A Skeptic at the 2018 UFO Congress, Part 2

Continued from previous posting........

Dean Alioto

The first speaker on Thursday morning was Dean Alioto, film director and writer. According to his bio, he is the creator of "the mysterious and enigmatic UPN TV special Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County (aka The McPherson Tape). For two decades, Alioto’s TV special has generated conspiracies worldwide and has been studied by top experts in the field of UFOs and alien abductions. At this year’s convention, Alioto will speak publicly for the first time ever about the TV special and the incredible strange story behind it. In addition, Alioto will talk about the original video that the controversial TV special was based on. Known simply as, UFO Abduction, this video brought the house down at the 1993 International UFO Congress Convention with it’s shocking footage of a family being abducted by aliens."

In brief: In 1989 Alioto made a short film about a family facing a home invasion by aliens. It was never formally released, but a copy was discovered by credulous UFO believers and shown around, including at the 1993 UFO Congress. In the film the family barricades itself against the aliens, and fires shotguns at them. It ends up as "found footage." (Alioto claims to have invented the genre of "found footage," later so popular with the Blair Witch Project, etc. Probably he did.)   In 1998 this story was re-made as a higher-budget film, and shown on UPN TV as Alien Abduction: Incident In Lake County. That version of his film was shown in the evening as part of the Film Festival. At about 65 minutes long, I found it annoying and tedious with its shaky camera and chaotic, arguing actors. "Bring on the aliens!", I kept thinking. Finally we see them at the very end.

Alioto's main point was, many people who saw his film refused to believe that it was not a real abduction (and he named names), even though the alien actors are named in the credits. He said he was worried how he might be received at a UFO conference, since his message might be perceived as negative about UFOs. He was received quite well. After the film had been shown that evening, I had a chance to talk to Alioto, and I asked him if he was familiar with a silly old song titled "Close the Door, They're Coming in the Window"? He was not. It was one of the hits of 1955. I played a little of it for him on my phone, and he was quite surprised. It is the story of a family barricading itself against a home invasion of "somethings" (insert silly noise here), and fighting them off with baseball bats. "That song describes your movie!," I told him (one of the actors in the movie keeps shouting "Close the windows! Close the windows!"). Hmmmm, the famous Kelly-Hopkinsville 'encounter' (mentioned in Alioto's talk), in which a rural family in Kentucky claims to have defended itself against an invasion of "little green men," occurred on August 21, 1955. The same year as that song. Hmmmmmm.......

Alan Holt

Next was Alan Holt, who "recently retired from NASA after 50+ years of service, which included supporting the Apollo lunar missions, Skylab, Space Shuttle, Spacelab and the International Space Station. Mr. Holt has been actively involved in research related to encounters with unidentified aerial phenomena and in metaphysical studies for the past 49 years. He has a B.S. in Physics, Iowa State University (1967) and a M.S. in Physical Sciences (astrophysics), University of Houston/CLC (1979)." His talk was titled "'Visitors' and Humanity’s Future as an Interstellar Species." He talked about Insectoids, Reptilians, Humanoids, and their telepathic interactions with human consciousness. He had written a technical paper about using a "Field Resonance" propulsion system to push a spacecraft into hyperspace. However, he admitted that "I didn't have all of the mathematics worked out."

Holt said that his interest in UFOs was sparked by reading Adamski's Flying Saucers Have Landed. I had the same thought as I did after listening to Keller's talk the previous day: how can someone who has studied physics and has even worked in the space program, believe unsupported claims about supposed alien spacecraft that run counter to everything we know about physics? By the miracle of "mental compartmentalization," I suppose.

This man, Justin Kohn, has all the answers. He was passing out a sheet from a group called Allies of Humanity, which has "an Urgent Message About the Extraterrestrial Presence in the World Today." Something about Good Guy aliens and Bad Guy aliens. Okay.

Susan J. Palmer

Next was a very interesting talk (and one of the few talks that was truly worthwhile) by Susan J. Palmer, a sociologist of religion, on "When Contactees found “Cults”…The Case of Raël and Prophets of UFO Religions." Synopsis: "In 1974 Claude Vorilhon, French race car driver and journalist, published a book describing his CEIII during a stroll in a volcanic crater. His 1975 book, They Took Me to Their Planet, recounts traveling to the planet of the Elohim. By 1976, Vorilhon was “Raël,” the “Last and Fastest” Prophet of the International Raelian Movement, today the largest UFO religion in the world."

Palmer and her colleagues conducted in-depth interviews with Rael and many of his followers. Rael has now promoted himself from Contactee to "Prophet" (as has Billy Meier). Rael's cult is famous for its free sexuality, and I thought the funniest part of all was this: There is a certain group of followers who are expected to remain celibate until the arrival of the Elohim. However, these women are nonetheless allowed to have sex with Rael, who represents the Elohim here on earth. Rael is a genius, many men would think!😏

Robbie Graham

Robbie Graham is an author who is trying to "reframe the debate" on UFOs - hence the title of his book, an anthology of different ways of looking at the UFO phenomenon. He spoke on "Searching for Truth in All the Wrong Places." Synopsis: "A deeply personal presentation exploring the lure of the UFO, how our beliefs can be exploited, and how we might more usefully seek to unravel the UFO mystery beyond simplistic notions of government Disclosure."

Graham talked about society evolving into a "hyperreality," when images and reality seem to merge into one. He thinks that there is an E.T. component to the UFO phenomenon, but that it goes far beyond that. As for the current frenzy over the Pentagon UFO program, he calls that "the DeLonge Delusion," and suggested that DeLonge is part of a Pentagon deception. During the Q&A session Stephen Bassett - a "Disclosure" activist with the Paradigm Research Group and also a speaker at the Congress - told Graham, I would like to debate you about every statement you made. Later when I had a chance to speak with Graham, who seems like a very nice fellow, I told him my explanation for why all UFO theorists seem to be at a loss to come up with a comprehensive explanation for the phenomenon: they are attempting to find patterns in what is fundamentally just noise.

There was a panel about "Science and the Future of UFO Research." T.L. Keller talked about human-made saucers that use anti-gravity propulsion. Bob Gross told an implausible tale about NASA secretly trying to recruit Navajo astronauts. The reason was, when these astronauts go to the  moon and Mars they will encounter other beings there, and the Native Americans will be able to 'think differently' about that.