Looking in from the outside

The following post is courtesy of Ashley Ruff:

During the three and a half years that I have been dating Tony I have had the joy of watching him explore the world of forteana, hopping around from theory to theory. While observing Tony research, I have learned that the majority of people involved in this field are extremely immature. Are they childish for believing that the moon may be a hollow satellite? No. Are they silly for thinking that a giant dinosaur might live in Loch Ness? Not at all. The majority of the people involved in this field show a lack of maturity by not working together AND for not picking up where the last generation of researchers left off by exploring new theories or evolving those theories further.

I don't know how many times Tony has come to me and showed me some website where one guy shared a new/evolved theory about God knows what and a million people tore that guy's theory apart, instead of bothering to entertain it or waisting time pointing out something silly like grammatical flaws-looking past the theory and dissecting the man. Tony has told me about countless arguments where people waist valuable time fighting over pointless details instead of using that time to work together. AND don't even get me started on the politics involved. Debating theories is one thing, but I couldn't believe how these grown men and women would argue a theory by typing stupid insults (some veiled and some not). I'll never forget when one of Tony's friends and mentors was verbally attacked via the listeners' comment section on a website due to his “rebellious” opinions. It wouldn't be so bad if these people were debating theories like adults, but they act like children with name-calling and completely unrelated insults. These people are too busy promoting their pet theories and defending them like their religion than to come together. Aren't they all suppose to be working towards the same goal? Uncovering answers or something?

I've learned that they choose not to work together: finding it more effective to bring each other down, laugh at the theories of others, and generally act like a group of preschoolers . Fine. It's easier for the alien guys to stay in their own group and for the cryptozoology guys to stay in their corner and then the paranormal ghost guys are off in some abandoned building looking for a ghost or something. Maybe all of these weird events have connections (or maybe they don't), but since these groups choose to do their own thing we probably won't know.

They can choose not to work together, fine, but for God's sake get some new material. It's sad that these people spend their lives researching theories only to come to the same conclusions that the generations before them came to. Pick up where they left off! Use their theories as a launching point! Obviously they didn't find the answers, right? So use what they know and keep going. Very few people that Tony has told me about (or that I have heard) have been able to move on. I don't know much about this stuff but I've learned that MacTonnies, for example, was able to move past the standard ETH (alien crap) and go on to the Cryptoterrestrial Theory. Even Tony has been able to move past the cafeteria tray of forteana and begin attempting to find the connections.

It's not that I'm trying to offend anyone, but maybe they need a little offending. I thought it was typical that people working towards a common goal would work together. I'm not even saying that people shouldn't disagree, but don't put a theory on a pedestal. It's a THEORY for a reason. And maybe they could argue their points of view like adults, and really would it hurt to entertain a new theory? As far as we know none of the other theories have proven to be true so why hold fast to any?

I'm a senior in college, one of those artsy-fartsy kids that always has paint on their jeans. Before I met Tony I had little interest (and still have little interest) in this paranormal stuff. I enjoy a WhoForted? article now and then, I've been known to listen to MysteriousUniverse, go on a supposedly haunted road, etc., but I think it's sad that it takes an outsider, someone with no real stock in this field, to point out these two, seemingly obvious, flaws. And yet so few people are rocking the boat by stepping outside of their comfort zones, including their pet theories, by collaborating. Perhaps if (and when) a Bigfoot guy could sit down with a UFO guy and compare notes, something NEW could happen for a change. But, hey, I'm just an outsider. - Ashley R

What I've learned from the Phil Imbrogno fiasco

As I mentioned the other night, a then new thread had appeared on Above Top Secret that was authored by David Beidny. Rather than going back through it all, you can follow this link for my post about it or go to the thread at ATS for more info, I would like to spend a little bit of time telling you what this has taught me about the ufological 'field'. For the most part they are a bunch of bratty kids in a sandbox. All I have seen in that thread on ATS, is a good portion of veiled insults and misquotations and other such immature behaviors. I would say that I am shocked by this, but really I'm not.

Regardless of what comes of the Phil Imbrogno degree fiasco, I now have even less desire to be involved in the ufological issue. (Wonder why I prefer the moniker 'Fortean Philosopher'? It's not just that I identify with Charles Fort's world view) Now to be fair there are a good number of reasonable people that participated in (and are still participating in) that thread at ATS. But some bigger name people have been really just fighting back and forth about the issue. Not too shocking I know. I can't understand why people can't just disagree and still be civil.

The Imbrogno thing, one way or another, is certainly gonna be an opportunity for Ufology to reassess itself. As I stated in the post the other day, if Imbrogno has or doesn't have the degrees that he claims to this doesn't make him any more or less qualified to go running around looking for UFOs. People, both inside and outside of the field, fail to keep in mind the fact that at the moment there is no 'Degree in Ufology'.

This will probably be the last time I bring this up until I see more information one way or another, because it ultimately doesn't change anything for me. In my reality tunnel, there still exists an actual, external and quite possibly Non-Human, element behind some UFOs. Whether Phil Imbrogno has  a degree doesn't change this for me.

Odds and Ends

Tonight is a very slow night for me. I had a test earlier in my religion class and then I had to come home and start work on my presentation for my psychology class. We have to give a 5 to 7 minute presentation on a disease, in my case I will be presenting on Alzheimer's Disease. It doesn't sound like a lot, the 5 to 7 minutes part, but I almost always end up having stage fright right before I get up to do a presentation. Which is funny because people tend to think that I am quite naturally happy in front of a group. And depending on the location, and my familiarity with the topic I can be. But I just have a bad feeling that I will get nervous and mess up somehow. Inevitably I will just sike myself up and get it over with as early as possible. Luckily I have to present on the first day, so I will probably go like 2^nd or 3^rd (never first because I like to gauge the classes reactions to other people's presentations first).

The start of the summer semester coincided almost perfectly with my decision to begin blogging again. I had originally started blogging back in October of 2010, which was also when I tried my hand at podcasting (which if you really want to you can find those episodes here). For one reason or another though I quit working on the blog and didn't really think anything more about it until earlier this year when Tim Binnall gave a call for new writers for his site, Binnall of America. As I was sitting at work listening to the podcast, I suddenly said 'Fuck it, why don't I try to write for BOA'. This caused many curious stares from my coworkers that apparently had never heard of 'BOA' before. Long story short after I wrote my first couple of columns for BOA, I sorta put it all out of my mind and went on about my

business as usual. But for some reason on a Sunday in May, May 8^th to be exact, I decided to start blogging again. I figured a couple of things; 1) that people must obviously care what I have to say, 2) my insights would be unlike any other ever in the history of the Fortean, 3) it can't be that hard to blog.

I was wrong on literally every single one of those points. Well not entirely wrong, rather I was just naïve about the whole process. The first thing I learned was that blogging was not nearly as easy as I had originally assumed it to be. Especially because I set the bar fairly high for myself. I was going to have new quality posts every single night. After all the sites that I like to frequent are the ones that, you know, update daily. To top it off, I couldn't have picked a worse time to start blogging. Less than a week into the venture, I started back at school. That would be night classes of course. And so most evenings I have to juggle between homework, the blog, reading (my ever growing reading list is evidence I can't spend much time with books). Typically I manage to get out a fairly decent post every now and then. But it can be pretty tough sometimes.

But if it sounds like I'm complaining, I'm not. Really I have enjoyed working on this blog. It's been a crazy experience over the last couple of months. Watching the readership grow, seeing my blog listed on other people's sites. Especially sites of those that I admire and have a lot of respect for. Plus I've gotten a chance to talk with people I probably wouldn't have otherwise. So while it can sometimes be a huge pain in the butt to work on this blog, it's definitely a labor of love. It's come pretty far in just the two months that I have been posting at it, I can't wait to see were it will be by the end of the year. Or even the next year. It's success is thanks to you, whoever you are reading this right now. Maybe this is your first time here at Forteania (and if so let me say thanks for stopping by!) or you have been here for a little while. Thanks for sticking around and thank you to those that have commented.

In the end however I'm really doing this blog for selfish reasons. I think that I am hoping to learn something by doing this. Other wise whats the point right? Well that's all for tonight, this post was a bit rambling and I apologize for that. I just had to get these thoughts out, you know how it goes. I need to get going, because I actually have some down time so I can try and make a dent into my ever-expanding reading list. Until next time this is your friendly neighborhood Fortean Philosopher saying “Where's the beef?” (That can't still be copyrighted can it?)

Black Bear ur I mean Bigfoot Evidence Press Conference

Earlier this evening I had the 'wonderful' opportunity to watch the Sanger Paranormal Group's Bigfoot Press Conference via Live Stream. This was actually the first time I had watched any event by using Live Stream. I was actually pretty impressed by the site it's really cool idea. Basically it allows a person to give a live view of whatever event that they wish to show. As a matter of fact, I know of some podcasts that use Live Stream to allow you to watch them record. Anyway back to the actual press conference itself.

It was scheduled to begin at 7 pm EST, or 4 pm PST as the actual press conference took place in California, and since I had had a test tonight in my class I was able to get out early. I arrived home about 6:45 pm and noticed a tweet from Lon Strickler of Phantoms and Monsters (which is a pretty cool blog) mentioning that the Sanger Paranormal Group Bigfoot Press Conference was starting. So I dutifully followed the link to the live stream so that I would be able to relay to you dear readers, who were unable to view the conference, exactly what was going to go down.

The actual press event didn't begin until around 7:08 pm or so. During that time I logged into the Twitter chat that they had so that I would be able to live tweet what my reactions were to the “news”. So throughout this post I will be referring to those tweets so that you can get an idea of what exactly was going on during the event. Here was my first tweet:

Well that's debatable, the main guy just said we have the "best evidence" of bigfoot ever - #spsradio live on http://livestre.am/Jx9t

The main speaker, I can't find his name, had made a reference almost immediately to the fact that they had, at the conference, the best evidence available proving the existence of Bigfoot. But rather than jumping right into that they spend the first 15 minutes or so showing footprints that could easily be a human footprint. After a couple of footprint photos they move on to footage of “Bigfoot”. I don't know exactly what a Bigfoot is supposed to look like however I will say that this image is clearly a black bear.

Clearly a black bear and not 'Bigfoot'

All the time that they were showing this footage of the “Bigfoot” the main guy continually made reference to the fact that this wasn't a guy in a suit. So much so that I actually made the following remarks during the event:

Me thinks he doth protest too much - #spsradio live on http://livestre.am/Jx9t

"It's not a person in a suit" has been said more time than anything else thus far - #spsradio live on http://livestre.am/Jx9t

It seemed pretty clear from the still photos and videos that they showed that their 'Bigfoot' was really nothing more than a black bear. So here we were not even 20 minutes in and already I was having some clear reservations about the whole fiasco. But hey, I'm an open minded kind of guy so I figured, “What the Hell? I'll keep watching” (soon I would come to regret this as we shall see).

At this point they just continued going on and on about the “Bigfoot” videos/photos from earlier. When it had gotten to that point I said this:

OK so we've seen the black bear, where is the Bigfoot? - #spsradio live on http://livestre.am/Jx9t

The conference had been going on for about 30 minutes or so, so I decided to summarize everything that had taken place up to this point:

"Not a guy in a suit x 5, Black bear images x 6, and a bullshit story" Yep that sums it up - #spsradio live on http://livestre.am/Jx9t

Finally at this point they graciously moved on to far more convincing “evidence”. Here is that convincing evidence:

Better than the Patterson-Gimlin Film?

Yep. In case you can't make it out, it would appear that the truck glass had been attacked by something with paws. At this point they handed the microphone over to a forensic expert who proceeded to give a a 15 minute explanation on how this smudge could have been a bear or a mountain lion, but it also could have been a gorilla. This was somehow proof that it was a Bigfoot, now to his credit the 'forensic' guy made it pretty clear at the end of his spiel that he hadn't ruled out that it was just a bear.

Get off my screen you damned dirty ape!

By this point I was getting ready to turn the thing off, it was obvious that there wasn't going to be any real conclusive evidence. (Not that I had suspected there would be, but remember this guy is open minded). But then my ears pricked up when I heard the word DNA sample. I have to admit I was a little excited. Not because the DNA could 'prove' a Bigfoot, after all you would need to have something to compare it to, but it would allow for them to show what it wasn't.

Now hang on to your hats because this is where things get too much for me to handle. Someone from the audience asked if they have had the DNA tested yet. The reason that they didn't do this yet was because of how expensive DNA testing can be. But never fear faithful Bigfoot aficionado, you can help them get this DNA tested. All you have to do is give them money!

Yes dear readers you heard correctly, they are asking for 'donations'. It was at a this point that my patience had been tried one too many times during this 45 minute conference. I actually left at this point. I would like to provide you a quote from Who Forted?:

Complete and utter waste of time. They've just asked for money. Accidental wide shot of empty chairs in hall. Game over. #BigfootPressCon

I closed the live stream window at this point, because I was done. Between the insistence that the figure “wasn't a guy in a suit”, the all too human “Bigfoot” footprints, and the request for money. I had had enough. Not surprisingly we are left with nothing more than what we he had before we began. So basically if you didn't catch the press conference, count yourself lucky. Now if you will excuse me I need to go look at some Billy Meier photos, at least the one-armed Swiss farmer tries a little harder than these 'Paranormal Investigators'. Good night fellow Forteans!

Oops I did it again

So I recounted not too long ago (see here), that I was officially done with the UFO/Alien part of Above Top Secret (ATS). That lasted all of a couple of days, as I could not resist this thread 'You people do know that these “Aliens” or“UFOs” are in reality demonic spirits?'. I mean come on, how could I not respond to this kind of thread. Especially given that I finished Nick Redfern's excellent Final Events and the Secret Government Group on demonic UFOs and Aliens. The original poster opened with this amazingly well thought out point.

I've been researching this topic heavily for about 2 years, cause I wanted to debunk these claims. Well, what I stumbled upon I didn't really expect. I wasn't religious until about a year ago, after I discovered what I know about these things. I've been reading many books, including one called "Behold a Pale Horse" by Bill Cooper. Everyone here is pretty familiar with him, right? Well, his writings are not what made me decide they were demonic. I've been reading some of J. Allen Hynek's books. This man was a very well respected researcher in the UFO field. He, like myself, wanted to debunk this nonsense. He came to the conclusion that these are extra dimensional beings, or demonic spirits. Now I needn't to tell you that Hynek was not religious. Hynek died a few years back.. Anyways, the scriptures do talk about this subject. Let me post a scripture here..

Revelation 16:13-14

King James Version (KJV)

13And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.

14For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.

These demonic entities are working miracles, trying to get everyone together, so they can fight God at Armageddon.

I've also been reading Aleister Crowley's writings, which are very hard to understand being that I have no experience in magick. But Aleister Crowley made a drawing of a spirit he had conjured up. This spirit looks exactly like what we would call "The greys" today.

Actually I had pointed this out in a recent post too. Anyway, I read through about three pages of garbage before I got fed up with the craziness in the thread. So finally I had to post the following.

I will be honest and upfront, I only read the first 3 pages of posts. (That in and of itself should get me an award of some kind). I only have this to say, and if you have read any of my other posts here it will not be unfamiliar to you. To you the OP I say this, '2 years' of research is not enough time in this field to reach any conclusion. Whatsoever. Period. This is the same problem that I have with the wide-eyed 'True Believer's' and the Pseudo-skeptics. In this crazy field of assorted Fortean topics, you can never really be sure of anything. Could it be demons? Yes it COULD be. But is it necessarily? No. Just as it isn't necessarily Aliens from Zeta Reticuli nor atmospheric conditions or misidentification of classified craft.

Having said that however, it really could be all of those things. The main thing that we need to keep in mind, but we will not and my response here will likely be ignored as it always is, is that we just don't know. Keep repeating that to yourselves. Is there some kind of phenomenon at the heart of the UFO enigma, I think so. But what it is, I'm not ready to say just yet. Simply because I don't know. Just my 2 cents

Yeah I know, I'm just wasting my time. But really I couldn't resist. For what it's worth if you really want to dive into the UFO/Demon thing, Nick Redfern's book is a great place to start. OK for real this time I'm definitely done with the UFO part of ATS. Maybe. Probably.

Definition of Insanity?

I have often heard that an unofficial definition of insanity is repeatedly doing the same task yet expecting a different out come each time. As an example jumping off a roof hoping that eventually you will be able to fly. Well I have recently decided that I must be insane. I have related a few times on this blog that I on occasion frequent the forums over at AboveTopSecret (ATS). The only topics that I tend to gravitate and respond in are typically the UFO/Alien topics. I mean 'go with what you know' right?

Well with that in mind I went to a thread entitled 'UFOs are Alien: Evidence!'. Now I just couldn't resist going in to that thread and reading what evidence was going to be offered. I was really excited, not because I thought the evidence was going to be particularly compelling (turns out I was right), but because I knew it was going to be eye roll worthy. The original poster opens with this phrase:

A new theory emerged, that the flying discs (that we call UFOs) are all made by our Governments. It is true that our Governments are now able to replicate 'UFOs', but the originals belong to extraterrestrial beings.

Before photography was invented, humans had the cave paintings, cuneiform depictions, written texts and spoken tales of UFOs and extraterrestrial beings.

I think this is pretty good evidence that UFOs are mainly of Extraterrestrial origins. Long before we were able to use 'anti-gravity' flying vehicles, our ancestors witnessed them in the skies.

As far as posts go on ATS its about par for the course. I wasn't entirely sure what the author was trying to convey. I thought that basically he was saying that because we had strange cave paintings and other such early human images of strange things, that they must by definition be ET. Knowing me as you probably do by now, especially if you have been reading this blog for some time, I responded with the well reasoned (of course I might be biased) post below: (Also keep in mind I was posting from work so my initial response was a little short)

Well just because there might have been advanced technologies in antiquity does not necessarily make it ET. It could just as likely have been an advanced human civilization that is currently unknown or suspected to have existed (think Atlantis or Lemuria).

Great response right? I know I'm a genius. All joking aside my point was that simply because we find depictions of what we interpret to be 'flying objects' on rock walls or whatever, doesn't necessarily somehow indicate an ET presence in our prehistoric Earth. Well it wasn't long until the original author was ready to offer a rebuttal. His response:

                        Why, because ETs don't exist?

Now, I don't think that I'm 'in' Ufology the same way that say Greg Bishop, Nick Redfern, or Paul Kimball are. But I imagine that response was akin to being called a disinfo agent or a skeptic/debunker. I have to be completely honest, I was a little flattered. I don't think that is what my response had said, or to be more accurate it wasn't what I was trying to imply. Much like with my posts on here about the UFO phenomena, I just don't think you necessarily have to shout ET every time something strange is brought up. Which brings me to my reply to his question:

No but you don't necessarily have to evoke the 'ET' meme in order to explain things like ancient cave paintings. In his book Supernatural Graham Hancock explores the possibility that rock art was created while under the influence of hallucinogens such as ayahuasca. That wasn't to say that what they were seeing wasn't 'real' but that it didn't exist in our realm of 'reality'. Of course the likelihood of their being ET intelligences in our universe is almost an inevitability. And I am even a fan of the Paleo-contact Theory. However I feel that there is far too much emphasis on the ET part of the ETH. For instance perhaps the technologies that were witnessed by our ancestors could have been of the Cryptoterrestrial civilization that was proposed by the late Mac Tonnies. Sometimes I fell that people need to be more willing to think outside of the 'ET' box. Just my 2 cents.

That isn't anything you haven't heard me say on this blog a million times (bit of hyperbole there for you). And it has gotten to the point where I have said it on ATS to where I almost blue in the face. The original author of the thread (as of now when I am typing this) has yet to reply to my response. Perhaps he gave up, or he wasn't going to change his mind anyway. Which brings me to the point of this post. I have repeatedly stated on ATS my views and opinions on the UFO phenomena and its possible origins to absolutely no avail. And after my final response in this thread here:

Yeah it was the works of Jacques Vallee and John Keel that really got me to open my mind to the multitude of possibilities that may exist out there. You're right in that some UFOs could or even probably are an ET presence of some form or another. The problem as I see it though is that we have been thinking that it was Aliens for over 60 yrs now in this field (you know at least the majority Vallee and Keel notwithstanding) and yet we haven't really learned anything at all. For reasons like that I was really attracted to Mac Tonnies' book, which of course was just an option and even he didn't necessarily believe that was the 'Answer'. Because whatever the ultimate 'answer' ends up being it will likely be something so far beyond our current comprehension that we may have to evolve more to even hope to understand it.

I have decided that I'm not really learning anything from that website, at least not by contributing anyway. I'm not arrogant enough to think I have the right answers or anything. I just hope that I am at least looking at this phenomena with the right attitude. I think that one reason I haven't won any fans over on that site is that I refuse to be pigeonholed. I'm not a believer, but at the same time I'm not a disbeliever. I am simply a Fortean Philosopher. To me the answer, if we can ever even find it let alone understand it, probably lies somewhere in the middle of the believer/disbeliever dichotomy.

And so for the foreseeable future I am done with that website, I don't begrudge the people that would go to it and I still would recommend those that are interested in Alternative News/Views check it out. Just be advised that the UFO/Alien part suffers greatly from the True Believer vs Pseudo-Skeptic thing that much of the Ufological 'field' suffers from. So as always I am left with posting my rantings and ravings here, listening to the few good podcasts that exist out there (RadioMisterioso and Binnall of America), and talking on Twitter to the one person I consider to be friend in this 'field', Paul Kimball. Thats all my bitching for tonight, so until next time I will leave you with a (probably) familiar Charles Fort quote.

“I conceive of nothing, in religion, science or philosophy, that is more than the proper thing to wear, for a while."

Mid-day Update

This has been sort of a strange week for me and for Forteania. For most of the week I have been unable to post the regular content that you have become accustomed to over the last month. Mostly this is because of my summer classes, which I need in order to complete my college degree. Because I was pretty immature a few years back I actually dropped out of college instead of finishing my Associates Degree (or the first two years of school in the US). So now I have decided to go back in order to most likely pursue a Biology Degree (I'm not 100% sure about that but it seems the most likely option). To make an exceptionally long story as short as possible, I decided to start back during the summer semester with just a few classes in order to get back in the swing of things.

Well that didn't really help too much. This week, more so than when I started about 3 weeks ago, has really kicked my ass. As a result the Forteania has suffered a little bit. But no more! I have decided to try and dedicate some time in order to get the posts that you have come to know and love from Forteania. So later tonight you will see a more 'typical' Forteania post. Only because I have really enjoyed doing this blog and it seems to be getting some positive reaction. It has been really good for my writing as well and it is a great outlet for some of my crazy theories about all things Fortean. So anyways check back a little bit later tonight for an actual post!

-Closet Anomalist Tony

A question of belief

I'm gonna get a little personal in this post tonight. Let me start off by saying that I'm 24 years old, consider myself an agnostic about God, and if I had to put a label on myself (and it seems that if I don't someone else might) I would say that I am a Fortean. As I assume most of you wouldn't be here without some understanding of what that word means, please stay with me as I give a brief definition for those that may not be as familiar with it as you. In a nutshell a 'Fortean' is a person that follows in the tradition of Charles Fort. Whose philosophy is, I think at least, best summed up in this quote;

"I conceive of nothing, in religion, science or philosophy, that is more than the proper thing to wear, for a while."

The way I take that is that I don't 'believe' anything for more than just a little while. Until or unless something comes along that makes me reconsider it. Or to put it another way, I like to be as flexible in what I believe as is humanly possible. I say that because we all unfortunately operate under an inherent bias, whether because of our culture, upbringing, or environment. I'm biased towards there being a 'supernatural' explanation towards Fortean phenomena. However I don't like to stick to any one theory for more than a little while.

We have been down that road already a number of times in the past, so allow me to go in a slightly different directions. Because of my beliefs, or rather lack of beliefs, I can't understand why people don't allow others to think what they wish about a topic. Why is it that UFOs have to be aliens? Is it really just because people have built their entire careers out of saying this? Well yeah probably, but there has to be more to it than that right? It seems like you can get into a lot of trouble with whatever your beliefs are. So rather than just dogmatically stating it as fact, such as UFOs = alien spacecraft, why can't you just say “In my opinion, UFOs=alien spacecraft.” Maybe books don't sell as well that way?

To my mind this is why Fort's quote up at the top is so important to keep in mind. Look ultimately I don't mind if you are of the opinion that UFOs are alien spacecraft. Will that color your research? Well most definitely. But right now I'm talking about beliefs. I don't wish to begrudge anyone their beliefs. So why would you begrudge me mine? If I wish to assume, at least as a temporary hypothesis, that UFOs represent a Cryptoterrestrial presence among us, how does that really affect you? Does it destroy the 'credibility' of the UFO field? Newsflash, the UFO 'field' has zero credibility with the rest of the world anyway.

Is it because it doesn't sound as good on the lecture circuit? Yeah probably so, again remember my recent post about at least one of the speakers at the MUFON symposium. She was a standard UFO=alien, abductions = alien/human hybridization program types. Which, contrary to what my post may have seemed to indicate, is all good. That's her 'reality tunnel' to borrow the RAW phrase. What this all means is that I just want to be left alone with my beliefs and opinions. In the medium that we are using to communicate right now, namely a blog, if you don't like what I'm saying or you don't agree with it you can just simply stop reading. But guess what? The same thing applies to the 'real world'. If we are friends and you don't like or agree with what I'm saying, you basically have two very simple options; either you tell me to go the hell away and never talk to you again, or you concede that we have different opinions and go about your business.

This post is probably rambling all over the place and for that I apologize. (Because that is obviously different from the 'quality' postings that you have come to know and love, right?) I really just needed to get all of that off of my chest and I thank you for 'listening'. As I have stated since beginning to blog again, this adventure is very therapeutic for me in a lot of ways. Most days it allows me to talk to someone other than my loving girlfriend (who is interested in these things because I am, and bless her she puts up with a lot of my rantings and ravings) to talk to about my opinions about Fortean things in general. I'm going to wrap it up now because I'm hungry and I still have to study for my test tomorrow night. I will leave you with one final Charles Fort quote before signing off;

"One measures a circle, beginning anywhere."

Until next time this is your friendly neighborhood Fortean Philosopher, saying thanks for listening guys and gals.

Disclosure? Not likely.

I often find myself frequenting the forums over at Above Top Secret (ATS). Its an interesting place with a very eclectic collection of posters and topics. Everything from UFOs to Chemtrails can be found at this mostly cool site. Honestly, as most places on the net that deal with these topics, though it has its fair share of the 'True Believer' types. While I was perusing the site earlier today this thread popped up, 'Disclosure Dates have dried up.' I recommend that you check it out for yourself, but I will summarize the posters thoughts.

Basically it seemed like for a long time on ATS, there were daily threads about Disclosure being imminent. Usually the threads were from the websites of the usual suspects behind these shenanigans (i .e. David Wilcock, Stephen Greer,  or Michael Salla). Always with titles like 'Disclosure Imminent', or 'Disclosure By Year's End'. For about a year or so it was almost all you could find in the UFO section at  Above Top Secret. Needless to say it got a little tiresome, more so because Disclosure is probably bullshit.

What I mean is that the government is never going to 'disclose' anything about the UFO phenomenon. And no its probably not because of secret treaties signed to allow for abductions, or in exchange for advanced technology. They aren't going to 'disclose' because (spoiler alert!) they don't know anymore than Ufologists do. I will wait while you wipe the coffee or drink that you spit out on your monitor up. Or give you a chance to wake up from fainting. I know this news is likely shocking to you. The 'all powerful' government has to know everything right?

I think its much more likely that the reason there has been no official disclosure is because ultimately they (the ubiquitous 'they') also don't really have an idea as to whats behind the UFO phenomena. Now don't get me wrong, I'm sure they have better film or video footage or perhaps even some tangible evidence (of the solid crafts that seem to fly through our skies at least). But beyond that? They've got nothing. And if news of that got out it would be more upsetting than the 'disclosure' of ET's to religion. Most American's assume that we are reasonably protected by our Military. But the US Military can in no way, shape, or form stop these things from doing whatever they want. (I'm not arguing motivations of the 'aliens' right now, obviously if they wanted to take us over War of the Worlds style they could have thousands of years ago).

The US Military, by having the reality of UFOs disclosed, would be admitting to an amount of impotence that they likely can't afford to show.  The easiest way to control the situation would be through, oh I dunno say 60 years of ridicule? Anyway feel free to disagree with me, but I think that this makes the most logical sense as to why there has never been, nor will there likely ever be, Disclosure of any kind. At least on the part of humanity, anyway. Until next time this is your friendly neighborhood Fortean Philosopher asking you to remember what John Keel once said “The American Public isn't telling the Air Force the truth about Flying Saucers”

I'm not the only one ..... right?

Among the many consequences of being a Closet Anomalist is that you often don't get a chance to talk with others about how they feel about strange or Fortean things. Many times since becoming fascinated by these kinds of topics I have wondered, 'Am I the only one who is interested in these topics?' I know logically I can't be. Just look at the proliferation of 'ghost hunting' TV shows. Clearly some TV executives somewhere are green lighting these programs because they know the shows will be profitable. I'm talking more about on an interpersonal level. You know day-to-day life.

I sit around in public places, either on my net book at conspiracy/paranormal websites or reading paranormal books, and watch other people around me and wonder; 'Have they ever seen a ghost? A UFO? Been to a séance?' For some reason I believe that a lot of others in the paranormal/conspiracy field (at least those that aren't prolific in some way, like Nick Redfern, Paul Kimball, or Greg Bishop. These are all guys who are at least fairly well known within the field) feel the same way as I do, in that they keep it as a dark secret. This can definitely lead to the feelings of superiority that some give off, especially in the Conspiracy Theory arena. You know that whole 'I know the Truth about Fluoride in the water and/or the Illuminati', but it also exists to a degree within the UFO field especially.

I realize that the best way to get over this would be to begin to ask my close friends these kinds of questions. For whatever reason though, I can't seem to make it over that hurdle. It would be nice to know that others have at least entertained these thoughts. Before I began listening to podcasts, like Tim Binnall's Binnall of America or Greg Bishop's Radio Misteriso, or really before I ever got on the Internet, I really did think I was the only one thinking about these topics. I realize now that a whole lot of people are fascinated by these topics, and for good reasons. If any of these things are true or happening they could radically change how we perceive reality.

I think I will begin to make baby steps in the direction of being more open about this aspect of my personality. I don't mean that I will make up business cards that say “Tony Morrill Fortean Philosopher” or anything like that (unless of course I could get a good deal on some). But you know it would be cool to get other's perspectives on these topics. That's definitely one of the reason's I have but also it's given me a chance to talk to people I may not have been able to talk to before. Not because I didn't think they would have answered, but that I have gotten more confidence from doing this blog. As a matter of fact I commented to my girlfriend last night that it was a lot easier to get involved in this Ufological 'field' than I had thought.

Well that's all I have for now, I was supposed to be doing my homework and studying for a test. But I had to get this out for the time being, don't worry there will be another post at the regularly scheduled posting time. Until then behave yourselves Internet. Hopefully by tonight I will be able to report that I will have at least talked to one person about UFOs. Wish me luck!

To join or not to join, that is the question.

    I related a few weeks back how I was trying to stop being so much of a Closet Anomalist. Aside from my continued blogging here at Forteania, the easiest way I felt that I could really 'come out' so to speak was by joining a Fortean group. The one that immediately sprang to my mind, as I'm sure it does to other's as well, was MUFON. The Mutual UFO Network is arguably one of the best know Ufological groups in the US, if not in the world. I have to be honest though as soon as I thought about MUFON I almost immediately discarded the idea. MUFON has had a lot of issues in the last few years, and many of the more public faces of the organization would probably not feel out of place in a Church of Ufology.

  However my need to burst out of my shell and finally be able to speak openly with people about all of these strange topics overrode that initial gut reaction I had, so I sought out to join my local MUFON chapter. As I related in a recent post (see Closet Anomalist/Fortean updates!) when I went to the main MUFON website, it offers you links to your local chapters website. So I followed the links to the South Carolina Chapter of MUFON's home page and for just a few minutes I though I had been transported back to 1998. Seriously check it out and see if you disagree. Go on, I'll wait. OK are you back? Can you believe that? I mean I realize that my blog isn't exactly the most Flash or Java heavy site out there, but at least its better than a block of text that apparently hasn't been updated since 1999.   

Even after this bit of disillusionment, I still decided to struggle through. I figured that maybe they had just been so busy with meetings and investigations that perhaps they didn't have time to fix up the website or hire some web builder to do it for them. With this in my mind I called both numbers located on the site, neither one returned an answer. It was a sad moment for your friendly neighborhood Closet Anomalist. But it was then that I noticed there was an email address that you could use to contact the State Director! I set about emailing the director, I asked the director if (1) The local MUFON group was still holding meetings, and (2) if so where/when and how could I attend?   

Thankfully the director was able to return my email within about 11 hours, which was really prompt and I was very happy about that. Unfortunately however the answer I got wasn't exactly what I was hoping for. Basically she informed me that my local chapter of MUFON is no longer holding meetings and that if I wanted to do anything with MUFON I would have to join the website. Except that is exactly what I didn't want to do. Remember I wanted to actually meet people in meat space in order to discuss these kinds of Fortean topics. Since I didn't have any alternative I signed up for the mailing list, after all I'm not going to pay their membership fee cause I'm cheap, and so I started receiving emails from MUFON.       

That brings me back to today, on Monday I received an email from MUFON describing one of the speakers that they would be having at the annual MUFON Symposium. The particular speaker that they had singled was Barbara Lamb. Now Lamb is, evidently, a licensed Psychotherapist who has had 21 years of research in the Ufological field. The gist of her speech is going to be on the 'Alien-Human Hybrid' problem that is facing humanity. Quoting from the actual email “She will describe the methods used to achieve hybridization, how long hybridization has been occurring, the reasons given by the ETs for creating hybrid offspring, and the success rate and failure rate in creating hybrids who could live successfully on earth. She will give examples of ETs genetically modifying human babies in their mothers' wombs, resulting in exceptional children such as Star Kids, Indigo Children, and Crystal Children. She will mention alleged hybrid people who are already living on earth, some of whom she has met.”  

That pretty much sealed the deal for me right then and there. Having just finished writing an (apparently successful) post about the 'First Church of Ufology', I actually almost threw up when I read the email. This was almost exactly the kind of stuff that I think is wrong with Ufology. I mean here is a group that gives off the veneer of being a respectable scientific organization but they are letting a lady speak about what basically amounts to a part of a belief system. The email reads, at least to me, like something you might find in a New Age magazine. Not that there is anything wrong with that necessarily but I mean come on, Indigo Children, really?  

The email basically helped me come to the conclusion that MUFON is not an organization that I necessarily want anything to do with. While it may be good for some people, it is definitely not the organization for me. At this point I seem to be stuck on the Internet as my only outlet for my Fortean shenanigans. I'm not complaining, I have loved doing this blog, and its given me chance to talk to some cool people in the Fortean field. I may have to remain a Closet Anomalist a little while longer, in the mean time of course I will continue blogging here and writing for Binnall of America. Well that's all for tonight, this is Tony your friendly neighborhood Fortean Philosopher saying have a good one.

Why do I continue?

    Many times I have often wondered why it is exactly that I stick around in the realm of Forteania, and especially Ufology. I mean I know the reason why I got into all of this mess in the first place (see my first column of Fortean Ramblings over at Binnall of America entitled 'Origin Story' for more), but why is it that day after day I never get tired of all of the countless shenanigans? Why after so many years do I still find myself listening with renewed interest as yet another explanation is offered for Roswell (follow the link for the latest one)? How come it is that even though it is disappointing, I still sometimes watch the 'lights in the sky' videos that are so often ridiculed on YouTube? Is it because 'I want to Believe'?

    Some might say yes this is exactly what is going on. Your friendly neighborhood Closet Anomalist suffers from yet another delusional belief system that causes him to seek proof for the very precepts he holds dear. Well I would like to think that is wrong. Of course it's true that on some level I do have some opinion about theses topics: be they UFO, Ghost, ET, or what have you, because why the hell else would I have a blog or a column over at BOA? (Now is where somebody will likely interject and say, well Tony it's simply because you like to 'hear' yourself talk. Which I guess is true, but it's not the only reason I am doing this damn thing.)

    No I would like to think that my intentions are far more noble (who doesn't right?) I want to find out what the ubiquitous 'Truth' is. Now bear in mind that's truth with a capital 'T' of course. Which in my mind would entail finding out just what exactly is behind all of the assorted Fortean phenomenon that I enjoy reading about so much. I would like to think that no matter what the explanations are for the phenomenon, no matter how potentially 'mundane' they may turn out to be, that I would still be willing and able to accept this reality. Take for instance, if somehow one could prove all sightings of unidentified craft spotted by even professional pilots, as nothing more than say some kind of atmospheric hallucination, I would be willing to accept that.

    Unfortunately however many players on either side of the fence, be they 'True Believer's' or 'Debunkers', are not willing to have this kind of open and honest dialogue about some arguably bizarre interactions are species has or had with something that many would argue we don't completely understand yet. As I have stated almost ad nauseum at this point, the problems with both groups is that they already have the answers that they are looking for. Which is fine if you are in a religion or a religious group, and that is what these two camps are I would argue. They both have their core set of belief's, or well in the case of the Debunker's 'disbeliefs', that they hold to be self evident. For many of the True Believer crowd, UFOs are ET spacecraft. Whereas for the Debunker's UFOs are misinterpretation of natural phenomenon. But you know maybe, just maybe the answer lies some where in the middle.

    Perhaps the phenomenon is comprised of both simultaneously. A pilot spots a UFO (in this sense meaning an artificial craft, that is not just a natural phenomenon), but then the next night sees a strange light in the sky, that turns out to be headlights reflecting off an air pocket or something. The latter by no means invalidates the former. This I think leads ultimately to why I am still here. Why I still put up with the shenanigans, is because I think it ultimately reminds us that we really still don't know everything. And that mystery is certainly enough for me to put up with all of the bullshit that comprises the field of Fortean Phenomena and specifically Ufology.

Lazy Sunday

    Boy it's definitely a lazy Sunday. I don't have a whole lot to talk about just yet, somehow surviving an apocalypse wasn't as life-affirming as I thought it would be. Although I suppose that we still had the whole Anonymous 'Operation UFO' thing to look forward to, but as of this writing nothing has happened. (Hang on and let me check just to make sure) Yeah just as I thought, nothing has happened yet.

    Oh well I suppose that there is always next time for a massive UFO hoax. Really this has been an extra disappointing weekend, first the Rapture didn't occur on Saturday clearly. And then today obviously the UFO hoax hasn't happened yet either. Although I really didn't expect either event to happen. Well I should say that the Anonymous hoax thing seemed much more likely to occur than the Rapture but still.
   
    Not surprisingly conspiracy websites have been a flutter today about how the May 21st  Rapture was in fact some kind of disinfo program to discredit the 'real' apocalypse set to occur on Dec 21st 2012. The logic being that TPTB (the powers that be) allowed/caused the whole May 21st Rapture thing reach such heights in the Mainstream media, so that as many people as possible could be exposed to it. Then when it didn't come to pass, anybody that believed in it would be proven a fool. I know this seems fairly sketchy here but stay with me. OK so once this apocalypse was seen to be false, naturally no one would thus accept the reality of the so called 'actual' apocalypse. That way only the elites would survive the coming apocalypse, because only they would know it was happening and thus prepare for it appropriately.
   
    I don't believe this is the reality of what was going on, but I must admit I have a soft spot in my heart for clearly stupid conspiracy theories. There is something comforting, perhaps in a bizarre way, about conspiracy theories. They allow us to believe that there is some kind of order in all of the chaos. I'm not arguing that conspiracies don't occur of course. They do on some level. But the ones I used to accept as true, but have since come to question are those about like overarching plans to rule the world. There are a lot of problems with theories such as this, for one thing the groups have supposedly been working towards these ends for centuries. Secondly, for a secret plot it sure has gotten a whole crap town of air time. And finally, why the hell have they waited so damn long? It's not as if the majority of the first world citizens would exactly stand up and demand they stop.
   
    Like I said today was kind of a slow day and we will return with regularly scheduled posting tomorrow night. Just some stuff to think about between now and then. So behave yourselves, and also be sure to look out for a 'triangular shaped craft with eight lights'. This is Tony, the Closet Anomalist, saying stay classy.

The First Church of Ufology

In many churches all over America, no matter the religion or denomination, you will likely see a similar scenario play out. A speaker is at the front of a group of people, he is passionately waxing philosophical about some topic that is pertinent to the believers. Perhaps he is admonishing them that the end of days is upon them, or that they are all sinful and in need of salvation. But whatever the message is about, if you were to look out amongst the crowd of faithful you would see heads nodding in solemn agreement. Whatever the particulars of the talk may be, all of the members of the audience likely already believe what is being spoken is 100 % valid and true. For many it is a confirmation of their beliefs.

I bring this up because earlier today I was listening to the Paracast while at work. (I fortunately have the good luck to work at a company that allows us cubicle zombies to at least listen to music in order to pass the otherwise monotonous hours away). I was listening to the episode from about two weeks ago, when Gene and Chris had on Grant Cameron a Ufologist that operates Presidential UFOs. Cameron is definitely what I would consider a 'mainstream' member of ufology, as ironic as something like that is to say. Even so Cameron accepts as fact that the Earth is being visited by Extraterrestrials and that the Government is not only covering it up, but somehow is simultaneously letting some information out as a means of allowing for the gradual disclosure of the 'Other' to your average Joe Shmoe on the street.

A little over two years ago I would have been sitting down listening to that podcast (which I recommend you taking a listen to by the way), and just like the people from my earlier example I would have sat nodding my head at some of the things discussed. Majestic 12 was a secret group set up to liaison with the Extraterrestrials or other assorted activities. The Government was keeping the secret from the people because it would only cause panic. The best way to avoid the panic, it was thought, would be to gradually disclose the reality of the ET's to mankind.

After having read such classic Fortean writers like Jacques Vallee and John Keel, reading all of Mac Tonnies work, and listening to people such as Greg Bishop, Paul Kimball, and Nick Redfern, I slowly came out of my 'believer' paradigm that I had been trapped in. Up until I was introduced to these great thinkers, I was just like the attendants at the church. I just nodded in solemn agreement with what was said. Whenever someone spoke of Roswell, I knew automatically they were talking about the recovery of a flying disc that was piloted by diminutive Greys from Zeta Reticuli. Now however I let my mind wander and realize that the possibilities are endless for what may, or may not, have occurred that summer night in July back in 1947.

Cameron on the other hand sounded to me like a 'true believer'. He was still like one of those attendants at the religious meetings. From the interview it sounded to me like Cameron already knows the reality that is attendant with the UFO phenomena, but as those Fortean writers/thinkers have pointed out in their work we still don't really have any idea what is going on. If we already 'know' the answer's to what is behind the phenomena, why keep asking questions?

Ufology - The elephant in the room

So following on with my theme this week, because last weeks theme was labels or terms, I would like to continue decrying the state of Ufology. Earlier tonight marked my first return to the college world. After 5 long years I have decided to reembark upon the journey of getting my degree. The first class that I had this evening was Religion 101. It's a requirement I believe at most colleges as part of their humanities studies. Anyway as it was the first day of class we didn’t do too much besides going over the class syllabus and class rules, specifically regarding attendance (during the professor's diatribe I momentarily forgot that I was in college but I digress).

We were able to actually delve into some of the topic that was at hand, namely that of religion. Once we reached a certain story I thought that it was quite pertinent to my bitching this week about the state of Ufology. Now mind you I realize that I am not the first person that has made the comparison with the following parable, so I am by no means trying to take credit for it. However I thought that today it seemed quite synchornistic that it should happen to come up during the week were I was already decrying about the ills of modern day Ufology. I well reproduce the story in it's entirety and let you the reader figure out how it relates to my views on what is wrong with Ufology today. After that I will leave you to decide for yourself whether or not I was accurate. So I will sign off for now and leave you with the parable, I hope you enjoy. This is your favorite Closet Anomalist, saying 'Peace out bitches!'

A former king of the town of Savatthi ordered all his blind subjects to be assembled and divided into groups. Each group was then taken to an Elephant and introduced to a different part of the animal -the head, the trunk, legs, tail, and so forth. Afterwards, the king asked each group to describe the nature of the beast. Those who had made contact with the head described an elephant as a water-pot; those familiar with ears likened the animal to a winnowing-basket; those who had felt the tusks insisted an elephant was shaped like a peg; and those who had felt the leg said an elephant was like a post, The groups then fell into arguing amongst themselves, each insisting its definition was correct and all the others were wrong. (source: Damien Keown, Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction [London: Oxford University Press, 1996] pg 1)

I did it for the lulz part deux

As a follow up to my post from the other night about Anonymous and their Operation UFO, I wanted to point out just how funny some people in Ufology can be. Not long after word broke that the hacktivist group may be trying to pull a fast one over on the 'True Believers' and other assorted gullible types, many online disucssion groups were all a buzz at how this was most likely a military psy-op.

The logic being that this Operation UFO was being set up because, ostensibly, the military must have known that a real event is likely to occur that night and they wished to cover it up. Lots of people online were echoing this same sentement. Now dont get me wrong I love a good conspiracy theory as much as the next guy, hell my personal motto is 'just becasue you're paranoid doesn't mean that they aren't out to get you', but come on be a little reasonable please. 

Sometimes things really are or can be taken at face value. In this case I think that it is entirely likely that Anonymous really is just trying to hoax or pull a prank on people for the lulz. While it's true that I can't rule out the possibility that the first person that suggested this prank was some person who had inside information about an event due to occur on Sunday. I can be willing to bet a lot of money that this is not the case.

I said in that same previous post that I thought one of the main issues with Ufology is that many young people  don't really wish to get involved in the field. Though I do believe that this is still an issue I would like to add an addendum to that posting. The main problem with this field is the amount of sheer ignorance that comes to play in it. I mean be reasonable, have there been psy-ops? Yes of course there have. Have some of them in some way been involved with Ufology? Sure I don't see why not, but surely not everything is a psy-op/disinfo project. 

It seems to me that it is high time this field grew up in a lot of ways. I mean if we ever expect to move beyond just reports of lights in skies or 'abduction' reports and get to some actual information, we will need to stop entertaining these very silly notions. Will doing this fix Ufology completely? No of course not, after all there is still the issue of some Sacred Cow's that need to be dealt with by discarding them for the old useless relics that they are. But I really think it would be a step in the right direction.

Misadventures in PC Buying

OK so I took the day off from work because I felt like crap. In addition to that I start back to class tomorrow and I figured I could get away with missing a day in order to have a 'mental health day'. It felt great. Not only did I get to sleep in a few hours later than normal, my girlfriend and I ended up going to Best Buy to pick me a net book.

It wasn’t my intention today to actually buy the damn thing, after all we do have a laptop that we share. But in the last week or so since I have been posting more frequently, I have kind of been hogging the computer. With the possibility that I may end up actually writing articles for magazines, plus the fact that my classes will be starting tomorrow, we decided that the benefits out weighed the cons. So we purchased the strangely named Eee PC from ASUS. Now this is by no means a paid advertisement for ASUS, but if you are going to buy a PC definitely get an ASUS.

Anyways, I had figured that after the purchase of the net book I would quickly be able to get back to working on my article. Boy oh boy how wrong could I be? Once we got home I had to do the initial boot of the computer. That took about 15 minutes. Next I had to go about the oh so important process of installing necessary programs (read Mozilla Firefox, IE 8 can go jump off a bridge). When finally this was accomplished, I was able to set up my home group in order to move over my old documents. These included my articles for Binnall of America, backups for Forteania, and my article for the magazine. Once this was accomplished I decided to get working back on the article. Once I opened (or attempted to open) the document. Blam! A little pop up came that extolled me to either activate my version of Microsoft Office 2010 (don't have one), purchase a version from the online store (definitely not going to happen), or use the kind of shitty Microsoft Starter version of Word. So as I didn't want to do any of those things, I opted for downloading Open Office. The download took all of about 3 hours.

3 grueling hours later Open Office was finally ready to be installed. Once this process completed, which surprisingly didn't take all that long to do. It was at this moment that the computer happily informed me that 31 updates were ready to be installed for the computer. Evidently these were vital updates that, if they were not installed, could possibly result in the destruction of all mankind. Well you can sleep well tonight with the knowledge that I decided to spare all of your lives by installing the necessary updates. (No thanks needed, just send money). Finally everything was updated and I was good to go. So I opened up my article.... only to discover that I was actually working with an older version that had about 1000 fewer words than my new one. Luckily I had a jump drive nearby , loaded the latest version of the article.

So here we are almost 8 hours after the purchase of my net book and I am finally ready to get started on my article. Of course it was about that time that I realized I hadn't blogged all day, and that about brings you up to speed. I will be posting again a little later tonight, after I have hopefully gotten a chance to make a dent into my article. Until then this is your friendly neighborhood Closet Fortean (and proud new owner of an ASUS net book) saying catch you on the flip side.

I did it for the lulz

Some websites around the internets are all abuzz about the next apparent Anonymous attack. Anonymous is the hacktivist group that came from (was spawned by) the lower order of the internet 4chan. Recently Anonymous has been in the news for helping do DDOS attacks against some of the middle eastern countries where democratic revolutions have been breaking out. Additionally they may, but more likely didn't, have something to do with taking down the PlayStation Network for about 3 weeks. 

Well now it seems as though they have decided to target the Ufological field next. All over the internet today people have been buzzing about the so called 'Operation UFO'. Here's the supposed image from this event.

 

The blogosphere was all a twitter about this event. Personally I don't think much will come of this, well at least not for those that are in Ufology. Hmm although as I type that I realize that maybe they will be taken in by this event. I was going to say how hard it would be to pull something off like this now that it has been all over the internet today, until I remembered that many Ufologists likely don't have a strong online presence. It's likely that they will have missed this, because I don't believe it has been picked up by the media as of yet.

That seems like an issue to me. Of course I suppose the reason that the majority of them don't have an online presence is that fact that many of them are of an older generation. That only goes to show a bigger problem that exists in Ufology, were there seems to be no young blood in this field. (To my credit I am in my mid-twenties but I'm not exactly 'in the field'). Course many of the young people that could be in this field are busy doing shenanigans like the above 'Operation UFO'. Or worse they are indoctrinated to the dreaded ETH. (Which I really don't have anything against, I just feel like other theories should be given their just due)

I think the thing to take away from all of this is that on Sunday (if Jesus doesn't return on Saturday of course) hopefully people will ignore sightings of 'a triangle of 8 yellow lights in the sky' which are supposed to be reported to wherever UFO's can be reported to. Although with the phenomena as strange and tricksterish as it can be sometimes, I wouldn't be surprised if real triangle's of 8 yellow lights were to appear. Oh well that's Fortean phenomena for you. Until next time remember this is Fortean Philosopher Tony, reminding you that I do it all for the lulz