tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-42881776901555968242024-03-26T12:20:40.443+00:00MAGONIA ARCHIVEUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger314125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288177690155596824.post-33539789001247176942014-02-06T20:06:00.002+00:002020-10-04T13:37:36.759+01:00That's All Folks ...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<strong>John Rimmer</strong></div>
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Editorial Notes, Magonia 99, April 2008</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNSJlUlSvwstrAo7B-EzZQCvEgQ62Mnb9-OHpkudcO-Q0u_o56SkwoFr9Vux59vq-6VJ8McQVzWwPg3Jil865jX6W1kryC0r85WOJMoHc5hLxqwC-bL9LmjUxxDGc7G-rvU7qllbbPwLnZ/s1600/aa+portrait+square.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="100" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNSJlUlSvwstrAo7B-EzZQCvEgQ62Mnb9-OHpkudcO-Q0u_o56SkwoFr9Vux59vq-6VJ8McQVzWwPg3Jil865jX6W1kryC0r85WOJMoHc5hLxqwC-bL9LmjUxxDGc7G-rvU7qllbbPwLnZ/s1600/aa+portrait+square.jpg" width="100" /></a>Well here it is. Welcome to Magonia 99, the last in the series which has survived in one form or another since 1968. Firstly as <em>Merseyside UFO Bulletin</em>, then simply as MUFOB when the editorial base moved from Merseyside, and finally as Magonia. Peter Rogerson outlines our history in more detail <a href="http://magoniamagazine.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/memories.html" target="_blank">elsewhere</a> in this issue, so I shall concentrate here on my reasons for ending the publication at this point. </div>
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Some of you may have seen my piece in the February 2009 issue of <em>Fortean Times</em>. (And may I add here how incredibly flattered I am by the editorial in that issue in which Bob Rickard describes Magonia as FT's "philosophical elder brother") In that column I expressed my disappointment and frustration that the whole field of UFO research seemed incapable of making any kind of progress, and that it has deteriorated into an endless scrutiny of issues that were once considered settled. Of course, in many cases the level of interest in a report or personality is not dependent of the level of scientific interest in the object, but the level of financial interest. </div>
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Over the past few months we've been subjected to a seemingly endless flow of low-grade UFO reports in the tabloids, most notably the <em>Sun.</em> It's disappointing, but hardly surprising that one of the figures boosting this process is the self-styled former 'Head of the British Government's UFO Project'. </div>
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What's even more disappointing, though, is the way the British 'UFO community' (OK, silly phrase, but it seem to be the contemporary usage!) has tagged along in its wake, with endless and fairly pointless discussion about whether or not a UFO knocked the blade off a wind turbine, It didn't, OK? End of story. </div>
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At least the British UFO 'community' does operate with a considerable degree of scepticism and common-sense, unlike our transatlantic colleagues, who have invented a kind of ufological necrophilia, resurrecting cases which everyone though were dead and buried decades ago, It's not just Roswell, of course, but just about every case from the 'fifties and 'sixties - from Socorro to McMinnville - is being revived with 'death-bed confessions' or vague hints of sinister government involvement. </div>
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Having said that, there is still a great deal of positive work being undertaken. It would have seemed impossible just a few years ago that British ufologists would be working in conjunction with a government agency to publicise Ministry of Defence records of UFO reports, yet this is what's happening now with David Clarke and the National Archives. The historical research which David, Andy Roberts and others are undertaking is providing valuable information on the social background to UFO belief and activism in Britain. </div>
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And certainly it is true to say that the entire ethos of ufology, in this country at least, has changed quite radically for the better since this magazine began its long march; and I think not overly egotistical to say to a considerable extent because of what we have done in Magonia. Much of this was through bringing the work of the French researchers of the 1980s to the attention of British readers. </div>
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Looking back over the early issues of MUFOB it is amusing to recall the endless battles with the old fossils who ran BUFORA and some of the other UFO organisations of the period. These were often conducted with an overtone of class war - how dare these uneducated oiks (some of whom never went to Oxford or Cambridge or had not even been awarded a phoney degree from the University of Seven Sisters Road) challenge the wisdom of the classically educated ufological aristocracy? </div>
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British ufology has successfully re-buried the fossils, and with the demise of the membership organisations, which must always pander to the lowest common denominator of subscription payers, has become what MUFOB/Magonia has been seeking for forty years: a group of individual researchers with expertise in a range of subjects, who co-operate informally and voluntarily, without the need of a bureaucratic 'National UFO Group'. </div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Our work here is done!</span></strong><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288177690155596824.post-52096301993182593972014-02-06T17:12:00.001+00:002020-03-28T23:58:46.819+00:00Magonia Memories: Where Did It All Go Right?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<strong>Peter Rogerson</strong><br />
'Northern Echoes', Magonia 99, April 2009<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi72Y2JjxzHbmkVh1ZjsPSr5sBCLhXhScwuLa_0GA8KleYk7p6bjUcvZ1IO3wb8NSQwOHbMHkyJaHNRLFXSQ5GdpsdiwscGU7Emt6rbiR0my8I8paQGzJ79gUvbvfyiqzTK35lV_t-K5y1X/s1600/cloudship+colours.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="100" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi72Y2JjxzHbmkVh1ZjsPSr5sBCLhXhScwuLa_0GA8KleYk7p6bjUcvZ1IO3wb8NSQwOHbMHkyJaHNRLFXSQ5GdpsdiwscGU7Emt6rbiR0my8I8paQGzJ79gUvbvfyiqzTK35lV_t-K5y1X/s1600/cloudship+colours.gif" width="100" /></a>It is hard to imagine that this journal in some incarnation or another has been around for at least forty years. The exact date depends whether you date its origins with the Merseyside UFO Group <em>Newsletter</em> which started in 1965; with John Harney taking over its editorship and change to <em>Bulletin</em> in 1966; or with the founding of the original <em>Merseyside UFO Bulletin</em> in January 1968. </div>
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The latter seems appropriate, born in the year of revolutions, in a world as remote from ours as it was from the days of Lindbergh and Charlie Chaplin. A world with only three black and white TV channels, no videos, no CDs, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no Internet. Early copies of the magazine were produced on hand-operated typewriters and printed by messy duplication processes. Of course there were similarities with our age: a deeply unpopular foreign war, the clouds of terrorism about to come across the horizon, from Ireland, and a deepening economic crisis </div>
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There were of course UFOs, and all sorts of other strange and curious visions and beliefs. The paperback stalls were beginning to fill with Forteana, and over the preceding two or three years UFO books were among the main components, with titles like <em>Flying Saucers Serious Business</em>, <em>Flying Saucers are Hostile</em>, <em>The Flying Saucer Menace</em>, <em>Flying Saucers, the Startling Evidence for the Invasion from Outer Space</em>, or the more sober <em>Anatomy of a Phenomenon</em> and <em>Challenge to Science</em>. In 1967 Britain had undergone its major media UFO wave and newspapers were full of tales of lights in the sky and 'Things' at Warminster. The Betty and Barney Hill story was serialised in one of the Sunday papers, and the BBC's prestigious literary magazine <em>The Listener</em> hosted an article by UFO hippie John Michell. </div>
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I was going to say how different from today, for up to a month or two ago it seemed that ufology was really dead, no afterlife, no escape from the coffin this time; a subject for the social historians, a closed episode from the 20th century. Yet once again the old vampire has arisen and stalks the media again. Whether summoned for commercial reasons by the black arts of the Necromancers of Murdoch, or a spectre called from the vast deep by the credit crunch and economic downturn, time will tell. </div>
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From the moment it was established by John Harney and the then science editor Alan Sharp, MUFOB was seen as following in the footsteps of its irreverent MUFORG predecessor, dousing ufological speculation with dollops of common sense. Of course soon Mr Rimmer joined the happy crew, and the first triumvirate, the Three Merseysiders Blind To Reality, if not In Black, was established. <br />
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Among their early readers was a schoolboy from Manchester who had a teenage boy's interest in flying saucers and all things Fortean. By 1969 my interest in ufology had led me beyond reading just about every book on the subject in the English language, to reading <em>Fate</em>, <em>Flying Saucer Review</em>, <em>Spacelink</em> and other journals now lost in the mist of time. I even joined the local flying saucer club, the notorious DIGAP. Even among the not terribly critical ufologists of the period, DIGAP had a reputation of being something of a graveyard for ufologists . </div>
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In 1968 they organised a conference, most notable for the fact that half of the advertised speakers had dropped out at the last minute; for a truly bizarre lecture on 'Sex and the Saucers" by Norman Oliver; a Pythonesque piece by Tony Wedd, which featured slides (a means of projecting photographs on to screens beloved by those going on their first continental holiday) of trees: "Number 1, The larch. The larch"; and an unbelievably badly faked UFO film.</div>
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A few months later, having nearly given a nervous breakdown to the then glitterati of British Ufology, Roger Stanway and Anthony Pace who had come down trying to promote a serious scientific book on ufology, the group was desperately in search of speakers, so I suggested John Rimmer as a possibility. He did much better than Paceway, and even survived being told that John Harney had been silenced by the Men in Black!<br />
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John Rimmer had suggested that many UFO reports had psychological origins, but this was clearly anathema to the group's First Citizen, Supreme Commander and Chief Priest, Mr Arthur Tomlinson, who scurried around afterward trying to shore up the correct party line. </div>
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It was from that meeting that I became a correspondent of MUFOB, which meant the editors had to decipher my handwriting, which as I have a kind of semi-dyslexia, meant them practising their skills at palaeography and code breaking. After reading Jacques Vallee's <em>Passport to Magonia</em>, I conceived the idea of a continuing collection of type I UFO reports, (landings and near landings), and after some ten years I had accumulated over 5,000 such reports covering the period 1880-1980. These began to appear in MUFOB, and for a time I ran MUFOB's journal exchange programme. </div>
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In these early years the editors of MUFOB actually investigated UFO cases, including that of the Runcorn contactee Jim Cooke and a variety of weird tales from Widnes. The one I was involved with was the story of Miss Z and her hag experience. There might have been more but shortly afterwards John Rimmer married Judith and moved down to London, while MUFOB limped on for a couple more issues then seemed to die. </div>
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Meanwhile by a roundabout route I began corresponding with Roger Sandell, and it was clear that he was someone very much in MUFOB's style, and he had begun writing for the magazine. When in 1975 both John Harney and Roger Sandell moved to Richmond, they were able to team up with John Rimmer who then lived in New Malden, and the second great triumvirate was formed. After a single duplicated transitional issue MUFOB, now edited by John Rimmer, changed to a printed A5 [<em>strictly speaking, folded foolscap - JR</em>] magazine. After a few issues it was clear that MUFOB (or the <em>Metempirical UFO Bulletin</em> for those who insisted that initials must mean something) was not a very appropriate title for the wider magazine, and eventually, at my suggestion, the name Magonia was chosen. <br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><strong>Probably our finest hour was our stand against the whole Satanic abuse myth, spearheaded by Roger Sandell. This was something that was causing real pain and real suffering to real people.</strong></span> </div>
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These became our glory years, Magonia was at the forefront, and all sorts of new and exciting ideas were floated. There were rough patches in the early 1980s, but we ploughed on. By the late 1980s there were no fewer than six editors (the triumvirate being joined by long time contributor Nigel Watson, folklorist Mick Goss and fantasy novelist Robert Rankin). Probably our finest hour was our stand against the whole Satanic abuse myth spearheaded by Roger Sandell. This was something that was causing real pain and real suffering to real people. </div>
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Then came alien abductions and the rise of the Abduction Finders General, and we turned our attention to them, with the same zeal. The days of standing on the side-lines as rather detached psycho-social observers were ending, we were edging closer to a much more positive scepticism, and a much more polemical stance. At the same time our editorial panel thinned back the triumvirate as people moved on. Then at the start of 1996 came our greatest disaster, the sudden death of Roger Sandell. A sense of duty towards his memory as much as anything kept us going for a while, seeing us through to the rise of the Internet, and our own web pages. By the early 2000s Magonia was producing a quarterly magazine, a monthly newsletter and had no few than three web sites up and running. </div>
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Technical problems over the last couple of years have forced these [temporarily] down, and interest in the subject seemed to be waning, and it is not clear whether the proposed new incarnation for Magonia will go ahead. If this is indeed farewell and not just a rest, back in a while, what can we conclude after forty years? Anyone who has read through our issues will have seen a growing scepticism on all our parts. </div>
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Several years ago I cut back to book reviewing because I felt I had said all I could say. My personal position on the whole range of topics discussed in Magonia or Fortean Times is one of sceptical agnosticism. On the one hand there are many stories in the literature which if accurately and completely reported would be, to put it mildly, very puzzling indeed. This does not mean that this would provide evidence for the array of folk explanations usually trotted out, indeed most of those encounter as many, if not more, difficulties as the 'normal' ones. Full and accurate reporting however is often what we do not get in these subjects, often quite the contrary. There are obvious temptations to 'sex things up' and to produce a nice, marketable commodity rather than allow for all sorts of complexities.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><strong><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">There seems to be a great tendency among many writers in this field to prefer convoluted and baroque paranormal explanations to fairly straightforward normal ones</span></strong> </span></div>
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There seems to be a great tendency among many writers in this field to prefer convoluted and baroque paranormal explanations to fairly straightforward normal ones. All too often there are the arguments from personal ego. Crudely put they claim 'none of these chavs on the council estate/rednecks in trailer park could put one over on a clever chap like me' or 'these hicks couldn't possibly have access to the special esoteric knowledge that a clever chap like me has'. This attitude is encountered time and again, along with the implicit argument that it is more plausible that everything we think we know about the world is wrong and the whole of modern science is in error, than it is that a clever chap like the investigator could be mistaken or fooled. Of course, the sad fact is that being human and not Vulcan means that regardless of what education or qualifications we have, we can all be mistaken or fooled, or not perceive or remember things properly. </div>
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This means that those who propose new and extraordinary claims have to have actual evidence as opposed to assertion to back up their claim. In many cases it is not a question of the lack of 'extraordinary evidence' but the lack of any evidence at all. As there always seems a tendency to escalate the claims to destruction, it is not surprising that little actual investigation by outsiders takes place. Neutral scientists may be prepared to look into reports of anomalous lights in the sky, or anomalous forms of communication, but try them on invisible aliens abducting people through solid walls, texting poltergeists, apported chickens or retroactive PK and their boggle factor is soon going to kick in. </div>
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Whatever the "real" nature of these alleged phenomena and experiences, they undoubtedly exist as social phenomena, things people believe they have experienced and which they either fit into pre-existing belief systems or construct new ones. Give something a name and you summon it. An example is the very new idea of Shadow People. Starting as a name for something which did not have a folk name, the fleeting 'seeing' of shadowy forms on the periphery of vision, and was thus rarely reported. It has a 'scientific' name, paradolia, and a probable physiological explanation, but that sounds rather like a disease and does not encourage reports. Give it a catchy name and you soon have websites devoted to it, and the initial very vague experience becomes more solidified, then all sorts of other experiences with quite different causes are dragged in. Here we can see a new belief system in the making, and already beginning its symbiotic feedback relationship with popular culture. </div>
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There will be more examples to come, which suggests that even if Magonia goes out with a proper Viking funeral and a grand wake, some day down the line someone is going to have to invent something very like it all over again. Meanwhile wherever you are, raise your glasses to the two Johns and the memory of Roger, and the vision and belief that was Magonia. </div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288177690155596824.post-51165064638493264312014-02-06T16:02:00.002+00:002021-07-29T23:04:37.435+01:00Some Thoughts on 'The UFO as an Anti-Scientific Symbol'<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<strong>John Rimmer</strong><br />
Magonia 99, April 2009<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilspTmwf01_Mzf-3-E1ILDB217joKTHgpzQmnrU40AW7RDdxeBYnCUb6H-vab00DSAj4i0vQSlfKnOvcMIRAYiu5TH7-TVoFWYgY1hKFvGB2T88bY7cfoSJWbqcaF2SD5RSb2Hf55s6UM8/s1600/doubt.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="100" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilspTmwf01_Mzf-3-E1ILDB217joKTHgpzQmnrU40AW7RDdxeBYnCUb6H-vab00DSAj4i0vQSlfKnOvcMIRAYiu5TH7-TVoFWYgY1hKFvGB2T88bY7cfoSJWbqcaF2SD5RSb2Hf55s6UM8/s1600/doubt.png" width="100" /></a>I decided to reprint<a href="http://magonia.haaan.com/1969/ufos-as-an-anti-scientific-symbol/" target="_blank"> this article</a> [1] in the last print issue of <i>Magonia,</i> as it is one of the most quoted and referred-to articles that I have written for MUFOB and Magonia. Before re-reading it in detail I was expecting to find it rather dated and irrelevant, but instead I was surprised by just how relevant it is to the current situation, and in fact how predictive it seems to have been - not just ufologically, but politically. </div>
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What I refer to as neo-Luddite attitudes have developed into current 'green' thinking with its hostility to almost all scientific and industrial development. I referred to "the development of pastoralism to an almost political movement". Of course, it is now the basis of at least one political party and increasingly informs the policies of the major parties. </div>
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Increasingly now, when I read the material which is published in UFO-related books and posted on web sites the degree of anti-scientific, even anti-human, sentiment that I find is alarming. The latest <i>MUFON UFO Journal,</i> for instance - which bears the statement 'MUFON's mission is the scientific study of UFOs for the benefit of humanity, research and education' - carries a review of a book called <i>Blue Star: Fulfilling Prophecy</i>, about the psychic messages given to a abductee/contactee, Miriam Delicado from aliens she describes as 'Tall Blondes'. These messages involve the fulfilment of "ancient Hopi Indian prophecies ... heralding dramatic changes for the earth and our civilization". Not unsurprisingly Miriam Delicado believes that she has a role to play in these transformations. <br />
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Now, to be fair, this is a book review, and we've reviewed some pretty weird stuff in <i>Magonia</i> over the years, so you can't take it as being necessarily indicative of the views of MUFON itself, inasmuch as it has any collective views. But this book seems typical of the type of material which is now swamping the UFO field. Another book reviewed in MUFON UFO Journal is <i>Lupo - Conversations with an ET</i>, and again Hopi Indian prophecies crop up, and, like <i>Blue Star</i>, it is enthusiastically reviewed.<br />
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<span style="text-align: left;">In these books, and in dozens like them, there is the underlying assumption that mankind is some sort of inferior species that needs to be either redeemed or re-educated by the aliens, or wiped off the face of the earth altogether in some sort of cosmic cleansing - an idea which also appeals to many in the' Deep Green' movement. Jonathan Porrit, one of Britain's most prominent (in column-inch terms at least) Green Gurus, a close associate of our next king and an advisor to the Prime Minister, speaking at something called the Optimum Population Trust is calling for Britain's population to be radically reduced in the future. Any volunteers?</span><br />
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I comment in the article that "if science is a movement into the future, the UFO ... must be a movement into the past". The forty years that have passed since writing that have confirmed that view beyond doubt. Hopi Indian prophecies, Aztec calendars, messages from earth-spirits in the form of crop circles, all represent a continual retreat towards a pre-scientific world view. </div>
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Perhaps the thing which I got most wrong in my analysis was the assumption that the fauna of the UFO world would remain as mixed and diverse as it was in the 1960s, when tall Nordics rubbed shoulders with hairy dwarfs, space-suit clad sample-collectors, disembodied brains, walking trash-cans and a hundred other oddities. Nearly all now replaced by the global monopoly of the big-headed, black-eyed Greys, the Starbucks of the UFO world. </div>
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The sceptical attitude seems to have changed little since the late 'sixties as well. I referred to Hynek and Condon as 'sceptical priests', not believing in the subject, yet prepared to 'exorcise' it. Since then we have seen the arrival of a churchful of sceptical priests with the creation of CSICOP (recently renamed CSI, Crime Scene Investigation, presumably, for crimes against science!). Although Magonia is very much in alignment with most of CSICOP's expressed views on UFOs, we do feel at times they fall over in the area of heresy-hunters, and scepticism becomes a sort of game, where only they know the rules.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "humanst521 bt";">Allow me a brief diversion here. A question which I have asked a number of times on Internet forums such as UFO Updates, and never received an acknowledgment, let alone an answer, is this: why, by and large, have American sceptics like Klass and Menzel come to the subject from outside - academic science, technical journalism - whereas British sceptical ufologists seem to have risen through the ranks of 'gutter-roots' ufology (to use Peter Rogerson's evocative term) to achieve the sceptical positions they hold.</span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> </span></blockquote>
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In the essay, I describe the 'dated futurism' of the alien worlds described by contactees. Of course there aren't so many contactees around these days (but more than the 'Serious Ufologists' would have you believe) but the worlds of the abductees are just as dated in their 'futuristic' imaginings. In a world where humble old homo sapiens can work out the very structures of life from tiny scraps of DNA, our highly-advances, transport-you-through-brick-walls aliens are still going around gouging scoops out of victims legs, sticking probes up their noses, and doing God-knows-what with their nether regions! <br />
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Finally, even what I thought was my most dated reference, Che Guevara, seems to be current again, with the publication of <em>The Motorcycle Diaries</em>, and the recent release of Part Two of Stephen Soderberg's biopic -- 'Che lives!', and so, for the foreseeable future will the UFO, but from now on it'll have to manage without Magonia. <br />
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<span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">1. John Rimmer. 'The UFO as an Anti-Scientific Symbol, <em>Merseyside UFO Bulletin</em>, vol. 2, no. 4.</span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288177690155596824.post-88482864934559164952014-02-06T15:38:00.002+00:002014-03-16T13:33:16.838+00:00A Testable Hypothesis<div style="text-align: justify;">
Jerome Clark</div>
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Magonia 99, April 2008</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxosk0Wu5HuqGxHFclndwM6GAtJZ8XZUofmYBPlmqFLE6ade-f3L1Hv8bCFH_W1zBbTi-NuKjDHqkPvA5Q8mMUfAbvHkKE5e2T3tJPLvSiqFAtkaqQnjNboWdwdDq7vxN0SKajcL3Dw3fL/s1600/ufo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxosk0Wu5HuqGxHFclndwM6GAtJZ8XZUofmYBPlmqFLE6ade-f3L1Hv8bCFH_W1zBbTi-NuKjDHqkPvA5Q8mMUfAbvHkKE5e2T3tJPLvSiqFAtkaqQnjNboWdwdDq7vxN0SKajcL3Dw3fL/s1600/ufo.jpg" height="100" width="100" /></a>On June 25, 1947, a falsifiable hypothesis about the transparently bogus character of the "flying disc" reports suddenly flooding the American press would have advanced the following confident predictions: The excitement is a fad which will fade before it can do further harm to society. The most sensational and suggestive reports will collapse under scrutiny. </div>
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The unexplained reports will be the least interesting - overwhelmingly of nebulous lights in the night sky where well-known tricks of vision come into play - and will remain technically unaccounted for only because there is insufficient information to nail down the precise prosaic solutions that would otherwise be certainly demonstrated. </div>
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Except in the case of the most banal reports which can readily be ascribed to mistaken observations of astronomical and meteorological phenomena, weather balloons, aircraft, and the like, witnesses will be fringe personalities - specifically, losers seeking attention, sufferers from mental disorders, chronic liars, sociopaths, fanatics, paranoids, the poorly educated, the superstitious, small-town folk, and other misfits. Virtually no intriguing, suggestive sightings will be made by multiple or independent observers, indicating clearly that the experience is subjective, not objective. </div>
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A correlation between mental illness and extraordinary experiential claims will be empirically demonstrated. Soon, psychiatrists will identify individuals' belief in flying-disc encounters --- or, depending upon circumstances, belief that others have had them -- as a symptom of mental disorder sufficient, in some instances, to warrant institutionalization. In cases where such a correlation cannot be documented, the claim will almost always prove, or be suspected with good (not merely speculative) reason, to be a hoax or a practical joke. Investigators will establish that in common with psychiatric difficulties, hoaxing plays a huge role in disc-reporting. </div>
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Flying discs will not show up on radar or other instruments. Ostensible trackings will fall to firmly established, indisputable conventional explanations once professionals examine the data. Analysis by technical experts will prove that all films and photographs of structured, craftlike objects either are faked or depict conventional phenomena. When studied in laboratories by competent scientific authorities, alleged ground traces left by landed discs will be found in every instance to be of prosaic origin, and no educated authority will contest the identification. </div>
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Scientists, engineers, airline and military pilots, and other sophisticated observers will rarely, if ever, experience sightings that are unexplainable. Ostensibly puzzling sightings will be -- with barely any exceptions worth noting -- the province of naive, disturbed, or dishonest claimants. </div>
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There is, in short, no possibility that a quarter-century from now, a prominent, well-credentialed astronomer, drawing on many years of,field investigation and interaction with supposed observers, will write a book titled The Flying Disc Experience, putting forth a manifestly absurd proposition: "When the long awaited [sic] solution to the flying-disc problem comes, I believe that it will prove to be not merely the next small step in the march of science but a mighty and totally unexpected quantum leap." The more one knows about flying-disc reports, the easier it will be to solve them and to show to the full satisfaction of any intelligent, mentally stable outsider the conventional stimuli that generated them. </div>
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There will be no controversy about this except among the credulous, cretinous, and cracked, whom all responsible citizens must shun as undesirables. Belief in flying discs as genuine anomalies -- and it will be "belief' uncontaminated by evidence -- that defy current knowledge will be exposed as the intellectual equivalent of faith in a flat earth, sun-sign astrology, phrenology, and worse. Most flying-disc promoters, incidentally, will be the sorts of individuals who embrace all of the above, some of them from the rubber rooms in which they are housed. </div>
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The thinness of the evidence for flying discs, like that for ball lightning, will ensure that no respectable person ever takes up the issue, except to recall it as a moment in the history of social pathology. </div>
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Those who seek to speak and advocate otherwise will be effectively and permanently silenced via the judicious application of ridicule. </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288177690155596824.post-44541787164531430892014-02-06T13:36:00.003+00:002014-03-16T13:34:59.647+00:00Mediums, Mystics and Martians<div style="text-align: justify;">
<strong>Gareth J. Medway</strong></div>
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Magonia 99, April 2009</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdHb3ZmiXpvs50m01q6FNaU8caiBxBCWWd801ZWXrFehVdgIkH8VQq1LVXIXbSAnTPyf5n_j9u9YMMnzYKqYWSKxo_XTR_bPIOynBzmJKVs9d5JIh-F6RQlFSOxk4NzsuSGYgauOgp41tr/s1600/aa+canals.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdHb3ZmiXpvs50m01q6FNaU8caiBxBCWWd801ZWXrFehVdgIkH8VQq1LVXIXbSAnTPyf5n_j9u9YMMnzYKqYWSKxo_XTR_bPIOynBzmJKVs9d5JIh-F6RQlFSOxk4NzsuSGYgauOgp41tr/s1600/aa+canals.jpg" height="100" width="100" /></a>In 1853 Spiritualism became the latest fashionable pursuit in the southern Spanish port of Cadiz. Seances were regularly held after dinner as a parlour game. At one, on 8 November 1853, there was the following exchange: </div>
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Is there a spirit present? <em>Yes.</em> </div>
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What is your name? <em>Eqe.</em> </div>
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In what part of the world did you live? <em>North America.</em> </div>
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Were you a man or a woman? <em>A woman.</em> </div>
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What is your name in English? <em>Akka.</em> </div>
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How do you translate <em>bello</em> into English? <em>Fine.</em> </div>
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Why have you come here? <em>To do good.</em> </div>
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To you or to us? <em>To you.</em> </div>
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You can, then, do us good? <em>I can; it is all in the task.</em> </div>
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How can we obtain good? <em>In emancipating woman; all depends upon her.</em> </div>
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This feminist statement is a little surprising, coming in a conservative country in a conservative era, though no doubt the medium was a woman. Yet more unusual was a message from 'A Spontaneous Spirit' delivered on 30 November: </div>
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"The order distributes the harmonies. This law is that each globe of the solar system is inhabited by a humanity like yours; each member of this humanity is a complete being in the rank which it occupies; it possesses a head, a torso, and limbs. Each has its selected destination, collective or terrestrial, visible or invisible. The sun, like the planets and their satellites, has its inhabitants, with a complex destiny. Each of the humanities which people these diverse globes has a double existence, visible and invisible, and a spiritual word appropriate to each of its states." (1)</div>
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This idea, of spiritual incarnation on different planets, was not only found in Spain. At that time, the French Spiritualist movement was led by Allan Kardec (1804-1869). In <em>The Gospel According to Spiritualism</em> Kardec gave his own interpretation of various well-known verses from the Bible. On "In my father's house there are many mansions" (John 14:2) he commented: "The house of the father is the universe; the different mansions are the worlds which circulate in infinite space, and offer incarnate spirits sojourns appropriate for their advancement." (2) In 1870 Miss Anna Blackwell, an English disciple of Kardec resident in Paris, wrote a summary of his philosophy for the Committee of the London Dialectical Society, which went into more detail on this: </div>
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"Thus the globes of each solar-system form a series of temporary residences - of progressive training-grounds, of places of reward or of punishment - for the spirits who are being educated in them. Of the planets of our system (some of which are yet to be discovered) Venus is said to be at a degree of development similar to that of our earth; Mars, to be inferior to our earth; Mercury, to be far inferior to Mars. All the others are declared to be superior to ours; while Jupiter, the largest, most advanced, and most glorious of them all, is said to be, even in its 'material' sphere, an abode of happiness far transcending anything we can imagine in our present chrysalis state. "(3)</div>
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Among Kardec's associates was Camille Flammarion, [<em>left</em>] who was to become the best-known French astronomer of the nineteenth century, owing largely to his popularising works, beginning with <em>The Plurality of Inhabited Worlds</em>. (4) In this, he asserted that all of the solar system is inhabited, even the rings of Saturn. (5) This belief was certainly bound up in his mind with Spiritualism: in a <em>Discourse Pronounced over the Tomb of Allan Kardec</em>, he addressed his hero: "You were the first, oh master and friend! you were the first, at the start of my astronomical career, who showed a sympathetic view of my deductions relative to the existence of celestial humanities; for, taking in hand the book of the <em>Plurality of Inhabited Worlds</em>, you placed it at the base of the doctrinal edifice of which you dreamt." (6) </div>
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<a href="https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTu7J1nRKIIleAmcWA-P1znTYe8VWfSLalKWMz4-U8edGSiU1uMOg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTu7J1nRKIIleAmcWA-P1znTYe8VWfSLalKWMz4-U8edGSiU1uMOg" width="253" /></a>It was Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464) who is first known to have proposed that the stars were other suns - at a time when it was usually thought that they were jewels or blocks of ice set in a crystalline sphere - and that they had inhabited planets circling them. (7) This was a remarkable conclusion, since he had no good reason for thinking this. Indeed, had CSICOPs existed in the fifteenth century, they would have told him that his hypothesis violated the principle of Ockham's Razor, so that he should not believe in it. </div>
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Once the Copernican theory, as we call it, became generally accepted, it was widely recognised that, since the earth was not the centre of the cosmos, and so not unique, there could be life on other planets. This found expression in fantasies about interplanetary voyages. The first of these, <em>Somnium</em>, by Johannes Kepler himself, concerns the son of a witch whose mother summons up a demon to take him on a trip to the moon. (8) (Ironically, Kepler's own mother was once accused of witchcraft.) Others utilised such transportation as a chariot drawn by swans, whilst in 1784 'Vivenair' went to Uranus by balloon. (9) </div>
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Though this last seems very odd to us, it was not always so for the general public. At a seance in Paris in 1859, a deceased balloonist named M. Poitevin manifested, and discussed the possibilities of hot air balloons with the sitters. He said that many people were concerned whether "you will be able to go, by this means, to visit other planets"; with more sense than one might expect of a discarnate entity, he told them: "No, you will never be able to." (10) </div>
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Around 1840, an American named William Miller predicted that Christ would return to earth in 1843 or 1844, the date finally becoming hardened to 22 October 1844. Christ failed to return on that day, however, causing confusion among his followers. Some of them were mollified in December, when, during a prayer meeting, a seventeen-year old girl named Ellen Gould Harmon (later Mrs White), went into a trance, in which God assured her that the Millerites' mistake lay in confusing the second coming of Christ with the start of the heavenly judgement, which had indeed begun on 22 October. This event led to the foundation of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which is still active today. (11) White had other visions, one of which she wrote of as follows: </div>
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"The Lord has given me a view of other worlds. Wings were given me, and an angel attended me from the city to a place that was bright and glorious ... The inhabitants of the place were of all sizes; they were noble, majestic and lovely ... I asked one of them why they were so much more lovely than those on the earth. The reply was, 'We have lived in strict obedience to the commandments of God, and have not fallen by disobedience, like those on the earth' ... Then I was taken to a world which had seven moons. There I saw good old Enoch, who had been translated." (12)</div>
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According to Martin Gardner, a Victorian history, <em>The Rise and Progress of the Seventh Day Adventists</em>, identified this world as Saturn, which was then believed to have seven moons; in a revised edition of the book, 1905, the number of moons seen by her had increased to eight; possibly this was related to the intervening discovery, by astronomers, of an eighth moon of Saturn. (13) </div>
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/Andrew_Jackson_Davis_young.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/Andrew_Jackson_Davis_young.jpg" /></a>Meanwhile, a poorly-educated country boy from Poughkeepsie, New York State, Andrew Jackson Davis (1826-1910) [<em>left</em>], had been mesmerised by a travelling showman, and found to have "very remarkable clairvoyant powers." Further experiments with him were performed by a local tailor named Levingston, who tried to get Davis to diagnose people's diseases whilst in mesmeric trance. When asked more general questions, he took to saying: "I will answer that in my book." </div>
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At the age of nineteen he decided at the time for this had come, and he travelled to New York, where every day a Dr. Lyon put him into trance, and a Rev. William Fishbough acted as amanuensis. Dr George Bush (no relation), Professor of Hebrew at the University of New York, who was present at some of these sessions, wrote: "I can solemnly affirm that I have heard Davis correctly quote the Hebrew language in his lectures, and display a knowledge of geology which would have been astonishing in a person of his age, even if he had devoted years to the study." (14) <br />
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The bulky work that resulted, <em>The Principles of Nature</em>, appeared in 1847. It is an occult history of the cosmos, beginning with the creation of the stars and planets, going on to the geology and past epochs of the earth, pre- and ancient history, and the origin of religions, wherein he attacked the accuracy of the Bible. It is rather vague and rambling, though in high-flown language, e.g. "The material Universe is a Vortex, from which all forms, material and immaterial, are unfolded and developed to the external or surface." </div>
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Much of his account of the solar system conformed to the findings of contemporary astronomy, saying of Uranus that "The rotation of this planet on its axis has not as yet been discovered ... It revolves in its orbit around the sun once in eighty-four years; its distance being over eighteen hundred millions of miles: and it moves at the rate of fifteen thousand miles an hour." The further a planet was from the sun, the older it was, in accordance with the then accepted Kant-Laplace theory. All of the planets from Mercury to Saturn were inhabited by humans, but naturally the older the race, the more evolved and spiritual it was, so that whilst the men of Saturn were 'physically, mentally and morally perfected', those of Mercury, which had only been inhabited for 8000 years, were like 'most ferocious animals'. On earth, though, we could look forward to "that era when the interiors of men will be opened, and the spiritual communion will be established such as is now being enjoyed by the inhabitants of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn." (13) </div>
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A former Universalist minister, Thomas Lake Harris, was so impressed by <em>The Principles of Nature</em> that for four or five months he went around lecturing on its 'Spiritual Philosophy'. But after he had spoken in Cincinnati in 1848, he was suddenly reported to have seceded from the Davisites, and taken up abode with a 'Spiritual Brotherhood' in the city. (16) Five years later he was falling into inspired trances himself. A series of these occurred for fourteen days from 24 November 18S3, during which he recited a lengthy poem, An Epic of the Starry Heaven. Since, fortunately, there was always been someone around to take dictation when he became entranced, in due course it was published. It took the form of a mystical journey: </div>
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If a new-born language trembled on my tongue,</div>
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Whose tones accorded with the singing stars;</div>
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A company of spirits, blithe and young,</div>
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From Jupiter, and Mercury, and Mars,</div>
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Drew near ..."</div>
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They gave him a guided tour of heaven, which was partly traditional, but also involved other planets. Here is his account of the 'Interior of a School of Love upon the Planet Mercury': </div>
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If I stand within a marble hall, </div>
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It is like crystal, clear and white; </div>
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In music sweet my footsteps fall; </div>
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Its roofs a floor of golden light, </div>
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An ether-sphere, serene and pure, </div>
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In its own radiance far too bright </div>
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For my thought's vision to endure."</div>
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He also described the Garden of Eden, "situated upon an Islet in the Equatorial [sic] Region of the Planet Mars." (17) Strangely enough, a twentieth century UFO author, Brinsley Le Poer Trench, also located the Garden of Eden on Mars. His argument was based upon certain Middle Eastern texts discovered by archaeologists, as quoted in W. F. Albright's appendix to Young's <em>Analytical Concordance to the Bible,</em> which asserted that the river of Eden was dug (characteristic of a canal rather than a river), and that Eden was "in the Under World": "Well ... if the sun was to the Ancients, as to us, 'above' - any neighbouring world outside our orbit might easily be under. And our next-door neighbour on the 'under' side is Mars. And Mars is netted with canals!" (18) It is unlikely that he had ever heard of Lake Harris, yet nevertheless he was able to come up with the same peculiar idea. Many occult writers are vague about concrete details: here is part of a dialogue between an unidentified 'Skeptic', and an unidentified 'Spirit' speaking through an unidentified medium, place and date also unspecified (published in America in 1868): </div>
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Skeptic: Cannot spirits visit the fixed stars? </div>
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Spirit: <em>Some of them are near enough to be visited; Sirius, for example.</em> </div>
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Skeptic: What is the difficulty? can they not move with the swiftness of thought? </div>
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Spirit: <em>Doubtless they can, through a vacuum such as the stellar spaces. The difficulty is to think fast enough ...</em> </div>
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Skeptic: You spoke of talking with a spirit who had visited Sirius. Did he tell you </div>
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any thing of it? </div>
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Spirit: <em>Yes. It is larger than our sun by a third. It has a more extensive system of planets than we have.</em> </div>
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Now, the idea that Sirius is inhabited has remained popular in recent times, notably in Robert Temple's The Sirius Mystery, in the first chapter of which he attempted to establish the credibility of his hypothesis by quoting Dr. Su-Shu Huang of the Goddard Space Flight Center: </div>
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" ... planets are formed around the main-sequence stars of spectral types later than FS. Thus, planets are formed just where life has the highest chance to flourish. Based on this view we can predict that nearly all single stars of the main sequence below FS and perhaps above K5 have a fair chance of supporting life on their planets. Since they compose a few per cent of all stars, life should indeed be a common phenomenon in the universe." (19) </blockquote>
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What Temple did not mention, or perhaps even know, is that Sirius is not 'later than FS', but of spectral type A, which by this theory would have no chance at all of supporting life on its planets, since it has none. (20) </div>
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Returning to our Skeptic and Spirit, the latter made an even more remarkable claim: </div>
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Skeptic: You spoke of the inhabitants of the moon. I thought there was no atmosphere there, and that, therefore, no life could exist there? </div>
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Spirit: <em>The side turned from us is inhabited. The side turned toward us has no visible atmosphere, no water, and no life.</em> </div>
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Skeptic: How can that be? </div>
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Spirit: <em>The center of gravity of the moon is seven miles out of the center of the mass. That throws one side out fourteen miles, and making an equivalent of a mountain of that height. Although the atmosphere in the moon may reach thirty or forty miles, yet at the height of fourteen miles it would be insufficient to sustain life, and it would moreover be intensely cold. The side thus projecting is attracted toward the earth, and thus we never see but one side. On the other side, however, there are soil, atmosphere, water and vegetable and animal life, as on this earth</em>. (21) </div>
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Once again, the same idea came up, seemingly independently, in more recent times. When taken by Venusians for a quick flip around the moon, he alleged, George Adamski was told that on the far side there is a strip "in which vegetation, trees and animals thrive, and in which people live in comfort"; he was able to see this for himself on a screen which gave him a magnified view of the surface. (22) </div>
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An even more bizarre theory had been propounded by no less a person then William Herschel, the discoverer of the planet Uranus. He argued that whilst the 'luminous atmosphere' of the sun is very hot, beneath it is a cool, inhabited world, whose mountains we occasionally see as sunspots. (23) Since such a distinguished man believed it, there should be no surprise that the notion later turned up in a seance. </div>
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One of the most celebrated events in Victorian Spiritualism was when the medium Daniel Douglas Home purportedly floated out of an upstairs window and in again at another. There has naturally been much controversy as to whether this really happened or not, (24) but what is seldom mentioned is what was reported next: </div>
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" ... pointing to a star, he asked us what we knew of that. He commented upon the very slight knowledge that most scientific men had; mentioning that not long ago the spots on the sun had been considered to be mountains; then water; then <em>faculae</em> [little torches]; but that now they knew them to be great chasms. "But what they do not know," he said, "is that the sun is covered with a beautiful vegetation, and full of organic life." Upon Viscount Adare asking: "Is not the sun hot?", he replied: "No, the sun is cold; the heat is produced and transmitted to the earth by the rays of light passing through various atmospheres." (25) </blockquote>
Another approach to psychical research was taken by Joseph Rhodes Buchanan, a professor of psychology and medical science at the Eclectic Medical Institute in Covington, Kentucky. A Bishop Polk told him how he was exceptionally sensitive to his surroundings: "If he touched brass in the dark he immediately knew it by its influence and the offensive metal taste in his mouth." In 1843 Buchanan decided to experiment, wrapped various chemical and metals in brown paper, and asked his students if they could detect them with their fingertips. Many of them were amazingly successful. The effects of medicines, when touched, was similar to those when they were actually taken, so that a subject who picked up an emetic had to put it down again to avoid vomiting. In 1849 he wrote an article for the<em> Journal of Man</em> in which he termed this faculty 'psychometry'. (26) <br />
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<a href="https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/6999196-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/6999196-L.jpg" width="240" /></a>This paper was read by William Denton, a Yorkshireman recently settled in Ohio, who decided to investigate for himself, using his wife and other relations as psycho meters. Mainly, he got them to examine geological samples, numerous readings of which were eventually published in his three-volume <em>The Soul of Things</em>. Holding a fragment of lava from the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii, a sensitive said: "I see the ocean and ships are sailing on it. This must be an island, for water is all around. Now I am turned from where I saw the vessels, and am looking at something most terrific. It seems as if an ocean of fire were pouring over a precipice, and boiling as it pours. The sight permeates my whole being, and inspires me with terror. I see it flow into the ocean and the water boils intensely." This, Denton observed, was an accurate description of the eruption of Kilauea in 1840. </div>
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In the third volume, Denton related how, after supper one evening in 1866, he was in the orchard with his ten-year-old son Sherman. He pointed to Venus, and told the boy: "Look at that star; and then shut your eyes, and tell me what you see." The response was: "I see it round, but all rough. guess it is more hilly than this world. The mountains seem higher than they do here. I see a tree larger than these round here, just like a toadstool. It is a kind of purple calor. It has a monstrous trunk, larger than any I ever saw before. I see many of them. They are as thick as the woods down here. There are not as many on the mountains as on the plains. Inside of the trees is jelly-like stuff as sweet as honey. I tasted it. There is something hard inside that I spit out." His later vision of the sun was at least more accurate than Home's: "I see a world all lava. I tell you it is hot." </div>
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Subsequently, Sherman gave an account of life on Mars, whose inhabitants had "four fingers instead of five - three fingers and a thumb", and cat-like eyes. They went around in velocipedes, which resembled bicycles except that they flew; some Martians had springs fitted to their feet, so that they could travel fast and jump great distances. "Is that planet older than ours?" "Yes, probably." (27) </div>
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The late Arthur C. Clarke was once moved to ask: "I wonder why we always are menaced by Mars? I suppose that man Wells started it. One day we may have a big interplanetary libel action on our hands ... " (28) He was referring of course to <em>The War of the Worlds</em>, 1896, but there was much more written about that planet in that decade. The claim of Professor Schiaparelli, Director of the Milan Observatory, that it had a network of canals, and hence by implication intelligent life, had become widely accepted. (Incidentally, Schiaparelii was one of a group of scientists who investigated the medium Eusapia Palladino. (29)) In 1892 Camille Flammarion published a book about its 'habitability'. (30) (He tacitly abandoned discussion of the other planets, possibly because it had by then been realised that they are too hot or too cold for life.) </div>
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The 'airship' craze of 1897 is also worth mentioning here. It had long been believed, partly owing to the success of Jules Verne's novel <em>The Clipper of the Clouds</em>, that airships were the future of transport. In late March a rumour went around the American Midwest that a working prototype had been constructed. People in a number of towns and cities thought that they saw it, always in the evening and to the west. As several newspapers pointed out, this was because they were actually looking at the planet Venus, then at its brightest. Others, however, took advantage of April Fools' Day to print articles purporting to reveal the truth, e.g. the <em>Indianapolis Journal</em> identified the inventor as a John O. Preast of Omaha, over whose house, they said, an airship had been seen hovering. (31) <br />
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The joke was evidently felt to be too good to be reserved for one day of the year only, and similar stories continued to appear for weeks, based upon the testimony of people described as 'reputable citizens', and the like. The point here is that, although the inventors were usually said to be American, or; in one cas"e7"to come from the north pole and be descendants of the ten lost tribes of Israel (32), a few were from much farther away. The St. Louis <em>Post-Dispatch</em> printed the narrative of Mr Hopkins, 'a prominent church member', who said he had come across a landed metal cylinder, near to which were a naked couple of unsurpassed good looks. He asked by signs where they came from, and they "pointed upward, pronouncing a word which, to my imagination, sounded like Mars." (33) </div>
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Another airship supposedly collided with a windmill in Aurora, Texas, killing the pilot, "and while his remains are badly disfigured, enough of the original has been picked up to show that he was not an inhabitant of this world. Mr. T. J. Weems, the United States signal service officer at this place and an authority on astronomy, gives it as his opinion that he was a native of the planet Mars." (34) (This case is still cited in UFO literature: in 1973 a 'treasure hunter' claimed to have discovered fragments of metal at the site, which resembled the skin of modern aircraft (35); in 1983 Bill Case of MUFON asked the local authorities for permission to dig up a grave in the local cemetery that he believed to be that of the alien, but they refused. (36)<br />
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On 10 April, a cigar-shaped aluminium ship was reported to have crashed to the west of Lanark, Illinois, on the farm of Johann Fliegeltoub. Two of the crew were killed, but a 'strange creature' in ancient Greek garb survived. According to a report filed by General F. A. Kerr, his tunic "was embroidered with a coat of arms over the breast, a shield with a bar sinister of link sausages and bearing a ham sandwich rampant." Having explained that "he and his companions were an exploring party from Mars", the alien then got his craft working again, and disappeared into the night sky. The general "returned to Lanark and securing a room at the hotel, sat up all night smoking opium and eating hasheesh to get in condition to write this dispatch." (37) Evidently, planets go in and out of fashion. In the 1950s, flying saucers would nearly always come from Venus, but in the 1890s Mars was the usual place of an alien's origin. It is no surprise, therefore, than when a Swiss woman became the first earthling to learn something of the language of another planet, it should have been Martian. </div>
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In 1891 Theodore Flournoy became professor of psychophysiology at the University of Geneva, and was soon involved with psychical research. In December 1893 he wrote to William James in England to say that </div>
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"I am now deep in Myers's articles in the <em>Proceedings</em> of the Society for Psychical Research, I have been asked to give two talks in a series of public lectures, after the New Year, and I shall do them on Verifiable Hallucination, Visions in the crystal ball, etc." Three months later he regretfully reported that: "The few mediums and subjects of telepathic hallucinations etc. whom I have been able to reach in the last three months in Geneva have not furnished me with decisive phenomena", so that his talk would have to be based upon the writings of Myers and James himself. After another year and a half, however, he was able to write of 'Helene Smith' (the pseudonym he gave to shop girl Elise Muller) that: " ... this woman is a veritable museum of all possible phenomena and has a repertoire of illimitable variety: she makes the table talk, - she hears voices, - she has visions, hallucinations, tactile and olfactory, - automatic writing - sometimes complete somnambulism, catalepsy, trances etc. </blockquote>
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All the automatism, sensory and motor, of Myers, - all the classical hysterical phenomena - present themselves in turn, in any order and in the most unexpected fashion, varying from one time to another. The contents of these phenomena are always of former events, going back a few or many years, being perfectly correct, generally having to do with the ancestors of the persons present. The good faith of the medium is indisputable, and the strangeness of her revelation well calculated to convince the spiritualists of this group. However, in the five or six cases which concerned deceased members of my family, I finally had proof that these persons all had had, some fifty years ago, personal contacts with the parents of the medium; and the most natural supposition is that these revelations, invariably exact and dealing with odd facts, are reminiscences of accounts which the medium had heard from the mouth of her parents in her childhood." (38) </blockquote>
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500 years earlier, Mademoiselle Smith revealed, she had been Simandini, the daughter of an Arab sheik who was married off to a Hindu prince named Sivrouka Hayaka. She had next been Marie Antoinette, and her current spirit guide, Leopold, was the celebrated occultist Cagliostro. Leopold might rap upon the table, or speak through automatic writing, or directly through Helene Smith's vocal cords. </div>
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Some of these seances were attended by a Mme Mirbel whose only son, Alexis, had recently died aged seventeen. On the evening of 25 November 1894, Mile Smith suddenly found herself walking upon Mars, though it appeared to the others that her body was still in the room with them. "Helene then began a description of all the strange things that presented themselves to her view, and caused her as much surprise as amusement. Carriages without horses or wheels, emitting sparks as they glided by, houses with fountains on the roof, a cradle having for curtains an angel made of iron with outstretched wings, etc. What seemed less strange, were people exactly like the inhabitants of our earth, save that both sexes wore the same costume, formed of trousers very ample, and a long blouse, drawn tight about the waist and decorated with various designs." Finally, she saw a vast assembly hall, in which she met none other than Alexis Mirbel, who gave her some messages for his mother. </div>
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Further communications followed with the Martians, one of whom was Astane, a Hindu fakir formerly named Kanga, with whom she had been a friend when she was Simandini. Then messages started coming in the Manian language itself. About 20 September 1896 she received "<em>Dode ne ci haudan te mess metiche Astane ke de me veche</em>", which was followed on 2 November by a French translation: "<em>Ceci est la maison du grand homme Astane que tu as vu</em>", i.e. "This is the house of the great man Astane, whom thou has seen." Later, Alexis told Mme. Mirbel: "<em>I mode mete mode mode ine palette is che peliche che chire ne ci ten ti vi</em>." "<em>0 mere, tender mere, mere bien-aimee, calme tout ton souci, ton fils est pres de toi</em>." "Oh mother, tender mother, dearly loved mother, calm all thy care, thy son is near thee." </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>'Martian' writing as described </strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>by 'Hélene Smith'</strong></span></td></tr>
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Flournoy was suspicious of the fact that all of the sounds of Martian also occur in French, although even other European languages have sounds which French does not, for instance it has no equivalent to the English h, j and ch. Moreover, although the vocabulary was quite different, Martian grammar was identical to that of French: in the phrase <i>quand reviendra-t-il?</i> ('when will he return?'), the -t- is purely euphonic; in the Martian for this, <em>'Kevi benmir m hed'</em>, the m likewise had no meaning. (39) He concluded that the language was merely a product of her unconscious mind, though it has been observed: "That the subconscious can work in this way is, perhaps, even more 'miraculous' than possible reincarnation on Mars." (40) </div>
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It is evident from the foregoing that receiving information about living beings on other planets, and communicating with them, was commonplace in nineteenth-century Spiritualism. Yet this fact is nowadays almost unknown. A history of Spiritualism will typically devote one passing sentence to the subject. (41) </div>
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In 1988 Denton's <em>The Soul of Things</em> was reissued as part of a series of classic works on psychical research, but only the first volume, thus omitting the accounts of life on the planets; Colin Wilson, in a new introduction, confessed that these findings were "mostly bad science fiction". He did suggest that "Sherman would undoubtedly have been more accurate if he had been allowed to hold a piece of rock from the moon or Mars." (42) </div>
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One might think that communication with the dead would not be reported in modern ufology, since it is a supposedly rationalist discipline. But it does occur sometimes. Whitley Strieber relates that a couple "in the south-eastern United States", whose seventeen-year-old son had died in a road accident the week before, were sitting in their living room around ten o'clock at night when their dog became nervous and began to pace, so the wife decided to take him out. "As she opened the front door, two things happened simultaneously. The first was that an orange ball of light swept away from the house, disappearing across a nearby line of trees. The next second, the couple's ten-year-old son came running downstairs yelling excitedly that "little blue men" had brought his older brother into the bedroom, and the older boy had a message: tell his mom and dad that he was okay." (43) </div>
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On the whole, however, ufologists tend to regard psychic information with disdain, even those who are impressed by contactee stories or abduction research. In the first edition of <em>Flying Saucers Have Landed</em>, Desmond Leslie included a chapter on 'The Findings of Dr Meade Layne', which were a description of eight types of craft 'originating from Venus alone', for instance Type no.3: "A cigar-shaped craft, about 100 feet long and 25 feet wide at maximum diameter. Primarily an escort and fighting craft. Used only if circumstances required protection for the other craft. Normal crew: twenty. Uses both "jet" drive when in the atmosphere, and "Primary Drive" when in space." (44) </div>
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It seems that Leslie did not realise that this information all derived from the pronouncements of a medium named Mark Probert, and that when he did find out he was not pleased, since in the later revised edition this section was deleted, with the comment that: "Since meeting his group and examining their methods of investigation, I am of the opinion that though his findings may have a certain substance, the methods by which they were obtained are far from satisfactory." (45) Spiritualist techniques were no longer felt to be scientific, in contrast to the hard reality of George Adamski's meeting with a Venusian in the Arizona desert, the truth of which Leslie continued to argue for at length. </div>
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Book sales suggest that the general public thought likewise. Cyril Richardson's <em>Venus Speaks</em> consisted of a series of telepathic communications from 'the chief scientist of the planet Venus', which he had "received between September 1953 and February 1954 with a request that they should be made public." (46) Now, <em>Flying Saucers Have Landed</em> was published in September 1953, and it no doubt encouraged Richardson to make contact himself; yet his booklet disappeared almost without trace, whereas the work that inspired it was an international bestseller. </div>
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One evening in mid-June 1965 Arthur Bryant [<em>below</em>] of Scoriton, Devon, a gardener at an old people's home, told his wife that he had seen a UFO the week before. She did not believe him, and that might have been the end of the matter, but their two daughters, who were aged nine and eleven, overheard the conversation and talked about it at school. Word quickly spread around the district, and a woman who regularly tried to make trouble for the local council wrote a letter to the South Devon Journal, saying that a flying saucer had contaminated the area with radioactivity, and demanded that the authorities launch an immediate inquiry. Bryant was promptly besieged by nuisance visitors, including a local policeman who demanded "What's this I 'ear about Russian spacemen landing in your garden?" All this distressed his wife, and necessitated him ejecting over-persistent news reporters bodily from his door. Threatening, anonymous letters were sent accusing him of being a communist; he even received five proposals of marriage. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd6V5ns4-5kSjXmWx4_mAp0yXgo0z_eZdhn6VeT6hQ5leQpKYIleS9dPYjfyqYUILj8j7ywxfgCRIbseP8rTdErltq7OgsD9UdXvxwfAXm5-MqH3XZVU1eB9IBEsbKFDcbdKzuc7jdnnZ3/s1600/aa+bryant.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd6V5ns4-5kSjXmWx4_mAp0yXgo0z_eZdhn6VeT6hQ5leQpKYIleS9dPYjfyqYUILj8j7ywxfgCRIbseP8rTdErltq7OgsD9UdXvxwfAXm5-MqH3XZVU1eB9IBEsbKFDcbdKzuc7jdnnZ3/s1600/aa+bryant.jpg" height="320" width="229" /></a>The following Sunday the <em>Plymouth Independent</em> ran a big headline 'Did A Satellite Land in a Devon Field?' It was read by a Paignton woman, Mrs. Phoebe Beer, who mentioned it to her son Lionel, who was then Publicity Officer for BUFORA. In August Lionel and the chairman, Dr Doel, visited Scoriton and interviewed Bryant. He told them that on the night of 7 June he had heard a humming sound, and going outside saw a blue object "the apparent size of a pea at arm's length" cross the sky and descend a few fields away. Next day he visited the spot and found some pieces of metal, and a glass phial containing a piece of paper with the words adelphos adelpho, which is Greek for 'brother' to brother". </div>
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Having been persuaded to join BUFORA himself, later that year Bryant wrote to them saying that he had had an earlier and much more remarkable encounter. As he would relate it to Eileen Buckle and Norman Oliver, on 24 April 1965 he had been walking on Scoriton Down in the late afternoon when a saucer-shaped object suddenly appeared, swung around, then came to rest hovering a few feet above the ground of the field in front of him. A door opened, and he saw three figures in what he took to be diving suits, one of whom beckoned to him. As he approached they took off their helmets, which was an odd thing to do, since the purpose of a space helmet is to protect one from the atmosphere (or lack of it) outside the craft; the incident is reminiscent of science fiction, where aliens often make this mistake. He could now see that two of them had eyes like cats' and very tall pointed conical foreheads. He also noticed that they had four fingers on each hand. The third looked like an ordinary human of about fifteen. </div>
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Inviting him aboard, the latter told Bryant that his name was 'Yamski', that they ccme from Venus, and that he had a message for him to give to 'Des Les': "Karma does work". He was taken on a tour of the rather bare interior. Unable to see any engines or controls, he asked how it could fly, and was told: "Ideo-motor movement". He was also informed that "forces from Epsilon were already here in the guise of Poltergeists". When Oliver later asked him whether any word had followed 'Epsilon', he said that a word like 'danni' or 'darni' had preceded it. The investigators thought that this might refer to Epsilon Eridani, as astronomers term it, which is a star comparatively near to ours. When they returned to the door, the aliens thanked him, he jumped to the ground again, and the craft vanished. (47) </div>
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As BUFORA quickly realised, George Adamski had died on 23 April 1965, one day before Bryant's encounter. In an obituary for <em>Flying Saucer Review</em>, Desmond Leslie had written: "I don't believe we have seen the last of him. If he is reborn on another planet he has promised to come back and contact us when possible." It appeared that he had wasted no time, yet the affair does not seem to have convinced anyone of the reality of reincarnation on Venus. Informed of the encounter, Leslie commented that: "The only puzzle here is why did he, with a fully operational saucer and a new, young body at his disposal, choose to touch down in Devon if he wanted to talk to me, when he knows I live in the bogs of Ireland - a bare two minutes' flip by saucer?" Timothy Good, who did his best to defend Adamski, wrote: "I had several meetings with Bryant, and although he conveyed the impression of sincerity and was a kindly soul, there are good reasons for refuting many of his claims." (48) </div>
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To conclude, by coincidence, whilst I was trying to finish this article, I came across this item in <em>thelondonpaper</em> 'funny old world' column: "The fictional home planet of <em>Star Trek's</em> Mr Spock may really exist. A powerful telescope found rocky worlds around the star Epsilon Eridani, which Spock's planet Vulcan orbits in the TV show. Nasa experts believe one could be habitable like Earth." (49) Perhaps one day dead humans will be reborn there. </div>
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</strong><strong>References:</strong><br />
<ol>
<li>French <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">translation in 'La Spiritisme a Cadiz en 1868 et 1868', <em>Revue </em>S<em>pirite</em> (ed. Allan Kardec), Volume 11, no 4Paris, April 1868, pp.123-24. I have been unable to locate a copy of the original Spanish, which seems to have been published at Cadiz in 1854. </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Allan Kardec, <em>L'Evangile selon le Spiritisme</em>, Federacao Espirita Brasileira, Rio de Janeiro, 1979 (photographic reprint of the third French edition, Paris, 1866), p.21. </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Report on Spiritualism, of the Committee of the London Dialectical Society, London, 1871, p.309. Her main source seems to have been 'La pluralite des mondes', Revue Spirite, Volume 1, no.3, March 1858, pp.65-73. </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">St. Le Tourneur, 'Camille Flammarion', <em>Dictionnaire de Biographie Francaise</em>, Paris, Librairie Letouzey et Ame, 1975, Tome 13, Cols.1462-63. </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Camille Flammarion, <em>La Pluralite des Mondes Habites: Etude ou l'on expose les conditions d'habitabilite des terres celestes, descuteés au point de vue de l'astronomie et de la physiologie</em>, Paris, 1862, pp.39, 47. This first edition was only 50 pages long; the second, two years later, ran to 555. </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Camille Flammarion, <em>Discours prononce sur la tombe de Allan Kardec</em>, Paris, 1869, p.23. </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Isaac Asimov, <em>Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology</em>, Pan, London, 1975, p.64. </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Summary in Arthur Koestler, <em>The Sleepwalkers</em>, Pelican, 1975, ppA20-25. </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Most of these extracted in Faith K. Pizor & T. Allan Comp, <em>'The Man in the Moone': An</em> <em>Anthology of Antique Science Fiction and Fantasy</em>, Sidgwick & Jackson, London, 1971. </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><em>'M. Poitevin, aeronaute', Revue Spirite</em>, Volume 2, no 4, April 1859, p.1 08. </span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Ronald L. Numbers, 'Ellen Gould White', in Mircea Eliade (ed.), <em>The Encyclopedia of Religion</em>, Macmillan, New York, 1987, Volume 15, pp.377-79. </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Ellen Gould White, <em>Early Writings</em>, Review and Herald Publishing Association, Hagerstown, Maryland, 2000, pp.39-40. </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Martin Gardner, <em>The New Age</em>, Prometheus, Buffalo, New York, 1991, p.258. </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Arthur Conan Doyle, <em>The History of Spiritualism</em>, Cassell, London, 1926, Volume 1, pp.36-42. </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Andrew Jackson Davis, <em>The Principles of Nature, Her Divine Revelations, and a Voice to Mankind,</em> John Chapman, London, 1847, pp.??, 167, 183,208. </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">B. F. Barrett, <em>Davis' Revelations Sifted</em>: A Review of Rev. T. L. Harris'Lectures, on "Spiritual Philosophy", Cincinnati, 1848. </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Thomas Lake Harris, <em>An Epic of the Starry Heaven</em>, 4th edition, New York, 1854, pp. 25, 176, 34. </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Brinsley le Poer Trench, <em>The Sky People</em>, Neville Spearman, London, 1960, p.39. </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Robert Temple, <em>The Sirius Mystery</em>, Futura, 1976, p.31. </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">I. S. Shklovskii & Carl Sagan, <em>Intelligent Life in the Universe</em>, Delta, New York, 1966, Chapter 13. </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> Quoted in Andrew Jackson Davis, <em>A Stellar Key to the Summer Land</em>, William White, Boston & New York, 1868, pp.141-42,145. </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">George Adamski, <em>Inside the Space Ships</em>, Abelard-Schuman, New York, 1955, pp.158-61. </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">M. A. Hoskin, 'William Herschel', in Charles Coulston Gillespie (ed.), <em>Dictionary of Scientific Biography</em>, Scribner's, New York, 1972, Volume 5, p.333; Patrick Moore, <em>Can You Speak Venusian?,</em> Star, London, 1976, pp.42-43. </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">E.g. T. H. Hall, <em>New Light on Old Ghosts</em>, Duckworth, London, 1965, pp.86-119. </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Viscount Adare, <em>Experiences in Spiritualism</em> with Mr. D. D. Home, [London, 1871], p.84. </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Leslie A. Shephard (ed.), <em>Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology</em>, 3rd Edition, Gale Research, Detroit, Michigan, 1991, s.v. 'Buchanan, Joseph Rhodes', and 'Psychometry' . </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">William Denton, <em>The Soul of Things: Psychometric Experiments for Re-living History</em>, 3 volumes, Denton Publishing, Wellesley, Massachusetts, 1888, Volume 1 pp.38-39; Volume 3 pp.147-48, 159, 171-77. </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Arthur C. Clarke, 'Armaments Race', <em>Tales from the White Hart</em>, Sidgwick & Jackson, London, 1973 (written 1954). </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">G. E. Wright, <em>Evidences of Spiritualism: Practical Views of Psychic</em> Phenomena, Kegan Paul, London, 1920, p.61. </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Camille Flammarion, <em>La Plenete Mars et ses Conditions d'Habitabilite</em>, Gauthier-Viliars et Fils, Paris, 1892. </span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Venus, e.g. <em>Iron Mountain Daily Tribune</em>, 30 March 1897; Preast of Omaha, Indianapolis <em>Journal</em>, 1 April 1897; both of these reprinted in Thomas E. Bullard, <em>The Airship File,</em> Bloomington, Indiana, 1982, p.82. </span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">David Michael Jacobs, <em>The UFO Controversy in America</em>, Signet, 1976, p.8. </span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><em>Louis Post-Dispatch</em>, 19 April 1897, in Bullard pp.1 01-2. </span></span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><em>Dallas Morning News</em>, 19 April 1897, in Bullard, p.228. </span></span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">John Keel, <em>The Mothman Prophecies</em>, IIlumiNet Press, Lilburn, Georgia, 1991, p.15 </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">George C. Andrews, <em>Extra-Terrestrials Among Us</em>, Llewellyn, St. Paul, Minnesota, 1987, pp.81-82. </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Quoted in Nigel Watson, </span><a href="http://magoniamagazine.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/down-to-earth-ufo-investigation-1897.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">'Down to Earth'</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">, <em>Magonia 43,</em> July 1992, p.7. </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><em>The Letters of William James and Theodore Flournoy</em>, edited by Robert C. LeClair, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, Milwaukee & London, 1966, pp.47-48. </span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Theodore Flournoy, <em>From India to the Planet Mars: A Case of Mulitple Personality with Imaginary Languages, </em>edited and introduced by Sonu Shamdasani, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1994, pp.14-15, 90-91, 113,137. </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">John Grant, <em>A Directory of Discarded Ideas</em>, Corgi, London, 1983, p.140. </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">E.g. Ronald Pearsall, <em>The Table-Rappers</em>, Book Club Associates, London, 1972, p.85; Deborah Blum, <em>Ghost Hunters</em>, Arrow Books, London, 2007, p.242. </span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Colin Wilson, in William Denton, <em>The Soul of Things</em>, Aquarian Press, Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, 1988, p.x. </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Whitley Strieber, <em>Confirmation: The Hard Evidence of Aliens among Us</em>, Simon & Schuster, London, 1998, pp.115-16. </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Desmond Leslie & George Adamski, <em>Flying Saucers Have Landed</em>, Werner Laurie, London, 1953, p.129. </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><em>Flying Saucers Have Landed</em>, new edition, Futura, London, 1977 (1st 1970). </span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Cyril Richardson, <em>Venus Speaks</em>, Regency Press, London, [1954]. </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Eileen Buckle, <em>The Scoriton Mystery</em>, Neville Spearman, London, 1967, particularly pp.47-73. </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Lou Zinstagg & Timothy Good, <em>George Adamski: The Untold Story</em>, Ceti Publications, Beckenham, 1983, p.183. </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><em>thelondonpaper,</em> 29 October 2008, p.7 </span></span></li>
</ol>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288177690155596824.post-65061064361056280212014-02-04T18:08:00.001+00:002014-03-16T13:36:06.724+00:00Seriously Silly<strong>'The Pelican'</strong><br />
Magonia 98, September 2008<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSUzZoLNIToxrrPUb8vQsia2BcCLYs5WYti-Iev9ax64H9Uw9_Panj_iU0dBhIgot-fIh7T_x8OnU4pyT16ZbjYwa56yek18Qi85GTqw10ql-wCRLd7lOK6cCmXsBkXFCE60oZGmsSc6iw/s1600/aa+silly.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSUzZoLNIToxrrPUb8vQsia2BcCLYs5WYti-Iev9ax64H9Uw9_Panj_iU0dBhIgot-fIh7T_x8OnU4pyT16ZbjYwa56yek18Qi85GTqw10ql-wCRLd7lOK6cCmXsBkXFCE60oZGmsSc6iw/s1600/aa+silly.jpg" height="100" width="100" /></a>The Pelican has long since solved the UFO so-called "mystery". There are two separate but related fields of study which may be described as ufology, but very few people pursue them. One kind of study uses the physical sciences to investigate UFO reports to try to discover the physical stimuli which produce them. For example, a "strange" light in the sky reported by a number of witnesses might be identified as the planet Venus. </div>
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The other kind uses the social sciences and involves psychologists, sociologists and folklorists in the study of ufologists and UFO groups, and their beliefs and motivations. <br />
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Both kinds of study, if carried out with appropriate scientific or academic rigour, incur the condemnation of UFO enthusiasts, including those who like to consider themselves to be Serious Ufologists. Certain cases become known as 'classics', sometimes because there were multiple independent witnesses, and sometimes because Serious Ufologists, with impressive scientific or technical credentials, investigated them and solemnly pronounced them to be inexplicable. </div>
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An interesting multiple witness event which quickly became a classic took place in Arizona on 13 March 1997. This was in two parts: first, a formation of lights which was seen over Prescott at about 8.15 p.m., over Phoenix at 8.30 and over Tucson at 8.45; then at about 10 p.m. a string of lights appeared south-west of Phoenix, slowly sank down and disappeared. </div>
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Because many ufologists rejected possible explanations offered, this attained "classic" status, although it was eventually conceded by some Serious Ufologists, after intensive investigation and much agonising, that the second phase of the sightings was caused by flares dropped from aircraft. Sceptical ufologist Tim Printy noted: "Richard Motzer, of MUFON, had determined ... that the lights were flares and said so in the MUFON Journal. He drew a lot of criticism for this and was called, of course, a 'debunker' and a secret member of skeptical organisations. Even after the identification of the planes involved, Motzer was still vilified by other investigators when he should have been praised for his good work." (1) </div>
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As for the first phase of sightings, some Serious Ufologists proclaimed that the V-shaped formation of lights was an enormous triangular UFO. However, Tony Ortega, a journalist who actually investigated the sightings, identified the lights as aircraft flying in formation. He wrote an article in which he criticised the treatment of the case by NBC in a programme titled "10 Close Encounters Caught on Tape". (2) </div>
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In the article, Ortega said that he had interviewed a young man who had seen the V-formation from his backyard and trained his Dobsonian telescope on it, which revealed it to be a formation of aircraft. He wrote: "When the young man, Mitch Stanley, tried to contact a city councilwoman making noise about the event, as well as a couple of UFO flim-flam men working the local scene he was rebuffed. I was the first reporter to talk to him, and, as a telescope builder myself, I made a thorough examination of his instrument and his knowledge of it." </div>
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Some Serious Ufologists dismissed this explanation, saying that a formation of aircraft could not appear as a solid object, as described by some of the witnesses. Others took the simpler course of just ignoring it. </div>
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Does this mean that there was a high-flying formation of aircraft observed by Mitch Stanley, who somehow failed to notice the V -shaped UFO, or that he was lying about what he claimed to have seen through the telescope? It seems that having reluctantly agreed to flares as the explanation for the first set of sightings, Serious Ufologists were determined to hang on to the idea of the second set as sightings of a True UFO. Seeing a Classic case being completely junked was just too much to bear. Think of the comfort and joy it would bring to the skeptibunkers and noisy negativists! </div>
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Of course, the Serious Ufologists' error here is to entertain the notion that some UFO reports are sightings of alien craft and that their task is to recognise these and add them to the list of unexplained cases. The notion that the true explanations for sightings that remain unidentified after being investigated by Serious Ufologists is that they are alien craft, is what makes ufology a pseudoscience. The truth, of course, is that there are numerous true explanations and, in some cases such as the Berwyn Mountain incident, three or more true explanations. It is absurd to suppose, for example, that the cause of the RB47 incident will be the same as that of Socorro. </div>
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It is not just the nuts-and-bolts ETH Serious Ufologists who are rather flaky, but also those who seek more subtle explanations. As The Pelican has noted in one of his previous columns, all but a very few ufologists do not have a purely objective approach to the subject. And, of course, they usually get away with their dodgy hypotheses and tall stories. </div>
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One notable example is 'respected' scientist and ufologist Jacques Vallee. The Pelican has noticed that he has several times told a little anecdote about his early work at Paris observatory, tracking satellites. In one interview he claims that he and his colleagues "started tracking objects that were not satellites, were fairly elusive, and so we decided that we would pay attention to those objects even though they were not on the schedule of normal satellites." </div>
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<span style="color: red;">The attentive reader will notice that there is something about this anecdote which it shares with other amazing UFO stories: the lack of technical detail, and the lack of any reference to where this may be obtained.</span></blockquote>
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He then goes on to allege that: "And one night we got eleven data points on one of these objects -- it was very bright. It was also retrograde. This was at a time when there was no rocket powerful enough to launch a retrograde satellite, a satellite that goes around opposite to the rotation of the earth, which takes a lot more energy than the direct direction. And the man-in charge of the project confiscated the tape and erased it the next morning." </div>
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Now this claim raises some questions. The first is the obvious one asked by the interviewer: "Why did he destroy it?" Vallee replied that it was "fear of ridicule". But, The Pelican's percipient readers will ask: If these objects could be tracked by the Paris observatory, then surely they could also be tracked by other observatories and, as the one in question was described by Vallee as being of first magnitude and as bright as Sirius, it could also easily have been tracked by amateur astronomers? </div>
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Indeed, Vallee claimed that he later discovered that the same object had been tracked by other observatories and photographed by American tracking stations. Other questions which occur to The Pelican are: </div>
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• How does a moron get appointed as the leader of a team of professional astronomers tracking satellites Why should anyone be afraid of ridicule if they have accurately recorded data, confirmed by a number of teams of professional observers, so that there is no doubt about its authenticity? </div>
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• Is there any truth in this anecdote, or is it just another ufological tall story? </div>
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The attentive reader will notice that there is something else about this anecdote which it shares with other amazing UFO stories which apparently demonstrate the truth of the ETH. It is, of course, the lack of technical detail, and the lack of any reference to where this may be obtained. It will be argued, inevitably, that this has been kept secret, despite the alleged mystery satellite's being "as bright as Sirius" and having been tracked by several observatories. Indeed, most of the Classic UFO cases are notably lacking in precise details, so that investigators have to make do with rough estimates. There are often multiple witnesses, but rarely multiple independent witnesses. </div>
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Some ufologists, then -- Serious or otherwise -- examine UFO abduction reports in the hope of gaining decisive evidence. These have the advantage that the relevant information is available to the enthusiastic amateur, and can not be kept secret like that obtained by government agencies with their radars and other remote-sensing devices. Many abductionists (abductologists?) ferociously attack the authors of papers which seek to explain abductions in psychological terms, notably as the effects of sleep paralysis, with the details being drawn from popular culture, together with the leading questions asked by the abduction enthusiasts. They object that many abductions take place while the subjects are awake. But couldn't it be true that, in some cases, the abductees are not really awake when they have their experiences, but only think they are? The following account, which does not involve an alien abduction scenario, should give believers in alien abductions pause for thought: </div>
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"I was abducted in broad daylight from a MacDonald's. This was in Minnesota about 25 years ago. I got up from a nap one day and walked down to a MacDonald's where I always went because all my friends hung out there. As I was standing in line to get my coffee I suddenly fell backwards for no apparent reason right onto the guy who was standing behind me. A second later I was lying on my back, back in my bed at home. But I was lying on top of the guy I had fallen onto at the McDonald's. He had my arms pinned and he was sniggering in my ear. I was pretty much paralysed. There was someone else in the room, too. This guy paced back and forth slowly, not looking at me or the other guy, seeming to be waiting for something to happen. He looked depressed. The guy holding me down kept sniggering in my ear and seemed to be enjoying the fact I was paralyzed. I was completely terrified, to say the least, and couldn't even struggle. </blockquote>
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"This went on only a short time, though, maybe a quarter minute at most, and then they both suddenly evaporated. I was there alone lying on my bed. I could move now, but was completely upset and in shock about what had just happened. It had all been completely vivid in all detail: I could see, hear and feel them perfectly clearly while it was going on. "I didn't learn about the phenomenon of sleep paralysis until quite a few years later, and used to just think of the incident as some kind of nightmare. </blockquote>
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"Anyway, I know why "abductees" are loath to assume they are any kind of hallucination: they seem too vivid. We have the false preconception that hallucinations are supposed to be unrealistic somehow, have some dreamlike insubstantiality that gives them away as hallucinations, but they don't. What was especially peculiar was the "set up": the part where I hallucinated walking all the way to the MacDonald's when I was actually still at home in bed. I suppose I really wanted to go down there but got caught in some "interzone" where my neurotransmitters hadn't all shifted back into waking mode allowing me to hallucinate I was doing what I wanted to do. Had it been two grey alien looking things instead of two humans, I'm sure I'd have been seriously considering that I'd been abducted by space aliens." (3) </blockquote>
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Most UFO incidents, whether abductions or strange things in the sky, are not what they seem. Hoaxes, often quite elaborate and well organised, are more common than American Serious Ufologists like to believe. The Pelican can reveal that the US government, and other governments, are not going to disclose the evidence that UFOs are interstellar spacecraft, either now or at any time in the foreseeable future, for the simple reason that they possess no such evidence. It's true. Trust The Pelican and retain your sanity, and Make Ufology History. </div>
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<b>References: </b><br />
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<ol>
<li>Tim Printy, "The truth about ufology and debunking", <a href="http://members.aol.com/tprinty/debunk.html">members.aol.com/tprinty/debunk.html</a> </li>
<li>"NBC's Dateline airs misleading UFO footage", <em>The Village Voice</em>, New York, 19 May 2008 </li>
<li>Physics Forums, <a href="http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=108665">www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=108665</a></li>
</ol>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288177690155596824.post-23114684739331166372014-02-04T16:24:00.002+00:002014-03-16T13:36:52.964+00:00UFOs at the National Archives<div style="text-align: justify;">
<strong>David Clarke</strong></div>
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Magonia 98, September 2008</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhylzqTc7eTIIhs0ihPjvy3fqKsZsxONn9lCNOGz5agP8OQF6SifL9ps1iY9UNyzmW0bQlF8hYdSpDBokmpBMUpxvNkI0h3wcCSd5JDkY_OJLRag11AnMzHjwTXhd3jrY2IvemR-jxb0XUM/s1600/aa+files.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhylzqTc7eTIIhs0ihPjvy3fqKsZsxONn9lCNOGz5agP8OQF6SifL9ps1iY9UNyzmW0bQlF8hYdSpDBokmpBMUpxvNkI0h3wcCSd5JDkY_OJLRag11AnMzHjwTXhd3jrY2IvemR-jxb0XUM/s1600/aa+files.jpg" height="100" width="100" /></a>For the past six decades the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has kept what it knew about the topic of 'unidentified flying objects' locked away in its archives. Unlike their counterparts in the USA, who ran an officially-funded 'UFO project' for two decades, the British MoD preferred to quietly monitor the subject and preferred to say nothing publicly about its UFO policy or the results of investigations of reported sightings, particularly those by aircrew.</div>
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Responding to a USAF enquiry in 1965, the MoD said: "Our policy is to play down the subject ... and to avoid attaching undue attention or publicity to It. As a result, we have never had any serious political pressure to mount a large-scale investigation such as Project Blue Book." </div>
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This policy was more a product of Cold War paranoia than evidence of a conspiracy to conceal evidence of an extraterrestrial presence from the British public. Secrecy surrounded many aspects of military operations and intelligence during the Cold War and UFOs were no exception to this rule. Dr Edward Condon remarked, in the introduction to the 1969 Colorado University report on UFOs for the USAF Project Blue Book that "where secrecy is known to exist one can never be absolutely sure that he knows the complete truth". </div>
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Furthermore, the fact that in Britain many official papers on UFOs have been withheld for half a century in some cases, and destroyed in others, has provided a steady supply of fuel for conspiracy theorists. The idea of a conspiracy by the Air Ministry, and later the Ministry of Defence (MoD), to hide 'the truth' about UFOs (i.e. their assumed ET origin) has been a key theme in British ufology since the first 'flying saucer' clubs appeared in 1952-53. </div>
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Belief in the existence of a secret Government 'silence group' -led by the mythical 'Men In Black' (MIB) was encouraged by Albert Bender's fantasies and the 'cover up' stories circulated by Major Donald Keyhoe in the USA. These ideas filtered back into British ufology and were enthusiastically promoted by successive editors of <em>Flying Saucer Review,</em> who believed the British authorities were working with the Americans to suppress the 'facts' about the ET presence. </div>
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The myth of a 'UFO cover-up' by the British authorities grew out of the culture of secrecy and the paranoia of UFOlogists. The facts are that before the arrival of freedom of information the British public had no automatic right to examine any Government papers. Those relating to UFOs were no different to any other category of public record, from hospital records to MP's expenses. Prior to 1994 all government papers were retained for a minimum of 30 years before they were reviewed for preservation at the National Archive. Any material deemed 'sensitive' could be with-held for longer periods and, in the case of intelligence records, this could be as long as 50 or even 100 years. </div>
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Worse still the Grigg Committee of 1957 recommended that some 95% of Government records should be destroyed at first review stage. As a result many papers on subjects deemed to be 'of no historical significance' as UFOs were categorized until 1967 were lost before they reached a public archive. Prior to the late 1990s British ufologists had limited success in their attempts to persuade the MoD to be more open about their work on the subject. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s individuals and groups tried to persuade the MoD's 'UFO desk' (then known as S4 (Air)) to open their records. These requests were always politely refused on the grounds that any reports made by members of the public to the MoD were confidential and their identities would have to be removed before they could be released. Correspondents. were informed that the costs of processing this information could not be justified, and the requestors would have to wait until 30 years before the files could be released. </div>
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As many earlier papers had already been destroyed, the first UFO files did not reach the Public Record Office (now The National Archives) until the mid-1980s. UFO researchers who made the trek to Kew to examine these records were disappointed. The papers were fragmentary, superficial in content and betrayed none of the deep interest that had been assumed by conspiracy theorists. When Roger Morgan presented his paper 'British Government UFO Files in the Public Record Office' to <em>Magonia</em>'s 20th anniversary conference in 1987 just four files dating from 1950-1957 had been released. As Morgan noted, these were fragments of a much larger collection of papers many of which had been.lost dunng successive reshuffles of the Whitehall filing system. </div>
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While they contained evidence that at least one intelligence branch were directly responsible for investigations, it was evident from the paper trail they had 'no startling secret knowledge of the solution to the UFO engima' as alleged by the conspiracy industry. The contents of these early files made it clear that 'the UFO enigma was militarily assessed as a tactically nonthreatening problem, and probably trivial' and what's more 'military personnel were just as Si)s~eptible to 'flaps' as anyone else.' </div>
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A sea change began in 1994 when John Major's administration introduced a limited right to access to records younger than 30 years. This legislation was known as 'The Code of Practice for Access to Government Information' and was a precursor to the full Freedom of Information Act that became part of the Labour Party manifesto in the General Election of 1997. By this time, a large number of UFO records now older than 30 years were being prepared for release at the Public Record Office. This on-going process of releases became a veritable flood by 1998-99 when a large collection of records relating to the 1967 UFO wave were opened. This period marked the beginning of my project to systematically examine and catalogue all the UFO records at Kew, in preparation for the writing of my book with Andy Roberts, <em>Out of the Shadows</em>, published in 2002. By 2007 some 200 or more files, from a variety of Government departments had been opened covering a variety of UFO incidents and official correspondence from the Second World War to the mid-1980s. </div>
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Prior to the completion of the book we utilised the existing 'Code of Practice' to negotiate the advance release of the MoD's file on the infamous Rendlesham Forest incident and the 50-year-old report of the 'Flying Saucer Working Party'. The latter, referred to in the famous Air Ministry letter to Winston Churchill, had long been designated as 'missing, presumed destroyed'. The report, it emerged, had not been destroyed; it had simply been misfiled in the Whitehall archives before our requests to the Departmental Records Officer led to its rediscovery. </div>
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The growing momentum of releases culminated in the implementation of Britain's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) on 1 January 2005. Since that time the MoD has been inundated with requests for information on UFOs. It emerged the subject was the third most popular in terms of numbers of requests received in the first 18 months of the act's existence. As a result of the pressure placed on resources a decision was taken during 2007 to transfer all the remaining UFO records from Whitehall to The National Archives. </div>
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The collection, which contains some 180 files dating from 1980 to 2007, will be transferred in tranches over a three year period beginning in May 2008. In a statement to UFOlogist Joe McGonagle, the MoD describe the release as the largest single release of records younger than 30 years in the department's history. The decision, they added, was taken to counter what officials described as 'the maze of rumour and frequently ill-informed speculation' surrounding their alleged involvement in UFO research and investigation. </div>
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This article is an expanded version of a guide I have produced for the National Archives in advance of the first release of UFO records in 2008. It summarises the contents of the records opened at Kew prior to 2008 which mainly refer to the post-war years from 1950 until 1984. </div>
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At this point it is worth pointing out that the terminology used by the various departments of Government to describe UF®s has changed considerably during the modem period. From 1947 to at least 1959 UFOs were described interchangeably by officials both as 'flying saucers' (then popular in the media and popular culture) and, using military terminology, as 'aerial phenomena'. The acronym 'UFOs' coined by Captain Edward Ruppelt of the USAF circa 1950 is first used in an official British Government document of that year, but appears infrequently before the 1960s. Intelligence officers tended to prefer the phrase 'aerial phenomena', which reappeared in the mid-1980s under the umbrella of a new acronym, UAP (unidentified aerial phenomena). UAP was the term used by the author of the 'Condign report' prepared for the Defence Intelligence Staff in 1980, mainly because it did not imply the existence of solid 'objects' of extraterrestrial origin. National Archives file references are presented, where relevant, embedded in the text of this paper (i.e. as AIR 2/16918). These references known as 'piece numbers' can be used to locate records remotely, using the National Archives' online search engine: </div>
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<a href="http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/default.asp?j=1">http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/default.asp?j=1</a> </div>
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<a href="http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/default.asp?j=1">http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/default.asp?j=1</a> </div>
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Once a reference has been located the original papers can be ordered for inspection in the Reading Rooms at Kew, or copies of the file ordered via the National Archives public website. </div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>UFOs in the early 20th century: 1909-1950</strong></span> </div>
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An understanding of the factors that lay behind the British Government's interest in the UFO issue can be found by studying the range of documents available at the National Archives. The vast majority of the records are concentrated in the post World War Two period. This reflects growing post-war fascination with the idea of UFOs as extraterrestrial visitors, as portrayed in popular science fiction films such as <em>The Day the Earth Stood Still</em> (1951). In contrast, official policy was restricted to establishing whether UFO sightings could be considered to be a threat to the realm. During the Cold War, for instance, the major threat came from behind the Iron Curtain. Once Soviet aircraft were eliminated, the identity of a UFO was of no further interest to the military. <br />
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To understand the origins of the British Government's interest in UFOs it is necessary to look back to an earlier period of 20th century history. In 1909 and 1913 phantom airships dark cigar-shaped flying objects carrying searchlights were sighted at night moving over many British towns and cities. As tension grew in the build up to the First World War, the media and some politicians accused the Germans of sending Zeppelin airships to spy on dockyards and other strategic areas around the British coastline. </div>
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When sightings of an unidentified aircraft were made over the Royal Navy torpedo school at Sheerness, Essex, in October 1912 questions were asked in the House of Commons. This led the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, to order an investigation. This failed to establish the identity of the aircraft but the Germans were widely believed to be responsible. The relevant papers are AIR 1/2455 and AIR 1/2456. </div>
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Both the War Office and Admiralty investigated further sightings of unidentified airships, aircraft and mysterious moving lights, usually seen at night, that were made to the military authorities from many parts of the British Isles during the Great War. In 1916 a War Office intelligence circular concluded that 90% of the reports could be explained by bright planets, searchlights and natural phenomena ('Alleged Enemy Signalling 1916', WO 158/989). </div>
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More sightings of aerial phenomena were made during the Second World War by RAF aircrew. These included balls of fire and mysterious moving lights that appeared from nowhere and appeared to pursue aircraft from Bomber Command operating over occupied Europe. American pilots dubbed these UFOs as foo-fighters from a character in a comic strip whose catch phrase was 'where there's foo there's fire.' Although the foo-fighters did not appear to be hostile the sightings caused considerable alarm in the Allied forces as they prepared for the invasion of France. The RAF began to collect reports from 1942 and later in the war the Air Ministry shared intelligence on the subject with the US authorities. They assumed the objects were German secret weapons, such as the Me262 jet fighter. At the end of the war no traces of advanced aircraft or weapons that could explain the 'foo fighters' were found by the Allied occupying forces. In addition, intelligence officers such as Dr R.V. Jones discovered that German pilots had observed similar unexplained aerial phenomena. </div>
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Air Ministry reports on 'night phenomena' are at AIR 2/5070 while reports from aircrew with Bomber Command's 115 Squadron in December 1943 are at reference AIR 14/2800. At the end of the war both the War Office and Air Ministry became involved in an investigation of mysterious ghost rockets sighted over Scandinavia. Initially senior intelligence officers at the Air Ministry believed the 'flying bombs' were of Soviet origin, possibly as V2 rockets from the captured Nazi rocket plant at Peenemunde. Dr R.V. Jones, who became Director of Intelligence at the Air Ministry in 1946, was skeptical of this theory. Drawing upon his wartime experiences, he believed the scare was triggered by sightings of bright daylight meteors in countries which feared Soviet expansion. Reports and correspondence between the Foreign Office, Air Ministry and the British air attache in Stockholm are contained in FO 371/56988 and FO 371/56951. An air intelligence report on the 'ghost rockets' of 1946 can be found at reference AIR 40/2843. </div>
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Reports of ghost rockets preceded by six months the first sightings of 'flying saucers' over the mainland of the United States. In December 1947 the newly created US Air Force set up a project, code-named Sign to"the phenomenon reported is something real and not imaginary or fictitious". </div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>British Government interest, 1950-1951</strong></span> </div>
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The British Government did not begin any official inquiry into the UFO mystery until 1950. During the spring and summer of that year a large number of 'flying saucer' sightings were made in Britain for the first time and the news media began to take an interest. Two Sunday newspapers serialised the first books on the topic that had been published in the USA and this led a number of senior figures both in the establishment and the scientific community to treat the subject seriously for the first time. <em>The Sunday Dispatch</em> was encouraged to publish stories by Lord Louis Mountbatten, who was later to become Chief of Defence Staff. Mountbatten was one of a small group of influential military officials who believed UFOs were real and of interplanetary origin. </div>
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Another senior official who took reports of UFOs seriously was Sir Henry Tizard. He is best known for his work on the development of radar before the Second World War. Post-war Tizard became Chief Scientific Advisor to the Ministry of Defence and came to believe that "reports of flying saucers should not be dismissed without some investigation" (DEFE 41/74). It was as a direct result of his influence that the MoD was asked to set up a small working party to investigate reports of flying saucers under the Directorate of Scientific Intelligence/Joint Technical Intelligence Committee (DSI/JTIC). </div>
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The Flying Saucer Working Party operated under such secrecy that its existence was known to very few. However, a reference to a study of flying saucers emerged in 1988 when a file of correspondence between Winston Churchill and the Air Ministry was opened under the 30 year rule at PREM 11/855. On 28 July 1952 the Prime Minister asked his Air Minister: "What does all this stuff about flying saucers amount to? What can it mean? What is the truth? Let me have a report at your convenience". The response, dated 9 August 1952, began "The various reports about unidentified flying objects, described by the Press as 'flying saucers', were the subject of a full intelligence study in1951". </div>
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Several unsuccessful attempts were made to trace this study but in 1998 the minutes of the DSI/JTIC were released under reference DEFE 41/74 and DEFE 41/75. These revealed how the working party was established in August 1950 under these terms of reference </div>
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To review the available evidence in reports of 'Flying Saucers'. </div>
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To examine from now on the evidence on which reports of British origin of phenomena attributed to 'Flying Saucers' are based. </div>
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To report to DSI/JTIC as necessary. </div>
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To keep in touch with American occurrences and evaluation of such. </div>
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The working party included five intelligence officers, one from each of the three armed services. This team reviewed what was known about the subject and investigated a number of sightings reported to it by RAF Fighter Command. During their inquiries they questioned a group of test pilots from RAE Farnborough who had reported sightings of aerial phenomena. In June 1951 the working party produced a final report that debunked the sightings and concluded that flying saucers did not exist. A surviving copy of DSI/JTIC Report No 7 was found in MoD archives in 2001. It was released in the following year at reference DEFE 44/119. </div>
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Classified 'Secret/Discreet' the six page report concluded that all UFO sightings could be explained as misidentifications of ordinary objects or phenomena, optical illusions, psychological delusions or hoaxes. The working party concluded with the following statement: We accordingly recommend very strongly that no further investigation of reported mysterious aerial phenomena be undertaken, unless and until some material evidence becomes available.</div>
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The members of the working party relied heavily upon information supplied by the t:JS-Air Force UFO project (now renamed Grudge) and the CIA. US policy was to debunk the subject and restrict the release of information to the public about UFO sightings made by the armed services. A senior official from the CIA's Office of Scientific Intelligence, Dr H. Marshall Chadwell, was present at the meeting of DSI/JTIC in London during June 1951 when the report was delivered to MoD. American influence upon the team's methodology can be seen both in the adoption of the USAF term UFO in its title and the conclusions. Circulation was restricted within MoD with just one copy sent to Sir Henry Tizard. </div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Air Ministry investigations 1952-64</span></strong> </div>
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The conclusions of the Flying Saucer Working Party set the template for all future British policy on UFOs. After the report was delivered the team was dissolved and investigations ended. However, during the summer of the following year a new wave of sightings were made across the world. In July 1952, as Cold War tension increased, UFOs were detected by radars in the US capitol Washington DC, prompting the USAF to scramble jet interceptors. The scare made headlines across the world and led Winston Churchill to send his famous memo to the Air Ministry on 'flying saucers.' <br />
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The Prime Minister was told on 9 August 1952 that 'nothing has happened since 1951 to make the Air Staff change their opinion, and, to judge from recent Press statements, the same is true in America' (PREM 11/855). In September this policy was dramatically reversed as a direct result of further UFO sightings that occurred during a major NATO exercise in Europe. The most dramatic were those reported by a group of Shackleton aircrew who saw a circular silver object appear above the airfield at RAF Topcliffe in North Yorkshire. In a report made to the base Commanding Officer one of the men, Flt. Lt. John Kilburn of 269 Squadron, RAF, said he watched as the object appeared to descend to follow a Meteor jet, rotated on its own axis and then accelerated away at a speed 'in excess of a shooting star' (AIR 16/1199). </div>
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According to Capt Edward Ruppelt, of Project Blue Book, it was the Topcliffe sighting that 'caused the RAF to officially recognise the UFO.' Soon afterwards the Air Ministry decided to monitor UFO reports on a permanent basis. Responsibility was delegated by the Chief of Air Staff to a branch within the Deputy Directorate of Intelligence (DDI (Tech) known as AI3. In December 1953 HQ Fighter Command issued orders to all RAF stations that in future reports of 'aerial phenomena' should be reported directly to DDI (Tech), Air Ministry, for further investigation. The order said it was important that details of sightings made by RAF personnel and from radar stations should be carefully examined and its release 'controlled officially.' The Air Ministry letter stated that 'all reports are to be classified 'Restricted' and personnel are warned not to communicate to anyone other than official persons any information about phenomena they have observed, unless officially authorised to do so' (AIR 20/9994). </div>
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From 1953 reports from all sources were sent to DDI (Tech) for 'examination, analysis and classification'. Advice on likely explanations was to be obtained from Fighter Command, the Meteorological Office and the Royal Greenwich Observatory. Each year a special report 'summarising all UFO sightings by types' was to be submitted to the Air Staff (DEFE 31/118). None of these summaries have survived before 1956. However, an analysis of 80 reports up to 1954 formed the basis of an article published in Vol 10, No 3 of the Air Ministry <em>Secret Intelligence Summary</em> (AMSIS) during March 1955 (DEFE 31/118 and AIR 40/2769). This summary, based upon a longer report now lost, was classified 'Secret UK Eyes Only.' </div>
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The existence of this summary came to light in May 1955 when the Conservative MP Major Patrick Wall asked the Secretary of State for Air, in a Parliamentary Question, if he would publish the "report on flying saucers recently completed by the Air Ministry." In reply the Air Minister George Ward said that: "Reports of 'flying saucers' as well as any other abnormal objects in the sky, are investigated as they come in, but there has been no formal inquiry. About 90 percent of the reports have been found to relate to meteors, balloons, flares and many other objects. The fact that the other 10 percent are unexplained need be attributed to nothing more sinister than lack of data." (AIR 2/16918). </div>
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The residue of 10 percent 'unexplained' sightings that remained UFOs (or, as the Air Ministry preferred, 'insufficient information), explains the policy decision to continue collecting reports to the present day. The reasons given in the AMSIS article were that "there is always the chance of observing foreign aircraft of revolutionary design." This factor remained a concern for intelligence agencies until the end of the Cold War. The Air Ministry was careful to qualify this interest with this caveat: "... as for controlled manifestations from outer space, there is no tangible evidence of their existence." (AIR 40/2769). </div>
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The Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) initiated inquiries into 'aerial phenomena' on two occasions during the late 1950s. Following press reports of UFOs tracked by radars at RAF West Freugh, Scotland, in April 1957 the Air Ministry informed the JIC it was unable to explain four recent incidents (CAB 157/27). Aerial phenomena were again the subject of JIC discussion in March 1959 following a sighting made at London airport (CAB 159/31). </div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>MoD investigations 1964-present</strong></span> </div>
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From 1958 a civilian Air Staff secretariat branch known as S6 (Air) took over responsibility for dealing with public relations on the topic of UFOs. During that year an S6 desk officer said their policy would be 'politely unhelpful' in response to any public or press inquiry on the subject. In effect this meant that from this point onwards two separate branches of the Air Ministry were involved in dealing with the UFO problem. DD! (Tech) was responsible for investigating reports and assessing their defence significance, whilst S6 (Air) fielded questions from members of the public, the press and MPs. </div>
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In 1964 the Air Ministry became part of the new Ministry of Defence and the three separate service intelligence sections of the Army, Navy and RAF were merged under a new unified structure. S6's UFO remit passed to a new MoD secretariat, S4 (Air) and in 1967 responsibility for the investigation of UFO incidents deemed to have defence significance were inherited by a Defence Intelligence branch known as DI55. </div>
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Although more than 11,000 UFO reports have been logged by DI55, S4 (Air) and a number of other MoD branches between 1959 and 2007, no detailed studies have been carried out on the accumulated data until relatively recently. Following a new wave of sightings in 1967 the Government faced a series of Parliamentary questions on their UFO investigations and policy. In response, the head of S4(Air), James Carruthers, produced a detailed briefing for the Secretary of State for Air, Merlyn Rees MP. In his report dated November 1967 Carruthers says MoD had kept a statistical analysis of UFO reports received since 1959 "and has found no evidence to suggest [UFOs] have other than mundane explanations." He added that MoD "does not consider that a separate study by [UK] Government departments or by a university other independent organisation would produce results to justify the expenditure, time and money involved." (DEFE 31/119). </div>
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Following the conclusions reached by the Flying Saucer Working Party the MoD continued to reply upon studies carried out by USAF and CIA for their policy lead on UFOs. There was never any British equivalent of the publicly funded study by the University of Colorado on behalf of the USAF that was completed in 1969. The 'Condon report' named after the project head, the physicist Dr Edward Condon was based on an analysis of 12,618 reports collected by the USAF Project Blue Book between 1947 and 1969 (Blue Book followed Projects Sign and Grudge in 1952). Of this total 701 remained unexplained. The main findings of the US study were that: </div>
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About 90% of all UFO reports prove to be plausibly related to ordinary phenomena; </div>
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Little, if anything, had come from the study of UFOs in the past 21 years that added to scientific knowledge; </div>
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Further extensive study of UFO sightings was not justified in the expectation that science will be advanced thereby </div>
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No evidence came to light in the study to indicate that UFO sightings may represent a defence hazard </div>
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The Department of Defence should continue to handle UFO reports in its normal surveillance operations without the need for special units such as Project Blue Book (S4 briefing to MoD, 24 March 1970, copy in BJ 5/311). </div>
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Project Blue Book was closed by USAF following publication of the Condon report in December 1969. In the UK the MoD used the findings to further reduce their workload on UFOs. From 1973 members of the public who reported sightings received only a polite acknowledgement. Unlike the USAF, the MoD decided it should continue to maintain an interest in the subject so that it could answer questions from MPs and where necessary, reassure the public that UFOs posed no threat to national defence. This policy rethink, the first of many, took place between 1970 and 1975 and the papers can be found at AIR 2/19086. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhyaGEJFA1rGdnRRoNZW0y6GuiVxms1aDDWnLK6P8j2hLovg8v4CZcgbMRQ7p0Rohe0OKYrjnzw1kZKYadRFbWBtJSJt2IdyuIabB3hWz_xt_1oO0ZJSs9THyAw3TnrjwYArnLGPySwnkZ/s1600/Trench,+Brinsley.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhyaGEJFA1rGdnRRoNZW0y6GuiVxms1aDDWnLK6P8j2hLovg8v4CZcgbMRQ7p0Rohe0OKYrjnzw1kZKYadRFbWBtJSJt2IdyuIabB3hWz_xt_1oO0ZJSs9THyAw3TnrjwYArnLGPySwnkZ/s1600/Trench,+Brinsley.jpg" height="400" width="400" /></a></div>
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The last time the Government made a full public statement on its policy was in January 1979 when UFOs were the subject of a lengthy debate in the House of Lords. This was initiated by Lord Clancarty (Brinsley le Poer Trench, above), a ufologist who had written several books on the subject. Clancarty believed the MoD were covering up the truth about UFOs and he tabled a motion that called on the UK Government to set up an inquiry and for the Defence Minister to make a televised statement on UFOs. In the Lords, the Government's response was delivered by a retired Royal Navy officer and Labour peer, Lord Strabolgi (David Kenworthy). His closing remarks were: "... as for telling the public the truth about UFOs, the truth is simple. There really are many strange phenomena in the sky, and these are invariably reported by rational people. But there is a wide range of natural explanations to account for such phenomena. There is nothing to suggest to Her Majesty's Government that such phenomena are alien space craft". AIR 20/12966. </div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>Key Documents Held at the National Archives</strong></span> </div>
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Keyword searches on the Catalogue using the 'UFO' or 'U.F.O' or '(unidentified NEAR flying)' and 'flying saucers' will produce a list of most of the relevant files held at the National Archives. </div>
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Various documents held at The National Archives give a history of the British Government's involvement in the UFO issue and an insight into the politics and personalities responsible for shaping official policy. The official reporting, analysis and recording of UFO sightings commenced in the early 1950s, but substantial records at the National Archives begin in 1962. Until 1967 MoD policy was to destroy UFO files at five yearly intervals because they were deemed to be of 'transitory interest'; as a result a number of records before 1962 have been lost. This policy was rescinded as a direct result of Parliamentary questions made by the MP Sir John Langford-Holt in 1970 (AIR 2/19086 and DEFE 13/1183). </div>
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The surviving records generally consist of four categories of material: </div>
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UFO policy; </div>
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Parliamentary business including responses to Parliamentary Questions (PQs) and Parliamentary Enquiries (PEs); </div>
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Public correspondence; </div>
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UFO sighting reports; </div>
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There are several files documenting the UK Government's policy on UFOs, including references to how and by whom it was drawn up and how it evolved. These papers illustrate how a number of different branches and divisions with MoD were involved at different times handling policy and investigations. </div>
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Policy files created by the former Air Ministry DDI (Tech) and their successor, the Defence Intelligence Staff, can be found at references DEFE 31/118 (1953-1963)and DEFE 31/119 (1967). Air Staff policy can be followed at AIR 20/11612 (1967-68), AIR 2/18117 (1967) and AIR 2/19086 (1970-75) </div>
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Examples of Parliamentary correspondence can be found at DEFE 24/1535. This file also contains papers relating to the British Government's response to the Prime Minister of Grenada's attempts to table a debate on UFOs at the United Nations in 1977-78. Other papers include references to the French Government's UFO policy and the study group established by the French Space Agency, based at Toulouse. A series of files contains responses to Parliamentary Enquiries on UFOs, at DEFE 13/1183, DEFE 13/1187 and DEFE 13/1188. There is a substantial collection of papers relating to the UFO debate held in the House of Lords in January 1979. A number of MoD branches, along with the Foreign Office and the Dept of Science & Energy, contributed to the Government's response in the Lords. DEFE 19/253 contains RAF Chief Scientist papers while AIR 20/12966 is the Head of S4(Air)'s file on the debate and its aftermath. </div>
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UFO reports files contain a mixture of letters from members of the public and reports from official sources such as the police, coastguard and Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). Many reports take the form of military signals received by MoD via a variety of RAF and RN stations. The most frequent method of reporting a UFO sighting was via a standard proforma, originally based on a USAF questionnaire. An early draft of this report form dated 1952-53, can be found at DEFE 31/118. A version of this questionnaire is still used today by the Ministry of Defence. The proforma contains 16 questions:</div>
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(a) Date, time and duration of sighting </div>
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(c) Exact position observer </div>
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(d) How observed </div>
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(e) Direction in which object was first seen (n Angle of sight </div>
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(g) Distance </div>
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(h) Movements </div>
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(j) Meteorological conditions during observations </div>
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(k) Nearby objects </div>
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(l) To whom reported (police, military organisations, the press etc) </div>
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(m) Name and address of informant </div>
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(n) Any background on the informant that may be volunteered </div>
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(o) Other witnesses </div>
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(p) date and time of receipt of report </div>
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(q) Is a reply requested? </div>
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Five separate file series contain the key documented UFO sightings from 1962 in approximate chronological order: </div>
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AIR 2/16918 features numerous sighting reports and correspondence from members of the public to the Air Ministry secretariat S6, between 1961 and 1963. On the reorganization of MoD in 1964 a new Secretariat, S4 (Air), took over responsibility for UFO matters. UFO reports and correspondence from 1967 can be found at AIR 2/18115 and AIR 2/18116, 1967-68 at AIR 2/18117, and 1968-69 and AIR 2/18183. AIR 2/18871 contains reports and newspaper cuttings from 1972, while AIR 2/18872 consists of a collection of UFO reports and correspondence 1972-1973; AIR 2/18873, 1973-1974; and AIR 2/18874 likewise for 1974-1975. A series of files containing UFO reports runs from February 1974 until December 1976 and begins at AIR 2/18950. AIR 2/19126 contains a statistical analysis of UFO reports made to MoD between 1967 and 1973. </div>
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AIR 20 files include a number of Air . Ministry UFO papers that escaped destruction before 1967. AIR 20/7390 contains reports of unidentified objects/aircraft made to Air Ministry between 1950 and 1954. AIR 20/9320, AIR 20/9321 and AIR 20/9322 contain Parliamentary Questions and briefings on UFOs reported in 1957, including reports of objects tracked by radar. AIR 20/9994 also contains papers from RAF radar stations concerning 'reports of aerial phenomena' during 1957. A further series containing UFO sighting reports made to S4 (Air), filed in monthly folders covering the period August 1967 through to December 1973, begins at reference AIR 20/11887 and ends at AIR 20/12555. </div>
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A third series of files, at DEFE 24 contains reports and public correspondence from 1977 through the 1980s. DEFE 24/1206 covers 1977 and DEFE 24/1207, 1977-78. These files contain papers from a number of MoD secretariats. S4(Air) was succeeded by DS8 in 1979. In turn DS8's UFO responsibility passed to Sec(AS) in 1984. DEFE 24 also contains a series of 'edited copies' of UFO reports received by MoD, covering the years 1975-1980. These are duplicates of the main reports series, prepared at a time when the MoD first considered the release of UFO material to the public. The identities and home addresses of observers have been deleted from the edited reports. A MoD proposal to make this material available on request to public was reversed in 1984 by defence minister John Stanley on the grounds of cost (DEFE 24/1517). </div>
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DEFE 31 contains a series of UFO records created by the Defence Intelligence Staff branch DI55 and their predecessors, Air Ministry DD! (Tech). Policy files are DEFE 31/118 and DE FE 31/119. UFO report files include DEFE 31/171 (1975-76) and DEFE 31/163 through to DEFE 31/167 (1979). </div>
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A short series of RAF Air Defence/ Operations UFO files include DEFE 71/3 (UFO reports 1975-77) and DEFE 71/4 (UFO reports 1977). </div>
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<span style="color: #073763;"><strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">"It is concluded that the incident was due to the presence of five reflecting objects of unidentified type and origin. It is considered unlikely that they were conventional. aircraft, meteorological balloons or charged clouds."</span></strong> </span></div>
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Details of some well-documented UFO sightings investigated by the MoD can be found by searching the reports files. AIR 2/18564 and AIR 20/9320 contain reports from RAF Lakenheath-Bentwaters and RAF West Freugh, Scotland, from 1957. This sighting, although only recorded by radars, created a major stir in Whitehall when civilian operators leaked details to the national media. The story led to questions in Parliament and at the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC); a development that undoubtedly resulted in the permanent preservation of the intelligence report on the case. In the case of the Lakenheath incident, which occurred in August 1956, records were 'lost' as the report was successfully hidden from public scrutiny until 1969 when its existence emerged as one of the 'unexplained' USAF UFO reports listed in the Condon study. The DD! Tech report on the West Freugh incident, dated 30 April 1957, contains in its conclusions what is probably the closest the MoD ever got to recognizing that some UFOs remained inexplicable and could, as a result, be a potential threat to defence. Their report stated: "It is concluded that the incident was due to the presence of five reflecting objects of unidentified type and origin. It is considered unlikely that they were conventional. aircraft, meteorological balloons or charged clouds." (AIR 20/9321) </div>
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AIR 20/11889 and AIR 20/11890 contain papers and reports on a 'flying cross' sighted by police officers and other witnesses in Devon, Sussex and elsewhere during October 1967. Papers from 1967-68 also contain details of field investigations of selected UFO reports carried out by S4(Air) and D!55. A number of records contain large numbers of reports made on a single night, often quickly explained as sightings of bolide meteors and/or reentries of man-made satellites and other 'space junk'. </div>
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DEFE 24/1212, for instance, contains some 20 sightings reported to MoD on the evening of 31 December 1978 from many parts of the British Isles. The source of this 'flap' was identified by the RAF's early warning base at Fylingdales, North Yorkshire, as the re-entry into Earth's atmosphere of the Russian satellite Cosmos 1068. Nevertheless, an examination of the reports made to the RAF by members of the public and police officers reveals a variety of descriptions of the debris, including: "cigar shaped, very bright, with lighted windows" (Manchester), "similar to a German V2 rocket at a height of 1000 ft" (Bradford) and "train-shaped, 120 ft long tapering at the front with 40 plus bright lights all along the side" (Newmarket). </div>
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AIR 2/19083 contains brief details of the so-called Berwyn Mountains UFO incident, reported in North Wales in January 1974. AIR 2/19125 is a collection of UFO sightings compiled by staff at RAF Patrington in North Yorkshire referred to as "reports of unusual occurrences (UFO)." This includes details of sightings made by civilians, police, and various flight personnel from the station between 1968 and 1973. </div>
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AVIA 65/33 contains papers and photographs of Project Y (1953-55), a Canadian project to design a saucer-shaped vertical take off (VTOL) aircraft. This file shows that both the Air Ministry and Ministry of Supply wished to develop ideas for saucer-shaped aircraft but no progress was made due to cost and technical difficulties. Further papers on 'unorthodox aircraft' designs, including flying saucers, from 1949-52 can be found at DEFE 41/117 and DEFE 41/118. </div>
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BJ 5/311 contains papers collected by the Meteorological Office relating to UFO reports and policy 1968-1970. The Met Office have provided technical advice to the Air Staff secretariat on UFO matters since 1950, but this is the only surviving file containing evidence of their input to official policy. </div>
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DEFE 71/33 contains a brief discussion between RAF, Air Traffic Control and the Defence Intelligence Staff concerning UFOs as a potential hazard to civil aviation, 1977-78. </div>
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AIR 2/19119 and AIR 2/19117 contains papers relating to the MoD's involvement in two BBC productions on UFOs. In 1972 the head of S4 (Air), Anthony Davies, appeared on a UFO debate screened by BBC2's Man Alive series. He was also interviewed by BBC Radio Oxford for a programme broadcast later that year. DEFE 24/1565 contains a transcript of the head of S4 (Air)'s contribution on a Yorkshire TV programme on UFOs in 1979. </div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Ministry of Defence Archives</span></strong> </div>
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The Ministry of Defence hold a further 160-180 UFO-related files dating from 1984 to the present day. Since 2005, under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) they have continued to release information to requestors and added material to their FOI publication scheme. In 2007 the ministry announced these would be released in batches from spring 2008 over a third year period. Personal details of those who made the reports would be removed from the versions opened at the National Archives under Section 40 of the FOIA (which covers Data Protection). This and any other information with-held, under national security and other exemptions to the act, will become available in due course when the papers reach the 30 years of age. </div>
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One of the first UFO files to be released under the FOIA in 2001 was that containing papers on the famous Rendlesham Forest incident, often called 'Britain's Roswell'. The sightings took place over two nights late in December, 1980 at RAF Woodbridge, Suffolk, an airbase loaned to the USAF. Mysterious lights were seen to land in the forest beyond the perimeter of the base and a group of airmen went to investigate. They reported seeing lights they were unable to identify moving through the trees. The next day marks were allegedly found on the ground and on trees in the forest where the men claimed the UFO had landed. Two nights later UFOs were again sighted from the base and the deputy base commander, Lt Col Charles Halt, took a team of handpicked men into the woods to investigate. During the expedition Halt saw several unidentified lights and made a live tape recording of the incident. </div>
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Early in January 1981 Halt produced an official report on the incidents, titled 'Unexplained Lights' that was sent to Defence Secretariat 8 (DS8) at Whitehall. Halt's original typewritten report and the follow-up inquiries made by MoD can be seen at reference DEFE 24/1512. A file dedicated to the Rendlesham incident was subsequently opened by DS8's successor branch, Sec(AS) in 1984. This contains Halt's memo and briefings prepared for a Parliamentary question tabled by Major Patrick Wall MP in October 1983 when the story was published by the News of the World. The remainder of the file covers internal discussion of the case and correspondence from the public between 1983 and 1995. The Rendlesham file will be amongst the first of the new UFO material opened at the National Archives from 2008. </div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>National Archives UFO Files now online: </strong></span><a href="http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ufos/"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ufos/</strong></span></a></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">References and further reading:</span></strong><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>Books:</strong></span> <br />
<ul>
<li>Brookesmith, Peter. <em>UFO The Government Files</em>. London: Blandford, 1996 </li>
<li>Bruni, Georgina. <em>You Can't Tell the People</em>. London: Pan/Macmillan, 2001 </li>
<li>Clancarty, Lord with Michell, John. <em>The House of Lords UFO Debate</em>. London: Open Head Press, 1979. </li>
<li>Clarke, David and Roberts, Andy. <em>Phantoms of the Sky: UFOs A Modern Myth?</em> London: Robert Hale, 1990 </li>
<li>Clarke, David and Roberts, Andy. <em>Out of the Shadows: UFOs, the Establishment and the Official Cover-up.</em> London: Piatkus, 2002 </li>
<li>Coates, Tim (editor). <em>UFOs in the House of Lords 1979</em>. London: HMSO, 2000 </li>
<li>Fawcett, Lawrence and Greenwood, Barry J. <em>Clear Intent</em>. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1984 </li>
<li>Gillmor, Daniel S. (ed). <em>The Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects</em>, London: Vision, 1969 </li>
<li>Good, Timothy. <em>Above Top Secret</em>. London: Sidgwick and Jackson, 1987 </li>
<li>Gough, Jack. <em>Watching the Skies: The history of ground radar in the air defence of the United Kingdom</em>. London: HMSO, 1993 </li>
<li>Jones, R.V. <em>Most Secret War</em>, London: Hamish Hamilton, 1979 </li>
<li>Pope, Nick. <em>Open Skies, Closed Minds</em>. London: Simon & Schuster, 1996 </li>
<li>Randles, Jenny. <em>The UFO Conspiracy</em>, London: Blandford, 1987 </li>
<li>Randles, Jenny. <em>UFO Retrievals: The Recovery of Alien Spacecraft</em>. London: Blandford, 1995 </li>
<li>Randles, Jenny. <em>MIB: Investigating the Truth Behind the Men in Black Phenomenon</em>. London: Piatkus, 1997 </li>
<li>Randles, Jenny. <em>Something in the Air</em>. London: Hale, 1998 </li>
<li>Randles, Jenny. <em>UFO Crash Landing?</em> Blandford,1998 </li>
<li>Redfern, Nicholas . <em>A Covert Agenda: The British Government's UFO Top Secrets Exposed</em>, London: Simon & Schuster, 1997 </li>
<li>Redfern, Nicholas. <em>The FBI Files</em>. London: Simon & Schuster 1998 </li>
<li>Redfern, Nicholas. <em>Cosmic Crashes</em>. London: Simon & Schuster, 1999 </li>
<li>Ruppelt, Edward J. <em>The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects</em>. London: Gollancz, 1957 </li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>Papers</strong></span> <br />
<ul>
<li>Clarke, David and Roberts, Andy. 'Britain's X-Files', <em>Fortean Times</em> 164 (November 2002),38-44. </li>
<li>Clarke, David. 'The Rendlesham Forest Incident: Britain's Roswell?' <em>The Skeptic</em> 12/2-3 (2004),17-21. </li>
<li>Clarke, David. 'Opening the UFO files' <em>BBC History Magazine,</em> vol6/8 (August 2005), 43-46. </li>
<li>Haines, Gerald K. 'A die-hard issue: CIA's role in the study of UFOs, 1947-90', <em>Studies in Intelligence: Semi-annual Unclassified Edition</em> 1 (1997),67-84 </li>
<li>Jones, R. V. 'The natural philosophy of flying saucers,' <em>Physics Bulletin</em> 19 (July 1968), 225-30 </li>
<li>Morgan, Roger J. 'British Government UFO files in the Public Record Office,' <em><a href="http://magoniamagazine.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/british-government-ufo-files-in-public.html" target="_blank">Magonia 30</a></em> (August 1988), 12-15 </li>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288177690155596824.post-7664296619195771792014-02-04T14:45:00.001+00:002024-03-24T15:06:22.107+00:00Scalping the Skeptics<b>"The Pelican"</b><br />from Magonia 82, August, 2003<div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK92V-LKOYX4oHfRF-fy50lmH0msMK5_rqYDHzLGwNEwOZ3A_x7fOFZU2HxzFu7pvv7uF_imrmaR65Z0YNjTX50FUQ0j2PjnfmcjyliceA0ha608PWggdhpBpjs-eKIIQEcm__Ikxb1PgnEOu0lgiOt_wLQXjwfQuJSumtqb890CkWh8mwok_YMyVWzclK/s186/pelican%20square.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="100" data-original-width="100" height="100" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK92V-LKOYX4oHfRF-fy50lmH0msMK5_rqYDHzLGwNEwOZ3A_x7fOFZU2HxzFu7pvv7uF_imrmaR65Z0YNjTX50FUQ0j2PjnfmcjyliceA0ha608PWggdhpBpjs-eKIIQEcm__Ikxb1PgnEOu0lgiOt_wLQXjwfQuJSumtqb890CkWh8mwok_YMyVWzclK/w200-h200/pelican%20square.jpg" width="100" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Pelican does not like being described as a sceptic. This is because so many people who call themselves sceptics simply cannot confine their criticisms to matters which they understand, usually the hard sciences, such as physics, astronomy or biology. They persist in blathering on about matters of which they evidently know very little with the result that, instead of recruiting people to the cause of logic and honest scientific research, they merely succeed in arousing hostility, and for no good reason.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span><a name='more'></a></span>🔽</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Many examples of this can be found in <i>The Skeptic.</i> In the latest issue is a serious and objective article about ganzfeld experiments, which attempt to establish whether or not people can send information to one another without using any known means of communication. (1) In other articles, however, the arguments are somewhat less clear and straightforward. For example, Steve Stewart-Williams attempts to show that life must have begun as a result of natural processes, urging us to reject "the traditional Judeo-Christian view that God created the earth and all life around 6,000 years ago". (2) That people who believe that the earth is only 6,000 years old would be subscribers to <i>The Skeptic </i>strikes The Pelican as being very unlikely. The author's real purpose appears to be just one of the sceptics' routine religion-bashing exercises. He writes of creationists when he obviously means to include all those who believe, or are willing to consider, that the universe was created by God rather than being the result of the Big Bang (you are not allowed to ask what caused it).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So far as the origin of life is concerned, Stewart-Williams points out that because it is as yet unexplained, some people assume it must be the result of divine intervention. This approach to gaps in human knowledge is known as semi-deism, the belief that God created the universe which is capable of running on its own, although He occasionally intervenes to make adjustments or to introduce new features. However, mainstream Christianity generally agrees that our lack of knowledge of the first steps in the origin of life are due to our ignorance rather than divine tinkering. In other words, modern theology is too sophisticated to require inexplicable gaps in nature to allow for marvellous events.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The only real difference between sceptics and religious believers concerning the origin of life is that sceptics believe its origin was purely fortuitous, whereas believers consider it to be a part of the Divine Plan. There is no serious disagreement about the facts which have so far been established, and most of the arguments about evolution concern some of the details of the theory rather than the theory itself. Thus the question of whether the origin of life was divinely ordained or not is a matter of faith or a matter of opinion, or speculation, rather than a scientific question.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In Wendy Grossman's column (3) we get treated to a little sermon about credulity concerning the paranormal which, curiously, begins with a tale which strains not only The Pelican's credulity but also his ability to attain a temporary suspension of disbelief. We are asked to believe that her friend Matt had "gone to the kind of weekend gathering where lots of rich, famous, or interesting people . . . get together to entertain each other." We are told that "at meals everyone took turns hosting a table, and you picked the table you thought would be most interesting." Wouldn't some tables get rather crowded, The Pelican wonders? Or do they fight for their places?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And, even more implausibly, we are informed: "Matt immediately discovered that no matter whose table he picked and no matter how apparently erudite and sane the person sitting next to him might be . . . he would immediately find himself listening to him or her swap names and experiences of homeopaths, pet psychics, and astrologers, or questionable theories about crystals, 'toxins', and 'forces'."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Grossman tells us: "Belief in the paranormal has nothing to do with intelligence." So, what are these gatherings of the great and the good where everyone babbles new-agey drivel? The Pelican thinks we should be told.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Another of <i>The Skeptic'</i>s columnists, Steve Donnelly, engages in another religion-bashing exercise, though less sophisticated than the one by Stewart-Williams, his approach to the subject being more like that of a sniggering adolescent. It seems that Donnelly's eldest daughter witnessed scenes in Sydney, Australia, where crowds gathered to look at a fence post which, to some people, when squinted at with eyes slightly unfocused, resembled traditional images of the Virgin Mary. Donnelly's treatment of a complex subject with a long history is typical of sceptics - flippant, mean-spirited and superficial.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Perhaps <i>The Skeptic</i>'s sceptics could pause in their desperate endeavours to convince one another that that there is no such thing as the paranormal or supernatural beings, and no meaning or purposes in life apart from those which they devise for themselves. Let them ease up a bit and maybe they'll feel better and be able to stop taking the tablets.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Meanwhile, The Pelican would like to leave with them this thought: "It is not how things are in the world that is mystical, but that it exists." (4)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><b>References</b><br /><br />1. David Marks, 'What are we to make of exceptional experience? Part 2: Ganzfeld studies', <i>The Skeptic, </i>Vol. 14, No. 2, Summer 2003<br />2. Steve Stewart-Williams, 'Life from non-life: Must we accept a supernatural explanation?', Ibid.<br />3. Wendy M Grossman, 'Skeptic at large . . .', Ibid.<br />4. Ludwig Wittgenstein, <i>Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus,</i> 6.44<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288177690155596824.post-12387975351258242382014-02-04T12:21:00.003+00:002021-07-29T22:56:40.074+01:00Apollo 20: A Space Absurdity Curtis Peebles<br />
Magonia 97, April 2008.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy-jEae9sWNiyHEfNPSYAXA_EZA8j16-VyFNz7KmT7FAR4cN_65U5sGNPwtjEFM0hexZ2ZJUzPUIyP4M9HvR69rY0u_eSdAUOB6y0brpdFL_MuTKop5KuRJZYE0GpWj6VY0l95bnv14mHB/s1600/aa+apollo20.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="100" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy-jEae9sWNiyHEfNPSYAXA_EZA8j16-VyFNz7KmT7FAR4cN_65U5sGNPwtjEFM0hexZ2ZJUzPUIyP4M9HvR69rY0u_eSdAUOB6y0brpdFL_MuTKop5KuRJZYE0GpWj6VY0l95bnv14mHB/s1600/aa+apollo20.jpg" width="100" /></a>Beginning in April of 2007, an individual with the user name ‘retiredafb’ began posting a series of video clips on YouTube. These were described as from ‘Apollo 20′, a secret joint U.S./Soviet space mission in 1976 to examine a crashed UFO near the crater Izsak on the far side of the Moon. The Apollo 20 story offers a chance to examine the methodology and mindset of exopolitics advocates regarding evidence and its use in reaching conclusions.</div>
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The postings drew the attention of Italian journalist Lusa Scantamburlo, who conducted an on-line correspondence with ‘retiredafb’ over the spring and summer. Retiredafb said his real name was William Rutledge, and that he had been born in Belgium in 1930, emigrated to the U.S., and worked for the aircraft manufactories Avro and Chance Vought. He later worked for Bell Laboratories and the U.S. Air Force. Rutledge said that he had studied Soviet technology, such as the N1 Moon rocket, the ‘AJAX plane project’, and the ‘Mig Foxbat 25′. He said that he was skilled in computer navigation and had volunteered to be an astronaut for the Air Force’s Manned Orbiting Laboratory. This was a space station for reconnaissance missions, cancelled in 1969, and never flown. He was not selected and worked on the KH-11 reconnaissance satellite before retiring.</div>
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The Apollo 15 mission, according to Rutledge, photographed a crashed alien mothership on the far side of the Moon, which was never visible from Earth. The following year, the Apollo 17 mission also photographed the alien ship. Plans were made for two secret NASA/U.S. Air Force Space Command Apollo missions to examine it. These were Apollo 19 and 20, which were launched from Vandenberg AFB in California, rather than the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (The Apollo 18 mission was the American half of the joint U.S./Soviet Apollo Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) flown in 1975.)</div>
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The Apollo 19 mission was to explore the roof of the spindle-shaped mothership by climbing the ‘Monaco hill’. Rutledge gave few details of the mission. He did not give a launch date, or the full crew list. Rutledge did say the name of the Apollo 19 Command Module (CM) was Endymion, while the LM was called Artemis. He also said that one of the crew was ‘Stephanie Eilis’, the first U.S. black woman in space. According to his account, Eilis was born in 1946 in the Ivory Coast and arrived in the U.S. at the age of seven months. She worked at Grumman on the Apollo Lunar Module (LM) navigation system. Rutledge also said that she was his girlfriend. [1]</div>
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The Apollo 19 mission ended in tragedy. Rutledge said that telemetry was lost at the end of the engine burn to send the spacecraft to the Moon. The reason was not understood at the time, but Rutledge believed it was due to a collision with a ‘quasi-satellite’ or a meteor. [2]</div>
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Despite the loss of the first mission, plans went ahead for Apollo 20. Rutledge was the mission commander; Lena Snyder, also from Bell Labs, was the CM pilot; while Alexei Leonov was the LM pilot. A Soviet cosmonaut, he was the first man to walk in space, and the commander of the Soyuz which docked with Apollo 18 during the ASTP mission. The Apollo 20 CSM was named Constellation, while the LM was Phoenix. The mission control was at Vandenberg rather than Houston. The call sign ‘Vandenberg’ was used in the audio posted on YouTube videos. Three hundred people were involved with preparing the Saturn V at Vandenberg. Why Rutledge, Snyder, and Eilis were selected for the Apollo 19 and 20 crews was not made clear. Rutledge said only that he had been picked because he did not believe in God.</div>
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<a href="http://laughingsquid.com/wp-content/uploads/saturn-v-20090716-095038.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://laughingsquid.com/wp-content/uploads/saturn-v-20090716-095038.jpg" width="306" /></a>The Apollo 20 launch was made from Vandenberg AFB on August 16, 1976. The launch was seen, but people did not know it was a Saturn V booster. The YouTube videos included shots of Snyder entering the capsule (with his back to the camera), the launch itself, video from the LM as it prepared to land, photos of the mothership from orbit, and surface photos of a city on the Moon. This was described by Rutledge as only debris, except for one building.</div>
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Rutledge and Leonov entered the alien ship and found “…many signs of biology… vegetation in the ‘motor’ section, special triangular rocks which emitted ‘tears’ of a yellow liquid which has some special medical properties, and of course signs of extra solar creatures.” Two alien bodies were still in the mothership – one was in very poor condition, while the other was an intact female body. Dubbed ‘Mona Lisa’, she was 1.65 meters tall. Unlike her earthly namesake, Rutledge said she had six fingers on her hands. ‘Piloting devices’ were attached to both her fingers and eyes, while two cables were on her nostrils. Rather than clothes, she was covered in a thin transparent protective layer. Rutledge commented that the body “seemed not dead not alive.” He and Leonov attached their biomedical sensors to her body, and telemetry was received by mission control.</div>
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In all, Rutledge said he and Leonov spent seven days on the Moon exploring the alien ship. This was about twice as long as the Apollo 15, 16, and 17 crews had each spent on the surface. Rutledge said that since 1990, he had lived in Rwanda under a false identity, and had not spoken English during that time, only Kinyarwanda and French.</div>
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Rutledge gave little explanation as to why he released the videos, saying only that it was because of “The wonder of it all”, and “2012 is coming soon”. As for the secrecy of the two Apollo missions, he claimed the reason was “not a problem of panic, but simply a problem of economy”. Rutledge said that all currencies on Earth are based on the value of gold, but exploding stars spread large amounts of gold in young star systems. “This means that it is the most common substance in the universe, no more value than a piece of plastic”. [3]</div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>Acceptance, Doubt, and Excuses</strong></span></div>
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Scantamburlo was impressed by Rutledge’s videos and information, calling them “coherent and plausible, and it shows a detailed knowledge of Aerospace history, of Geology, Chemistry and of Space exploration history….” He continued, “Waiting for the rest of Rutledge’s testimony, we should prepare ourself for the wait and new Copernican revolution: we are not alone in the Universe and, at last, historical and technical evidences are supporting it beyond any doubt.” [4]</div>
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In attempting to support the claim that secret Apollo launches were made from Vandenberg AFB, Scantamburlo wrote that the Saturn V booster was listed in an April 19, 2006 Air Force report, and claimed that documents from the 1960s indicated Air Force interest in using the Saturn V booster. From this, he argued, “The fact that the Apollo 20 would have been launched from Vandenberg AFB, according to Rutledge’s testimony, is now supported by strong circumstantial evidence.” [5]</div>
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Despite his comments, Scantamburlo did note a problem with the YouTube video of the Apollo 20 liftoff. This clip had an opening frame listing it as film of the Apollo 11 launch, made in July of 1969. Rutledge explained that he was no longer in Africa, and that the videos were being converted from analogue to digital by friends in Rwanda for uploading to YouTube. They apparently made a mistake. [6]</div>
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Dr. Michael E. Salla, a leading figure in the exopolitics faction of ufology, wrote a commentary about the Apollo 20 videos on June 24, 2007. Dr. Salla was impressed by Scantamburlo’s work, saying his report “…demonstrates a sincere effort to verify a number of the details provided by Rutledge….’”</div>
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Salla also found inconsistencies in Rutledge’s account. One of these dealt with the Apollo 20 mission patch. Salla noted, “…the Apollo 20 insignia that is shown in a number of his films shows only the names of the three astronauts (Rutledge, Synder [sic] and Leonov) and the name of the Apollo mission. This is inconsistent with the 1975 insignia of the joint Apollo-Soyuz mission which had both the ‘Apollo’ and ‘Soyuz’, and the names of the three [sic] astronauts/cosmonauts on them.”</div>
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The second inconsistency was Ingo Swann’s account of his remote viewing of artifacts and aliens on the far side of the Moon for a “covert intelligence agency” in 1975. Salla wrote that, “Swann deduced from what he had been told that there was a concerted effort to gather intelligence using remote viewing since physical access to the moon had been curtailed.”</div>
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According to Swann, this was probably because the aliens had decided no further landings would be permitted. Salla continued that other whistleblowers had also indicated that this “…is the real reason why the Apollo moon landings were quietly terminated after the 1971 [sic] Apollo 17 mission.”</div>
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Salla noted that if Swann’s statements and conclusions were true, they would be inconsistent with a secret Apollo 20 landing on the Moon. This, combined with the Apollo 20 patch error, “…could lead to the conclusion that Rutledge’s testimony and videos are a sophisticated hoax to deceive the public.”</div>
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Yet having said this, Salla continued, “…Rutledge’s video evidence and testimony may be the final straw that breaks the camel’s back concerning UFO secrecy.” If Rutledge’s claims were proved to be true, and the inconsistencies were successfully explained, Salla predicted that, “…this will lead to an escalation of public disclosures. More officials will recognize that the secrecy system is imploding and will wish to be on the winning side of history as that part of the government that played a proactive role in preparing the public for disclosure of the extraterrestrial presence.”</div>
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The same was also true, Salla wrote, if the Apollo 20 story proved to be a hoax, as it may be “…an attempt to raise the public’s awareness of extraterrestrial life through partially valid information.” Salla concluded his commentary by writing: “I recommend considering Scantamburlo’s report due to the possibility that this is a genuine disclosure of a secret mission to investigate an ancient extraterrestrial mothership….” [7]</div>
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Only four days later, Salla posted an update of the Apollo 20 commentary. Salla noted that the video of the ancient Moon city used a sound clip from the Apollo 15 mission. He initially wrote that this suggests that Rutledge’s story and videos were nothing more than an elaborate hoax, and that “…this discovery will suffice to dismiss the whole affair.” But he added, “However, this does raise the question of what the underlying agenda of Rutledge is in performing such an elaborate deception? Is it merely to disinform the public or to direct the public’s attention to something important?”</div>
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Salla preferred the second option, noting that “…the natural starting point is the … Apollo 15 photo … That is a genuine photo and may depict an extraterrestrial artifact as Rutledge claims.” He also noted “…that a joint mission insignia was not correctly depicted in Rutledge’s Apollo 20 videos.” Salla suggested that Rutledge was “…suggesting that there may have been [a] joint secret mission to discover more about the artifact depicted in the Apollo 15 photo, but that its actual name was not Apollo 20 which would have signified solely a US space mission.” [8]</div>
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Scantamburlo also acknowledged the falsehoods in Rutledge’s account in an August 22, 2007 paper. He noted a YouTube user had identified the city on the Moon photo as being a composite of images from the Apollo 17 mission with the fake ruins added. Scantamburlo, like Salla, offered a mixed analysis of the Apollo 20 case. On one hand, he wrote: “…there is the slight possibility that the fake was fabricated on purpose to provide us with a clue in investigating a lunar anomaly.” Yet Scantamburlo added: “However I am aware that now the contradictions of the Apollo 20 case are too many to be simply mistakes made by inexperienced helpers who would live in Rwanda…”</div>
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But Scantamburlo then asked, “Is it possible that behind the William Rutledge’s identity [<em>sic</em>] there is an agent of some Secret service of a European country who is trying to push (or to drive) the US government to reveal what it knows about the possible extraterrestrial in the Solar System? Or is he a person in control of some shadow Government scheme to subject the public to a psychological and sociological test in the context of the unofficial and rumoured `Public accommodation program.”‘ [9]</div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>Eine Kleine Rocket Science</strong></span></div>
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To assess controversial issues, modern society draws upon the heritage of the Greeks, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and the Scientific Revolution. These include rules of evidence, procedures to test a hypothesis, and methods of limiting biases and errors. These are applied on a daily basis to settle scientific, historical, journalistic, and legal questions.</div>
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The process has three basic steps. The first is to determine what is required for the claim to be valid or false. The second is to determine what evidence is available regarding the claim. The third is to analyze the collected evidence, and decide what conclusions can be drawn regarding the claim’s validity or falsehood.</div>
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If Rutledge’s basic claim is true, the Apollo 20 mission should follow the patterns of the known Apollo flights. This would include the hardware, ground support facilities, and mission profile. Another requirement is that the use of Vandenberg as the launch site would keep the missions secret. If he is a hoaxer, the Apollo 20 mission profile would not match that of earlier flights, and his evidence would have inconsistencies, falsehoods, and errors. To see which best fits the available evidence, we need a little rocket science.</div>
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Launching a Saturn V from Vandenberg would require the existence of support facilities for the booster like those at the Kennedy Space Center. The Saturn V was the largest U.S. booster ever built. It stood 364 feet tall, consisted of three stages, and produced 7.5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff. The Saturn V was assembled inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). When the VAB was built in the mid-1960s, it was the largest enclosed space on Earth. Once the Saturn V was assembled, it was moved from the VAB to the launch pad on the crawler-transporter. This vehicle is the size of a baseball infield and moves on eight caterpillar tracks. The launch pad is a large concrete mound rising above the Florida swampland. A large launch control center would be needed, and there would be supplies of liquid oxygen, kerosene, and liquid hydrogen to fuel the booster.</div>
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A possible option was that an existing launch pad, used for another large Air Force booster, was modified to support a Saturn V. The Titan IIID was the largest rocket being launched from Vandenberg in 1976. This consisted of a modified Titan II ballistic missile “core stage” with two solid fuel strapon rockets. (These were called “Stage 0″ and were on each side of the core stage.) The two strap-on boosters were ignited at lift-off and produced a total of 2.36 million pounds of thrust. After the stage 0 rockets burned out, the first stage engines ignited in flight. The rocket stood 155 feet tall. The core stage and the strap-on boosters were each ten feet in diameter.</div>
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The question then becomes what evidence is available that Saturn V support facilities existed at Vandenberg in the mid-1970s? The Saturn V and the Titan IIID had different configurations. The Saturn V had over three times the Titan IIID’s thrust and was more than twice as tall. The Saturn V’s first stage was also circular, was 33 feet in diameter, and had five F-1 engines. Four of the engines were arranged in a square, with the fifth in the center. All five engines ignited on lift-off. With the Titan IIID, only the two solid boosters are ignited at lift off. Because of the difference in thrust, engine arrangement, size, and other factors, the existing Titan IIID pad would have to have been completely rebuilt for use by a Saturn V booster. [10]</div>
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No evidence exists that any facilities ever existed at Vandenberg that could have been used to launch a Saturn V. Such facilities would be distinctive, and their use would be apparent. They would take years to build and check out, and involve a large number of people.</div>
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Rutledge also claimed that while the Apollo 19 and 20 launches were seen, witnesses did not realize the boosters were Saturn Vs. For his claim to be valid, there could be no public or press access to Vandenberg, and the site would have needed a sufficient buffer zone so that the facilities, preparations, and launches would be hidden from public view. As a result, while outsiders were aware the launches occurred, they did not understand they were secret Apollo missions, and not regular satellite or ballistic missile test firings.</div>
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Nor is it possible to ‘hide’ a Saturn V launch from Vandenberg. It would have been visible not only from Lompoc and other nearby cities, but throughout central and southern California.</b></span></blockquote>
</span><div style="text-align: justify;">The evidence is that Vandenberg does not meet the security requirements for the claim to be valid. A public road runs by Vandenberg’s main gate, and the city of Lompoc is nearby. Even in the 1970s, reporters were allowed on the base to cover civilian satellite launches. Finally, a railroad line runs through the base itself and past many of the launch pads. On September 20, 1959, a passenger train carrying Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev passed through Vandenberg during his state visit to the U.S. The three nuclear-armed Atlas ballistic missiles at the base were clearly visible from the train. Given the access to the base, hiding a VAB, launch pad, and Saturn V booster would not have been possible.</div>
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Nor is it possible to ‘hide’ a Saturn V launch from Vandenberg. It would have been visible not only from Lompoc and other nearby cities, but throughout central and southern California. The sound of Saturn V launch, which was only exceeded by a nuclear explosion, would have caused Lompoc residents to realize this was not a Titan HID or ballistic missile launch. [11]</div>
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Another requirement for Rutledge’s claim to be true would be that the Apollo 20 mission would meet the same requirements and limitations as the earlier flights, and share the same limitations as to hardware, duration, mission plans, and timing of events. The Apollo program completed six successful Moon landings between 1969 and 1972. The Command Module and Lunar Module were proven spacecraft, and there would be little time or need to make major modifications to the booster and spacecraft hardware, or to the Apollo mission profile, for the secret lunar missions.</div>
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There is ample evidence available that the Apollo 19 and 20 flights would have required fundamental changes in all aspects of their mission plans, compared to the other Apollo landing missions. The most basic difference is launch direction. The Apollo launches from Florida were to the east, so the rocket could take advantage of the Earth’s rotation to increase its payload. Also, both expended stages and malfunctioning rockets would fall into the Atlantic Ocean.</div>
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If an easterly launch from Vandenberg was made, the Saturn V would fly over the continental United States. The Saturn V’s first stage, called the “S-1C’” was 138 feet long, 33 feet in diameter, and had an empty weight of 370,000 pounds. After separating, it would break up during the reentry and debris would impact about 355 nautical miles down range. This would be along the Colorado River, on the border between California and Arizona. The falling SAC debris had the potential for causing deaths and injuries. Additionally, the reentry would be visible from the ground. The S-II second stage would impact off the U.S. east coast. Should a launch abort occur during the ascent, debris could potentially fall on cities and towns anywhere along this flight path. [12]</div>
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To avoid such possibilities, launches from Vandenberg are made at azimuths between 158 degrees and 201 degrees (an arc from the south south west to the south west). This avoids passing over land, and results in the satellite entering a polar orbit. (A launch to the north would head toward the USSR.)</div>
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While these range limits avoid dropping debris on the American southwest, polar orbits have a payload penalty. The rocket cannot take advantage of the Earth’s easterly rotation. For a Saturn V polar orbit launch from Vandenberg, the maximum payload was calculated to be 40 metric tons. The smallest payload for the early Apollo Moon landings was 44 metric tons. This would rule out a Vandenberg launch. If the Saturn V had been launched due west, an azimuth of 270 degrees (which is outside the range limits), the payload penalty would be 13 metric tons, as the rocket would be going the opposite direction to the Earth’s rotation. [13]</div>
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A little rocket science also allowed the landing time of the Apollo 20 LM on the Moon to be calculated. Apollo landings took place soon after sunrise. The low sun angle allowed the crew to spot the long shadows cast by obstacles. Therefore, the timing of all the mission events, from launch to the actual touchdown, was determined by the time the Sun was at the proper elevation at the landing site.</div>
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The video of the Apollo 20 launch on August 16, 1976 showed that it took place in daylight. Sunset at Vandenberg AFB on that date occurred at 7:49 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time (2:49 a.m. GMT on August 17). The Apollo 12 mission took 110 hours and 32 minutes from liftoff to the landing on the Moon. Using this as the maximum, the Apollo 20 landing at the alien mothership at the Izsak crater would have occurred no later than 5:22 p.m. GMT on August 21, 1976.</div>
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Sunrise at Izsak crater was calculated to have occurred at about 2:00 p.m. GMT on August 22; nearly a day after the maximum flight time. [14] This is extremely poor mission planning. Rutledge and Leonov would have had to make a night landing on the Moon, with only starlight to illuminate the surface. (As the landirig site was on the far side of the Moon, there would have been no earthlight to provide illumination.)</div>
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If a morning landing was made, the crew would have had to spend a day or more waiting in orbit. This required additional hydrogen and oxygen for the fuel cells to generate electrical power, as well as food and other consumables. The claim that Rutledge and Leonov spent seven days on the lunar surface also required an additional 1,500 pounds of payload for the LM. A Saturn V launched into a polar orbit lacked the payload for even a normal landing mission. [15]</div>
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The second hypothesis is that the Apollo 20 story is a hoax. For this to be valid, evidence would have to be found that the claims were false beyond that which could be explained by Rutledge’s age, faulty memory, and simple mistakes. Scantamburlo and Salla both noted various problems with the YouTube videos and images. The Saturn V launch video, for example, was from the Apollo 11 mission, but had been edited so it started with the rocket in flight, rather than lifting off the pad. This hid the views of the Florida swamps. Vandenberg has hilly terrain with brush and grasslands. An audio clip from the Apollo 15 mission was also used. Other video and photos were either faked outright or were altered. This includes the “flyover” video and the Moon ‘city’ photo. The ‘alien mothership’ itself appears to be a natural geological feature, such as a landslide.</div>
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Ironically, Salla’s two objections to Rutledge’s claims were flawed. Salla believed the Apollo 20 patch should have read ‘Apollo Soyuz’, to signify a joint mission. (Soyuz was the name of the Soviet spacecraft that the U.S. Apollo 18 docked with on the ASTP mission.) But since Apollo 20 did not involve a Soyuz spacecraft, the word ‘Soyuz’ would not have appeared on the patch. His other objection, that the aliens had forbidden landings on the Moon, has several problems. Using an unproven phenomenon, like remote viewing, as evidence about the reality of a disputed event is not valid.</div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Apollo 20, Exopolitics, Evidence, and the Question of Belief</span></strong></div>
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In reaching a conclusion as to which of the two hypotheses is valid, one must rely on the available evidence. There is no evidence to support the Apollo 19 and 20 missions as real events. Without Saturn V facilities at Vandenberg, the booster could not be assembled, checked out, fueled, or launched. Without the ability to launch the booster, the whole Apollo 20 story is false on its face. There are also the issues of range safety, lost of payload capability, the landing time vs. sunrise time on the Moon and the added consumables the mission plan entailed. These indicate the claim is false in its details.</div>
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In contrast, the hoax hypothesis is supported by the evidence which Rutledge himself offered. The videos and stills were altered or outright forgeries. Assessing the accuracy or falsehood of a controversial theory is based on evidence that can withstand critical examination. In this case, the claims by Rutledge fail the test on numerous levels. This has implications beyond Apollo 20. Ufologists frequently complain that the scientific community is blindly refusing to accept their evidence. The Apollo 20 story implies the problem is not with the scientific community’s outlook, but rather that the UFO evidence lacks sufficient merit to be accepted.</div>
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Scantamburlo and Salla made only limited and informal analyses of Rutledge’s claims and evidence. Scantamburlo, for example, pointed to 1960s documents about Air Force interest in the Saturn V as representing “strong circumstantial evidence” that the story was true. These documents are not provided or quoted, nor do they indicate a Saturn V launch capability ever existed at Vandenberg.</div>
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The approach taken by both Scantamburlo and Salla in analyzing the Apollo 20 story does not reflect the procedures used by scholars to analyze controversial theories. They accepted the story immediately. In Salla’s case, this was based on his assessment of Scantamburlo’s work. He wrote that it “…demonstrates a sincere effort” to check out the story. Sincerity is not evidence. Both individuals made grandiose predictions that the Apollo 20 story would soon bring about “disclosure.” Very soon, however, they had to backtrack when the flaws, inconsistencies and falsehoods became clear.</div>
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Both Scantamburlo and Salla papered over these flaws by claiming they were deliberate falsehoods added to a true story. In short, they claim that obvious falsehoods prove the story is true, rather than a crude hoax. At best, this is wishful thinking. At worse, it is a rejection of the basic tenets of scholarship.</div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>References</b><br />
</span><ol>
<li><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">Lusa Scantambudo, “An Alien Spaceship On The Moon: Interview With William Rutledge, Member Of The Apollo 20 Crew,” </span><a href="http://www.angelismarriti.it/ANGELISMARRIT/ENG/REPORTS_ARTICLES/Apollo20-InterviewWithWilliamRutledge.htm"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">http://www.angelismarriti.it/ANGELISMARRIT/ENG/REPORTS_ARTICLES/Apollo20-InterviewWithWilliamRutledge.htm</span></a></span></div>
</li>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"> </span> </span></div>
<li><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">ibid, and Scantambudo, “Apollo 19 And 20: New Clues And Revelations On The Case, </span><a href="http://www.angelismarriti.it/ANGELISMARRITI-ENG/REPORTS_ARTICLES/Apollo19-20-NewClues.htm"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">http://www.angelismarriti.it/ANGELISMARRITI-ENG/REPORTS_ARTICLES/Apollo19-20-NewClues.htm</span></a></span></div>
</li>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"> </span> </span></div>
<li><div style="text-align: left;">
<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Scantamburlo, “An Alien Spaceship On The Moon: Interview With William Rutledge, Member Of The Apollo 20 Crew.”</span></div>
</li>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"> </span> </span></div>
<li><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">Scantamburlo, “New Evidence Provided By William Rutledge, CDR Of The Apollo 20 Crew, </span><a href="http://www.ufodigest.com/phprint.php"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">http://www.ufodigest.com/phprint.php</span></a></span></div>
</li>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"> </span> </span></div>
<li><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">Scantambudo, “The Apollo 20 Case: Debunking Or A Trojan Horse For The Truth?” </span><a href="http://www.angelismarriti.it/UANGELISMARRITI-ENG/REPORTS_ARTICLES/Apollo20-TrojanHorsefortheTruth.htm"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">http://www.angelismarriti.it/UANGELISMARRITI-ENG/REPORTS_ARTICLES/Apollo20-TrojanHorsefortheTruth.htm</span></a></span></div>
</li>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"> </span> </span></div>
<li><div style="text-align: left;">
<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Scantamburlo, “New Evidence Provided By William Rutledge, CDR Of The Apollo 20 Crew”</span></div>
</li>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"> </span> </span></div>
<li><div style="text-align: left;">
<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Dr. Michael E. Salla, “Did the USA/USSR fly a Secret Joint Mission to the Moon in 1976 to investigate a crashed extraterrestrial mothership?” http//www.exopolitics.org/ ExoComment-51.htm. Snyder’s name was misspelled, and the ASTP mission involved three U.S. astronauts and two Soviet cosmonauts. The Apollo 17 mission was in December 1972, not during 1971.</span></div>
</li>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"> </span> </span></div>
<li><div style="text-align: left;">
<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">ibid, “Update: June 28, 2007.”</span></div>
</li>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"> </span> </span></div>
<li><div style="text-align: left;">
<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Scantamburio, “The Apollo 20 Case: Debunking Or A Trojan Horse For The Truth?” The wording is that used in the original posting.</span></div>
</li>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"> </span> </span></div>
<li><div style="text-align: left;">
<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Charles D. Benson, William Barnaby Faherty, Moonport A History of Apollo Launch Facilities and Operations (Washington, D.C.: NASA SP-4204, 1978), and Kenneth Gatland, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Space Technology Second Edition (London: Salamander Books, 1989), p. 305.</span></div>
</li>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"> </span> </span></div>
<li><div style="text-align: left;">
<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">In April of 1981, I was at the Kennedy Space Center for the STS-1 shuttle launch, and saw the VAB, Pad 39A, and the crawler-transporter. I was at Vandenberg AFB in June and December of 1996 and saw a number of abandoned launch sites. I also watched the launch of a NRO reconnaissance satellite from the press site on December 20, 1996.</span></div>
</li>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"> </span> </span></div>
<li><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">Apollo Spacecraft News Reference, North American Aviation ca. 1966 (Apogee Books reprint, 2006) p. 9, and ApolloHoax.net, </span><a href="http://apollohoax.proboards21.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=theories&3thread=1178402817&page=l"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">http://apollohoax.proboards21.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=theories&3thread=1178402817&page=l</span></a><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"> The specific posting was: Reply #44 May 23, 2007; “Count Zero” .</span></span></div>
</li>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"> </span> </span></div>
<li><div style="text-align: left;">
<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">ApolloHoax.net, “Bob B.” Reply #45 May 23, 2007, Reply #47 May 25, 2007, and “Count Zero” Reply# 51 May 26, 2007.</span></div>
</li>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"> </span> </span></div>
<li><div style="text-align: left;">
<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Ibid, and Bob B.” Reply #54 May 26, 2007; “nomad” Reply #65 June 7, 2007.</span></div>
</li>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"> </span> </span></div>
<li><div style="text-align: left;">
<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Robert Godwin, Apollo Advanced Lunar Exploration Planning (Burlington, Ontario, Canada: Apogee Press, 2007) p.15.</span></div></li></ol>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288177690155596824.post-25835182715556001272014-02-04T11:57:00.004+00:002023-10-25T18:24:07.063+01:00Curiouser and Curiouser: ‘High Strangeness’ UFO Encounters<strong>Gareth J. Medway</strong><br />
Magonia 97, April 2008<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix63Fst9XYMw0cyLUEbYfndKqU3KDj4EafNzYnzJs76gZGgAWPzmp-5yaDoxs8s2wP3mf1vUr-gttCKQadbtvmRg1KOC7eepCu-DEnaML1OSdlgSdBmMxeedmo_8uWfDL4jGkbVNi8aU1t/s1600/aa+alice.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="100" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix63Fst9XYMw0cyLUEbYfndKqU3KDj4EafNzYnzJs76gZGgAWPzmp-5yaDoxs8s2wP3mf1vUr-gttCKQadbtvmRg1KOC7eepCu-DEnaML1OSdlgSdBmMxeedmo_8uWfDL4jGkbVNi8aU1t/s1600/aa+alice.png" width="100" /></a>The term ‘High Strangeness’ refers to those UFO cases where the witnesses do not merely claim to have sighted a mysterious light or unknown object which might have been an alien spacecraft, but also say that a variety of unusual things happened to them afterwards, such as poltergeist outbreaks in their homes, strange telephone calls, and visits from the ‘Men In Black’. </div>
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<a name='more'></a>You won’t find much about this in mainstream UFO books, but there is plenty of detail in the works of such writers as John Keel and Jacques Vallee. The question which is not often addressed is, are these cases aberrations, or typical?<br />
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If high strangeness cases are exceptional, it would have to be asked, why do this particular minority of witnesses choose to report their experiences to one of just a few investigators, such as John Keel? Surely it is more likely that, since most witness reports reach us at second hand by way of the investigators, most of the latter tend to edit out unwelcome details like MIBs as detracting from the credibility of the story. If so, then we ought to be able to find some evidence for this censorship. In the first place, there is no reason to think that the above authors deliberately select the oddest cases for publication. On the contrary, in an interview during the October 1973 wave, Keel remarked: “A few years ago I talked with two young men who had seen an object in a field that resembled exactly one of our space modules and had “US Air Force” printed on the sides. But, of course, one of our space modules isn’t going to be hovering over a field in New Jersey. I never wrote it up because even the UFO buffs wouldn’t believe it.”</div>
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Imbrogno and Horrigan’s <em>Contact of the Fifth Kind</em>, which is about high strangeness in the Hudson Valley, mentions that in an earlier book that Imbrogno had co-authored with Allen Hynek, they had avoided mention of abductions: “Only to a handful of people did we admit that there were abduction cases, and plenty of them … Dr. Hynek felt that UFO reports are hard enough to believe without adding the subject of abductions to the discussion.”</div>
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Whilst driving home in the early hours of 8 March 1997 journalist Sarah Hall, of the <em>Folkestone Herald</em>, saw a mysterious flying triangle. This event gained some national publicity simply because it occurred near to the home of Tory politician Michael Howard. It later the subject of a long article by Stuart Miller and Chris Rolfe in the penultimate issue of the now defunct [British] <em>UFO Magazine</em>. Among, the illustrations was a reproduction of Hall’s original ‘Witness Statement’, which says that, for about fifteen minutes before the sighting: “I was coming down the road and I felt, I said afterwards to other people since, that I felt really weird. I was really looking over my shoulder on the way home. I was a bit scared, a weird feeling anyway.”</div><br />
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Yet this detail is nowhere mentioned in the article itself. The authors’ hypothesis, the reasoning behind which I am unable to follow, was that what she saw was of terrestrial manufacture, though based upon ‘back-engineered’ alien technology of unspecified origin. Now, there is no reason why someone who happens to see a secret experimental aeroplane should feel ‘really weird’ before the sighting. One suspects that they ignored this precisely because it did not fit with their hypothesis. Had not her statement been incidentally included in the layout by a subeditor, we would never have known of it, and remember, in the vast majority of UFO cases we do not get the witness’s own words, only the interpretations of investigators.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmL9K17XdaY5kOm2yd2fYbk4rGm3Gu9zfbKqfit_7ktwgZRtaCm1kYTab02VnlzCvH9CXLXL0gBSVZANdtZ5l9P57ST8Ymw9Snz36gKhwjp83aLAfK3GdYLHM1MevCCrqB2JGGP-dCQNqLcuV1Tkm_HtCQR4mfvFT3lo-VuY1wd9ZIh6xJvsFq8ScSfyYQ/s1370/QUOTATION.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="380" data-original-width="1370" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmL9K17XdaY5kOm2yd2fYbk4rGm3Gu9zfbKqfit_7ktwgZRtaCm1kYTab02VnlzCvH9CXLXL0gBSVZANdtZ5l9P57ST8Ymw9Snz36gKhwjp83aLAfK3GdYLHM1MevCCrqB2JGGP-dCQNqLcuV1Tkm_HtCQR4mfvFT3lo-VuY1wd9ZIh6xJvsFq8ScSfyYQ/w640-h178/QUOTATION.jpg" width="640" /></a></div></div>
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According to Richard Thompson: “…after the Hills’ close encounter on a lonely New Hampshire road, they began to experience poltergeist phenomena in their home. Betty would find her coats unaccountably dumped on the living room floor, even though she had left them in the closet. Clocks would stop and start mysteriously, or their time settings would change. Water faucets [taps] would turn on when nobody was there, and electrical appliances would break down and then work perfectly without repair. On a more prosaic level, Betty Hill also reported that after her UFO experience she was repeatedly followed, her apartment was broken into, and her phone was tapped.”</div>
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Of course, nothing is said about these things in Fuller’s <em>The Interrupted Journey</em>, nor in any of the other innumerable discussions of the case that I have seen. Even sceptical writers pass over them – I suppose that, if you are going to maintain that everything that happened to the Hills had a straightforward mundane explanation, you are only making it difficult for yourself if you introduce things like poltergeists.</div>
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In April 1952 Albert K. Bender of Bridgeport, Connecticut, set up the International Flying Saucer Bureau. This grandiose title proved to be justified, as they soon had representatives not only in more than a dozen states of the Union, but also Canada, England, Australia and New Zealand. Yet after just eighteen months Bender shut the organisation down, stating in the final issue of the quarterly newsletter <em>Space Review</em> that “The mystery of the flying saucers is no longer a mystery. The source is already known, but any information about this is being withheld by orders from a higher source.”</div>
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Three years later, Gray Barker revealed in <em>They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers</em> that Bender had stated that he had been visited by three men in darks suits, from which we derive the now familiar term ‘Men In Black’. But, when interviewed by two puzzled colleagues, he said little more, replying to most of their questions only with the words: “I can’t answer that”. The implication was that he had been silenced because he had discovered ‘The Truth’. I suspect that most ufologists assumed that the Truth that Bender had discovered corresponded exactly with their own pet theories. These need not have been too sensational: the story, as told so far, was broadly consistent with the hypothesis that flying saucers were a secret U.S. invention, and that the authorities had requested Bender to keep silent for reasons of national security.</div>
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Yet at about the same time, on the other side of the world, the Australian Flying Saucer Bureau was closed down by Edgar Jarrold, who had also had a mysterious visitor. A New Zealand investigator, John Stuart, received a telephone call from a voice who claimed to be ‘from another planet’, and told him to “stop interfering in matters that do not concern you!” Soon afterwards his house developed the classic signs of haunting, with the sound of footsteps when no-one was there, and objects moving by themselves. Finally, he said later, his secretary was physically assaulted by a giant hairy monster, after which he abandoned UFO research.</div>
<table 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="http://journal.borderlands.com/wp-content/uploads/1962/12/Albert-K-Bender-263x300.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://journal.borderlands.com/wp-content/uploads/1962/12/Albert-K-Bender-263x300.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>ALBERT BENDER</strong></span></td></tr>
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In 1962 Bender broke his silence with a book, <em>Flying Saucers and the Three Men</em>, of which it is fairly safe to say that it can have matched no-one’s pet theory. He wrote that he had begun to experience poltergeist activity in his home, such as a radio switching itself on, accompanied by an odour of burning sulphur. Then, on 15 March 1953, he attempted to contact the ‘occupants of interplanetary craft’ by telepathy. The result was not the “We come in peace” message he perhaps expected; instead, a voice said “Please be advised to discontinue delving into the mysteries of the universe. We will make an appearance if you disobey.” He wrote this experience up at the time, but his report mysteriously vanished from the box in which he had locked it.</div>
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In July he had the first of a series of visits from the three men, who “looked like clergymen” except that their eyes glowed “like flashlight bulbs”, and who materialised in his bedroom, making it clear that they were not from the government, but aliens themselves. Though they had taken on human bodies so that they could pass among us unnoticed (apart from the glowing eyes!), their real forms were hideous monsters. On several occasions they teleported him to a secret underground base in Antarctica, where they told him that came from a planet many light years away. They were visiting earth for the purpose of extracting a certain chemical from our seawater, and did not wish to be interfered with, but after they had left he~would be free to reveal the truth to the world. Indeed, to ensure that he remained in good health, on his last visit to the base he was given a special all-over body massage by three beautiful women, who were presumably in reality hideous monsters.</div>
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Though Bender stated that he was able to speak because the saucerians had departed in 1960, UFOs did not cease to be sighted. It was probably not for this reason, however, that his book was almost totally ignored, but because it did not tell anyone what they wanted to hear. Typical of those who noticed it at all was Rex Dutta, who said that it was “often attributed to the hush-hush bag”, i.e. it was itself a part of the continuing cover-up, and that “Not many took the trouble to notice that the book was obviously ‘ghost-written’ – its style was totally unlike that of Bender’s own phraseology in his magazine.”</div>
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Where the story is cited at all, it is usually in the more credible version of Barker. For instance in 1974 Brinsley Le Poer Trench argued in <em>Secret of the Ages</em> that the earth is hollow, and that UFOs come from the inside; he suggested that what Bender had discovered is that the earto is hollow, and that UFOs come from the inside.</div>
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Reports of the Men In Black, often known as MIBs, became more common, and provoked the interest of the Pentagon, since some of them were said to have falsely claimed to be Air Force officers, which is a federal offence. Yet no prosecution has ever resulted. It might be possible to explain at least some of these cases as being the result of acute paranoia, but it is easier just to pass over them in silence.</div>
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A young woman named Maria spoke at BUFORA a couple of times in the early 1990s. I have lost my notes on what she said, but from memory, she had attended a convent boarding school in the Midlands. One night, she woke up in the small hours and looked out of the window to see a glowing object next to the tennis courts. Various other things happened to her in the following days which seemed to be acausally linked to the first: she had a dream, so vivid that it could not be distinguished from reality, that she was on board a spaceship; one lunchtime she stirred a cup of coffee with a metal spoon which, when she took it out, had bent in Uri Geller fashion; she spontaneously levitated into the air in front of a group of other girls; on a country walk she passed a dead and mutilated body of a deer; finally, of course, she was visited by two men dressed in black, who said that they had been sent by her psychiatrist, whose name, coincidentally, was Mrs. Black. After interviewing her for an hour, they departed in a mysterious black car which made no sound as it crossed the gravel forecourt. Maria spoke twice to BUFORA, and was I believe interviewed by several people, yet so far as I can discover her tale has never appeared in print anywhere.</div>
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One Man In Black report that has been printed a few times, e.g. in <em>The Unexplained</em>, is that of Dr. Herbert Hopkins, who in 1976 hypnotised a UFO witness to help him recall his experience. He was then visited by a hairless (not even eyebrows) man in a black suit claiming to be from the New Jersey UFO Research Organisation (there was no such institution), who made a coin disappear, asked him pointedly if he had heard of a local UFO witness who had recently died, and demanded that he destroy the tapes of the sessions. Perhaps fearing that if he did not he would go the way of the coin, Hopkins complied.</div>
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Not so many authors relate the encounter which Hopkins had been investigating. The witness was David Stephens of Norway, Maine, who with a friend named Glen Gray went for a drive at three a.m. one morning in October 1975. After a mile Gray, who was driving, lost control of the car, which went down a rough trackway, but, incredibly, at unbelievable speed, so that they travelled five miles in two minutes. It came to rest in a field, where they saw a hovering cylindrical object with bright lights on it. Gray now regained control of the car and hastily drove off, but the object followed them, and soon they fell unconscious, reawakening a mile further down the road. Unable to start the engine, they sat and watched as further glowing objects flew about. From a nearby pond, which seemed to have ‘grown to the size of an ocean’, a thick fog arose and engulfed the car. Then, surprisingly, the motor restarted, and the two men were able to leave. [Read further about Herbert Hopkins <strong><a href="http://pelicanist.blogspot.co.uk/2009/02/sad-truth-behind-mib-story.html" target="_blank">HERE</a></strong>]</div>
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A few days later, when two local ufologists spoke to them: “Stephen and Gray reported that several peculiar incidents had happened since their encounter: someone (or something) had walked across the roof of their trailer home; both men had suffered sudden bouts of extreme tiredness; both had seen snowflakes and black cubes and spheres flying from the sky and through a wall; ‘golden wires’ appeared in the air above their TV set; and a disembodied voice, audible only to Gray, had intoned the letters ‘U-F-O’.”</div>
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Mike Dash, one author who was prepared to relate this story, noted that “the case is not often discussed, even in ufological circles, and is certainly too strange to be included among the handful of ‘classic cases’ that most researchers would cite as evidence of UFOs. Yet this one incident includes almost all of the key elements that distinguish such classics from run-of-the-mill reports.” In other words, though seeming highly bizarre to the average person, once one has been studying the matter for years, it “may be considered fairly representative of the more detailed hard core of UFO reports.” <br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Humanst521 BT"; font-size: 18pt;"><span style="color: #660000;">Bullard’s data was derived from abduction researchers rather than the abductees themselves, and that black helicopters seem important to the latter but not to the former<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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I should like to repeat a matter I raised some years ago, that, as was pointed out in Helmut and Marion Lammer’s <em>MILABS: Military Mind Control and Alien Abduction,</em> which has the kind of content that you would expect of that title, most books by abductees who have written their own books state that they were followed and watched by unmarked black helicopters, whereas in Thomas Bullard’s study of 270 abductions, black helicopters only feature in four cases. The reason is surely that Bullard’s data was derived from abduction researchers rather than the abductees themselves, and that black helicopters seem important to the latter but not to the former</div>
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An exception is David Jacobs, who does mention them briefly in <em>The Threat</em>, stating that most are ordinary helicopters that happen to circle abductees’ houses by chance, but that a few are piloted by hybrids (human-alien cross-breeds), and others are screen memories for UFOs. Budd Hopkins, though thinking it normal for people to be picked up by aliens and genetically experimented upon, evidently felt black helicopters to be a little too outré, and omitted them in Intruders, his account of the misadventures of ‘Kathie Davis’ (Debbie Jordan), yet Jordan herself said that they were, at one time, “almost daily around our houses”. Even so, he did include a few high strangeness events, such as a visit from three mystery men (though dressed in blue), and that when Debbie was pregnant with her second child, she would get a telephone call from an incomprehensible alien voice every Wednesday afternoon.</div>
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Sometimes, but not always, these choppers are said to make no sound, for which reason they are known as phantom helicopters. Beckley reproduces a photograph of one that was taken by Betty Andreasson’s husband, though it is obviously impossible to tell from a picture whether it was silent or noisy, or indeed to distinguish it in any way from a real helicopter.</div>
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John Keel often refers to mysterious beeping. Usually these occur over the telephone, which is not odd in itself, since beeping is the standard ‘engaged’ tone, though something has clearly gone wrong when the phone rings and you answer it to hear only beeps. (I had two calls of this sort myself one Wednesday afternoon – presumably it was coincidence that at the time I was transcribing a tape of an interview with a UFO witness!) But a fault in the phone network cannot explain the case of the woman who, after seeing a strange object fly overhead, “suddenly heard a loud radio signal … a series of dots and dashes” which however was inaudible to her sister and brother in law.</div>
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When Phil Klass interviewed Lonnie Zamora, the police officer in the Socorro, New Mexico case, he told him that the object’s sound was a “Beep … beep … beep … beep”, though a couple who lived nearby heard nothing. Klass mentioned this in his first book (in which he maintained that UFOs were a rare natural phenomenon, and was written before he had reached the conclusion that this affair was a hoax), but so far as I can discover no-one else ever has, not even Ray Stanford in his book on the sighting.</div>
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Sometimes high strangeness occurs when there has not been a UFO incident as such, for instance in a case cited by Alex Constantine, conspiracy theorist author of <em>Psychic Dictatorship in the U.S.A</em>., who considers all unexplained phenomena to be the by-product of CIA mind-control experimentation. In 1994 a California journalist named Dave Gardetta interviewed Richard Ofshe, a psychologist who maintained that so-called recovered memories are actually false memories, and that this was the real cause of supposed alien abduction.</div>
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A few days later, however, Gardetta awoke “to find a triangular rash on the palm of his hand. This is commonly thought to be a symptom of abduction (though it also happened to Michelle Smith, the classic Satanic Child Abuse victim, and was explained by her psychiatrist and future husband Lawrence Pazder as a ‘body memory’ of her ordeal: “…whenever she relived the moments when Satan had his burning tail wrapped around her neck, a sharply defined rash appeared in the shape of the spade-like tip of his tail.”) Gardetta wrote: “It didn’t surprise me. Things around the house – which sits on a hilltop in a semi-rural area – had been getting weird. A jet-wash noise buzzed some afternoons around the house, its origin impossible to discern. Lights were turning themselves on, and the alarm system’s motion sensor was tripping itself every morning between five and six. One early evening, small footsteps crossed the roof. I ran outside to find the electrical wires leading to a nearby telephone pole swaying in the windless dusk.” I am not sure what conclusion he drew from this. (Constantine, of course, blamed CIA mind-control experimentation.)<br />
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At the end of 1966, <em>True</em> magazine commissioned a set of illustrations for a forthcoming article, by John Keel, on unidentified flying objects. The artist drew a number of odd shaped craft purely from his own imagination. One was spherical, featureless except for a single porthole and, underneath, four legs and a propeller. Though no such thing had ever been reported, what one might term ‘the Looking Glass effect’ apparently kicked in. On 19 January 1967, an appliance store manager named Tad Jones was driving to work near Charleston, West Virginia, when he was obliged to stop because the road was blocked by a sphere exactly matching the above description. He watched it for two minutes, after which it rose up into the sky and disappeared. He reported what had happened to the police, and it got written up in local papers.</div>
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In the following days, two threatening notes were slipped under Jones’s door warning him to ‘keep your mouth shut’. A local UFO authority, Ralph Jarrett, received one of those ‘beep beep’ phone calls immediately before opening his copy of <em>The Charleston Gazette</em>, where he first learnt of the sighting. Jarrett conducted his own investigation, and learned that the object had been hovering directly over a major gas line. When Keel himself visited the spot, he found a number of strange footprints in the mud beside the road. One set resembled huge dog tracks, but Jones took plaster casts, and no local zoologist could identify them. There were also some prints made by ripple-soled shoes with a ridge around the edge. Keel noted that prints of just this type had frequently turned up at UFO sites around the country. Years later came another ‘Looking Glass’ sequel: when the first astronauts walked on the moon, they wore boots which made identical ripple prints in the lunar dust.</div>
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This story, at least as it is narrated in <em>The Mothman Prophecies</em>, appears totally inexplicable. But that did not daunt Steuart Campbell when he wrote The UFO Mystery Solved, which argued that UFO reports are caused by mirages of stars. Weirdly, he even claimed that mirages of stars explained daytime sightings, though most people would suppose that it would be impossible to see a mirage, which is simply a reflection, of a light source that was itself invisible. Anyway, he explained the Tad Jones sighting as having been a mirage of Venus, failing also to explain how a mirage, which necessarily must be near the horizon, could appear to rise up into the sky. Of the threatening notes, the mysterious footprints, and the resemblance of the ‘mirage’ to a piece of imaginative artwork, he had not a word to say.</div>
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David Haisell’s <em>The Missing Seven Hours</em> is not (as one would expect from the title) another of those tedious abduction tales, but concerns a British family settled in Canada, who not only claimed to have experienced UFO sightings in both the old and new worlds, but also poltergeists in their home, disembodied voices, inexplicable beeping sounds, low flying unmarked black helicopters, psychic healing, appearances of doppelgangers, enigmatic telephone calls, automatic writing, and that Fortean rarity, a mysterious Woman In Black.</div>
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In his account of how he went to interview the ‘Armstrong’ (a pseudonym) family, Haisell remarks: “Much good advice has been written about interviewing techniques and the psychological factors affecting UFO witnesses. Perhaps the best approach if dealing with an intelligent and articulate individual is to let him or her talk freely about the event or events. In this way the investigator’s own biases don’t affect the interview, even though they may interfere with the subsequent analysis of the material … I discovered that they had been disappointed in the past with several UFO investigators who had talked to them about their experiences. Many of them had been interested merely in the physical aspects of the phenomena.”</div>
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I take this to mean that the earlier investigators were solely concerned to collect evidence that UFOs are nuts-and-bolts alien spacecraft from Zeta Reticuli (or the Pleiades, or wherever), and ignored the high strangeness material as not supporting this viewpoint. By contrast, Haisell repeated whatever the Armstrongs told him, often quoting them verbatim from taped interviews, and so produced a totally different picture. Of course, it is the solid interstellar visitors that the book-buying public wants to read about, hence the fact that works promoting this hypothesis are often bestsellers, whereas few people have heard of Haisell.</div>
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Now consider the alien encounter of Bruce Lee – not the Kung Fu star, but an editor at Morrow publishers in New York, who had formerly been a ‘respected’ Newsweek reporter – as narrated by Jim Schnabel in <em>Dark White</em>:</div>
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“It had been a cold Saturday in February 1987, just after <em>Communion</em> [a Morrow book] had been released, and Lee and his wife had been walking along Lexington Avenue and had gone into the bookshop to see how some of the books he had edited were being displayed for buyers. He had been standing there towards the back of the store when a couple came in and headed straight for the rack where Communion was displayed. The couple were both quite short, and were heavily bundled up against the cold, with wool hats and long scarves and gloves and boots. They each grabbed a copy of Communion and, despite the encumbrances of their gloves, began flipping through the book rapidly. It didn’t seem possible that they could be reading so quickly, and yet they were shaking their heads and saying such things as ‘Oh, he’s got this wrong, and ’Oh, he’s got that wrong.’ Perhaps strangest of all, their accents sounded upper East Side Jewish.</div>
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“Lee walked over and introduced himself, explaining that he worked for Communion‘s publisher, and was interested to know what errors might be contained in the book, and the woman looked up at him: ‘She had on large sunglasses which, with her scarf and hat, obscured virtually all of her face’. And yet through the sunglasses Lee could see a pair of enormous dark eyes. Jesus! Lee had been raised on a farm, and those eyes reminded him of the eyes of a rabid dog. They seemed to be telling him to get the hell out of there. The hair on Lee’s neck stood up, and he said a hasty goodbye. He grabbed his wife and went off to a bar and soaked his shock in Margaritas.”</div>
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This story seems to admit of three explanations: 1) The aliens learned to speak English from Upper East Side Jews. 2) Lee mistook a diminutive Upper East Side Jewish couple for aliens. 3) It was a hoax. The first possibility clearly raises more questions than it answers. The second pre-supposes that the witness was mentally defective or paranoiac, but there is no warrant for such an assumption. Hoaxes are common in ufology, yet they usually succeed because the hoaxer knows what people want to hear, and supplies it, whereas no-one expects aliens to turn up in New York bookstores. Nor is any motive apparent – if it was a publicity stunt for <em>Communion</em>, it was exceedingly ill thought out.<span style="color: red;"><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><strong>
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It is surely significant that the story has appeared only (so far as I am aware) in <em>Dark White</em>, for Schnabel is one of the very few UFO writers who could genuinely be described as impartial. There are, of course, a number of recent books, particularly on the history of ufology, which give the superficial impression of academic disinterest, but if you read more than a few pages, you generally find that they are one of two types, which may be termed A and B: a Type A author will typically conclude a case summary with some such phrase as “Professor Hynek considered that the witness was highly credible”; Type B, by contrast, will end on the lines of “Donald Menzel concluded that the affair was an elaborate hoax”. Even a plethora of proper source references cannot disguise the pro- or anti-ETH agenda. Yet <em>Dark White</em> recounts the various arguments and alleged incidents without trying to judge whether alien abductions are real or not.</div>
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In the same way, his account of the experiences of ‘Lucy’ seem to be no more or less than a summary of what she told him in a series of interviews. These did not, initially, concern alien abduction, but non-paranormal misfortunes of her early life, having been born with various health problems attributable to her mother having contracted measles during her pregnancy, and then, at age eight, having witnessed her father’s death in a gun accident. Soon afterwards, she reported, a young man named Steven took her to a remote cabin and raped her.</div>
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He continued to visit her over the years, and frequently raped her again. Yet he never seemed to age, suggesting that he was not a real person in the way that most of us understand reality. This is also hinted by the statement that “when Lucy was in her late teens she noticed that her first sexual experience hadn’t been at all painful”, which seems to reflect an unconscious recognition that her earlier sexual experiences, with Steven, had not actually happened; she added that her mother had told her that her hymen had broken in an accident when she was a toddler. Other oddities in her life included electrical equipment malfunctioning in her presence, sleepwalking, and inexplicable memory lapses.</div>
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Whilst at university she came across a copy of <em>Communion</em>, and guessed that regular abduction could explain her periods of memory loss. Not long afterwards she was in New York, getting her first regression from Budd Hopkins. Later, she moved to a Washington suburb. “Steven still visited her, as did the greys, and her wristwatches never worked, and the phone would ring and no one would be there, and one night the doorbell rang and she opened it and stepped out to see who was there and she saw her father, her dead father, standing in the bushes.” On a later encounter with the aliens, in the Blue Ridge mountains, her father was amongst a group of (otherwise presumably living) abductees.</div>
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The dead feature in UFO reports more often than one might expect. The day after his demise, George Adamski turned up in Devon in a flying saucer to converse with a handyman named Arthur Bryant. Whitley Strieber reports the case of a boy of seventeen who was killed in a road accident. A week later his parents were sitting in their living room, about ten o’clock at night, when their dog became nervous and began to pace. Though he had already been walked that evening, the wife decided to take him out again.</div>
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“As she opened the front door, two things happened simultaneously. The first was that an orange ball of light swept away from the house, disappearing across a nearby line of trees. The next second, the couple’s ten-year old son came running downstairs yelling excitedly that “little blue men” had brought his older brother into the bedroom, and the older boy had a message: tell his mom and dad that he was okay.” The dead have, of course, been appearing to the living all throughout history, the motive, if any, usually being to provide evidence that there is indeed an afterlife. This, in fact, would seem to have been the purpose in the above instances. But they are of no value to someone who wishes to prove the existence of spacecraft from Andromeda.</div>
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Enthusiasts of ‘Ancient Astronauts’ likewise make surreptitious alterations in their source materials. Erich von Daniken referred to this South American legend: “It tells of a golden space-ship that came from the stars; in it came a woman, whose name was Oryana, to fulfil the task of becoming the Great Mother of the earth. Oryana had only four fingers, which were webbed. Great Mother Oryana gave birth to seventy earth children, then she returned to the stars.”</div>
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Von Daniken’s source was certainly Robert Charroux’s One Thousand Years of Man’s Unknown History, since the story was one that Charroux had collected orally: it specified that Orejona gave birth to the human race by mating with a tapir. This story has been suspected of being a modern invention, but in fact it is probably genuine, since surely no twentieth century author would have had a woman interbreed with an animal. Be that as it may, Von Daniken omitted the tapir, also the statement that Orejona came from Venus (as opposed to the stars), since this too was no longer believable by the 1960s.</div>
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The vision of Ezekiel has been widely discussed in UFO literature. It is unclearly written, but the gist is to the effect that, sitting by the river Chebar in the land of the Chaldeans (modern Iraq) some time in the sixth century BC, he saw a glowing whirlwind in the north, out of which came creatures with four wings and four faces, those of a man, bull, lion and eagle. (Statues of composite creatures of this sort were common in Chaldean temples.) Then he saw four flying wheels “full of eyes round about them”. Above them was “the likeness of a throne”, on which sat “the appearance of a man”, whom Ezekiel took to be God. He then heard a voice which gave him a lengthy lecture upon the sins of the children of Israel.</div>
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As early as the time of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the four wheels had been interpreted as belonging to a celestial chariot which bore aloft the throne of the Lord, somewhat in the manner of the wagons which were used by Pagans to transport the images of their Gods in procession. Though this is not implicit in the text, in the Middle Ages a great deal of Jewish mystical literature was devoted to “the work of the chariot”. This ‘chariot of Ezekiel’ came to be illustrated in a number of Renaissance engravings.</div>
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The first modern UFO author to draw attention to the passage was Dr. Donald Menzel, who wrote: “Occasionally a sundog makes a complete circle of light surrounding the sun with four bright patches, one above, one below, and one on either side. Sometimes two circles will appear, one within the other, surmounted by an inverted arc and traversed by a cross, like the spokes of a wheel whose centre is the sun. The complicated structure of a fully developed mock sun – which is extremely rare – can suggest to the imaginative an enormous chariot in the sky and can terrify the superstitious. There is little doubt that this phenomenon inspired the two visions of Ezekiel described in the Bible.”</div>
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It will be observed that Dr. Menzel omits to mention the glowing whirlwind, the four creatures, the throne, the figure seated on the throne, and the voice explaining what was wrong with the nation of Israel: no doubt because none of these things can readily be explained as a sundog.</div>
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Others, needless to say, think that Ezekiel was the witness to an extraterrestrial visitation, and a vaguely plausible case can be made out for it. Pleiadians, for all we know, may have four wings and four faces, whilst wheels with ‘eyes’ around them could be flying saucers with portholes. Though the ‘voice’ did not proceed to a technical exposition of UFO propulsion systems, but complained about the Israelites worshipping idols, it is conceivable that aliens might be as obsessive about this point as many human religious bigots are.</div>
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The figure of God is difficult to fit in, however, which explains why Von Daniken ignores it, and Josef Blumrich described him as ‘the pilot’. Alan Cole commented: “…the few details … that might fit a hypothetical spacecraft, are not the whole of the description: it culminates, not in wheels or in chariot, but in a great throne set above the chariot (Ezek. 1:26), and God, in human form enthroned there. If we take the chariot literally, then all of this, too, must be taken literally.”</div>
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The Rev. Cole goes on to use the word ‘chariot’ seven times in all, having failed to notice that it is nowhere found in the text itself, but only in commentaries written many centuries later. Nevertheless, his argument is perfectly sound: an interpretation based upon only those facts that happen to fit it is likely to be worthless.</div>
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To Ezekiel, and no doubt to his contemporaries, the creatures and the wheels were not so important as the divine prophecy which followed them, and quite likely he only mentioned the former in order to lend credibility to the latter. The same was true of two flying disc reports from the mid seventeenth century: in 1646, in Gravenhage, Holland, a flying round plate was seen “about the bigness of a table-board, like gray paper”, followed by visions supposed to be prophetic.</div>
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Similarly, in 1651, a Mrs Holt of Cheshire was sitting in her doorway when she “perceived the Sun to shine exceeding red, and casting her eyes upwards, she beheld a dark body over the sun, about the bigness of a half moon, and in a short space, the said body divided into several parts, seeming numberless other view, about the bigness of small Pewter dishes, which came swiftly towards her …” This was followed by visions of fighting men and horses in the air, and mysterious birds. In those unsettled times, people looked for signs and wonders in the sky which might presage the future, but flying dishes in themselves were not news and would quite likely have been ignored but for the subsequent visions.</div>
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It might be thought that modern UFO reports do not include prophetic visions, but in fact a few of them do, e.g. in 1973, it is said, three people “watched a flying craft cavort through the sky, and then it transformed into a giant image of a bearded man dressed in a long, belted, robe, with his arms outstretched.” Similarly, at Cradle Hill outside Warminster in the 1960s: “there was the time when a Saucer, coming into the copse from the south-west, produced a perfect arch of brilliant silvery light, in the midst of which appeared two giant forms: silhouetted figures, long hair waving as though in the wind, with no visible features, but with fingers and robes well defined.” Once again, I suspect that there is bias in reporting, and that such sightings are quite common, but seldom published.</div>
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We should remind ourselves that what may be ‘extraordinary’ to most of us may be quite normal to others. For example, to some people it is an everyday thing to communicate with the dead. A spiritualist friend of mine, a semi-disabled lady who lives alone except for two cats, has told me how her son will help her fix things that are broken in her home, anything from a jammed kitchen drawer to a malfunctioning computer. This would not be remarkable in itself, but her son has been deceased for some years. Significantly, she has mentioned these incidents in the course of informing me about otherwise mundane matters concerning her domestic problems, without any change in the tone of her voice.</div>
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This, however, is slightly different from UFO witnesses such as the Armstrongs, who do consider their experiences unusual: the point is that they regard them as a totality, the poltergeist activity and strange phone calls being as important to them as their sightings of mysterious craft. On the other hand, there may be high strangeness UFO cases which have never been reported to anyone, because the experiencers have not thought them in any way out of the ordinary.</div>
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To evaluate facts, you have to know what they are. Though people have often accused the government or the Air Force of concealing the truth about UFOs, I think the ufologists themselves have been partially suppressing it. I do not propose to try and explain the causes behind poltergeists or beeping telephone calls from the Men In Black, only to observe that they can hardly have an easily comprehensible explanation in terms of spaceships from Orion.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288177690155596824.post-71433715465627643622014-02-04T09:57:00.003+00:002021-07-29T23:05:43.935+01:00Reporting on the 'Reporter'<strong>'The Pelican'</strong><br />
Magonia 96, October 2007<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV-jrNjTLO048gutkgraE6pw1RCiA9qC7mlVD_1jUHpF7CE9rQn5pbVPO9Svxw0zVq2SVqoEMVj0NtQV-gEKPnMrwTpSavxsXfRf-rJGhVYqD5D_X4tSMlu-ur7D1WsA8QFLVmh6t5_47Z/s1600/pelican+square.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="100" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV-jrNjTLO048gutkgraE6pw1RCiA9qC7mlVD_1jUHpF7CE9rQn5pbVPO9Svxw0zVq2SVqoEMVj0NtQV-gEKPnMrwTpSavxsXfRf-rJGhVYqD5D_X4tSMlu-ur7D1WsA8QFLVmh6t5_47Z/s1600/pelican+square.jpg" width="100" /></a>One likely reason why ufology is not taken seriously by mainstream science, muses The Pelican, is the dearth of serious literature on the subject. Of course, all but a small proportion of the UFO literature is pseudo-scientific nonsense, lies and fantasies. But what about the Serious books and journals, produced by Serious Ufologists? The Pelican has recently been studying an example of Serious UFO literature, Volume 31, No. 1 of the <i>International UFO Reporter</i> (January 2007).</div>
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This is published by the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies and is edited by a team of Serious Ufologists (although not Serious enough to meet The Pelican's exacting standards). It seems at first glance to be a sober, scientific publication, but on closer inspection it is seen to be a good old-fashioned nuts-and-bolts ETH magazine, with the usual paranoid stuff about ridicule and governmrnt coverups preventing the Truth about UFOs from becoming generally known and accepted. </div>
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The Pelican will, on this occasion, confine most of his attention to the main article in this issue, 'A shot across the bow: Another look at the Big Sur incident' by Robert Hastings, who takes up thirteen pages with his attempt to revive a report of an alleged encounter between a UFO and an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile which was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, to test an experimental enemy radar-defeating system and a dummy nuclear warhead, in September 1964. </div>
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The UFO allegedly caused the missile to crash, and the incident was filmed by the telescope/camera system at Big Sur, which had been set up to monitor the missile launches, according to "Lt. (now Dr.) Bob Jacobs", whose job it was to film the Atlas launch. "Following the dramatic incident, says Jacobs, a 16-mm version of the amazing film was shown to a small, select group at Vandenberg. Immediately thereafter, the crucial frames were cut out and quickly confiscated by two 'government agents' - possibly working for the CIA - who had been among those in attendance." Jacobs's account was endorsed by another officer, retired Major Florenz J. Mansmann Jr. He was said to have ordered Jacobs to attend the screening of the film. </div>
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The controversy centres on two articles written about the incident. Jacobs presented his account of the sighting in an article entitled 'Deliberate deception: The Big Sur UFO filming'. (1) A few years later, Kingston A. George, who was project engineer for the telescope experiment, published an article debunking Jacobs's interpretation of the incident as an attack by a UFO.(2) </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxRatgh_sVrPnMYLALOVDlI-cvJ-oMhmItA7gpNzUYPhVzTc3z4eWnCkHKHHL1LdazaDzbr-HfQnxIoGO-5OXHxKn9ZmKzYzjuxa3-ShV657yF1jUU4Q1XoU483NRMN6lTZllnPoataftz/s1600/iur0001.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxRatgh_sVrPnMYLALOVDlI-cvJ-oMhmItA7gpNzUYPhVzTc3z4eWnCkHKHHL1LdazaDzbr-HfQnxIoGO-5OXHxKn9ZmKzYzjuxa3-ShV657yF1jUU4Q1XoU483NRMN6lTZllnPoataftz/s1600/iur0001.jpg" width="252" /></a>Jacobs begins his article with a preamble about the press and says that he had his original article on the Big Sur "Government-ordered UFO coverup" published in the <i>National Enquirer</i>. Now this publication could hardly be described as a scientific or technical journal, but his excuse was: "The <i>Enquirer</i> turned out to be the only publication I could find which was interested in printing the article at all." It perhaps did not occur to him that the editors of more serious publications did not agree with his interpretation of the events he described. Also, Jacobs could not remember the precise date of the alleged UFO incident, except that it was in September 1964. It seems that his recollections of the incident were not based on notes taken at the time, but on his unaided memory. </div>
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Kingston A. George tells us that Jacobs was responsible for the logistics of the operation at Big Sur, but not for the interpretation of the images recorded on the film, as he was "technically not authorized to view the pictures we were collecting". George was thus puzzled by Jacobs's "weird claims" published many years later in <i>MUFON UFO Journal</i>. </div>
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According to Jacobs, in his <i>MUFON UFO Journal</i> article, he saw on the film an object flying into the frame: "As the new object circumnavigated our hardware [an Atlas missile] it emitted four distinct bright flashes of light at approximately the 4 cardinal compass points of its orbit ... The shape of the object was that of a classic 'flying saucer'. In the middle of the top half of the object was a dome. From that dome, or just beneath it, seemed to issue a beam of light which caused the flashes described." </div>
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According to Kingston George, an unusual incident did occur. The two warheads were fired off as planned, but some of the packing material also trailed along and could be seen optically as well as by radar. This would give away the false status of the decoys. It was decided that this information should be kept secret, so that it would not be of use to a potential enemy, hence the coverup. </div>
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George pointed out that Jacobs would not have been able to see the details he described, as the image of the warhead "would be less than six-thousandths of an inch long on the image orthicon face, or between two and three scan lines. We could not resolve an image of the warhead under these conditioris; what is detected is the specular reflection of sunlight: as though caught by a mirror." </div>
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Hastings obviously prefers Jacobs's unlikely story to the explanation given by George, which is not surprising as he is noted for his UFO lectures about cases involving the military. His audiences are likely to prefer alien spacecraft to likely mundane explanations or tedious technical descriptions of what really happened. </div>
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Apart from an interesting piece on foo fighters by Michael D. Swords, the other articles are equally lacking in scientific rigour. Ann Druffel's 'Santa Catalina Channel cloud cigars', describes strange cloud-like objects seen at times in Southern California. Some of these could be orographic clouds, although most descriptions by witnesses are rather vague, and there are no photographs, and no meteorological data. </div>
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In his review of Kolm Kelleher and George Knapp's <i>Hunt for the Skinwalker</i>, Gildas Bourdais takes these jokers rather too seriously. (3) </div>
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The Pelican concludes that, while there is some good stuff in the Serious Ufologists' journals, it has to be sifted out from all the rubbish. </div>
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<strong>References:</strong> <br />
<ol>
<li><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>MUFON UFO Journal</i>, No. 249, January 1989. [No longer on-line]</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: medium;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">'The Big Sur UFO: An identified flying object', <i>Skeptical Inquirer</i>, Vol. 17, Winter 1993. </span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"> <a href="http://home.comcast.net/~tprinty/UFO/bigsur.htm">http://home.comcast.net/~tprinty/UFO/bigsur.htm</a></span></span></li>
<li><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">For a more critical review by Peter Rogerson see <i>Magonia</i> 92, June 2006, also in the Reviews section of <a href="http://mrobsr.blogspot.com/2011/03/skinwalker.html">http://mrobsr.blogspot.com/2011/03/skinwalker.html</a></span></li>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288177690155596824.post-55483360960596561542014-02-04T08:39:00.005+00:002021-10-05T12:51:21.157+01:00Fear and Loathing in New Hampshire<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<strong>Peter Rogerson</strong><br />
Magonia 96, October 2007.<br />
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The proceedings of the symposium have now been published under the title <em>Encounter at Indian Head: The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Abduction Revisited.</em> [1] The book also includes written contributions by Martin Kottmeyer and Walter N Webb, though it omits Sandow’s contribution.</div>
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This was probably the first detailed reinvestigation of the Hill’s story in years, and the various contributors present their own take on the case. Dennis Stacey has trawled the literature to come up with what might be the best consolidated version of the story, there being numerous contradictions in the originals. Right from this early paper there is a surprise. At a crucial point in Barney’s first encounter, where the public accounts have him grabbing a car jack for protection, it is now revealed that he got out a .22 pistol which he had hidden in the trunk (importing guns into Canada is illegal) That’s an important point and one which though commented on briefly is never really taken up by the contributors.</div>
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Marcello Truzzi reviews the arguments pro and con the story, and the kinds of inferences which can be made as to what makes a claim remarkable. He makes a very interesting point that if UFO encounters were normal and commonplace, so you could time your watch by the 6:15 from Zeta Reticulli, would the evidence in this case lead to any action (i.e. a demand for extradition from the ZR authorities)? More to the point would anyone prosecute an ordinary criminal where the evidence was as weak as this. Truzzi argues that ufologists are prepared to accept the Hill’s claims because of, not in spite of its radically anomalous nature. This seems to be true. If you argue with ufologists as to whether they would accept a claim by a stranger that they were, for example, the simultaneous lover of Princess Diana and Hillary Clinton and knew all sorts of secrets, would they accept it? On the evidence, they would answer no, but that the UFOs are different. In other words the more extraordinary the claim, the weaker the evidence required.</div>
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The papers clearly divide between the psychosocial approaches of Hilary Evans, Peter Brookesmith and Martin Kottemeyer, the sceptical approach of Sheaffer and the more believing approach of Bullard, Pflock and Webb. To some degree the writers appear to write past each other, though Brookesmith and Pflock have clearly spent hours pouring over maps and have both driven the route several times themselves. Even after that they still could not agree as to whether or not there was missing time. Hilary Evans shows, through a variety of stories, how people can have a variety of imaginary or virtual experiences, some a good deal stranger than the Hill’s. Brookesmith searches for the mythic meaning of the story in the encounter with the ‘other’, and Kottmeyer continues his hunt for cultural sources. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
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Bullard reprises his old ‘entirely unpredisposed’ arguments, which were refuted years ago. He now tries to wriggle out of the embarrassing fact that the post 1987 abduction stories contain the central motif of the hybrid baby, which barely rates a mention in his own survey, by arguing that there were hybrid baby/sexual abduction themes in the early literature. Sure there were but these were fictional stories in tabloids. The space alien motif in ufology does not come from abductees but from contactees Cynthia Appleton and Elizabeth Klarer.</div>
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This might be a moot point because much of the abduction scenario had already been presented in John Wyndham’s 1957 novel <em>The Midwich Cuckoos</em>, filmed in 1960. Here we have such motifs as missing time, the freezing of whole communities, the alien babies, the hive like mind(s) of the alien children and their strange hypnotic eyes.</div>
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If Sheaffer’s skeptical argument contains weaknesses, which Pflock can exploit. Pflock’s contribution is very weak. and I can’t help wondering if he wasn’t just going through the motions because it was part of the contract. Pflock argues that a literal reading of the Hill story leads to the conclusion that they really were kidnapped by folk from Zeta Reticulli. The problem that he has is quite simple, it just doesn’t. The Hill’s aliens are very poor aliens indeed, they are just far too human. They look more or less like us, except for a few minor anatomical differences, far less than the differences between humans and their very close cousins the chimpanzees. They act like people, they have books, and maps, and mutinous crews, they wear uniforms. Their technology was getting old fashioned in 1960, its levers and wall-map positively antiquated by now. Their conversations are self-contradictory. Pflock argues that the aliens translation machine and memory erasers might be working badly, but if the aliens really had a translation machine and a memory eraser then they already know far more about human physiology and psychology than we ourselves do, so why go round abducting people?</div>
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Of course someone might try and rescue the ETH by arguing that the real aliens are so alien and what happens to the abductees on board so incomprehensible that their brains can’t process it at all, and substitute more mundane imagery. Of course if you go down that road then you have to use psychosocial reasoning to account for the precise nature of the screen imagery, which makes the aliens redundant. The Hill story reads like a product of the human imagination, replete with human imagery and human concerns, and that is what it almost certainly is. Its story line must be derived from the lives, hopes and fears of the Hills.</div>
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There are clues here, some more obvious than others. Right on the surface is the fact that Betty and Barney Hill were not Mr and Mrs Average, they were very unusual people indeed. Even today ‘interracial’ marriage is far less common in the US than in the UK. In 1960, when the Hills got married, they were very rare indeed. The black population of New Hampshire was small, the Hills may well have been the only black/white couple in the whole state. That took a lot of guts, and a lot of risk taking. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
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Betty was a professional woman with a higher status job than her husband, again rare. She had been divorced, and her first husband had also been married before. Was she the cause of his first divorce? We don’t know, nobody has asked. We do know that Barney’s divorce was bitter and that the first Mrs Hill loathed Betty and would not let her children meet her. To have lost her husband to a white woman would, one imagines, have been a very humiliating and enraging experience for a black woman of her time. One can perhaps imagine the insults that were thrown and the suggestions made, for example that Betty and her white liberal friends were using Barney as a token ‘negro’ to show how progressive and enlightened they were.</div>
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Unfair no doubt, but such things hurt. Barney is clearly under huge stress: he has the long commute job, the bitter rows with his ex, and Betty, one suspects, was nor the easiest person to live with. There is clearly some extra tension at this time. Betty’s niece remembers Barney becoming withdrawn at around this period. She, who was a child at the time, connects this with the abduction story, but there are hints that the real trigger had occurred earlier.</div>
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There were pre-existing problems in Barney’s life. He had had a drink problem which reappeared after the encounter. Heavy drinking is often a sign of stress and distress; was this stress and distress in the past? Then there is the gun. It’s hard to know how much of a clue that is, without knowing how common handgun ownership was in 1961 New Hampshire. My first thought is that I would suspect it was uncommon, compared say with the ownership of hunting rifles. This was not a high crime area. If this is the case, then this might well suggest that Barney felt under special threat. The Hill’s marriage, political activity and her job as a child welfare officer could all have lead to threats. The gun, and its deliberate hiding suggests that Barney felt like a man being hunted.</div>
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When the trip starts Barney (and Betty) are already tired out, and the journey was poorly planned, and appears to have been increasingly stressful. Barney feels more and more exposed. We might never know exactly what happened on that night, but stress, exhaustion, sensory deprivation and episodes of micro-sleep and micro-REM seem to have all played a part.</div>
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Note also that Barney’s reaction to the light in the sky gives lie to the ‘entirely unpredisposed’ kind of argument. He is clearly in a state of near hysteria and total panic, so much so he cannot clearly remember what happened. If indeed his later withdrawal, return to drinking etc., stem from that night, we need look no further. Far from being the he-man who protected the little woman, he bricked it. The motifs of ‘semen extraction’ and anal probe which occur in his hypnotic regression may have a more mundane cause in that he wet and soiled himself in panic, a very traumatic and shaming experience.</div>
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To rub it in, Betty in her dreams becomes the heroine who stands up to the grey meanies, tells them off (after all she is a Barrett of New Hampshire). Don’t these dreams emphasises who wears the trousers and has the balls in this family?</div>
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What is Barney afraid of, but which Betty Barrett of New Hampshire can stand up to? Look at the pictures of the aliens with their caps and jackets and trousers, remember those charts and that mutinous crew. Charts aren’t much use in space ships hopping between stars through wormholes, using space warp or the Z-process which no human mind could ever understand. These are images of ships and the sea. These are sailors. What kind of sailors steal people? Slavers of course. We have all overlooked this because we are not Black. This is the central fear which grips Barney, the terrible others who are both us and not us and are going to take him back into slavery. Betty comes from the dominant white culture, she cannot feel the fear of being turned back into a slave. She can stand up to the crew. In her vision the sailors are more like a chaotic pirate crew.</div>
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Brookesmith quotes several commentators who hint at this, but not making it explicit. Of course, in a sense slavery has become a motif of the abduction encounter, the idea that they will take away our humanity. The alien motif points to the distinctive character of Anglo-American slavery, traditional societies, which did not pay lip service to human equality could treat slaves as subordinate groups of human beings with their own status, allied to that of serfs for example. However, ‘liberal’ individualistic Anglo-American society, with its Christian belief and its lip service to ‘all men being created equal’ could only gets its conscience around slavery by reducing the slaves to a subhuman status.</div>
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The ‘medical examination’ and the symbolism for the ‘fertility test’ for Barney are images of the farmyard, the prodding and probing on the auction block. For Betty they are perhaps medical procedures to test for the presence of radioactivity following the resumed nuclear tests. Betty has incorporated Barney’s fear of capture into her dreams but she cannot really understand what it is about. Her aliens let them go, and Barney takes this on board, because it means that he has escaped; these aren’t slavers after all.</div>
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Yet is he going to be really free? What for Barney was an event of unadulterated horror, becomes for Betty a grand adventure, one which will take her far from the shores of planet reality. As just about all the participants of this symposium agree, Betty later went into some very strange places indeed, seeing flying saucers all over the place and recounting many an unlikely adventure, becoming a sort of cult leader. To put no finer point on it, she was becoming a contactee. </div>
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Several of the writers gloss this as a reaction to the grief following Barney’s untimely death, however Jacques Vallee in his diaries shows that Betty was into this mode as early as 1966, three years before Barney died. Though it was always put about that the Hills were reluctant to come forward with their adventure, it is now conceded otherwise, they gave several lectures, or rather Betty did; it was Betty who called the Air Force; Betty who contacted NICAP and so on. As the stories change the aliens become friends and begin to develop supernatural powers, such as putting leaves in a neighbours apartment and appearing over another’s house in answer to Betty’s prayers. The iron wall that some ufologists believe exists between the contactees and the abductees looks more like a paper curtain.</div>
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Of course there is much about the story we will probably never resolve, though we could probably learn more by checking the local papers of the period to get a deeper feel of the community in which they lived and how they interacted with it. It would be interesting to know what Barney’s children made of the story, and there is always the possibly that some old diary or letters could send us in another direction.</div>
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[1] Karl Pflock and Peter Brookesmith (editors). <em>Encounters at Indian Head: The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Abduction Revisited.</em> Anomalist Books, 2007<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288177690155596824.post-10069811666390390262014-02-04T08:19:00.000+00:002014-03-16T13:40:10.985+00:00Spectres Meeting in a Cemetery. Part One. <strong>David Sivier</strong><br />
Magonia 96, October 2007<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8CiCkNp-hFvIiFJqAHyIUcAjunJy9VFpAhva8BnMrSVgHJuvYsVd3H7QebZSCdUIOylX-dgAikakcHLn1zPCdk4OxEDgFRugap6YEXRbF3mEzUr_pWY6PICAupJ47cIeHxy7ntPaxwL_K/s1600/aa+graveyard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8CiCkNp-hFvIiFJqAHyIUcAjunJy9VFpAhva8BnMrSVgHJuvYsVd3H7QebZSCdUIOylX-dgAikakcHLn1zPCdk4OxEDgFRugap6YEXRbF3mEzUr_pWY6PICAupJ47cIeHxy7ntPaxwL_K/s1600/aa+graveyard.jpg" height="100" width="100" /></a>Undoubtedly one of the strangest features of the conspiracist worldview, at least to those rooted in the Rankean tradition of historiography, where documents are the unequivocal route to established, objective facts, is its mutable, post-modern nature. Fact and fiction meet and merge, with the latter being takenn over as solid, indisputable fact, to be studied and analysed by the secret initiates into the conspiratorial worldview. </div>
<a name='more'></a>Its most notable contemporary expression is Dan Brown’s <em>The Da Vinci Code. </em>A global best-seller, it’s been denounced by Roman Catholic cardinals, become the subject of TV interviews, features and documentaries, stimulated a burgeoning tourism industry in which the book’s fans and readers travel in the footsteps of their fictional heroes to exotic locales such as St Sulpice in Paris and Rosslyn Chapel near Edinburgh. These pilgrimages are as much genuinely spiritual as literary, as some of the book’s readers have gone in search of the secret, mystical legacy, hidden and suppressed by the Roman Catholic church’s falsification of religious history in pursuit of its own ideological and political programme, a false history ruthlessly enforced by the murderous papal thought police of Opus Dei.<br />
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According to the American pollster George Bama, of the American adults who finished the book, 53 per cent said it was helpful in their personal spiritual growth and understanding, while a Canadian survey conducted by <em>National Geographic</em> concluded that 32 per cent of those who read it believed its theories. [1]</div>
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None of this is remotely new. The confusion of fact and fiction has been a feature of the worldview since disaffected young Americans in the 1970s took over the satirical novel <em>Report from Iron Mountain</em> in the 1970s, in which Soviet and American spies were satirised as secretly co-operating, to keep their respective populations in the dark about the real nature of global politics, while providing pork-barrel jobs for the defence industries, as a real, suppressed report, unveiling the cynicism and venality of the world’s secret states. Brown’s idea, that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married and had children, has strong affinities with Lincoln, Baigent and Leigh’s <em>The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail</em>, and succeeding works of religious pseudo-history, like Picknett and Prince’s <em>The Templar Revelation.</em></div>
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Even as fiction Brown’s novel is unremarkable. The Vatican has long been a subject for fictional intrigue because of its role as the nerve centre and powerhouse, spiritual and temporal, of the Roman Catholic Church. Most of these authors have based their plots on the murky world of Vatican banking, particularly the allegations that the Vatican bank acted as a conduit for Nazi funds to be smuggled out of Europe after the Allied victory to expatriate Nazis who had fled to South America.[2] When aging Nazis started to seem passé, the Vatican could always be cast in the villain’s role again as the fictional enforcer of oppressive, institutional falsehood and evil. One novel from the early 1990s had the Vatican, CIA and KGB jockeying for power after the clandestine discovery of Christ’s body in the Middle East. The 2001 film <em>The Body</em> featured Derek Jacobi playing a fugitive Roman Catholic priest who had stumbled on the secret truth of Christ’s body, and so was hunted by violent enforcers of his spiritual masters’ will, determined that this disruptive fact never leak out to explode the fabric of the Roman Catholic faith.</div>
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Yet while all these books were bestsellers, none have had quite the commercial success of <em>The Da Vinci Code,</em> a situation that says much about the relative status of fiction over dry works of ostensible fact in the public’s literary appetite, and the deep, spiritual needs of Western humanity at the beginnings of the twenty-first century. Part of the book’s success lies in its engagement with deep issues of Christian historical and scriptural authenticity going back to the compilation of the established, orthodox Christian canon. However, in its treatment of these profound religious anxieties, <em>The Da Vinci Code</em> owes less to the debate within Roman Christianity between the Catholic and Gnostic churches, than to the Reformation and Protestant perceptions of Roman Catholicism as a false, oppressive religion. These perceptions and prejudices were sharpened by the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century and the social and intellectual dislocation of the new, mass, industrial and democratic societies of the nineteenth century.</div>
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This changing social and intellectual world presented challenges to Christianity as a whole, as religious doctrines were challenged by scientific scepticism and new forms of textual criticism of the Bible, including the discoveries of variant Biblical texts, which cast doubt on the authority of the canonical scriptures. Roman Catholicism, however, felt these dislocations particularly acutely because of its perceived alliance with reactionary, monarchist and anti-democratic regimes. Within Roman Catholicism, certain specific orders are perceived as particularly authoritarian and repressive. Brown’s villains in <em>The Da Vinci Code</em> are Opus Dei, genuinely the subject of contemporary anxiety because of the founder’s links with Franco’s regime in Fascist Spain. Behind their fictional brutality and machinations, however, are earlier, Reformation and Enlightenment images of sadistic and repressive monks, and specifically the fear of the Jesuits, an order haunted by accusations of political intrigue, fanatical loyalty and black magic.</div>
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<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>The date of the establishment of the New Testament canon is more problematic, as the first list, which exactly corresponds to the modern New Testament dates from the fourth century AD</strong></span></div>
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The compilation of the Christian canon of scripture – the collection of books regarded as authoritative – predates Roman Catholicism, if this is understood as a distinctct ecclesiastical denomination, by several centuries. Early Christianity already possessed a canon of Old Testament scripture in the form of the Septuagint, the Greek translation compiled in Alexandria, in common with most Diaspora Jews outside Palestine by the end of the first century AD. [3] The date of the establishment of the New Testament canon is more problematic, as the first list, which exactly corresponds to the modern New Testament dates from the fourth century AD. [4] <em>The Diatessaron of Tatian</em>, an attempt to harmonise the four gospels by placing them parallel to each other in rows, and ieferences to the New Testament by the early Christian fathers Irenaeus and Tertullian as scripture, indicate that something like the modern Christian New Testament had been formed by AD. 200. [5]</div>
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Christianity at the time was a network of autonomous congregations, largely centred on the towns, under the direction of a bishop, who was served by a staff of presbyters and deacons. These diverse independent churches formed a united community by the mutual recognition of each other by the bishops, and by the ordination of each bishop by at least three bishops from the neighbouring communities.[6] The formal recognition of the claim by the Bishop of Rome, propounded in 341 AD, to leadership of a wider Christian church did not occur until 451 AD, when the Council of Chalcedon established the superiority of see of Rome over the Christian church, two and a half centuries after the establishment of the Christian canon. [7]</div>
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The doctrinal unity of this early church was threatened by radical attacks on the canon by the Gnostics. Here, however, the Catholic church acted to preserve its scriptural heritage from innovation. For the heresiarch Marcion, the good, compassionate God revealed in Jesus Christ was in stark contrast from the harsh God of the Old Testament, a God he saw as separate and evil, so that he recommended the rejection of the Old Testament altogether, and employed only a severely edited verston of the New Testament. [8]</div>
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Other Gnostics went further and began compiling, in addition to commentaries on the canonical scriptures, other gospels of their own. [9] Far from being seen as the representations of authentic Christianity, in contrast to the catholic scriptures, these works were later. It’s possible that the entire corpus of New Testament books had been written by 70 AD. [10] Valentinus, one of the main Gnostic heresiarchs identified by Irenaeus and the early church, and the probable author of the Gospel of Truth, began teaching in Rome in the second century under the Emperor Antoninus Pius. [11] Rather than preserving Christ’s original teachings, catholic Christian scholars such as Hyppolytus saw the Gnostics instead as confusing Christ’s doctrines with the metaphysical speculations of earlier Pagan philosophers, a view that is endorsed by many modern scholars. [12]</div>
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Yet if Gnosticism did not represent the preservation of an authentic Christian witness, nevertheless anxieties about the accuracy and status of the canonical scriptures remained, to become acute with the rise of Humanism and scepticism during the Renaissance. The rediscovery by the Humanists of more complete ancient texts, and their emphasis on studying the Bible and the Church fathers in new and more correct editions were a vital stimulus to the Reformation. Erasmus’s Greek edition of the New Testament with its glosses on the original meaning of words such as ecclesia and presbyter, ‘church’ and ‘priest’, pointed to the immense difference between the early church and contemporary, European Catholic piety.</div>
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Erasmus himself believed that salvation could come only through the Christian’s imitation of the life of Christ, rather than through the miracles and ceremonies of traditional religion. [13] He was particularly stinging about contemporary scholastic theology and its practitioners, whose heads were “so swollen with these absurdities, and a thousand more like them.” [14] While Luther went far beyond the Humanists in his attack on Roman Catholic doctrine, undoubtedly the rise of Humanist speculation and its assault on traditional theology and piety assisted the spread of Protestantism as the recovery of the spirituality of the early Christian church. [15]</div>
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The Reformation’s immediate effect on the canon of scripture, however, was to exclude the books of the Apocrypha – 1 and 2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, the Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch and the Epistle of Jeremiah, the Prayer of Manasses and 1 and 2 Maccabees, as well as the Song of the Three Holy Children, the History of Susanna and Bel and the Dragon from the Book of Daniel – because they were found only in the Septuagint, rather than the original Hebrew scriptures, and so considered unreliable. [16]</div>
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In reacting against church tradition, Protestantism viewed only the Bible as the authoritative source of faith. Thus, when twentieth century scholars such as F.C. Baur discovered Early Catholicism in the New Testament, following Schleiermacher they considered it a corruption of Christ’s original message by Greek philosophy and Roman legalism, and sought to purge scripture of this contamination in order to return to the ‘historical Jesus’. [17]</div>
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One product of the Protestant project to return to the pristine Christianity of the New Testament was its automatic rejection of the papacy as the antichrist, beginning with Luther’s denunciation of his opponents within the papal curia in his tract ‘Against the Execrable Bull of Antichrist’. [18]. It was a stance, which became explicit with his depiction of the Whore of Babylon wearing the papal tiara in the 1522 edition of the Bible. [19] Subsequent attempts to curb the spread of Protestantism by violence by princes such as Philip II of Spain and Francis I of France, culminating in the wars of religion of the seventeenth century, seemed to confirm to European Protestants that the papacy was indeed the brutal persecutor of true, authentic Christianity. From this background of religious violence, political intrigue and terror, the Jesuits emerged as particular targets for suspicion and vilification by both Protestants and Roman Catholics alike.<br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>As the case of Jean-Baptiste Girard and Catherine Cadiere in 1731 reputedly showed, at least to the authors of 'Spiritual Fornication, A Burlescue Poem and The Wanton Jesuit', they also used magic and invocations to the Devil to seduce their young female charges.</strong></span></div>
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They were accomplished assassins, training fanatics through the use of their spiritual authority to murder their eneemies without remorse. According to the 1610 pamphlet, <em>A Discoverie of the Most Secret and Subtile Practices of the Jesuites</em>, they did this by presenting their chosen assassin with an ivory casket, decorated with an Agnus Dei, and inscribed with ‘sweet and perfumed characters’, containing a knife wrapped in a scarf. The Jesuits removed this weapon in an elaborate ritual in which it was sprinkled with holy water, and five or six beads added to the haft, to represent the number of stabs the weapon was to make, and the numbers of souls released from Purgatory by the murder. The Jesuits then invoked God’s angels to fill the future assassin, strengthening him for his task, informing him that he was now no more a mortal man but a kind of deity and that he would pass immediately into heaven without entering purgatory. [20]</div>
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The 1759 pamphlet <em>The Doctrine and Practices of the Jesuits</em> declared that the order possessed a master poisoner, able to equip assassins with poisons to place in eating utensils which remained lethally effective even after they were washed ten times. [21]</div>
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They were masters of equivocation and dissimulation, and immensely wealthy. The order reputedly had vast, highly profitable gold and silver mines in Latin America, as well as a deliberate policy of targeting wealthy widows, persuading them after their bereavement to take up a life of prayer and contemplation and give their monies instead to the church. [22] They were masters of disguise, present in every company, from the highest to the lowest, in inns, playhouses and taverns. [23] They worked their way into the company of princes, manipulating the minds of their proteges and former pupils through their control of education in the schools and lay sodalities. [24]</div>
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They were omnivorous perverts of monstrous sexual appetites. The schools, naturally, were hotbeds of homosexuality and paedophilia. [25] As the case of Jean-Baptiste Girard and Catherine Cadiere in 1731 reputedly showed, at least to the authors of <em>Spiritual Fornication, A Burlescue Poem and The Wanton Jesuit,</em> they also used magic and invocations to the Devil to seduce their young female charges. [26]</div>
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This last allegation was particularly tenacious. In 1846 Johann Scheible in Stuttgart published a manual of magic attributed to them, the <em>Verus Jesuitarnm Libellus</em>, or <em>True Magical Work of the Jesuits.</em> This was supposedly first published in Latin in Paris in 1508, along with the <em>Praxis Magica Fausti</em>, or <em>Magical Elements of Dr. John Faust, Practitioner of Medicine</em>, of 1571. [27]</div>
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As the Jesuit order was only founded in 1540, although its roots go back to an informal association of St. Ignatius de Loyola and his friends, including Francis Xavier, there’s no real doubt that the Libellus is a forgery. The Praxis Magica Fausti, allegedly printed from an original manuscript at the Weimar Municipal Library, is also forged, as at the time there wasn’t a library there either. [28]</div>
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Prefiguring twentieth century rhetoric and fears of brainwashed cults, Jesuits were similarly seen as indoctrinated automatons, crushed of independent thought and will, accusations supported by Loyola’s recommendation that a member of the company should resemble a cadaver and have no desire for self-determination, or the staff used by an old man, serving him in whatever way he pleased. [29] As Loyola was a former soldier, and the Society headed by generals, the order was viewed as a military machine of ruthless and sadistic discipline.</div>
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The order possessed a vast ‘library’ of instruments of torture with which the Order’s superiors tormented novices should they show any sign of disaffection or individuality. If a novice seemed to be wavering in his absolute commitment to the order, or was likely to desert and betray their secrets, he was immediately placed in the stocks until he almost perished from hunger and cold. [30] In this the myth of the Jesuits prefigured contemporary suspicions about Opus Dei, and the cilice, the curious studded garter members are required to wear for about an hour a day to mortify their flesh. And needless to say, like Opus Dei, they were also fanatically loyal to the Pope. Thus, to the anonymous author of the 1615 <em>A True Relation of the Proceedings against John Ogilvie</em>, in addition to their usual monastic vows they had a fourth: ‘to make the pope the lord of all the earth, emperors, kings and princes his dependents, to be removed, altered, changed, deposed and killed, when it pleaseth his holiness to give commission. [31]</div>
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As a result of this, Jesuits were perceived to be at the heart of plots against Elizabeth I, Charles I and Charles II of England, William of Orange, Henry III, Henry IV and Louis XIV of France, the American presidents William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, James A. Garfield, William McKinley and Abraham Lincoln. [32] They were responsible for the French Wars of Religion, the Gunpowder Plot and Great Fire of London, governing France through their puppets Cardinals Mazarin and Richelieu, and attempting to subvert decent British society through the creation of the Quakers. Their conspiracy was truly global. They were accused of Machiavellian political intrigue in Ethiopia and their model Indian colonies in Paraguay were seen as an attempt to create their own power-base within that country, a Jesuit state within a state. [33]</div>
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While it is easy to see why Protestants should fear the Jesuit order for their missionary activities and attempts to reconvert those peoples to Roman Catholicism, suspicion of the Order was also extremely common in Roman Catholic countries. They did have an enormous range of commercial activities – banking, mining, real estate, and involvement in the spice and silk trades, as well as vast and extremely lucrative agricultural estates in Mexico. [34] They also produced theoretical political tracts, such as that of Juan Mariana’s <em>De rege et Regis institutione</em>, which argued that ultimately a monarch’s power derived from the people, and which was duly burned by the Parlement of Paris as a threat to the French constitution in 1610. [35]</div>
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Rival Roman Catholic orders resented the Jesuit’s competition for students at the universities, as confessors to the great and powerful, and as missionaries in the conversion of the heathen. [36] Ordinary parish priests and bishops resented the Order’s intrusion into local parish and diocesan affairs and refusal to pay tithes and other ecclesiastical taxes. [37]</div>
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In the fraught political atmosphere of Elizabethan England, ordinary Roman Catholic priests who sought to maintain a nonconfrontational ministry bitterly resented the appearance of Jesuit missionaries and their aggressive campaigns to win back heretics for bringing secular priests, and “other more honest and single-hearted Catholics” into “a gulf of danger and discredit”. [38]</div>
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The Church within the various independent Roman Catholic nations resented the Jesuits as representing transmontane, papal intrusion into their specific ecclesiastical affairs, while Roman Catholic monarchs resented the papacy itself as a rival axis of power. [39] Thus, “whenever a national government grew tired of Roman behaviour … it was likely to voice its dislike of the Society of Jesus, a body with (notionally at least) a supranational identity who even went so far as to swear a special fourth vow of obedience to the pope.” [40] The result was a series of arrests and suppressions of the Order: Portugal in 1758, France 1764 and Spain in 1767 before the Order was finally dissolved. by papal decree completely in 1773. [41]</div>
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<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><strong>In contrast to American democracy and reason, Roman Catholicism was reviled as ‘a system of darkness and slavery, mental, bodily and spiritual’ completely antithetical to republican civic theories in legislation and political economy</strong></span></div>
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Although the Order was reformed in 1814, the legacy of suspicion and dish ust remained. In addition to political attacks from governments from Spain, France and America, radical authors such Eugene Sue, in his Le Juif Errant, serialised in the French newspaper <em>Le Constitutionnel</em> in 1844-5, launched fresh attacks on the Jesuits. [42] Tellingly, one of the anti-Jesuit characters in the book is a German nationalist, dreaming the Enlightenment dream of a rational, liberating religion, purged of priestcraft and superstition. [43] <br />
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Thus, in addition to the previous accusations directed against the Society, the Jesuits were now viewed also as the agents of stifling theological irrationalism and reaction. This view was especially popular in America, where Roman Catholicism in general and the Jesuits in particular were widely resented because of concerns over immigration. In contrast to American democracy and reason, Roman Catholicism was reviled as ‘a system of darkness and slavery, mental, bodily and spiritual’ completely antithetical to ‘republican civic theories in legislation and political economy. [44] Dan Brown’s depiction of the Roman Catholic church, and Opus Dei in particular, are merely the latest permutation of this American perception of irrational and repressive Roman Catholicism.</div>
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Traditional fear of the Jesuits is only one of the historical factors behind the appearance of <em>The Da Vinci Code</em> and the various related works of religious pseudohistory. Equally important were the Victorian crisis of faith and the emergence of Theosophy. Although the Deists of the eighteenth century had argued for a Deus absconditus, an absent God who had created the world, which He had then left to run itself according to the laws of Newtonian mechanics, it was in the 19th century that such religious scepticism became acute. Late nineteenth-century radicals, such as ‘Scepticus Britannicus’ and Thomas Paine, followed William Godwin in viewing God and religion as repressive institutions, which would be removed by democracy and scientific progress. [45]</div>
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The Romantics retained this deep alienation from traditional Christianity, preferring instead a celebration of nature as leading to a feeling of transcendence. Keats’ Endymion, for example, articulated a Platonic notion of spiritual ascent to the divine through encountering natural ‘symbols of immensity’, which point to their platonic archetypes. Keats himself was bitterly hostile to the established church, arguing in his ‘To Percy Shelley, on the Degrading Notions of Deity’, that the Anglican church had created its idea of God from fear, vested interests and bigotry. [46]</div>
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In addition to these Romantic, radical sentiments the Enlightenment project of demythologising and producing a rational religion, as expounded in such 18th century works such as J. Toland’s <em>Christianity Not Mysterious</em> (1696), continued with the publication of works such as Charles Hennell’s 1838 <em>An Inquiry Concerning the Origins of Christianity</em>. Hennell argued that there was nothing mysterious in Christ’s life. He was merely a religious teacher attempting to regain the throne of David. After His execution by the Romans, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, as a precautionary measure, removed his body from the tomb, which the early church mistook as the Resurrection.</div>
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While this view also suffers from logical inconsistencies and contradictions, it was very influential. The radical German writer, David Friedrich Strauss, had presented much the same image of Christ three years earlier in his Life of Jesus. Both Hennell and Strauss had a profound effect on leading intellectuals in Victorian society, such as George Eliot [47]</div>
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</strong><strong><a href="http://magoniamagazine.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/spectres-2.html" target="_blank">Continue to Part Two</a></strong><br />
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<strong>References for Part One</strong><br />
<ol>
<li>‘<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Book is All Wrong, Critics Say’, The Sun Herald, 12th May 2006, at httpa/www.sunheralbd.com/mld/thesunheraldlliving114560165/htrn? template contentlV.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">‘Odessa (Organisation de SS Angehorige)’ in Taylor, J., and Shaw, Warren, A Dictionary of the Third Reich (London, Grafton 1987), p.265.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Williams, R., ‘The Bible’, in Hazlett, I., ed., Early Christianity: Origins and Evolution to AD 600 (London, SPCK 1991), p. 83.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Bray, G., Creeds, Councils and Christ (Leicester, Inter-Varsity Press 1984), p. 44.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Williams, ‘Bible’, p. 86; Bray, Creeds, p. 44.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Hall, S.G.,’Ministry, Worship and Christian Life’, in Hazlitt, Early Christianity, pp. 106-7.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Chichester, D., Christianity: A Global History (London, Penguin 2000), pp. 160-1; Hall, ‘ Ministry’, p. 107; ‘The Claims of Rome 341′, in Bettenson, H., ed., Documents of the Christian Church, (Oxford, Oxford University Press 1963, p. 79.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Williams, ‘ Bible’, p. 85; Bray, Creeds, p. 45.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Williams,’Bible’, p. 85.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Bray, Creeds, p. 44.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Eusebius, The History of the Church, G.A. Williams, trans., and A. Louth, ed., (London, Penguin 1989), pp. 113, 425.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Wiles, M., ‘Orthodoxy and Heresy’ in Hazlett, Early Church, p, 202; Dillon, ‘Monotheism in the Gnostic Tradition’, in Athanassiadi, P., and Frede, M., Pagan Monotheism in Late Antiquity (Oxford, Clarendon Press 1999), p. 74.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Elton, G.R., Reformation Europe 1517-1559 (London, Fontana 1963), p. 31.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Erasmus, D. Praise of Folly, Radice, B., trans, and Levi, A.H.T., ed., (London, Penguin 1971), p. 163.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Elton, Reformation, p. 33.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">‘Apocrypha’, in Evans, L. H., Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (Cassell, London 1959), p.42</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Bray, Creeds, pp. 18-20.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Bainton, R., Here I Stand by Martin Luther (Tying, Lion Publishing 1978), p. 81.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Bainton, Luther, p. 333.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Wright, B, The Jesuits: Missions, Myths and Histories (London, HarperCollins 2004), p. 134.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Wright, Jesuits, p. 135. 22. Wright, Jesuits, p. 139. 23. Wright, Jesuits, p. 140. 24. Wright, Jesuits, p. 137.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Wright, Jesuits, p. 133.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Wright, Jesuits, pp. 128-31.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Libellus Magicus, at Metareligion: http/Iwwwmetareligion.comlEsoterismlMamicklCeremonial-magick/libellus magicus.htm.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Libellus Magicus, Metaretigion.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Wright, Jesuits, p. 138.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Wright, Jesuits, p. 138.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Wright, Jesuits, p. 136.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Wright, Jesuits, p. 135.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Wright, Jesuits, p. 137.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Wright, Jesuits, p. 148.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Wright, Jesuits, pp. 148-9.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Wright, Jesuits, pp. 151-2.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Wright, Jesuits, p. 152.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Wright, Jesuits, p. 152.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Wright, Jesuits, p. 153, 201.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Wright, Jesuits, p. 203.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Wright, Jesuits, pp. 171, 175, 176, 179.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Wright, Jesuits, p. 219</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Wright, Jesuits, p.22.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Wright, Jesuits, p. 226.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">McGrath, Atheism, p. 114.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">McGrath, Atheism, p. 120.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">McGrath, Atheism, p. 129.</span></li>
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</span><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288177690155596824.post-52360005849312025512014-02-03T23:41:00.002+00:002014-03-16T13:40:41.936+00:00Spectres Meeting in a Cemetery. Part Two. <strong>David Sivier</strong><br />
Magonia 96, October 2007. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRBxTL7EbM_LxfnET3taIS6y9tsxcumglpL-Xb2uEJ474j2wMyxMCYzNps7GqMA-yxdZX2sKbAxqeZOHOfOzm3fVK7LVDQaXiuldbejR0MUtYhFgc_CRQ5X4XN8Q14IxUKm6dR85vQE0i5/s1600/aa+scroll.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRBxTL7EbM_LxfnET3taIS6y9tsxcumglpL-Xb2uEJ474j2wMyxMCYzNps7GqMA-yxdZX2sKbAxqeZOHOfOzm3fVK7LVDQaXiuldbejR0MUtYhFgc_CRQ5X4XN8Q14IxUKm6dR85vQE0i5/s1600/aa+scroll.jpg" height="100" width="100" /></a>The impetus for this attack on the historicity of the Incarnation – the central tenet of mainstream Christianity – came largely from the German philosopher Lessing, who argued that no rational basis could be found for such developments, which were completely unreasonable. As a result, writers such as Ernest Renan could construct a life of Jesus, which portrayed Him as a mere human being with a case of megalomania. [1] </div>
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Other Victorian intellectuals, such as J.A. Froude, Matthew Arnold and F.W. Newman lost their faith through repugnance at theological doctrines such as original sin, predestination and substitutionary atonement. [2] As a result, the holy God and man of the Gospels was reimagined as nothing more than a moral teacher. [3]</div>
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The result of this disaffection with institutional Christianity was not only the growth of scepticism and atheism, but also the appearance of a number of modernist rewritings of the Gospels presented as the rediscovery of an authentic Christianity. These included such works as Gideon Jasper Ouseley’s <em>The Gospel of the Holy Twelve</em>, 1900; Nicholas Notovitch’s <em>Life of Saint Issa, Best of the Sons of Men,</em> 1894; Dr. Levi H. Dowling’s 1911 <em>The Aquarian Gospel; The Crucifixion of Jesus, by an Eye-Witness,</em> 1919; Rev. W.D. Mahan’s<em> A Correct Transcript of Pilate’s Court</em>, 1879; B. Shehadi’s <em>The Confession of Pontius Pilate</em>, 1893; Ernst Edler van der Planitz’s <em>The Letter of B</em>enaia, 1910; T.G. Cole’s <em>The Twenty-Ninth Chapter of Acts</em>, 1871; and Moccia’s <em>The Letter of Jesus Christ</em>, of 1917.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0zpEbm0A63OQ5L31ksdJh6rY_R64x3Ny1lx0c_e50680qlCCEqDl9Oi2mqfV9rtBJ8sElHdxb2Ig_FfhB2fUznd5pkfsk6Q63v9kQNWsiUHTR82OUrWivvOrAplFuuJ5RR5To_aIbjBy8/s1600/ousely.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0zpEbm0A63OQ5L31ksdJh6rY_R64x3Ny1lx0c_e50680qlCCEqDl9Oi2mqfV9rtBJ8sElHdxb2Ig_FfhB2fUznd5pkfsk6Q63v9kQNWsiUHTR82OUrWivvOrAplFuuJ5RR5To_aIbjBy8/s400/ousely.jpg" height="400" width="245" /></a>These false Gospels are a heterogeneous mix, reflecting their authors’ diverse motives and viewpoints. <em>The Gospel of the Holy Twelve,</em> written by Gideon Jasper Ouseley [<em>left</em>], a clergyman in the Catholic Apostolic Church, seems to have been written to promulgate Ouseley’s own pantheist, vegetarian and teetotal views, including the androgynous nature of God, styled by Ouseley as ‘our parent in heaven’. Ouseley was strongly influenced by the doctrines of the Theosophists Edward Maitland and Anna Kingsford. Despite purporting to be the reconstruction of an original Aramaic gospel narrative, Ouseley stated that he received it ‘in dreams and visions of the night’. [4]</div>
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Notovitch’s <em>Life of Saint Issa, Best of the Sons of Men</em>, pretended to be a translation of a Tibetan life of Christ, stating how Christ travelled to India to learn the ways of the Buddhas. While it’s one of the major sources for various fringe religious theories attempting to link Christ with India and Hindu and Buddhist philosophy, students of oriental literatures and religions in the nineteenth century were not hesitant in declaring it to be a forgery, especially after interviews with the monks at Himis, where Notovitch claimed to have seen the Life, revealed that they had no such document and had never even seen Notovitch. [5]</div>
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Dowling’s <em>The Aquarian Gospel</em> was similarly influenced by Theosophy and contemporary interest in oriental spirituality, as well as Christian Science. Dowling was a believer in the Akashic records, and, like Ouseley, wrote it under the influence of astral communications received during the night. In it, Christ not only studies with the great rabbi Hillel, but also meets Brahmins and Buddhists in India, Mencius in China, and Persian magi, while travelling through India, Tibet, Assyria, Babylonia, Athens, and Italy before settling in Egypt where he joins and achieves all seven degrees of initiation into the sacred brotherhood at Heliopolis. [6]</div>
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<em>The Crucifixion of Jesus, by an Eye-Witness,</em> is an account of Christ’s life as an Essene monk, in which John the Baptist, the angel of the annunciation, Nicodemus and the angel at the tomb are Essenes, and it is the Essenes who arrange the Holy Family’s flight into Egypt, and carry him away to be revived after the Crucifixion. Christ, in this false gospel, is indeed attracted to Mary Magdalene, but does not marry her because of His monastic vows. Despite purporting to be a translation of yet another ancient document, the text itself was completely anachronistic, and the fact that neither the manuscript, or even photographs or details of its provenance were presented made it clear that it was a forgery.</div>
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The thesis that Christ was an Essene was first propounded by Carl Bahrdt, circa 1784-92, and popularised by C.H. Venturini circa 1800-02, while it took the idea of Christ being resuscitated after Crucifixion from Paulus, and Hose’s History of Jesus of 1876. The book as a whole was probably inspired by the manuscript discoveries of the German orientalist Tischendorf in Egypt and the Levant, including the Codex Sinaiticus, in 1859, as well as various novels and stories set in Egypt in the 1860s and 70s. [7]</div>
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Rev. W.D. Mahan’s <em>A Correct Transcript of Pilate’s Court</em> has Pilate attempting to save Christ from the Jewish authorities as they execute Him during an insurrection against Rome. Although fraudulent, the book enjoyed immense success, and Mahan followed it up with a succession of similarly spurious religious documents, one of which plagiarised Ben-Hur. As a result, Mahan was found guilty of falsehood by the Presbyterian church and suspended from the ministry for one year. It appears Mahan was strongly influenced by the Alexander Walker’s editions of the Apocryphal Acts of Pilate in volume XVI of the 1873 Edinburgh edition of the Ante-Nicene library. Mahan’s motive in writing his own version may well have been to defend the historicity of the Biblical account from attacks from the sceptic and Republican politician Robert G. Ingersoll in the 1870s through the invention of documents that Mahan himself felt genuinely existed. [8]</div>
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<em>The Confession of Pontius Pilate</em> similarly presents Pilate’s viewpoint, presenting a narrative of his final years as an exile in Vienne, staying with his friend Fabicius Albinos, before finally, overcome with remorse, he commits suicide. Pilate here is also presented as attempting to rescue Christ, though unsuccessfully, and in reprisal commits terrible atrocities on the Jews before being recalled to Rome after complaints and accusations to Tiberius by Vitellius and Mary Magdalene. The book was originally written as an avowedly modern work by the Greek Orthodox bishop of Zahlah, Gerasimus Yarid, following similar fictional accounts of the Passion, such as that published about the same time in France by Anatole France. Its spurious antiquity was merely a creation of Shehadi. [9]</div>
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<em>The Letter of Benan</em> is supposedly an account by the Egyptian priest and doctor, Benan, of Christ’s life and training amongst the rabbis and Egyptian doctors, including the Therapeutae, and of Benan’s subsequent journeys to Gaul, Britain and Roman Italy. Its publisher, Ernst Edler von der Planitz, wasn’t an Egyptologist or religious scholar, but a novelist with a penchant for conspiracy theories, publishing such works as ‘The Lie of Mayerling’. Again, the books seems influenced by Ebers’ novels of ancient Egypt, such as An Egyptian Princess of 1864 and Uarda of 1877, as well as Bulwer-Lytton’s The Last Days of Pompeii. [10]</div>
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<em>The Twenty-Ninth Chapter of Acts</em>, on the other hand, has Paul travelling to Spain and Britain, where he preaches on the site of the future St. Paul’s Cathedral, Mount Lud, before travelling on through Gaul, Belgium, Switzerland, the Julian Alps, Illyria, Macedonia and Asia. In it, the Druids reveal to Paul that they are descended from the Jews who escaped from bondage in Egypt, and it appears to have been written to support the British-Israelite movement of the 1860s and 70s. [11]</div>
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Moccia’s spurious gospel was a lost thirty-three page Greek version. This was really a publicity stunt by Moccia for his forthcoming novel, but he abandoned it after he saw how seriously it was being taken. [12] If only Brown had shown similar discretion.</div>
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Other works included the forged <em>The Gospel of the Childhood of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to St Peter</em>, by the French Decadent writer Catulle Mendes; W.P. Crozier’s <em>Letters of Pontius</em> Pilate, which purported to be Pilate’s correspondence with the Roman philosopher Seneca; Catherine van Dyke’s <em>Letters from Pontius Pilate’s Wife; the Epistle of Kallikrates</em>, purporting to come from one of Paul’s converts; the <em>Letter of Jesus Christ</em>, exhorting attendance at church and keeping the Sabbath, copies of which were pasted in houses as it promised protection for women in child-birth. This latter had a contemporary version in Greek, published by Michael Salvers, and supposedly discovered in the fragments of a meteorite smashed by Patriarch Joannicius of Jerusalem. [15]</div>
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These nineteenth and early twentieth century apocrypha are the precursors to many of today’s works of religious pseudohistory, presenting Christ as an Essene, or a friend of Pilate, or an initiate into secret Egyptian or Indian teachings. And like the documents Michael Baigent claims to have seen to support his view of Christ in <em>The Jesus Papers</em>, the ancient documents on which these texts were based similarly did not appear, and no supporting evidence was provided. [15]</div>
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Not only were these new, apocryphal gospels a response to contemporary questioning of the authenticity of the canonical gospels, but they were also a response to the emergence and circulation of genuinely ancient, non-canonical Jewish and Christian texts, such as the Book of Enoch, found in a fragmentary Slavonic version and in its complete form preserved in the canon of the Ethiopian Coptic Church. The Gospel of Nicodemus, written in the fourth or fifth centuries AD, was copied in eleventh century England, and was still circulating in chapbook editions in the eighteenth century. [16] The 1876 Tischendorf edition of the early Greek and Latin versions may well have been the versions which inspired the spurious 19th century gospels. The Egerton Gospel, a fragmentary non-canonical gospel, was discovered in 1935. [17]</div>
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A similar piece of a vanished gospel, Gospel Oxyrhincus 1224 was found circa 1890. [64] Gospel Oxyrhincus 1224 was discovered in 1903 and published in 1914. [18] Furthermore, apart from the spurious late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century gospels, other noncanonical versions of the lives of the great figures of the Bible were circulating. Three hundred years before the publication of the Gospel of Judas in May 2006, for example, an account of the treacherous apostle’s life was also circulating in the cheap, chapbook literature. [19]</div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>The most profound challenge to the authenticity of the Biblical </strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>s</strong></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>criptures came from the discovery of the Gnostic library of </strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>Chenoboskion and Nag Hammadi in Egypt,</strong></span></div>
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The most profound challenge to the authenticity of the Biblical scriptures came from the discovery of the Gnostic library of Chenoboskion and Nag Hammadi in Egypt, in 1945/6 and the Dead Sea Scrolls of Qumran in 1947. [20] With the discovery of these texts, more apocryphal and pseudepigraphal Jewish and Christian tests were gradually researched and published. The result was a flood of new translations of heterodox Judaeo-Christian texts, which had previously been lost or suppressed. These included the <em>Gnostic Gospel of Thomas</em>, discovered in 1945; <em>The Secret Book of James</em>, 1945; <em>The Dialogue of the Saviour; The Gospel of Mary</em>, 1955; the <em>Infancy Gospel of Thomas; The Infancy Gospel of James; The Gospel of Peter,</em> parts of which had already been discovered in 1886 and a version published in 1972; and <em>The Secret Gospel of Mark</em>, discovered in 1958 and published in 1973. [21]</div>
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References to a ‘Teacher of Righteousness’ and a’Wicked Priest’ in the Dead Sea Scrolls have similarly provided material for radical speculation, with scholars such as J.M. Allegro, Barbara Thiering, and Robert Eisenmann identifying them as Jesus, Paul, John the Baptist, and Christ’s brother James. [22] In the view of at least one major scholar “these theories fail the basic credibility test – they do not spring from, but are foisted on the texts”, with the more likely candidate for the ‘wicked priest’ being Jonathan Maccabeus who accepted the pontifical vestments for the Temple at Jerusalem from the Seleucid usurper Alexander Bolas, or Alexander Jannaeus. [23]</div>
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However, academic restrictions placed on research and publication by the director of the research programme into the scrolls, Father de Vaux, and the inability of a small group of seven scholars to complete such an enormous task, along with political difficulties with the Israeli authorities, meant that relatively little was published until the reorganisation of the project with a team of sixty scholars by Emanuel Tov in 1990, and the breach of the previous academic ‘closed shop’ around the manuscripts by the Biblical Archaeology Society and the Huntingdon Library in California. [24]</div>
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Unfortunately, the academic wrangling that had hindered proper publication and research into the scrolls appeared to lend credence to rumours that the ‘Teacher of Righteousness’ and ‘Wicked Priest’ were indeed Christ and the other major Christian figures, and so gave rise to rumours that the Scrolls were being deliberately suppressed because they contained materials that would undermine and discredit Christianity completely. It is as a part of this atmosphere of religious anxiety, speculation and conspiracy theorising that <em>Holy Blood, Holy Grail</em> found such fertile soil amongst the public, and the Da Vinci Code sprang up.</div>
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This conspiracist view of the Roman Catholic Church has been compounded because of the very real problems the Vatican has experienced in coming to terms with modernity. With the advance of secularisation in the nineteenth century, many of the traditional ecclesiastical roles of providing education, giving moral advice and presiding over marriages and funerals were lost to the state or private secular institutions, and the traditional seat of the papacy, Rome, was occupied and incorporated into the new Italy during the 1861-70 campaigns of unification. [25]</div>
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The result of this was the official promulgation of the doctrine of papal infallibility at the First Vatican Council of 1869-70, considered by some to be a ‘magna carta of ecclesiastical absolutism’, and the Syllabus of Errors, contained in the papal encyclical Quanta Cura of 1864. [26]</div>
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The papal decree <em>Lamentabili</em> and encyclical <em>Pascendi Dominica Gregis</em> of 1907 outlawed modernist thought in Roman Catholicism prohibiting the philosophies of Kant, Fichte and Hegel, and the application of secular historical techniques to criticise the authenticity of the Bible. Instead of Roman Catholic doctrine evolving through a historically conditioned process of debate, elaboration, adaptation and development, Roman Catholic doctrine was established as immutable and eternally true. [27]</div>
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And as a reaction to the revolutionary turmoil of nineteenth century Europe, French Roman Catholic theoreticians like Joseph de Maistre and Francois Rene Chateubriand articulated an extreme conservative ideology in which “thrones and altars were to be seen as safeguards, as buffers against a return to the tragedies of the Terror. Christianity was to be privileged above philosophy; powerful popes were preferable to overconfident national churches; kings and established churches were better than elected assemblies and liberal constitutions; tradition was a safer bet than innovation.” [28]</div>
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As a result, liberal Catholic views and agendas were denounced in the encyclicals Mirari Vos of 1832, and Singulars Nos of 1834. The fascination with alleged secret royalist bloodlines from Christ through the Merovingian kings in The Holy Blood, and the Holy Grail, and its successors, like <em>The Da Vinci Code</em>, can be seen as a deliberate mythologisation of this type of ‘throne and altar’ Catholicism.</div>
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Although Christian Democrat parties had successfully emerged to defend Roman Catholicism against hostile Protestant and secular authorities in Bismarck’s Germany and Belgium, papal disgust at nationalist appropriation of pontifical territories had led to a refusal to recognise the Italian state. Italian Roman Catholics were not even allowed to vote until 1919. [29] A rapprochement with the Italian state, which formally regulated the relations between Church and state in Italy and which granted the sovereign independence of the See of Rome and compensated the Vatican for the loss of its territories, was only established with the Lateran Pacts with Fascist Italy of 1928. [30]</div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>The emergence of extreme Right-wing clerical Fascist movements </strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>such as the collaborationist regime of Monsignor Tiso (above) </strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>in Slovakia seemed to bear out the image of the Roman Catholic Church </strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>as a brutal, totalitarian, oppressive institution</strong></span></div>
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The drawback to this treaty was that the papacy often seemed more allied to totalitarian Fascism than to democracy as the two movements headed towards a collision course in the 1930s. With the emergence of democracy in Italy after World War II and the new openness in the Church brought about by Pope John XXIII and Vatican II, a concordat based on privileges and tied historically to Fascism became an embarrassing liability. [28]</div>
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Worse, the emergence of extreme Right-wing clerical Fascist movements, such as the Rexists in Belgium, the collaborationist regime of Monsignor Tiso in Slovakia and the juntas of Salazar in Portugal and Franco in Spain further seemed to bear out the image of the Roman Catholic Church as a brutal, totalitarian, oppressive institution. The problem remains acute with continuing arguments over the papacy’s knowledge of the Holocaust and inability or refusal to prevent it.</div>
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The rise of feminism has also presented the Church with serious criticism as a patriarchal institution oppressing women through its prohibition of contraception and abortion, unequal employment opportunities which disbar women from ordination in the clergy, and, like other Christian denominations, with the worship of a solely male deity. Apart from the general trends in feminist theology common to most forms of Western Christianity, the Roman Catholic Church has experienced demands for the hyperlatreia – the extraordinary, superior veneration extended by Roman Catholics to Our Lady – to establish her as co-saviour with Christ. This was formally investigated by Pope John Paul II, who was broadly favourable, but rejected as contrary to Catholic dogma and tradition by the cardinals charged with examining it.</div>
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It is as part of this continuing debate – over the changing role of women in the Church and society, and attempts to reclaim a suppressed feminine aspect to Christian spirituality, that The Da Vinci Code and its literary antecedents’ elevation of Mary Magdalene is located.</div>
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However, the specific historical circumstances, which have given rise to this image of a Fascistic, patriarchal, oppressive Church, staffed by an Order of secret assassins, is largely obscured by the mythological distortions, which surround them. The mythology of the Priory of Sion may well be a Surrealist spoof of ‘throne and altar’ Right-Wing Catholicism, but it’s part of the general fascination with secret societies and pseudo-chivalric orders which were extremely common in the nineteenth century. During that century there was a plethora of pseudo-Masonic societies and orders, which, despite their elaborate hierarchies and rhetoric of bizarre mysticism, were largely fraternal benefit societies. Most of these became insurance companies and friendly societies in the twentieth century. [29] And while many of them championed and supported the poor in the new, mass, democratic society of the nineteenth century, they often did so under a feudal, chivalric guise, like the nineteenthcentury American socialist organisation, the Knights of Labor. [30]</div>
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As for the supposedly oppressive character of the Roman Catholic Church, this can be countered with the rise within it of leftwing, Marxist Liberation theology and more traditionally theologically orthodox critiques of exploitation and oppression, and the very many Roman Catholic clergy and laypeople martyred and murdered by brutal regimes across the world, including, naturally, Jesuits. Moreover, the rationalist critique of Christianity and the Resurrection can similarly appear just as flawed, dogmatic and credulous, involving massive leaps of logic and nonsequiturs, as the orthodox Christian account, and the view of the Essenes and the ancient Gnostics and medieval Cathars are quite at variance with what these religious groups actually believed and were like.</div>
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Nevertheless the nineteenth century crisis of faith, and the challenge of modernity, liberalism and democracy, as well as the discovery of the ancient, alternative scriptures, has created a climate in which some people feel that traditional Christianity is inadequate, and while not rejecting it completely, have drawn on and reinvented and distorted the ancient and alternative traditions to produce a completely novel view which they feel is more in accord with today’s liberal values, and have read these back into the past as closer to Christ’s true message. It’s been said that legends arise when there is insufficient information to provide people with a genuine explanation. This has been amply barn out by the rise of The Da Vinci Code and its predecessors as genuinely confused people, seeking a modern, liberal Christian spirituality, have been fed novels and pseudo-history masquerading as historical, religious scholarship.</div>
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References:<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">48. McGrath, Atheism, p. 139.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">49. McGrath, Atheism.p. 131.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">50. McGrath, Atheism, p. 141.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">‘Veggie Tales’ at </span><a href="http://httpalwww.teklonics.org/Iplouseley0l"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">httpalwww.teklonics.org/Iplouseley0l</span></a></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">‘The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ’ in Goodspeed, E., <em>Strange New Gospels</em> (Chicago, University of Chicago Press 1931)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">‘The Aquarian Gospel’ in Goodspeed, <em>Strange New Gospels.</em></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">‘The Crucifixion of Jesus, by an Eye-Witness’, in Goodspeed, <em>Strange New Gospels.</em></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">‘The Correct Transcript of Pirate’s Court’, in Goodspeed, <em>Strange New Gospels.</em></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">‘The Confession of Pontius Pilate’ in Goodspeed, <em>Strange New Gospels</em></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">‘The Letter of Benan, in Goodspeed, <em>Strange New Gospels.</em></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">‘The Twenty Ninth Chapter of Acts’, in Goodspeed, <em>Strange New Gospels.</em></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">‘The Letter of Jesus Christ’, in Goodspeed, <em>Strange New Gospels.</em></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">‘The Letter of Jesus Christ’, in Goodspeed, <em>Strange New Gospels</em></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">‘The Family Guy’, Kevin McClure in <em>Fortean Times</em> 210 p. 60, reviewing Baigent, M. <em>The Jesus Papers – Exposing the Greatest Cover-up in History</em> (San Francisco, Harper San Francisco 2006).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Charles, R.H., trans, <em>The Book of Enoch</em> (London, SPCK 1917); ‘The Gospel of Nicodemus’ in Swanton, M., trans., <em>Anglo-Saxon Prose</em> (London, J.M. Dent 1993), p. 207; ‘The Gospel of Nicodemus’ in Ashton, J., C<em>hap-Books of the 18th century with Facsimiles, Notes and Instructions,</em> first published Chatto and Windus, 1882 (London, Skoob Books Publishing, undated), pp. 30-1,</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">‘The Egerton Gospel’ in <em>The Complete Gospels – Annotated Scholars Version</em> (Sonoma, Polebridge Press 1992), p. 412.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">‘Gospel Oxyrhincus 840′ in Miller, <em>Complete Gospels</em>, p. 418.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">‘Gospel Oxyrhincus 1224′, in Miller, <em>Complete Gospels</em>, p. 422.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">‘The Unhappy Birth, Wicked Life, and Miserable Death of that Vile Traytor and Apostle Judas Iscariot’, Ashton, Chap-Books, p. 32.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">J. Doresse, <em>The Secret Books of the Egyptian Gnostics</em> (London, Hollis & Carter 1960), p. XII; J. Allegro, <em>The Dead Sea Scrolls – A Re-Appraisal</em> (London, Penguin. 1964), p. 17.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">‘The Gospel of Thomas’ in Miller, J., <em>Complete Gospels</em>, p. 301;’The Secret Book of James’, in Miller, <em>Complete Gospels</em>, p. 333.’The Gospel of Mary’ in Miller, <em>Complete Gospels</em>, p. 359; ‘The Gospel of Peter’, in Miller, <em>Complete Gospels</em>, p. 399, ‘The Secret Gospel of Mark’, in Miller, <em>Complete Gospels</em>, p.408</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Vermes, G.. <em>The Dead Sea Scrolls in English</em> (London, Penguin 1995), p. XXX.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Vermes, <em>Dead Sea Scrolls</em>, pp. XXX, 36. J. Allegro, The Dead Sea Scrolls – A Reappraisal (London, Penguin 1964), pp. 104-9.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Vermes,<em> Dead Sea Scrolls</em>, pp. XVII – XXI.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Wright, Jesuits, p. 214.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Wright, Jesuits, p. 234, 237.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Wright, Jesuits, pp. 240-1</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Wright. Jesuits, p. 239.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Wright, Jesuits, p. 251.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">'Lateran Pacts’, in P.V. Cannistraro, ed., <em>Historical Dictionary of Fascist Italy</em> (Westport, Greenwood 1982), p. 299. 78.’Lateran Pacts’, Cannistraro, Fascist Italy, p. 300.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">See Axelrod, A., <em>The International Encyclopedia of Secret Societies and Fraternal Orders,</em> (New York, Checkmark Books 1997).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">‘Knights of Labor’ in Evan, LH., <em>Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable</em> – Revised Edition, (London, Cassell 1981), p. 636.</span></li>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288177690155596824.post-42758989058813086252014-02-03T19:05:00.001+00:002014-03-16T13:41:12.056+00:00A Web of Flying Saucer lies and Video Footage<strong>Nigel Watson</strong><br />
Magonia 96, October 2007<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG_AnlbbISCDZKUzN6-_gmU4nV3Pd-7PLdFMQhNQYHa6LJJQk1Hpd79w1q2OS0Y04T-fi1Sq0LUJ_-lzNkUVMWl8SX9wCbrXJJvx-JPGNTEjpNNW4wyI1FwRCVb23z21pqLU6JUlOMGqYD/s1600/aa+hystar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG_AnlbbISCDZKUzN6-_gmU4nV3Pd-7PLdFMQhNQYHa6LJJQk1Hpd79w1q2OS0Y04T-fi1Sq0LUJ_-lzNkUVMWl8SX9wCbrXJJvx-JPGNTEjpNNW4wyI1FwRCVb23z21pqLU6JUlOMGqYD/s1600/aa+hystar.jpg" height="100" width="100" /></a>With the increasing popularity of such websites as YouTube, more and more UFO video clips and documentaries are being presented to the public without any critical filtering or restraint. That's great because we can all get easy access to material from the most obscure sources from anywhere in the world. The down side is that it attracts hoaxers and publicity seekers who want to manipulate and exploit the belief in UFOs. </div>
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A case in point is the amazing footage of a flying saucer hovering just above the ground, apparently produced by the Italian Air Force. Two versions of this short footage are presented on www.youtube.com. The first to be downloaded claims that it is a "UFO over a river in Italy" It has had nearly 100,000 views since being posted on February 16 2007. [1] </div>
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Another version, saying it was produced by the Italian Air Force has had nearly 3,000 views and a few comments. These are mainly sceptical. The most positive comment is that it looks real, though is probably man-made. "Detachment3" said its a "CGI hoax, old news, was debunked on AboveTopSecreLcom ages ago." 'ABSY' sums up the reaction as "Another bad old video, another hoax. Same 0, same 0 yawnnnn!" Google also carries the footage. This has attracted more than 40,000 viewers and the accompanying text says that: "This amazing UFO video footage was released by a source within the Italian Air Force. Probably not alien origin but this may show what technology the secret governments already have." The video sequence is not that new Italian UFO researcher and writer Paola Harris presented it in 2005 at the 36th Annual International MUFON Symposium held in Denver, Colorado. The fourth generation video tape was given to her and other UFO researchers by an• anonymous source. No details were given about who shot the video but it is her opinion that the craft is of terrestrial origin. She speculates that it is a military prototype. In an email sent out by her on 17 April 2007 she stated: </div>
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"To All No! This old Film Footage I have been showing for 3 years and It was given to Us (by NW) Italian Researchers ... Not By the Air force ... 1t is our Technology. I had the film analyzed in Hollywood. It is a real object in the film. It has been shown in my MUFON and Laughlin Presentations and someone put it on U-TUBE [sic] and Google! This all takes place in the Veneto region of Italy at a place called Ponte di Giulio .. Near Aviano NATO Base. It is a dry river bed where the military does Manuvers and the photographer was on a tripod waiting for the object to come out of the woods. I doubt aliens appeared there!" </div>
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One uncharitable contributor to a forum on abovetopsecret.corn "Vipassana", forgetting that Harris is Italian, thought this statement: "Seems like a fairly inarticulate letter by someone who is an important researcher. It honestly reads like a 5th grader slapped it together in 2 minutes. "2ndly (sic!), if Italy posesses (sic, again) technology like this, than it needs to be released immediately. Any device that can move like that has the potential to dramatically change the world, and perhaps even put a stop to global warming and poverty. "I smell a fake." Comments about the original You Tube posting range from outright wonder to dogged scepticism. It is either regarded as the best ever footage of a real flying saucer or a neat piece of CGI workmanship. </div>
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After covering these possibilities a contributor called "Star GateSG7" seemed to be on the right track: "This film is filmed in Quebec just north of the mil itary UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle NW) facility of Bombardier (they also make the Peanut UAV) It's based on a 1986 design called Hystar originally designed as a Lighter-than-air ship they added multiple lightweight Rotax engines and thrust vectoring (see pods and vents in videos) and expensive gyroscopes and control software ain't that hard to do though ... " In a later contribution he states: "Actually I have made a mistake ... This footage was taken in France OR Italy but the aircraft is still based upon a 1986 Canadian Design called Hystar. The Engines are indeed Bombardier Rotax turb i nes and the craft is a French Dassault/Italian Avroni Motobecane/Robert Bosch Germany and a Canadian Bombardier collaboration." </div>
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An early Hystar model was certainly flown at the Canadian pavilion during the Vancouver Expo in 1986. The 16ft diameter craft was driven by five rotors and kept aloft by helium gas. It was such a hit that the crowds often broke out with spontaneous applause after its regular performances. The Hystar Aerospace Corporation was granted a US Patent on August 11 1987. </div>
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The application states it is: "An air vehicle for lifting loads generates lift forces from helium gas within a torus-shaped envelope having a central passageway, and from a fan arrangement designed to direct air downwardly through the passageway. Lateral propulsion units are provided on the envelope. In one embodiment, the fan arrangement comprises two fans carried by a saddle supported on the envelope, while in another embodiment a single fan is carried by a gondola suspended from the envelope." </div>
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On the 25 January 1996 a larger, 18ft Hystar circled over Earls Court, West London, reaching heights of 400ft. This Hystar 101 was fitted with eight rotors that could propel it in all directions and even put it into a spin. Its Canadian inventor, George Nankovich, planned to produce more of these craft in Britain and claimed that he had a 140ft Hystar on his drawing boards that would carry 20 passengers at an altitude of 1O,000ft. The latter project doesn't seem to have come to fruition, after being used for exhibitions and shows the Hystar has found a more serious role. It is now being operated as a landmine detection vehicle by The Alliance Enterprise Corporation (TAE). It is described as a highly versatile LML vehicle that can detect mines more efficiently than most other methods: </div>
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"The LML Aircraft is an ideal platform to carry the landmine sensors because of its unusual flight capabilities. "The LML can fly forward, backwards, and sideways at extremely low altitudes and at continuously slow speeds as well as hover, fly vertically up and down, and rotate 360 degrees while flying in any direction. "In addition, the LML is a stable platform because the aircraft does not bank while turning, climbing or descending. Also, the LML has virtually minimal vibration." So was it a Hystar or LML as it is now called responsible for the Italian video? As Paola Harris noted the camera was on a tripod and the cameraman seems to know that something is about to happen. Before the UFO becomes visible the camera zooms in to the rough location where it comes into view. The craft seems to "perform" in front of the camera and then it shoots away as the camera zooms out. The position and zooming of the camera and its distance from the UFO gives the impression that this is something that suddenly came into view at an opportune moment, rather than being an official, professional recording of an aircraft test by the Italian Air Force. </div>
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Philip Mantle, who helped reveal the notorious 'Alien Autopsy' film footage to the public, and is the author of Alien Autopsy Inquest, notes: "There are two ways to look at this type of thing. One is to get the footage out in the open in order to stimulate debate, uncover more details etc. The other is to keep it under wraps until full analysis has been conducted. There is no right or wrong way, it is just a matter of opinion. In the days before the Internet it was common practice to look at photographs and film/video in detail before releasing them. Today's world is much different with more and more people having computer access around the world. For the record, I have looked at the video in question, and this is just my opinion and nothing more, but I would err on the side of caution as I think the footage is highly suspect. It has the 'feeling' of computer graphics to me." </div>
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Nick Pope is equally cautious about this film: "'Interesting if true', as they say in the world of intelligence analysis. Determining the film's provenance will be difficult if not impossible, given the mix of UFO researchers and anonymous sources. In my official UFO investigations I could call on technical specialists who could analyse and enhance photos and videos. The fact that this video was shot in daylight and that other features are visible means it should be possible to determine some characteristics of the object, including its diameter. It should also be possible to determine whether the film has been faked." </div>
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For an expert opinion I contacted Michael George, Senior Consultant, Forensic Video / Audio for BSB Forensic Ltd. He said: "Original footage must always be examined to give clear and precise expert witness evidence. "In this instance I assume access to original footage is a non-starter. The interesting point in this footage is at the end of the recording. The 'off' (where the imagery ends and then shows a fighter jet) point on this footage shows it has been edited already. It also shows that the two clips have been produced from two separate cameras and edited together. "All good fun though, haven't had much time to examine it." I should add here, that only the Google version shows the tape break up and then shows a fighter aircraft in-flight for a brief moment. </div>
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Nick Pope acknowledges that, "analysis of such footage is intriguing. Technology to create a realistic fake moves on, but so does the technology to spot one. Only industry insiders will be able to give you the current state of play and as in many fields, the experts may not all agree. It may not be possible to give a definitive answer on analysis alone, which is why I always recommend a holistic approach to such investigations: investigate not just the footage, but the story, the participants, the witness, etc." </div>
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When I asked Paola Harris for more details about the analysis and origin of the footage, she told me: "The People who did it are record executives who had the money to do it in Hollywood. (The) ... 7th generation (video) cassette tape (was) given to me by researcher Paolo Pasqualini who got it from others. It was just disseminated to us Researchers ... And Since it is a real object in a recognizable place, we all showed it. It is a mystery! IT IS NOT A VIDEOGAME! "I will continue to show it as (an example of NW) Back-engineered Technology. Since Ponte Di Giulio (Veneto region) is near a NATO Base A VIANO .. It would be American Technology ... What the object was., Who Knows?? I thought initially it was created ... But It was filmed!" </div>
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Henry "Aviation Jedi" Eckstein (aka 'Star GateSG7) in a long email to me, with the provision that his "Speculation is based upon reasonable study of common autonomous flight control systems and modern UAV aircraft design" notes: "The craft in the Italian video was possibly (but NOT absolutely confirmed) filmed in the foothills of or around the vicinity of the Italian Dolomite Mountains possibly even near Cortina. The other possible location is in the French Alps near Chamonix. One reason I said Quebec in an earlier comment was the design of the bridge and and some of the background buildings suggest a North American location for this video and the Bombardier UAV facilities are fairly close by to what could be a region near Mont Tremblant in Quebec, Canada (home of Bombardier). </div>
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"For the technical specs, I do remember reading an article somewhere in the 1995 to 1998 issues of Aviation Leak [Aviation Week] magazine which detailed a secret UA V aircraft based upon the 1986 Hystar design. (I cannot remember the exact dates or issues) The 1986 Hystar was originally intended to be a heavy lift craft for logging operations and industrial transportation use. The original design called for a series of thrust vectored craft between 200 ft (60 meters) to 600 feet (200 meters) in diameter designed to lift up to 100 metric tonnes or 100,000 kilos (250,000 lbs), The company went bankrupt due to lack of marketplace acceptance and flight control issues during heavy weather operations. The small-form-factor prototypes would crash into trees during testing because the radio control operator wasn't fast enough to respond to the wind gusts. </div>
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"Modern autonomous flight control software is now miles ahead of the original 1986 design and can now easily take the place of a slow human operator. The biggest problem to solve is cost and time of software development. As a serious programmer with large amounts of experience creating autonomous vehicle control software, I can assure you that getting a large vehicle to move such as that shown in the Italian River video is no small feat. I also remember A W magazine mentioning multiple countries including Canada (which makes Rotax Engines), Italy (makes the body of the craft), France (which makes Computer Aided Design Machining! Finite Element Analysis Software) and Germany (Robert Bosch Company which makes flight control software for commercial airliners) cooperating on a UAV development effort. </div>
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"I also remember that the article said that the craft would look something like the 1950's era Avro Aerocar which is very similar to the design of the Hystar and the Italian River aircraft. The Avro Aerocar was Canadian built but funded by the US Air Force. With no flight control software the Avro was a complete failure because it was so unstable a flight design. If someone had the foresight to add a rubber skirt to it the modern hovercraft would have been invented ten years earlier than it was. </div>
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"Having Bombardier, Motebecane, Dassault and Bosch makes perfect sense for creating such a UAV craft because these are world leaders in engine systems, lightweight metal vehicle structure engineering, design software and flight control systems. I can tell it's a thrust vectored vehicle because of the flaps that deploy about halfway through the video on the bottom and top sides of the craft .... and I also notice a slight heat vapour trail that was highlighted in the video compression artifacts just as the craft was passing by the camera operator. The heat vapour trail indicates a combustion engine probably a turbine called a Rotax which can be found in many Skidoo Snowmobiles or Jet Ski personal water craft. (Bombardier is the world's largest maker of High Thrust Rotax Engines) The way the aircraft also bobbed and spun about quite quickly indicates auto-adjustment software that is redirecting air-blasts through ducts in the sides of the craft (duct openings are near the upper and lower flaps) in reaction to gusts of wind and aerodynamic forces. </div>
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"That the craft is quite level in flight indicates a twin-fan setup in the middle of the aircraft in which each turbo-fan is counter rotating in order to create a stable vortex. You can see some heavy video compression-artifacting at the bottom of the video frame which indicates to me that dust is being swirled up by downward thrust engines. Video compression can't handle small fast-moving objects so we get extra blockiness in the bottom on the video frame which indicates a possible dust cloud caused by a turbofan. I also suggest that the end of the video was added later in post production as an internal attempt to show future possibilities to audiences such as the defence departments of purchasing countries. </div>
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"I estimate a 300 Horsepower Rotax engine could do a l0kmh to 300kmh acceleration as what was demonstrated in the video. Remember that the craft in the video was no bigger than about 12 ft (4 meters) to (i 6 feet) 5 meters in diameter and would have been built of lightweight aluminium in the body and carbon composites for the fan blades with a total weight of no more than 120 to 150 kilos. So performance of what was seen at the end of the video is not totally out of the question but as per the rest of the video, it suggests that the engine produced about 150 to 200 horsepower. I also estimate it's flight range to be about 25 to 50 km because of fuel capacity issues. And based upon the vapour trail I say it takes a high-temperature fuel to make it out of the thrust ducts so I think they are using something like super-vaporised kerosene, Jet-A or possibly even something hydrazine based (i.e. monohydrazine). </div>
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"On a commercial scale, I would estimate ten million US dollars in total development and final build costs and of that 10 million, [ would say that seven million US dollars would be for the design and flight control software and about 5000 thousand man-hours over two to three years of carefully calculated development time. For me to duplicate this, [ could do it for about $25,000 for a Kevlar or Zylon-based fibre body, about $10,000 for Rotax Engines and about 1000 hours of design and build time (I have a three axis CNC machine and top-notch carbon fibre composite build experience) </div>
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"The reason I can do it cheaper, faster and better is because [ estimate this film to be about seven to 1 ten years old because of the craft's 1990's era design and since it's now 2007 and [ have a four processor, three gigahertz design workstation with sixteen gigabytes of RAM and three terabytes of disk space, [ can definitely do it faster that what the original designers did who only had access to vastly slower computer design hardware. </div>
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"I'd also do a few more changes on the thrust vectoring such as adding computer-controlled variable diameter thrust vector nozzles and ceramic/carbon composites for BOTH the turbine blades and internal engine components. Since Zylon/Kevlar is lighter and stronger than the equivalent aluminium I would build it out of these high-tech fibres. Internal Engines parts I'd make out of Aluminium Oxide Ceramic which could withstand 2000 degrees Celsius and higher pressures and modern software could supervaporize the fuel and shape the combustion cycle for optimal fuel efficiency and maximum thrust. This means [ could up the horsepower to around 800 hp to 1000 hp and reduce weight using simple and inexpensive Jet-A fuel. </div>
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"For slower but more long distance recon versions, I'd use a turbo diesel engine with low-speed, wide-bladed and wide aperture turbofans and pressurised fuel tanks to give me about 300 km of range. Although I don't have much other info on this aircraft I think we can safely say this is not an Alien UFO and is definitely not out-of-this-world technology. The design is too mainstream and even some modern toys can emulate what was seen on the video. The problem part of the footage is the sudden burst of acceleration at the end of the footage which to me is an editing/post-production effect intended to show future possibilities rather than show an actual performance envelope. I still have misgivings about the location of the film because the bridge design seems too North American Utilitarian in look and the buildings in the background also seem too North American in design. So I will suggest somewhere near Mont Tremblant in Quebec, Canada rather than in Italy or France. </div>
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"Please also notice the F117 stealth fighter at the very last few frames of the video? It also suggests a North American location, but I do remember that FII7's were stationed in Aviano, Italy in the mid 90's so that river could be located near Aviano, Italy." </div>
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Until we get any further substantial information about the circumstances of where, how and why this footage was recorded we can only speculate about the real origin of this craft. For the time being the footage makes us consider what constitutes UFO video evidence when computer software •and models can be easily manipulated and constructed. In addition, the proliferation of Internet sites that allow you to anonymously post your work for worldwide attention means that faking UFO footage is a rich field of endeavour for pranksters and hoaxers. Such videos can only be taken seriously if they are backed-up by reliable independent witnesses. Plus, documentation recording the full details of how the images came to be captured, should also be included, otherwise these Internet videos are only of entertainment value. </div>
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[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdyQu5Zx8xw <br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288177690155596824.post-47062673830029017292014-02-03T17:28:00.001+00:002014-03-16T13:41:56.362+00:00The Roswell Incident, YF110 and Constant Peg<strong>Curtis Peebles</strong><br />
Magonia 95, May 2007<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha8fhj3UODK2ZAu1RKSO18EKq9QMC7RACaI5kZgqFD7w6SgAzSOLzq-yf7VxcpjIX0M38SeA7GqmPV8ELJGW_cf4oRZs6oNHAGAbNPodGiqCxHCwidhJXt1q6Zk1g2PA0Ozq1jUNk7A_Yz/s1600/aa+mig.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha8fhj3UODK2ZAu1RKSO18EKq9QMC7RACaI5kZgqFD7w6SgAzSOLzq-yf7VxcpjIX0M38SeA7GqmPV8ELJGW_cf4oRZs6oNHAGAbNPodGiqCxHCwidhJXt1q6Zk1g2PA0Ozq1jUNk7A_Yz/s1600/aa+mig.jpg" height="100" width="100" /></a>Stanton T. Friedman has recently made several significant changes in the Roswell mythology. He now claims that numerous U.S. aircraft have been lost in dogfights with flying saucers. At the 4th Annual UFO Crash Retrieval Conference, held on November 10-12, 2006, Friedman stated that he was investigating “at least 7 specific cases in which the UFOs zapped attacking Earthling aircraft”. He added that he was also “working on a claim by a pilot that UFOs took out 20 of our planes in Europe in the early 1950s.” [1]</div>
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Friedman did not give aircraft types, serial numbers, crew names, or other specific details of these losses. He was challenged on this, and wrote “One critic wanted signed sworn statements and full investigative reports of the destroyed planes which of course but not surprisingly, I don’t have.” [2]</div>
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At the same time, Friedman also greatly expanded the scale of the alleged saucer recoveries. This was no longer limited to the one (or two) saucers from the Roswell incident, but now, he stated, “I would say we’ve probably retrieved dozens of crashed saucers.”</div>
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As with other crashed saucer stories, details are lacking, the claims are unsubstantiated, and nothing in the way of evidence is offered. Nor does Friedman or other individuals give any indications that they understand what would be done with such vehicles if they were actually recovered. [3]</div>
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During a debate on UFO Updates in early 2005 about the impact of captured saucers on Cold War history. Friedman wrote, “Why would we be told about a connection between Roswell and what happened in the outside world?” He continued that, “Changes on the inside are not the same as changes on the outside. Remember you can’t tell your friends without telling your enemies. Without access to the data, there is no way to know., what the impact has been.” [4]</div>
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Friedman’s argument shows an inability to understand that secret actions have public consequences. This was indicated by a comment he made in the documentary Hangar 18: The UFO Warehouse in late 2006. Referring to the recovery of “unknown aerial vehicles.” he said, “But it doesn’t matter whether you’re talking about airplanes or saucers.” [5]</div>
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It is ironic that Friedman should draw the analogy between captured aircraft and crashed saucers, without recognizing the consequences for the Roswell incident. It is doubly ironic that he is correct in both the scale of the U.S. aircraft losses, and in the number of captured “unknown aerial vehicles.” The analogy and its consequences was a realization I made nearly a decade ago, after reading reports on the ‘YF-110B’.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>‘Have Doughnut’</strong></span></div>
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A major threat facing U.S. pilots flying against North Vietnam in the late 1960s was the MiG21. In part this was because American fighter pilots had received little training in air-to-air combat tactics. Between October 5, 1966 and January 14, 1968, a total of 21 U.S. Air Force aircraft were destroyed by North Vietnamese MiG-21s. These were ten F-lOSDs, five F-4Ds, three F-IOSFs, and one F-4C, one RF-101C, and one EB-66C. [6] By the end of 1967, the U.S. military realized that changes had to be made. The first step was to “know your enemy.” To do this required a MiG-21. This was soon arranged.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCJ8aQZnUTTx69lfp9oG1MSgZajREYCUsL4y0aQCxiLaC4pS7-BPSLfQmIQCkwfmenSSlTHiMWgyRNjbSIQiqV-CJHxd160lDD8eNU_n70q6KLMuflOKqOtaPMLBBajOGS075cOiKt8dT6/s1600/aa+mig.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCJ8aQZnUTTx69lfp9oG1MSgZajREYCUsL4y0aQCxiLaC4pS7-BPSLfQmIQCkwfmenSSlTHiMWgyRNjbSIQiqV-CJHxd160lDD8eNU_n70q6KLMuflOKqOtaPMLBBajOGS075cOiKt8dT6/s1600/aa+mig.jpg" height="640" width="341" /></a>“Have Doughnut” was the code name for the examination and flight tests of a MiG21F-13 aircraft. This was a joint project between the Foreign Technology Division (FTD) and the Air Force Flight Test Center (AFFTC). Although FTD, located at Wright-Patterson AFB was best known for Project Blue Book, its primary responsibity was collection of technical intelligence on Soviet aircraft and missiles. Have Doughnot would also involve pilots from the Fighter Weapons School at Nellis AFB and Navy test squadron VX-4 at Point Magu.</div>
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Have Doughnut began with the departure of the thirteen man team at 1600 hours local time on January 13, 1968 aboard a C-141A transport plane. Their equipment, which included a truck, two trailers, three aircraft jacks, a large supply of plywood and lumber, two radial and two saber saws, five sets of metric tools, six tarpaulins, twenty overalls, and ten pairs of gloves, was also aboard the C141A. The team arrived at the “acquisition site” at 1340 hours local time on January 15. The equipment was unloaded after nightfall for security, and the transport then flew to a staging site.</div>
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The disassembly of the MiG-21 v.Ls scheduled to take seven days, but was actually completed in five days. This involved removing the aft fuselage, wings, stabilizers, and afterburner section. By 1800 hours local time on January 20, the aircraft parts were loaded on trucks, and taken to a C-133A transport, which had replaced the C-141A due to maintenance problems. The C-133A departed the acquisition site at 0200 hours on January 21.</div>
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The return journey took nearly three days. The C-133A finally arrived at the “test site” late on the evening of January 23, and reassembly began the next day. All the parts were uncrated and inspected for any damage. The reassembly was completed on February 7, 1968. This was a complicated process, as it involved not only putting the MiG back together, but also simultaneously adding test instruments to the vehicle, conducting a 50-hour phase inspection and the “subsystem expoloitation”. [7}</div>
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The subsystem exploitation is the first element in the analysis of any captured enemy aircraft. It involved a detailed examination of the MiG, from its complete systems on down to the individual parts. For Have Doughnut, this was conducted by two dufferent teams from the Aeronautical System Division at Wright-Patterson AFB.</div>
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The MiG-21's hydraulic system, for example, was found to have a conventional design, with a main and a boost system, and an emergency electric motor system. The aircraft also had a pneumatic system, with a main and emergency system. The fire protection system was considered unusual, however, as it used methylene bromide, which is highly toxic and required a bulky plumbing system.</div>
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The MiG-21's radar and gun sight systems were similar in capabilities to U.S. equipment of the early 1950s. The Soviet system's major improvement was an increased radar range gained by a novel antenna design and the missile launch computer. The SRD-2MK radar lacked any features to counter jamming. The ASP-5ND optical sight was a conventional gyro system that provided lead computation for air-to-air gun fire and rockets, and an aiming reference for missile launch, air-to-ground gunnery and bombing. The VRD-2A missile computer signaled the pilot when he was within range to fire the Atoll infrared-guided missiles.</div>
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The structure, materials and construction methods used in the MiG-21 were also examined. No unique manufacturing techniques were found, and the aluminium alloys used in the MiG were comparable to the 7075 and 2024 alloys used in U.S. aircraft. The use of large aluminium panels in the construction of the aircraft nose was considered unusual, as were the many steel components in the aircraft. There were no indications of structural weakness or metal fatigue.</div>
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The aerodynamic smoothness of the aircraft was marginal. Many rivet heads on the MiG protruded well above the airframe, and there was a general waviness to the structure between the airframe frames. There were also gaps and mismatches between sections of the aircraft skin. This reflected the Soviet design philosophy of focusing on the engineering and construction of components critical to operation, reliability, or maintainability. Other elements received little care or attention. [8]</div>
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One unusual aspect of the exploitation effort was the examination of the markings on aircraft parts. From these, analysts determined that the aircraft’s R11F-300 jet engine was produced at Plant 26 in Ufa, during the fourth quarter of 1963, in the sixth series, and was engine production number 065. Markings showed that most of the MiG’s other components were also built during the 1963 time period. [9]</div>
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The MiG-21 was also given an “alias.” Military pilots recorded their flight time in a flight log. An airplane’s crew chief is also required to fill out reports on his aircraft after all flights and repair work. These documents recorded the aircraft’s type and its serial number, and were unclassified. To hide the aircraft’s real identity in the paperwork, the designation “YF-IIOB” was created for the MiG-21F-13. The aircraft was also given the serial number “68-0965.” This was a real Air Force serial number, but it had belonged to a Falcon AGM-4D air-to-air missile. The serial number was painted on the tail and U.S. insignias were added to the nose. [10]</div>
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The first flight of the MiG-21 was made on February 8, 1968, by Lt. Col. Joe B. Jordan, who was the Tactical Air Command project pilot for Have Doughnut. The flight time was 30 minutes, with the MiG-21 accompanied by an Air Force F-4D as chase plane. This flight was to determine the MiG21′s handling and performance characteristics. The MiG-21 and its chase plane climbed to 10,000 feet, then conducted acceleration comparisons, afterburner and engine response tests, manoeuvring qualities tests, slow speed handling evaluations, and avionics and sight system analysis. When the tests were successfully completed, both aircraft landed. In all, 29 flights of the MiG-21 were made over the following two months for performance and stability data. [11]</div>
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The MiG-21 was found to be easy to fly and had no dangerous characteristics. The aircraft’s turning performance and roll rate and response was good throughout the flight envelope. The MiG’s basic stability was also considered good. The engine acceleration was very slow even at high power settings. The MiG’s most serious problem was that at altitudes below 15,000 feet and at airspeeds between Mach 0.96 and 1.15, the aircraft vibrated so severely that the MiG pilot could not engage a targtarget. The cockpit instruments vibrated to the point that they were almost completely blurred. This was due to the bumps on the aircraft’s surface. [12]</div>
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Have Doughnut’s primary goal was the testing of U.S. aircraft and air combat tactics in mock dogfights against the MiG-21. The MiG would either “attack” the U.S. aircraft, be “attacked” by the U.S. aircraft, or the engagement would start with neither aircrait holding an advantage. The “victor” in each dogfight was determined by which pilot was able to get into a position where a “kill” of the other aircraft could be made. The “Mission Summary/Comments” for Mission 43, flown on March 2, 1968, gives an idea of the type of testing, the results, and what was learned. This flight involved a pair of F-4E fighters vs. the MiG-21 (referred to as the “test aircraft”):</div>
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“Initial conditions for the first headon engagement were established at 15,000 ft, 450 [knots]. No radar contact was obtained by the F-4′s throughout the 40 mile converging track. Visual contact was not established and a 180° level turn was executed by the F-4′s and the test aircraft. During this turn-around, the test aircraft sighted the F-4′s and initiated an attack, closing to missile range on F-4 Nr. 2, overshot and switched the attack to F-4 Nr. 1. The F-4′s were unable to visually acquire the test aircraft until missile launch was called. F-4 lead then called for a hard turn reversal as the test aircraft overshot F-4 Nr. 2. After a series of vertical manoeuvres, the test aircraft remained in an offensive posture and the engagement was terminated.</blockquote>
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“A converging flight track was set up for the second engagement with the test aircraft at 25,000 ft, [Mach] .9, and the two F-4E’s at 15,000 and 20,000 simulating two elements in a fluid four formation. F-4 Nr.l achieved a radar lock on the test aircraft at 15 miles and turned toward the target. A climbing attack into the test aircraft was performed by both F-4′s and after several cycles of vertical ‘yoyo’s', both F4E’s aircraft were in the rear hemisphere of the test aircraft. Nr.l F-4 obtained an auto radar acquisition at 3,500 ft and closed to gun range.</blockquote>
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The third engagement was initiated at 15,000 ft with the test aircraft in the offensive and initiating the attack from an abeam position of the F-4 element. At 3 miles range.. .the F-4′s turned into the attacker. A defensive split was performed by the F-4′s as the attacker closed to 3-4,000 ft range. F-4 Nr. 2 started a high G descending spiral and F-4 Nr. I pulled into a climb while waiting for the attacker to become committed to one target. Test aircraft elected to pursue the descending F4 Nr. 2 and F-4 Nr. 1 reversed down and effected a sandwich with the attacker. After 360° of turn, the test aircraft and F-4 Nr. 2 maintained a 180° [angle] and F-4 Nr. I was able to sandwich and achieve a missile and gun kill position on the test aircraft.</blockquote>
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“‘Bingo’ fuel level was called by the test aircraft and it returned to base for a normal landing.</blockquote>
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“Radar detection was successful in the second engagement as the test aircraft was 5,000 ft higher than the F-4′s providing a look-up aspect. The defensive split was successful as the subsequent sandwich achieved a kill. During the high G defensive spiral by F-4 Nr. 2 in the split, the test aircraft was unable to achieve a tracking solution. The [F-4] auto radar acquisition was used with success; however, to be more useful, the effective range capability of this mode should be expanded to 5 miles.” [13]</blockquote>
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Between February 8 and March 30, 1968, the MiG-21 made a total of 102 flights. Of these, 58 were simulated air combat missions while 29 were the performance tests. Another 10 were infrared measurements flights. There were also a pilot familiarization flight, a gunnery test of the MiG’s 30 mm cannon, two flights to test the MiG’s radar against the jamming equipment on a B-52 and a B-58, and a photo flight. [14]</div>
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The project was now completed. Disassembly of the MiG-21 began at 1200 hours local time on April 3, and continued for the next three days. The C-133B arrived at the “test site” at 1200 hours on Sunday, April 7, 1968, and loading began an hour later. The MiG and the other equipment were on board the cargo plane by 1600 hours. The fourteen team members received a “site security debriefing” at 1615 hours. The C-133B departed the test site at 1215 hours on April 8, and arrived at the acquisition site the morning of April 10. As before, the unloading of the MiG was delayed until after sundown for security. The reassembly process was dogged by technical problems, the need for rechecks, and bad weather. Finally, on April 24, the MiG21 competed its acceptance flight and the “host a~)untry” accepted its return. [IS]</div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">“Throw a Nickel on the Grass…”</span></strong></div>
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By late 1968, three reports on Have Doughnut were completed. The first was the ‘Have Doughnut Volume I Technical’ report, which was 601 pages long. This document included a Navy vulnerability evaluation, an AFFTC performance and stability evaluation, a Strategic Air Command evaluation of the MiG21′s effectiveness against electronic countermeasures, a set of radar cross section measurements, propulsion system results, the finding from the assembly and disassembly of the MiG, an instrument evaluation, modifications made to the MiG for the test program, maintenance work done on the MiG, aircraft weights, marking analysis, aircraft visibility, and acoustic and infrared measurements of the MiG.</div>
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The ‘Have Doughnut Volume II Tactical’ report detailed the results of the mock dogfights between the MiG-21 and different U.S. fighter and attack aircraft types. The 310 page report consisted of evaluations by the Tactical Air Command, the Navy, and the Air Defense Command. The third volume. ‘Have Doughnut Special Distribution’, was a 525 page compilation from volume 1, with the Strategic Air Command evaluation deleted, and a lengthy description of the assembly and disassembly process added. The three volumes were classified “Secret.”</div>
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The three reports were highly detailed, but with a total length of 1,436 pages, the information was not in an easily digestible form. This was particularly important for those with the most direct need for the information – the pilots and aircrews fighting the MiG-21 over North Vietnam. This was provided by a training film, titled “Throw a Nickel on the Grass.” which was shown to U.S. fighter, interceptor, and attack pilots.</div>
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Despite Friedman’s repeated claim that “you can’t tell your friends without telling your enemies,” the film made no attempt to hide the existence of the captured MiG-21. The film’s narration began, “An ideal way to develop combat skill against an enemy aircraft would be to fly the enemy aircraft yourself before you had to fight it. Of course. that’s an impossible ideal. Or is it?” Video and still photos were shown during the film of the MiG21 in U.S. markings at the test site.</div>
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The presenters, Colonel Jordan and Navy Commander Thomas J. Cassidy, Jr. of VX-4, began with a brief technical description of the MiG-21, and then moved to its vulnerabilities. The MiG pilot’s poor visibility was one such shortcoming. The 4-inch thick bullet-proof windshield made it hard for the MiG pilot to see approaching aircraft head on. An F-4 could only be spotted at 3 to 5 nautical miles, and smoke trails at up to 15 miles. There was no aft visibility in a 50 to 60 degree cone to the rear, while a metal flap on the top of the ejection seat blocked upward visibility. The pilot could not see another aircraft to either side if it was 20 degrees below the horizon. This large blind area was a major tactical shortcoming of the MiG-21.</div>
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The film then detailed the strengths and weaknesses of different U.S. aircraft against the MiG-21, as indicated by the simulated dogfights. These were the F-4, F-8, F-105, F-106, F-100, F-104, F-111, and the Navy’s A-4, A-6, and A-7 attack aircraft. The MiG-21 was highly manoeuvrable below 500 knots, and could outturn the U.S. aircraft. The MiG’s low speed acceleration was poor, however, and several seconds were required for the engine to reach full power. In contrast, the U.S. aircraft were more powerful, and could easily out-accelerate the MiG-21 at low altitude.</div>
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Jordan and Cassidy ended by summing up the tactics for use against the MiG21. Rather than getting into a low-speed dogfight, where the MiG-21 held the manoeuvring advantage, U.S. pilots should keep their speed above Mach 0.95, and drive the fight to low altitude. This would put the MiG at a disadvantage, as it would be vibrating severely and be unable to engage the U.S. aircraft. Forcing the MiG into a hard turn would cause it to slow abruptly. The Soviet aircraft’s poor acceleration meant it could not quickly regain speed. The U.S. pilot could then use his plane’s superior power to either attack or outrun the MiG. A U.S. aircraft attacking a MiG-21 could also exploit its large blind area to get into position and fire a missile before the enemy pilot realized the threat. [16]</div>
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Showing “Throw a Nickel on the Grass” to pilots who would soon be flying combat over North Vietnam risked exposure of Have Doughnut. A captured pilot might break under interrogation and talk about the film. But intelligence is only valuable if it is used. If ttkeknowledge about the MiG was withheld, aircraft and crews would be lost unnecessarily, and the whole effort would have been pointless.</div>
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The large number of people who now knew about the MiG-21 from participating in the effort, reading the reports, or seeing the training film made a press leak inevitable. This came in the February 17, 1969 issue of Aviation Week & Space Technology. The item read:</div>
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“Soviet MiG-21 fighter was secretly brought to the U.S. last spring and flight tested by USAF pilots to learn first-hand its capabilities and design characteristics. The aircraft, which engaged in simulated combat against U.S. fighters, was highly regarded by the pilots who flew it. The MiG-21 was particularly impressive at altitudes over 25,000 ft. The evaluation was part of a broad effort by USAF to detail the threat of Soviet air power in planning new aircraft, such as the F-15 fighter.” [17]</blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>Constant Peg</strong></span></div>
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Have Doughnut soon had public consequen,os, both in the design of new U.S. fighters and also in aircrew training. The Navy established the Top Gun program. The Air Force counterpart was Red Flag, a large scale war game carried out over the Nellis AFB range. Both programs had “aggressor pilots” flying F-5s to simulate MiG-21s. Top Gun and Red Flag were widely</div>
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publicized. “Constant Peg” was not.</div>
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Constant Peg involved a secret squadron of about twenty-five MiG-17s, MiG21s, and MiG-23s established in 1977. The MiG-21s still used the designation of YF-110B, while the MiG-23s were called °YF-113Bs” and “YF-113Es.” The unit operating the MiGs was designated the 4477th Test and Evaluation Squadron (TES) and operated from an airfield on the Tonopah Test Range in Nevada. The first 4477th TES commander was Col. Gaillard R. Peck. (The “Peg” in the code name was his wife.) [18]</div>
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The Air Force, Navy, and Marine pilots selected to fly against the MiGs in Constant Peg deployed for two weeks. They initially made a familiarization flight to observe the MiGs in flight and study their characteristics. Peck recalled the reaction of the young pilots at seeing a real live MiG: “They would pull up beside you in formation, and you could almost see their eyeballs popping out of their heads. It was that exciting for them.” This was followed by one-on-one simulated dogfights, and then two-on-two missions. The scale of Constant Peg was remarkable. Between 1977 and 1988, a total of about 6,800 pilots flew against the MiGs. [19]</div>
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Constant Peg faced many unusual demands. Little in the way of technical data was available on the MiGs, and spare parts were, to say the least, difficult to acquire. This resulted in a poor safety record. The 4477th TES had 100 accidents for every 100,000 hours of flight time. The normal Air Force accident rate was 4 in every 100,000 hours. [20] The unit stopped flying MiG-17s following an accident in 1981. Capt. Mark F. Postai crash landed a MiG-17 in the desert following an engine failure. He survived the accident, but died in a MiG-23 crash during 1983. He was one of two 4477th TES pilots killed during Constant Peg. [21 ]</div>
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The 4477th TES pilots were not only from the Air Force, but also included Navy and Marines. They usually had backgrounds as Top Gun and Red Flag aggressor pilots, or were weapons school instructors. The enlisted personnel were usually senior noncommissioned officers. The 4477th TES pilots would fly as many as three missions a day in the MiGs, lasting an hour or less each. [22] The assessments of the MiG-21s and MiG-23s by the Constant Peg pilots were very different. The MiG-21 was judged to be a highly manoeuvrable pure fighter. The MiG-23, on the other hand, was considered an unsuccessful attempt by the Soviets to build a multi-role fighter bomber. The MiG-23 was fast, but had poor stability. All the 4477th TES commanders considered it too dangerous to fly. [23]</div>
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Constant Peg was a “Black” project. like Have Doughnut a decade before. The personnel assigned to the Tonopah Test Range wore civilian clothing to avoid attracting attention, and could not discuss thei assignment with their families. The next of kit of the two pilots killed during the program were not told how they had died. The MiGs were kept in their hangars or sent into the ai whenever Soviet reconnaissance satellites wer overhead. Any military pilot who made a emergency landing at the airfield signed secrecy agreement not to discuss what he had seen.[24]</div>
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But also like Have Doughnut, Constant Peg was soon an open secret. The first major leak occurred at the same time as tt project started. The Armed Forces Journal International issue for September 1977 carried the article “Soviet Jets in USAF Use – The Secret MiG Squadron.” It said that the MiGs were used in the training of U.S. pilots, and speculated that the U.S. could have as many as 20 MiGs of different types. [25]</div>
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The sheer scale of Constant Peg, both in the number of pilots participating and the number of MiGs involved, made it impossible to keep the effort secret. Pilots would quietly discuss their experiences at officers clubs. At least one sighting of a MiG-21 in flight was made by a civilian near Edwards AFB. Constant Peg was closed down in 1988, due to its cost and the ending of the Cold War. In the early 1990s, more information began to emerge. Pictures were published of both the Have Doughnut aircraft and other U.S. MiG-21s. The YF-110 and YF-113 designations became known, as did the broad outlines of the effort. Eventually, both MiG-21s and MiG-23s were put on display. The code name “Constant Peg” was public long before it was finally declassified in November of 2006. Finally, any doubts about what aircraft were flown by the 4477th TES were eliminated by the unit’s name – “Red Eagles.”</div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">MiG History vs. Roswell Mythology</span></strong></div>
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Stanton Friedman’s analogy that there would be no difference between captured aircraft and crashed saucers has validity on several levels. From a narrow military viewpoint, flying a military vehicle within U.S. airspace or attacking U.S. aircraft are both acts of war. Whether the vehicles were Soviet or Martian does not matter. They were a threat that had to be analyzed and countered.</div>
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Have Doughnut and Constant Peg gave the U.S. access to flyable MiGs. But tactical evaluations were also conducted without a flyable enemy vehicle. Project Feather Duster was conducted between May and October 1965 at Nellis AFB. Like the Have Doughnut mock dogfights more than two years later, Feather Duster evaluated tactics for U.S. aircraft against the lighter and more manoeuvrable MiG aircraft they were r,.w facing over North Vietnam. As no real MiGs were then available, F-86H fighters served as stand-ins. The very same procedures were used in both cases – pre-planned engagements to see which tactics worked and which did not. The F86Hs could not exactly simulate the higher performance MiGs, but within these limitations Feather Duster showed similar results to the later Have Doughnut tests. The Feather Duster results, like those from Have Doughnut, were distributed to U.S. fighter pilots. [26]</div>
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The analogy between crashed saucers and captured aircraft has major consequences for the Roswell mythology. If the U.S. military had recovered any crashed saucers and/or if its aircraft had engaged alien spacecraft in dogfights, then the exact same procedures as with the MiGs would have been followed. Further, these analyses would be distributed widely, as numerous intelligence organizations, military units, and individual pilots would have a”need to know.” And, just as with the MiG data, it would leak to the press and public.</div>
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The analogy between U.S. MiG operations and Roswell also point out the difference between history and mythology. The Have Doughnut and Feather Duster reports and other documents, photos of the MiG-21, and the “Throw a Nickel on the Grass” training film are now declassified. The MiGs are on display and participants in Constant Peg have described their experiences. This is historical evidence, of such a scale and type to prove beyond doubt that these activities occurred.</div>
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The Roswell mythology paints a very different picture. The historical evidence available for the U.S. MiG operations is totally lacking with the Roswell incident. There are no technical reports on alien crash debris or the “dozens” of recovered saucers. There are no counterparts of the Feather Duster or Have Doughnut reports on tactics for use against flying saucers.</div>
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Indeed, the proponents of the Roswell incident reject historical evidence. They dismiss the lack of records for a nurse named “Naomi Selff;” who Glenn Dennis claimed participated in an alien autopsy at Roswell, and later died in a plane crash. No nurse with this name was stationed at Roswell or ever served in the U.S. military. None of the five nurses at the base in July 1947 were involved in a plane crash. Friedman said that he “located someone who had been stationed at the base and confirmed recalling nurse Naomi Self[f] and described her the same way Glenn had.” [27]</div>
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Crashed saucer proponents also dismiss historical records which indicate the metal foil, balsa wood sticks, and rubber fwgments found near Roswell were from a Project Mogul balloon flight. Instead, they prefer decades old recollections of witnesses as to the debris’ alleged exotic nature and the amount of material. In a memorable sound bite, Dr. Mark Rodeghier, the Center for UFO Studies’ scientific director. made clear this attitude. He said, “There is no way that the amount of material in a Mogul balloon would fill up the area as described by the witnesses on the Roswell debris field. Now right there that’s enough for me.” [28]</div>
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Have Doughnut, Constant Peg, and other MiG operations made clear how serious a threat the U.S. considered these Soviet aircraft to be, and how far it would go to counter that threat. How serious a threat the U.S. considered flying saucers was also made clear by the lack of any similar efforts against alien vehicles.</div>
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<strong>Sources:</strong><br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Stanton T. Freedman, “The UFO `Why?’ Questions,” 4th Annual UFO Crash Retrieval Conference, November 10-12, 2006, Las Vegas, Nevada, p. 2</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Stanton T. Freedman, “Zapped Planes,” UFO Magazine (May 2006), p. 26, 27.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Hangar 18: The UFO Warehouse, A&E Television Networks, 2006. The Friedman comment about “dozens” of recoveries is made 36 seconds into the DVD.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">“Re; Magonia Supplement No. 54 Friedman,” http://www.virtuallystrange.net/ ufo/updates/2005/feb/m12-015.shtml, February 12, 2005</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Hangar 18: The UFO Warehouse. Friedman’s comments start at 19 minutes and 47 seconds.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Rob Young, “U.S. Aircraft Lost To MiGs in Southeast Asia, 1965-1972,” National Air Intelligence Center History Office.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Have Doughnut Special Distribution, p. 13-1 to 13-6. The identities of the “acquisition site” and “test site” are still considered classifi</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">8. Have Doughnut Volume I Technical, FTD-CR-20-13-69 INT, Defense Intelligence Agency, November 1, 1968, p. 1-16, and 6-7 to 6-14</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">ibid, p. 11-1 to 11-8.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The designation “YF-110B” translates as preproduction (Y) fighter (F) number one hundred and ten (110) second model (B). The “68-0965″ serial number meant this was the nine hundred and sixty fifth aircraft or missile built for the U.S. Air Force in Fiscal Year 1968. Regarding the “MiG-21 F-13,” the Soviets designated aircraft by their design bureau rather than as a fighter. “MiG” meant the Mikoyan (M) and (i) Gurevich (G) bureau. The “21″ was the numerical sequence (MiG jet fighters were given odd numbers- 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, etc). The “F” was not a letter sequence, but stood for Forsazh (afterburner), while “-13″ was the model number of the export version.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Have Doughnut Volume II Tactical, FTD-CR-20-13-69 INT, Defense Intelligence Agency, “Annex A, Tactical Mission Summaries,” p. 1-49 to 1-52.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">ibid, and Have Doughnut Special Distribution, p. 2-1 to 2-18.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Have Doughnut Volume II Tactical, p. 1-81 and 1-</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Ibid, p. 2-68 to 2-73.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Ibid, p. 13-12 to 13-26.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">“Throw a Nickel on the Grass” United States Air Force Report FR 1015 1968</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">”Industrial Observer,” Aviation Week & Space Technology (February 17, 1969), p. 13.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">“News and Events” Col. (Ret.) Gail Peck, National Museum of the USAF web site.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">James Hannah, “Air Force takes wraps off secret MiG program,” Akron Beacon Journal web site, posted November 16, 2006, and Stephan Wilkinson, “Briefing American MiGs,” Aviation History (May 2007), p. 9</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Hannah, “Air Force takes wraps off secret MiG program,” and Bruce Rolfsen, “Details of secret MiG squadron unfold,” Military City.com, November 17, 2006.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Timothy R. Gaffney, “Constant Peg: When U.S. pilots “battled” MiGs,” Dayton Daily News, November 22, 2006.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Rolfsen, “Details of secret MiG squadron unfold.”</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Gaffney, “Constant Peg: When U.S. pilots “battled” MiGs.”</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Hannah, “Air Force takes wraps off secret MiG program.”</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">F. Clifton Berry, Jr. and Benjamin F. Schemmer, “Soviet Jets in USAF Use – The Secret MiG Squadron,” Armed Forces Journal International (September 1977), p. 26, 27</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">“Air Combat Tactics Evaluation – F100, F-104, F-105, F-4, F-5, A-1 E Versus MiG 15, 17, 19, 21 Type Aircraft (F-86H). Part I(U)” Tactical Air Command, Langley AFB VA. (June 1966). [Project Feather Duster report].</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">“Interview with Stanton Friedman,” http://cubbrasil.net/staton.htm</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Conspiracy? “Majestic Twelve: UFO Cover-Up A&E Television Networks, 2004. Dr. Rodeghier’s comments about the debris field size start at 36 minutes and 53 seconds into the DVD.</span></li>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288177690155596824.post-81311197610473749342014-02-03T15:37:00.002+00:002014-03-16T13:42:46.969+00:00Transformation of Ufology, Part 1: UFO Idols With Feet of Clay<strong>Matt Graeber</strong><br />
Magonia 95, May 2007<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg00oimAkGriid7O8njAyv0YQ4WbPX-0Z74gN1S8St6DAqYODRDkLBfPQy0LjaoL0buF-feBO1Iwbrutq5jt56NVegc41_r8HTXF-_KV3FAxLGulSyf-xARt_pX1kZ4TPi1d2WFm9KfOD5e/s1600/aa+jackolope.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg00oimAkGriid7O8njAyv0YQ4WbPX-0Z74gN1S8St6DAqYODRDkLBfPQy0LjaoL0buF-feBO1Iwbrutq5jt56NVegc41_r8HTXF-_KV3FAxLGulSyf-xARt_pX1kZ4TPi1d2WFm9KfOD5e/s1600/aa+jackolope.gif" height="100" width="100" /></a>There has been a great deal written about the ’Transformational Effects’ of the UFO experience upon the observers and the interfacers with alien creatures. Many times these incidents are alleged to have produced an enhanced form of spiritual awakening, heightened awareness, or a realisation of one’s cosmic connection with the universe and its many intelligent life forms. In extreme instances, the UFO experience is even said to have produced “Hybrid” half-human and half-alien beings that are presently walking amongst us.</div>
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This folly is further expanded by a form of unbridled one-upmanship, in which stories are routinely topped by more outlandish and embellished yarns, and we even find that not only have some fellows claimed to have discovered and identified more than 86 separate alien species presently visiting our planet but, there is an American abduction expert who proclaims that the “Greys” (small statured bulbous-headed alien creatures), actually absorb life-sustaining nutrients in the air through their skin.</div>
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As far as I’ve been able to determine, the expert doesn’t mention the rather delicate matter of how the Greys might un-absorb their body’s waste materials. Perhaps, they don’t, and that’s why they smell so horrid on the numerous military base’s autopsy tables!?</div>
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But, rather than rehashing the claims and the counter-claims which these many yarns have provoked from the saucer zealots, UFO enthusiasts, sceptics and debunkers – I will discuss the “Transformation of Facts” that the unobjective UFOlogists quite often bring to fore concerning their misinterpretation and misrepresentation of the significance of their truly poor quality reports.</div>
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It was then that I first realized that pointed questions and opposing points of view were not very welcome within the established UFO group community… </div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>Example No.1 (A blast from the past!)</strong></span></div>
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I attended a UFO conference which was held in a high school auditorium at Pottstown, Pa. back in the early 70′s, and the director of the UFO group speaking at the event presented a number of photographic slides of purported UFOs for the audience to view. Many of the photos were images from rather old cases and were frequently written about by the popular UFO authors of the day. However, several were new to me and I found myself particularly interested in one slide that featured a pair of copper-coloured disks flying in tight formation amidst the backdrop of a brilliant blue sky.</div>
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The disks were photographed from an approximate angle of about 40-45 degrees, and showed the pair of identical copper-coloured craft from the bottom with a pronounced leading and side edge. I was taken by the fact that this photo was very clear, well-cantered in the frame, and did not have any distortion which might have been attributed to the craft’s movement, camera movement, or the blurred, fuzzy and slightly out-of-focus character of many other UFO photos also being displayed.</div>
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When the speaker’s presentation ended, and the lights were rekindled in the school’s auditorium there was a question and answer period in which inquiries were fielded by the speaker. At one point during this period, I raised my hand and asked the speaker if he might share a bit more information about the photo of the copper-coloured UFOs with us. He readily admitted that he didn’t know very much about the photo’s origin except that it came from a small village in South America.</div>
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I asked if he could tell us something about credibility the person who took the photo, when it was taken, where it might have been taken and how it ended up in the assortment of photos he had presented. The speaker seemed to be a little stunned by my questions and replied that the photographer is unknown and presumably died in a mudslide that destroyed his entire village.</div>
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The speaker didn’t know the name of the village or, the date of the disaster. He also didn’t know when the photo was taken. So, it would be virtually impossible to link the photo to a mudslide catastrophe that was published in newspapers somewhere in South America without at least knowing the approximate location or year of the incident. Even with knowing that, it would still be an investigative stretch to assume one positively knew anything about the reliability of the photos themselves.</div>
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When I mentioned the fact that these photos were probably not the best examples for audience presentation, an obviously annoyed lady seated in the front of the auditorium challenged my statement with a rather vehement remark. It was then that I first realized that pointed questions, and opposing points of view were not very welcome within the established UFO group community. (i.e., it appeared that many of the conference attendees hadn’t come to learn anything. They just wanted their preconceived beliefs on UFOs to be confirmed and/or bolstered by the presenters).</div>
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Interestingly, I had collected coins as a youngster, and suspected that these copper discs were actually coin planchets that hadn’t been struck at the mint. (viz, American Revolution period large cents), for both appeared to have well-defined nicks along their outer edges, much like circulated coins viewed under magnification. I never got to mention this to the speaker, who shrugged off my questions by proclaiming that “he thought” the photos were interesting and that’s why he presented them at the conference. In other words, the UFO photos were not investigated for authenticity and photographer credibility before being presented to the audience.</div>
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I later reproduced the appearance of the UFO photo, by placing two large cents on a piece of transparent Plexiglas and viewed them from a similar angle with the sky as the background. The result was astonishingly similar to the mysterious South American photo shown at the Pottstown conference. This was the first of many disappointing experiences with the fawning group enthusiasts and their leadership I would have during my eight year stint as the director of UFORIC the Philadelphia-based UFO Report & Information Center, 1972-80. (Although, I’ve been semi-active in the field for the last 33 years). </div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>EXAMPLE No.2 (Implants anyone?)</strong></span></div>
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I attended a speaking engagement at a gathering of the Society of American Electrical and Mechanical Engineers in 1976 – in which I was to follow an elderly gentleman who had been researching UFO reports for decades. As I entered the dining room of the hall I encountered a young man assisting the primary speaker (we’ll call him Mr.Compton), who was quite visually handicapped and poking about in a upright dining room cabinet which doubled as the speaker’s podium and had a microphone affixed to it’s top. Inside the cabinet small oil and vinegar bottles were stored before being placed on the dining tables with the dinner salads.</div>
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Although the young man was repeatedly telling the speaker that only vinegar and oil bottles were stored in the cabinet, the legally blind speaker persisted in rummaging about in the cabinet as if looking for something else to be there. (It was quite strange and an oddly-amusing affair). I do not recall learning what Mr. Compton actually thought might have been nestled within the cabinet.</div>
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As the speaker finally settled down behind the podium and the microphone was adjusted to his satisfaction, the lights in the dining room dimmed and the slide presentation and the experts lecture simultaneously began. The first slide was a photo of an unfurled American flag. Mr. Compton said, “I always show this slide first because I believe in truth!” A voice from somewhere the darkness chimed in with something about “leaping tall buildings in a single bound” but, Mr. Compton didn’t seem to be distracted by this comical comment as he continued, “I’ve been investigating UFO reports for many years, and let me make it perfectly clear… I’m no contactee! However, I do know a few, and if you listen to what I have to say you will be endowed by the friendly saucers and able to protect yourself from the hostiles”</div>
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Then a barrage of slides was shown in rapid succession with a quick explanation concerning the photographer/witnesses credibility and the date and location of the alleged incident. Many of the photos were quite old and were obviously borrowed from UFO books and group journals. Most were poorly centred in the frame, blurry and of quite distant or small objects.(Were they insects on the wing, birds, Frisbees or alien space ships, stars or planets, it was quite difficult for anyone to tell with any degree of certainty).</div>
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Then Mr. Compton warned the audience of the dangers of approaching the Globe, Football-shaped and Bee Hive-like UFOs and how to thwart their attacks with a common hand-held flashlight. Apparently, one could also use the flashlight to perform a ‘UFO Friendship Test’, which was fully explained in Mr. Compton’s 32 page pocket-sized booklet which was on sale in the rear of the hall.</div>
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Perhaps the most remarkable part of Mr. Compton’s presentation concerned his revelations concerning a middle-aged woman (Mrs. Brotmann), who was out walking her beagle puppy at sunset on a summer’s eve when she was struck down by fleeting a 2.5 to 3 inch diameter UFO.</div>
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According to Compton, Mrs Brotmann had just been bending over while adjusting her puppy’s collar and as she was starting to straighten up she was shocked to see the tiny UFO flying straight towards her face. She tried to take evasive action but, the glowing UFO was travelling so fast that it hit her squarely in the forehead knocking her to the ground, lodging itself in her brain! A bit dazed and bewildered Mrs Brotmann finally regained her composure and was amazed to realize that there wasn’t a mark on her face to show where the UFO had entered her cranium. Amazingly, after this incident Mr Brotmann’s IQ was greatly enhanced and according Mr Compton she is now an engineer (Type not specified).</div>
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Would it be a stretch of sceptical speculation to point out that the flag slide and the ‘engineer’ connection in the Mrs. Brotmann story seems to be a bit ‘American’ Society of Mechanical and Electrical ‘Engineers’ directed!?</div>
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An obviously concerned lady seated near the podium asked Mr Compton if he had taken Mrs Brotmann to the hospital to have x-rays taken of her head injury. Compton quickly replied that he wanted to do so but, Mrs Brotmann flatly refused treatment because of the voices in her head. Apparently, these were the voices of the UFO operators who did not want their presence publicly revealed. Moreover, the x-rays would be lethal to the tiny Venusians who reportedly have been visiting Earth since the dawning of mankind.</div>
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This was the very first of the many so-called implant stories I’ve heard of over the years. Compton dates the alleged incident to the early fifties. Naturally, I was quite shocked by the character of Mr. Compton’s presentation and followed up with a rather capsulized talk on investigative methods employed at UFORIC. After this experience I decide to avoid public speaking engagements on UFOs, press interviews and I rarely participated in radio talk show programming on the phenomenon. However, I did answer questions from the public over the phone at UFORIC because we were in fact, a UFO ‘report and information’ centre.</div>
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While the above may sound too bizarre to be a factual account, I can assure you that it is quite factual, and that even stranger/wilder yarns are presented at many UFO conferences and websites. So, is there any wonder why mainstream scientists feel that something is not quite right about these wacky UFO experts and enthusiasts? Is there not a reason to suspect that they avoid and ignore the subject for fear of being associated with the kooks and crack pots who have always populated the largely unchecked and totally unregulated Ufological landscape.</div>
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Moreover, why is it that if someone does question the validity of a reported incident, the UFO groups generally do not appreciate and applaud that individual’s objectivity and tenaciousness – rather, they label him or her a sceptic and debunker while leaping to the defence of many less than credible eyewitnesses and fantasy-prone self-proclaimed UFO experts who bandy these yarns about.</div>
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All this while the so-called serious ufologists have never proven that UFOs actually exist in the nuts and bolts sense of the word in 60 years of intensive inquiry, by thousands of group members and field investigators- not to mention the combined efforts of hundreds of professional consultants in the disciplines of metallurgy, psychology, optics, astronomy, biology, etc. etc.</div>
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Moreover these same groups invite Abduction Experts. Implant Researchers and Reversed Engineering promoters to their conferences to speak about aliens absorbing nutrients through their skin, telepathic communiqués from benevolent alien races, and the mass production of hybrid babies aboard colossal motherships which are reportedly laden with human foetuses in liquid-filled jars. (What utter and nonsensical drivel!)</div>
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What are we to think of these deluded folks who inflict themselves and their half-baked theories upon the unsuspecting public, the all-to-eager UFO group members and press with “wild” and completely “bogus” UFO tales? What are we to think of so-called serious research UFO group leaders who stand by and permit these same individuals to thrust themselves upon their membership? I actually came across a fellow (we’ll call him Fred), who had achieved some degree of acclaim in UFO circles with his outrageous crashed saucer investigations, alleged alien and MIB encounters, not to mention his own abduction report. Fred was actually an individual dealing with serious mental heath issues.</div>
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Yet, Fred and the small group he is an important member of has a growing internet following consisting of many young people who are Yahoo members, and quite a number of senior citizens who are interested in the group’s specialized senior services, such as prayer groups for those with spiritual, emotional and physical wants and needs.</div>
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Additionally, Fred had proudly posted information about his own improving mental health status and active MH volunteer contributions on the internet for all to read yet, other UFO researchers continually posted his UFO stories and reports at their sites, often thanking Fred for his contribution to ‘serious ufology’. Fred was even the focus of an article in a leading European UFO magazine. Obviously, all had taken his reports at face value and never looked into the matter of his health and veracity before listing such hokum as credible UFO sightings and alien encounters reports.</div>
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I guess that a schizophrenic could have a reliable sighting experience but, how would one be able to establish such a report as factual vs. hallucinatory in nature?</div>
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So, the question immediately arises, who is at fault here? The mental patient or the shoddy UFO researcher’s who post such potentially delusional material for UFO enthusiasts to read and readily accept as reliable data? Even the very best computer virus scans and firewalls cannot protect a serious researcher’s UFO database from that sort of contamination.</div>
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<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><strong>The entire alien affair reminded me of a time as a youngster, when I first saw an authentic ‘Jackolope’ at a hunting lodge. From what I later learned a taxidermist was producing the spoof-creature (A jack rabbit with small horns) for hunters who wanted to bamboozle less-experienced sportsmen in their group</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>EXAMPLE No.3 (The fossil remains of Mythical Creatures and Saucer Pilots).</strong></span></div>
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In a 1996 book on the discovery of many mythical creature fossils, a Texas fellow, said to be a palaeontologist, is suspected of actually sculpting and otherwise fabricating the so-called skeletal remains of mythical creatures, which included mermaids from both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, leprechauns and several other creative works. Although the books titled clearly identified it as being about the discovery of ‘mythical’ creatures, one of the major UFO group leaders of the day was so may captivated by a photograph of the alleged skeletal remains of a small creature that was imbedded in a concave plaster of Paris cast. (Sort of like a little alien on the half-shell).</div>
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The ufologist thought that the skeletal remains closely resembled those of a downed saucer pilot who reportedly crashed his spacecraft just prior to the turn of the 20th century at Aurora, Texas. Indeed, a UFO report involving the landing of two cigar-shaped objects at Ledonia, Texas was reported to have happened on April 16th 1897, and the Aurora crash (about a hundred miles away) was said to have occurred the following day. The fossil find story was cautiously but, favourably promoted in the UFO group’s journal where it received wide attention by the membership. After all, if the group’s leader thinks there’s something to this story. Well, there must be something to it.</div>
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As time passed, and the story started to unravel, the group leader decided to retire albeit, without ever fully-acknowledging that he’d been mistaken about the significance of the bogus alien fossil finding at Ledonia. Jim Moseley of the zany UFO newsletter Saucer Smear, had been gently chiding the ‘Czar’ as he called the group leader about the bogus fossil; and I even drew a cartoon concerning the controversy which compared the fossil to that of Warner Brothers cartoon character ‘Marvin the Martian’, who as you may recall is actually Bugs Bunny’s outer-space nemesis.</div>
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The entire alien creature fossil affair reminded me of a time as a youngster, when I first saw an authentic ‘Jackolope’ at a hunting lodge. From what I later learned a taxidermist was producing the spoof-creature (A jack rabbit with small horns) for fun-loving hunters who wanted to bamboozle their sons and younger, less-experienced sportsmen in their group. It’s the hunter’s equivalent of “Snipe Hunting” with young boy scouts at camp for the first time.</div>
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So if we find such ‘ufoology’ flourishing at the very top of the heap in the sub cultural community of Saucerdom or (Saucerdumb), take your pick. One wonders, how deeply might such a malady infect the group’s internet list membership and the independent serious UFOlogists who look to these groups and lists for database resources? </div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>EXAMPLE No.4 (On the Demise of 20th Century Style Ufology)</strong></span></div>
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While hearing from a researcher about the recent ‘Mexican Roswell’ report”, nd the sad state of contemporary ufology in general, the subject of the Carbondale, Pa. 1974 UFO crash came up. He was somewhat amazed to learn that a small group from Wisconsin had managed to revive the long-ago hoax, and was currently claiming it to be a genuine saucer crash that was covered up by the military and the government. In fact, they wanted people to think ‘Carbondale/Roswell’, since they believed the case was actually much more significant than Roswell, and had many more reliable eyewitnesses. (Claims which are not only completely incorrect, they’re absolutely ridiculous too!).</div>
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This group ( BUFO), is headed by an aggressive internet impresario (Mary Sutherland), who not only dabbles in saucers but, also operates an online match-making service and prayer services for those in need, while also featuring psychic readings for those daring enough to peek into their future, at very reasonable rate of just $2.95 per minute. But, that’s just the tip of the iceberg on her UFO and paranormal internet enterprises which include an abductee support group and an array of items for sale at her online store and Gift Shoppe in scenic Burlington, Wisconsin.</div>
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The serious UFO researcher, who had long been studying a particular variety of UFO sighting seemed to be somewhat dismayed that all this was going on while most of the fellows he had been contacting on ’ The List’ probably felt that the Carbondale case was indeed a complete and clumsy hoax. Additionally, the Wisconsin group had established a dominate presence on the net at the <carbondale crash="" pa.="" ufo=""> site, and was even skilfully promoting their crash and cover up yarns on internet radio (audio) and TV (video) links.<br />
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Of course, there is a so-called Mexican Roswell, the Kecksberg, Pa. incident which is often touted a Pennsylvania’s Roswell. The Carbondale, Pa. hoax which the Wisconsin group is actively attempting to turn into a Roswell tourist and entertainment industry – and of course, even the Rendlesham Forest case is being foolishly called the UK’s Roswell.<br />
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It seems that if you prefix or suffix the name of any downed or un-downed saucer story with the word ‘Roswell’, the story automatically takes on an added dose of mystery, conspiracy and authenticity which far over-shadows any amount of obviously embarrassing evidence that might dismiss the entire incident as a fabrication or misidentification.<br />
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For many in the UFO community, Roswell is the line in the sand over which brutally vehement controversy rages. There is little middle ground on the topic, either you believe or you do not! If you do not, you are labelled a sceptic, a debunker and someone who has simply gone over to the other side.<br />
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Even though I never publicly said I do not believe the Roswell incident is very accurately portrayed in the vast saucer literature. I have become something of a piranha in the field simply because I questioned the veracity of two alleged star eyewitnesses concerning the Roswell incident. (Both of whom were later discredited and believed to have been discredited by other proponent UFO researchers<br />
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<strong><a href="http://magoniamagazine.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/transformation-2.html" target="_blank">Continue to Part Two</a></strong> <br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288177690155596824.post-52735845103672040562014-02-03T15:12:00.001+00:002014-10-07T14:23:24.031+01:00Transformation of Ufology, part 2: A Look Behind the Scenes<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<strong>Matt Graeber</strong></div>
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Magonia 95, May 2007</div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Most e-mail entries cited herein have been capsulized and edited by the author. Additional comments by me in italics</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Matt Graeber to Albert Benson, (a pseudonym) 12/12/2005</span></div>
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<em>Most e-mail entries cited herein have been capsulated and edited by the author.</em></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Albert, I’m wondering if the list members would be willing to post something on the growing internet presence of the Wisconsin group ( BUFO), that is attempting to” Turn” the Carbondale hoax of 1974 into another Roswell-like incident. There seems to be a rash of crash and non-crash saucer stories that are being promoted as Roswell-like events. If the list would log on to “carbondale,pa. ufo crash”, they can see for themselves how outlandish the yarn has become.</span></div>
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Mr Benson did contact his friends and colleagues on the list concerning the request. Here are several of the replies he received on the matter.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">From Rick Yost to Albert Benson & the list: 12/16/2005</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Hey Al,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Particularly the ectoplasm and orbs they found at the portal...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">The Carbondale crash was first promoted by the late flying saucer evangelist Robert D. Barry. He was PR man for the late right wing preacher Dr Carl McIntire’s 20th Century Reformation Hour ministry. Barry operated its one man press arm. He later had a weekly Saturday midnight TV show, “ET Monitor” on McIntire’s TV station.” They are both passed, now, but looks like other nuts are milking it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">By the way, Barry was the first one to report in 1989, about the same time same sort of claims were first made about Roswell, that the Kecksburg PA crash involved the recovery of alien bodies. He later withdrew that claim as an error, which was a surprise to me since I don’t think Bob ever heard a UFO story he didn’t like.</span></div>
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<em>I wonder how many young saucer enthusiasts ever heard of the Reverend Carl McIntire or, knew that the Roswell story didn’t include alien bodies until 42 years after the incident was first reported?</em></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Albert Benson to Rick Yost & the list: 12/16/2005</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Rick, I’m not talking about Kecksburg, but the Carbondale hoax of 1974. If you are interested to find out more about this blatant nonsense, log on to </span><carbondale crash="" pa.="" ufo=""><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">, and check out the buffoonery at any BUFO site or link. Those pushing this hoax as ” Pennsylvania’s Roswell” are without doubt in need of an urgent reality check”.</span></carbondale></div>
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<carbondale crash="" pa.="" ufo=""><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"></span></carbondale><br /></div>
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<carbondale crash="" pa.="" ufo=""><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">****************************************</span><br />
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To Albert Benson, Rick Yost & the list from Scott Morris a major UFO group leader: 12/16/2005</span></carbondale></div>
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<carbondale crash="" pa.="" ufo=""><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"></span></carbondale> </div>
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<carbondale crash="" pa.="" ufo=""><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"> My observation of Barry, who used to write regularly for Saga and its UFO magazine, was than nearly everything he said – excluding perhaps banal observations about the weather – could be automatically discarded. Too bad that one of his tall tales is still with us.”</span> </carbondale></div>
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<carbondale crash="" pa.="" ufo=""><br />
<em>I think the people who log on to the Carbondale UFO crash site should be alerted to this observation by one of Ufology’s major group leaders and long-time researchers.</em><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">From Albert Benson to the list 12/17/2005<br />
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It’s bad enough that the bizarre crowd at BUFO ( Burlington UFO & Paranormal Radio) is pushing the Carbondale hoax of 1974 as a genuine occurrence, but they’re not content to confine their idiocy to that alone. Now they’re involved in an internet fantasy asserting that the little town of Olyphant PA. which is located about six miles from Scranton, is situated at the “centre of the universe” and modelled after ancient Egypt by alien race! This would almost be funny if it weren’t for the fact that for the uninformed public and the media, this is what passes for the face of Ufology.</span><br />
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Albert Benson continues, <br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">And this type of crap only makes it more difficult to convince the scientific community that the UFO phenomenon is a real mystery that merits the most serious investigation on their part.”</span> </carbondale></div>
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Scott Morris replies on 12/18/2005<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Al, I agree that this is pretty dumb, but it doesn’t amount to anything consequential, much less a problem with scientists. My experience is that scientists who are so willing are perfectly able to separate Ufology’s sensible claims from the absurd ones. Scientists who are hostile simply use the latter as an excuse not to bother with the more substantive issues. Hard as it may be for some to believe, not all Ufologist’s problems are Ufologist’s fault.”<br />
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The Carbondale silliness is perhaps worth noting, but nothing to get worked up about. UFOs and Ufology were long ago relegated to the fringes, and something relegated, even if unjustly, is going to attract fringe types. Surely, we have better things to do with our time than to waste it with ritual denunciations of the many nut jobs and liars who are out there, and have always been out there. They’re certainly an irritation, but they’re also no more than a sideshow.” </span> </div>
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<carbondale crash="" pa.="" ufo=""></carbondale><br />
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<em>Yet another valuable observation that is limited to the list membership. Scott is correct to point out that the list has far better things to do with it’s time than denounce the internet kooks…However, one wonders ” What might they do that they haven’t already done over the course of the last sixty years?</em> </div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"> From Tim Connolly (a list member) to Albert Benson & the list: 12/18/2005</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"> At least this kind of thing provides fodder for ” Ufology-ology”, which consists of remote-viewing history texts which will be written on distant planets in the future of a parallel universe.</span> <br />
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<em> Egads, more material for BUFO to promote!</em> <br />
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Joel Simpson (a list member) chimes in: 12/18/2005 </div>
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<carbondale crash="" pa.="" ufo=""> <span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Watch any established field on investigation ( nutrition, astronomy, genetics, linguistics, etc.) and you’ll always find the same sort of nuts looking for attention, and a great deal of confusion in the media…..” I agree with Tom that the tern “Ufology” as understood by the world at large ( not just by us) covers every conceivable aspect of modern culture, from Bermuda Triangles to flying lights, crystal skulls, dogu statuettes, Uri Geller, exobiology and Nostradamus. I’d rather avoid using it. When asked I certainly never say I research UFOs, and usually mumble something about “A strong interest in cataloguing unidentified phenomena recorded throughout history. </span> </carbondale></div>
<carbondale crash="" pa.="" ufo=""><br />
<em>I fully understand Joel’s embarrassment, and it’s too bad that those visiting BUFO/Carbondale sites and links are not privy to his insightful and candid remarks. I would also like to point out that Ufology is not actually an established field of investigation, rather, it is an investigative (and occasionally obsessional) hobby that has produced little if any evidence to verify the physical presence of UFOs in our skies. I certainly wouldn’t put it up there with Astronomy or Genetics, etc.<br />
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So</em>, the question arises, why should the serious UFO researchers feel obligated to point out the absurdities, inconsistencies, contradictions and the fabrications of the many internet saucer zealots, charlatans and hucksters? The answer is quite simple. Not to do so is a failing of character, ethics and moral compass that would serve to protect the unsuspecting and the ill-informed from the distortion of repeatedly reading and hearing about, and finally accepting as true, the suspicions, fabrications and “delusions” that have been bandied about and thrust upon them via the net regarding the true nature of the phenomenon.<br />
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For baseless rumours and distortions that are left unchecked foster beliefs, expectations, fears and suspicions that not only are completely unwarranted, they are dangerous too. I’ve read lies about the character and professional efforts of an acting police chief who diligently worked shoulder-to-shoulder with UFO field investigators during the Carbondale PA incident of ’74, while also managing to professionally serve and protect his community, the many volunteers and the policemen under his supervision at the site.<br />
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Only to have his name and efforts dragged through the BUFOrian muck and malicious fabrications about him by internet saucer-hucksters like Mary Sutherland, and her investigator Ronald T. Hannivig who not only never met or interviewed the acting police chief, they were not even present at the scene while the incident was being investigated in 1974.<br />
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Yet, these same self-appointed experts also alleged that the acting police chief (Francis X. Dottle), wantonly participated in a cover up of the incident by tossing bogus evidence into a pond. They even went so far as to post the malicious remark that this fine public servant was not then (At the time of the incident), nor is he now, a friend of the people in the community he served.<br />
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These silly fabrications appeared at the <http: carbondale="" crash="" pa.ufo=""> site which you may log on to and read for yourself. I ask, is it really inconsequential that a man’s reputation be besmirched by individuals who may be totally deluded and lacking any scruples? Should serious UFOlogists continually turn a blind eye to this sort of behaviour and self-serving promotional propaganda because it might be unpleasant, beneath their dignity and embarrassing to deal with?<br />
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Is it not shameful to remain silent and allow this sort of chicanery to infect the minds of young and elderly ill-informed people who search the net for reliable information on the phenomenon? I’ve even received two e-mail forwards from a researcher in which the communiqués sender claims that one internet huckster is involved in fraudulent online business practices and directly involved in the suicide death of a teenage group member.<br />
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Naturally, there are two sides (or more) to every story, so I’m currently attempting to learn and verify more about the matter. I’ll report my findings in a future Carbondale Chronicles entry for those who are interested in this rather shocking and sad story.<br />
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Is there not a lesson to be learned in the fact, that few European politicians and intellectuals of the day took the National Socialist movement in Germany very serious when it first came on the political scene. So, impressionable young people, far too young to remember who Neville Chamberlain and Winston Churchill were, sit at their computer’s keyboard and unwittingly log on to saucer-huckster sites who are like sharks lurking in the internet’s waters for careless surfers to happen their way.<br />
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Interestingly, my grandson’s high school French teacher recently told me that 65-70% of his students thought that Germany had attacked Pearl Harbor in 1965 or 67. So, should the serious UFO researchers simply assume that this kind of historical ignorance is limited to today’s high school students? How could serious ufologists be so blind (and passive) as to believe that their not setting the record straight on the chicanery and many lies about the UFO enigma is matter of little or no consequence? If that’s the case, why the hell do they even bother to research the phenomenon at all?<br />
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If one thinks it’s silly to compare the absurd online UFO propaganda to that of the Nazi’s, one might do well to recall that well over fifty percent of the adult voting population of this country believe in the ‘reality’ of UFOs and would probably support a candidate who shared in their saucer enthusiasm. Perhaps a candidate who would simply promise to release any and all government papers on UFOs could win a close election, especially if that candidate were also a popular entertainment or sports celebrity.<br />
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So, while the studious UFO researcher’s utilize the same internet technology to e-mail pithy and complimentary notes for each others enjoyment, and an occasional pat on the back- many youthful UFO enthusiasts slip into the jaws of the saucer-hucksters deception, delusions, lies and distortions. In fact, in some cases they may even be gobbled up by a hucksters chronic, habitual and/or pathological lying.<br />
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But, the rub lies not in exposing the internet huckster(s) as a blemish on the face of Ufology.. it lies in the fact that many serious UFO researchers and organization leaders themselves have participated in their own brand of saucer-huckstering over the years (directly and indirectly- unwittingly and consciously). Moreover, calling attention to the speck in the eye of an internet huckster might provoke a response from the debunkers about the beam in the eye of the UFO organization and/or its leadership.<br />
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So, it seems that the boundaries between the proponent UFO camps are not very well defined any longer. There once was a sharp line between the organized groups and the kooky contactee movement. Now it just seems that some of the saucer group leaders and experts are more eloquent spokesman, (a.k.a. Classier salesman) than the internet throng. Yet all seem to be well-versed in the art of putting a particular “Spin” on a UFO incident or the phenomenon in general.<br />
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Considering that the organized groups have been doing so for almost 60 years, does point to a habitual behaviour pattern, especially since that pattern of behaviour has produced absolutely no incontrovertible evidence or data concerning the phenomenon’s true nature or origin.<br />
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What we have is a great deal of speculative fantasy, which stems not from hard spikes discovered in an objective database but, all-too-human wants, needs and desires concerning the phenomenon’s assumed importance and meaningfulness to mankind, and the equally-assumptive importance of the researcher’s own investigative efforts.<br />
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This near-obsessional behaviour pattern was first established by the baby-boomer ” Nuts and Bolts” school of Ufology which is presently on the verge of extinction. The bare bones of their contribution to Ufology will be that they successfully managed to dangle a promised carrot before the noses of the American public, the media and themselves for six decades.<br />
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It was they who pampered, endured and invited the hucksters of Ancient Astronaut tales and Bermuda Triangle yarns to their conventions and symposia. They even participated in the proliferation of Saucer-Crash Fantasies and the Abduction Mania. They did all this to promote membership numbers, draw larger crowds to their conventions, make book deals and seek increased journal subscriptions.<br />
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One asks, how much ‘objective researching’ is to be found in these business pursuits? ( e.g., what percentage of the monies collected actually went for research, after operating costs and salaries for the group’s top brass were siphoned away?) Moreover, if the internet hucksters are following in the path of the old guard with better and far more dynamic internet UFO presentations to entice the curious and the gullible, is that not but an extension of the sins of UFOlogists past?<br />
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The sociologists and folklorists of the future will look back upon the late 20th and early 21st.century’s transformation of Ufology into an “unbridled” entertainment industry (or “UFOOLogy” as it is more accurately described) and realize that the two terms differ only in the addition of one vowel. Ufology is no longer, nor has it ever truly been a purely pseudoscientific pursuit – it has blossomed into a full-blown sub cultural entertainment industry that has profound romantic appeal within our youthful society. Its roots lie in America, which Dr Carl G. Jung once called the land of science fiction and fantasy – but the American UFO malaise is now becoming a pandemic that has spared throughout the entire planet through the world wide web.<br />
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The fossil remains of it all will point to a mid-20th century belief in the existence of and pursuit of phantoms of the skies. 21st century UFOOlogy will probably seek out the phantoms through paranormal or spiritually-based investigative avenues, assumptions and beliefs – some of which may be serious, while most will probably be pure humbug. However, the answer will always seem to lie just beyond their grasp, around the next corner, over the next hill. (Much like the nuts and bolts camp’s carrot).<br />
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Such is the nature of true phantoms; they antagonise, mesmerize and befuddle the blind man who senses their presence but, can offer no definitive description of them.. except for hearing the curious beating of their wings and catching a faint whiff of their fleeting presence. Could it be that UFOs are modern man’s harpies?<br />
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The pantheon of UFO experts will continue to come and go, along with the parade of witnesses and the few remaining organized saucer groups. The UFOs however, will persist and endure the many ups and downs of UFOOlogical fantasy, theorizing, speculation and assumption – and in time, a new generation will take up the quest and start swinging their white canes at the fleeting phantoms. Could it possibly be that the canes will always be far too short, and the answer to the riddle of the UFOs will simply remain beyond our physical and mental grasp?<br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Example No.5 (UFOs from inner-space?)</span></strong> </http:><br />
<http: carbondale="" crash="" pa.ufo=""><br />
Perhaps in some strange way “the UFOs are but a reflection of ourselves”, as James Moseley suggests – aimlessly flitting about like the modern man’s hopes, fears and aspirations on the phenomenon. Perhaps our ancestors were better equipped to assimilate these “signs in the skies”, for in their lifetimes things like these aerial displays were not only anticipated and readily interpreted, they were actually prayed for.<br />
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Have we somehow lost touch with the facility of mind that once fostered beliefs in visions, portents, divine warnings and angels yet, search the skies to once again experience? Or is it all just a growing new age mysticism and religiosity appearing in the guise of technological marvels that homotechnos currently beholds in awe, wonder and masked reverence?<br />
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Has the emotional and spiritual nature of our inner being been schooled out of us by the customs, demands and the technological advancements of modern-day living? Indeed, does everyone really think that such powerful human emotions would simply dry up and blow away because it was no longer chic or, politically correct to speak of them?<br />
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The organized group elites may scoff at such thoughts, in the same manner which they scoff at the internet huckster movement in their midst. They seem to have an overly confident Col. George Armstrong Custer attitude about what they perceive to be nothing more than a small hostile encampment that they “look down upon” from their lofty UFO research headquarters. However, their status in saucerdom, with the press, the entertainment media and the American public’s focus of interest is most assuredly headed for UFOOLogy’s happy hunting grounds.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288177690155596824.post-82262222249672601312014-02-03T14:17:00.003+00:002023-09-19T12:38:13.529+01:00A Very English Ufology<div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>John Rimmer</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Magonia 95, May 2007</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-298fnMXS3HfjY1X9v_Hk78SVIJJsNr0msY30Vt5JyR3d4YR3WENZKkzcU5JxuwU2p9UqkbxBQgiUFpJZRfkJPCQfVTYHZuYYnXNcfLw8VZGdaQtIwInC_KR6cN7MX1QPz-mrDQp8U67u/s1600/aa+flag.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="100" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-298fnMXS3HfjY1X9v_Hk78SVIJJsNr0msY30Vt5JyR3d4YR3WENZKkzcU5JxuwU2p9UqkbxBQgiUFpJZRfkJPCQfVTYHZuYYnXNcfLw8VZGdaQtIwInC_KR6cN7MX1QPz-mrDQp8U67u/s1600/aa+flag.png" width="100" /></a>At last, it seems, the Warminster revival is getting underway. With the publication in 2005 of Dewey and Reis’s <em>In Alien Heat</em> (<a href="http://mrobsr.blogspot.com/2009/08/warminster-mystery.html" target="_blank">reviewed in <em>Magonia 91</em></a>) an almost forgotten aspect of British ufological history was brought back into focus. Two recent books also revisit the site of England’s biggest UFO flap. Andy Roberts and David Clarke’s <em>Flying Saucerers: A Social History of Ufology</em> (1) places Warminster into the broader context of UFO development in this country <span style="text-align: left;">and Kevin Goodman’s <i>UFO</i> </span><em style="text-align: left;">Warminster: Cradle of Contact</em><span style="text-align: left;"> (2) presents the place and the events associated with it into a more personal context. All three books, I believe, reveal Warminster as an intrinsically English phenomenon, and part of a very distinctive national UFO tradition.</span></div>
<span><a name='more'></a></span><div style="text-align: justify;">Roberts and Clarke begin their survey with the usual brief account of the 1947 events in the USA, starting with Arnold’s sighting on June 24. Amazingly, it took just six days for the saucers to cross the Atlantic; Britain’s first UFO report came from a vicar’s wife in Kent who saw a `dark ring’ in the sky as she waited at a level-crossing near Sandwich.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Even in this pioneering report some of the classic characteristics of the mass-media UFO report were apparent: the immediate search for, then dismissal of, a prosaic explanation: “I am positive it was not a smoke ring from the passing engine”; the immediate linking with other reports: “Flying saucers were also reported yesterday as having been seen during the last couple of days over Denmark, Johannesburg and Sydney”; then as a clincher of authenticity: “The United States Army Air Force announced at Roswell, New Mexico last night that a ‘flying disc’ was found last week on a ranch near Roswell, and was now in the Army’s possession.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">So within days of Roswell, UFOs were already established in the UK. ‘Ufology’ as an organised pursuit began with the foundation of small clubs, mostly just groups of friends, like that founded in Hove by Richard Hughes, called simply The Flying Saucer Club. It was organised to the extent of issuing membership cards and publishing a magazine, <em>Flying Saucer News.</em></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Clarke and Roberts outline the development of the earliest years of British ufology in some detail, but there is clearly a great deal of material still waiting to be discovered. But what is very clear, even from the limited amount of material available to us, is that ufology in this country, even in the earliest years, developed differently from its American counterpart. Perhaps significantly ufology in Britain attracted a number of ‘establishment’ figures, and in the early years, like much else in Britain in the 1950s, had a distinctive class profile.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Early British saucer enthusiasts (‘ufologists’ is perhaps too strong a word) included a number of high-ranking RAF personalities, most notably Lord Dowding. For some reason the minor Anglo-Irish aristocracy were also to the fore in early British UFO research with Brinsley le Poer Trench (Lord Clancarty) and Desmond Leslie, with a castle in Ireland and family links to Sir Winston Churchill. The aristocratic connection even reached to the Royal Family, with both Lord Mountbatten and Prince Philip expressing keen interest in the subject. (Gordon Creighton claimed that Philip was a subscriber to <em>Flying Saucer Review</em>, but whether this meant more than just that Creighton sent him a copy of every issue is hard to say).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Class divisions characterised much of British ufology on a less rarefied level as well. Throughout its history BUFORA (now defunct but once Britain’s leading UFO organisation) was riddled with factional in-fighting, which often showed a class overtone. Many of the founders and senior figures in BUFORA were primarily occultists, to whom UFOs were a way of challenging scientific values; so that groups and individuals who wanted to bring a scientific approach to the organisation were seen as a hostile force challenging their own occult agenda.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">A classic example of this attitude was displayed by BUFORA veteran John Cleary-Baker when involved in a spat with the scientifically-oriented Cambridge University UFO group, dismissing them as “these white-coated godlings of the laboratory”.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">British ufology took some strange paths in the 1960s and 1970s, and Andy Roberts’s descriptions of the ufological foundation of the Findhorn Community (an early version of which appeared in <a href="http://magoniamagazine.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/findhorn.html" target="_blank">Magonia 89</a>) shows how the founder, Peter Caddy, was drawn into the flying saucer world through his involvement with the aristocratic, spiritualist Attingham Park Group, with included figures such as Sir Victor Goddard (a former Air Marshall) and Sir George Trevelyan.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Roberts’s description of the ‘hippie’-UFO connection (again outlined in a preliminary article in <a href="http://magoniamagazine.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/a-saucer-full-of-secrets.html" target="_blank">Magonia 87</a>) shows just how much ufological ideas permeated the underground culture of the era, linking it with ideas about leys, Glastonbury and ‘the Matter of England’: and also how these ideas emerged into a broader culture of mysticism, occultism and anti-rationality, which has continued through to contemporary obsessions with crop-circles.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It is interesting that the development of the crop-circle community has followed the same class-based divisions that marked the early stages of ufology, with an elite of minor aristocracy and the aga-classes blithely lording it over the lower-middle-class foot soldiers; a situation hilariously described in Jim Schnabel’s <em>Round in Circles</em> and P. G. Rendall’s <em>Cereal Killers.</em></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But the British UFO story is not confined to an aristocratic clique. There are ordinary people in it too, and Clarke and Roberts tell their stories as well. People like Cynthia Appleton, the young housewife who gave birth to a star-child after meeting an Adamski-style alien in her terraced house in Birmingham. Where is the would-be Saviour now? Despite determined investigation the authors were unable to find any trace of him.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Unknown to me until I heard Roberts’s talk at the FT UnConvention last year, is the strange phenomenon of the Flying Saucer Vicars, in the great tradition of eccentric Church of England clergymen (and a few other denominations as well), like characters from an Ealing Comedy. Although some saw saucers as evidence of God’s omnipotence possibly offering, literally, new worlds for evangelising, others found evidence of the devil’s works of entrapment and picketed cinemas showing UFO films.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Britain has only ever produced one UFO cult worthy of the name, the Aetherius Society, and the account given here of its founding by George King is vigorously disputed by the current leadership; but there is something encouragingly English about the idea of it being conceived in a Soho drinking club and ending up at the less fashionable end of Fulham Road like some ‘fifties Chelsea-set demi-mondaine. The Aetherius Society is usually dismissed as a fringe organisation of no account to ‘serious ufologists’, who ignore the fact that it has a much higher profile to the public and the media than most ‘serious ufologists’ are prepared to admit. Clarke and Roberts are surprisingly sympathetic to it, finding its members genially eccentric.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And now to Warminster, that most English of UFO flaps. Clarke and Roberts devote a chapter to it, outlining the major stages in its growth, and look at some of the curious individuals involved. Greatest of all, of course, was Arthur Shuttlewood. The account of Warminster in <em>Flying Saucerers</em> is a straightforward account of the events in the small town, from the events leading up to the famous town-hall meeting in 1966, to the gradual fading away in the ‘seventies.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">One thing that comes across clearly in this account, and which distinguished Warminster from American experience, is the almost total lack of military involvement, despite the enormous army presence in and around the town. The ufologists and the sky watchers were careful to distance the phenomenon from the military, which featured in their accounts merely as the source of a few (very few) UFO misinterpretations, and a minor nuisance to keen skywatchers who wanted to wander across the countryside at night. No crashed saucers in sinister hangers, no secret retrievals, no Men in Black.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The second new book gives us a much more personal, view of the Warminster phenomenon. Kevin Goodman started visiting the Wiltshire town in 1976, a few years after the ‘Great Days’, when establishment ufological interest had moved on and Warminster was being seen as a bit of an embarrassment to many British ufologists. The original stories of ‘The Thing’, strange noises and mysterious objects in the sky had developed into a complex of contactees, hoaxes and the semi-coherent New Age ramblings of Arthur Shuttlewood’s later books. But to the enthusiastic seventeen-year old and his friends from the Midlands, Warminster still held the magic of the previous decade; it was a place where one could sit on a starlit hillside and be virtually guaranteed to see UFOs.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">By the time Kevin arrived, the centre of the Warminster scene had largely moved from Arthur Shuttlewood, who was suffering from increasing ill-health, to Peter and Jane Paget at the Star Foundation in Fountain House. This was a full-on New Age establishment promoting meditation and spiritual healing more than ufology.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiFlYlpkV7RR3IC2joyVNZX_EGgdZvqvfFRjA5wsaFmD1GLKp4oYbJuIHMRL0gy6VMN8p-Kx6DseKLExZBpSdzNh4D-A90h1YatAMfXLdbnlguLqCc8AoFrakWqLi8AxRvUe4L9lnL6YsBFUrZZqA0LEGswl3B4S089Orzs8WjamBjf1elPECNx4QTBw/s1728/290978986032211.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="483" data-original-width="1728" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiFlYlpkV7RR3IC2joyVNZX_EGgdZvqvfFRjA5wsaFmD1GLKp4oYbJuIHMRL0gy6VMN8p-Kx6DseKLExZBpSdzNh4D-A90h1YatAMfXLdbnlguLqCc8AoFrakWqLi8AxRvUe4L9lnL6YsBFUrZZqA0LEGswl3B4S089Orzs8WjamBjf1elPECNx4QTBw/w640-h178/290978986032211.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="text-align: justify;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The story of Kevin’s time at Warminster is told in <em>UFO Warminster, Cradle of Contact</em>. This is a fascinating account of the Warminster scene from the mid-seventies through to the late nineties, when most ufologists had given up any interest in England’s major UFO flap. It is also a very personal story of friendship, enthusiasm, trust and even betrayal, and gives a fascinating insight into the cultism surrounding organisations such as the Star Fellowship. And, as the title implies, it is the story of UFO contact.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Well, not quite. The contact events experienced by the author and his friends, are subtle and ambiguous. No blonde-haired Nordics striding down ramps from shining discs, but more a low-key ‘psychic’ contact, conducted through dream and meditation. Although the ‘contactees’ receive messages and images that suggest an extraterrestrial connection, Goodman and his friends are too intelligent and self-aware to take this all at face-value. They are as puzzled by what is happening to them as we are, reading about it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I have spoken to a number of English contactees and abductees, and have in every case found that they are aware of the ambiguity of their experiences – there is none of the evangelical zeal, the ‘believe me or else’ attitude that comes across from many American contact accounts.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">There has recently been a movement to write the contactee experience out of the ‘real’ UFO narrative, claiming it is not a suitable subject for ‘serious ufologists’. But it is clear from stories such as that of Kevin Goodman that there is no real division between the contact experience, the abduction experience, and the UFO experience in its widest form. The simple ‘abductees good; contactees bad’ dichotomy which is being promoted is hopelessly crude.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Too often now, especially on the Internet, we see ‘ufologists’ who have little or no knowledge of the history of the subject, and who are constantly trying to re-invent the wheel. These two books are an invaluable antidote to that ignorance. Clarke and Roberts give a sound social and historical description of ‘ufology in one country’: Kevin Goodman gives an account of someone who explored one facet of that history, became a part of the experience, but retained the objectivity and self-awareness to give us a fascinating account of a journey to Magonia.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">These are important books, please read them.</div><br />
<hr /><b>References:</b><br />
<ol><li>David Clarke and Andy Roberts. <em>Flying Saucerers: A Social History of UFOlogy</em> Alternative Albion, Heart of Albion Press.</li>
<li>Kevin Goodman. <em>UFO Warminster: Cradle of Contact</em> [2nd edition] Swallowtail Books.</li>
</ol><hr /><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288177690155596824.post-72719329841026036172014-02-03T13:31:00.002+00:002014-03-16T13:45:31.055+00:00Beyond the Reality Barrier. Part One: Many Mansions<div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Gareth J. Medway</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Magonia 94, January 2007.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcEEUQLMSpYyZVA_J6o4sNKgTuMBLhA8J9KavrElVyEOOLCL5guQbFCu0GsF5N4OeNGCEEzGULx07EUL81F9GzeesJ-JPiGSqojwB7JKX2dLHwo7LRWNn30toDGYaYIEYp5nnYXg2WSfXB/s1600/aa+cosmos.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcEEUQLMSpYyZVA_J6o4sNKgTuMBLhA8J9KavrElVyEOOLCL5guQbFCu0GsF5N4OeNGCEEzGULx07EUL81F9GzeesJ-JPiGSqojwB7JKX2dLHwo7LRWNn30toDGYaYIEYp5nnYXg2WSfXB/s1600/aa+cosmos.jpg" height="100" width="100" /></a>In 1733 Jacob Ilve, a type-founder and printer, made an oration at a meeting in London, at which he asserted that there is a plurality of worlds, and that this earth is hell. Though this hardly seems to be biblical concept, he justified it by quoting Psalm 19.2: “The Heavens declare the Glory of God. He calls them Heavens, because they are above the earth, for so are the Mansions, they are to us Heavens, i.e. Places out of human Reach.” </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a name='more'></a><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Many Mansions</span></strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And again, John 14:2, “In my Father’s house are many mansions”: “it may justly be concluded, that they are inhabited by Beings who are far superior to us in Goodness. Hence some have affirmed, that our Earth is the only Rebellious World, the lowest of the Creation, and the Region of Darkness … It is also manifest that these glorious Places are inhabited b} Beings who have attained greater Perfection than we of this Globe. Hence naturally arises this Maxim, That the Souls or angelic Beings of those who have attained the greatest Perfection in this Life are admitted into those celestial Orbs, into the Company of those for whom they are prepared, according to their several various Attainments in Goodness.” (1) </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">This seems to have been the first sentiment of its kind in English. That there may be other solar systems with planets like ours had been suggested by scientists since the sixteenth century; in Hindu and Buddhist scriptures, there had been for millenia the religious concept of other worlds – - not other planets in the modern sense, but worlds that we would now say to be in other dimensions. Now the two ideas could be knitted together.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Later, Ilve published the <em>Book of Jasher</em>, a retelling of the first six books of the Bible, which, he said, had been found in the Holy Land by an eighth century traveller and translated into English, though, since the text was in eighteenth century English – a different language, in effect – the forgery was not very convincing. The work, which had a sufficient vogue to provoke a printed attack, presents a liberalised view of religion, but unfortunately does not go into any more detail about other worlds.(2)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">On the other hand, he was not liberal with regard to sexual matters. Having been imprisoned for debt in Clerkenwell, he wrote a tract about the appalling conditions in the jail where both men and women were interned and in many cases found that there was only one way to pass the time. This seemed to distress hive more than prisoners dying. (3)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://sacred-texts.com/swd/swedenborg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://sacred-texts.com/swd/swedenborg.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">SWEDENBORG</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">The term “New Age” is derived from Emanuel Swedenborg (1038-1772), a Swedish scientist who in his fifties started having mystical visions, resigned his technical post and wrote a huge number of books on his experiences. “When discoursing with (departed) spirits he generally stood upon his feet looking up, at an angle of 45 degrees; his assent to and dissent from their arguments was generally expressed by a `yea’, `yea’, or ‘nay’, ‘nay’, spoke very quick, waiting and paying great attention to their responses which he generally wrote down in a book, and then rose up again immediately to resume his conversations.” (4)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">As well as talking to the spirits. Swedenborg was given a guided tour of the kingdoms of heaven, and taught the doctrines of the spirits: he denied that angels were created as such, but that, rather. “there are no Spirits and Angels, but what were of the Human Race”; spirits and angels were formerly human, but have evolved into higher beings.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Orthodox Christians. tend to reject the possibility of life on other planets, on some such grounds as that it is not mentioned in the Bible. By contrast, Swedenborg, like Ilve, could take life on many worlds in his stride:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote class="tr_bq">“That there are several Earths [i.e. planets), and Men upon them, and thence Spirits and Angels, is a thing most perfectly well known in another Life, for it is there granted to every one who desires it from a Love of Truth and consequent Use, to discourse with the Spirits of other Earths, and thereby to be confirmed concerning a Plurality of Worlds, and to be informed, that the human Race is not confined to one Earth only, but extends to Earths unnumerable..."</blockquote></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote class="tr_bq">"He who believes, as every one ought to believe, that the Deity created the Universe for no other End, than that Mankind, and thereby Heaven, might have Existence, (for Mankind is the Seminary of Heaven) must needs believe also, that wheresoever there is any Earth, there likewise are Men-Inhabitants."</blockquote></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote class="tr_bq">"The End of the Creation of the Universe Is Man, in Order that an Angelic Heaven might be formed of Men; but what would Mankind and an Angelic Heaven from one single Earth avail to answer the Purposes of an infinite Creator, for which a Thousand, yea Ten Thousand Earths would not suffice?" (5)</blockquote>Swedenborg was himself able to make psychic journeys to some of these other planets, those of this solar system and a couple outside it. What he saw on these worlds was at odds with the subsequent findings of astronomers, for example: "In the Planet Venus there are two Kinds of Men, of Tempers and Dispositions opposite to each other: the first mild and humane, the second savage and almost brutal: they who are mild and humane appear on the further Side of the Earth, They who are savage and almost brutal appear on the Side looking this Way," (6)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Though the actual term New Age has only been regularly used since the 1950s, there has been a recognisable movement ever since. The most important development in the nineteenth century was the advent of the Theosophical Society, whose founder, Madame Blavatsky, presented a syncretistic system combining elements of many religions as being her picture of the "whole truth". Now, such a belief system can keep on growing, since in a religion filled with strange beings and way out worlds, there is always room for more.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Much of Blavatsky's key work <em>Secret Doctrine</em> was taken up with the theory (derived in some obscure way from Hindu scripture) of the seven "root races" of humanity, of which we are the fifth. The fourth race had lived on Atlantis, and the Third on Lemuria, these two being lost continents of the Atlantic and Pacific respectively. Atlantis, whose legend goes back at least as far as the time of Plato, had recently been publicised in a book by Ignatius Donnelly; Lemuria had been postulated as a former Pacific continent, originally to explain the distribution of lemurs; later, Haeckel suggested it had been the cradle of the human race; so that her theory appeared to harmonise new and old, science and religion.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Blavatsky's disciples Annie Besant and Charles Leadbeater added to her account, expanding it to include evolutionary cycles on other planets, and "Helpers from outside". Blavatsky, in the <em>Book of Dzya</em>n (a set of cryptic utterances which form the basis for <em>The Secret Doctrine</em>), had referred to the Lords of the Flame: "Males-Females will they be. Lords of the Flame also ... They went each on his allotted Land; Seven of them, each on his Lot. The Lords of the Flame remain behind. They would not go, they would not create ... The Third remained mind-less. Their Jivas were not ready. These were set apart among the Seven. They became narrow-headed. The Third were ready. "In these shall we dwell," said the Lords of the Flame and of the Dark Wisdom."(7) They were now given an extraterrestrial origin: These included "the Lords of the Flame, who arrived from Venus ... in the middle of the third Root-Race, to quicken mental evolution, to found the Occult Hierarchy of the Earth, and to take over the government of the globe". Their arrival was described thus:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote class="tr_bq">"The great Lemurian Polar Star was still perfect, and, the huge crescent still stretched along the quator, including Madagascar. The sea which occupied what is now the Gobi Desert still broke against the rocky barriers of the northern Himalayan slopes, and all was being prepared for the most dramatic moment in the history of the Earth - the coming of the LORDS OF THE FLAME ... it was about six and a half million years ago ... Then with the mighty roar of swift descent from incalculable heights, surrounded, by blazing masses of fire which filled the sky with shooting tongues of flame, the vessel of the Lords of the Flame flashed through the aerial spaces. It halted over the White Island which lay in the Gobi Sea. Green it was, and radiant with the fairest blossoms as Earth offered her fairest and best to welcome her King." (8)</blockquote>Similar ideas were promoted by others not specifically aligned to Theosophy. In his Fourteen Lectures on Yogi Philosophy, 1903, a book which discusses auras, telepathy, clairvoyance, occult therapeutics, the astral world, and so on, the Yogi Ramacharaka (otherwise an American barrister name William Walker Atkinson) stated: "The earth is one of a chain of planets, belonging to our solar system, all of which are intimately connected with the others in this great law of Spiritual Evolution. Great waves of life sweep over the chain, carrying race after race along the chain, from one planet to another. Each race stays on each planet for a certain period, and then having developed, passes on to the planet next highest in the scale of evolution, finding there conditions best suited for its development ... For instance, occultists know that the ancient Egyptians - the Atlanteans - the ancient Persians, etc., etc., are now living on this earth, - that is the souls which formerly incarnated in these races are now incarnated in some f the modern races. But there are other races - prehistoric races - which have passed away from the earth's attraction entirely, and have gone on to higher planes of action in the higher planets." (9)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Venusians also found their way into ritual. In the initiation ceremony to Dion Fortune's Fraternity of the Inner Light in London, founded in the 1930s ... the candidate was informed that "asbestos and honey-bee were brought to Earth from Venus by a 'Master of the Wisdom', this information being "derived from Don Fortune's mediumship)" (10)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The nineteenth century craze for spiritualism had led to a much larger number of scriptures and inspired writing becoming available. In about 1880 a New York dentist named John Henry Newborough purchased a typewriter on the instruction of angels who had materialised in his bedroom. Each morning he would sit for an hour with his fingers on the keys, and by automatic typing produced <em>Oahspe</em>, which purported to be a true version of the Bible. (11) The book describes special ships called airavagnas, that 'fly through the heavens. They are not material, but are used to transport the Gods and angels between the heavenly worlds: "As mortals sail corporeal ships across the corporeal ocean, so sailed the ship of God in the atmospherean ocean." (12) Nevertheless this was a step towards the idea of spacecraft.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In Britain occultists were not well regarded by society at large and often felt it advisable to keep their interests secret. But there was one part of the world where new religions, and mystical movements of all kinds, were a growth industry, and that was California. In 1900 Kathleen Tingley, a breakaway Theosophist known as "The Purple Mother" chose to establish a community in "a White City in a land of Gold beside a Sunset Sea" that is at Point Lama in San Diego. It is true that they did not win immediate respectability, and a certain General Harrison Gray Otis wrote a series of articles in the Los Angeles Times accusing the Community of "gross immoralities", but Tingley sued for libel and eventually won. (13)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Typically, the Self-Realization Fellowship, established in the state from 1925 by the Indian guru Paramhansa Yogananda, regarded all religions as valid, though it mainly taught Yoga. The Self Realization Church of All Religions was built at Hollywood in 1942, which contained statues of Lahiri Mahasay and Sri Yukteswar (Yogananda's own teachers), along with Krishna. Buddha, Confucius, Moses, Christ at the Last Supper, St. Francis, and, since Moslems do not make statues of Mohammed, a picture of the Kaaba at Mecca. (14) Thus, the typical Californian cult combined elements from many religions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Other groups of a Theosophical type soon arose in the state. A Rosicrucian society was founded by Max Heindel (1865-1919, left). (This is one of at least twenty-three American societies termed "Rosicrucian", which have little or nothing in common with each other except that all claim, without any documentary evidence, to be a continuation of the original sixteenth century German Rosicrucian Order). Heindel said that his teaching were based on his understanding of what he had learnt from the elder brothers of a secret temple of the Rosy Cross in Europe, but they could well have been derived from Katherine Tingley's Universal Brotherhood, to which he had previously belonged, and the teachings of Rudolf Steiner (another occultist who had split off from the Theosophical Society), whose lectures he had heard in Germany. His Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception presents a highly complex scheme of human evolution, in which space entities had a hand:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote class="tr_bq">"The immediate Leaders of humanity ... were Beings much further advanced than man along the path of evolution. They came on this errand of love from the two planets which are located between the Earth and the Sun - Venus and Mercury" (15)</blockquote>Around 1930 there arrived in the state a Polish immigrant whose business card described him as: "Prof. G. Adamski, Speaker and Teacher of Universal Laws and the Founder of Universal Progressive Christianity, Royal Order of Tibet and the monastery at Laguna Beach, Headquarters, Hotel Castle Green, 99 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena, California." </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
From what is known of his teachings they bore no resemblance to either Christianity or Tibetan religion, e.g. "Universe means not just our solar system but space without circumference in which dwell billions of our solar systems. The Royal Order of Tibet is interested only in revealing what is thought to be mysteries so that they may be used practically in the present field of life where man may understand his fellowman by understanding the laws which rule all creatures, thereby awakening from the dream-life to the reality which leads to Mastery. It is an Order based on the highest and the simplest teachings in the field of Mastery ..." It is evident that, even if he himself had not quite Mastered English grammar, he had Mastery of the art of using many grand words without thereby conveying any meaning. (16)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 1883-6 Frederick S. Oliver, then a teenager living with his parents near Mount Shasta in northern California, penned a lengthy manuscript entitled <em>A Dweller on Two Planets</em>. Oliver stated in the "Amanuensis' Preface": "I do not believe myself its Author, but that one of those mysterious persons, if my readers choose to so consider him, an adept of the arcane and occult in the universe, better understood from reading this book, is the Author". Rather, an entity called Phylos the Tibetan had dictated it to him at sporadic intervals, in nighttime sessions of up to a few hours.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Whoever the author may have been, what he wrote tended to confirm the beliefs of the Theosophists and New Agers. More than half the narrative concerned the author's past life as Zailm, an Atlantean, with many details of that civilisation. They had developed "vailxi", aerial ships of torpedo shape which could travel at hundreds of miles an hour (an incredible speed in the 1880s). A more recent incarnation was Walter Pierson, a modern American who had fought at Missionary Ridge in the Civil War. He then went to California where he met a Chinese named Quong who had strange powers.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/31/Shasta_from_south.jpg/800px-Shasta_from_south.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/31/Shasta_from_south.jpg/800px-Shasta_from_south.jpg" height="340" width="640" /></a></div> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">People do not know, the author says, that the face of Mount Shasta (in the sight of which the book was written) "conceals a doorway. We do not suspect this, nor that a long tunnel stretches far away, far into the interior of majestic Shasta. Wholly unthought is it that there lie at the tunnel's far end vast apartments - the home of a mystic brotherhood, whose occult arts hollowed that tunnel and mysterious dwelling..."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Pierson's Chinese friend gave him access to the hideaway of this "Lothinian Brotherhood", and initiated him into its secrets. He was taught that the human race evolved through seven planets (with seven races on each planet), of which this is the fourth. The first two are invisible to us, the third was Mars, the next will be Venus, and the last two are likewise invisible. Already "the more advanced, occult souls do inhabit Venus". (17) Pierson, or Phylos (his future name, he was told) was allowed to visit Venus in his spirit body.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">At this time the Pacific Electric Railway operated the "Mount Lowe Observatory", actually a tourist attraction with just one small telescope. (18) The resident astronomer, Edgar L. Larkin, once trained his telescope on Mount Shasta, and "was surprised to see a glimmering curved surface that was truly unusual ... As the sun shone upon this glittering object among the trees he was impressed with the thought that he was looking at a gold-tinted dome of some Oriental building ... as the sun moved in its course he was impressed that there were two domes rising above the tree tops near Shasta and that the part of a third one could be seen several hundred feet distant ... he left his telescope fixed to see what these things would look like in the setting sun and in darkness. He was surprised to find later in the might that around this dome were great lights, apparently white, which partially illuminatcd and made them visible even though there was no moon to cast any light at the time." (19)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Larkin died in 1924, but his claims were repeated by journalist Edward Lanser, in an article in the <em>Los Angeles Sunday Times</em> on 22 May 1932. He alleged that, when on a train to Portland, Oregon he went to the observation platform of the express to watch the sunrise, and was captivated by Mt. Shasta:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote class="tr_bq">"I suddenly perceived that the whole southern side of the mountain was ablaze with a strange reddish green light ... My first conjecture was a forest fire,. but the total absence of smoke discounted that theory. The light resembled the glow of Roman candles." (20)</blockquote>Though nowadays sightings of domes associated with strange lights would be taken as evidence for flying saucers, rumour then had it that they were the work of people living inside Mount Shasta, who were Lemurians, survivors of the sunken Pacific continent of Lemuria. Lanser also repeated stories that the Lemurians sometimes appeared in neighbouring towns, dressed in long white robes, to buy supplies, which they paid for with gold nuggets.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a4/Pelley_wanted.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a4/Pelley_wanted.jpg" /></a>In 1929 the <em>American Magazine</em> published an article, 'Seven Minutes in Eternity' by William Dudley Pelley, who described how while residing in the Sierra Madre Mountains near Pasadena, one night he suddenly left his physical body and soared away into the spirit realm, returning with messages for humanity from the 'Masters', this being the usual Theosophical term for spirit teachers. The journal was 'swamped' with letters, enabling Pelley to begin his own movement. However, it soon took a political turn, spawning the "Foundation for Christian Economics" in 1932 and the "Silver Legion" in 1933. The latter, better known as the Silver Shirts, more or less openly admired Adolf Hitler. (21)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The biggest difficulty with research in this field is locating the primary sources. I confess that I have not seen the original American Magazine article, nor the channeled messages which were published under the title Star Guests; my local library did have one of Pelley's political works, but it is now missing presumed withdrawn. But Star Guests is said to contain messages from 'Invisible Intellects' who can cross intergalactic distances in a twinkling, who stated that "Souls from Sirius migrated to Earth millions of years ago", showing that communications from other worlds were now commonplace. (22)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In August 1934, by which time Pelley was having problems with the law, two disciples, Guy and Edna Ballard of Chicago, began to publish their own messages from beyond, ascribed to one 'Saint Germain'. Historically, the Comte de Saint Germain was an eighteenth century French adventurer who claimed to have discovered the elixir of immortality and to be thousands of years old, but this Saint Germain was an 'Ascended Master', that is, in his last life he overcame the flesh and bodily rose to the next world rather than dying. They were quickly able to attract followers from the Silver Shirts, Pelley's treasurer becoming the Ballards' Associate Director, a post that he held until, despite being under the personal protection of the Ascended Masters, he was seriously injured in a car accident.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The couple were soon touring the country, propounding their spiritual creed - similar to that of Pelley - and a "Save America" programme. Their reception varied, for instance on one occasion Mr. Ballard had to admit that "The Love Gifts were less in West Palm Beach than usual". a misfortune he attributed to evil forces opposed to their work. But these influences did not pervade everywhere, so that "these two people and their son Donald arrived in Los Angeles in a none-too-prosperous condition in an unpretention car, but when they left, they zoomed away in a couple of flashy cream-colored Chryslers." (23)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Under the name Godfré Ray King, Ballard issued <em>Unveiled Mysteries</em>, an account of some of his meetings with the Ascended Master, the first of which occurred on Mount Shasta. Saint Germain allowed him to revisit scenes of his past lives; in Egypt, Atlantis, Lemuria and other places. He was also shown the inside of the mountain. His account of all this appears to owe something to Phylos the Tibetan:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote class="tr_bq">"The ledge was broken and twisted as if by some rending convulsion. All about the base lay huge fragments broken off the face of the wall. Against the cliff rested a giant block many tons in weight ... he touched the enormous quadrangular block. Immediately it tipped on edge and leaned outward ... I followed, the door was replaced, and I found that the passage led into the mountain ... After going about two hundred feet we came to a door made apparently of bronze ... This door gave entrance to a large circular chamber ..."(24)</blockquote></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote class="tr_bq">"Going to a point where huge masses of stone lay in confusion, as, if giants had hurled them in a war upon each other, Saint Germain touched a great boulder. Instantly, the enormous mass tipped out ... We entered and, to my astonishment, stood before a large bronze door ... He stepped forward and pressed certain points on the door. The great mass of bronze weighing many tons swung slowly open, and admitted us into a spacious chamber from which a stairway, cut in the solid rock, led downward. We descended some two hundred feet, and entered another space, circular in shape." (25)</blockquote><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Gerald Bryan, author of the highly critical study <em>Psychic Dictatorship in America</em>, pinpointed several other plagiarisms from occult novels, including Will Carver's <em>The Brother of the Third Degree</em>, 1894, which featured the Comte de St. German, Lillian Elizabeth Roy's <em>The Prince of Atlantis</em>, 1929, and Maude Lesseuer Howard's <em>Myriam and the Mystic Brotherhood</em>, circa 1920. In short, the book was basically a stew of ideas which had already been circulating for years.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><em>Unveiled Mysteries</em> was followed by a series of progressively more tedious sequels, in the first of which, <em>Magic Presence</em>, repeatedly spoke of the: "Mighty I AM", and the Ballard movement came to be known as "I AM". The phrase appears to derive from the King James Bible, where God says to Moses: "This shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you" (Ex.3:14) but it may also come from Phylos's term for the true self, as distinguished from the shells it may inhabit: "Though the astral shell shall come into spiritualistic circles and manifest through mediums, yet the I AM comes not into any earthly condition until it returns for reincarnation". (25) According to Bryan it was also commonly used in Baird Spalding's Life and Teaching of the Masters of the Far East.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">On New Year's Eve 1930 Saint Germain told Ballard: "Tonight an experiment is to be tried which has not been accomplished for over seventy thousand years." This involved a Cosmic Mirror which was apparently a sort of teleportation device, for after those present had meditated on the 'Oneness' of Venus, with Earth; a tremendous blaze of light flashed forth upon it, revealing a group of people in the far distance, who drew nearer. "Presently, twelve Guests from Venus stood in our midst, robed in white scintillating garments, surpassing all power of description. There were seven gentlemen and five ladies, all extremely handsome." (27) They spent the evening exchanging information and playing musical instruments.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Venusians proved to be helpful in the struggle against the 'entities' who opposed the work of the Mighty I AM, for instance the Tall Master From Venus stated "that if the Christian Scientists did not stop opposing this work they would empty their churches". Students were encouraged to pray against these energies by calling upon the "Lords of the Flame" from Venus to defeat then. (One of these, the `Mighty Astrea' was referred to as `he'; which is curious since Astrea is the Roman Goddess of Justice. (28)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Guy Ballard left this world on 29 December 1939. His wife declared that he had ascended to join Saint Germain, but his death certificate more prosaically attributed his demise to heart disease and cirrhosis of the liver. After that the I AM movement declined, but did not expire: Edna Ballard continued to run it until her own death or ascension in 1971, and last time I was in Watkin's occult bookshop there was a complete set of the I AM discourses prominently displayed on one shelf.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><hr /><b><a href="http://magoniamagazine.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/barrier2.html" target="_blank">Continue to Part Two</a></b><br />
<hr /><b>References:</b><br />
<ul><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">1. Jacob Ilive. <em>The Oration Spoke at Joyners hall in Thamesstreet</em>, London, 1733, pp. 1. 8.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">2. Thomas Hartwell Horne, <em>Bibliographical Notes on the Book of Jash</em>er, London, 1833.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">3. Jacob Ilive, <em>Reasons Offered for the Reformation of the House of Correction in Clerkenwell,</em> London, 1757.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">4. Account “taken from Mr. Shearsmith, by Robt. Armitstead. London, Dec. 20th, 1810″, quoted in William E. A. Axon, <em>Was Swedenborg a Vegetarian</em>? (pamphlet, text of paper read at the Vegetarian Society, Manchester. 18 October 1909).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">5. Emanuel Swedenborg. <em>Concerning the Earths in our Solar System</em>, London. 1787, pp.3, 4, 144.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">6. Swedenborg, <em>Concerning the Earths in our Solar System</em>, p.125.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">7. H. P. Blavatsky, <em>The Secret Doctrine</em>. Theosophical Publishing House, London, 1921, Volume 2, pp.18-21.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">8. Annie Besant & Charles Leadbeater, <em>Man: Whence, How and Whither</em>, Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar & Madras, 1913, pp.79, 101-3.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">9. Yogi Ramacharaka, <em>Fourteen Lectures on Yogi Philosophy</em>, Oak Park, Illinois. 1903, pp.237, 239.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">10. Francis King, <em>Ritual Magic</em>, New English Library, 1972, p.125.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">11. John Keel, UFOs: <em>Operation Trojan Horse</em>, Abacus, 1973, pp.246-47.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">12. <em>Oahspe</em>, Kosmon Press, Lancing, Sussex, 1960, p.25 (Book of Sethantes 7:1.)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">13. David Hanna, <em>Cults in America</em>, Tower Publications, New York, 1979, pp. 133-5.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">14. Parahamsa Yogananda. <em>Autobiography of a Yogi</em>, Rider, London. 1949, pp.389-90.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">15. Max Heindel, <em>The Rosicrucian Cosma-Conception</em>, Oceanside, California, no date, p.190.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">16. Lou Zinstagg & Timothy Good, <em>George Adamski: The Untold Story</em>, Ceti Publications, Beckenham, 1983, plates 4, 49.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">17. “Phylos the Tibetan”, <em>A Dweller on Two Planets</em>, reprint by Steiner Books, pp.14, 248, 310.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">18. L. Sprague De Camp,<em> Lost Continents</em>, Dover Publications, New York. 1970, pp.71-2.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">19. W. S. Cervé, Lemuria: <em>The Lost Continent of the Pacific</em>, Rosicrucian Library Volume XII, Rosicrucian Press, AMORC College, San Jose, California, 2nd edition 1935, pp.254-5.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">20. Quoted in Lewis Spence, <em>The Problem of Lemuria</em>, Rider, London, 1932, p.104. 21. Gerald B. Bryan. <em>Psychic Dictatorship in America</em>, Truth Research Publications, Los Angeles, 1940; pp.26-27.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">22. Martin S. Kottmeyer, ‘Jelly Pelley’. <a href="http://www.users.waitrose.com/~magonia/ms39.htm" target="_blank"><em>Magonia Supplement</em> 39</a>, 1 July 2002.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">23. Bryan, <em>Psychic Dictatorship in America</em>, pp.41, 47.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">24. “Phylos the Tibetan”. <em>A Dweller on Two Planets</em>, pp.270-3.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">25. `Godfré Ray King’ (Guy Ballard), <em>Unveiled Mysteries</em>, Saint Germain Press, Chicago, Illinois, 1935, p.75.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">26. “Phylos the Tibetan”, <em>A Dweller on Two Planets</em>, p.292.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">27. Ballard, <em>Unveiled Mysteries</em>, pp.243, 247</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">28. Bryan, <em>Psychic Dictatorship</em>, pp.54-55, 59-61.</span></li>
</ul><hr /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288177690155596824.post-74703332311840134062014-02-03T12:36:00.000+00:002014-03-16T13:46:03.906+00:00Beyond the Reality Barrier. Part Two: After Arnold<strong>Gareth J. Medway</strong><br />
Magonia 94, January 2007<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpfdXsIy0KdRFCTKiOaNFPfgEo_ziemoqVp9IPsR36-We6xI32lalNU0g_IjYVu9JCOJpd7vpNq3opVD6AXjJJswTGjsCITFzyX_6dfjmEUbmgxN17A0T94wV9r12tSYJMRGZjvErd__il/s1600/aa+dana.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpfdXsIy0KdRFCTKiOaNFPfgEo_ziemoqVp9IPsR36-We6xI32lalNU0g_IjYVu9JCOJpd7vpNq3opVD6AXjJJswTGjsCITFzyX_6dfjmEUbmgxN17A0T94wV9r12tSYJMRGZjvErd__il/s1600/aa+dana.jpg" height="100" width="100" /></a>If space beings can come here, then one may suppose that the converse is also possible. One early journey to another planet is said to have occurred in 1939, though it was not published until 1956. Dana Howard was picked up from Superstition Mountain in Arizona by a "gem-studded" rocket-shaped craft, which took her to Venus, in company with an American Indian and a prospector. </div>
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The Venusians were peaceful vegetarians who lived under the benign maternal rule of Queen Zo-na. This is a curious name for a monarch, since in Hebrew it means "harlot".</div>
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Eventually she was told she must return to Earth, which particularly upset her as she had fallen in love with the Lelando, son of the High Priest. Her lover told her they could marry, so that they would be together in spirit even though separated by millions of miles. They pricked their fingers and mingled their blood during the ceremony, which apart from this was much the same as that in the <em>Book of Common Prayer</em>, but then they had to part. (29)</div>
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According to David Jacobs, all of this happened "while she was napping on her living room couch" (30), and it is interesting to notice that Howard herself did not regard her trip as having been taken in a nuts and bolts ship: "Many times since that memorable date I have tried to arrive at some logical conclusion as to what actually happened, Did I leave my body behind, travelling only in a finer vehicle? Or was it true teleportation and I took my body with me? Did the atoms of my body actually disintegrate at one point, re-materialise in another?" (31) I mention this because most studies of contactees have concluded that their stories are, gasp, not true, without addressing the question of whether they believe what they say. Dana Howard does seem to have been telling the truth as she saw it. Apparently she was also able to keep in touch with her husband in some unspecified way, for she told the second Giant Rock spacecraft convention in March 1955 that "She last heard from him about six weeks ago." (32)</div>
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Really, this was nothing new: all through history people, have been ascending to the third heaven, flying to the witches' sabbat, or the like, but just what they experience depends upon their cultural background. Up until the Middle Ages, witches would consort nocturnally with the Moon Goddess, but after centuries of propaganda by the Church, who maintained that this was devilish, Diana came to be replaced by Satan. Now the experience had modified itself again to fit with the latest views of the cosmos.</div>
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There seems to have been another, similar occurrence the same year, but am unable to learn anything about it, beyond a note in James Lewis's <em>UFO Encyclopedia</em> that the 'Cosmic Star Temple' was founded in Santa Barbara in 1960 by Violet Gilbert, a former I AM member who had been to Venus in 1939. (33)</div>
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<strong>After Arnold</strong></div>
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The beginning of the craze for flying saucers has been well illustrated by a recent Stationary Office publication, <em>UFOs in America 1947</em>, which is a collection of original documents and newspaper reports. (The first is an account of a sighting of nine craft over Mount Rainier, Washington State, on 24 June 1947, and the witness's name is deleted, despite it having appeared in hundreds of books. This kind of fact leads one to doubt if all the other information relating to UFOs, and still kept confidential by the U.S. government, is of such interest as is supposed , by conspiracy theorists.)</div>
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Much of the coverage in the opening weeks was concerned with crashes which, however, all proved disappointingly mundane when investigated. On 6 July it was reported that the Rev. Joseph Brassy of St. Joseph's Church, Grafton, Wisconsin, had found a disc in his parish yard "which might be one of the mysterious flying saucers." An FBI investigation quickly revealed that "the priest was intoxicated" and that the disc "was a circular saw blade with a few wires attached." Another, found at Laurel, Maryland, "had been made front a Gulf Oil sign and the top of a garbage can ... attached to it were a dry cell battery, a flashlight bulb, some wires and a buzzer" according to a police sergeant. The smoking remains of a reputed crashed saucer in Nebraska were in fact tobacco ash. (34)</div>
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A Gallup poll conducted that August asked people what they thought they were: 33 percent did not. know, 29 percent said imagination or mirages, 15 percent US secret weapons, 10 percent hoaxes, 3 percent weather forecasting devices and 1 percent Russian secret weapons. (35) (Or so my source has it though this only adds to 91 percent.) No-one, it seems, believed that they came from outer space (incidentally, it was not until three decades later that people started talking about Roswell) so they were not therefore of interest to members of I AM and others who believed in communication with other worlds.</div>
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However, Dr. Mead Layne of the Borderland Sciences Research Foundation in San Diego was somewhat ahead of his time. On 9 October 1946 a "black, torpedo-shaped" craft bad been sighted over the city, so he went to a medium named Mark Robert for information. He was told:</div>
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"This ship comes from west of the moon. [sic] No, I cannot get the name of the planet. These people have been trying to contact the earth for many years. The earth is now sending forth a strong ray or column of light, and this makes it easier of approach from other planets. Yes, these people come in peace. They are mare advanced than you are. Their bodies are similar to yours but much lighter.” (36)</blockquote>
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Within the next few years Probert had produced mach more information, such as a descriptive list of seven types of ship “originating from Venus alone”, such as “A doughnut-shaped craft, about 125 feet in outside diameter and 36 feet thick. In the centre of this disk is a hole about 25 feet: wide. These craft are sometimes referred to as ‘Flying Laboratories’ because of the large amount of test equipment which they carry. They are observation craft and used only when very involved technical observations are required. Normal crew: fifty. ‘Electro-Magnetic Drive’” (37)</div>
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Meanwhile, the extraterrestrial theory had somehow got into circulation, being promoted by aviation writer Donald Keyhoe in a successful article in<em> True</em> magazine, which was expanded into a book, The Flying Saucers are Real, 1950. The same year saw the appearance of two other books, Frank Scully’s Behind the Flying Saucers, which alleged that they were crewed by three foot tall humanoids from Venus, and Gerald Heard’s <em>Flying Saucers: Is Another World Watching?,</em> which proposed that they were piloted by intelligent insects from Mars. The idea that saucers were alien spacecraft soon found its way onto the big screen in <em>The Thing</em> and <em>The Day the Earth Stood Still</em> both 1951, so by then most people must have been at least aware of the hypothesis.</div>
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In 1950 Lyman H. Streeter, a radio operator for the Santa Fe Railroad who lived in Winslow. Arizona, had “appeared one day at work acting in a very strange manner. He went about his assigned radio tasks in the normal way, but his fellow workers noticed he wouldn’t answer them when they spoke to him and behaved as if he were in a trance of some kind. His wife was called, and he was taken home. For eight days he was in this unusual ‘zombie’ condition. He said nothing to anyone during that period. Later, when he regained a state of normalcy, he admitted he couldn’t remember a thing that had transpired during those eight days of amnesia.”</div>
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On 22 August 1952, Lyman saw what he thought was a very small meteor display over Winslow. Later that evening the Streeters and other witnesses started hearing code signals in the living room of the house. He thought it was coming from his ham-receiver, but this was switched off, and the sounds could not be heard in the radio shack. He started to hear these signals regularly, though the later ones actually did come through his radio: he interpreted them as messages from space people. After this, he suddenly remembered something of what had happened during his period of amnesia:</div>
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“He told us that he apparently had left his earthly body (that would account for the zombie condition … the physical body had gone about is usual tasks at work under the direction of the animal mind, while the entity had been elsewhere) and awoke in a beautiful, large hall where many people were gathering. He was called before a tribunal and noticed that he was dressed in fine garments. He was called by a different name, Kanet, and told that he must work rapidly to complete his task upon the earth planet. All he could remember from this eight-day journey was the fact that he must work quickly.”</blockquote>
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This moved him to work much harder at studying electronics. (38) He did indeed have to work rapidly, since he died on 23 April 1955.</div>
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It would appear that there was a great deal of UFO activity in July and August of 1952, mostly over California and the neighbouring state of Arizona, and it set off in turn a wave of contactee stories. On 4 July Calvin Girvin, originally from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, but later of Hollywood (it is unclear where he lived in 1952) went to sleep only to find himself going off into the astral. At first he thought that he had died: “I was relieved to discover that death could be so uncomplicated and easy”. In fact he went off to Venus and entered a large, white round temple, where there were many other earth people who had come by the same method. Seven men came and lectured them: “Peace has long been overdue on earth, and each of you has a mission to fulfil.” (39)</div>
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<a href="http://magonia.haaan.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/angelu.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://magonia.haaan.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/angelu.jpg" /></a>The experiences of Orfeo Angelucci (left) included one similar to that of Lyman Streeter: he related that one day in January 1953 “I was aware of a familiar odd prickling sensation in my arms and the back of my neck which usually announced the proximity of space craft.” He felt drowsy, went to a divan to lie down, and the next thing he knew, he found himself working at his job in the Lockheed factory. When he looked at a newspaper he learned to his astonishment that a whole week had gone by, of which he had no recollection. His wife and workmates had not noticed anything unusual in his behaviour.</div>
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It was not until September of that year that be recalled what had happened. No sooner had he fallen asleep on the divan than he found himself on another would, an ethereal place of a higher ‘vibratory rate’ than the Earth. He was told by two locals, named Lyra and Orion that they were on one of the remnants of the planet Lucifer, whose people had become corrupted by pride, causing their planet to shatter and form the asteroid belt. “Lucifer and his followers were cast down from their high estate. In simpler words, the Luciferians who were embodied then in the most attenuated manifestation of matter `fell’ into embodiments in one of the most dense material evolutions, which is the animalistic evolution of Earth.” The few who had not fallen had remained on their asteroid ever since.(40)</div>
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Angelucci offered no explanation as to why he had been seen to be on Earth, going about his usual business. at the same time as he was on another world; and neither he nor Streeter could account for why they forgot their trips for months This suggests that their journeys were actual mental events, if that means anything. Another example is My Trip To Mars, by William Ferguson (41) which makes it clear that he did not go there in his body, but “in the expanded state of being”, as a Fourth Dimensional entity – in other words in what occultists call the astral body.</div>
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A South African woman named Elizabeth Klarer wrote that she first contacted the spacemen when she was unconscious following an explosion in an aeroplane hangar, and that her second trip was taken in the astral whilst her physical body was sitting in her living room. On the other hand, she described her journey to the planet Meton as if it were physically real – indeed, the ufonauts even took her motor car along with them. She claimed to have borne a child to a Metonite, which, it has been observed, was in violation of the Apartheid regime’s strict laws against interracial couplings. (42)</div>
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When ufologist Tim Good asked her what evidence she had for hear story, she showed him a potted plant and told him that she had brought it back with her from Meton. He took a photograph of it, and was disappointed to be told later that it was an ordinary maidenhair fern. (43) It seems to me, however that this does not in fact undermine her account. since, if Meton has human life so similar to that of Earth that they can even interbreed with us, then quite likely the planet’s flora would also be almost identical.</div>
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Most often, the entitles were reported to come from Venus, Mars, and other planets in our solar system. Now, by the 1950s it was known that the planets from Jupiter to Neptune are frozen balls of gas, unsuitable for life ‘as we know it’, and the others highly dubious. Strughold, <em>The Given and Red Planet</em>, 1954, for instance, suggested that simple plants such as lichen could exist on Mars, but recognised that the atmosphere was too thin to sustain anything more complicated. Venus was not finally proven uninhabitable until the Venera 4 probe landed there in 1967, but it only confirmed what scientists had long expected. Of course, science fiction writers did not necessarily know, or care, about these facts – as late as 1979 there was an episode of Dr Who so on a curiously earth-like Pluto – and one might suppose that the same was true of contactees. Yet it is strange that some of the aliens appeared to know less about astronomy than those they contacted.</div>
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One of the first non-Californian contactees, Dan Martin, was driving through a remote part of Texas in August 1955 when he felt his whole body tingling, perhaps a sign of entering a trance. Fearing that he night be having a heart attack, he pulled his car over and stopped. At once a spaceship landed on the other side of the road. An attractive lady astronaut stepped out and started a conversation with him, “Now she told me that they were from the planet Mercury, so I then said, ‘Our scientists tell us that the planet Mercury is too near the sun to have animal life.’ She smiled rather broadly at this and said, ‘You see I am alive.’ Well, that settled that. I had to admit that she seemed very much alive to me.” (44) <br />
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Another good-looking spacewoman, Aura Rhanes, told Californian Truman Bethurum that her planet Clarion was “on the other side of the Moon”. Aware that this made no sense. he suggested that what she had meant was the other side of the sun (45) though in fact if there was such a planet astronomers could have detected its gravitational pull, as the Condon committee was at pains to point out. (46) Once again, these anomalies suggest that at least some people imagined that they were telling the truth about their meetings with the space people.</div>
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This is probably true also of Cecil Michael’s <em>Round Trip to Hell in a Flying Saucer</em>. (47) Following a sighting of a mysterious flying disc over Bakersfield, California, in August 1952, Michael wrote that two men in old-fashioned garments started materialising in his automobile repair shop. Then one day, about the end of that year, he found himself going on a trip aboard a saucer. He related that it was not physically real. In fact his body was in his workshop all the time, indeed occasionally something would happen that needed his attention – such as a telephone call – and he would snap out of his extraterrestrial journey to deal with it. But once it was over he found himself “out there” again. Yet, as it occurred, it seemed totally real.</div>
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The craft went off into space, eventually arriving at a bleak red planet with a lake of fire into which coffins were cast, the dead bodies inside them then coming to life and burning in agony. He was afraid that he would be trapped there permanently, but apparently he was saved by a vision of Christ that appeared in a beam of white light, and returned to earth. The trip seemed to have taken four days, but only four hours had passed. Here the scientific trappings are kept to the minimum, the main narrative being a familiar mystical one, the Vision of Inferno. It would be interesting to know Michael’s religious background.</div>
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In fact, though possessing highly advanced technology, the aliens seldom discussed it in any detail. One was `A-lan’ who explained the saucers’ propulsion method thus: “When certain elements such as platinum are properly prepared and treated with a saturation exposure to a beam of very high energy photons, the binding energy particle will be generated outside the nucleus. Since these particles tend to repel each other as well as all matter they, like the electron, tend to migrate to the surface of the metal where they manifest as a repellent force” (48) So far as I know this phenomenon has never been duplicated by earth scientists.</div>
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Actually, it is curiously dated; the existence of the ‘binding energy particle’ had been predicted by the Japanese physicist Yukawa in 1935, though the theory did not become well known until after the Second World War; butt this name for it was rapidly replaced by the technical word. In any case, why should outer space science be explicable in the existent terminology of the 1950s? If you were to try to explain what a meson is to a Renaissance astronomer or a Victorian engineer, then it would take a long time because you would first have to introduce them to a series of new concepts, such as nucleons. One might expect to meet the same problem when describing extraterrestrial drive mechanisms.</div>
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More often, however, the flying saucer entities had a spiritual message for humanity, couched in terms familiar to a Californian New Agers, as most of the contactees were, for instance: “In the age of the Atlanteans the evils of Earth were multiplied by the Evil ones who fled from the exploded planet called Lucifer, and who created the same evil on Earth as they had created on their planet. False worship grew and multiplied on Earth at their direction, and the fallen angels of Lucifer led astray many of Earth’s inhabitants. Seeing this, the wise ones of Venus came to Earth in their craft.” (19)</div>
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In Britain, the subject was espoused most notably by aristocrats with backgrounds in occultism. Lord Hugh Dowding, who had been Chief Marshal of the RAF during the Battle of Britain, might be presumed thereby to be an authority on flying objects, but perhaps more significantly was a practising spiritualist, who had published <em>Many Mansions</em>, (1943), which contained messages from soldiers who had been killed in the war. Brinsley le Poer Trench, later the Earl of Clancarty, was to judge from his writings steeped in Theosophical literature.</div>
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The best known was of the early writers was Desmond Leslie, whose <em>Telegraph</em> obituary stated that: “After Ampleforth and Trinity College, Dublin, Leslie became a fighter pilot in the RAF, flying Spitfires and Hurricanes during the Second World War; according to family legend, he destroyed several aircraft, most of which he was piloting himself. He celebrated VE day with his cousin, the Prime Minister, at 10 Downing Street” His varied career also involved composing background music for Dr Who and opening a night club at the family seat, Castle Leslie, where he entertained such guests as Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithful.</div>
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By 1952 Leslie had completed a manuscript in which, although he described himself as a Catholic, much of his information came from Spiritualist and Theosophical literature. He quoted W. J. Crawford’s The Reality of Psychic Phenomena as evidence for levitation occurring in seances, which, he thought, could explain flying saucer propulsion. From Blavatsky and her successors he derived the stogy of the Lords of the Flame coming from Venus, though unlike them he dated their arrival to 18,617,841 BC.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeXgVCj_x4mSGOt2_UrpVJnft_NhULyxwyKvTqHdOGYrZy1hNvHS83GlPJlzX4YwvlMZSkDf1T1-bC_2_gIX06lvK_kZruP4DaFTQSXFMTdVy12HJfgTFIQhyphenhyphenSAUIO0wJmmvxzKUtIjTLx/s1600/aa+landed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeXgVCj_x4mSGOt2_UrpVJnft_NhULyxwyKvTqHdOGYrZy1hNvHS83GlPJlzX4YwvlMZSkDf1T1-bC_2_gIX06lvK_kZruP4DaFTQSXFMTdVy12HJfgTFIQhyphenhyphenSAUIO0wJmmvxzKUtIjTLx/s1600/aa+landed.jpg" height="320" width="210" /></a>At the suggestion of an editor, Leslie’s book was combined, under the title <em>Flying Saucers Have Landed</em>, with a narrative by George Adamski, whom we have already seen peddling New Age philosophy in 1930s California. Perhaps because his Mastery of English never quite got perfected, Adamski’s post-war books were ghost-written by a succession of female disciples. Though the first of these, <em>Pioneers of Space: A Trip to the Moon, Mars and Venus</em>, was admitted fiction, it is said that it bore a curious resemblance to his later supposedly factual adventures, in its description of Saturnians, Martonians and Venetians [sic], once in references to vegetation on the Moon and a ‘Saturn Council’. One of his later publications, <em>The Science of Life Study Course</em>, turned out on examination to be a reprint of <em>Wisdom of the Masters of the Far East</em>, except that throughout the references to ‘The Royal Order of Tibet’ as the source of the teachings had been replaced by `The Space Brothers’. (50) </div>
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In his present contribution, he claimed to have regularly seen alien craft over his home, and later met the pilot of a saucer that landed out in the desert. As proof he had a large number of photographs, not all of them blurred and out of focus, and affidavits from half a dozen people who swore that they had seen him chatting to a Venusian. One of these, George Hunt Williamson, had himself been in touch, by way of the ouija board, with such entities Oara, ‘the planetary representative of Saturn’ who flew about in craft that they termed `Crystal Bells’. (51) He would later go on to write several books of his own.</div>
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Personal experiences of Adamski varied. Desmond Leslie once asked him: “George dammit! Do you swear by all that’s sacred you are telling the truth?” Adamski replied quietly: “Desmond, you know my religious beliefs? One of these days I shall have to face my Maker. Do you think I’d dare face Him with a lie like that on my conscience?” (52) Yet Ray Stanford, who began as an earnest disciple, reported that he would get cynical when he had been drinking: “The Prohibition was a good thing for me, boys. You’re too young to know about it, but hell, they outlawed the liquor all over the country. Hell, I got the Royal Order of Tibet – all incorporated and everything! I got the special license – for religious purposes I can make the wine. Gottdammit! Hell, I made, enough wine for all of Southern California! I was making a fortune. Then that man Roosevelt, he knock out the Prohibition. Hell, if it hadn’t been for that gottdammed man Roosevelt – I wouldn’t had to get into this saucer crap.” (53)</div>
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The contactees were definitely indebted to the earlier generations of New Age: writers. Williamson quoted, among others, Swedenborg, Ramacharaka, Oahspe, Ilive’s Book of Jasber, and Phylos the Tibetan.( 54) In places one finds remarkable similarities between pre-1947 and post-1947 narratives:</div>
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<li>“I looked up, and Saint Germane smilingly extended to me a crystal cup filled with golden liquid about the consistency of honey. Obedient to his slightest wish I drank it, and instant’s, a radiant glow passed through my body. When I had finished, the cup disappeared in my hand.” (Guy Ballard. (55)</li>
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<li>“…the voice said: “Drink from the, crystal cup you will find on the fender of your car, Orfeo.” Astonished at his words, I glanced down and saw a kind of goblet … I lifted it to my lips and tasted the drink. It was the most delicious beverage I had ever tasted. I drained the cup. Even as I was drinking a feeling of strength and well-being swept over me … I placed the empty cup back on the fender of my car only to see it disappear.” (Orfeo Angelucci (56)</li>
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There is a possible connection of Guy Ballard with Adamski and Williamson through far-right politics, since the membership of I AM “overlapped strongly” with that of the Silver Shirts. Jacques Vallee claims that Adamski “had prewar connections” with William Dudley Pelley. In about 1950 Hunt Williamson worked for Pelley at his publishing house, Soulcraft, and Vallee suggests, may have been introduced to Adamski by Pelley. (57)</div>
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The descriptions by Adamski and others of blonde, blue-eyed aliens has led to suggestions of racism, which such far-right links tend to confirm. Not much in the way of racial propaganda can be found in their printed literature, but there are signs they were less discreet in private. John Keel, who personally interviewed dozens, wrote: “Some contactees who claimed to have visited Mars blandly point out that the planet is divided into zones with the Negro and Jewish Martians carefully segregated from the others. (58)</div>
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In 1953 a Michigan woman named Dorothy Martin awoke one morning to find “a kind of tingling or numbness in my arm”. Without knowing why she picked up a pencil and pad. “My hand began to write in another handwriting.” She eventually found that she had produced a message from her deceased father. Fifteen years before this, it should be noted, she had attended some lectures on Theosophy, which had inspired her to read Oahspe and the works of Guy Ballard.</div>
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Other entities soon started coming through, ‘The Elder Brother’, then beings from the planets Clarion and Ceres, and in mid-April 1954 she received the first of many messages from a spaceman called Sananda. This name is Sanskrit, given in Hindu belief to one of the Kumaras, enlightened beings whose job is to help humanity. They found their way into Theosophy, some obscure remarks being made about them in Blavatsky’s <em>Secret Doctrine</em>: “The Kumaras, for instance, are called the ‘Four’ – though in reality seven in number – because Sanaka, Sananda, Sanatana and Sanatkumara are the chief … These prototypes are connected with the Kumaras who appear on the scene of action by refusing as Sanatkumata and Sananda – to ‘create progeny.’ Yet they are called the ‘creators’ of (thinking) man.” (59)</div>
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As we have seen, Blavatsky introduced the Lords of the Flame, whom Besant and Leadbeater described as coming from Venus; they also identified them with the Kumaras, (60), and described the doings of their leader, Sanat Kumara, at some length. These beings were, unsurprisingly, mentioned by Guy Ballard: “The Seven Kumaras, whom some Inner students have known as ‘Lords of the Flame’, from Venus, were the Only Ones from this entire system of planets, who of their own free will and infinite Love, offered to guard the children of earth and assist their upward progress.” (61)</div>
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Desmond Leslie wrote: “Earth, Mars and Venus were in ideal conjunction for their great vehicle to travel the immense physical distance separating the two planets. Thus to Earth came the Lord of the Flame or Sanat Kumara, with his Four Great Lords an one hundred assistants.” (62) <br />
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Thus, if you were generally familiar with this literature, and you were to communicate with a being from another planet, nothing would be more natural than that he should he named Sananda. It would appear that, besides dictating a large quantity of automatic writing, Sananda made a number of telephone calls to Martin and even made a personal call on her, in company with four other ufonauts; though some other members of the group that had sprung up around her suspected that these visitors were actually hoaxers. Eventually she was informed that America was going to slide into the sea on 21 December 1954. She and her disciples would be saved, however, as spaceships would come and pick them up. That day, therefore, they gathered in the back garden to await rescue. No flying saucer showed up, but, fortunately, neither did the predicted cataclysm occur. (63)</div>
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To sum up, the contactees of the 1950s onwards were not, as appeared at first sight, a new movement, but the end product of a long evolution which, insofar as it had a beginning, went right back to the eighteenth century, No doubt we have not heard the last of it. At the present day, I am reliably informed, Sananda regularly transmits messages to a woman in Glastonbury</div>
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<b>Notes:</b><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">29. Dana Howard, My Flight to Venus, Regency Press, 1956.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">30. David Michael Jacobs, The UFO Controversy in America, Signet, 1976, p.106.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">31. Dana Howard, Diane: She Came From Venus, Regency Press, 1956, p.39.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">32. M. K. Jessup, The UFO Annual. Arco, 1956, pp122-23.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">33. James R. Lewis, UFOs and Popular Culture: An Encyclopedia of Contemporary Myth, ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, California. 2000, p.92</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">34. UFOs in America 1947. Uncovered Editions, The Stationery Office, London. 2001, pp.16-17, 23, 42, 52, 59-60.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">35. Bryan Appleyard, Aliens: Why They Are Here, Scribner, 2005, p.18.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">36. Winfield S. Brownell, UFOs: Key to Earth’s Destiny, Legion of Light Publications, Lytle Creek, California, 1980, p.93.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">37. Desmond Leslie & George Adamski, Flying Saucers Have Landed, Werner Laurie, London, 1953, p.128.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">38. George Hunt Williamson, The Saucers Speak, Neville Spearman, 1967,pp. 126, 131-2.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">39. Brownwell, UFOs, pp.113-14.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">40. Orfeo Angelucci, The Secret of the Saucers, Amherst Press, 1955, pp.85, 99.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">41. Galaxy Press, 1973, but apparently written in 1955; his trip was on 12 January 1947.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">42. Elizabeth Klarer, Beyond the Light Barrier, Aquarian Press, Cape Town, South Africa, 1987.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">43. Timothy Good, Alien Base, Arrow. 1994, p.4.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">44. Dan Martin: The Watcher – Seven Hours Aboard a Space Ship, Saucerian Publications, Clarksburg, West Virginia, no date, p.3.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">45. Janet & Colin Bord, Life Beyond Planet Earth? Grafton paperback. 1992, p.157.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">46. Dr. Edward U. Condon. Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects, Bantam Books, New York, 1969, pp.30-1, 853-4.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">47. Roofhopper Enterprises, Auckland, N.Z.. 1971; 1st by Vantage Press. New York, 1955.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">48. Quoted in Jacobs, The UFO Controversy in America, p.99.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">49. Helen & Betty Mitchell, We Met the Space People, Galaxy Press, Kitchener, Ontario, 1973, p.13.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">50. Zinsstag & Good, George Adamski, pp.188-91.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">51. Williamson, The Saucers Speak, p.50.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">52. Leslie, Flying Saucers Have Landed, revised edition, Futura, 1977, p.195.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">53. Quoted in Douglas Curran, In Advance of the Landing: Folk Concepts of Outer Space, Abbeville Press, New York, 1985, p.72.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">54. George Hunt Williamson, Other Tongues – Other Flesh, Neville Spearman, 1967. 55. Ballard, Unveiled Mysteries, pp.68-9.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">56. Angelucci, The Secret of the Saucers, pp.6-7.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">57. Jacques Vallee, Messengers of Deception, And/OR Press, Berkeley, California, 1979, pp.192-3.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">58. John Keel, Our Haunted Planet, Futura, 1975, p.85.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">59. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, I. p.116, II, pp.617-18.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">60. Theodore Besterman, A Dictionary of Theosophy, Theosophical Publishing House, London, 1927, p.63.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">61. Ballard, Unveiled Mysteries, p.252.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">62. Leslie. Flying Saucers Have Landed, p.166.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">63. Leon Festinger, Henry W. Reiken & Stanley Schachter, When Prophecy Fails, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1956, pp.33-4,</span></li>
</ul>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288177690155596824.post-6442939038812450792014-01-29T18:45:00.002+00:002014-03-16T13:46:34.502+00:00Cunning Folk and Familar Spirits<strong>Peter Rogerson</strong><br />
Magonia 93, September 2006<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMtWZuAQ7yVSR2jpfkR_xd50q4dgff_rQLbt7PK4_RFrLW-InN-vS1aHqM9oN9FEF5sLLyOh7GRjmWkjr5HXhqEx7V5l0XapsFC_sxqts3CdmfPcMqz1_9y5QJJJurWXXQShimC4NhJYrB/s1600/witch-toads.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMtWZuAQ7yVSR2jpfkR_xd50q4dgff_rQLbt7PK4_RFrLW-InN-vS1aHqM9oN9FEF5sLLyOh7GRjmWkjr5HXhqEx7V5l0XapsFC_sxqts3CdmfPcMqz1_9y5QJJJurWXXQShimC4NhJYrB/s1600/witch-toads.jpg" height="100" width="100" /></a>A care-worn young woman, going about her business, meets a stranger; an elderly man with a grey beard, wearing a grey coat and the clothes of the past generation. He carries a white wand in his hand. He asks her why she is so sad. She explains that her husband, baby and cow are all sick. Her husband will recover he says, but the other two will die. This comes true and she meets him again and again. He is a soldier who died in the wars of a generation ago. </div><a name='more'></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">He takes her to meet the fairy folk, who disappear into a lake, and gives her medicine and power of healing. He gives her messages to give to his son, tells her that the Old Catholic faith is better than the new reformed one, yet on other occasions tells her to abandon Christianity. He becomes her familiar. She is living in seventeenth century Scotland and so gets burnt at the stake for witchcraft.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">This is the kind of story which appears time and again in witchcraft trial evidence – encounters with boggarts, which have some of the properties of fairies, some of ghosts and some of demons. These stories have usually been interpreted as having filtered down from elite culture and its demonological obsessions, as being produced by the courts and agreed upon by terrified defendants. Or else obtained by torture or seeming torture. Emma Wilby argues that these are in fact accounts of actual visionary experiences, and that many of the accused in witchcraft cases were the cunning folk, the local healers and magicians, the people you went to her herbal cures, love potions, to find lost goods or detect criminals. They could use their skills for good or ill and were often morally ambiguous.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">For those with some background in anthropology, this sounds familiar, for this is part of the global shamanic tradition. The shaman is powerful but often ambiguous figure, healer and destroyer. The shaman may use all sorts of slight of hand and other tricks to make his/her performance more dramatic. Emma Wilby goes further and argues that the shaman was part of an authentic mystical tradition, and as shamans so were the cunning folk. This is hard for us to grasp because Christianity equates spirituality with moral uprightness, and today with a variety of socially approved attitudes, we find it difficult to understand that the same person could be both a charlatan and a religious visionary. Yet Emma Wilby suggests the experiences of the witch/cunning person with their familiars have parallels in the language, especially the sexual language, which mystics may employ about Jesus. We should also remember that one such cunning person and treasure finder Joseph Smith, went on to found one of the fastest growing world religions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The familiars are seen here as shamanic spirit guides, envisioned often in the form of animals, reminders that these stories come from a time in which people had a vastly more intimate relationship with animals than we have today.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">People lived in a world where poverty, hunger, backbreaking physical labour, the absence of artificial lighting, and a pre-literate story telling culture, combined with a total belief in spirits (and even possibly both the incidental or deliberate ingestion of mind altering substances), combined to make visionary experiences all the more profound, especially from that four percent or so of the population of have fantasy prone personalities.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">This thesis is not quite as new as it may appear, for it is a restatement, in academic terms of the popular spiritualist belief that the witches were the psychics and mediums of the past, unjustly persecuted. One can certainly see that there is continuity between the shamans’ spirit guide, the familiar, and the modern day spirit guides of the mediums. Modern mediums do not of course normally converse with tail wagging dogs and suckling ferrets (though remember Gef the Manx talking mongoose) having now got better company in the form of racially stereotyped pantomime foreigners etc.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Looking at the stories presented here, Magonia readers will detect similarities to modern visionary experiences Think of Cynthia Appleton and her Venusian familiar for example, and there are other stories, not all of them published in which similar themes occur. Perhaps Emma Wilby would have gained some considerable insights from a study of modern anomalous personal experiences.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">How secure is this thesis? I must confess to my doubts, No doubt some of the those accused of witchcraft were local cunning folk, healers, bewitchers and the like, but by no means all. Many more were probably just the wrong person at the wrong time. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">As I read through this book, I noticed that Emma Wilby uses terms such ‘cunning person’ quite indiscriminately, solely on the basis that they confessed to either meeting with supernaturals of one kind or another, or having familiars, and not that they had an actual local reputation as such. Take one example, Jane Weir of Edinburgh. Wilby calls her a ‘cunning woman’, in fact Jane was the victim of years of sexual abuse by her puritan brother Thomas, a pillar of the local Kirk. In his old age he confessed to multiple sexual crimes and misdemeanours, and was accused of being a witch, because, well, only witches committed incest with their sisters and had sex with cattle. Only after Thomas’s arrest did Jane confess to all sorts of fantastic crimes and witchcrafts.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Today we can understand how someone who had been first raped as a child by her teenage brother, and abused for years afterwards might come to blame herself. Perhaps Thomas accused her of bewitching him. Perhaps now she had some kind of power. On the gallows, she cried “let my shame be total” and tried to rip off her clothes, the despairing act of a self blaming victim of sexual abuse, and not the defiant act of some sort of mystic as imagined by Wilby. Here is the danger in Wilby’s case, by arguing that the accused were a special sort of person, she comes close to blaming the victims.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">What does the ferret, toad, dog cat familiar remind you of? They are household pets or the little wild creatures around the house. What do the consoling familiars sound like? Children’s imaginary friends. These images are of the imaginary friends and real and fantasy creatures to which children talk, share their hopes, fears and deepest secrets. These familiars then might be thought of as adult imaginary companions, to whom women in particular might reveal their innermost feelings. They provide fantasy consolations and imaginary advice. Even today there may be many adults who have such imaginary companions, though they will not be given supernatural attributes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">To understand the confessions, we have to realise that belief in witchcraft and witches was near universal. Just as today people dream of what it would be like to be a film star, a footballer, a model, or have the odd dream of robbing a bank or other antisocial activity, people must have fantasised about what it would be like to be a witch (”If only I was a witch I could be rich, I would show that stuck up Mrs Figgis a thing or two, Farmer Giles wouldn’t deny me alms again, sex with the devil might actually be fun, etc.) Then as now people could have dark and forbidden fantasies, and toy with the glamour of the dark side. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">There was the same allure of the forbidden. There would have been the temptation to just try one of those forbidden spells which a friend had told you in a shocked whisper behind the pig pen. However, daydreamers then had a fear that by and large they don’t have today: that by entertaining such fantasies, Satan had already got his claws into you, that you really were a witch. When Mrs Figgis’s youngest sickened and Farmer Giles’ barn burnt down, could you be really, really sure that you hadn’t caused it? The accused may well come to believe that they deserved the accusation, that their daydreams meant they were indeed witches. Others could escape accusations by becoming accusers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Equally in a world drenched in the supernatural, dreams, fantasies and visionary experiences derived from the petty supernaturals of popular culture might have been quite common. It’s clear that people had no fixed idea of what these petty supernaturals were; sometimes they were fairies, sometimes ghosts, sometimes angels and sometimes devils. Though Emma Wilby tends to see these as pagan survivals, it strikes me as implausible that a population whose knowledge of Christianity was still rather hazy after nearly a millennium, could have preserved any folk traditions over that period. More likely is that people constructed such creatures from a variety of sources both popular and theological. They tended to represent the inconstant and amoral forces of wild nature, on which people were wholly dependent.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I would have to summarise this book as having both important insights and important flaws. Like many theorists, Wilby aims at too neat a solution. Some, but by no means the majority, of the accused may have been cunning folk; however they may have still played an important role in that their visionary experiences may not have simply contributed to their own narratives, but by feeding into the popular culture have influenced the visions and beliefs of the wider community.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I am struck by Emma Wilby’s perception of how intimate animals were to our ancestors lives, how they interacted with them, and how their visions and beliefs and imaginary companions were shaped by them. Victorian spiritualists’ imaginary companions were inspired by the figures from the music hall and children’s tales of exotic cultures, those of the second half of the twentieth century from science fiction. Perhaps for many people today their most intimate companions are mobile phones, computers, and televisions. How will they feature as spirit guides and secret consolers? Will we see phantom emails, text messages from the dead, messages from imaginary satellite channels, fairy computers and daemonic i-pods, angelic internet sites, and online demonic pacts – www.sellyoursoul.com?</div><br />
<hr br="" /><strong>Emma Wilby. Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits: Shamanistic Traditions in Early Modern British Witchcraft and Magic. Sussex Academic Press, 2005.</strong><br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm-eu.amazon-adsystem.com/e/cm?t=johrimsmagblo-21&o=2&p=8&l=as1&asins=1845190793&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe><iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm-eu.amazon-adsystem.com/e/cm?t=johrimsmagblo-21&o=2&p=8&l=as1&asins=B00CB5GZVK&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe><iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm-eu.amazon-adsystem.com/e/cm?t=johrimsmagblo-21&o=2&p=8&l=as1&asins=B00E6THO0A&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe><br />
<hr />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288177690155596824.post-19333674299471162622014-01-29T16:41:00.001+00:002023-10-14T13:04:41.955+01:00Hard Core<strong>John Rimmer</strong><br />
Editorial Notes, Magonia 93, September 2006.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPS_VYokW9tlMkx4ccoOxfkIf-U2gdlbtEUUROYOzzeQUgdswnOY2-Ck_XK9QSeNnUwtinzdPRbBwC6YMl_NLbjgIljQh_VOriZLBlPhhDqsoy42zpLOeya8kpOc8rB8lV3NVTZVwp4Y27/s1600/aa+core.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="100" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPS_VYokW9tlMkx4ccoOxfkIf-U2gdlbtEUUROYOzzeQUgdswnOY2-Ck_XK9QSeNnUwtinzdPRbBwC6YMl_NLbjgIljQh_VOriZLBlPhhDqsoy42zpLOeya8kpOc8rB8lV3NVTZVwp4Y27/s1600/aa+core.jpg" width="100" /></a>In a piece in the most recent issue of <em>International UFO Reporter</em>, published by the J Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies, the magazine’s editor and UFO historian Jerome Clark, attempts to define a ‘core’ UFO phenomenon distinct from the wide range of associated phenomena which have accrued around ufology over the past sixty years. [1]</div><div>🔻🔻🔻<br />
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<span><a name='more'></a></span>In returning to the roots of the phenomena, Clark identifies Charles Fort as being the founding father of ufology, a point on which I tend to agree with him, although it’s a view which will not be accepted by many contemporary ufologists who see the UFO phenomenon developing out of military involvement in the wake of WWII and the growth of the Cold War, and find Fort and his literary ramblings rather embarrassing.</div>
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Fort was certainly the person most heavily responsible for the creation of a (more-or-less) unified study of anomalies. Before Fort, although anomalous events were comprehensively reported, commented on and even investigated, there was no overall framework into which such events could be slotted. Before Fort (that sounds like the basis of a calendrical system, and indeed one of Fort’s followers did attempt such a thing!) there were certainly books of mysteries and wonders. Victorian writers such as Sabine Baring Gould published dozens of books collecting mysteries and marvels: <em>Freaks of Fanaticism</em> and <em>Curious Myths of the Middle Ages</em> were typical of Gould’s works. In Fort’s own era the English writer Rupert Gould’s two books, <em>Oddities</em> and <em>Enigmas</em> covered many of the topics which we now consider ‘Fortean’: the ‘Devil’s Hoof-marks’, the moving coffins of Barbados, the Barisal guns, etc.</div>
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But these writers treated anomalous phenomena as just that; anomalous, and they made no attempt to provide an overall explanation for the events they described. As far as organisations such as the [British] Society for Psychical Research was concerned, the phenomena they investigated largely involved, in their eyes, either the survival of bodily death, or unknown but natural powers of the human brain.</div>
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But Fort was different; as Clark points out: “Rather than present his findings as samples of random oddities, he incorporated them – his often tongue-in-cheek prose masking genuine conviction – into a vision of extraterrestrial wayfarers engaged in all kinds of baffling activities: dropping organic and inorganic substances out of the blue, seeding the earth with mysterious archaeological artefacts [something Fort himself attempted in his youth - JR], causing persons and vessels to vanish, and – not incidentally – all the while being mistaken for ghosts, demons, gods, fairies, and ocean-going saurians.”</div>
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<em>Fate</em> magazine was crucial in promoting the early UFO stories, but, Clark points out, “<em>Fate</em> (whose initial issue saw print less than a year after Arnold’s encounter), also covered Fortean and psychic occurrences and engaged in freewheeling occult-tinged speculation”, and he concludes that most of its readers “probably read<em> Fate</em>‘s contents indiscriminately, in the implicit assumption that one ‘true story’ is as good as another”.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEbSf9LkNAviDm2IPCNpsGnw8_cg_T6287cMEpC6pRxJ8IATUbbg3nPhdm8I8PrXKyFlXl538YrxpSlisaTCna_hK-tn_Gjy_xPNzZkDHVtm3Hit3wTW6EMI5Wg59SYEkrD3Qcw6oypTJDPOt4J08T1VCSrgBQB_5DBoMiZOvz3EZBnSX3ZXBkmFslekhd/s1439/ufo%20history.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="349" data-original-width="1439" height="156" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEbSf9LkNAviDm2IPCNpsGnw8_cg_T6287cMEpC6pRxJ8IATUbbg3nPhdm8I8PrXKyFlXl538YrxpSlisaTCna_hK-tn_Gjy_xPNzZkDHVtm3Hit3wTW6EMI5Wg59SYEkrD3Qcw6oypTJDPOt4J08T1VCSrgBQB_5DBoMiZOvz3EZBnSX3ZXBkmFslekhd/w640-h156/ufo%20history.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And now we come to the crux of the argument: “Not all early ufologists agreed. If they had, there would have been no entity named ‘ufology”‘. And, The Pelican might add, we’d all be better off for it! Because this is the real impetus behind the semi-humorous slogan ‘Make Ufology History’. Ufology started off as history; an attempt to claim for a raw, new subject a history that was never really there. It began as a subject that was looking for something to study. The stories that were emerging in newspapers and on radio were not enough in themselves to sustain the wide public interest that the subject needed, so a broader perspective was required. Fort’s works became a storehouse of references which ufologists scoured for individual cases to prove that UFOs had a history, and they went back earlier and earlier to claim more and more anomalous ‘oddities and enigmas’ into the ufological database. We can see how the same technique has been used in an unsuccessful attempt to create a historical backgoround for the crop circle phenomenon.</div>
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The more that historical Fortean data became linked to ufology, the more contemporary anomalies also attracted the attention of ufologists, reflecting the range of reports they found in Fort and elsewhere. Clark gives the example of M. K. Jessup who introduced fortean skyfalls, archaeological mysteries and a range of other ‘oddities’ into the subject. This led on to a kind of ufology that involved “all-encompassing paranormal speculation” which challenged the ETH, and resulted in “magical thinking which could only relegate ufology even further to the edges”.</div>
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So with the sceptics on one side and the occultists and demonologists on the other, there arose the need to rediscover the core UFO phenomenon. Here Clark is clear what this might be: “such hardcore evidence as instrumented observations, radar/visuals and landing traces”. Of course, every single one of these has problems of its own, as is shown in the case Clark now raises as an example of a case that has received ‘concentrated scientific attention’ – Trans-en-Provence. He claims this case has “impressively documented anomalous effects apparently tied to an unknown, advanced technology.” In fact, it has nothing of the sort. It’s a single witness case, with some alleged physical traces, which were poorly investigated by people who, whilst they were impressively qualified, had little experience of the type of investigation they were meant to be undertaking. For a first rate analysis of the problems with Trans, I recommend the article ‘Trans-en-Provence, when science and belief go hand in hand’ by Eric Maillot and Jacques Scornaux. (1) There seems to be nothing in the Trans case which would rule out a deliberate hoax, or a practical joke which got out of hand.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But cases like Trans (and even more so, the allegedly multi-witness Trindade Island) are essential to the concept of the ‘core phenomenon’. In Clark’s definition this is something which “as far as we can judge … comprises structured craft with extraordinary performance characteristics and humanlike and humanoid crews” which to me is a pretty clear acceptance of the ETH. The part of the quote I have indicated by an ellipsis contains an interesting qualification: “as far as we can judge from the limited evidence available to us“, which is fair comment, but continues: “in good part because of science’s neglect of eminently investigable data”. It’s not made clear just what this data is, or why science should choose to neglect it. In the case of the Trans-en-Provence case the data consisted of soil and vegetation samples which were analysed, producing inconclusive results, and ending with the apparent claim by some investigators, including Jacques Vallee that the fact that nothing seemed to have happened to the soil was indicative that a physical UFO had been present!</div>
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In attempting to further identify a ‘core’ phenomenon, Clark draws a distinction, which I would certainly not argue with, between an ‘event’ phenomenon, and an ‘experience’ one. One of the key analyses of the ‘experience’ phenomenon is Hufford’s classic work on the ‘Old Hag’ (2). This describes an experience – the sense of being assailed by a non-corporeal entity whilst asleep – which is shared by many people in different cultures. A number of physiological mechanisms for this experience have been offered, but their ability to explain all cases has been questioned, and while the basic experience – the ‘core phenomenon’ – is widespread, there are complex cultural overtones to individual cases. Clark points out that such experiences are “truly, profoundly mysterious, and their cause or stimulus is unknown”.</div>
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Broadly true, but to some extent I would challenge the latter part of the statement. Although the exact mechanism of individual experiences can never be definitively explained, there is enough evidence to suggest a broad outline of what is involved in such experiences as the Hag, linking it with such states as sleep paralysis, although it is impossible to ‘explain’ individual experiences definitively. And in this issue of <em>Magonia,</em> <a href="http://magoniamagazine.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/invisikids.html" target="_blank">Mike Hallowell</a> presents a fascinating preliminary study which brings something which has traditionally been dismissed as ‘imagination’ or ‘fantasy’ into the category of ‘experience event’.</div>
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Obviously, such experiences are controversial, by the very fact that their cause or stimulus is unknown, and this allows Clark to take a swipe at ‘conventionalist opinion’ (a.k.a. ‘pelicanism’) which he claims dismisses them as “misperceptions, lies, and mental disorders sometimes invented on the spot for the purpose”. But if such experiences cannot be dismissed so easily, and we accept that they have some causative principle, we are still confronted by observations that “do not translate into anything that transcends testimony and memory”.</div>
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Clearly Clark does not believe that this applied to UFOs, and that there is something there that does ‘transcend testimony and memory’, presumably the radar/visual, physical evidence and multi-witness cases which seen never to work out quite as they are meant to. And. Of course, in many cases the so-called physical evidence is itself dependent on testimony and memory. The soil and plant samples in the Trans-enProvence case have no evidential value in themselves without the testimony of the sole witness; the value of the photographic evidence in the Trindade Island case is dependent on the testimony of a small, compromised, group of people and the clearly incomplete memory of two others.</div>
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So is the UFO phenomenon so different from other puzzling experiential phenomena? Clark himself seems to suggest that there might be a ‘core phenomenon’ behind Sasquatch as a “race of (biological) hominids, the product of evolutionary processes, cousins to humankind, and intelligent enough to conceal themselves in the vast wilderness of the Pacific Northwest”, with the bizarre accounts of hairy hominids in less likely places (including, according to Peter Rogerson, Colwyn Bay) being a ‘secondary correlate’.</div>
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Could there then be a ‘core phenomenon’ behind such experiences as non-corporeal childhood companions? Mike Hallowell suggests there might be. I rather doubt it, although he presents one multi-witness case that would be considered good evidence if presented in a UFO context, and the consistency of testimony across a range of cultures is no less, possibly even more, convincing that the often culturally-specific UFO testimony!</div>
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The search for the ‘core phenomenon’ as exemplified by the ‘structured craft’ is the Holy Grail of ufology, and as in the case of the other Grail, it seems that it can only be tracked down through codes, hints, suggestions, fading documents, ‘sincere testimony’ and malleable memory.</div>
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<b><br /></b></div><div><b>References:</b><br /><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Jerome Clark, ‘The Core Phenomenon and the Secondary Phenomenon’, <i>International UFO Reporter,</i> 30, 4, 2006, pp. 14-16 </li><li>Eric Maillot and Jacques Scornaux, ‘When science and belief go hand in hand’ in <i>1947-1997 Fifty Years of Flying Saucers, </i>ed. Hilary Evans and Dennis Stacy, John Brown, London, 1997. </li><li>David J. Hufford,<i> The Terror that Come in the Night;</i> an experience centred study of supernatural assault traditions. University of Pennsylvania Press.</li></ul></div><div><br /><ol>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288177690155596824.post-57161340642264559672014-01-29T15:50:00.001+00:002014-03-16T13:48:10.625+00:00Invizikids: Imaginary Childhood Friends<strong>Mike Hallowell</strong><br />
Magonia 93, September 2006<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2Au6Y6pftHBWjMFHg5XxVLm5yqOonfoUi5A8y99huOZ5HIDSoLOjcQl53fNxBCHExyJcv8xhoG73HBVY5AkjTs-MhBTPzJiKOC5i9b0gHDUDj1XOkLOY9SN06M1p9FVUf34yAB3BowGiz/s1600/aa+invisi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2Au6Y6pftHBWjMFHg5XxVLm5yqOonfoUi5A8y99huOZ5HIDSoLOjcQl53fNxBCHExyJcv8xhoG73HBVY5AkjTs-MhBTPzJiKOC5i9b0gHDUDj1XOkLOY9SN06M1p9FVUf34yAB3BowGiz/s1600/aa+invisi.jpg" height="100" width="100" /></a>Childhood is the Roman Coliseum of imagination, the Grand Old Opry of fantasy. When we are children we mentally create that which we cannot appropriate in the flesh, and, further, imbue it with a life that adult fantasies can never achieve. Ask any psychologist; that’s why children create what are usually referred to as “imaginary friends”, right? Well, maybe in some cases. But not all. No sirree. I had two “imaginary” childhood friends when I was a toddler. <a name='more'></a><br />
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One was called Maureen, the other Elizabeth. To this day I am convinced that they were more – far more – than fantasies. Ask anyone who has ever heard of the phenomenon what precipitates it and you will likely receive one of two stock answers. Most psychologists argue that youngsters create imaginary friends when they are short of siblings to interact with. If you ain’t got a brother, make one. Short of a sister? Build one in your head. </div>
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Of course, this may well hold true in some cases, but my research has shown me that the majority of “imaginary” friends actually belong to children who already have siblings, and it is at this juncture that the second explanation usually raises its head. </div>
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“Ah”, say the psycho-sages, “When there are brothers and sisters at home taking all the attention then kids will invent an imaginary playmate that they can ‘keep to themselves’ and don’t have to share.”</div>
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So they you have it. Kids with allegedly imaginary friends invent them either because they have no siblings or because they do have them. This is an argument which, I would venture, pretty much sows up all the possibilities, but it is flawed. Why? For it is built upon the premise that “imaginary” childhood friends really are imaginary and arrogantly ignores many other explanations. </div>
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I have interviewed nearly one hundred people from numerous continents and countries, all of whom had (or have) allegedly imaginary friends. What struck me, first of all, was a number of constants which always seem to present themselves.#</div>
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For instance, these ‘non-corporeal companions’ or NCCs as I prefer to call them, almost always fit neatly into one of four clearly-defined categories. More of that later. Another bizarre feature is the way that many NCCs seem to possess names which we may call “double-barrelled repetitives” A woman from the Philippines used to have an NCC called “Gardu-Gardu”. A youngster from South Yorkshire said his NCC was called Bally-Bally. A Bangladeshi youth I interviewed called his NCC Manno-Manno.</div>
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In June 2006 I gave a lecture at a conference in St. Annes-on Sea. An American chap in the audience raised his hand in astonishment and told me that his NCC had been called Likki-Likki. This double-barrelled repetitive was a universal constant during my research; not present in every case, but present enough times to make its significance obvious.</div>
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There are other constants connected to nomenclature. Many NCCs, for example, have names which are curiously dislocated from their own culture or gender. I encountered a Native American tribal chief called Brian, a boxer called Doris, a teenager known as Spider and a New York policeman called Mr. Marbles. Eventually I concluded that the bizarre naming system attendant to NCCs is so distinct that it almost certainly forms part of their “culture”.</div>
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I discovered other constants. NCCs never hurt their corporeal friends, but will sometimes frighten them. They often dish out “advice” or “counsel” to experients, and their appearances seem to be dictated by a fixed set of rules.</div>
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NCCs only seem to appear to experients between the age of 3 and the onset of puberty. They never appear to more than one experient (although it is just possible they may appear to other experients at different times who do not know each other) and they are always very vague about their origins when questioned. These constants become even more apparent when we look at the four aforementioned categories of NCC that I have been able to identify.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>Type 1: The Invizikids</strong></span></div>
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Invisible (to everyone but the experient) “imaginary” children comprise the most common order of NCC. They look and act like perfectly normal children and, about 70% of the time, have common names which are perfectly at home within the cultural setting of the experient. 30% of the time they will have a name which is a double-barrelled repetitive.</div>
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Invizikids will play games and engage in other activities with experients. They will also eat, drink, cough, sneeze and burp. In fact, the only things that distinguish them from corporeal youngsters are a) that they are invisible to everyone else, and b) that they can appear and disappear at will.</div>
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When Invizikids do their disappearing act it will normally take one of two forms. Some Type-1 NCCs will remain visible to the experient when another person enters the room. Whilst they are present the experient may see them whilst others cannot. This implies that their ability to become invisible is selective. Others will always become invisible to the experient too, suggesting that whilst some NCCs can choose who they become invisible to at any given time, others only have the ability to be either invisible or invisible to everyone at once. </div>
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Whenever experients question their Type-1 NCC about their origins, such as asking them where they live, or where they come from, the NCC will always be vague. Typically they’ll answer, “From far away”, or “From another place”. Curiously they may also claim to live on a vehicle which is always on the move, which also makes it difficult to ascertain where they hail from. One youngster told me that his Type-1 NCC “lived on a big red bus”.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>Type-2: The Elementals</strong></span> </div>
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Type-2 NCCs almost always live out-of-doors, often by the coast and in remote areas where, presumably, they are unlikely to be seen. They will often be described as “little goblins”, “pixies” or such like. Unlike Type-1 NCCs, who are always conventionally-sized, Type-2 NCCs are typically between 30 – 50cm in height. </div>
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Type-2 NCCs tend to be named with either a double-barrelled repetitive or a bizarre title. Mol-Mol, Koddy-Koddy, Ball Eagle and Wumpy are examples I’ve come across. They generally appear distant or remote to their corporeal friends. They are not unfriendly, but they don’t make conversation as readily and tend not to smile very much.</div>
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Like Type-1 NCCs, Type-3s can appear and disappear at will. However, they tend to do this less often. This may be because they inhabit remote areas where, when they are interacting with an experient, they are far less likely to be interrupted by a third party.</div>
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A unique feature of Type-2 NCCs is that they may appear in multiple numbers to experients.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>Type-3: The Animals</strong></span> </div>
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Type-3 NCCs look like conventional animals and are proportionately-sized. Like Type-1 NCCs they appear “normal”. If you could see a Type-3 rat, dog or cat, for instance, you may never know that it was an NCC unless it suddenly disappeared in front of you. Like Type-1 NCCs they can also appear and disappear at will.</div>
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Type-3 NCCs have a unique feature; they can almost always talk in the language of the experient and are quite happy to engage them in conversation. Intriguingly, although Type-3s only ever appear to the primary experient, they are often heard by others in the vicinity. This is interesting, for it suggests that NCCs may not be a subjective experience created in the mind of the experient, but may well have an objective reality.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>Type-4: The Wackies</strong></span></div>
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Wackies comprise the most bizarre of the four NCC orders, and also the least well-known. Like other types they will appear and disappear at will, but it is their appearance that distinguishes them markedly. </div>
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Wackies come in two distinct types; Sages and Animates. Sages are human-like but typically dress in an exotic manner and tend to display distinct cultural characteristics. Almost always this will be a culture different to that of the experient. They may appear as a Native American warrior, a Buddha-like sage or a Chinese mandarin, etc. Sages may also only show themselves from the waist up (one youngster told me that his “Eskimo” NCC would appear from the waist up at floor level, looking as if his legs were buried in the ground.) Sage-like Wackies always appear as adults, never children. Typically they will dispense pearls of wisdom to their young experients, often urging them never to steal, get angry or hurt others.</div>
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Animates share many of the characteristics of Sages, but their appearance is radically different. Curiously, Animates will appear as every-day household objects that suddenly grow arms and legs (but rarely heads). During my research I have came across yoghurt cartons, banana skins, wall-mounted radiators and candle-holders which have suddenly taken on a life of their own and spoken to their presumably startled witnesses.</div>
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Like other orders of NCC, Type-4s will either have human names such as Walter, Ethel of Cindy, or, again, double-barrelled repetitives like Mook-Mook, Kobby-Kobby or Fudda-Fudda. It is this common denominator which urges me to include animates within the family tree of Non-Corporeal Companions.</div>
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One characteristic typical of Type-4 Animates is that they usually only appear when the experient is at a low ebb psychologically. When the child witness is unhappy, worried or depressed a nearby object will burst into life, grow arms and legs and offer words of comfort. </div>
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Animates have a curious habit of leaving behind essentially useless “gifts” for experients, such as a pile of biscuit crumbs on the carpet, a small ball of coloured fluff or a dried leaf.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>Curiosities of the NCC Phenomenon</strong></span></div>
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When I was a child I had two Type-1 NCCs. They never appeared together except when we moved house. Just before we vacated the premises for the last time they both appeared simultaneously to bid me farewell. However, they never interacted with each other and seemed completely unaware of each other’s presence. I remember them actually talking over the top of each other. I never saw them again.</div>
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NCCs are distinctly place-centred. If you relocate they will stay behind. However, even this characteristic needs some investigation. A Philippina woman told me that her young cousin had a Type-1 NCC that always appeared to her in a particular grove of mango trees. The cousin eventually relocated to another city, and, one day, went for a walk to familiarise herself with her new environment. Eventually she stumbled upon a mango grove very similar to the one back home where she had encountered her NCC. To her astonishment her NCC appeared and started to talk to her. This begs the question; are NCCs tied to a particular geographical location or, as it seems in this case, a particular type of location? </div>
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As a child I used to insist that my mother set a place at the table for either Maureen or Elizabeth. I can recall seeing them eat their food with gusto, but my mother’s recollection is different. She remembers taking out the untouched plate of food into the kitchen.</div>
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I sometimes wonder if I was experiencing two different realities simultaneously. In Reality A, Maureen/Elizabeth was present and ate her food. In Reality B, she was absent and the food set out for her was wasted. I can’t be sure, but it’s a thought.</div>
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Sometimes NCCs let their guard slip and their presence becomes obvious to others. I remember on one occasion passing a ball back and forth across the lounge floor with Elizabeth. Suddenly my grandmother entered the room just in time to see the ball roll away from me, come to an abrupt halt and then roll back to where I was sitting. She could not see Elizabeth, but her face was a picture.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>Explanations</strong></span></div>
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To be honest I do not know where NCCs come from and I have no fixed ideas as yet regarding their nature. I simply know they exist. They may be the spirits of the dead or creatures from another dimension. Perhaps they are something else entirely.</div>
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I have never found anything remotely sinister about this baffling phenomenon, although the refusal of NCCs to disclose anything about their origins could be viewed as a little disturbing. We may never get to the bottom of the mystery, but for me it doesn’t matter. I simply accept NCCs on their own terms and believe they may even play a vital part in our development into adulthood.</div>
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What fascinates me more than anything else is that, despite the universal prevalence of the NCC phenomenon, it has attracted very little attention. Studies available on the Internet are almost all governed by the “psychological” approach, that NCCs are the product of the mind of a lonely child. </div>
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People are normally disturbed by the idea that their house may be haunted, and yet they accept without the slightest reticence the notion that their child may be talking to an invisible entity. Is this because they don’t believe that their child’s “imaginary” friend really exists, or because they sense that the phenomenon, whatever its nature, is essentially harmless?</div>
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They say that “an only child is a lonely child”. Maybe, just maybe, there aren’t so many lonely children around as we’ve hitherto imagined.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288177690155596824.post-59493490199713442652014-01-28T11:18:00.000+00:002014-03-16T13:54:12.540+00:00Ike and the Aliens: The Origins of Exopolitics<div style="text-align: justify;">
<strong>Curtis Peebles</strong></div>
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Magonia 93, September 2006</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWPV7BP3xYpDHM3lioD9dzGKZbtGrtbSee6D6Ka4OCP7bWWQB2tj9A_gcVhni0WFTc_92xmFZisNEcHPZPJ7iPA9z1T7z5X8g8KzS4vXvVB_atCYEkUGLxMDRKRs78bZCtnlgneZ8U4r7w/s1600/aa+ike+golf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWPV7BP3xYpDHM3lioD9dzGKZbtGrtbSee6D6Ka4OCP7bWWQB2tj9A_gcVhni0WFTc_92xmFZisNEcHPZPJ7iPA9z1T7z5X8g8KzS4vXvVB_atCYEkUGLxMDRKRs78bZCtnlgneZ8U4r7w/s1600/aa+ike+golf.jpg" height="100" width="100" /></a>In late February of 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower (left) was enjoying a golf vacation in Palm Springs, California. After dinner on Saturday, February 20, 1954, Eisenhower left the resort unexpectedly. The reporters covering his vacation learnt of his absence, and an Associated Press reporter issued a news bulletin saying “Pres. Eisenhower died tonight of a heart attack in Palm Springs.” </div>
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Two minutes later, the report was retracted. The following morning, Sunday, February 21, 1954, the president attended a church service, very much alive. His spokesman said that Eisenhower had seen a dentist after chipping a cap on a tooth while eating a chicken wing at dinner. [1]</div>
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It was a letter from Gerald Light to Meade Layne, director of the Borderland Sciences Research Associations that turned the incident into a flying saucer story that would still be retold a half century later. The letter was received by Layne on April 16, 1954 and read:</div>
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“My dear Friends: I have just returned from Muroc. The report is true – devastatingly true. I made the journey in company with Franklin Allen of the Hearst papers and Edwin Nourse of Brookings Institute (Truman’s erstwhile financial advisor) and Bishop MacIntyre (sic) of L.A. (confidential names, for the present, please</blockquote>
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“When we were allowed to enter the restricted section, (after about six hours in which we were checked on every possible item, event, incident and aspect of our personal and public lives) I had the distinct feeling that the world had come to an end with fantastic realism. For I have never seen so many human beings in a state of complete collapse and confusion as they realized that their own world had indeed ended with such finality as to beggar description. The reality of the ‘otherplane’ aeroforms is now and forever removed from the realms of speculation and made a rather painful part of the consciousness of every responsible scientific and political group<br />
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“During my two days visit I saw five separate and distinct types of aircraft being studied and handled by our air-force officials – with the assistance and permission of The Etherians! I have no words to express my reactions<br />
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“President Eisenhower, as you may already know, was spirited over to Muroc one night during his visit to Palm Springs recently. And it is my conviction that he will ignore the terrific conflict between the various ‘authorities’ and go directly to the people via radio and television – if the impasse continues much longer. From what I could gather, an official statement to the country is being prepared for delivery about the middle of May. I will leave it to your own excellent powers of deduction to construct a fitting picture of the mental and emotional pandemonium that is now shattering the consciousness of hundreds of our scientific ‘authorities’ and all the pundits of the various specialised knowledges that make up our current physics. In some instances I could not stifle a wave of pity that arose in my own being as I watched the pathetic bewilderment of rather brilliant brains struggling to make some sort of rational explanation which would enable them to retain their familiar theories and concepts. And I thanked my own destiny for having long ago pushed me into the metaphysical woods and compelled me to find my way out. To watch strong minds cringe before totally irreconcilable aspects of ‘science’ is not a pleasant thing. I had forgotten how commonplace such things as dematerialisation of ‘solid’ objects had become to my own mind. The coming and going of an etheric, or spirit, body has been so familiar to me these many years I had just forgotten that such a manifestation could snap the mental balance of a man not so conditioned. I shall never forget those forty-eight hours at Muroc!” </blockquote>
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"It has finally happened, it is a matter of history" [2] </blockquote>
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Word of Light’s letter soon spread among UFO believers. Desmond Leslie mentioned the story several months later. He had visited Los Angeles during the summer of 1954. Reportedly, this included investigations in the Edwards AFB area. Leslie was interviewed by George Hunt Williamson on October 9, 1954 for <em>Valor </em>magazine. Leslie said that “an Air Force man” told him that the “rumored saucer at Muroc was actually there,” and that it was under guard “in Hangar 27.” He continued that “President Eisenhower had a ‘look-see’ at the craft during his Palm Springs vacation.” Leslie’s source had “seen the craft,” and also said that “on a certain day…suddenly men coming back from leave were not allowed to go back on the base and were given orders to ‘get lost.’” Leslie added that the personnel on the base that day were not allowed to leave under any circumstances.</div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The Roswell Incident</span></strong></div>
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The rebirth of the Ike and the aliens story began with Charles Berlitz and William L. Moore’s book <em>The Roswell Incident.</em> Published in 1980, this did not simply revive the nearly forgotten story of a saucer crash, but eventually would give rise to the Darkside mythology and exopolitics. For all its later impact, <em>The Roswell Incident</em> itself was rather ‘thin.’ The book recounted the story of Maj. Jesse A. Marcel, the intelligence officer of the 509th Bomb Wing at Roswell AAF in July 1947. Marcel described the recovery of strange debris, which he described as being pieces of parchment-like material and balsa-like sticks with pink and purple “hieroglyphics.” These fragments could not be broken or burned. There were also large metal parts which could not be dented or creased. Marcel did not claim to have seen a crashed saucer or alien bodies, only the strange debris. [4]</div>
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The bulk of <em>The Roswell Incident</em> consisted of recollections and stories that had little or no direct connection to Marcel’s alleged experiences. Canadian radio engineer Wilbert B. Smith was one such source. He had written a Top Secret memo in November 1950 on U.S. government involvement with flying saucers. Smith said in the memo that flying saucers were the mostly highly classified subject in the U.S., even more so than the hydrogen bomb.</div>
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Berlitz and Moore also discussed an account written by Meade Layne around 1949, which was alleged to be based on information from two scientists and “a business man of high standing.” “Dr. Weidberg,” described as a physics professor from an unnamed California university, was said to have taken part in the examination of the saucer. According to Layne, the professor said it was “shaped like a turtle’s back” and had a cabin about 15 feet in diameter. Layne’s account continued:</div>
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“The bodies of six occupants were seared…and the interior of the disc had been badly damaged by intense heat. One porthole had been shattered….</blockquote>
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“An autopsy on one body showed that it resembled a normal human body except in size. One body was seated at what appeared to be a control desk, there were a few ‘gadgets’ in front of him, and on the walls or panels characters in writing, in a language unknown to any of the investigators. They said it was unlike anything known to them, and definitely not Russian…”</blockquote>
He added that Dr. Weidberg had indicated that the saucer was taken by truck from the crash site to Magdalena, New Mexico. The UFO was then loaded on a special car of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe railroad. The train’s route passed through Belen, Grants, and Gallup, New Mexico, then to Flagstaff, Arizona and continued on to Needles and Cadiz in California, before finally arriving at Muroc, where “Camp Edwards” was located. [5]</div>
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The Roswell Incident included a chapter on ‘The President and the Captured Saucer’. Berlitz and Moore claim that information about the saucer crash at Roswell was initially withheld from Eisenhower even after he became president. Berlitz and Moore further claimed that Eisenhower “was let in on the secret as one of the first of a small but carefully selected group of scientific, military, and civilian personnel from all walks of life…” The goal, Berlitz and Moore wrote, was “…possibly for the purpose of gauging from their observed reactions what the effect on the general public would likely be if such a story was released.”</div>
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Berlitz and Moore continued that “the mental confusion and near pandemonium,” described in Light’s account, resulted “…in a total victory for the forces of secrecy.” They also claimed that the individuals who were shown the saucer were silenced and plans for a public announcement were dropped. Light’s description of his experiences at “Muroc” was not judged to be a security threat, as the story would not stick if it were published. [6]</div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>MJ-12, the Darkside, and Exopolitics</strong></span></div>
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The publication of The Roswell Incident came at a time when the flying saucer myth was undergoing fundamental changes. During the early and mid-1980s, stories spread of crashed saucers, ‘Grays’, cattle and human mutilations, abductions, implants, creation of alien/human hybrids, alien underground bases, secret treaties between the U.S. and the aliens, technology exchanges, and of a shadowy organisation called MJ-12 which was overseeing it all. [7]</div>
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This became known as the Darkside, and was defined by Milton William Cooper in his manifesto, ‘The Secret Government The Origin, Identity and Purpose of MJ-12.’ Cooper claimed his account was based on documents he had seen between 1970 and 1973 while a Navy enlisted man. This included the story of the meeting between Ike and the aliens, and the claim of a secret treaty.</div>
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According to Cooper, radio communications was established with a group of ‘large-nosed Gray aliens’. This resulted in a landing at Holloman AFB by these aliens in early 1954. During this first face-to-face meeting, a basic agreement was worked out, and arrangements made for a formal treaty. A second landing by the aliens at Edwards AFB followed in February 1954. Cooper wrote that Eisenhower arranged to be in Palm Springs on vacation. On the planned day, the president was secretly taken to Edwards, with the dental visit as a cover story. Cooper continued, “President Eisenhower met with the aliens and a formal treaty between the Alien Nation and the United States of America was signed.”</div>
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Bill Cooper promoted a conspiracy theory which, ostensibly about flying saucers, was actually a right-wing theory of world control by such organisations as Bilderburg and the Council on Foreign Relations</blockquote>
</strong> </span>Cooper claimed that the treaty allowed the aliens to abduct a limited number of humans for the purpose of medical examination. The abductees would not be harmed, would be returned to the place they were taken from, and would have no memory of what had happened. The aliens would provide to MJ-12 a list of all the humans who were abducted. In exchange, the U.S. government would be supplied with advanced alien technology. The aliens’ existence would also be kept secret by the U.S. government, and underground bases would be built for the aliens. Cooper further claimed that the U.S. government realised by 1955 that the aliens had violated the treaty. Both humans and animals were mutilated, a full list of abducted humans was not being provided to MJ-12 by the aliens, and not all the abductees were being returned.<br />
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While on the surface Cooper was writing about flying saucers and aliens, the bulk of the text was actually Rightist conspiracy theories. This involved the Bilderburgers, which, Cooper said, controlled the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission. Between them, he continued, these groups “…control the major foundations, all of the major media and publishing interests, the largest banks, all the major corporations, the upper echelons of the government, and many other vital interests.”</div>
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This conspiracy, according to Cooper, amounted to a secret world government. It was responsible for the deaths of both Secretary of Defense James Forrestal and President John F. Kennedy. It controlled the world’s drug trade, was responsible for crime in American cities, and used disinformation against UFO researchers. It created AIDS and other diseases in order to reduce the world’s population. The conspiracy had plans to round up all ‘dissenters’ and ship them off to vast concentration camps which had already been built. The enslavement of humanity would then be complete. Cooper concluded by writing, “We must force disclosure of all the facts, discover the truth and act upon the truth.” [8]</div>
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By the mid-1990s, Cooper abandoned ufology and became a leading figure in the Militia movement. He was killed on November 6, 2001 in a shootout with Arizona police officers. [9] Cooper’s lasting contribution was the Darkside mythology, which was enshrined in popular culture by such television shows as <em>The X-Files</em> and <em>Dark Skies</em>. While the Right had been the first to embrace the Darkside, the mythology was also soon being accepted by the Left.</div>
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Ufology in the context of a Leftist political movement began in the early 1990s, against the backdrop of the collapse of communism, the fall of the Soviet Union, and the end of the Cold War. By the start of the 21st century, this movement became known as ‘exopolitics’, This was “…the study of the key political actors, institutions and processes associated with the UFO phenomenon and the extraterrestrial hypothesis.” [10]</div>
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Several individuals emerged as the major figures in this movement. They included Steven Greer and Alfred Webre. Like Cooper, they claimed the world was actually run by a secret cabal. Greer said that this was “a committee of 200 to 300 people” involving senior U.S. government, military, and intelligence officials, ‘the Liechtenstein banking family’, the ‘Mormon corporate empire’. and ‘cells within the Vatican’. They had murdered Marilyn Monroe and former CIA director William Colby to keep them from talking, and used an ‘electromagnetic weapon’ to cause Greer and others to be stricken with cancer. [11] Greer also claimed UFO groups were controlled by the conspiracy. He said in an interview that “deep-cover black project operatives are working closely with alleged civilian researchers, journalists, and the UFO glitterati.” [12]</div>
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While Cooper had focused exclusively on an overarching conspiracy, the major figures in exopolitics also offered a messianic vision of the future once disclosure had come about. Greer said that the alien technology “would empower a new human civilisation without want, poverty or environmental damage.” He continued that “there is no limit to what humanity can achieve.” [13] Webre implied that disclosure would result in a fundamental transformation of human beings. He said, “We are a nucleus of politically sensitive terrestrials who are aware that the playing field is vast…. Fundamentally the transformation starts within all of us – for we are the transformation. We are the exo-government. We are the new Universal human.” [14] </div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>Research Study #8</strong></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib_mWuew0a-VLZgve0sPaonk9g1ADLsa9vR9D-dHMyVfVFg9CGZxS7_6qPm_OLoz8WKDlzMwveZRhEVL4OVPKmACuH5bQJn4O1GMHNliWAINIyHl3g5Z5rB1AP7zOyoMvw4tbhz2JvFF1U/s1600/salla.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib_mWuew0a-VLZgve0sPaonk9g1ADLsa9vR9D-dHMyVfVFg9CGZxS7_6qPm_OLoz8WKDlzMwveZRhEVL4OVPKmACuH5bQJn4O1GMHNliWAINIyHl3g5Z5rB1AP7zOyoMvw4tbhz2JvFF1U/s1600/salla.jpg" /></a>In 2003, a new figure in exopolitics emerged. This was Dr. Michael E. Salla, a researcher in residence at American University’s Center for Global Peace. He was also the director of the Peace Ambassadors Program, which the university’s web site described as a “summer program that combines study, meditative practices, and prayer ceremonies at selected Washington, D.C. sites aimed at promoting individual self-empowerment and Divine Governance in Washington, D.C.” Salla received his PhD in Government from the University of Queensland, Australia, and an MA degree in Philosophy from the University of Melbourne, Australia. He had written extensively on conflict resolution, conducted fieldwork in East Timor, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Sri Lanka, and organised international workshops on these conflicts. [15]</div>
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Salla began writing a series of papers on exopolitics in January of 2003. These seem to have attracted little interest from either the American University staff or among UFO believers. This changed with Research Study #8, dated January 28, 2004. It was titled ‘Eisenhower’s 1954 Meeting With Extraterrestrials: The Fiftieth Anniversary of America’s First Treaty With Extraterrestrials?’</div>
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The paper began with Eisenhower’s disappearance, and repeated the story of Gerald Light’s letter about his visit to Muroc with the group of distinguished public figures to see the saucers. Salla mentioned that Light was an ‘elderly mystic’, but stressed the physiological reactions described in Light’s letter. Salla further argued that Light, Nourse, Cardinal McIntyre and Allen “would certainly have been plausible choices for a community delegation…”</div>
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He noted that Dr. Edwin Nourse could “provide his expertise on the possible economic impact of First Contact with extraterrestrials.” Cardinal James McIntyre would have been, according to Salla, “an important gauge for the possible reaction from religious leaders generally, and in particular from the most influential and powerful religious institution on the planet – the Roman Catholic Church.” Franklin Allen, then an 80-year-old former reporter with the Hearst Newspaper Group, was described as “…a good choice for a member of the press who could maintain confidentiality.”</div>
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Salla wrote that, “The four represented senior leaders of the religious, spiritual, economic and newspaper communities and were well advanced in age and status.” Salla mentioned the possibility that Light may have used their names “in a fabricated account of an ‘out of body’ experience,” but continued that “…there is nothing in Light’s selection that eliminates the possibility that they were plausible members of such a delegation.” Salla concluded that this provided, “…circumstantial evidence that a meeting with extraterrestrials occurred and that Eisenhower was present.”</div>
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Salla then turned to ‘testimonials’ which supported the story of Eisenhower’s meeting with the aliens. Not surprisingly, Cooper had the central role, and Salla quoted extensively from his writings. Cooper was not the only person to claim to know about the incident, however, according to Salla. Another was Dr. Michael Wolf, who claimed to have been involved with several policy-making committees dealing with the alien presence over a period of twenty-five years. He stated that the Eisenhower administration had signed a treaty with an alien race, but that this treaty had not been submitted for congressional ratification, as required by the U.S. Constitution.</div>
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A third individual was Phil Schneider, described as “a former geological engineer that was employed by corporations contracted to build underground bases.” Salla stated that his knowledge about the treaty “would have come from his familiarity with a range of compartmentalised black projects and interaction with other personnel working with extraterrestrials.” Schneider wrote:</div>
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“Back in 1954, under the Eisenhower administration, the federal government decided to circumvent the Constitution of the United States and form a treaty with alien entities. It was called the 1954 Greada Treaty, which basically made the agreement that the aliens involved could take a few cows and test their implanting techniques on a few human beings, but that they had to give details about the people involved.”</blockquote>
Like Cooper, Schneider also claimed that the aliens had violated the treaty. This involved the number of humans being abducted. Schneider added that “…the aliens altered the bargain until they decided they wouldn’t abide by it at all.”</div>
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Col. Phillip Corso is also among the ‘whistleblowers.’ Corso also wrote in his memoirs that the Eisenhower administration signed a treaty with the aliens. He stated: “We had negotiated a kind of surrender with them as long as we couldn’t fight them. They dictated the terms because they knew what we feared most was disclosure.” [16]</div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>The Whole Tooth</strong></span></div>
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When an academic, holding a position at a major university, publicly claims that the President of the United States signed a secret treaty with extraterrestrials, he gets noticed. Peter Carlson, a staff writer with the Washington Post was among those who noticed Salla. His article, ‘Ike and the Alien Ambassadors The Whole Tooth About the President’s Extraterrestrial Encounter’, was published on February 19, 2004, in the ‘Style Section’ of the newspaper.</div>
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In his January 28, 2004 paper, Salla had recounted the various accounts of the Eisenhower meeting with the aliens at Edwards, without reaching a conclusion about the chain of events. In a meeting with Carlson, however, he did provide a specific account. Salla told the reporter that Eisenhower’s visit to Edwards had actually been to meet with two ‘Nordics’, rather than to sign a treaty. Salla described these aliens as looking like Scandinavian humans, with white hair, pale blue eyes, and colourless lips. The Nordics communicated with Eisenhower telepathically. Salla explained. “It’s as though you’re hearing a person but they’re not speaking.”</div>
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According to Salla, the two blue-eyed aliens offered to share their advanced technology and spiritual wisdom, but only if the U.S. gave up its nuclear weapons. Salla explained, “They were afraid that we might blow up some of our nuclear technology, and apparently that does something to time and space and it impacts on extraterrestrial races on other planets.”</div>
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Although several of the earlier accounts claimed the treaty was signed during Eisenhower’s Edwards trip, Salla told Carlson a different version. Eisenhower refused the aliens’ offer, as he did not want to give up nuclear weapons. According to Salla, sometime later in 1954, the U.S. government reached an agreement with the Grays. As with Cooper and the other whistleblower’s accounts, this was an agreement which allowed the Grays to abduct humans, providing they were safely returned. Salla said that since then, the Grays have kidnapped ‘millions’ of humans.</div>
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Salla also gave an insight as to how he became interested in exopolitics. Carlson wrote, “For much of the ‘90s, Salla studied conflict resolution and tried unsuccessfully to apply that knowledge to prevent war in East Timor and the Balkans, he says. Frustrated, he began looking for an extraterrestrial connection to human misery and, he says, he found evidence of ET visitations – including the Ike encounter – on the Internet. ‘There’s a lot of stuff on the Internet,’ he says, ‘and I just went and pieced it together.’”</div>
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Carlson looked into the claims made by Salla. The lack of any records of Eisenhower having dental work in February 1954 was offered as evidence of a cover story for the trip to Edwards. Carlson contacted the Eisenhower Library, and was referred to an article by James M. Mixson published in the November 1995 issue of <em>The Bulletin of the History of Dentistry</em>. Mixson, who was both a dental historian and a professor at the Missouri-Kansas City School of Dentistry, drew on the U.S. surgeon general’s records of Eisenhower’s health which were opened in 1991.</div>
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The article, titled ‘A History of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Oral Health’, noted that the president had considerable trouble with the porcelain cap on his upper left centre incisor. It was first installed in July 1952, during the presidential campaign, but was chipped and repaired in December 1952. The cap was again chipped by the chicken wing on February 20, 1954. Dr. Francis A. Purcell, a local dentist, did the repair work. Mixson noted in the article that “The lack of a dental record from Purcell’s office has helped fuel belief in this UFO encounter.” The cap was chipped yet again in July 1954, when it was finally replaced with a “thin cast gold/platinum thimble crown.”</div>
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Carlson also learnt that his inquiry was not the first to the Eisenhower Library about the alleged incident. Jim Leyerzapf, an archivist at the library, told him “We’ve had so many requests on that subject that we have a person who specializes in this.” Herb Pankratz was the archivist given the assignment. Leyerzapf explained, “He specialises in transportation, and we decided to add UFOs to that. He does trains, planes, automobiles – and flying saucers.”</div>
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Pankratz told Carlson that the library had fielded dozens of enquiries about the Ike and the aliens story in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He also made a sage observation: “It’s interesting how these stories have changed. Initially, the accounts claimed the President made a secret trip to Edwards Air Force Base to view the remains of aliens who crashed at Roswell, N.M., in 1947. Later stories claimed he had actually visited with live aliens.” [17]</div>
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Salla has maintained his belief in the reality of the Ike and the aliens story, and has referred to the alleged meeting in several subsequent papers. In one such paper, he speculated that the addition of the words ‘under God’ in the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance were a result of the Edwards meeting. Salla ‘hypothesized’ that President Eisenhower and his national security advisers were told “the truth of the human origins” at the meeting. He suggests that this:</div>
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“…so unnerved Eisenhower and his team, that they reacted in an entirely predicable way. They initiated a Congressional process to revise the Pledge of Allegiance to buttress their world view which was based in a traditional religious belief that humanity’s origins were clearly associated with the divine intervention of a ‘transcendental being’ or ‘God.’ Introducing the revision of ‘under God’ into the Pledge would be a way of maintaining a human perspective which had now become a matter of U.S. national security given the knowledge the extraterrestrials claimed to possess about humanity’s true origins". [18]</blockquote>
<strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Exopolitics as a Medieval Belief System</span></strong></div>
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The story of Ike and the aliens began with a minor misunderstanding that resulted in an erroneous press report that President Eisenhower was dead. Gerald Light’s letter then tied the incident into claims about a crashed saucer and a government cover up. This initial story was soon expanded. Desmond Leslie added an independent eyewitness report of the saucer being under guard at Edwards. The account written by Meade Layne provided a description of the saucer and its crew, as well as the back story of how the saucer came to Edwards. Wilbert B. Smith’s memo completed the process, by supplying official confirmation.</div>
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But the flaw in the tale of Ike and the aliens is that the story rests on the unsupported accounts of questionable individuals. Light and Layne were both occultists. Leslie was the co-author of ‘Professor’ George Adamski’s 1953 book, Flying Saucers Have Landed. Williamson was one of Adamski’s followers, a witness to his November 20, 1952 contact with a man from Venus, and a contactee himself. Smith was not only a supporter of contactees such as Adamski, but also claimed in the mid-1950s to be in psychic contact with several space brothers. [19]</div>
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This flaw also exists in the story’s revival as part of the exopolitics myth. Cooper, Wolf, Schneider, and Corso have all made claims about their backgrounds and experiences which are not supported by documentary evidence. Salla acknowledged this, but just as he rationalised Light being part of the group going to see the saucers, Salla also rationalised away the lack of evidence. He claimed that government policy dealing with the leaking information about UFOs “…is to intimidate, silence, eliminate or discredit these individuals.” One such technique, Salla claimed, is “…removing all public records of former service men or corporate employees….” [20]</div>
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In medieval Europe, hearsay, myths, folklore, and legends were considered legal evidence. In witch trials, for example, a suspected witch would be thrown in a pond. If they floated, this was sufficient proof for them to be convicted by the court and executed as a witch. Such admissibility of hearsay evidence was eventually undone by the Enlightenment and the scientific revolution.</div>
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The exopolitics myth represents a return to this medieval belief system. The story of Ike and the aliens is based on the hearsay of the whistle-blowers, unsupported by any evidence. Instead, like hearsay evidence and folklore in medieval times, they are to be accepted as true without question, even in the face of obvious contradictions and flaws. Exopolitics lacks any standards of evidence to judge which claims are valid and which are not. No screening of the whistleblowers is done. Rather, exopolitics writers pick and choose which of their claims are used and which are not, without any apparent logic or reason.</div>
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Just as Cooper was a major source for Salla’s account of the Ike and the alien story, so too does he provide an example of this selectivity. There are no references to some of Cooper’s other remarkable claims. He stated, for example, that there are “areas on the Moon where plant life grows and even changes color with the seasons,” and that humans “can walk upon its surface without a space suit breathing from an oxygen bottle after undergoing decompression….” The most stunning of Cooper’s claims is that the Cold War was a hoax, and that the U.S. and USSR were actually “the closest allies.” [21]</div>
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Just as in medieval times flaws were dealt with by either saying they were deceptions by Satan or ignoring them, exopolitics writers deal with flaws in the whistleblowers’ accounts in the same ways. This is shown by the differing versions of the Ike and the aliens stories told by each of the whistle-blowers, how details such as location and dates changed in their accounts over time, and how Salla dealt with these flaws.</div>
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One example of this is John Lear’s original version of the treaty story, as described in a December 29, 1987 paper. Lear said that the first contact came on April 30, 1964, when three saucers landed at Holloman AFB in New Mexico. A meeting was then held between the aliens and U.S. intelligence officers. Lear added that between 1969 and 1971, a treaty was reached between MJ-12 and the aliens. As in the other whistleblowers’ accounts, Lear claimed the treaty was later violated by the aliens. [22]</div>
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Lear then gave a completely different version of the treaty story during a November 2, 2003 appearance on the radio show, “Coast to Coast.” He now said that the meeting was in 1954 at “Muroc Test Center, which is now Edwards Airforce (sic) Base.” He said that the aliens had “suggested that they could help us get rid of the Grays but Eisenhower turned down their offer because they offered no technology.” Lear also said that the aliens had told Eisenhower that they had created humans. This caused the president to have the words “under God” added to the Pledge of Allegiance. [23]</div>
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Cooper’s 1989 manifesto had claimed, “The aliens explained that they had created us through hybridization….” However, Cooper said this occurred after Eisenhower met with the aliens at Edwards and the treaty was signed. [24] Further complicating matters, Cooper had also subsequently changed his story of where the landing occurred, saying it was at Homestead AFB in Florida.</div>
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In his original January 28, 2004 paper on the Ike and the aliens story, Salla noted the differences between Cooper and Lear regarding when and where the meeting took place. Salla also claimed that Lear had worked as a CIA contract pilot, and had “a close relationship with CIA Director (DCI) William Colby…” Then Salla wrote:</div>
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“The question over which account is more reliable needs to focus on the possibility Lear had deliberately introduced some inaccuracies into his account. Lear’s CIA association suggests he could have been a means of simultaneously confirming Cooper’s information on the meetings while undermining Cooper’s credibility by throwing in minor inconsistencies.” [25]</blockquote>
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During the time that Carlson was researching his story for the Washington Post, Salla was revising his paper; posting the new text a week before the Carlson article came out. In this new version of Research Study #8, Salla notes only that “There is some discrepancy in the testimonials as to which Air force base (sic) the spurned extraterrestrials met with President Eisenhower.” He deleted the text about Lear and the CIA using false information to both support and discredit Cooper’s accounts.</div>
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Salla added a new (second-hand) account of the Eisenhower meeting at Edwards to his paper. Charles L. Suggs, a retired Marine Sergeant, claimed that his late father, Navy Commander Charles L. Suggs, had accompanied President Eisenhower and others in his party to Edwards on February 20, 1954 to meet with two Nordic aliens. According to the younger Suggs, “The spokesman” stood a number of feet from Eisenhower and refused to let him come any closer. The second alien stood on the extended ramp of a “bi-convex saucer that stood on tripod landing gear.” The aliens said that they came from another solar system, and, according to the younger Suggs’ account, asked detailed questions regarding nuclear testing. Salla concluded that Lear’s 2003 story and Suggs’ account were more accurate versions. [26]</div>
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Exopolitics seems to be a new point of departure for the flying saucer myth. The original beliefs about UFOs developed at the beginning of the Cold War. Exopolitics, in contrast, is influenced by the much later anti-war movement, environmentalism, the anti-nuclear movement, opposition to ballistic missile defences, the wide-spread acceptance of conspiracy theories, and the post-Cold War meeting of political extremes. Lear, Cooper, and Corso are Rightists, but their claims are incorporated into a Leftist political framework.</div>
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Another influence on exopolitics is that of post-modernism. Broadly speaking, this holds that every ‘narrative’ or ‘text’ is equally valid, and there is no one ‘real’ version of history. The concept rejects any appeal to ‘truth’ or ‘reality’. An attempt to provide a complete account of events is considered ‘oppressive’. All ideas are equally valid, and all accounts are equally true. This reflects the lack of any attempt to determine which of the different versions of the Ike and the aliens story is ‘real’. The same also applies to post modernism itself, as despite being widely accepted, there is no specific meaning of the concept. This alone says much about post modernism.</div>
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A case can also be made that exopolitics is the inheritor of the contactee/occult tradition. Salla included Eduard ‘Billy’ Meier and other contactees among the sources used in a long paper titled, ‘A Report on the Motivations and Activities of Extraterrestrial Races – A Typology of the Most Significant Extraterrestrial Races Interacting with Humanity’. [27] Alfred Webre also makes references to claims by Billy Meier, specifically his ‘Talmud of Jmmanuel’ and the ‘Henoch Prophecies.’ [28]</div>
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Use of occult methods is openly accepted in exopolitics. Salla considered remote viewing to be a moderate evidentiary support for exopolitical research. Alfred Webre was more explicit, stating that “Remote Viewing IS the scientific breakthrough that has made replicable Exopolitical research into the Universe possible.” [29] Steven Greer said about remote viewing: “It’s not a belief system. It is science; it is physics, pure and simple. Humans have abilities to access levels of consciousness generally only spoken about by mystics and shamans.” [30]</div>
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What is as yet unknown is the influence that exopolitics will ultimately have on the flying saucer myth. Exopolitics may come to dominate UFO beliefs and shape the conspiratorial political ideas in the larger society. Alternately, exopolitics may prove to be nothing more than a short-lived fad. An earlier example was the idea that flying saucers were “psychic projections,” rather than alien spaceships. This concept was popular in the 1970s, but vanished with the return of the crashed saucer stories and emergence of the Darkside. What does seem likely is that believers and sceptics alike have not yet heard the last of the Ike and the aliens story.</div>
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<strong>Sources:</strong><br />
<ol>
<li>Peter Carlson, “Ike and the Alien Ambassadors The Whole Tooth About the President’s Extraterrestrial Encounter” <em>The Washington Post</em> (February 19, 2004), p. C1.</li>
<li>Charles Berlitz, William L. Moore, <em>The Roswell Incident</em> (New York: Berkley Books, 1988), p. 131-133. James McIntyre was a Roman Catholic Cardinal in 1954.</li>
<li><em>ibid,</em> p. 135, 136. Hangars at Edwards AFB have either a three digit or a four digit designation. There was never a “Hangar 27” at the base, at any time. There was a “Building 27” at Edwards, but it was the old mess hall. All that remains of it today is the concrete slab.</li>
<li><em>ibid,</em> p. 69-75.</li>
<li><em>ibid</em>, p. 59-68, 100, 101, 103, 104, 120, 127, 128. Although Meade Layne’s account was described in <em>The Roswell Incident</em> as “probably” written in 1949, several of its story elements were similar to those in Frank Scully’s <em>Behind the Flying Saucers,</em> published in late 1950. These include the involvement of a business man, the alien bodies being burned, strange writing, and a broken porthole. This suggests a possibility that Layne’s account was derived directly or indirectly from Scully. Additionally, Muroc AFB was renamed Edwards AFB on January 5, 1950.</li>
<li><em>ibid</em>, p. 125, 126, 135.</li>
<li>Paul Devereux, Peter Brooksmith, <em>UFOs and Ufology; The First 50 Years</em> (London: Blandford Books, 1997), p. 110, 111, and “MJ12: Myth Or Reality?” <em>Just Cause</em> (December 1985), p. 1-3.</li>
<li>Milton William Cooper, “The Secret Government: The Origin, Identity, and Purpose of MJ-12,” dated May 23, 1989.</li>
<li>Don Ecker, “Cooper Meets Violent End,” <em>UFO Magazine</em> (February/March 2002, p. 69.</li>
<li>Dr. Michael E. Salla, “The History of Exopolitics: Evolving Political Approaches to UFOs & the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis,” <em>Exopolitics Journal</em> 1:1 (October 2005), p. 2.</li>
<li>Dr. Steven Greer, “UFOs: What the Government Really Knows,” The Disclosure Project web site, <a href="http://www.disclosureproject.org/bassiorinterview.htm">www.disclosureproject.org/bassiorinterview.htm</a>. This is the text of an interview of Greer in Hustler magazine’s November 2005 issue.</li>
<li>Greer, “When Disclosure Serves Secrecy,” <a href="http://www.disclosureproject.org/disclosureserves.htm">www.disclosureproject.org/disclosureserves.htm</a> 1999.</li>
<li>Greer, “Implications for the Environment, World Peace, World Poverty, and the Human Future,” <a href="http://www.disclosureproject.org/execsummery/implications.htm">www.disclosureproject.org/execsummery/implications.htm</a>, March 2001.</li>
<li>Alfred Webre, “The end of terrestrial politics?” November 1, 2000, <a href="http://exopolitics.blogs.com/exopolitics/2005/10/the_end_of_terr.html">http://exopolitics.blogs.com/exopolitics/2005/10/the_end_of_terr.html</a></li>
<li>Carlson, “Ike and the Alien Ambassadors,” p. C1.</li>
<li>Salla, ““Eisenhower’s 1954 Meeting With Extraterrestrials: The Fiftieth Anniversary of America’s First Treaty With Extraterrestrials?” January 28, 2004. The author’s copy of this paper was printed out on February 8, 2004 at 4:01 p.m. Salla revised this paper and posted a new version, dated ‘Febuary (sic) 12, 2004,’ on his web site. Unless otherwise specified, the original January version is used.</li>
<li>Carlson, “Ike and the Alien Ambassadors,” p. C1.</li>
<li>Salla, “What Did President Eisenhower Secretly Know that led to him supporting a Revision of the Pledge of Allegiance,” <a href="http://www.exopolitics.org/Exo-Comment-17.htm">www.exopolitics.org/Exo-Comment-17.htm</a>, June 15, 2004.</li>
<li>Paul Kimball, “Canada and Flying Saucers, Vol. VI [Wilbert Smith - Competent? Credible? - Part 2]” <a href="http://www.redstarfilms.blogspot.com/2005_10_01_redstarfilms_archive.html">www.redstarfilms.blogspot.com/2005_10_01_redstarfilms_archive.html</a>.</li>
<li>Salla, ““Eisenhower’s 1954 Meeting With Extraterrestrials.”</li>
<li>Cooper, “The Secret Government: The Origin, Identity, and Purpose of MJ-12.”</li>
<li>John Lear, “Statement Released By: John Lear, December 29, 1987,” p. 2, 3.</li>
<li>“John Lear Disclosure Briefing,” Coast to Cost Radio (November 2003) www.coast to coastam.com/shows/2003/11/02.html. Salla was apparently not aware of Lear’s 1987 claims regarding a 1964 meeting at Holloman AFB, or that Cooper had written in 1989 that the meeting was at Edwards.</li>
<li>Cooper, “The Secret Government: The Origin, Identity, and Purpose of MJ-12.”</li>
<li>Salla, ““Eisenhower’s 1954 Meeting With Extraterrestrials.”</li>
<li>Salla, ““Eisenhower’s 1954 Meeting With Extraterrestrials.” February 12, 2004 version, <a href="http://www.exopolitics.org/Study-Paper-8-PF.htm">www.exopolitics.org/Study-Paper-8-PF.htm</a>. Lear’s 2003 account was apparently also the source for Salla’s later paper which claimed that “under God” was added to the Pledge of Allegiance as a result of the meeting. The younger Suggs’ description of the white-haired, blue eyed aliens with colourless lips was used by Salla in his conversation with Carlson.</li>
<li>Salla, “A Report on the Motivations and Activities of Extraterrestrial Races – A Typology of the Most Significant Extraterrestrial Races Interacting with Humanity,” <a href="http://www.exopolitics.org/Report-ET-Motivations-PF.htm">www.exopolitics.org/Report-ET-Motivations-PF.htm</a>, January 1, 2005.</li>
<li>Weber, “The Talmud of Jmmanuel and Jesus Christ as Possible UFO Contactee,” <a href="http://exopolitics.blogs.com/exopolitics/2005/11/coopradioorg_pr.html">http://exopolitics.blogs.com/exopolitics/2005/11/coopradioorg_pr.html</a>, and “Socio-political implications of the Talmud of Jmmanuel and the Henoch Prophecies, in the context of the life work of ‘Billy’ Eduard Albert Meier,” <a href="http://exopolitics.blogs.om/exopolitics/2005/11/sociopolitical_.html">http://exopolitics.blogs.om/exopolitics/2005/11/sociopolitical_.html</a>.</li>
<li>Webre, “A Vital Debate: ‘Remote Viewing as a research tool in Exopolitics,’” <a href="http://exopolitics.blogs.com/exopolitics/2005/10/remote_viewing_.html">http://exopolitics.blogs.com/exopolitics/2005/10/remote_viewing_.html</a> (Capitalizations in original text.)</li>
<li>Harold E. Burt, “UFO Hopefuls Get CSETI’s Spin on Remote Viewing,” <em>UFO Magazine</em> (December 1998), p. 7.</li>
</ol>
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