tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7839436999869403520.post8883769021307522134..comments2023-11-02T06:50:28.030-07:00Comments on The Orange Orb: UFOs, Forteana, Dreams, and More . . .: OKAY, THIS IS WHY: UFO ‘CIRCUS’ FOLKRegan Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13786586311631698822noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7839436999869403520.post-79681920790676646552006-12-31T11:29:00.000-08:002006-12-31T11:29:00.000-08:00From Daniel Brenton, who still is unable to post o...<i>From Daniel Brenton, who still is unable to post on blogger:</i><br /><br />Regan --<br /><br />You're right -- the Contactee / Experiencer crowd are part of the<br />phenomenon and the damned thing about it is that some of them may be<br />genuine. I located Truman Bethurum's book "Aboard a Flying Saucer"<br />some years ago and read it (it's really a dreadful book -- he said he<br />got a ghost writer to help him, and I think he wasted his money). J.<br />Allen Hynek felt Bethurum was sincere about his experiences, and yet<br />they make no sense. For those unfamiliar with Bethurum, his "contact"<br />involved multiple contacts with a short, attractive female "captain" of<br />a flying saucer, that told him her home world, "Clarion." was "behind<br />the Moon." This point is misquoted by some as "behind the Sun," which<br />is understandable in that this seems more plausible.<br /><br />It isn't. actually. In terms of Lagrangian celestial mechanics (oh,<br />he's going to get technical now) there is a "libration point" 30,000<br />miles past the Moon in a straight line from the Earth where because of<br />a combination of gravitational influences of the Earth and the Moon and<br />the velocity required to keep an orbit balanced out, an object could be<br />placed there for an extended period. Unfortunately, an object the size<br />of what would be considered a habitable planet would easily be seen,<br />and if nothing else it's influence in this kind of orbital relationship<br />would have been deduced mathematically centuries ago. This "libration<br />point" is however relatively unstable, and anything in it would<br />eventually drift out of it, anyway.<br /><br />Similarily, there is a libration point in the Earth / Sun relationship<br />directly on the other side of the Sun from the Earth, but anything<br />placed in that would eventually drift away from it also.<br /><br />There is a good "thumbnail" summary of Bethurum on Wikipedia:<br /><br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truman_Bethurum<br /><br />So here we have someone who apparently had an experience considered<br />sincere by a respected authority, and an experience which is<br />nonsensical. A lot of abduction experiences seem nonsensical also.<br />Unfortunately, this is a "hang-up" for a lot of rationally-thinking<br />people because they aren't willing to take something like this at face<br />value because it makes no sense. This, actually, is the point -- these<br />actual events don't make sense.<br /><br />(I'm sure I'll be writing about this as well soon ... )<br /><br />-- Daniel<br /><br />The Meaning of Existence (and all that): The Odd Little Universe of<br />Daniel Brenton<br />http://www.danielbrenton.comRegan Leehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13786586311631698822noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7839436999869403520.post-67944501026808131532006-12-30T00:18:00.000-08:002006-12-30T00:18:00.000-08:00I haven't read Politics of the Imagination (which ...I haven't read Politics of the Imagination (which I can't wait to get to) but I recently read An American Demonology, which I enjoyed.Regan Leehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13786586311631698822noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7839436999869403520.post-49789602421841554812006-12-29T22:20:00.000-08:002006-12-29T22:20:00.000-08:00I'm a Bennett fan. "Looking for Orthon" is fantas...I'm a Bennett fan. "Looking for Orthon" is fantastic; his critical biography of Fort, "Politics of the Imagination," is also a must. <br /><br />(I still haven't read his Ruppelt biography, "An American Demonology.")Machttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11074004681516756703noreply@blogger.com