Podcast interview!

Film-maker, and self proclaimed "outlaw for love", Paul Kimball recently interviewed your's truly on his revived podcast, The Other Side of Truth. You can listen to the podcast here. Here's the description of the episode:

In this episode, I spend an hour chatting with Fortean researcher / blogger Tony Morrill, one of the bright youngsters out there who are interested in the world of the weird and the wacky. In an eclectic conversation where we throw in everything but the kitchen sink, we start off with some background information on Tony, and how he became interested in the paranormal at a young age, and then follow up with a back-and-forth on everything from UFOs to ghosts to Bigfoot. We also find time to pontificate / ruminate about posthumanism, tip our caps to the work of the late Mac Tonnies, Greg Bishop, and Nick Redfern, and "imagine the imagination factory" - all while keeping our tongues planted firmly in our cheeks. We even managed to reference a couple of cartoon characters we like, and I slipped in a musical interlude that is tangential to the point of being apropos of nothing, but somehow it still fits. This was a fun episode to record, and reminded me more than a bit of some of my past conversations with my pals in the "Cabal". Tony has his feet planted firmly on the ground, even as he has his eyes set to the sky. It's a good place to be!

I also suggest checking out his other latest interviews with Aaron John Gulyas and Walter Bosley. 

Additionally, you can also head over to Binnall of America in order to find my most recent Fortean Ramblings column entitled "We didn't start the fire". That's about all I have for now. Come back soon for shenanigans!

Mac Tonnies

Two years ago tomorrow (or today depending upon when you read this) on October 18, 2009 Mac Tonnies passed away leaving behind many, many unfinished mysteries yet to be solved. Unfortunately I never had the chance to engage him in conversation, so I can only speak personally about what affect he has had on my views of the paranormal and assorted Fortean topics right before and since his untimely death.

It was about three years ago or so that I first started listening to Tim Binnall's Binnall of America podcast. At the time, as I have recounted on this blog and elsewhere in the past, I was a pretty hardcore ETH kind of guy. So people like Greg Bishop and Nick Redfern really got under my skin. After all they were espousing such, as far as I was concerned, almost heretical ideas that maybe just maybe the occupants of UFOs weren't the little Grey guys that I knew them to be. But perhaps worst of all was this Mac Tonnies fellow that I heard originally on Binnall of America. The episode in question was from about two years prior to when I heard it, back when Tim would occasionally spread the interviews over the course of multiple episodes.

The first part of Mac's interview was acceptable for me, I didn't really take any great umbrage with it. The interview focused on his book After the Martian Apocalypse which discusses the idea that perhaps there are more to some of the anomalous features on our sister planet Mars than meets the eye. Or that have been given their fair share of serious attention by NASA scientists. But as I was going to learn, Mac deftly maneuvered the sometimes fine line between Hoagland-esgue “every rock must be artificial” kind of rationale and the fundamentalist skepticism that seems to seep out of NASA in regards to the likelihood of there being ancient alien artifacts anywhere in our solar system. In “classic” Mac Tonnies fashion, he simply said that there just may be something worth investigating on this planet it may not be what we think it is, whether we are skeptic or believer, so why not go and find out?

Again, I was OK with this. Hell I wasn't even sure who this Hoagland character was that he was referring to anyway. And besides, I had long been fascinated by the apparent “pyramids” that were on Mars. So as far as I was concerned this Mac guy was pretty OK. That is until he did the unthinkable. In part two of this interview, Mac dared to offer a challenge to the “hallowed” ETH. His alternative theory? Some entity that he called a “Cryptoterrestrial” that, if you can believe it, made it's home right here on Earth with us! The occupants of UFOs were supposed to be an indigenous species? No way! I was absolutely not amenable to this idea at all. And yet at the same time I couldn't stop listening to this blasphemer. He was so eloquent and spoke with such knowledge. You could tell that he knew a lot about the topic. That he wasn't just completely coming out of left field with this “working hypothesis” as he referred to it as.

It wasn't long after this podcast that this Mac Tonnies character seemed to be popping up everywhere I turned around. He was on paranormal show, after paranormal show. And without fail, his Cryptoterrestrial Theory would inevitably come up. Each time he offered the same, deceptively tempting caveat to his theory; it was testable. Not unlike how he treated the Martian Anomalies arena, the reason the Cryptoterrestrial Theory grabbed Mac's imagination was that, you could actually go out and look for them. It would be a relatively easy theory to disprove. After all, the ETH hadn't gotten us any closer to “solving” the UFO enigma. So wasn't it time to try something new?

I couldn't believe that people were still having this kooky character own, it wasn't bad enough that he was daring to suggest that somehow the ETH had failed us, but to go on and offer an alternative I just couldn't handle it. It was far too much. But then Mac came onto Greg Bishop's Radio Misterioso radio program in July 2009 in order to talk more in depth about his Cryptoterrestrial Theory. The program, which you can still find to listen here and I encourage you to do so, allowed for Mac to make the case for his Cryptoterrestrial Theory. Slowly as the hour and forty minutes started slipping by, I found myself intrigued and I really began to question the long-standing assumptions that I had about what could be behind the UFO mystery. At around the half hour mark, Greg asks Mac if he could read a sample of his Cryptoterrestrial Book (which at the time Mac had been working on for the last couple of years). The following represents all of what was great about Mac Tonnies. And with the excerpt the final nail in the ETH-only coffin was hammered, at least as far as I was concerned:

Every few nights I get out my laser pointer and indulge my cats in a frenetic game of "chase." Cats are natural hunters, and they're effectively incapable of not looking at the quickly moving red dot that I project onto the carpet, walls, or any piece of furniture that happens to be in its path.

To my cats, the red dot possesses its own vitality. It exists as a distinct entity. While they may see me holding the pointer, they can't (or won't) be distracted by such things once the button is pressed and the living room is suddenly alive with luminous vermin. So they chase it. And chase it. And, if they get close enough, even take swipes at it -- in which case I make the dot "flee" or disappear in what seems like a concession of defeat (which, of course, only further arouses the cats' predatory curiosity).

All the while I'm controlling the red dot, I'm taking pains to make it behave like something intelligible. Just waving the pointer around the room wouldn't be any fun. So I make it "climb," "jump" and scuttle when cornered -- even though the laser's impervious to obstructions.

This sense of physicality seems to be the element that makes chasing the laser so engaging -- both for the cats and for me.

I can't help but be reminded of our continuing search for assumed extraterrestrial vehicles. UFO sightings demonstrate many of the same aspects of a typical feline laser hunt: mysterious disappearances, "impossible" maneuvers and a predilection for trickery -- the apparent desire to be seen despite (or because of) a technology presumed to be far in advance of our own. More than one UFO researcher has noted that UFOs behave more like projections or holograms than nuts-and-bolts craft . . . an observation that begs the nature of the intelligence doing the projecting.

According to astrophysicist Jacques Vallee, UFOs are part of a psychosocial conditioning system by which perceived "rewards" are doled out to reconcile for the dearth of irrefutable physical evidence. The phenomenon -- whatever its ultimate nature – obstinately denies itself, thus enabling the very game it's intent on playing with us.

We see that sudden spark of red light; we pounce. This time we'll catch it for sure.

I think it was this passage, perhaps more than anything else, that struck the exact right chord for me. Only it wasn't an immediate change. The “ETH-only” part of me held on for a few more months. It seemed that Mac was only getting bigger and more (well deserved) attention from the more “mainstream” paranormal community. On September 28, 2009 Mac made his appearance on Coast 2 Coast AM. As far as paranormal shows go you can't get any better than this. For the entire four hours, Mac waxed poetic on his Cryptoterrestrial Theory and his Martian Anomalies work as well. It was without a doubt one of the better C2C's in recent memory.

Sadly less than one month after this, Mac Tonnies passed away in his sleep. Still left unfinished, among so many other things, was the manuscript for what would be his last work The Cryptoterrestrials. Luckily for the world at large, his writing was able to be saved by his mother and we now have the privilege to read the work of this Fortean legend. The book was published in March of 2010 and it was only a few months later when I was able to finally pick it up. With the help of this book, along with a short list of other books by authors like Jacques Vallee and John Keel, I came to change all of my preconceived notions about UFOs and the paranormal in general.

I may never have had the pleasure of talking with Mac, or meeting him, but more so than most people that I have known/met in my life, he has inspired so much of my thinking. Mac may have been taken far sooner than seems fair, but at least he has left behind a legacy of great, original thinking. 

Listed below are just some of the shows Mac appeared on. Also be sure to check out his site and blog. Finally if you haven't read his books, The Cryptoterrestrials and After the Martian Apocalypse (which you all but have to get the ebook version of), I can't recommend them highly enough.

Radio Misterioso

The Paracast

Binnall of America part 1, part 2

Mac on Coast 2 Coast

Interview with some Forteans (no garlic required)

This past Saturday (Oct 2, 2011) I had the distinct honor and privilege to talk for an hour and a half with the always entertaining and enlightening Greg and Dana Newkirk of Who Forted? mag. The topic of the interview was essentially; Why Forteana? But more than that, it was a chance to get to know some fellow Forteans that are fighting the good fight against the way too serious Believers and Skeptics who, more often than not, muddy the proverbial waters with all of their posturing and ego stroking. While we had an amazing talk, due to some technical difficulties, I was unable to actually record the conversation that we had. But fear not dear readers for I took copious, at times confusing, notes of the interview. So if are willing to stay with me, come as we journey inside the minds of some “Gen-x debunkers”.

Both Greg and Dana's interest in paranormal phenomena grew out of the 'Ghost Hunting' craze that struck television in the late 90's early 00's. Greg's group GHI (Ghost Hunters Incorporated) came about through the efforts of a prank on a friend and contributor to Who Forted? Nick Foust. Meanwhile Dana was busy with a ghost hunting group of her own, the Kitchener-Waterloo Paranormal Research Society, which would eventually become known as The Girly Ghost Hunters. Under this incarnation Dana's group went on to have an internationally syndicated TV show. After a fallout between the two groups, I know shocking that in the paranormal field people can't get along, Greg along with members of GHI and Dana joined forces to create the Who Forted? that we all know and love. (For those of you at home keeping, it was Dana that came up with the amazing name “Who Forted?” rather than Greg's “The Knights of the New Fortean Right”)

Greg's interest in the paranormal grew out of a desire to scare one of his friends in a graveyard, but quickly became more than that. For Greg, even today, there exists a reality to the Ghost phenomena. What that reality may ultimately prove to be exactly? Well, Greg is the first to tell you that he remains unconvinced that “ghosts” are in fact the disembodied souls of Aunt Linda or Uncle Keith. Yet something is still going on in some of these cases. Going quickly from  this, Who Forted?  became (in)famous for their not always so serious approach to the paranormal. But honestly that's what I find so refreshing about them .While they realize that there is some reality behind the phenomena they investigate, they don't get bogged down by being too serious. Nor do they have any time or patience for all of the posturing and grandstanding that many in the field have made their livelihood off of. Best of all they are still looking for the story behind the story, or the human element that comprises it.


One of the topics that we spent a good amount of time discussing is the height and popularity of the so-called “Paranormal Media”, i.e. Ghost Hunters, Ghost Adventures, Ghost Hunters International, et al. The show that dominated this portion of the conversation, wasn't one of these however. It was Paranormal State. The show has definitely been a polarizing entry into the paranormal world. As both Greg and Dana were quick to point out it definitely lead the way in the possible exploitation of persons who were likely dealing with serious issues, paranormal reality aside. Many of the people whose homes the investigator's entered needed some actual help, but from psychological professionals and not some undergrads from a college.

The main topic, however, was what exactly is important in paranormal research or the Fortean field. The shows that we discussed and the “field” in general, all seem to suffer this need for proof and perhaps, most depressingly, a lot of it is politics or a “pissing contest”. But they may be missing the most important part, namely the person at the heart of the incident. All too often people in this field are more worried about catching Bigfoot, seeing ghosts, or stroking their own egos, when maybe what's equally (if not more) important are the people involved. After all when I asked how much they thought any of these things were real, Greg said that the event is a real as the effect it has on the person. More often than not the story is the only thing that investigators have to work with. Hard evidence is often just as elusive as the phenomena itself.

At the end of the day, the time I spent with Greg and Dana was equal parts riveting, entertaining, and at times downright hilarious. They are some of the most level-headed people that I've had the pleasure of interacting with in this crazy field. I asked about their plans for the future; for the site, for their group, and ultimately for themselves. They want to continue producing better and better products, and most importantly continue entertaining other's and themselves. Before the conversation was over, Greg and Dana left a few words of wisdom for the rest of us. For Dana, success in this community is to always continue being curious. Greg wanted us all to remember that something is only paranormal until someone explains it.

The interview with Greg and Dana of Who Forted? was a nice change of pace. It's good to know that there are still some people out there who can walk that thin line between looking at something humorously, while not outright mocking it. Be sure to check out their site daily for some of the best commentary on the Fortean this side of Charles Fort himself. Additionally, be sure to check out their latest project that will be debuting soon, “The Bigfoot Hunter: Still Searching”. You can find my review of the film here, but be sure to head over to the Facebook page to keep up to date with all of the latest news about the film. 

Promotional movie poster.

 

Random Mac Tonnies stuff

Thanks to the Daily Grail for tweeting this video earlier. It coincides with this New York Times article on the Digitial Afterlife. Discussed in the video and article is the late Mac Tonnies. The video is from the excellent (yet sad in a way) blog the Post-Mac Blues. Be sure to follow the link for the video its well worth the watch if you haven't seen it. In other Mac Tonnies related 'news', earlier today Ashley was image searching for some other pictures of him when she stumbled upon this:

Click for larger image

For whatever reason a picture of yours truly popped up during the image search. In all fairness, a picture of Paul Kimball, Greg Bishop, and Nick Redfern came up as well. I certainly don't think of myself in the same leagues as Tonnies. Although he is definitely a role model of mine, at least intellectually. And he has in many ways helped to inspire my outlook on the UFO phenomena specifically, but also most things Fortean in general. The saddest part for me is that I never got to correspond with him. I had heard of him through Binnall of America, Radio Misterioso, and the Paracast; but for whatever reason I never tried to reach out and talk to him.

This was partly to do with my being a Closet Anomalist and because I was under the mistaken impression that he and his compatriots were in many ways 'untouchable'. Sadly I found out too late that they aren't. Both Greg Bishop and Paul Kimball have been great supporters of my blog in it's relative infancy, through comments and suggestions and other things like this. It will probably be one of my greater regrets that I never got to know the guy who has influenced me in so many ways. I think that in a lot of ways, it was also Mac Tonnies that was the real inspiration for this blog.

So take some time today to remember Mac Tonnies.

-Tony 

 

Guess I was wrong

I've lamented in a couple of posts in the past (here and here) that the Above Top Secret Alien/UFO forum section seemed to be full of wide-eyed 'True Believers' and that I was effectively done with that portion of the site. Well looks like I was, happily, proven wrong. A new thread has appeared that I can actually get excited about. The title is 'Believers: A Friendly Challenge/Discussion'.

The original poster opens with the following:

I am not opposed to the idea of ETs visiting earth, and have nothing to gain or lose from denying or admitting to that being the case. But to this point, I haven’t seen or read anything that convinces me “they” have to be aliens. I have my own theories as to possibilities, and would like to posit those, and ask a few questions.

Everything I’ve read, seen, and heard so far convinces me that whatever forces are behind the modern UFO phenomenon, are more than likely terrestrial in nature. Setting aside those things easily explainable, and getting down to the 1 or 2 percent (IMO) that are actually in the “other” category, I believe there are a few possibilities. The first being that we have either governing powers, or a select group of people who are in possession of technology and knowledge far beyond what we consider possible at this stage of our scientific understanding. Even abduction cases can be faked and manipulated by the abductors through a variety of methods. And I also find this a possible scenario.

I was understandably excited when I first saw this. The strange thing is that no one has mentioned Mac Tonnies Cryptoterrestrial Hypothesis as an option, so I guess I know what I will be replying with. OK well that's all for now, I just thought I would share my happiness with you. Maybe there is still hope for ATS. Maybe.

Put your money where your mouth is! I did.

It is likely painfully clear to any regular reader of Forteania, that I am not the world's biggest fan of so called, with no apparent sense of irony, 'mainstream' Ufology. I mean one only has to look at literally any of the posts I have made on this blog to figure that much out. Along those lines I am constantly on the lookout for anything that can offer a sliver of hope for the quagmire that is Ufology. As I have pointed out ad nauseum, we need to move past the "UFOs=aliens" paradigm we have been saddled with for the past 60 plus years.

With all of this in mind, I was extremely happy to hear that Paul Kimball was working with Tim Binnall in order to produce a 'sequel' to his amazing Best Evidence documentary which, as I have pointed out a number of times on Twitter, is one of the best UFO documentaries that I have ever seen. Best Evidence, which Paul Kimball has put up for free on Vimeo (find it here, seriously watch it then come back and finish this post), is an excellent film that through ten amazing UFO cases does a superb job of demonstrating that there is, in fact, an objective (hah that's not a loaded word) reality to the UFO phenomena.

Once we understand that there is a reality to the UFO subject, which probably most of you reading this have come to that conclusion already, where do we take it from there? The main answer for years has been the ETH, which contrary to what I may sometime indicate on this blog, is a valid hypothesis. But it is not the only one, and this is the problem that the newest project that Kimball and Binnall are working on seeks to solve. In Beyond Best Evidence, they seek to give the viewer all of the different options for what is behind the UFO enigma. ETs? Yep they are gonna be in the film with the respective ETH guys, like Kevin Randle and Stan Friedman. Ultraterrestrials/Interdimensionals? You bet. Hell even the Cryptoterrestrials will make an appearance.

Essentially the hope is that this documentary will allow you the viewer, to understand that the UFO problem is far more complicated (in an exciting way) than just alien visitor's from Zeta Reticuli. So what can you do, oh loyal readers of Forteania? I'm glad that you asked. As it stands Paul Kimball and Tim Binnall are trying to raised $25,000 in order to help fund this project. As of this posting they have only reached $1580, but you can help. If you, like me, are ready to make a change for the positive in Ufology or just to get people to be more open to a myriad of possibilities, please support this cause in anyway you can. Unfortunately the fund-raising part only has 3 days left at this moment, but I think we could do it if we all pitch in.

So like the title says, I put my money where my mouth is will you? If so head to the Indie GoGo page for the film to donate whatever you can! For more information on the project from the gentleman running it, check out the latest Binnall of America podcast up now to learn more about this film. And after that seriously go watch Best Evidence. Hopefully together we can make this documentary a reality, sooner rather than later. Well that's all I have for now, check back later for more Fortean shenanigans.

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."

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.

What can we know?

I've spent most of my time on this blog posting about what I don't believe in. A lot of the posts have contained how I feel about certain organizations within the Ufological 'field' or some of the main tenets of the Church of Ufology. But what I haven't done yet is to tell you some of theories that I am personally the most excited about.

I have definitely been pretty critical against the ETH in my posting and on my Twitter account too. (Hell just read my profile on Twitter) I have to be honest of course, the ETH is still a very valid theory for explaining some UFOs. It is entirely likely that Extraterrestrials are visiting the planet in actual spacecraft. The problem comes in as I have stated previously that a lot of people treat the ETH as the Gospel Truth. So with this in mind I decided that for the next couple of days I will be examining different alternative explanations that I am most interested in, with the hope that others will perhaps pick up on them as well.

Tonight, I am gonna walk you through one of the main theories that I like to entertain for UFOs. The first would be Mac Tonnies' Cryptoterrestrial Hypothesis (CTH). If you haven't checked out his book, I highly suggest you do that. Also rather than going back over the theory in great detail, you can check out a rundown of it here, I will give a couple of reasons why I am attracted to this theory. First it offers a very logical explanation for the sheer number of interactions humanity seems to be having with the alien presence. If accounts are to be believed, ET's would be literally flitting all over the planet on an hourly basis. With that much traffic, surely we would have had some convincing footage surface by now. But if we were dealing with a CT presence among us, the very fact that they are native to the planet makes the number of reports make much more sense.

Additionally the CTH offers an interesting explanation for the 'aliens' apparent obsession with our genes. I find it difficult to imagine that a civilization which was advanced enough to cross the vast distances of space would need something as quaint and prosaic as sperm and ovum samples in order to produce hybrids. CTs on the other hand, who might possibly be related to us genetically, would probably require access to our DNA. Possibly just for the exact reasons that the Church of Ufology would have us believe. It's entirely likely that the CTs really are on the decline and thus need to create a hybrid species in order to survive. (Boy the irony of that isn't lost on me). This is just scratching the surface of what Mac's CTH offers the Ufological field a wide variety of theoretical implications to work with. Hopefully more and more people will pick up on it.

Well unfortunately thats all I have for tonight, again I really suggest picking up and reading Mac's book to get a better grasp of what his theory has to offer. And perhaps if you do, you too may be a CTH guy as well. Until next time dear readers this is your Friendly Neighborhood Fortean Philosopher saying, 'So long and thanks for all the fish!'

Fortean Book Review (Literally!)

    The last couple of day's have been pretty rough for your friendly neighborhood Closet Anomalist (have I always referred to myself in the third person?), as such the last couple of posts have suffered and by association so has the blog. But never fear tonight will be the return to the Forteania you have come to know and love(?). I mentioned earlier on Twitter that I would be reviewing what I considered to be one of the most important books that anyone interested in Fortean phenomena could read. So much so that I think, along with Mac's 'The Cryptoterrestrials',  should be considered as required reading for those just entering the field. As an aside I sometimes imagine that a Fortean college level course would use the two as textbooks for their classes, but I digress.
   
    However I technically lied as it is not simply one book, but is in actuality four books that I will be reviewing tonight. They are, of course, Charles Fort's; The Book of the Damned, New Lands, Lo!, and Wild Talents. Technically they were once four separate volumes but you can now purchase them in one volume from your local bookstore as I did. The collection that I have is called The Book of the Damned; The collected works of Charles Fort. It has all four books plus an introduction to the text by Jim Steinmeyer, so if you are looking to purchase the book I highly recommend it. I say purchase it because with the exception of The Book of the Damned, which is now in the public domain, the other books are still subject to copyright. (I will have some links available at the end for you to follow to legally download The Book of the Damned, while you can purchase fairly inexpensively the other three books.)

    It should be pretty apparent that had I not read these books, which was sadly only done relatively recently, I would likely not be doing this blog at all. It is true that before I had read his books I was already interested in many of the things that I now call Fortean phenomena, even before I had heard of that word. Fort is definitely the inspiration for how I look at not only the paranormal, but also science, religion, and really life in general. I think he says it best in the opening line of The Book of the Damned;

“A Procession of the damned. By the damned, I mean the excluded. We shall have a procession of data that Science has excluded”

    That's pretty sweet quote to open a book with I think, what it shows is really an introduction to all four of the books. They are comprised of the research that Fort undertook at the New York Public Library pouring over old newspapers and scientific journals. Through this he found a lot of bizarre data   that science, rather than dealing with in an open way, through into the 'attic' of scientific inquiry. Ostensibly hoping that no one would ever look at it, or that it would never again see the light of day. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending upon your opinion) Fort not only found it, he painstakingly cataloged all of the data that he could uncover.  Here is just a sampling of what he 'discovered'; Fortean Falls, that is falls of fish, frogs, or other small mammals seemingly from cloudless skies. So called 'Sky quakes' where the sky literally seems to rumble and make noises not unlike those heard during earthquakes. The great airship mystery of the late 19th century, which some would argue makes it one of the first UFO books. And the coining of the word 'teleportation' is often attributed to him because his documentation  of the accounts of persons who disappear from one side of the planet only to mysteriously turn up on the other side, often within minutes of when they left.

    Really it's hard to imagine what shape, if any, the modern fields of the paranormal or ufological would look like were it not for the works and long lasting influence that  Fort has had on both. All four of these books are definitely some of the most important works on the topics of the paranormal and ufology possible ever written. If you haven't read them yet, you really should do yourself the favor and pick them up, I promise you wont be disappointed. And who knows, maybe you will start calling yourself a Fortean Philosopher as well?

For The Book of the Damned in PDF or doc format you can follow these links.

Project Gutenburg 

Sacred-Texts

Alternatively it is also available as a free audio book here.

Librivox

Cryptoterrestrials VS. Extraterrestrials

I realized after the last couple days of posts that I have been kind of harsh on the 'field' that is affectionately referred to as Ufology. I don't think that just pointing out flaws is a necessarily effective way of changing something for the better. So with that in mind I will be taking the next couple of days to offer some solutions to one of the bigger aspects of mainstream Ufology. Namely that of the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis as the solution to the occupants of these apparently intelligent, structured craft that seem to defy physics as we understand it at this moment in time.

The first alternative that I wish to take a look at is actually one of the more recent ones. It's the late Mac Tonnies Cryptoterrestrial Theory. In his excellent work, The Cryptoterrestrials, Tonnies offers an excellent thought experiment in the form of a short book published posthumously. Tonnies examines the UFO phenomena and it's attendant occupants as not visitors from distant galaxies, but rather as our literal oh so terrestrial brothers. Tonnies speculates that perhaps at some point in the past our species could have split and formed to separate species. Mac envisions that these entities may have diverged from us on the evolutionary path not in necessarily profound ways. They could, if necessary, pass for one of us at your local supermarket. 

For Mac the most significant way that they would most differ from us is in regards to the field of Psychotronics. Or in other words they would have a technology of the mind. To compliment our own physical technologies. Mac does a wonderful job with weaving many different threads together as he essentially plays with different ideas, without ever truly settling on one. I can't stress that enough, many people that initially received the book responded with such venom and criticism. They frequently lamented that by accepting Mac's 'theory', the field would be in essence returning to the days of the Shaver Mysteries. Beware the Hollow Earth and all that jazz. I can't help but wonder if the people who wrote these things about Mac's book ever even read it. Actually I will go out on a limb and say that they definitely didn’t. There is no way you can read his book and come to the conclusion that Mac had at any point truly believed his theory was nothing more than a thought experiment, is definitely missing the point.

I can't say it enough you really should read this book, if only for the fact that Mac was willing to think outside of the box in order to try and solve the UFO enigma. Did he think that he had it right? No, but I think he knew what he was doing would be important. You can follow this link to order the book, and I also highly recommend you looking in the links section for mac's blog Posthuman Blues and of course his website mactonnies.com. Both are very fascinating reads. I will leave you with a little post from Mac's blog that I think really sums up what his theory was.

Friday, September 29,2006

Every few nights I get out my laser pointer and indulge my cats in a frenetic game of "chase." Cats are natural hunters, and they're effectively incapable of not looking at the quickly moving red dot that I project onto the carpet, walls, or any piece of furniture that happens to be in its path.

To my cats, the red dot possesses its own vitality. It exists as a distinct entity. While they may see me holding the pointer, they can't (or won't) be distracted by such things once the button is pressed and the living room is suddenly alive with luminous vermin. So they chase it. And chase it. And, if they get close enough, even take swipes at it -- in which case I make the dot "flee" or disappear in what seems like a concession of defeat (which, of course, only further arouses the cats' predatory curiosity).

All the while I'm controlling the red dot, I'm taking pains to make it behave like something intelligible. Just waving the pointer around the room wouldn't be any fun. So I make it "climb," "jump" and scuttle when cornered -- even though the laser's impervious to obstructions.

This sense of physicality seems to be the element that makes chasing the laser so engaging -- both for the cats and for me.

I can't help but be reminded of our continuing search for assumed extraterrestrial vehicles. UFO sightings demonstrate many of the same aspects of a typical feline laser hunt: mysterious disappearances, "impossible" maneuvers and a predilection for trickery -- the apparent desire to be seen despite (or because of) a technology presumed to be far in advance of our own. More than one UFO researcher has noted that UFOs behave more like projections or holograms than nuts-and-bolts craft . . . an observation that begs the nature of the intelligence doing the projecting.

According to astrophysicist Jacques Vallee, UFOs are part of a psychosocial conditioning system by which perceived "rewards" are doled out to reconcile for the dearth of irrefutable physical evidence. The phenomenon -- whatever its ultimate nature -- obstinately denies itself, thus enabling the very game it's intent on playing with us.

We see that sudden spark of red light; we pounce. This time we'll catch it for sure.