Thursday, March 1, 2012

A Skeptic at the 2012 International UFO Congress - Part 5 of 5.

[With revisions, May 2023]. On Friday evening I watched The Montauk Chronicles, a documentary on supposed sinister paranormal experiments carried out on innocent boys by the U.S. military at Montauk, Long Island, NY. (See p. 124-126 of my book Pyschic Vibrations). Supposedly tens of thousands of young boys, if not hundreds of thousands, were taken off the streets, imprisoned, tortured and molested, all for the purpose of unleashing hidden paranormal powers. [This bizarre claim was reportedly the basis for the highly popular TV series Stranger Things, which premiered on Netflix in 2016] The Montauk project reportedly ended when one of the youngsters was able to manifest a Big Scary Monster that ran amuck attacking people. By some accounts, the monster still runs amuck at night, when the moon is full and the fog sits upon the moor - wooo. The movie is quite well made. I met the writer and director, Christopher P. Garetano, who seems like a nice fellow but apparently lacks the gene for critical thinking. He cannot decide whether this huge, bloated, absurd tale is true or not. Good Lord!
David Sereda and Stan Romanek test that the laws of electromagnetism are still working

The Saturday sessions began with Ben Hansen, host of the SyFy channel's Fact or Faked, on the Interplay of Media, Technology, Hollywood, and Validating Evidence of ET Contact.  He raised the question of how to tell, given all this technology, which photos and videos are genuine, and which faked. Technology, he said, is our best friend, but also our worst enemy. It seemed to be more "enemy" that morning as many of his video excerpts were unable to be played. The genre of "found footage," he said is now so popular that if real footage of ETs is ever found, it might not be believed. He decried the "wolves" who damage the credibility of UFO research by making sensational claims for their own fun and profit. Unfortunately, he did not name any names.
Whitley and Anne Strieber

When I first saw the celebrated mega-best selling author Whitley Strieber and his wife Anne seated on a panel, I remarked to myself how their demeanor reminded me of the couple in the famous painting American Gothic. I had not seen Anne before; however I had written up an account of Strieber's very odd behavior during my previous Close Encounter with the Great Confabulator. For his talk, Strieber promised he would be Solving the Communion Enigma, but somehow never quite did. He did promote his website The Unknown Country, especially the paid subscribers' pages. Anne read some letters they had received, telling of peoples' highly-emotional experiences with "the visitors." In mankind's struggle for political and personal freedom, he said, we CE-ers are on the cutting edge.However, it is common for CE people to have a "tragic background." A wave of "strange sounds" around the world, mentioned earlier by Maussan, were discussed.

I got out of my seat to get photos of the speakers, without flash so as not to disturb the video being made. I was looking at the photos as I returned to my seat. The fellow next to me asked "were there any orbs above them?" No, not this time, I replied. Streiber returned to the theme of contact with the dead that he first began to promote in his book The Key (see my Review, "He Sees Dead People," in the Skeptical Inquirer, July/August, 2011). Dead people, he says, dress in a brown monk's cowl, "Jesuit clothing." Some of the visitors think it is possible for mankind ro 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.

Whitley Strieber signing autographs


General Ricardo Bermudez spoke about Chile's Official UFO Agency. I didn't hear much of his talk. He was having serious Audio-Visual problems. He spoke about UFO reports that were being received in Chile.

Next the celebrated Steven Greer of CSETI (not to be confused with real SETI) spoke on Contact: Countdown to Transformation to his largely-credulous and adoring crowd. "Disclosure has already happened," said Greer unexpectedly, borrowing a line from John Alexander, who Greer normally disagrees with about everything. Greer didn't explain that remark. Greer showed a photo of Bijou, an ambassador from the Andromeda Galaxy whose acquaintance was made in one of CSETI's desert Skywatches at Joshua Tree, CA. Bijou has now become like a sort of pet alien for Greer, often playing peek-a-boo when it's least expected. It takes a great deal of imagination to see Bijou in the original photo at left, even after they have helpfully cut away his outline (right) - more imagination than I have, I'm afraid. Greer also has equally-fuzzy photos of blips that he says are alien spaceships, many of them only partially materialized in our dimension.  Every time they go out, says Greer, they spot UFOs. Every time. This confirms my suspicion that no matter what light they see in the sky, they think it's a UFO.
 
Greer says there's an alien hiding out in this photo.

Voila! It's Bijou, Greer's alien familiar


Greer claims that electro-gravitic devices were built by long ago. He said the only reason the conspirators had not yet killed him is because he is too well-known. He accused the conspirators of "murder" in the cancer death of his friend Sheri Adamiak, and in the non-fatal cancers of other researchers, including his own. Apparently they have some sort of 'cancer ray' that they use against UFOlogists who get too close to the truth. Which brings us to this Rambo guy that I saw with Greer Friday night when Greer first arrived. He was dressed in black combat fatigues, and appeared to be wearing a bullet-proof vest. I thought this was odd, but I didn't pay much attention to him. Arizona is a state where people carry around guns the way people in other states carry umbrellas, although there are "no weapons" signs posted all around the facility. I heard later that Greer has taken to traveling with bodyguards, undoubtedly for the theatrical effect. Rambo, however, was not to be seen on Saturday when Greer spoke, and especially when he went into the hallway to sign autographs, which is when Greer would need protection the most. I heard an unconfirmed rumor that Rambo may have gotten himself into trouble bringing guns onto the Indian Reservation. For whatever reason, Rambo wasn't there, leaving poor Steven Greer defenseless. I am happy to report that Greer survived his stint at the UFO Congress.

Alien technology, he says, offers us free energy so that we won't need oil or coal any more. However, this is being opposed by the greedy oil companies, and the military-industrial complex. Greer said that he was offered a bribe of $2 BILLION by the conspirators to stop investigating UFOs, which he bravely and selflessly declined. (Me, I'd sell out for a mere two million. 😉)
Steven Greer is embraced by one of his many admiring fans. But where is Rambo?

Colin Andrews, the world authority on Crop Circles, spoke on that subject. He said that it really doesn't matter which of the crop circles are man-made, and which are real. (I'm still trying to wrap my head around that!). There are profound changes coming, as a "switch" will be thrown on December 21, changing, well, something really important.

As is well-known in UFOlogy, in the 1990s Laurence Rockefeller donated a significant sum for the study of UFOs. Less well-known is that he also donated money to fund a two-year study of Crop Circles,  and that Colin Andrews was chief investigator. Rockefeller's people said they wanted the  "best assessment" possible. They had enough money to buy the newest equipment, and even use helicopters. When it was completed, the conclusion was that 80% of the Circles were made by people, but 20% were unexplained. This conclusion was very controversial in UFO and Crop Circle circles; many people thought of it as a "debunking" study, and turned against poor Colin.

I first met Andrews two days earlier, when I was returning to my seat after my mini-confrontation with Steve Pierce and Travis Walton during the Q&A. He stopped me, introduced himself, and asked me for my card. I guess he wanted to find out what this was all about! I replied that I knew who he was, and we agreed to meet later and chat. When we did, I pointed out that some of the statements he'd made earlier about 2012 "alignments" were rather confused. I was surprised to see that he was trying to figure this out by himself using planetarium software, but not really understanding the parameters. His maps were so broad as to be very confusing. I told him I'd written quite a lot on those "alignments," and I sent him by email the links to the three Blog entries I did a year ago about that (http://badufos.blogspot.com/2011/02/2012-peter-gerstens-leap-of-faith.html and the two following it), for which he thanked me.

At that point I had to get back home so I could go to see the final performance at the San Diego Opera of Jake Heggie's west coast premiere opera Moby Dick., which was amazing.

15 comments:

  1. Greer didn't say the bribe came from Phil Klass, did he?

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  2. I hope when watching MOBY DICK your mind wasn't distracted by all those momentous revelations at the UFO conference.

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  4. For my money, Greer is by far the most repulsive individual in the field.

    Would have been great to have been able to show the audience his moment in the national spotlight on a network TV newsmagazine when he soberly and stupidly declared a light in the sky to be one of THEM!

    The light got closer and closer. It was a helicopter.

    In a rational world that would have been the end of Greer and all the silly fey name dropping.

    But this ain't a rational world.

    Lance

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  5. Lance, is that online anywhere? I can't find it (I don't know the name of the programme to which you refer).

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  6. It used to be. I am looking for it. I believe it was a newsmagazine like 48 hours.

    Lance

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  7. I believe that the program was CBS' 48 Hours airing April 21, 1994. But I can't find video online.

    Love it if anyone can find it.

    Lance

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  8. "The light got closer and closer. It was a helicopter."

    Greer once "vectored" a chirping cricket in a pine tree.

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  10. Greer did inadvertently provide one of the funniest bits of video of all time (although everything he does is hilariously dumb) when he was "interviewed" by the equally deluded folks at the execreable Project Camelot:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzqDVOjtNhg

    Its like watching two of the folks you see walking down the street talking to themselves have a discussion.

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  11. Greer is an insidious leech without any doubt. Here is a remarkable video that shows his scam in action. Note the convenience that the extraterrestrial craft that he vectors in are actually invisible to the naked eye and the camera. He charges $2500 a head for this stuff.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_86mADyxwk

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  12. The Montauk Chronicles is a total joke and is based on the made up lies of Stewart Swerdlow and others. The Montauk Project never even existed and was nothing more than a marketing gimmick for the wannabe fantasist Stewart Swerdlow. Just ask Duncan Roads and Dean Stonier about when Stewart Swerdlow attended the Global Sciences Congress (GSC) in Daytona, Florida, in February 1999. In front of Alfred Bielek, Duncan Roads and hundreds of attendees in the lobby, at the Global Sciences Congress, Swerdlow basically revealed he intended to reinvent himself and needed to develop his backstory about the Montauk Project and wanted Al Bielek to collaborate with him, to add some authenticity to his fake persona. Stewart Swerdlow plagiarizes all his information. Like the hyperspace language knowledge he plagiarized from Maryanne Johnston, who was a half German and half American Indian social worker and a real alien experiencer who shared her knowledge with Swerdlow.

    So Stewart Swerdlow is nothing more than a liar, a charlatan and a con artist of the worst kind. Swerdlow has no clairvoyant abilities, cannot read the Language of Hyperspace and cannot speak 12 languages. Swerdlow is a slickster gimmick merchant who is the Great Pretender. He is highly egocentric and nothing more than a con man. People have been hoodwinked and duped by Stewart Swerdlow and his wife, Janet, for a long time and they are nasty individuals who have caused major psychological problems for their current and ex-clients. So The Montauk Chronicles is a farce and is a fake film based on fake events invented by Stewart Swerdlow and others, such as Duncan Cameron and Preston Nichols. However I think Whitley Strieber is an amazing speaker and has some great information though.

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  13. After watching The Montauk Chronicles, it is obvious the Montauk Project was fake and simple a lie made up by Stewart Swerdlow, and to some extent, Preston Nichols and Alfred Bielek. Swerdlow sounds fake and insincere in The Montauk Chronicles, which is because Stewart Swerdlow is most definitely a charlatan and a con artist. Like when Stewart Swerdlow mentions the disinformation about Yakov Sverdlov being his great-uncle. Stewart Swerdlow was never related to Yakov Sverdlov and Swerdlow does not have Russian ancestry. Swerdlow's ancestry comes from Belarus and Poland. Many people know Stewart Swerdlow's family never originated from Russia in the first place because researchers have done his genealogy. Yakov Sverdlov was also never the first head of state of the Soviet Communist Party in Russia because he died in 1919 and the Soviet Union was not established until 1922. Swerdlow is simply hoodwinking and tricking gullible people and nothing more with such rubbish.

    How about another example of the continual stage act that Stewart Swerdlow has created to dupe people with? Remember Swerdlow stated that he was blind for 29 years before he could see properly again in 1999. Stewart Swerdlow said he could only see in 'swirls of energy'. Then how could he have worked at a food wholesalers whilst blind in 1990 and 1991? Then he published Montauk: The Alien Connection in January 1998. How could he have written that load of disinformation and plagiarized material if he was blind until 1999? So The Montauk Chronicles is a joke docufilm that is utterly unconvincing and simply spreads more lies and disinformation. Swerdlow has no real talent and only cares about hoodwinking and deceiving gullible people with his fake backstories.

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  14. There are so many scam merchants in the UFO Community and although many of them do not cause major levels of disinformation to become normalized, some scam merchants are really sick individuals that cause mayhem. General Ricardo Bermudez from the UFO Agency in Chile, Steven Greer from CSETI and Whitley Strieber do provide great information and by no means are presenting disinformation. Greer however does present some dubious and contrived sounding information though. The only individual that was totally fake at the 2012 International UFO Congress was the absolute fraud and liar Stewart Swerdlow who was in The Montauk Chronicles docufilm. Swerdlow cannot speak 12 languages, knows zero about the Language of Hyperspace that he took from Maryanne Johnston and plagiarizes other researchers knowledge. Swerdlow is a wannabe and deceiver who is full of evil.

    Mr. Stewart Swerdlow is a total joke and The Montauk Chronicles is a silly docufilm that acts like a marketing gimmick that promotes the charlatan fantasist Stewart Swerdlow. He should never be allowed to speak publically as Swerdlow only spreads disinformation and propaganda. Anyone who interviews Stewart Swerdlow should be ashamed of themselves for allowing a Satanist and con artist like him to constantly spin and promote his yarns about the fake Montauk Project. Without any doubt, after visiting the Bielek Debunked website, anyone can see that Stewart Swerdlow is a fraud, con man, snake oil salesman and a narcissistic lunatic who has no real abilities whatsoever.




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  15. I really liked David Sereda, Steven Greer, Whitley Strieber and his wife, Anne Streiber. All of them are credible and fascinating people, who have done a lot of great work in the UFO Community. However the absolute drivel and rubbish in The Montauk Chronicles is a joke. Stewart Swerdlow is a total fake, who has carefully rehearsed his fake backstory. I personally know four ex-clients of Stewart Swerdlow, and they have all repeatedly said that Swerdlow has zero clairvoyant abilities, cannot speak 12 languages and knows nothing about the Language of Hyperspace, which Swerdlow plagiarized from his social worker, Maryanne Johnston, anyway. So whenever Stewart Swerdlow tells people that he is a 'survivor' from the Montauk Project, Swerdlow is lying. None of his so-called 'abilities' exist, and Swerdlow tells people they were utilized on the Montauk Project, when he has nothing that would have been of interest to them. Now Stewart Swerdlow has got himself a fake correspondence honorary doctorate in hyperspace healing, which he plagiarized from his half-German, hslf American Indian social worker, Maryanne Johnston, who was given the Language of Hyperspace by certain extraterrestrials. Swerdlow also stole his gimmick of being blind until September 1999 from her, to further embellish his fake Montauk Project backstory. Therefore Stewart Swerdlow is most definitely a supreme charlatan, liar, con artist, deceiver and scam merchant. He is only there to dupe the public, so gullible individuals believe his lies and buy his products. Everybody should avoid Swerdlow, because he is nothing more than the Great Pretender.

    I went over and looked at the Bielek Debunked website and was amazed at the amount of research that had been done to expose the lies of Alfred Bielek and Stewart Swerdlow. The Philadelphia Experiment never existed and neither did the Montauk Project. Preston Nichols conceived that science fiction fantasy story, and Stewart Swerdlow, like the wannabe narcissist he really is, wanted to be part of it all. Hence why, at the Global Sciences Congress (GSC) in Daytona, Florida, in February 1999 Stewart Swerdlow confronted Alfred Bielek in front of Duncan Roads, the Nexus Magazine editor, and suggested Bielek segway the Philadelphia Experiment idea to Swerdlow's B.S. Montauk Project backstory to try and legitimize his own lies. Swerdlow needed to create a reinvented persona for himself after coming out of prison in 1992 and the New Age Circuit seemed like a good idea for his new career. If you all knew how many people hate Stewart Swerdlow, who is well-known for being a first class manipulator and sicko behind the scenes. When him and his lying, deceptive wife, Janet Swerdlow, do their YouTube videos, they make out they are in some kind of glamorous soap opera. That stage act fools a lot of people, a bit like when Swerdlow telling everyone he was involved with the Montauk Project, when he never was.

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