UFOs, USOs, and Alien Death Rays!

Central and South America have long been home to some of the more bizarre aspects of the UFO phenomena. One incident that stands out in my mind was the subject of an amazing thread over at my favorite gold mine; Above Top Secret. Like a diamond in the rough I seek only to bring you what stand out as the best of the best among the often questionable threads that exist on that site. The thread focuses on the 1977 UFO flap that the tiny Brazilian island of Colares experienced for a period of months during which time many photos and videos of UFOs were taken, people were injured, and allegedly at least two persons died from their interaction with the UFOs. And, as a slight follow up to my most recent post, the case had more than a few USOs thrown into the mix for good measure.

Starting in August of 1977, Colares began to experience an unusual phenomena which the local residents called Chupa-Chupas. These chupa-chupas were odd luminous objects that would hover around the town at night and would often shoot out thin beams of light that would strike the townspeople. Many of those that were struck would report feeling as though their blood had been drained by the lights. One resident offers what occurred to him in the early days of this bizarre episode.

The barber Carlos Cardoso de Paula (aged 49), living at Travessa Deodoro da Fonseca No. 231, had a still closer encounter with the "lights", as he himself relates:

"Everybody else was asleep. I was just still having my last smoke when suddenly a ball of fire entered our house up near the ridgepole of the gable. It started shooting round and round the room, and then finally came right close to my hammock.

"It ran up my right leg as far as the knee (without touching my skin). I watched with much curiosity as it then moved across to the other leg. Then I started to feel feeble and sleepy. My cigarette fell from my hand and I came to and let out a yell. The fireball quickly vanished and everybody woke up.

"I think it had been searching for a vein in my body but didn’t manage to do so. As its brightness grew, I felt a sort of heat coming from it."

(account taken from UFO Casebook)

As the interaction with the strange objects began to increase the people of Colares started to suspect that perhaps the UFOs were trying to make contact with the people. Whether this is the case or not, the chupa-chupas were having a kind of contact with the residents. Many people, after having been struck by the beams from th UFOs, sought medical attention due to anemia (again the lights seemingly draining the person of their blood) or just general weakness from having been knocked unconscious by the beams. What's interesting to note is that many of the townspeople felt that the UFOs originated from and underwater base near by the oceans of the town and after a night of draining the residents blood, the lights would return to their base.

The nightly sieges became so frequent and unbearable that the majority of the women and children in Colares left the area to stay with friends and family in other nearby villages. The men remained and attempted to build bonfires in order to ward off the strange attacks of the chupa-chupas.

By November 1977 doctor Wellaide Cecim Carvalho, the physician in charge of the health unit on Colares Island, took care of to some 35 people claiming to have been touched by the strange light.

She took blood samples, and concluded that the victims suffered from generalized hypertermia, superficial chronic headache, burnings, intense heat, nauseas, tremors in the body, giddiness, asthenia and presented very small orifices in the skin where they were hit by the rays.

She wrote: "All of them had suffered lesions to the face or the thoracic area." The lesions, looking like radiation injuries, "began with intense reddening of the skin in the affected area. Later the hair would fall out and the skin would turn black. There was no pain, only a slight warmth. One also noticed small puncture marks in the skin. The victims were men and women of varying ages, without any pattern."

Up until this time it seems as though no one had yet witnessed any entities associated with these lights. That is until the following account;

This was the case of Claudomira, resident in the Island of Colares. She claims that her family already did not sleep right with fear of the devices.

"In one of these days, after midnight, I woke up because of a strong flash, a sort of focused bright green light ray that came down from the top roof to my left chest. I tried to shout, but my voice did not function. I felt an esquisite heat... Later, that beam of light diminished and I saw that I was burnt."

Claudomira told that she sighted a strange object, much similar to an umbrella, from which a being of clear skin, oriental eyes, and great ears.

According to her, the creature was dressed in tight green clothes and had a sort of pistol in the hand, which emitted the luminous beam. At this moment, Claudomira felt perforated as by needles on her breast.

"After this, I felt a migraine headache and a great weakness, that left me collapsed for several days."

Eventually the military of Brazil would get involved in the case. The COMAR (Comando Aéreo Regional, the Regional Air Command of the Brazilian Air Forces) came to the region in order to investigate the strange occurrences. According to UFO Casebook, the Air Force made four films and hundreds of photographs of the chupa-chupas under a project titled Operation Plate (for Saucer, at least according to the UFO Casebook folks).

There is a whole lot more to this case and I suggest that if you are really interested be sure to check out the reading list I will put at the bottom of this post. What really happened back in the fall of 1977 to the residents of Colares? It's hard to say for sure. Many may say mass hysteria, but I don't know of many cases of mass hysteria that cause people to have anemia. And mass hysteria probably doesn't film or photograph all that well. Oh, I almost forgot I had earlier mentioned that at least two persons were reported to have died because of their encounters with the chupa-chupas. Well I could find an account of only one person that died after having interacted with the lights. According to UFO Casebook;

One of the most interesting cases she took care of happened with a lady who had cardiac problems. She arrived at the doctor's office very nervous and immediately she showed her left breast, in which were two strange holes.

She complained of giddiness, shortness of breath, and weakness - characteristic symptoms already known by people hit by the phenomenon. The doctor tried to calm her and she returned to her home.

But at about 03:00 pm, however, Dr. Wellaide was called to the residence of the woman, who had become very sick. Her whole body was still, and she gasped for air, but she did not have fever and did not vomit.

Seeing the seriousness of the situation, the doctor took her to a hospital in Belém.

Hours later, she received the medical papers and the certificate of death forwarded by the Medical Institute Legal Renato Chaves, which stated a heart stroke as cause of the death.

That's all for now. Be sure to follow these links to learn more. And remember, evidently not all UFOs are necessarily friendly!

UFO Casebook

About.com Info

MUFON

AboveTopSecret Thread

If at first you don't succeed

There's an old expression that goes along the lines of “If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.” Or something like that. Well, luckily the Disclosure movement has heard this and taken it to heart. Recently the Paradigm Research Group (that would be Stephen Bassett's group for those playing along at home), put together a new Disclosure Petition. I have to hand it to them, the petition has apparently made it to the White House's website. That's something at least. Although what it will actually accomplish …... well that's another matter entirely.

The petition states right off the bat what it's aim is. Namely:

“We, the undersigned, strongly urge the President of the United States to formally acknowledge an extraterrestrial presence engaging the human race and immediately release into the public domain all files from all agencies and military services relevant to this phenomenon."

Now, can anyone guess what's wrong with this? If you said the part about the POTUS acknowledging the existence of an extraterrestrial presence on this planet, you would be correct. There are a lot of assumptions in that document, which isn't all that surprising given that its a variation of the same old Disclosure movement. I've said it before and I will say it again, the government will not (and probably can not) disclose it's knowledge of an extraterrestrial presence on the earth because it doesn't seem like there is any knowledge to disclose.

The irony here isn't lost on me by the way. The Disclosure Movement continues to try and petition the government for the ubiquitous “Truth”, and I continue saying that they are wasting their time and should be focused on something non-ETH related for a change. So I guess I'm really not any better or different. I will give them one thing, they have over 10,000 signatures. So that's something to be sure. I guess I will try to refrain from being too judgmental until after it's all said and done.

If this happens to be up your alley, by all means feel free to follow these links to learn more and sign the petition. Until next time this is your friendly neighborhood Fortean signing off.

ParadigmResearch Group

PetitionPress Release

Petitionon White House website

Disclosure - Canadian style!

If you are like me then you occasionally enjoy sifting through the rough to find that rare diamond that exists in official Government UFO documents. For the last few years major countries around the world have been releasing their UFO files to much fanfare and news reports, often time even ending up on CNN or Fox News (probably because nothing else is going on that day).

Well one country that flew under my radar is the United State's brother to the north, Canada. That's right apparently a few years ago Canada began to release their UFO files. I was tipped off to this really cool piece of information by the always excellent IsaacKoi.

Once again over at ATS, IsaacKoi started a really interesting thread entitled “Canadian disclosure:“UFO Found” and other documents/photos”. One of the cool gems that IsaacKoi points out is a strange memo that has the title of “U.F.O Found in Saskatchewan”.

If you can't read the text; the gist of it is that a scientist delivered a metal shard, that he had obtained from an unnamed pilot, to a laboratory that said “Examination revealed exhibit had likely formed part of a vehicle that traveled in outer space”.

Many more items like the above are likely hidden in the files, so it's definitely worth skimming through if that's your thing. Here's a link to the actual site. Also be sure to head over to the ATS thread and give credit to IsaacKoi for once again bringing such a cool thing to all of our attention.

And if this sort of thing is up your alley, you can check out the other post here about Project Blue Book files being online that is also from IsaacKoi.

Print on Demand: UFOs?

If you don't make it a habit of visiting the Daily Grail uh daily, you are really missing out on some cool little gems that the guys over there are able to dig up. Take for instance one of today's news items.

Aeroplane created using a 3D printer in world first: Scientists build aircraft with 100mph max speed

This plane is the first in the world to be created using the groundbreaking new technology of '3D printing'.

The aircraft was built using only a computer - but it can get up to a speed of 100mph and has a two-metre wingspan.

It was produced using a special nylon laser printer that builds up an item layer-by-layer. The parts were made separately and attached using a 'snap fit' technique so the aircraft could be put together without tools in minutes.

No fasteners at all were used in the manufacture of the plane.

The "Print-on-demand plane"

Click here for the full article.

When I read this, and especially after looking at some of the accompanying photos, I was struck with a sudden thought. The plane appeared pretty seemless in design, at least once it was put together. Or in other words you couldn't really make out any kind of rivets or pieces; it looked like one solid piece. This reminded me of the physical descriptions of some UFOs, which are also said to be without discernible pieces that make them up.

I wondered if it's not possible that perhaps some UFOs are in fact military devices that can be printed “on demand” so to speak. There is a commonly held belief among a lot of people, especially more conspiracy-minded individuals, that the US Military's “Black Budget” technology is well ahead of the “White World” or mainstream budgets. So maybe the Military's of the world have been able to print up drones of any size.

You wouldn't have to worry about transporting anything other than the materials needed to print the “UFO”, and perhaps it would even be possible to have a computer assemble the parts for you. Just a thought that occurred to me. Either way the news story is really interesting and you should definitely read it.

Also be sure to check out the Daily Grail website at least everyday, because Greg and the rest of the folks over there always have some great content in addition to some of the weirdest Fortean stories you can find.

Water on mars?

This story seems like it would have been right up Mac Tonnies' alley. 

NASA spacecraft spots evidence for flowing water on Mars

Future site of a water park?

(from the article)

A NASA spacecraft in orbit around Mars has detected signs of what appear to be seasonal flows of salty water on the surface of the red planet during warmer summer months, an "eye-opening" finding that could help scientists target future missions to look for signs of microbial life in the frigid soil, researchers said today.

"We have found repeated and predictable evidence suggesting water flowing on Mars," said Michael Meyer, lead scientist with NASA's Mars Exploration office.

Follow this link for more of the article

Sounds pretty cool, but I feel pretty confident that this has been suspected for a little while now. Hopefully this news inspires someone to reach out and actually try to colonize that damn planet already. I want to be the first person to open a bar/nightclub on Barsoom.

Project Blue Book Online!

I have this nasty habit of perusing Above Top Secret. It's definitely a guilty pleasure of mine. Most of the time I don't really learn anything, really I just enjoy reading about how 'Disclosure is Coming'. But earlier today I came across a really informative thread from an always awesome poster at the site, IsaacKoi. He started a really awesome thread that I highly recommend that you check out.

Entitled “Massive UFO Disclosure in the USA: A challenge for ATS” (Don't let the title confuse you, it's not actually about THAT kind of Disclosure) the thread introduces the reader to an awesome site called Footnotes, which among other things houses literally all of the US Government UFO files from their projects. (Of course it doesn't have the secret treaties signed by our world leaders with the Gray Aliens in it, that would just be silly). Project Blue Book, Grudge, and Sign all show up at this database. As do apparently some other's that people may not be as aware of like Project Twinkle and Project Stork (which I had actually not heard of).

The database is technically searchable, but there is a lot of information to sift through. Especially in order to find the 'diamond in the rough'. So with this thread, IsaacKoi is asking for help from those who might be able to assist with the following:

So, can the mass of UFO material on Footnote.com be efficiently downloaded for research off-line? Once that is done, can some aids be developed for finding relevant material?

Is ATS (and the wider UFO community) up to this challenge?

Can the relevant technical issues be addressed here?

Over the years, I’ve been impressed by the technical abilities and computer savvy of members of ATS. This is an issue where ATS could get ahead of the wider UFO community.

We’ll see…

So if you have the skills or are just interested in helping, head over to the ATS thread to learn more. As for me I have spent most of the day, searching Blue Book files from my state. There is, probably not surprisingly, a large amount of information to be found at the site. That's all for now, be sure to check out the sites and have some fun looking at all of the interesting sightings that had been reported.

A little bit of Bill Hicks for tonight

I'm dead tired, so unfortunately there will be no real post tonight. Hopefully I will be back up and running tomorrow night. But I don't want to leave you empty handed, so once again here are some words of wisdom from the esteemed Bill Hicks.

 

NASA vs Dr. Mitchell

Government sues Apollo 14 astronaut over lunar camera

(Reuters) - The U.S. government has sued a former NASA astronaut to recover a camera used to explore the moon's surface during the 1971 Apollo 14 mission after seeing it slated for sale in a New York auction. Click here to read the whole story. 

Does anyone have any thoughts on this one or am I the only one confused by the whole thing?  RedPillJunkie over at the Daily Grail has an interesting take on this:

What bothers me about this story is not that the government is fighting Mitchell over the ownership of this camera; what *does* bother me is that NASA is learning about the whereabouts of this historic piece of equipment after. 40. Years! (Full Article here)

The whole thing just strikes me as so arbitrary. As RedPillJunkie points out, the fact that NASA wants it's property back is fine, but why have they waited so long? I  don't really know what to think about this whole thing. It's not as if Dr. Mitchell has been keeping a low profile for the last 40 years or so. On the contrary he is one of the few other Astronauts who are probably at least casually known to people. Especially those that have an interest in Fortean and paranormal things.

Dr. Mitchell cofounded the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) in 1973 which according to its website:

is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit research, education, and membership organization whose mission is supporting individual and collective transformation through consciousness research, educational outreach, and engaging a global learning community in the realization of our human potential.

Basically this organizations researches all kinds of paranormal things. Psychic abilities, human potential, life after death, consciousness studies, etc. One of the few places left that I can think of that still takes a look at parapsychology from a scientific point of view. 

In addition to this Dr. Mitchell has been pretty vocal about his belief in the existence of Extraterrestrial life in many different mediums. But none of this really explains NASA's somewhat questionable behavior in this matter. Really I guess we don't know enough about the circumstances surrounding the lawsuit. Hopefully we will be able to learn more as time goes on. That's all for now, more to come later. Also be sure to let me know what you think about this whole lawsuit!

Turn on, tune in, drop out!

A few months back I read two very fascinating books on the subject of psychedelics; Inner paths to Outer Space by Rick Strassman (and others) and Supernatural by Graham Hancock. Both books bring to the table the idea that through the use of psychedelics, humans beings are able to access other realms of 'reality' (there's that loaded word again) and perhaps gain new insights. Some years ago studies had actually been performed in the United States on the therapeutic uses of psychedelics for the treatment of all manner of conditions. But like most reactionary institutions these substances, especially LSD, where outlawed in the United States. And so they have been until recently. (The notably exception to this being Dr. Rick Strassman's work with DMT in the early 90's).

Over the last few weeks news articles have been appearing on a variety of websites indicating that the taboo on the use of psychedelics, or the sometimes preferred term of entheogens, is perhaps being lifted. And that we may soon see medical research again head down this path. I for one am quite excited about this prospect. On the medical side, the research that was done seems to indicate that the substances have the capability of; helping alcoholics stop drinking, helping terminally ill patients deal with anxiety, or helping people with OCD handle their compulsions.

All of these are great and reason enough, I think at least, for the US to allow research back into to the medicinal benefits of these substances. However this is not the only reason that I find these substances fascinating. No there is a much more Fortean reason for that. During his research with DMT, Dr. Rick Strassman had participants that were reporting what sound similar to alien abduction experiences. The participants would often report being taken to white rooms in order to be examined by alien beings. The examinations would some times end with some sort of insight being given to the individual. This is really fascinating, but as with most of these topics we are left with more questions than answers.

If, as Dr. Strassman speculates, we produce DMT internally; can the alien abduction phenomena be written off simply as yet another function of the human body? I don't know the answer to that unfortunately, but let's play a little 'What if?' game for just a moment. Suppose that the alien 'Other' that interacts with us from time to time is aware that we have DMT inside our bodies. And they know that DMT can cause humans to have psychedelic experiences. So what if when they wish to interact with us, and in order to keep the experience just outside the realm of 'reality', they induce the DMT experience and then use this to do whatever it is they are doing to us? I don't know if this is the case or not, but I do think that it can make for some interesting speculation. Obviously this couldn't explain all abduction events, as some have physical traces. Unless of course the 'Others' use a combination of physical and psychedelic tools to interact with us for their own purposes.

To learn more about some of the research that has been done into these topics I highly recommend checking out the two books I mentioned earlier; Inner paths to Outer Space and Supernatural. Both are extremely fascinating books that I think you would enjoy. Also to read more about some of the recent murmurings about psychedelic research follow this links for recent news articles on the topic.

The Economist; LSD: Acid Tests, Mother Jones; Geeky stats about Magic Mushrooms, WebMD; Magic Mushrooms show promise as therapeutic tool

Well thats all for now readers, until next time this is your friendly neighborhood Fortean Philosopher saying, 'Don't have a bad trip!'

Alien Photos!

Welcome to the third post in my continuing series of different collections of Fortean photos. If you missed the last two; you can find the UFO photo post here and you can also find the Ghosts photo post here. Tonight I will take you through a few of the more famous, and some infamous, photos that allege to be of Extraterrestrials. Just like the last two posts, I will give you the pictures followed by a little blurb about them.

First up is a still frame image from the famous Alien Autopsy footage

 This footage was originally aired in the United States on a FOX TV special entitled Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction. The footage purports to be from an actual alien autopsy performed by some unknown scientists. The video has long been considered by most as a hoax, but the film itself is very interesting. I highly suggest that you look it up and watch it. There is something very surreal about it, you know beyond the fact that an 'alien' is being dissected. (For an amazingly lucid take on this footage, I suggest checking out what the late Mac Tonnies had to say about the film here)

Next is the Cumberland Spaceman photo

 

 The story behind this photo is relatively straight forward. James Timpleton was taking a picture of his daughter in a field with obviously no one behind her, but when the photo was developed the father noticed that there was a person that appears to be wearing a spacesuit behind his daughter. This story definitely has shades of ghost photography in it, with the whole 'nothing was there when the photo was taken, but upon development something out of the ordinary was in it'. 

Third is the small figure from Mexico

 I wasn't really able to dig a whole lot up about this photo, but it along with the next photo were both from the Faces of the Visitors book I mentioned in this post.

Tomato Man 

 This photo supposedly shows the remains of an alien that died upon impact, after it's craft crashed somewhere near Laredo, Texas. 

Last but not least is George W Bush shaking an aliens hand!

It's true! The government really is in on the alien cover-up. After all there is George W Bush shaking hands with one of them! In case you couldn't recognise this photo, it originated from the old tabloid paper Weekly World News. Really I only included it because I always wondered if there really was anybody out there that actually believed in the validity of this photo.

 

Well Forteans we have come to the end of tonight's post and just like the last two photo posts we are left scratching our heads wondering about how credible these photos truly are. I for one don't put too much stock into them, but then again I can't rule them out either. If they are fakes, some of them (the alien autopsy footage for example) have been really well done. Others like the Tomato Man leave a lot to be desired. That's all for tonight loyal readers, until tomorrow night be sure to keep your eyes on the skies!


Tony

Book Review: Jim Keith's 'Casebook on the Men in Black'

Recently I have mentioned that I have been reading Jim Keith's Casebook on the Men in Black. Just the other day I finally finished reading the book and as promised here is my review. If you don't know who Jim Keith is, and if you have even a peripheral interest in para-politics, you are really doing yourself a disservice by not reading his writings. Keith was very influential conspiracy writer, who had moved past the ETH in reference to the UFO phenomena. As a matter of fact in his equally great book Saucers of the Illuminati, Keith argues that the vast majority of the 'UFO phenomena' is actually the vehicles of the secret government and their psychological operations program (psy-ops). Like I said it's a fascinating book, but this review isn't about Saucers of the Illuminati.

Instead it is a review of Keith's last book before his untimely death following an accident at the Burning Man festival in 1999. The original printing of Casebook on the Men in Black was in 1997. The edition that I have is the newly revised and reprinted 2011 version. It features a new forward by the equally (in)famous para-political guru Kenn Thomas, who along with Keith wrote the classic book on the Danny Casolaro murder titled The Octopus. Within Casebook on the Men in Black, Keith lays out some of the history of the MIB phenomenon (both past and present).

Like any book that I enjoy that deals with Fortean topics, Keith's Casebook realises that there is nothing 'modern' about the concept of the Men in Black encounters. The book opens with Keith leading the reader through the magic lore and how witches and wizards of old seemed to be interacting with entities that bear striking resemblances to what people were reporting in more modern times about the Men in Black. After this Keith leads the reader right were he is most comfortable. With the concept that the MIB encounters, at least the more modern ones anyway, are possibly apart of a psy-ops program being run by some clandestine portion of the American government.

One of the other great things about Keith's work is that even though you can tell that his pet theory is the psy-ops angle, he isn't an 'all or nothing' type of researcher. By this I mean that the last few chapters of the book are spent detailing encounters with MIBs that are, for a lack of a better word 'otherworldly' or ethereal. Now by this word I don't mean to imply that Keith believed that the entities encountered were by any means extraterrestrial, it's more of an interdimensional kind of view. The stories that are recounted towards the end of the book, if true, leave the reader wondering just what in the hell people were seeing.

And like all of the people that I admire, Keith leaves that question for you to answer for yourself. So if you only know of MIBs from the Will Smith/Tommy Lee Jones movies, then please do yourself a favour and pick up this newly released version of a classic esoteric book. I promise you will not be disappointed and if like me you do end up enjoying this book by Keith, and you are open to alternative theories about UFOs, then I highly recommend you also check out his Saucers of the Illuminati. OK Forteans that is all I've got for you tonight, be sure to stick around for more fun tomorrow night. Between now and then look out for shady characters that have long slender fingers and claim to work for the US Air Force.

Sorry short post tonight

I have to study for another exam tonight and then I will be passing out. I apologize for not doing a proper post tonight guys and gals. But I wanted to share this interesting piece of information and see what you all think about. 

Quote:

The rumors are finally confirmed, during a special screening of ET: The Extra-Terrestrial at the White house in 1982, Ronald Reagan did make a comment about everything in the movie being true. However, Spielberg says he is pretty sure Reagan was only joking around.

For more check out the link here.

Personally I never really put any stock into this story myself, but what about you? Be sure to leave a comment and let me know. Until next time, take it easy Forteans! 

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”

Synchronicities, Bookstores, and MIBs. Oh my!

Hmm I definitely intended to write something tonight, it was arguably going to be thought provoking and simultaneously ground breaking. Well OK probably not but we may never know. Instead of whatever I was going to talk about I will mention an interesting bit of synchronicity that happened to me today. You may recall from an earlier posting (Be careful what you wish for?) that I have had almost zero luck with any kind of paranormal events happening to me. With the exception of the werewolf I may or may not have seen as a child (Origin Story).

So when something that seems a bit synchronistic occurs of course I will take it and run with it. As many of you may know, I have started going back to school in order to get my degree in Biology (I think). About a week ago I had to get my books for class, and I decided that I would order them from Amazon, you know rather than paying the outrageous fees that the school bookstore would have charged. While I was looking for my textbooks, I got to looking at my Amazon wish list and figured, 'What the hell? Why not go ahead and pick up some the books that are on my list?'. The ones that I chose to get this time around were Wake up down there! The Excluded Middle Anthology edited by Greg Bishop and Jenny Randle's The Truth Behind Men in Black. Because the books were coming from different places, the textbooks arrived just two days after the order. I though I would have to wait a bit before the other two came in.

However when I got home last night from class, I saw a tiny book shaped package waiting for me on my doorstep. The Truth Behind Men in Black had arrived, I was pretty excited about the book because Mac Tonnies had recommended it on his site and, so far, everything he has recommended has been an excellent read. But since I was still in the process of re-reading Mac's 'The Cryptoterrestrials' I had to put Jenny Randle's book on my bookshelf until I finished his book. So it was that I thought, at least temporarily,  I was done with the Men in Black. Fast forward to earlier tonight, rather than attend my class this evening I opted for skipping (I know shame on me, its only the second week of classes). My girlfriend and I decided to head to our local little shopping center so that we could have a mid-week date night thing . One of our favorite spots to hit up is the local Books-A-Million, so we went inside and started perusing the 'New Age' book section (I really dislike that UFO books among other topics are lumped into this section with Sylvia Browne books and books on The Secret).

While looking through the selection that they have (you know the usual; ghost books and Zecharia Sitchin stuff), it was at this point that I noticed a strange little tome. Sitting right in front of me was 'Casebook on the Men in Black' by Jim Keith. This was more than a little bizarre, for one thing the book is published by Adventures Unlimited Press, which to the best of my knowledge aren't carried normally by Books-A-Million. Not only that, I'm pretty sure that this book had been out of print or at least hard to come by since it came out in 1997. This edition was newly printed in 2011. So here we were two days in a row with me coming face to face with books about MIBs. It definitely had the ring of synchronicity to it. Of course I purchased the book as it was the only copy and it is unlikely the store would be getting anymore anytime soon.

So that is my strange little tale of synchronicity, I am very excited to read Keith's book as I really enjoyed reading his 'Saucers of the Illuminati'. Like a lot of the authors that I read, Keith was of the opinion that UFOs, whatever they truly are, probably weren't necessarily visiting ET's hailing from Zeta Reticuli. Instead, as if you couldn't tell from the title of his other book, they either originated from or were being used by the 'Illuminati' for various purposes. I don't necessarily agree with this theory, but is nice to see another non-ET explanation for UFOs. It may not seem like too much, but I will take whatever kind of Fortean event I can get. Until next time, stay classy my fellow Closet Forteans!

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.

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.

Klaatu Barada Nikto: “Hey Earthlings, Stop With The Nukes”

As with the majority of Ufological and Fortean phenomena all we have to rely on is the testimonies of the witnesses. Take for instance last week when a group of retired military officials, lead by Robert Hastings, gathered in Washington DC at the National Press Club to discuss their UAP experiences which took place while they were stationed at Nuclear Facilities during the Cold War. A UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon) is a term that NARCAP (National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena) coined in an attempt to avoid the cultural baggage associated with the more common term UFO. The hope was that together with this new, less loaded term and the weight of the ex-military officers’ testimonies that perhaps some credibility could be given to this topic by both the public and the media. However, the press conference was given minimal media attention so no credibility was given to the testimonies of the officers.

Due to the lack of coverage let’s take a moment to review their testimonies. While the officers were underground in nuclear silos, UAPs would appear suddenly in the air over the base. The UAPs were being seen by the ground crews and were being picked up on radar. As these objects were hovering over the silos they would knock all of the nuclear missiles offline simultaneously-the missiles were designed to be operated and maintained independently to prevent such an outcome. The missiles would be reactivated the minute that the UAPs seemed to fly away. These events took place at numerous nuclear facilities around the country. These incidents took place at the height of the cold war meaning the officers would have been on constant high alert to recognize anything that would have been flying in the air.

How did the media and the U.S. Military decide to cover this significant event in US History? For starters, John Kelly, of the Washington Post, spent the majority of his article discussing the kind of cookies that were served at the Press Club. The Military most likely did not respond because of the Robertson Panel (which concluded that the Air Force should get out of the UFO business and use the Media to dissuade people from an interest in the phenomena).

Retired military officials stood up to publicly admit that they had encountered bizarre occurrences while operating in nuclear silos, and the most the media could muster was a review of the cookies that are served. Obviously there is an air of ridicule still over this topic. no matter the level of credibility of the witness, in this case retired military officials, nor the PR facelift of the term UFO to UAP, this topic may not ever be taken seriously. The best we can hope for is for enough people to come forward so that perhaps we can break through the ridicule, put an end to the Robertson Panel’s conclusions, and give this topic the attention it deserves.