Hoping For a Trigger

     Something quite obvious occurred to me the other night, while watching a program on UFOs. There are so many UFO shows on television and You Tube, etc. that it’s hard to remember what it was that I was watching. It was on television. No matter. The thing is, I was watching, yet again, another UFO program and I wondered why, after all these years, do I still watch any program that has to do with UFOs, and to a slightly lesser degree, any show that has to do with Bigfoot, ghosts, the paranormal, etc.?

     I haven’t learned anything. Not true; I’ve learned the facts of various cases. Barney and Betty Hill, Kecksburg, Travis Walton. . .

     I’ve learned about triangles and the Phoenix Lights and orbs. All kinds of orbs. Orange orbs. Ah, so that’s it. 

     I watch these shows hoping for a trigger. That by watching UFO programs -- especially ones to do with orbs, orange orbs -- something within my subconscious will shift, and I’ll remember. I’ll remember what happened during the missing time my husband and I experienced during the sighting. I’ll learn just what the orange orb was. I’ll discover why. Why it was there, why I experienced all the strange things in its aftermath. I’ll understand the connection between the orange orb encounter and all the encounters preceding it. Since childhood, I will finally know.

     So far, no such luck. Tried hypnosis, which turned out to be a waste of money. I expected a deep dive into a dramatic uncovering of memory. Instead, it was a gentle fun but empty guided sort of meditation. (“You are walking down a hall and see a painting. What is in the painting?”) Bleh. 

     I’m trying a remote viewing kind of thing. I have my husband involved, though he doesn’t know what it’s about. Just a target number I gave him. So far, nothing. 

     I draw and paint and try to work out through my art if something will suddenly erupt in a big There It Is! moment.

      I continue to watch to see if there are other witnesses who have had similar encounters. There are lots of sightings of small orange orbs far off in the sky. Footage exists all over the place of those kinds of orbs. Not just orange but red, green, blue, yellow. There are some cases of large orange orbs, like the one I saw, and the sense from the witness that the orb was aware, intelligent, playing with the witness. That’s what I experienced. One happened in Oregon, near the gorge, also in the nineteen eighties. Connected? 

     So far, no answers. Interesting elements, but no answer. And now that I’m in my sixties I wonder if I’ll ever find out. 

Why Won't Bigelow Share?

 Thinking about Skinwalker Ranch. The current owner, Brandon Fugal, states that Robert Bigelow won't share his findings with the new investigators. Why should he? It's his research. He's under no obligation to share. Yet, why won't he? Are we after the truth? Why so cagey? What's he keeping/hiding? No doubt a quasi top secret highly classified blah de blah contract with the government. Strange bedfellows and all that. Meanwhile, the Fugal team is busy busy busy and branching out to other ranches with similar highly anomalous episodes to investigate. And so is the government watching all this? Are they laughing their collective asses off? Surely they know what's going on. Do they? I don't know. It's all speculation. It can only be speculation. But that's what I'm here for.

It's entertainment, for sure. It's interesting, for sure. It's pretty obvious very strange stuff is going on out there, not just at the Skinwalker ranch but other nearby places as well. The area: Utah, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, full of UFO sightings, cattle mutilations, Bigfoot, aliens, and more. Going back hundreds of years.

So something is definitely going on. As well as a lot of distraction and silliness. And questionable partnerships. Dr. Travis Taylor for example. Ex-CIA individuals now investigating high strangeness. Do we believe their connections  to their covert pasts are no longer viable?

Part para-tainment, part highly interesting paranormal mind candy, part we're-fucking-with-you-all-bless-your-hearts. Wikipedia isn't impressed. No surprise there.

I watch the program because I'm a glutton for almost anything to do with the paranormal, from UFOs to Bigfoot to ghosts to you name it. That doesn't mean I believe everything they're telling us, and I always wonder at what they're not telling us. And I can't help but wonder about the government. Someone in there knows what's really going on, or at least knows a lot more than what we're being told. I have a hard time believing  that the government -- some shadowy, spooky, black - op faction -- isn't aware of what's going on out there and has an interest. Is the current Skinwalker team in cahoots? Are they dupes? Who knows. Well, someone knows of course, but it's not us.

Meanwhile, I'll continue to enjoy watching Skinwalker and its "Beyond Skinwalker" episodes but keeping in mind that there is a lot more going on than we're being told. 

Finds: 1959 FATE

 I have three file boxes full of FATE magazines, as well as other issues in some magazine binders. I found this the other day while organizing the book room.

FATE magazine May 1959

It's in fair condition; spine is tattered, no back cover. 

I love this ad for "Advice and Counseling by Mail or Phone" in the issue.

Dr. Morton Jacobs, a man of many skills:

Yoga, Psychic, Medium, Spiritualism,Telepathy, Astrology, Palmistry, Numberology, Orgone Therapy, Aura Analysis ...

And, of course:

Health Secrets of the Interplanetary and Flying Saucer People.

Not to mention Voodoo, Witchcraft, the Bible and Healing Secrets of Jesus. 

 

International Owl Awareness Day

It is International Owl Awareness Day!

Google International Owl Awareness Day and you'll find plenty of links to all kinds of sites with info on owls and the history  of the day. Like this one at the U.S. Department of the Interior.

A few quotes about the supernaturalness of owls:

“Perhaps he does not want to be friends with you until he knows what you are like. With owls, it is never easy-come-easy-go.” 

― T.H. White, The Sword in the Stone

“Oh, what a lovely owl!" Cried the Wart.

But when he went up to it and held out his hand, the owl grew half as tall again, stood up as stiff as a poker, closed its eyes so that there was only the smallest slit to peep through - as you are in the habit of doing when told to shut your eyes at hide-and-seek - and said in a doubtful voice

"There is no owl."

Then it shut its eyes entirely and looked the other way.

"It is only a boy," said Merlyn.

"There is no boy," said the owl hopefully, without turning round.” 

― T.H. White, The Once and Future King

“People say the darkness is where secrets are best hidden. Night time brings clarity and focus to owls, even if the aperture of this vision comes with a stigma.” 

― Kimberly Morgan, On Angels and Rabbit Holes

UFO Haiku . . .

I've been quiet lately, around UFO Land. Not much to say -- others usually say it much better than I.

MUFON's imploded. Stan Romanek has been found guilty of child pornography.

My lack of posting on my blogs isn't due to lack of activity in any of the paranormal/anomalous fields. And it's not because I've given up, -- there's nothing to "give up." It's not a question of giving up. I'm not bored with any of this. How could I be? How could one be bored with experiencing missing time and seeing odd objects and entities? Hell no, I'm not bored.

Just… sometimes I really don't have much to say in this realm. Also, it's summer, and the air is crappy here in the Willamette Valley (Valley of Sickness) with the wildfires everywhere. Recharging. Focusing on other things, for a bit.

But giving up. Never. Bored. Don't be silly.

Almost all of my blogs are UFO and paranormal related. Bigfoot, Mothman, etc. But one blog is devoted to fiction. Poetry, prose. So here are two UFO haiku I wrote recently:

she didn't believe

such things could be happening  --

brilliant orange orbs

Some say missing time

is the mental state unhinged

and some, know better

Coast to Coast This is More Like It, and, How I Don't Make Friends...

Tonight on Coast to Coast Shows: Linda Moultan Howe, and Rich Newman who will talk about his research on "creepy bridges."

I have been listening to Coast to Coast since the Art Bell days. Give me all the good solid old fashioned Fortean, anomalous stuff: ghosts, hauntings, UFOs, aliens, reptilians, lizard men, Sasquatch, monsters of all kinds, cryptids of all kinds, conspiracies (mainly paranormal/supernatural related), religions of a paranormal kind… all that stuff.

Politics, economics, and health, loosely tied to conspiracy and even less so to paranormal themes, not interested. Yet those subjects are the subject of Coast to Coast frequently. I'm bored! I am not interested. Give me contactees, abductees and orbs. More of the latter, much less, in fact none, of the former.

I'll accept spirits of the dead, life after death, and topics covering that realm, like dreams, but politics? How our money is worthless, Big Pharma is ruining both our health as well as our very lives? While true -- I have no argument against that -- I don't want to hear it on Coast to Coast. It's the only program on old fashioned, old school radio, of its kind. Stick to the weird, the unexplainable, the mysterious.

Oh, and don't get met started on skeptics and silly shills, like Seth-from-SETI.

While I'm at it, let's talk about George Noory. I realize I am risking some ire and if I ever am fortunate enough to see my works in print in a bona fide book form (Bigfoot from Outer Space stuff, Orange Orbs, etc.) I will not be asked to be a guest. But Noory drives me insane. I cannot stand his constant interrupting - just when a guest is into delivering a great bit of information, making an interesting point, raising a good question, along comes Noory with some inane, stupid, insipid question or comment. SERIOUSLY?! (And see what I've just done? He's made me regress to middle school speak.) He restates the guest's point in the lamest terms. Noory asks questions that the guest just addressed, as if the guest hadn't even brought the point up in the first place. My poor little transistor radio is duct taped in places; it's been thrown across the room so many times in sheer and agonizing frustration.

Many guest hosts on Coast to Coast are excellent. I realize they have a great gig and I have no idea how they truly feel about Noory. And, they might (assuming they read my blog which I realize of course, they don't, let alone know who I am) find Noory an intelligent guy and deep thinker.  But I find it intriguing I can admire and respect the likes of George Knapp, or Connie Willis, or Jimmy Church, who step in for Noory, while they make strange bed fellows indeed. I don't blame them at all, hell, if I were in their shoes, I'd do the same.

This is just my personal rant; against the non-paranormal, non-supernatural, non-weird slant Coast to Coast gives us too often. I understand the argument is something like "we try to give a broad array of subjects" and "we're not going to please everyone all the time" but I'd love to access a mainstream show that devotes itself to the weird all the time. (What I'd give to have a twenty-four hour television station devoted to UFO and paranormal topics.) (Not streaming on-line, but your every day serviceable television-on-the-TV show.)

Missing 411: Dream, See -Through Rock People, Psychic Play, and Sasquatch

I’m deeply intrigued with David Paulides work in his Missing 411 series. While I’ve read one of his books (so far, plan on reading them all) and follow his work on-line, I haven’t recently been giving any particular attention to any of the missing 411 cases, or the phenomena. So I am curious about this very vivid and slightly disturbing dream I had last night:

I live in a semi-rural area, on the edges of the suburbs. The location has a southern California feel to it, or southwest. Desert like, but not completely. Surrounding the dozen or so houses out here are soft, rolling hills, probably sandstone. Layers and layers among the hills, and large gray boulders.

manipulated sepia version

My friends and I go out for a small hike. We can see our house from where we are. We aren’t far, less than a half mile from the house.  I’m climbing up the side of a hill, my friends are maybe fifty feet away. 

Out of nowhere, I am grabbed by invisible hands. I sense their presence, I know that they are here, but I can’t see who -- or what -- they are. I get a glimpse of these things. They shimmer in and out, sort of like the Predator. These things look human like in some ways. They have two arms and legs like humans, etc. But they are about seven feet tall and muscle bound, like The Hulk. They grab me by the arms and feet and drag me up the hill. My friends are completely unaware of what’s going on. I scream with everything I have but they can’t hear me. 

I know, without a doubt, that this has something to do with what Paulides researches. I beg these beings, plead, cry, to let me go. I tell them I don’t want to end up dead and found in the middle of a lake or the top of a mountain.  I get the feeling that the more I beg and talk to them instead of giving up they might agree to keep me alive.  They tell me that they’ll me go when they’re ready.
A few days later, I find myself near the same spot where I was taken. Two men have brought me down here. They are also very tall, around seven or eight feet, but stocky. The men have long shiny black hair, like a Native person, but their features are not Native Amercian at all. They have flattened, pushed in faces. They are human, but more than that -- or, less than that. They are not quite all human, in other words. At the same time, I don’t get the sense they are ETs. I do get the sense some of this is related to Sasquatch, but how, I don’t know. It’s all very confusing and muddled. While I feel there is a Sasquatch aspect to this, the Sasquatch have nothing to do with any of this, not directly anyway, if at all. 

Another Southwest, Regan Lee
manipulated sepia version

 They communicate with me telepathically; that I am never to tell anyone anything about any of this. While I have no memory of what happened while I was missing, I do remember being taken by the weird near invisible beings, and these guys. They tell me over and over that they are now in my head, at all times, and will know if I’m even thinking of telling someone. If I say anything, they tell me, not only will I be killed, but many in my family.

I go back to the house, naturally everyone is happy to see me and are full of questions. I just keep saying over and over that I don’t remember anything. I tell everyone I must have fallen and that caused amnesia of some kind. 

I wake up, feeling very strange. Then I hear a loud clattering, scrambling sound that goes on for about five seconds. Things falling, like dishes or pots, among other things. My first thought is the cat tried to climb on the bookshelves beneath the window where I have some plants. The cats start meowing and running around, wanting to go out. At five-thirty in the morning! Unusual for them.  I get up to check, I don’t see anything out of place. I check the whole house -- nothing. I look out the window in our bedroom, thinking maybe an animal knocked over plants and rocks by the little garden pond, but nothing is out of place. All very strange.

As I’m in bed, thinking about all this strangeness, I get a sense this dream, the clattering, the cat’s odd behavior, has something to with my visit yesterday with friends who have had several UFO experiences, as well as paranormal experiences in general. Lately we’ve been involved in doing exercises to activate psychic skills. Energy play, “sending and receiving” imagery, oracle and tarot work, etc. And, of course, intense discussions about our experiences, including questions about those experiences. One more thing: I mention large gray rocks in the dream. A week or so ago, I was "receiving" from one of the people in our discussion group. One of the images that came to me was a gray boulder, about twelve feet tall, in a desert like spot. The rest of the area was semi-rural with green and trees, but the rock was off by itself in barren land.

I think it's one thing to talk about these experiences, but the questioning, as well as the agreement to participate in actively finding out, seems to have triggered something.

Note: Here the originals of the images shown above:

Another Southwest, Regan Lee

It's Not That I'm Jaded . . .

Because I'm not. Some have given it up altogether, others are close to walking away from UFO and all that relates, but not me. I've shifted.

UFOs, Sasquatch, ghosts and other paranormal, anomalous topics are related in many ways. Keeping with the contradictory nature of weird stuff, they're also separate from each other. Connected or not, I've long ago accepted the fact that they are. 

The "hunt" for Sasquatch -- not a literal hunt, not that, ever! -- well, what's the point? If you've seen a Sasquatch, you know they exist. If you haven't, well, maybe one day you will. And it seems to me the surest way to see one is to just be, sans guns, cameras, Paris of plaster, and just meet, (if you're lucky) in mind and spirit, the being in its own realm. I haven't personally seen a Sasquatch, but I know they exist. Some may argue that I prefer to have faith it exists -- philosophical quibbles. I know too many people who have seen one, and I believe them. Either I believe them, or I don't, in which case I am calling them liars. I am pretty sure they aren't lying. I know them -- why would they --in fact, some have only reluctantly told me upon promise of not repeating their encounters. So I accept along with the other evidence that's out there that Sasquatch exists.

Ghosts. I have seen, heard, and felt their presence.  It's difficult to explain to some who haven't experienced this for themselves. For example, the energy, the type of movement and motion involved in objects that do things they shouldn't. Or the voices that debunkers will say are just sounds from the radio, television or kids  other parts of the house. Nope. None of those satisfy, nor do the "explanations" that it's migraine or vision going wonky when seeming white mists forming before your eyes.

Not to mention the very location. A home that is over a hundred years old, once an old folks home, prison, hospital, orphanage, sanitarium, buried on top of an old cemetery, once a plantation -- haunted? You can be absolutely certain that place is haunted!

But while cameras do capture interesting images, and EVPS are always intriguing and evidence adding to the proof pile, there is something to be said for the sensitive, the medium, the psychic, that goes into these places. Respect, for one. Like searching for Sasquatch, a quiet and intentional respect for the situation goes a long way to an authentic experience.

So I no longer feel the compulsion to go out and take casts, photos and the like. I'm not out to prove anything to anyone, and certainly not to any infrastructure, so the only thing left is my personal experience in relation to the energy I'm curious about.

In many ways, the same goes for UFOs, USOs, UAPs.   Many have given up, as they have the search for Nessie or Sasquatch, because no Big Answer has appeared to us, revealing its reality or its purpose. I know its real, so I don't need to discover that aspect. I have no idea -- though I play around with tons of theories -- as to their purpose or intent. I'll probably never find out. But I've always been more of a process oriented type than a result type.

Seeing Animals In Hopes Of . . .

It's a UFO debunker cliche, that when witnesses report seeing strange craft or creatures, that "we see what we want to see." Implying that we want to see Bigfoot, flying saucers, or ghosts, so of course, we convince ourselves that we did indeed see such things.

Sure, Venus has been mistaken for a craft from outer space, and there are those who insist all weird flying objects are operated by ET from another planet.

I was reminded of this silly way of thinking about "seeing what we want to see" today. Years ago, I was walking down a hilly street. At the end of the block, I could have sworn I saw a cow standing there. Right in the middle of town, a brown and white cow. Just standing there. But that though lasted for about six seconds. I couldn't figure out what it was, but I knew it very probably wasn't a cow. Then I realized it was a car. A brown car that was parked at an odd angle, dappled by the sunlight. True, I didn't "want" to see a cow -- though that would have been pretty neat to see a cow in the road -- but I realized the chances of it being a cow were slim. Even while I didn't know what it was, I didn't convince myself it was a cow.

Today, driving on Lorane highway (about a mile from my orange orb sighting decades ago) we saw what at first were "tiny fawns." We knew of course they couldn't have been fawns, since they are never that small. And the chances of seeing many of them together were low as well. We both had the same thought: "teeny fawns" but quickly realized they weren't, because they couldn't have been. Even though we wanted to see fawn, or deer, as we often do see on that road, we knew these things we were seeing weren't. They were turkeys. We slowed down and watched as the flock crossed the road. There were at least fifteen of them.

The point is, we often expect to see something but realize quickly we're not seeing what we think we're seeing. Sometimes we don't know what we're seeing, but know what it isn't. So when we do see strange craft, or ghosts, or a Bigfoot, for example, the witness is more often correct in describing something out of the ordinary, and not mistaking something mundane for something anomalous.

Missing 411: The Devil's In The Detail For All -

Missing 411: The Devil's In The Detail For All - MessageToEagle.com: By Dustin Naef - MessageToEagle.com - "For all those who have read David Paulides “411 Missing” books, and believe you’ve figured out the Who or What behind all of the mysterious disappearances going on in our nation’s National Parks (and elsewhere), prepare yourselves for another paradigm shift."

I don't think there is any research out there that is stranger and creepier and downright scarier than David Paulides work into the disappearances taking place in national parks, forests, woods, rural areas, etc.

Lots of speculation, including supernatural or Fortean ones. Now, on one Coast to Coast interview a few months back, Paulides inspired me to think along lines of a Bigfoot type energy/entity being responsible for these disturbing disappearances. This generated a heated email from Paulides after I posted a piece on my thoughts.  on Cryptomundo and on my blog Frame 352: The Stranger Side of Bigfoot. Well, I did get a book out of it and, while I maintain he misunderstood what I said, that has nothing to do with his excellent research. He's the only one out there doing anything like this, and it's clearly extremely important work. I cannot wait to read his other books, including his newest; The Devil's in the Details.

I look forward to everything and anything Paulides has to share with us on these disappearances. What is going on?!  (Adding to the already disturbing mystery is the fact there is an obvious cover-up by authorities regarding the disappearances.)


And so, this brings us to Naef's review of Paulides newest book on the strange disappearances, The Devil's in the Detail. New information, new cases, new ideas as to what force is responsible for people disappearing and sadly in many cases, dying. Naef writes, on finding an answer to this mystery:

"Ultimately, I think this is a mystery which is not going to be solvable by any one person, or explained away to anyone’s satisfaction by an “expert”. But by making all of this information public and open-sourcing it I believe there’s a good chance that the mystery will someday be solved." ~ Naef

There are lots of clues, and clues that defy the mundane. Bigfoot, elementals, time warps, portals, fairies, who can say. Maybe none of those things, maybe some of those things . . . but it does seem obvious that there is something other afoot, something truly out of the ordinary, that is the cause for people disappearing.

Crop Circle Dream Memory: Beep!

A very strange dream last night, involving giant granite -- and specifically red granite -- structures, including a ten story statue, Buddha like, yet more samurai in appearance. At one point in the dream, I said to the people i was with "I could have sworn that stature moved!" and it turned out it had. The statue was living and the ruler of the realm. This realm was clean, mostly made of stone but not uninviting. Everything was large. Wide paths, high stone walls and large sprawling buildings. Everything made of stone. Not jewels, such as rubies and emeralds but granite and similar rock. Rough in appearance and even touch and yet there was a warmth to everything. Weird, strange, but a comforting feeling. It reminded me of this dream about Bigfoot. As in that dream, this dream was by water; large man made lakes and pools of beautiful water. Aside from the moving statue and so much more, there was a crop circle in this dream.

I woke up. Still in bed, I was remembering the dream. Trying to recall every detail. The dream was so ... weirdly cool. I was remembering the crop circle part of the dream. This is what I had dreamt:

There's a large, beautiful and intricate crop circle. We're all amazed and wonder at how it came to be. It literally appeared, not over night, but over a few minutes. One moment we were looking over at the large field where there was no crop circle. Turned our attention elsewhere for a few moments. Turned back, and there, was the crop circle. Huge and intricate.


Then a group of skeptics come along. They're loud and arguing and demand that we listen to them. The crop circle is a fake! They shout at us. And to prove it was a fake made by man to fool us, they throw little pods of dirt on the crop circle. These pods, the debunkers smugly tell us, contain a chemical that "exposes" the fakery, and bright yellow squares will show up within the crop circle. The yellow squares are proof the circle is a fake.  So they thrown the pods on the circle, and stand back, big stupid grins on their faces, waiting for the proof that will reveal how fake the crop circle is.

We wait and watch. At first, the yellow squares begin to pop up. The debunkers are overcome with joy. Ha! they say. But a few moments later, the yellow turns red, then other colors, then "over rides" the crop circle. In other words, the "proof" the skeptics  have shown us hasn't proved a thing. In fact, the "real" crop circle takes over, obliterating the debunker pods. 

The skeptics are mad and embarrassed. Most of all, they're baffled. Confused. They can't understand that the crop circles are real and have an as yet unexplained source that transcends prosaic explanations.

So I'm in bed, awake, savoring this dream and remembering it so I can write it in my journal. At the moment I get to the crop circle image and memory, I hear a loud, single, and very specific "beep" inside my head. It was so vivid, loud and not a "normal" sound (to be heard inside the head) that I sort of jumped. It was a definite mechanical sound.

I've had this beeping sound before, usually in the morning, when I'm awake, but still in bed. And in connection with ... anomalous things.

What this means, no idea. But as I've written before about this, and others as well, (like Daily Grail's and Dark lore journal's Greg Taylor) this beeping could be what we hear of the source of these manifestations that are of a metaphysical nature.

Previous posts:

On The Orange Orb:
• Beeping Connections
• On the Frequency: Owls, Beeping and Radio Voices
• Dark Magic and Crop Circles
• Nahua, Age, and My Green Electric Self
On my blog Frame 352: The Stranger Side of Sasquatch:
• Beeping Creatures
  Responses to Beeping Creatures
  MoMo
  More About Beeping
• Bigfoot in Australia, Kind Of. . .
On my blog Mothman Flutterings:
• Mechanical Voices, Aliens and Mothman: Shared Source?
• Mothman on the Telephone
Outside links:
• Greg Taylor: Her Sweet Murmur
• My post on UFO Mystic: Mini Report From McMinnville: Chirps, Trills and Wasps

I Can't Take It Files: Billy Ray and UFOs

I don't know what to say, except the non-poetic and unimaginative "what the fuck?!" -- I mean ... it's ... uh ... um... you can't make this up... Billy Ray Cyrus is going to host his own show on UFOs. Yes, UFOs! AND, he's gonna debunk 'em! Hold me back, please. . . I can't take it. The world's gone mad. But we knew that already.

Anyway, Lesley Gunter says it well on her Grey Matters column for BoA:Redneck Ufology & The Best Hair on TV

...what exactly gives them any expertise as Ufologists or skeptics? Are they going to have real experts on or are we suppose to rely on their opinion? Seriously, it is totally ridiculous. What the fuck was SyFy thinking? Were they trying to make UFOs into an even bigger joke than the rest of the media already treats them as? What is next - ghost hunting with Heidi Montag or maybe Bigfoot hunting with Celine Dion?

I love that; "Bigfoot hunting with Celine Dion."  In the deep woods of her beloved Canada, searching for the elusive Sasquatch. Maybe she can wear these while she's out there: (hat tip by the way also to Lesley, who posted about these psychotic and disturbing er, "shoes" on her  Totally Girlie Blog.)

Shermer's Gorilla Suit Man

Michael Shermer, uber-skeptoid and professional debunker, did an experiment at the recent 2009 Science, Technology and Research Symposium in Charleston to show that Mothman (which he admits to knowing nothing about), Bigfoot (to which he says he does) and other paranormal/Fortean/esoteric/anomalous phenomena are figments of over-active imaginations, but more than that,illustrations of why we lie:

We already know that people lie; that happens all the time. ... The more interesting question is why do people fall for it," he said.

In other words, people who speak of witnessing UFOs or other strange events, are lying.

Sure, people lie about their experiences. They elaborate, embroider, exaggerate and outright lie. They hoax and they pull pranks. They're delusional and mentally ill, they're alcoholics and drug abusers. Some people. And for some people in that category, they present to the world tales of UFOs, strange creatures, aliens and visits to Venus.

Those aside, thousands upon thousands more people without that baggage -- and even with some of that baggage, does not automatically exclude the experience of such phenomena or cause it -- have encounters with the weird that cannot be explained by tired exercises into so-called rationality. Such as Shermer's. (Warning: ad hom ahead. "Smirking Shermer" as I like to call him. Come on, the man smirks for crying out loud. He's so taken with himself.)

Shermer instructs an audience to watch a video of basket ball players, watching for:

the number of times six young people passing basketballs, three of them in white shirts and three in black shirts. He asked the crowd to count how many times the three in white shirts passed the basketball to each other.

Afterward, Shermer had the crowd call out answers. Then he played the video again, telling everyone just to relax and not worry about counting passes this time. And to the amazement of many, about halfway through a person in a monkey suit walked from out-of-frame into the middle of the scene, paused, gave a friendly wave and then promptly walked off screen.

This proves, says Shermer, that people see what they want to see. Er, that means we don't want to see a man in a gorilla suit at the Lakers game?

What it says to me is this: when something weird and unexpected happens, especially in the midst of a mundane event, like a basketball game, we don't notice it. Which then means , that the weird, the unexpected, like say, a Mothman or a Bigfoot, even a UFO, goes right by us. It literally can be in front of our noses and we won't deal with the strangeness. In fact, when something highly unusual is going on, and the one or two people who do happen to be aware of it point it out to others, most people refuse to even look to see for themselves.

Shermer had his own out of body experience. Under laboratory conditions, don't you know. Which proves that no such thing as astral projection and OOBEs occur, since it can be recreated in the laboratory:

Shermer said he once had an out-of-body experience successfully recreated under laboratory conditions. It had nothing to do with his consciousness actually leaving his body.

This is another standard, and very tired meme of the uber-skeptic: that because something paranormal/anomalous can be recreated in the lab, it doesn't exist. Rather, it doesn't exist paranormally; of course it exists, they just recreated it! (The same is said of hoaxes, as the recent hoaxed UFO lights showed: to the skeptoid, UFO hoaxes "proves" that UFOs don't exist.)

Why do we insist upon "believing weird things" as Shermer so often phrases this conundrum of human existence? It has to do with evolution:

As for the reason people believe strange things, Shermer said it is rooted in humanity's evolutionary history and its psychological drive to connect invisible causes to the events around them. That movement in the grass may be the wind or it could be a predator.

Or fairies! It's fairies!

If we think of the movement in the grass as a predator, we're good ... Shermer concludes that if we think the worst: "better safe than sorry" then we believe that forces control the things we can't explain. Like a lion in the grass? Huh?

Shermer's presentation didn't prove a thing, but of course, the choir he preaches to think otherwise.

Soure: Science vs. ESP: Skeptic Ponders UFOs, Mothman

Biscardi Bigfoot Circus

I can't take this. Does anyone else feel this way or is it just me? Frame 352.

In The Green Room: Yes, Yes, Yes! But . . .

I have a new blog entry on the UFO Magazine blog, The Green Room: Yes, Yes, Yes! But . . .

Around The Orb

New template, and new name, on my skeptic’s blog. It’s now Snarly Skepticism, and has some neat things, like the Bigfoot Threads on JREF and Still Counting on the menu on your right. (At last count I think it was thirteen.)

I’ve been having too much fun at Vintage U.F.O. -- lots of clips and things up right now. Nothing terribly insightful but fun. You might have noticed I made a slight change to that blog too; from Vintage UFO to Vintage U.F.O.

As always, I’ll plug Women Of Esoterica and Frame 352: The Stranger Side of Sasquatch.

---

Still reading Andrew Colvin’s Mothman Photographer’s II, which I’m enjoying very much. This isn’t to say I always agree with Colvin on some things; he has some very firm opinions. I won’t mention names but he doesn’t like a couple of people in the field I do find interesting, and likes someone I had a very nasty private exchange with, who frequents a well known UFO list. But his experiences and take on things is worth looking at; and the book has a lot of stuff by John Keel, which is great. I still think, after all this time, much of what Keel has to say about things makes sense. (So there’s an example of an “old” researcher whose contributions may be “old” but they’re hardly without value.) If nothing else, the book is fascinating for its mind boggling world of synchronicities and complicated connections from one seemingly mundane thing to a paranormal, UFO, global Illuminati thing. You can see how this stuff could drive someone mad . . .

---

The Contactees continue to fascinate me, and I’m just beginning to explore the idea of the time of their contacts. We think of the Contactee era has happening mainly in the 1950s and 1960s. But eras don’t exist in vacuums; any period in history overlaps with what went before, and what follows. Some of the Contactees experienced visitations earlier than what we typically think of as the ‘Contactee era.” What that could mean, I don’t know.

---

I’m so busy with my own blogging and writing, and “real” life, that I don’t acknowledge all the others who do great work -- and for free, which shows I’m not the only one obsessed. All the individual bloggers, listed on my links list, but also forums and places like Book of Thoth, or Binnall of America, or UFO Digest, or Stuart Miller's Alien Worlds. And Greenwald’s Blackvault. The Anomalist as well, even though they’re a publisher, and do make some money; but it’s not as if they’re all buying villas in Italy. All those places give the rest of us daily news and links to the realm of the weird, which is pretty neat.

And of course all those individual bloggers; that’s why it annoys me so much when people start writing about how others are wasting time, or should shut up because they’re not saying the “right things” about UFOs. Or worse, when they get downright insulting. No, you shut up. Neener neener. So there. Feh!

---

Have a good week!

Random Things

Women Of Esoterica on Untamed Dimensions
Richelle Hawks and I were interviewed by Adam Gorightly the other night for his Untamed Dimensions podcast. It was fun. You can listen to it here.

Texas UFOs
I haven't commented too much on the Texas UFOs, what's there to say? Everyone else is saying it. I did comment a bit on it on my recent Trickster's Realm column for Tim Binnall's site.

Binnall of America
Speaking of Binnall of America, I wore my UFOs Are Real; Get Over It hoodie sweatshirt today. Nice and cozy for a cold rainy Oregon day. No one commented though; however, this is Eugene, so not surprising. You can order cool things like the sweatshirt at Binnall of America. If you do, you'll be supporting the site! (No, I don't get a damn penny from them!)

UFO and Fortean Entertainment
Glad Torchwood is back for its second season. I love that show!

I didn't see the Sci Fi UFO Hunters; did watch the other one on History channel though. I thought it was interesting, but my first thought was "where are the women?" and the program's getting some criticism. I haven't delved into that much but whatever they may have exaggerated, or whether or not the entire thing was a hoax (hmmmm...) there are some very suspicious connections concerning the entire case. Typical UFO Trickster stuff to be sure.

Bigfoot Threads
What is it about the JREF (James Randi Educational Forum) and Bigfoot threads? They have something like eight seperate threads about Bigfoot. I comment here and here about the Bigfoot thread wackiness.

Books
I don't know if it's menopause (oh, grow up!) winter, working too hard or what, but lately I've been coming home and finding I'm asleep by 9:00 pm. I hate that! I have several books I'm reading, or trying to, but am slow at it because I fall asleep every night. Last night I fell asleep in Red Moon. That's the book written by David Michaels and Daniel Brenton. (Daniel has the blog The Odd Little Universe of Daniel Brenton.) It's well written and very enjoyable. Lots of twists and surprises. I also have some Mothman books I want to get to, as well as contactee Dana Howard's book Beyond the Valley. I'd like to finish them soon. Maybe I need more vitimins.

A Strange Anniversary Conversation

Today is our 31st anniversary. Being old and tired, (but hardly bored with each other) (as you’ll soon see why) we agreed to stay home after a long hard day at work, enjoy our bottle of good wine and Trader Joe’s pizza, and each other. Tomorrow, rejuvenated with the weekend vibe (three day weekend for me!) we’ll go out and have fun.

So tonight, of course we’re watching the Larry King program because it’s the UFO show. (More on that later.) My husband, let’s say his name is, er, “George,” was pretty good about remaining quiet, although he managed to interject a good number of outraged sputterings, especially when Oberg was on, but overall, George behaved. It wasn’t until the very end of the program that George said to me:

“We've had weird UFO abductions or whatever happen,at least twice. That one in L.A. was the weirdest.

”
I did a huge “huh?!” I asked:

“

What do you mean, ‘at least twice?’ And, what do you mean, the L.A. one was the weirdest?!

In Oregon years ago, we saw the Orange Orb, that followed us on our way back in from Cottage Grove about 30 miles away. That incident included missing time and what I've always maintained a sighting of a silver sphere hovering above a pasture on the way out.

Turns out that’s wrong. At least according to George.

So we shouted at each other -- out of excitement and ‘wtf’s” not in anger -- just your basic abduction confusion:

Me: “What do you mean, that’s wrong! We saw that orb coming back from Cottage Grove when we lived on Friendly St.!”
George: “No, we saw it when we lived on Hilyard."

Oh boy.

So we went round and round, and it turns out, according to George, this is what happened:
1. Something weird happened in L.A.
2. Something weird happened in Oregon, when we lived on Hilaryd St. near the University of Oregon.
3. Something weird happened when we lived off Lorane Highway, at the top of Friendly St.

George: No, no, you’ve combined two different sightings into one thing. Your memory’s been messed with.”

Me: “How do you know it isn’t YOU whose memory wasn’t messed with?”

(I was pretty proud of that one.)

George just looked exasperated. He insists he’s right. I remember it the other way.
I don't remember anything weird at all happening when we lived on Hilyard.

It’s quite possible of course he is right, and does remember the incidents more accurately than I. Regardless, it’s clear we’ve both experienced some very weird things through the years.


L.A. (West Hollywood area)
I remember that one just fine. Well, obviously not all of it. Neither one of us do. If we did, that’d be a different story. But we both agree on this one; we agree it happened, we agree it happened just the way we both remember it. Walking back from our favorite place, Barney's Beanery. What should have taken us an hour at the most -- maybe -- took us a good two hours. When we entered the apartment we commented how odd it was that it was suddenly 4 a.m., then went promptly to bed, only to wake up at four the next afternoon. We slept straight through, very surprised to find that we slept so late!

I did have a few strange UFO dreams back then; one in particular that I call the “Geisha Woman” dream, about a tall chalky white being with huge black wrap around eyes, “pretending” to be female, with me inside a glass domed UFO in space and George in some other part of the UFO. She was very intelligent and very emotionally cold, detached, and didn't give a damn that I was scared and angry that she wouldn't let me see George, who was being kept in another part of the craft.

But the reason why I say it wasn’t the strangest, is because we didn’t see any kind of craft that night. We didn't have a UFO sighting. Not a hint. But George says it’s the weirdest, because we both agree on everything; no arguments about who was where, etc. We agree on where we were coming from, where we were going, that a couple of hours of missing time occurred, that we commented to each other on the oddness of the late hour as we walked into the apartment but also went promptly to bed, not waking up until 4:00 the next day.

Hilyard St. (Eugene, Oregon, near the University of Oregon campus)
Well, don’t remember anything weird there. I mean, aside from the horrid, spoiled, evil fraternity and sorority morons that lived in the frat and "sor" houses surrounding our little apartment. God, what assholes. Other than that, nothing.

I remember a weird “UFO” dream at the time though, about a robotic alien type being entering our apartment and causing problems.

It's while we were living on Hilyard that George insists we saw the silver sphere. We saw it out on Lorane, going out to Cottage Grove. (That part I agree with.) Silver sphere, above a pasture, daytime, a beam of light coming down from underneath the thing. I said to George tonight that I always thought it was weird that a beam of light would be necessary in the daytime.

We agree on the thing we saw, and place, but not the timing. I remember it as on our way out the same time we saw the orange orb which was on the way back. And I remember we were living on Friendly St. at the time, while George insists it was Hilyard.

(One question I have about this is: if the orange orb sighting took place another time, where were we coming back from? The only thing out that direction is . . . Cottage Grove. We didn't know anyone who lived out that way, from our house to Cottage Grove. But as George mentioned, we did just take off and for long rides in the country back then; true. I loved to do that on the motorcycle. It's possible we weren't coming back from anywhere in particular, as in visiting someone, but just out for a drive.)

Friendly St. (Eugene, Oregon, at the corner of Lorane, semi-woodsy rural area in parts)
I remember the orange orb at night, on the way back from Cottage Grove to visit his friend. The friend George says we went to see a year or so earlier when we lived on Hilyard.

George doesn’t remember seeing an orange orb. He does remember me trying to call someone when we went into the house (on Friendly) but I ended up just putting the receiver down. After all who was I going to call? The police? Airport? At that time, I didn't know about MUFON, or anything related to reporting UFO sightings.

Dreams started then too. Awful dreams about being paralyzed in beams of light so strong I could almost see through things. The sense of people -- or beings -- above me. Not being able to move. Screaming my head off for George, who I knew was nearby, but also being taken. Did I just say “taken?” Christ.

History
George said “Obviously we didn’t have what they wanted,” and I agreed. We’ve never talked about that, but when he said it, it made sense, and I acknowledged I’ve thought that myself many times.

He also said:

“Then again, we’ve both had life long experiences with this weird stuff. Maybe they got what they wanted a long time ago.

”

George also mentioned the uncomfortable and strong awareness that "they" are present at times. I too have felt that. Last time I felt that was a few years ago in this house we're now in. We've been here about ten years. This feeling that "they" were in the room, listening, watching, was confirmed by others. (One of whom has had her own history, along with many family members, of Bigfoot, haunting and UFO encounters. Connections?)

We don't talk too in depth about these events except for a couple of times a year. It's too close and chilling and just plain weird. We both get highly uncomfortable; anxious and need to stop. And yet, we talk around these things every day.

Something happened, something seemed to have happened a few times with the both of us. Neither one of us remembers actually seeing any beings. It’s as if we’ve come up only so close to this phenomena, and then, a steel door seals shut on us.

Oh, and please, someone tell me it was just sleep paralysis. I dare you.

I’m still not willing to say we were abducted. I can’t say that, because I don’t even remember seeing aliens, let alone being inside a craft, or being rudely probed, etc.

But something happened. While obviously there are trickster mind control alien game playing shenanigans going on with screen or cover memories, the reality is, something very real -- just highly strangely real -- occurred. And more than once.

Sunday Orb

Chemtrails
Recently chemtrails have been the topic around here. While I may mention them now and again, they are on my mind a lot. It can’t be helped; the things are up there almost on a daily basis.

Like many people, a few years ago I didn’t think about chemtrails much. I’d heard of them, as any esoterica buff would, but didn’t see what the controversy was. It all seemed too scientific and clinical in a vague way. But as I began to look both up to the skies and into the subject, I realized there was something going on. And it wasn’t (isn’t) just contrails.

I have yet to come across explanations -- satisfying explanations that make sense -- for: black beams shot out from near the nose of the plane. I’ve seen this twice. Plane going along; abruptly a beam of cloud or some substance comes shooting out from what appears to be the nose of the plane, or somewhere near the front.

The “explanations” offered by denialists have included such semantical nonsense as “I couldn’t possibly have seen a black beam since black isn’t a color,” “It was a shadow,” and of course, the old standby; I’m a liar.

I’ve seen white sky spheres -- machines -- moving slowly back and forth, in connection with the trails.

I’ve seen white, unmarked planes at extremely high altitudes, and speeds, leaving all kinds of trails behind.

I’ve seen trails that were thick, drippy, twirly, circular, X’s, elbowed or angled. I’ve seen huge squarish or rectangular shaped patches that stayed stuck in the same place in the sky for hours that were oily looking, with rainbow type colors. (The local paper called one of these a “natural phenomena” due to ice crystals. This on a hot July day, with lots of helicopter activity in the area a few days before and during.)

I think what Fortean author Colin Bennett has to say about this is excellent, and anyone even milady interested needs to read his article Chemtrails:A Fortean View.

Thanks to Cindy PDX for sharing her experiences and videos, and to everyone else, like Lesley of Debris Field, who also comments on the chemtrails in her area. Lesley of the Debris Field blog has also taken photos and video of weird things related to this.

There’s also all kinds of chemtrail forums out there, including the West Coast Chemtrails on Yahoo. Look to the menu on your right for the purple Yahoo sign up box.

Glowing Red Eyes
Kithra, who writes very well on weird things and folklore, wrote a piece on anomalous creatures with red glowing eyes. That inspired me to write about an experience I had with a being when I was a child. You can read about both on Women in Esoterica.


Native American Ancestry
There’s an idea that the majority of people with paranormal experiences and who study this field are Native American -- either enrolled in a tribe, or of that ancestry. (I’m Cherokee and Lenape.) I don’t know if this is true, and my little poll isn’t scientific in any way, but it’s interesting to see how it comes out. So far, those who’ve answered that they have Native ancestry are in the majority.


Bigfoot and Fairies
A relationship I’ve been interested in, and Lisa Shiel of Bigfoot Quest has an item on it. You can read more on my Bigfoot blog Frame 352.

The Great Gazoo Has Moved
I had a video clip stream going here of The Great Gazoo, the little green man from outer space from the Flintstones. I moved it over to Vintage UFO. Please take a look and leave comments. And if you have any unusual UFO related experiences you’d like to share that occurred before 1980, please E-Mail Me here.

Sunday Orb

The weeks go by too quickly! And when you work a full time job it’s difficult to spend the time you’d like with the realm of the weird. Here’s what’s been going on this past week:

New Blog: Women in Esoterica
I started a new blog: Women in Esoterica. Kind of clunky and too stuffy a title, I’ll probably change it soon.

My next lTrickster’s Realm article for Binnall of America should be up some time tomorrow; it’s on the new blog Women in Esoterica and why I started it.

Marian Apparition
I came across a good article on UFO Digest on a Marian Apparition. The writer’s name is Richelle Hawks and the article is The Virgin Tree of Salt Lake City


Ghost Photo Contest
I think Lesley is about to end the contest, if it isn’t ended already. Hurry over and see if it you can still submit a ghost photo.

The Zorgy Awards
Paul Kimball of The Other Side of Truth has decided to run his Zorgy Award campaign again. He’s taking nominations now. Categories include best UFO blob, best paranormal website, and many more. I came in third last year, much to my amazement. There are many great UFO blogs out there, but hey, I’ll ask anyway. Nominate me!

UFO Mystic
Two interesting articles on UFOs; what the phenomena is, how we should expand our thinking, over on UFO Mystic, Nick Redfern’s item on Steiger’s Shadow World book. Also Greg Bishop's piece on “objectivity.”

Book of Thoth
On The Book of Thoth is my piece on what I think UFOs are doing up there. They Want to be Seen, Not Discovered.

Book
I’m working away on a compilation to be an e-book of articles on skepticism. TBA.

UFO Magazine
My next article for UFO Magazine is on the expectations of disclosure.

Bigfoot
Lots of interesting things on Bigfoot, from sightings to escaped invisible Bigfoot from Livermore labs. This is an old story but reposted over at Cryptomundo in context of the Blogsquatcher’s post on the “lost” CBS footage of a captured Bigfoot in the 1960s. The Blogsquatcher by the way is a new Bigfoot blog that seems to be a very good one.

There's probably more, but I really should try to be responsible and get back in the “real” world and do things like housework. I also have a deadline (like, today) on my next piece for UFO Magazine. (this one on data.)

Have a good week, be safe, be kind, but don’t let the bastards grind you down.