazil, Project Northern Tier, and British, Canadian, French, and Danish Governments UAP Reports Assessment (134 pages) <br /><br /> 27. Unexplained Aerial Phenomenon / Close EncounterâLagol, CA, BAASS Case #090709-2, 5 July 2009â27 July 2009 (257 pages) <br /><br /> 28. BAASS July 2009 Ten Month Report: BAASS Investigations, Project Physics, Project Engagement, Project Cooperation, Project Blue Book Materials, Project Campus, Project Oral History, Project Database / Analysis Government Files, Project Northern Tier, Project Colares / Brazil, Outreach to South America (530 pages) <br /><br /> 29. BAASS August 2009 Monthly Report: Additional Facilities, Recruiting, MUFON Investigations, Project Northern Tier, Relations with South American Organizations, and Utah Ranch Investigations (129 pages) <br /><br /> 30. BAASS September 2009 Monthly Report: Additional Facilities, Recruiting, MUFON Investigations, Marley Woods Reconnaissance, and Utah Ranch Investigations (146 pages)<br /><br /> 31. BAASS October 2009 Monthly Report: Additional Facilities, Recruiting, MUFON Investigations, and Utah Ranch Investigations (193 pages) <br /><br /> 32. BAASS November 2009 Month Report: MUFON Investigations, Utah Ranch Investigations, and Blue Orb Incident (155 pages) <br /><br /> 33. DIRD 1: Advanced Nuclear Propulsion for Manned Deep Space Missions, Dr. Friedwardt Winterberg, Univ. of Nevada-Reno, 1 December 2009 (37 pages) <br /><br /> 34. Skinwalker Ridge Investigations, BAASS, 31 August 2009â9 December 2009 (141 pages) <br /><br /> 35. DIRD 2: Metallic Glasses: Status and Prospects for Aerospace Applications, Dr. Todd Hufnagel, Johns Hopkins Univ., 14 December 2009 (30 pages) <br /><br /> 36. DIRD 3: Aerospace Applications of Programmable Matter, Dr. Wil McCarthy, Ravenbrick, 14 December 2009 (20 pages) <br /><br /> 37. BAASS December 2009 Monthly Report: MUFON Investigations, Utah Ranch Investigations, and Russian Documents (144 pages) <br /><br /> 38. DIRD 4: Biomaterials, Dr. Bruce Towe, Arizona State Univ., 7 January 2010 (32 pages) <br /><br /> 39. DIRD 5: Materials for Advanced Aerospace Platforms, Dr. J. Williams, Ohio State Univ., 12 January 2010 (27 pages) <br /><br /> 40. DIRD 6: Pulsed High-Power Microwave Source Technology, Dr. James Wells, JW Enterprises, 28 January 2010 (37 pages) <br /><br /> 41. BAASS January 2010 Monthly Report: MUFON Investigations, Utah Ranch Investigations, and Analysis of UAP entering Water using ANSYS Software (108 pages) <br /><br /> 42. Remote Viewing of Utah Ranch by Joe McMoneagle, BAASS, 27 February 2010 (8 pages) <br /><br /> 43. BAASS February 2010 Monthly Report: BAASS-MUFON Relations, Utah Ranch Investigations (71 pages) <br /><br /> 44. Utah Ranch Investigation: August 2009-February 2010, BAASS (360 pages) <br /><br /> 45. DIRD 7: Invisibility Cloaking: Theory and Experiments, Dr. Ulf Leonhardt, Univ. of St. Andrews, 2 March 2010 (29 pages) <br /><br /> 46. DIRD 8: Positron Aerospace Propulsion, Dr. Gerald Smith, Positronics Research, 2 March 2010 (35 pages) <br /><br /> 47. DIRD 9: Space Access: Where Weâve Been . . . and Where We Could Go, Dr. Paul Czysz, HyperTech Concepts, 8 March 2010 (56 pages) <br /><br /> 48. DIRD 10: Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Fusion, Dr. George Miley, Univ. Of Illinois, 10 March 2010 (72 pages) <br /><br /> 49. DIRD 11: Anomalous Acute and Subacute Field Effects on Human Biological Tissues, Dr. Kit Green, Wayne State Univ. School of Medicine, 11 March 2010 (38 pages) <br /><br /> 50. DIRD 12: An Introduction to the Statistical Drake Equation, Dr. Claudio Maccone, International Academy of Astronautics, 11 March 2010 (55 pages) <br /><br /> 51. # 3 BAASS Project Management Plan Addendum Report: UAP SightingsâNiagara Falls, Canada, BAASS Case #200900000108000, 9 October 2009â21 March 2010 (393 pages) <br /><br /> 52. # 4 BAASS Project Management Plan Addendum Report: Paranormal ActivityâTennyson, IN, BAASS Case #20100000018000, 12 March 2010-18 March 2010 (174 pages) <br /><br /> 53. DIRD 13: The Role of Superconductors in Gravity Research, Dr. George Hathaway, Hathaway Consulting Services, 23 March 2010 (16 pages) <br /><br /> 54. DIRD 14: Technological Approaches to Controlling External Devices in the Absence of Limb-Operated Interfaces, Dr. Richard Genik II, Wayne State Univ. School of Medicine, 23 March 2010 (36 pages) <br /><br /> 55. DIRD 15: Metallic Spintronics, Dr. Maxim Tsoi, Univ. of Texas-Austin, 23 March 2010 (27 pages) <br /><br /> 56. DIRD 16: Advanced Space Propulsion Based on Vacuum (Spacetime Metric) Engineering, Dr. Hal Puthoff, EarthTech International, 29 March 2010 (17 pages) <br /><br /> 57. DIRD 17: Antigravity for Aerospace Applications, Dr. Eric Davis, EarthTech International, 30 March 2010 (44 pages) <br /><br /> 58. DIRD 18: Maverick Inventor versus Corporate Inventor: Where Will the Next Major Innovations Arise?, Dr. George Hathaway, Hathaway Consulting Services, 30 March 2010 (19 pages) <br /><br /> 59. DIRD 19: The Space-Communication Implications of Quantum Entanglement and Nonlocality, Dr. John Cramer, Univ. of WashingtonâSeattle, 30 March 2010 (32 pages) <br /><br /> 60. DIRD 20: BioSensors and BioMEMS: A Survey of the Present Field, Dr. Bruce Towe, Arizona State Univ., 31 March 2010 (45 pages) <br /><br /> 61. DIRD 21: State of the Art and Evolution of High Energy Laser Weapons, Dr. John Albertine, Directed Technologies, 31 March 2010 (31 pages) <br /><br /> 62. DIRD 22: State of the Art and Evolution of High Energy Laser Weapons, Dr. John Albertine, Directed Technologies, 31 March 2010 (classified edition) <br /><br /> 63. BAASS March 2010 Monthly Report: BAASS-MUFON Relations, HBCCUFO UAP Site, Utah Ranch Investigations, Niagara Falls Anomalies, and Tennyson, IN Anomalies (71 pages) <br /><br /> 64. DIRD 23: Warp Drive, Dark Energy, and the Manipulation of Extra Dimensions, Dr. Richard Obousy, Obousy Consulting and Dr. Eric Davis, EarthTech International, 2 April 2010 (33 pages) <br /><br /> 65. DIRD 24: Traversable Wormholes, Stargates, and Negative Energy, Dr. Eric Davis, EarthTech International, 6 April 2010 (42 pages) <br /><br /> 66. DIRD 25: High-Frequency Gravitational Wave Communications, Dr. Robert Baker, GravWave, 6 April 2010 (74 pages) <br /><br /> 67. DIRD 26: Concepts for Extracting Energy from the Quantum Vacuum, Dr. Eric Davis, EarthTech International, 6 April 2010 (57 pages) <br /><br /> 68. DIRD 27: Metamaterials for Aerospace Applications, Dr. Gennady Shvets, Univ. of TexasâAustin, 6 April 2010 (38 pages) <br /><br /> 69. # 5 BAASS Project Management Plan Addendum Report: Paranormal ActivityâBuckeye, AZ, BAASS Case #20100000033000, 5 April 2010â8 April 2010 (275 pages) <br /><br /> 70. # 6 BAASS Project Management Plan Addendum Report: Triangle UAP-GA, BAASS Case #20090000032000, 14 September 2009â19 April 2010 (125 pages) <br /><br /> 71. Utah Ranch Investigation: 22-26 March 2010 and 19-23 April 2010, BAASS (60 pages) <br /><br /> 72. BAASS April 2010 Monthly Report: BAASS-MUFON Relations, HBCCUFO UAP Site, Utah Ranch Investigations, GA Anomalies and Buckeye, AZ Anomalies (252 pages) <br /><br /> 73. BAASS May 2010 Monthly Report: BAASS-MUFON Relations, HBCCUFO UAP Site, Utah Ranch Investigations, Blue Orb Anomaly, and Additional BAASS UAP Cases (117 pages) <br /><br /> 74. # 7 BAASS Project Management Plan Addendum Report: Investigation of a Reported Blue Orb Anomaly Involving Human Physiological Effects, 2 June 2010 (30 pages) <br /><br /> 75. # 8 BAASS Project Management Plan Addendum Report: Russian Thread III Project, 2 June 2010 (149 pages) <br /><br /> 76. # 9 BAASS Project Management Plan Addendum Report: Dominique Weinsteinâs Pilot Database Analysis, 21 June 2010 (29 pages) <br /><br /> 77. # 10 BAASS Project Management Plan Addendum Report: Projects Sign / Grudge / Blue Book Database Analysis, 21 June 2010 (30 pages) <br /><br /> 78. # 11 BAASS Project Management Plan Addendum Report: Utah Ranch Database Analysis, 21 June 2010 (101 pages) <br /><br /> 79. # 12 BAASS Project Management Plan Addendum Report: Analysis of Small Red Spheres Obtained from Two Alleged UAP Landing Sites in the Soviet Union, 30 June 2010 (77 pages) <br /><br /> 80. BAASS June 2010 Monthly Report: BAASS-MUFON Relations, HBCCUFO UAP Site, Utah Ranch Investigations, Maxwell AFB Visit, Ellsworth AFB Investigation, UAP Landing Traces, and Additional BAASS Anomaly Cases (58 pages) <br /><br /> 81. BAASS July 2010 Monthly Report: BAASS-MUFON Relations, HBCCUFO UAP Site, Utah Ranch Investigations, Anomaly at Bigelow Aerospace, Window Rock, AZ Investigation, and Integrated Threat Analysis Summary (75 pages) <br /><br /> 82. BAASS Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Threat Assessment (Comprehensive Integrated Threat Assessment Addendum Report), 30 July 2010 (228 pages) <br /><br /> 83. BAASS August 2010 Monthly Report: BAASS-MUFON Relations, HBCCUFO UAP Site, Utah Ranch Investigations, and National Archives Visit (38 pages) <br /><br /> 84. BAASS September 2010 Monthly Report: BAASS-MUFON Relations, HBCCUFO UAP Site, Utah Ranch Investigations, DIMOC Visit GA Anomalies Follow-Up, and Sand Mountain / Fyffe, AL Investigation (116 pages) <br /><br /> 85. DIRD 28: Aneutronic Fusion Propulsion, Drs. V. Teofilo, R. White, S. Petrinec, Lockheed Martin, 1 November 2010 (36 pages) <br /><br /> 86. DIRD 29: Cockpits in the Era of Breakthrough Flight, Dr. M. Millis, Tau Zero, 1 November 2010 (57 pages) <br /><br /> 87. DIRD 30: Aneutronic Fusion Propulsion, Dr. William Culbreth, Univ. Of Nevada-Las Vegas, 1 November 2010 (50 pages) <br /><br /> 88. DIRD 31: Laser Lightcraft Nanosatellites, Dr. Eric Davis, EarthTech International, 1 November 2010 (77 pages) <br /><br /> 89. DIRD 32: Ultracapacitors as Energy and Power Storage Devices for Commercial and Military Applications, Drs. J. Golightly and V. Teofilo, Lockheed Martin, 1 November 2010 (34 pages) <br /><br /> 90. DIRD 33: Detection and High Resolution Tracking of Vehicles at Hypersonic Velocities, Dr. William Culbreth, Univ. of Nevada-Las Vegas, 20 November 2010 (46 pages) <br /><br /> 91. DIRD 34: Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) Air Breathing Propulsion and Power for Aerospace Applications, Drs. S. Macheret and K. Goodfellow, Lockheed Martin, 21 November 2010 (32 pages) <br /><br /> 92. Summary Report on BAASS UAP Analysis Capabilities: TicTac and Sphere Assessments, 23 November 2010 (141 pages) <br /><br /> 93. DIRD 35: Quantum Computing and Utilizing Organic Molecules in Automation Technology, Dr. Richard Genik II, Wayne State Univ., 10 December 2010 (54 pages) <br /><br /> 94. DIRD 36: Cognitive Limits on Simultaneous Control of Multiple Unmanned Spacecraft, Dr. Richard Genik II, Wayne State Univ., 15 December 2010 (31 pages) <br /><br /> 95. DIRD 37: Negative Mass Propulsion, Dr. Friedwardt Winterberg, Univ. of Nevada-Reno, 3 January 2011 (43 pages) <br /><br /> 96. DIRD 38: Quantum Tomography of Negative Energy States in the Vacuum, Dr. Eric Davis, EarthTech International, 11 January 2011 (51 pages) <br /><br /> 97. Utah Ranch Events: 1 September 2007â2 April 2012, BAASS (26 pages) <br /><br /> 98. AAWSAP BAASS CAPELLA Data Warehouse CAPELLA Data Warehouse Database / Spreadsheet Userâs Guide (12 pages) <br /><br /> 99. NIDS Spreadsheet (Historical 1946-2004), 11 September 2009 (1570 cases) Dominique Weinsteinâs Pilot Spreadsheet (Historical 1942â2007), 3 June 2010 (483 records) <br /><br /> 100. Sign / Grudge / Blue Book Spreadsheet (Historical 1947-1969), 22 September 2010 (15674 cases, 577 unidentified) <br /><br /> 101. UFOCAT Spreadsheet (Historical 1000-2008), 4 February 2010 (203805 cases) <br /><br /> 102. Project Colares Spreadsheet (Historical 1977-1978), 28 January 2010 (356 cases) <br /><br /> 103. Canadian Release Spreadsheet (Historical 1971-1981), 24 February 2010 (795 cases) <br /><br /> 104. United Kingdom Release Spreadsheet (Historical 1950-1997), 9 June 2010 (2879 cases) <br /><br /> 105. BAASS Spreadsheet (Current Reporting 1999-2010), 16 April 2010 (27 cases) <br /><br /> 106. Utah Ranch Spreadsheet (Historical and Current Reporting 1950-2012), 3 April 2012 (582 cases)â<br /><br />â From<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09J484KYD?ref_=k4w_ss_store_lp" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> <i>Skinwalkers at the Pentagon</i>: An Insiders' Account of the Secret Government UFO Program</a> by James Lacatski, Colm Kelleher, and George Knapp<p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">. <br /></p><p><br /></p></div></div>Robert Sheafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324537021429419111noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8104600450225406597.post-73197719061420919492022-03-28T11:47:00.000-07:002022-03-28T11:47:13.117-07:00Jacques Vallee's " Invisible College" Teaches "Metalogic."<p style="text-align: justify;">This is the review I wrote of <i>The Invisible College</i> by Jacques Vallee, appearing in <i>The Zetetic</i> (which later became <i>The Skeptical Inquirer</i>), Spring/Summer, 1977.<a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2022/02/drs-hynek-and-vallee-totter-on-edge-of.html" target="_blank"> The first part of my review, âThe Edge of Realityâ by Hynek and Vallee, is found here</a>, I recently added to it Hynek's reply to me, and mine to him (which in the original publication was at the end, after both reviews.). If you read that posting before this one was published, I suggest you go back to read <b>Hynek's reply</b>.<br /></p><p><i><b></b></i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i><b>The Invisible College: What a Group of Scientists Has Discovered About UFO Influences on the Human Race</b></i>. By Jacques Vallee. E. P. Dutton, New York, 1975. 223 pp. $8.95.<br /></p><p><b><i>Reviewed by Robert Sheaffer</i></b> <br /></p><hr />
<p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The Invisible College is best read sitting down, with seat belts firmly in place. If Jacques Vallee, in collaboration with J. Allen Hynek, can produce <i>The Edge of Reality</i>, then this book of undiluted Vallee can only be titled âBeyond the Brink.â</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghm0Mt4cwHAePH0JuOeuC120BVzCWDAYPnWkEgIZ_ZPLinAA---wV32aXDmPqVA333cMkFNOcGjTMTuYGhKRTWBxspcs41qMb4-sGdjaNoqP9AxJAV9NgekckSeylWmmU3iFzZ0DPpvYgbj0TdVcPMpDqRBcEd2lpQUewpe7bjStGVy3p1dzkYvyI6Ig/s491/InvisibleCollege.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="491" data-original-width="314" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghm0Mt4cwHAePH0JuOeuC120BVzCWDAYPnWkEgIZ_ZPLinAA---wV32aXDmPqVA333cMkFNOcGjTMTuYGhKRTWBxspcs41qMb4-sGdjaNoqP9AxJAV9NgekckSeylWmmU3iFzZ0DPpvYgbj0TdVcPMpDqRBcEd2lpQUewpe7bjStGVy3p1dzkYvyI6Ig/w256-h400/InvisibleCollege.jpg" width="256" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Be prepared to meet Ummo, the inhabitants of the solar system of Wolf 424 (a red-dwarf star, believed to be incapable of supporting habitable planets), who cruise around in their Oawolea Ouewa (lenticular spacecrafts). You will also meet 7171, a UFO entity who is in frequent telepathic communication with a terrestrial medium, and Oeeu, the âUniversal Association of Planets,â a sort of cosmic United Nations. Vallee takes these stories seriously. Most UFO investigators take Vallee seriously. That fact alone suffices to keep the present writer from taking UFOs seriously.</div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Monsieur Vallee, computer scientist, astrophysicist, and member or the scientific board of Hynek's Center for UFO Studies, has a unique way of looking at the universe. It's called âmetalogic.â For those or us not familiar with that term, he explains that it means quite the same thing as âabsurd.â So should we protest that Vallee's theories are âabsurd,â he will correct our usage: they are merely âmetalogical.â That's the next level above common sense, just beyond the âedge of reality.â UFO skeptics are wrong, Vallee would say, their theories objectively false. The UFO evidence allegedly proves that, in a manner that even Aristotle would find quite satisfactory, <i>Quod erot demonstrandum.</i> But Vallee's exquisite theories are not to be evaluated on such a vulgar level. They are metalogicalânot precisely true, but certainly not false either, not in the same sense that UFO skeptics are simply <i>wrong</i>. UFOs, Vallee informs us, are â<i>truer than true</i>â (emphasis in original). Should anyone reading this actually understand what it means, it is urgent that you contact Vallee at once. There will then be two of you.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The metalogic truly represents the greatest advance in scientific philosophy since the invention of the Dialectic, which enables devout Marxists to âproveâ that the Proletariat can only be liberated by being locked up in Gulag camps. One cannot get by with ordinary logic if one wishes to believe all the incredible things that Vallee does, so he rejects logic itself instead of rejecting Ummo, Oeeu, and the like. If the UFO evidence doesn't make sense, so much the worse for sense. Watching Vallee, who calls himself a scientist, so cavalierly jettison the objective, nonmystical world-view of science, one cannot help but wonder how far he might go were he to become an avowed mystic.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Spectra is the name given to the mysterious space entity which is alleged to beam down to Uri Geller the âparanormalâ powers that enable him to do the things that stage magicians can do without them. Vallee has met Mr. Geller, and was most impressed by the apparent authenticity of his âparanormalâ abilities. (I wonder if Vallee has ever met James Randi?) Geller's supposed revelations from the UFO-beings of Spectra of course fascinate Vallee, but he is not blind to the absurdities and contradictions in their messages; he recognizes that they are âtelling obvious falsehoods and uttering sheer jargon most of the time.â Does this damage Geller's credibility in Vallee's eyes? hot at all: âI think highly of Geller's talents. We cannot brush aside [his] experiences ... with simple rejections. What we can and should do is to sort out the implications of the extremely confusing set of events (they claim] to have observed.â It appears that Geller's tales are simply too absurd for Vallee to reject. Hence they must be true, in some metalogical sort of way.</p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9y_ivcphndDMbTXTiC2n5hmKzCxL77xwaqKxh6d4IO_-jX4b4HsAD9Vj5n2ArJxH8Tbq3keWgr07CdVLMLAxpytDSGs-g9pnIlaYcYVnJn5ikPkQV0h2tQ7lrMncrWet2xJdr6l3gdlwcuuCXMYH5K2oyOgvgrczsJlAz8YsSIfmK4SEwXVM8-ZzmCw/s915/JacquesVallee.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="915" data-original-width="686" height="433" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9y_ivcphndDMbTXTiC2n5hmKzCxL77xwaqKxh6d4IO_-jX4b4HsAD9Vj5n2ArJxH8Tbq3keWgr07CdVLMLAxpytDSGs-g9pnIlaYcYVnJn5ikPkQV0h2tQ7lrMncrWet2xJdr6l3gdlwcuuCXMYH5K2oyOgvgrczsJlAz8YsSIfmK4SEwXVM8-ZzmCw/w325-h433/JacquesVallee.jpg" width="325" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Vallee at Northwestern giving a talk <br /> on computer science (about 1969)</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">A policeman in Nebraska was supposedly abducted by a UFO in 1967. The UFO occupants reportedly gave the patrolman âa lot of interesting but possibly misleading information. They wanted him to believe that they came from a nearby galaxy. They had bases in the United States. Their craft was operated by reverse electromagnetism.â Even Vallee finds it difficult to believe these things! Does he reach the obvious and straightforward conclusion that the witness is either hoaxing or else has hallucinated the incident? Certainly not. Vallee designates this aspect of absurdity âThe Third Coverup.â It represents âthe built-in silencing mechanism of the phenomenon itself.... The phenomenon negates itself. It issues statements and demonstrates principles where some of the information conveyed is true and some is false.â UFOs, he says, deliberately make themselves absurd to keep us from taking them too seriously. That line of reasoning can, of course, be utilized to justify <i>absolutely any absurdity at all</i>. One would hope that Vallee might look past the obvious immediate advantages to see the long-range problems that would arise if other scientists were to follow his lead in constructing hypotheses that can never be proven true or false.<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The only thing wrong with Vallee's metareasoning is that, if adopted as a legitimate scientific paradigm, it would mean the end of experimental science. <i>No one could ever prove or disprove anything.</i> Science is a fully <i>consistent</i> body of knowledge; if metalogic is a valid methodology for analyzing UFOs, it must likewise be applicable to astronomy. Well, I say the earth is flat, and it rests on the back of a turtle. Don't say that's absurdâit is metalogical. Don't trot out evidence to show that I'm wrong, for contradiction is one of the ways in which the Great Turtle manifests the phenomenon. My flat-earth hypothesis is <i>truer than true</i>. Don't say that my theory is unscientific because it is impossible <i>even in principle</i> to prove it wrong, because Vallee's wild UFO speculations are likewise safe from the potential challenge of any critical experiment. In short, in <i>The Invisible College</i> we find nothing less than a complete and explicit rejection of the scientific method. Its rigorous standards of evidence are incompatible with the charming stories of miracles, little people, and mystical visions that Vallee wishes to weave into his UFO tapestry.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Vallee does indeed reach a conclusion about UFOs which presumably follows directly from his metaevidence. It is not immediately clear that conclusions of any kind can be drawn if one rejects âour laws of causalityâ (in Vallee's colorful phrase), but apparently even the Great Trailblazer was unable to make a clean enough break with his past to outgrow the childish habit of seeking conclusions from the evident in hand. His conclusion is that UFOs form a âcontrol systemâ for human consciousness: âthey are the means through which man's concepts are being rearranged.â How and why we are being ârearranged,â and by whom, he is unable to say; whether by Affa, Ummo, Ankar, Oeeu, or Spectra is left for the reader to decide.<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">What. by the way, is The Invisible College? It is a loose federation of scientists who are carrying out their own investigations into the UFO phenomenon, even though UFO research is not (âas yet,â as they say) a recognized scientific field. (Very little of the book deals with the College: miracles and metalogic predominate.) The present-day Invisible College takes its name from a seventeenth-century group of scientists that met informally, even clandestinely, at a time when the established colleges were dominated by the fossilized doctrines of antiquity. As experimental science gradually became respectable, its practitioners crawled out of hiding. Vallee-style UFOlogists like to think that they, too, are far ahead of their time, and that someday their ideas will likewise be vindicated by history.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">But the original Invisible College was made up of scientists who were rebelling against the very sort of mysticism that Vallee is seeking to bring back. They were followers of Francis Bacon, the arch-experimenter, who advocated. that scientists âput nature on the rack and compel her to bear witness.â Bacon would have been acutely uncomfortable in the presence of a metalogic.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Bacon also left his followers a sober warning, which the latter-day invisible college might do well to heed: âIn general let every student of nature take this as a ruleâthat whatever the mind seizes and dwells upon with peculiar satisfaction, is to be held in suspicion.â </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Methinks that the members of today's Invisible College might show just a trifle more <i>suspicion</i> in analyzing reports of bizarre UFO encounters.<br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>Jacques Vallee comments:</b><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">I have but few comments, since the reviewer has misunderstood both the spirit and the letter of the book to the point of assuming that I believed there were such planets as <i>Ummo</i> and <i>Spectra</i>, when a great deal of my time is spent precisely in exposing the contradictions of contactee stories. The only inaccuracy I would like to correct for the record has to do with the Center for UFO Studies, with which Sheaffer believes I am still associated. In fact I resigned from the scientific board of CUFOS over a year ago and am not currently associated with any UFO groups. To relieve the dullness of this whole subject I would like to share with you and your readers the epitaph I have composed following the death of Professor Donald Menzel, to whom we owe many definitive explanation of the UFO phenomenon. I have written it as a limerick:<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;">There once was a dead man with a final answer<br /> To strange things in Heaven, but as he got closer, He did meet an angel,<br />Who said, âDr. Menzel,<br />Why are you flying so, Sir?"<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /><br /></p>Robert Sheafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324537021429419111noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8104600450225406597.post-64232557198193645832022-02-02T13:33:00.008-08:002022-03-28T11:49:01.804-07:00Drs. Hynek and Vallee Totter on the Edge of Reality!<p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">( <b>Revision March 27, 2022: I have moved Hynek's reply here. Vallee's reply is in the second part</b>.) <br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2022/01/galileos-galore-now-including-jacques.html" target="_blank">Now that Jacques Vallee is back in the news</a> (again) after being selected to join Dr. Avi Loeb's Galileo Project, it's instructive to review some of his earlier writings. Researcher Curt Collins points out that <a href="https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/galileo/people?page=2" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Vallee has been named to Galileo's "Research Team,"</a> which is higher than being <a href="https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/galileo/affiliates" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">a mere "Research Affiliate" like Galileo's other UFOlogists</a> (Luis Elizondo, Nick Pope, Chris Mellon, Robert Powell, Gary Voorhis.). Did you see how many people are now listed on the Galileo web pages, in various positions? I didn't count them, but I was surprised to find dozens!<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">I had two book reviews published in the Spring/Summer, 1977 issue of <i>The Zetetic</i> (later to become <i>The Skeptical Inquirer</i>): this one by Hynek and Vallee, and<a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2022/03/jacques-vallees-invisible-college.html" target="_blank"> Vallee's <i>The Invisible College</i>, which is in a later posting here.</a></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Make no mistake, it was always Vallee pulling Hynek to be farther and farther out, rather than the other way around.<br /></p><p></p>
<hr />
<p></p> The Edge of Reality: A Progress Report on Unidentified Flying Objects.<br /> By J. Allen Hynek and Jacques Vallee. Henry Regnery Co., Chicago, 1975.<br /> 301. pp. $14.9S cloth, $5.95 paper.<br /><br /> Reviewed by Robert Sheaffer (<i>The Zetetic</i>, Spring/Summer, 1977)<br /><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It is not often that one encounters a book written by two trained scientists that promises to take one to the very âedge of reality.â Such voyages of course are daily occurrences for those who dwell in the murky meta-regions of the occult, but it represents a dark, uncharted path for those who have been trained in the exacting methods of the physical sciences. Thus one is not surprised to see that authors J. Allen Hynek, a Northwestern University astronomer and former Air Force UFO consultant, and Jacques Vallee, a computer scientist who also holds a degree in astrophysics, view themselves somewhat as pioneers. The book opens with a stern warning to those who find all new ideas âboth frightening and a threat to their intellectual securityâ (this of course being the <i>only</i> possible reason anyone might disbelieve in UFOs). Their aim is to become Galileo, Einstein, and Daniel Boone rolled up into one, to âopen up entirely new vistasâ on an unseen universe. Indeed nothing less than a whole new universe awaits us, for it is the authors' modest intention to show how UFOs, ESP, and out-of-body travels are âsignaling that there's a reality that the physical scientists... aren't at all conscious of, but exists!â</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjoM5JY1rMLgTYSl6fvSLW8YbZhsckTvUYRAsisF2uwctJYuDXnHG_R1cVC8uyYwOjCmFfnzSZuoHNpb98BfnTI1zCE4ep8suhFUKw88-oaxmy7OL6qTA7xMSxmTDpOKU7rY0aekRZMSx74dVupc-RnDqO6i2ajjl4yRp3q2KTQgAT1WdBQPiwrUmF7EQ=s958" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="958" data-original-width="626" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjoM5JY1rMLgTYSl6fvSLW8YbZhsckTvUYRAsisF2uwctJYuDXnHG_R1cVC8uyYwOjCmFfnzSZuoHNpb98BfnTI1zCE4ep8suhFUKw88-oaxmy7OL6qTA7xMSxmTDpOKU7rY0aekRZMSx74dVupc-RnDqO6i2ajjl4yRp3q2KTQgAT1WdBQPiwrUmF7EQ=w261-h400" width="261" /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">One might expect that physical scientists would approach such a wild, untamed region with infinite caution. If so, one will be disappointed, for the authors have gleefully swallowed a dismally high number of UFO hoaxes. Of the reported UFO abduction of two Mississippi fishermen in 1973, Hynek asserts,<i> âThe men are not lying. Iâm quite convinced of thatâ</i> [emphasis in original]. Then why did the principal witness back down, at the last possible moment, from his public promise to take a lie detector test while at a UFO conference in 1975? This promise was only reluctantly given after UFO skeptic Philip J. Klass revealed that an earlier polygraph test, which the witness had apparently passed, had in fact been a twenty-minute âquickieâ job, conducted by an unlicensed, uncertified operator brought in from out of state. Never mind such details: the witness had âpassed a lie detector test,â and that's good enough evidence for Hynek.</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The alleged UFO photos taken at McMinnville in 1950 are included in the book as apparently authentic, despite the fact that the witnesses have been shown to have falsified the time of day at which the photos were supposedly taken. The alleged âparanormalâ powers of UFO contactee Uri Geller, the Israeli Cagliostro, are cited as compelling evidence for the reality of that fantasy land supposedly lying beyond âthe edge,â despite the demonstrations of James Randi and others that Geller is just a clever fraud. And both authors are convinced of the authenticity of the supposed UFO landing which occurred in Kansas in 1971, even though the principal witness subsequently reported sighting, among other things, âthe Wolf Girl.â One is left with the feeling that were Hynek and Vallee to invest in real estate, their first purchase would likely be the Brooklyn Bridge.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;">The authors are anything but timid. (Even the format of the book is unconventional: most of it consists of transcripts of the authorsâ conversations.) They do not attempt to shy away from the obvious internal inconsistency of the UFO phenomenon, as âscientificâ UFOlogists usually do. Instead they meet the absurdity head-on. Vallee concedes that the UFOsâ reported behavior âis not consistent either with what you would expect from space visitors, or with what we know about physics. That's the dilemma.â How to resolve it? Simple: first, we hypothesize that UFOs are coming from somewhere <i>outside</i> of space (?), and then we do away with physics.<br /></div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">With that dilemma nicely disposed of, Hynek enjoys telling tales about the âparanormalâ feats of a Sioux Indian Medicine Man, which a friend of his has heard about while visiting an Indian village. Vallee prefers talking about elves and Elementals, and the Black and Red Meu, which can only be seen by his three-year- old daughter. Vallee confesses that he once thought the Men, who live in haunted houses and play with ghosts, to be just childhood fantasies. But apparently the findings of his UFO research are now no less bizarre than his daughter's invisible companions. Anything goes when your working hypothesis becomes âinterpenetrating universes.â The authors can justifiably feel proud of their work, for they have succeeded in formulating the <i>ideal</i> scientific hypothesis: no matter what may be discovered in the future, their âparallel universeâ scheme can <i>never</i> be refuted!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhp-mjSwtAd-Kko9m5bDGk9kwNBU369O2zNrToQ1IknWneaq05RiA2sGpb-Yi93OyZ-w4iYVN0Ytmgd9DbK0P0lcsHzHU6FZIOyi_mk_JepYFSuI0PjKGWq7fDAygvpZtMx5Kc1jfLbn4NXRkspXbvrHW_Un7ir8CcUKQYJxoY6Nre-JwWZUNz2nUDjJA=s958" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="958" data-original-width="646" height="484" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhp-mjSwtAd-Kko9m5bDGk9kwNBU369O2zNrToQ1IknWneaq05RiA2sGpb-Yi93OyZ-w4iYVN0Ytmgd9DbK0P0lcsHzHU6FZIOyi_mk_JepYFSuI0PjKGWq7fDAygvpZtMx5Kc1jfLbn4NXRkspXbvrHW_Un7ir8CcUKQYJxoY6Nre-JwWZUNz2nUDjJA=w327-h484" width="327" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Vallee and Hynek likewise directly confront the tricky question of how UFOs always manage to slip away before the evidence of their existence becomes too convincing. âClose encountersâ with UFOs seem to take place in isolated areas, and the supposed âphysical remainsâ of their visits are always inconclusive. Photographs are never clear and convincing, and invariably only one photographer is present. <i>If</i> UFOs were in fact real objects, given the large number of reported sightings, it is inconceivable that conclusive evidence of their existence would not have been obtained by this time. Hynek has an answer to that objection: âThe UFO is what has been termed a âjealous phenomenon.â " (So termed by whom? By this reviewer. I introduced the idea to Hynek while I was a student at Northwestern.) âA Boeing 747 is not a jealous phenomenon, an eclipse isn't jealous, anyone can observe it. But a UFO is a 'jealous phenomenonâ in that it seems to be localized in space and time.â And thus another troublesome problem has been disposed of, in the finest Medieval fashion: as soon as a name has been invented to cover some puzzling observation, the explanation has been completed. Hynek chooses to ignore the argument I presented in explaining the significance of this concept: when a phenomenon appears to be âjealous,â like UFOs, ESP, and the Bigfoot monster, playing peak-a-boo with the world of objective reality, that is the strongest possible indication that it exists only in the overheated imaginations of its investigators.<br /></div></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>The Edge of Reality</i> is riddled with errors of fact, many of them small, but they nonetheless reveal the authors' uniquely careless scholarship. Everyone who reads the book seems to find a few more. For example, the authors state that âyears go by without a single [airplane] crash.â Philip J. Klass looked it up: there has been at least one fatal airline accident in the United States in every recent year, a total of 24 in the past five years. Aerospace writer James Oberg thought it curious that Mercury 9 should be launched before Mercury 8, which it must have been if the book's chronology of âastronaut UFOsâ is correct. Tape recordings are said to be âin the Library of Congressâ when in fact they're not. And the director of Dearborn Observatory in 1897âGeorge Washington Hough, Hynek's own predecessorâwas <i>not</i> its first director, as is stated. Is this the kind of scholarship that is expected to convince us to revise our concepts of the very nature of the universe?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Of UFOlogical skeptics Hynek says, âHeaven knows we need them to keep a proper balance.â By this standard the Center for UFO Studies, of which Hynek is the founder and director, is an organization badly out of balance, for not a single UFO skeptic is to be found among its principal investigators or on its scientific board. Peas in a pod jostle each other more than does this like-minded crew. The authors' disdain for critical opinion is openly stated elsewhere in the book:<br /><br /><div style="margin-left: 40px;">Vallee: Do we have to give a day in court to the man who believes it's all nonsense? Hynek: Hell! One could spend all his energy confronting skeptics.... Why waste time on people who have not bothered to learn the basic facts? It's their problem!<br /></div></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjRjWC3_or1ZKMG1z0TSuX8-BnCHOzlKlzQAGJG65sPqQY4lNvwbODhrISwss0JH5ywyKbLbVxW5sZTgsxPtO9SLUGSS0VtG5fGS_qbYd6oKmwWxKaSShCqIqRMVEZhzEtXc2bcn_1M5GWOlBUMK7ygsm_SU9MDhQzvgvuVX8RcJpV78nDg12HIQE55Eg=s1538" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1538" data-original-width="1024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjRjWC3_or1ZKMG1z0TSuX8-BnCHOzlKlzQAGJG65sPqQY4lNvwbODhrISwss0JH5ywyKbLbVxW5sZTgsxPtO9SLUGSS0VtG5fGS_qbYd6oKmwWxKaSShCqIqRMVEZhzEtXc2bcn_1M5GWOlBUMK7ygsm_SU9MDhQzvgvuVX8RcJpV78nDg12HIQE55Eg=w266-h400" width="266" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hynek at Northwestern about 1970<br />(photo by author).
<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />To categorize <i>all</i> UFO skeptics, including such experienced investigators as the late Donald Menzel and Philip Klass, as âpeople who have not bothered to learn the basic factsâ is nothing short of an outrageous falsehood. Hynek should publicly apologize for having so recklessly published such foolish charges. Here we see the unstated principle upon which the âscientificâ UFO Center operates: <i>Responsible criticism does not exist</i>. Questions and disagreements are invariably ignored. Letters from responsible (but unwelcome) individuals remain unanswered. Results of UFO evaluations are never publicly released. (Why give out such information to just anybody?) Thus the operation of the center has come to closely resemble the astrophysicistsâ conception of a Black Hole; no matter how much material falls into it, nothing ever escapes. Yet the authors brazenly accuse all the other UFO groups of âactually <i>hiding</i> information instead of revealing it"! âThey're publishing just enough to titillate the interest of their subscribers,â charges Hynek, whose group publishes virtually nothing at all, while imploring its subscribers to become patrons at a thousand bucks a throw. âThey turn into a PR organization,â says Vallee of every UFO group except his own.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />No meeting or conference organized by the Center for UFO Studies has ever included a single skeptic's dissenting voice. (Is the pro-UFO position utterly indefensible?) The house of cards Vallee and Hynek have built upon a foundation of hearsay evidence, careless scholarship, and neglect of scientific methodology would quickly tumble down in the turbulent air of open scientific debate. Having taken such pains to isolate themselves from all responsible criticism, it is not difficult to see why the authors now totter so precariously on the âedge of reality.â</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>J. Allen Hynek comments:<br /></b><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There are several kinds of book reviewers:
those who review a book in terms of their own expertise in the subject,
thus giving the reader a rewarding and intelligently critical
perspective; those who lack this expertise and resort to picking out
irrelevant discrepancies (âOn page 178 Jones states that Jefferies
visited Patagonia in 1923; it was 1924!") just to prove that they read
the book (at least page 178); and those who use the review as a vehicle
for airing their own opinions and strong emotional bias, with little
reference to the main thrust of the author's work. Sheaffer is a good
example of all but the first of these.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />Sheaffer's concern seems to be
that the book is not a definitive work on UFOs. He fails to recognize
the primary nature of the book: a conversation between two people who
have devoted far, far more time than the reviewer to the subject, and
who are themselves by no means in agreement on many aspects of the
problem. <i>The Edge of Reality</i> was meant to be controversial, and even
deliberately âvisionary"; to exhibit the many sides of the problem of
dealing with the phenomenon of UFO <i>reports</i>, whose existence no one can
deny; and indeed, to parade to public view the authors' own puzzlement
about UFOS. It was not intended as "UFO truth once and for all
revealed."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />Sheaffer has always totally ignored the continuing flow of
truly puzz1ing UFO reports, from all parts of the world and in many instances from remarkably competent witnesses. He still undoubtedly
be surprised by the results of Dr. Sturrock's recent survey of the
membership of the American Astronomical Society on the subject of UFOS
(Peter Sturrock, Stanford University Institute for Plasma Research
Report No. 681), which points out that 53 percent of the respondents to
the questionnaire (52 percent of the questionnaires were returned)
indicated a positive attitude toward the scientific study of UFO
reports, and which also contains a few interesting UFO reports made
by professional astronomers!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />The reader will discover that Sheaffer
has learned well at the feet of his master, Philip Klass, the
not-too-gentle art of using <i>argumenti ad homini</i>: âTheir aim is to
become Galileo, Einstein, and Daniel Boone all rolled into oneâ is a
most uncalled-for remark. Further, his charge that we âhave gleefully
swallowed a dismally high number of UFO hoaxesâ is certainly not
demonstrable. Hoaxes by whose standards? Is Sheaffer unaware of Dr.
Bruce Maccabee's work on the McMinnville photographs (see the <i>
Proceedings of the 1976 CUFOS Conference</i>, Center for UFO Studies),
which showed from careful photometric study that the strange object had to
be at a considerable distance from the camera? Also, what about the
utter lack of substantiation of Klass's claim that Socorro was a hoax
contrived by the Chamber of Commerce to attract tourists? A recent
visit to Socorro failed to reveal any improved roads (our rented car
could not navigate the road to the site, and when a four-wheel pickup
was used, the primary witness, Zamora, spent 15 minutes trying to locate
the site). There were no signs or markers in the town, nor have there
ever been any, to indicate that here is where the UFO landed. No
concession stands capitalize on the âtourists.â If this is the sort of
proof of hoax that Sheaffer accepts... ! With respect to the Pascagoula
incident, I feel that Hickson was justified in refusing to take a
polygraph test in the midst of a public conference, with all the âcircus
atmosphereâ such a forum implies. In light of such errors of fact, I
must have more than this reviewer's opinion that some of the cases
Vallee and I have considered seriously are hoaxes and that we have
âgleefully swallowed them.â</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />In stating that UFO skeptics are people
who have not bothered to learn the basic facts, I was speaking of
skeptics in general, with whom I have had ample contact in my many years
of work in the area. I have found very few skeptics who are informed on
the subject of UFOs. There will always be a handful who have diligently studied any subject but choose to interpret the facts to fit
their emotional biases. Think of those who still feel that the Apollo
mission was staged on a movie lot in Arizona! Or the people who know
that one can circumnavigate the globe, yet force-fit this fact into
their flat-earth theories!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />It is psychologically expensive, and
wasteful of time and energy, to join in battle with such skeptics.
Should NASA have delayed mounting the effort to go to the moon until
they had convinced the Astronomer Royal (who stated in 1955, âSpace
travelâutter bilge!â) that it was feasible? They had more important
things to do. The success of the missions automatically disposed of the
Astronomer Royal and his myopic ilk without one word of needless
argument from NASA!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />Sheaffer would have the Center for UFO Studies use
its limited staff to tilt with the skeptics. We have chosen instead to
publish, in our short history, many hundreds of pages of case reports
and technical papers (e.g., <i>The Lumberton Report; Physical Traces
Associated with UFO Sightings; A Catalogue of 200 Type-1 UFO Events
in Spain and Portugal</i>, and <i>1973âYear of the Humanoids</i>). The Center
contributes to a new publication, <i>The International UFO Reporter</i>, which
involves the careful investigation of every report included in each issue,
and the Center also maintains a computerized file (UFOCAT) that now contains over 80,000
entries. Thus we dispose of Sheaffer's âblack hole" theory; he chooses
to remain âgleefullyâ unaware of the products of the Center.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />All in
all, Sheaffer's unfounded criticism, while revealing his emotional bias
and its effect on his judgment, is hardly germane to the contents of the
book or appropriate to a scholarly review.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit6Vw2H0rJKi3FER0W3BOAHbHKYV1zBkl5nUgUFvEdQjxjtUMYhOmuDlYti1TcwkZi9trOQ_Rtgw1p0W7lmxcAgEcR1BedRriY6b0AKCmn2CtoEw2ERG4SMoH-_DvpOrWT7CQQFlGoEqeQCDJyQ1a0sOFRYbwu5UDTvb0mF3l4LGjwqRmfX_HcveXlew/s763/HynekGalileo2_Newsweek.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="763" data-original-width="549" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit6Vw2H0rJKi3FER0W3BOAHbHKYV1zBkl5nUgUFvEdQjxjtUMYhOmuDlYti1TcwkZi9trOQ_Rtgw1p0W7lmxcAgEcR1BedRriY6b0AKCmn2CtoEw2ERG4SMoH-_DvpOrWT7CQQFlGoEqeQCDJyQ1a0sOFRYbwu5UDTvb0mF3l4LGjwqRmfX_HcveXlew/w460-h640/HynekGalileo2_Newsweek.jpg" width="460" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Later that same year, <i>Newsweek</i> Magazine proclaimed Hynek to be the "Galileo of UFOlogy"<br /></span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><b> Robert Sheaffer replies:<br /></b><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Dr. Hynek has been kind enough to give us a reply that nicely illustrates all of my principal criticisms of his book.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />Am
I âunawareâ of Dr. Maccabee's recent work? Even Dr. Maccabee does not
make the claim that his research proves that the object âhad to be at
considerable distance from the camera,â as Hynek would surely have
known had he actually <i>read</i> the paper he cited.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />âHe fails to
recognize the primary nature of the book ... [it] was meant to be
controversial.â Is there not some better way to be controversial than to
rush into print with reckless errors or fact, such as in the table of
âAstronaut Sightings" (Chapter 3) or the badly misrepresented Walesville
âUFO" incident (Chapter 5)? This sloppiness is not a necessary
consequence of informality. Am I just nitpicking? Or should this gross
carelessness serve to alert us that much, if not all, of the authors'
UFO theorizing may be built on a house of cards?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">My "black hole" critticism is entirely valid as stated: for the first few years of its
operation, virtually no evaluations of UFO sightings were published by
CUFOS. I will not credit a 1977 refutation of a charge that was entirely
valid for the interval stated.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />With regard to the Pascagoula incident, Hynek apparently conceded defeat concerning
the first polygraph fiasco, but defends Hickson's refusal to face the
machine a second time. He fails to mention, however, that Hickson had
agreed to the polygraph test <i>as a condition for being invited to the
conference</i>, but then backed out <i>after</i> his arrival. Is this action
âjustified"? Concerning Socorro, I find myself being lambasted for the
alleged shortcomings of <i>someone else's</i> analysis of the case, a case not
mentioned by me anywhere in my review either directly or indirectly.
(I agree that Klass's evidence for a Socorro hoax is not overpowering.
But is his explanation as far-fetched as the alternative?)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />In light of the above, which of the two of us is guilty of the âerrors of factâ that Hynek alleges?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />Especially
revealing is Dr. Hynek's automatic reduction of all skeptics to the
level of flat-earthers and the faked-Apollo-flight nuts. (Who accuses
whom of <i>argumenti ad homini</i>?) Disagree with me, says he, and you shall
be dropped into the dustbin of History. If the voices of Galileo,
Einstein, and Daniel Boone were to all be rolled up into one, would they
not speak thusly? (One detects an accent of Zarathustra's voice as
well.) Is Hynek âunawareâ that both NICAP and APRO have told their
members that Klass's investigations represent a significant contribution
to UFOlogy and that his book <i>UFOs Explained</i> should be studied by
everyone interested in UFOs, <i>even though these groups strongly disagree
with Klass's ultimate conclusions</i>? The Center for UFO Studies makes no
such concessions to the ravings of flat-earthers, UFO skeptics, and
other crackpots. They have no time to âtiltâ with unbelievers, as if
with so many windmills. (Who is it that suffers from an âemotional
biasâ?) Dr. Hynek has convincingly illustrated my point that the
âscientific" UFO Center operates on the principle that âresponsible
criticism does not exist.â</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />Lest the reader conclude that the matter
reduces to irreconcilable mutual charges of âemotional bias,â consider
this point: in a recent article (<i>Official UFO</i>, October 1976), I have
plainly stated the type of evidence that would, if obtained, cause me to
reconsider my position as a UFO skeptic. (They needn't land at the
White House.) Let Hynek now point to the place where he has described
the evidence that would cause him to change his opinions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />My
chances of being laughed at along with the flat-earthers in the judgment
of history are considerably smaller than the risk Dr. Hynek now runs of
being accorded a place alongside the supremely credulous Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMXejahbI71ylJwqCr8FzjfZJy1M9BAe31zLl3eiAWqceHTAcs_Bv1cjjgVskw2ds5jIBBwT2CDKDVcVoJo0v_HfDE7XLMGsJXNvkJebJUKHQqQy3u1W3BNE9MG83y6chgFGvzB3iWDb19yaggmbD1iJcNNZ-tqV0f346w0eekzTYZs9jd4NroXvgZcA/s4032/RyanGordon2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMXejahbI71ylJwqCr8FzjfZJy1M9BAe31zLl3eiAWqceHTAcs_Bv1cjjgVskw2ds5jIBBwT2CDKDVcVoJo0v_HfDE7XLMGsJXNvkJebJUKHQqQy3u1W3BNE9MG83y6chgFGvzB3iWDb19yaggmbD1iJcNNZ-tqV0f346w0eekzTYZs9jd4NroXvgZcA/w640-h480/RyanGordon2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Hynek was correct that in 1977 there was no marker to designate Zamora's sighting - but there is today!<br />(Photo by Ryan Gordon.)</span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> <br /></td></tr></tbody></table> <br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">
<hr />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This text was extracted from a non-searchable PDF <a href="https://www.ocr2edit.com/pdf-to-word" target="_blank">using the on-line tool "ocr2edit"</a>. There are many such tools, and that was about the sixth one I'd tried. It was the first one to actually produce a readable output. So I figured that, instead of making a cash donation, I'd let people know I'd found at least one such tool that actually works.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>Robert Sheafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324537021429419111noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8104600450225406597.post-21013477268997959582022-01-25T13:16:00.001-08:002022-01-25T15:03:56.150-08:00Galileos Galore - Now including Jacques Vallee!<p style="text-align: justify;">A belated Happy New Year to all our readers. Not much new has been happening, just a lot of arguing about the politics of government UFO investigation, which we'll get to some other time. <a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2021/11/harvards-galileo-project-meets-tom.html" target="_blank"> In November I wrote (once again) about how the "Galileo Project" of Harvard's Dr. Avi Loeb</a> had added Luis Elizondo and Christopher Mellon, former Top Men of Tom DeLonge's <i>To The Stars Academy</i>, as a "research affiliates" to his Galileo Project. Soon afterward, Loeb announced that Nick Pope, Michael Shermer, Ohad Raveh and Nathan Goldstein were also becoming "research affiliates" to his Project. The latter two persons are not UFOlogists and I'm not familiar with them. Michael Shermer is, of course, a well-known skeptic and the publisher of <a href="https://www.skeptic.com/" target="_blank">Skeptic magazine</a>. (Shermer told me that the "affiliate" position is not a paid one). The selection of Pope is problematic, like that of Mellon and Elizondo earlier. Nick Pope is well-known in UFOlogy, having long claimed to have run the UFO project in the UK Ministry of Defense. <a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2012/08/nick-pope-and-alien-invaders.html" target="_blank">He has also made a slew of claims to the media that are simply bizarre,</a> including warning about alien invasions. Unfortunately for Nick, the truth has slowly leaked out that <a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2020/03/british-uap-sightings-now-online.html" target="_blank">there was no such MOD UFO project, and his position was that of a desk clerk.</a> (Isn't it amazing how closely this parallels the story of Nick's fellow "affiliate" Elizondo?) <br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEigkFOwWN4TLP3kvJSXLrEks7yAqlsaDCl1orppSngsfn6FyF3xN28GLsUMGrOS_xnCceX0PKNwPrhcMhzBwhvPmosimTP6VhQVtsRL6G4xixDG9L46tzkHu5r0drKmnDQtI_r4ZW24ZDlUoNyqRcup5u9O2ngXUuy0x8H6EH_Ci2a1pHDr8B3WWsHsnw=s763" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="763" data-original-width="549" height="668" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEigkFOwWN4TLP3kvJSXLrEks7yAqlsaDCl1orppSngsfn6FyF3xN28GLsUMGrOS_xnCceX0PKNwPrhcMhzBwhvPmosimTP6VhQVtsRL6G4xixDG9L46tzkHu5r0drKmnDQtI_r4ZW24ZDlUoNyqRcup5u9O2ngXUuy0x8H6EH_Ci2a1pHDr8B3WWsHsnw=w480-h668" width="480" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">In 1977, Newsweek proclaimed Dr. Hynek "The Galileo of UFOlogy"</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;">But let us pause to consider the very name of the "Galileo Project." The study of unidentified, and possibly alien, objects has already had its 'Galileo,' specifically astronomer and former Project Blue Book consultant Dr. J. Allen Hynek. Hynek was proclaimed to be the "Galileo of UFOlogy" by Newsweek magazine in 1977. He seemed to relish the title, envisioning himself as the one who will lead Science on to new and previously-undreamed discoveries through the study of UFOs. So perhaps it would be best for Dr. Loeb to re-name his project, to alleviate confusion over which Galileo is which. The following names are still available for such a project:</p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Newton Project</li><li>Einstein Project</li><li>Wilhelm Reich Project</li><li>L. Ron Hubbard Project</li></ul><p>And so on. </p><p></p><div><div style="text-align: justify;">Well, Dr. Loeb has really done it now: "<a href="https://twitter.com/GalileoProject1/status/1485226138385494021" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">We
are delighted to announce that Dr. Jacques Vallée has joined
#galileoproject! We will greatly benefit from his wisdom and insights!</a>"
Indeed, Jacques Vallee is one of the best-known figures in UFOlogy,
having been the author of many influential UFO books since 1965. <a href="https://badufos.blogspot.com/2012/02/jacques-vallee-j-allen-hynek-and.html" target="_blank">He has also been quite mystical, </a>which
a lot of his fans don't realize, dabbling in Rosicrucianism, 'alternate
realities,' and such. It's hard to see how Vallee's promotion of
mystical ideas can be reconciled with <a href="https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/galileo/news/statement-ground-rules" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">the Galileo Project's professed "Ground Rules,"</a>
especially "The analysis of the data will be based solely on known
physics and will not entertain fringe ideas about extensions to the
standard model of physics." It seems to me that Vallee is the very embodiment of those promoting "fringe ideas":<br /><blockquote>In recent discussions with Hynek, I pointed out that the saucer question may well be part of a complex series of scientific realities, but it also plunges deep into mystical and psychic theories. I found him very receptive to this idea. (Vallee, <i>Forbidden Science</i>, Vol. I, p. 88)</blockquote></div><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhhFk2xX948mUo51YQRcVPE1YGNkhmzxA6dBcevnm-L-3tgDkk5ofEaRVPj-xYNeeNdaLUZRneJ8a4HGR_f0WAoDHx029fIWsvcVXtpnq3Lnd_0UAQxxf2U1VDdT0mKftB1gKSB3RX0hvm6lLpfKSq1QK_T48zWWyxGPSlT_L6mcbNIXf2L6Wkud4R93g=s373" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="355" data-original-width="373" height="305" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhhFk2xX948mUo51YQRcVPE1YGNkhmzxA6dBcevnm-L-3tgDkk5ofEaRVPj-xYNeeNdaLUZRneJ8a4HGR_f0WAoDHx029fIWsvcVXtpnq3Lnd_0UAQxxf2U1VDdT0mKftB1gKSB3RX0hvm6lLpfKSq1QK_T48zWWyxGPSlT_L6mcbNIXf2L6Wkud4R93g=s320" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Jacques Vallee and Paola Harris</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table>The timing of Vallee's selection is especially perplexing because<a href="https://www.amazon.com/TRINITY-Best-Kept-Jacques-F-Vall%C3%A9e/dp/B094ZQ1GW5/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1QWLRIK6WIP3Q&keywords=jacques+vallee&qid=1643143131&s=books&sprefix=jacques+vallee%2Cstripbooks%2C127&sr=1-2" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Vallee's most recent book, <i>Trinity</i></a> (co-authored with Paola Harris), about a supposed 1945 UFO crash in New Mexico, is being widely panned, even by many of those who once admired him greatly. <a href="https://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/new-book-from-jacques-vallee-claims-evidence-for-1945-new-mexico-ufo-crash" target="_blank">Jason Colavito explains</a>,</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>The San Antonio crash story is rather unbelievable, even by UFO standards. According to the most common version of the story, Jose Padilla and Reme Baca, then aged 9 and 7, witnessed a nearly thirty-foot-long spacecraft crash into the desert. They ran to the crash site and saw two little men emerge and begin running about in a panic. One of the boys took a piece of debris from the crash site. Then, the U.S. Army arrived, built a road out to the crash site, and retrieved the spaceship. The boys never knew what became of the little men from inside the ship.<br /> <br />The story rests on the memories, six decades after the fact, of small children repeating a tale straight out of a Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers comic strip.</blockquote></div><a href="https://skunkworksblog.com/2021/06/01/they-know-not-what-they-do-what-to-make-of-trinity-the-best-kept-secret-by-jacques-f-vallee-and-paola-leopizzi-harris/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Bryan Sentes writes on the Skunkworks Blog</a>,</div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>On finishing VallĂ©eâs and Harrisâ <i>Trinity</i>, the reader would be forgiven if they wondered if the âJacques VallĂ©eâ who co-authored this book were the same âJacques VallĂ©eâ credited with writing R<i>evelations</i> or the recently re-issued <i>Passport to Magonia</i>. Where the last volume is, at least in certain circles, highly-prized for being inventive and groundbreaking and <i>Revelations</i> is a focussed, critical examination of the stories about alien abduction, crashed flying saucers and dead aliens, secret alien bases and cattle mutilation, Trinity is an unfocussed, raggedly-composed, eye-rollingly credulous mess of a book.<br /><br />It would be a tedious exercise to catalogue its manifold failings. While VallĂ©e speaks of himself as a scientist and even imagines scientists reading the book (286), Trinity is no work of science, scholarship, or even investigative journalism. Indeed, it reads like a first draft, in sore need of a thorough editing for content and structure, let alone a proof-reading.</blockquote></div></div><div><p style="text-align: justify;"> Unlike Vallee's other books, <i>Trinity</i> is self-published, and thus escaped proper editing.<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Avi Loeb wrote an"opinion and analysis" piece in <i>Scientific American</i>, "Astronomers Should Be Willing to Look Closer at Weird Objects in the Sky" (Sept. 29, 2021). I've never known any astronomer to be unwilling to look at weird objects, assuming such objects can actually be found. <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/astronomers-should-be-willing-to-look-closer-at-weird-objects-in-the-sky/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Loeb writes</a>,<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>Under typical weather conditions, Earthâs atmosphere is opaque to infrared light beyond a distance of about 10 kilometers or less. Resolving a feature the size of a cell phone on the surface of a UAP at that distance requires a telescope diameter on the order of 10 centimeters. Having a few such telescopes on a given site will allow us to monitor the motion of an object in three dimensions. These telescopes could be supplemented by a radar system that would distinguish a physical object in the sky from a weather pattern or a mirage.<br /><br />If UAP are solid objects, they should heat up as they rub against air at high speed. The surfaces of objects that move in air faster than sound, such as supersonic airplanes or space rockets, are heated by hundreds of degrees. I calculated that the infrared glow of fast objects above a meter in size, supplemented by the heat from shockwaves in the air around them or an engine they carry, should be detectable with infrared sensors on telescopes out to the desired distance.</blockquote></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The Galileo Project makes much of looking for hypothetical alien objects in orbit around the earth. But if an object is in orbit, it will not "rub against air at high speed." So he is talking about objects zipping around in the atmosphere at high speeds, like UFOs are supposed to be doing. This is exceedingly implausible, since such an object would quickly fall to earth if unpowered, so he is assuming that aliens can both power it and control it from light years away. Loeb seems to think that a few four-inch telescopes felicitously positioned within 10 km of the speeding alien probe will catch the sneaky bugger. This is about as likely as getting hit by lightning just as you bend over to pick up a discarded $1000 bill on the sidewalk, at the same time as your cell phone receives a call from Publishers Clearinghouse to inform you that you've won the Grand Prize Really, really unlikely </p><p style="text-align: justify;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi0I91hHh8F0Z_4Lqtg5Pi0_3C6-j5tVqzGbhkCwwCDRB9_NCE2Xq4IpS_44xboxDURqznmosn3wNaansrmlNd6NQly6DC2-S9mD3ytrFc-FlPOO7Wm6DJ1pL6m6WJQZJxb6GTbD2rKikNcUPxe5nhczs_fvZ7-EHRAK73JNMjWPboel7LoeHM8xvr7nA=s1920" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi0I91hHh8F0Z_4Lqtg5Pi0_3C6-j5tVqzGbhkCwwCDRB9_NCE2Xq4IpS_44xboxDURqznmosn3wNaansrmlNd6NQly6DC2-S9mD3ytrFc-FlPOO7Wm6DJ1pL6m6WJQZJxb6GTbD2rKikNcUPxe5nhczs_fvZ7-EHRAK73JNMjWPboel7LoeHM8xvr7nA=w640-h360" width="640" /></a></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://youtu.be/bczQ_hytHOw" target="_blank">On January 19 I did a two-hour podcast with Kal Korff and Melissa Martel</a> on <i>The Wicked Truth</i>. We talked about Betty Hill and her crazy stories, like a building that walked away and disappeared, or a truck that flew over the freeway. Kal told how Friedman kept making claims he knew were false. We also talked about the roles of Robert Bigelow, Joe Firmage, and others in promoting dubious claims. Have a listen!<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p></div>Robert Sheafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15324537021429419111noreply@blogger.com40