MUFON To Collaborate on Abduction Reporting

The current issue of the MUFON Journal has an item about its “abduction experiencer referral relationship.” MUFON has partnered with OPUS (Organization for Paranormal Understanding and Support,) where calls concerning alien abductions will be directed to Lester Velez. Velez is Vice President of OPUS. He is also the Northern California Assistant State Director of MUFON.

As with MUFON, OPUS is a 501 (c3) nonprofit group.

The MUFON article states that the OPUS mission is:

“To develop a network of people dedicated to a better understanding of the overall nature of unusual/anomalous personal experiences and to support those who have them.”

What kinds of experiences fall into this category?

“. . . extraordinary states of consciousness, fortean, spiritual, or parapsychological phenomenon, close encounters with non-human entities, and/or UFO activity.”

By bringing together people with “opposing and often controversial views” MUFON/OPUS’ intent is to gain a larger understanding (including on the scientific playing field) of the abduction phenomena.

Notes

MUFON Journal, May 2007
OPUS and MUFON to Collaborate on Abduction Reporting

OPUS
http://www.opus-net.org

Bob Luca Jr. Comments on "Luca Land"

In February, I wrote an item on Bob Luca Jr.’s contention the Betty Andreasson Luca UFO abduction was a hoax. He recently commented on that entry:

I am Bob Jr. First off, I did not leave the family 30+ years ago. You didn't read my web page or my write-up carefully enough. I had my falling out with my father a couple years ago. also, it is my father who backed out on taking a lie detector test side by side with me. I am ready willing and able. He declined. The item he posted in the paper about me was blown out of proportion. It is when I hit rock bottom from drinking and I called for help. I went in for rehab from drinking. He should do the same! My father just kicks up dirt, but will not debate me as what I say is the truth. Note for the record he is on psyc. medication, and not me! He still won't have the lie detector test done with me. Why is this. He could then proove me wrong so why won't he. Also, my statement about moving out when I was 19 refered to me being on my own and my father never lived on his own, but always with his mom and / or with a woman, but never alone. So I would read up better before you jump to conclusions to the story. What I print is true and there will be more testimony from more people soon. I amdoing that since he copped out of that lie detector test.

I replied that I did not say he left the family thirty years ago; I said the case was more than thirty years old.

I also told Luca, Jr. that I had freely acknowledged I didn’t give his site full attention, and the reasons why I didn’t.

You can read more on the original post here.

Whether you’re an experiencer,UFO witness,skepti-bunkie, skeptic, or wherever you land in all this (as with all UFO and Fortean experiences) all any of us have are the stories of others. Intuition goes a long way, and more of us should trust ours. As I commented to Bob Jr. no one knows the “true” story, certainly not me. However, based on his presentation, my own experiences, research, and intuition, I’m not so quick to buy into his his story either.

And in a not unusual bit of synchronicity, as I was writing this, I found this link in my email box from the UFO Experiences blog; an interview with Betty Andreasson.

“Mock Them As Barflies From Venus and Mars”

Alfred Lehmberg, of An Alien View blog, has written another great piece, this one on the perception by chronic skeptics who spend large units of time sneering at abductees. No understanding, just the lowest and easiest form of attack. I also saw this piece as a metaphor for other issues, including non-UFO ones.

“Forget that the saucers still fly in your skies; forget the abducted, and pretend that their cries... are musings of idiots, cretinous loons who scratch at your wallet then howl at your moon. But it's you, not *abductees*, "out to lunch" here today! It is YOU, and not them, sopped in naiveté!”

What is so often missed in all this craziness and high strangeness, is what it does to all of us, and why. I don’t pretend to know the “why,” and often am unaware of it doing anything at all to me. We need these experiences, whether it’s us that’s having them, or someone else. Among other things, these abductees, and encounters with entities, and all the rest of it, are gifts. Not just for the individual experiencer, but everyone. These “gifts” are not often appreciated, wanted, or even good ones -- give it back! But they are gifts, of a kind, reminding us that it’s not just us solid citizens out here doing the hard core reality thing.

These events have been going on for thousands of years, and we’ve been trying to figure them out -- or suppress them -- for just as long. Doesn’t seem we’ve gotten anywhere, and insisting that those that experience the anomalous are money hungry, emotionally needy, lying fruitcakes with mental diseases is getting a bit tired.

Women and UFO Studies

I've been neglecting not only my funky angelfire website, but my Women in UFO and Fortean studies pages. Here's one page updated a bit. I've moved over to an official domain: orangeorb.net, but I'm still working on the little glitches. Probably won't be up for awhile. In the meantime, you can see what I have up on the old angelfire site. And if you feel like adding a banner or link on your blog, that's always a wonderful thing. Better yet, if you have any names to add, let me know. I'm always interested.

LAST WORD ON ROBERT A. LUCA, JR.

As I wrote earlier, it’s obvious he’s a troubled person. Knowing a bit more about him from various sources, combined with the overall tone of his website, I think it’s best for UFO researchers to ignore him.

What’s sad about this -- aside from the unhappiness and negative energy this man is going through, and, seems to inflict on others -- is the fact this “revelation” is being used by many anti-UFOists to say “Ha! It was all just a hoax!”

Nothing of the kind, of course. And those who use the words of Ray Luca, Jr. to “prove” that the Betty Andreason Luca experience was a “hoax” reveal their lack of knowledge, and thinking abilities.

For these two reasons: the innate sadness of another human being, Ray Luca, and,the fact this proves nothing, nothing at all regarding the veracity of Betty’s experiences, serious UFO researchers and students should just put this to rest.

Of course, this is all just my opinion. As the good Lesley said recently in her article
“What Am I?” for her Grey Matters column over on Binnall of America, I’m just babbling.

As we all are.

But, I don’t think I’ll be babbling about this topic any more.

Luca Land: Did Betty Andreason Luca Lie?

I saw this post on UFO Updates; a post by a member of the Luca family, who has just come out to tell the world the whole Betty Andreason Luca UFO experience was a hoax. Their website, Luca Land, explains it all for you.

The following legal notice appears on their web page:

Legal Notice: All material published on this website is based upon my own personal opinion thus you may take it for what you think it
is worth and decide for your own self as if you agree with it or not as I do not wish to be political in my statements, but to only give my
own personal view point and logical conclusions and let you decide if you agree or not.

That’s fair. But does this mean that there is no proof that Andreason Luca lied, since it’s all “personal view point?”

There are pages of autobiographical material related to the experiences of thirty years ago, and it's highly interesting, which goes without saying.

I cannot begin to delve into this, and wouldn’t dare to be so presumptuous as to make all kinds of pronouncements about who's telling the truth, who's lying, who's unbalanced, etc. Obviously, there is a huge tangled mess here of family history that has elements of alcoholism and all kinds of other issues. I don’t know anyone from this family, and am not a psychologist.

That said, this is a big “wow” and worth exploring, for a variety of obvious reasons.

At this point, I’ve only skimmed over this; it’s going to take a good chunk of time to read all that’s there. So far, the site appears to be a blend of airing unpleasant family history, personal views on UFOs which wildly jump from “skeptical” to belief, some weird thing about getting a pass to be an advanced user on the site, and also how to get a Yahoo website, and stuff for sale. Also a blog, and links, and all sorts of things I haven't gotten to yet.

I think it’s important, however, to not get lost or consumed by this very personal and intense family story, and use it as an excuse to dismiss Betty’s experiences, merely based on the content of this website.

What’s true, what isn’t? This person seems to be searching for something, for the truth, and it’s all wrapped up with a lifetime, literally, of not only family dysfunction, but UFO high strangeness, and religious weirdness. You don’t have to be a psychologist to realize that this is an incredibly complicated mess for a person to wade through, and I don’t wish that on anyone. No matter what you think of the Andreason story, this individual, or his website, I think we can all agree he has had a very rough time, and is just trying to make some sense out of it.

It may seem like the easy way out to laugh him out of the equation and make fun, cast sneers and sarcasm his way. I admit to wanting to do a bit of that myself; we can all find things to nitpick about.

But for those out there who are going to take this on and tackle it, trying to get at the truth of the Andreason story (which is very likely impossible) or, use this as a smug way of utterly trashing everyone involved, I suggest some compassion.

We’re dealing with human beings first, and UFOs second.