Orb Synchronicity

Today, I began work on my book, tentatively titled Entering the Orb. It feels great to be working on this!

The other day, I was thinking how I'd like to hear from others about their UFO -- especially orange orb sightings -- and anomalous experiences in general. Not look ago, Yahoo ate my orange orb email; all my emails from people around the world, with photos and drawings of their encounters, lost. Very frustrating and sad.

So today, after working on my book, I check my email, to find a message from a witness who had read my article at Binnall; he sent me photos as well as a description of his sighting of orange orbs.

Synchronicity!

Oh, and if you have something to share; a UFO sighting, paranormal event, Bigfoot encounter, etc. I would love to hear from you. orangeorb@mail.com

Orb Stuff: I'm Just a Nerdy UFO Buff After All . . .

Been wearing my UFOs are Real, Get Over It hooded sweatshirt lately; perfect warm and fuzzy cover to wear when going back and forth to the coast. I forget how geeky and nerdy it is; no wonder people are giving me those side glances, lol. (You can order the sweatshirt and other items at Binnall of America.)

Trickster's Realm will be up sometime tomorrow on Binnall of America. This one's about a Contactee, Dino Kraspedon, from Brazil.

And a new piece for UFO Digest should be up any day now; on Marian Apparitions (specifically, Medjurgorje) and UFOs.

I've been having Internet connection problems off and on for a few days; I think it's fixed now.

If anyone has been using my rlee15@uswest.net email, it's no longer valid. So contact me at rlee@orangeorb.net.

For now, that's about it. Oh, a plug for James Rich Studio, and his full gallery at Yessy.com.

Late Sunday-Monday Orb

I've been without internet access for the past day or so, things are back to normal now.

A new piece at Women Of Esoterica by Danille Lee.

Lesley has a new Gray Matters up at Binnall of America.

Richelle and I will both have new pieces up at BOA as well this week; my Trickster's Realm on Monday (Labor Day) and Richelle's that Tuesday, I believe. She has a new column up right now.

By the way, it does seem like the world is in a UFO flap, doesn't it? Just FYI and generally speaking. . . been that way for awhile now, and doesn't seem to be slowing down.

Jim has new categories on the Yessy site, and offers prints of his work ranging from $20.00 for a color image on matte photo paper, to approximately $400.00 for a canvass print.

I've been having fun with widgets and made one for UFO Mary, and Vintage U.F.O., and Jim's blog.

Ranting about the air quality in Eugene. I know, I know, it may not be anything like Los Angeles, (although when I was down there last summer, it was much nicer than the air here; I did stay on the coast -Long Beach-Marina area, still, it was better air there than on field burning days and allergy laden days up here) and you can read those posts on my blog Trickster Northwest.


WHEN is Torchwood coming back? Still no news.

If you've noticed the bubble widget here it's a mistake; there's some glitch and I can't get blogger to take it off. It's an addicting game though!


I thought this was Fortean, for some reason: cows and magnetic north. I'll have to look out for that next time I take a drive.

Binnall of America Season III Finale with VALLEE!

Tim Binnall finished out Season III in a huge way; interview with the incomparable Jacques Vallee. Amazing, astounding, fantastic! Good for Tim, and that's good for us.

Tim started off the interview with a very brief bit of practicality: Binnall Audio is in the red, donate something. Listen, Tim brings all of us very fine interviews with the big names in esoterica, and it’s all for free. He’s one of the best interviewers in pod cast land. As Tim said, “No donation is too small” so whatever you can contribute, just go here and give what you can.

On to the interview. What I love is what they got to right off; Vallee said he “still doesn’t know” what UFOs are; Tim concurred, in his usual dry style, that “none of us do, though some think they know.” So true!

I’m not going to recap the entire interview here; you’ll need to listen to it yourself. But some points were made that resonated with me and I’ll just share them.

Of course they discussed the ETH, which Vallee is “against” but it’s not so simple. Vallee says that it may be that the ETH is part of the phenomena, but that the UFO phenomena, as a whole, is more than that. That’s an important distinction. I hope I did that justice.

In other words, any theory, Vallee says, has to explain everything about UFOs, which the ETH doesn’t do.

Vallee described one case he investigated, where the witnesses were disoriented as to the direction of the UFO. This is because witnesses who’ve had close encounters are in “a field of some kind” that causes this to happen. This is what happened to me and my husband in one case. Screen memory, cover memory, missing time and, to this day, arguments between us about the memory of the direction of not only the UFO, but us. I insist we were traveling East, seeing the UFO a mile west of our house, JIm insists we were traveling West, seeing the UFO. . . well, he’s not sure. Hmmm...Were we in “a field” of some kind that altered our perceptions? Certainly possible. Damn likely, given all the other high strangeness surrounding that sighting.

I had to laugh when Vallee said that there are many good researchers who want nothing to do with the internet UFO community, mainly due to the “insults” that are flung about. Hello, are you listening? You all know who you are. Knock it off.

Ah, I love this; the UFO phenomena purposely “hides itself” in order to push away science. As we well know.

And this: Occam’s Razor ust doesn't work when dealing with the UFO phenomena. I love it! VAllee pointed out that he “likes Occams’ Razor,” but when it comes to UFOs, it doesn’t work. Such a simple tool for such a complex phenomena.

Oh, there’s so much more and I only glossed over, in simplistic terms, some of what Vallee said. Just listen to the interview, and donate something to BOA!

Where Have I Been?

Sometimes I post every day, sometimes several times a day. Lately however I don't know where I've been. Around, just not here. And, for the first time ever, I missed a deadlne. Not only did I miss it, I forgot. Usually my Trickster's Realm column goes up on Monday, but not today. I . . . just . . . forgot.

I have been having fun with Mothman Flutterings. Also experiecing some strange things in relation to Mothman. Finished Colvin's Mothman's Photographer II and looking forward to his third volume, which should be out sometime this year, according to the blurb in his book.

Speaking of Tim Binnall (where Trickster's Realm appears) I'm listening to Adam Gorightly's interview with him right now. So far, great interview! I urge everyone to listen to it. I agree with Tim on his opinion that those who want to "clean up UFOlogy" need to knock it off.

And speaking of Adam Gorightly, there's a column in the current issue of Paranoia magazine written by Gorightly. It's all about Tuesday Weld and Hollywood and Druids. It's pretty fantastic; I wrote a little bit about it on Vintage U.F.O.

Support Binnall

Tim Binnall, who runs the Binnall of America website, does an incredible job. His site is well put together and has a lot to offer: forums, podcasts, articles. Yes, I write for him; my column is Trickster's Realm. But that's not why I'm shamelessly plugging his site.

Tim consistently brings the rest of us great interviews with the top researchers, writers and thinkers in esoterica. He's into it all; UFOs to Bigfoot, and everything in between. He knows his stuff and has a nice style; he asks good questions, yet allows the person he's interviewing to say what they want to say. (He also does a nice job with the music and intros.)

And he does this all for free. He puts an unimaginable amount of time and effort into all this, and does a great job. Again, for free. Like others, Peter Davenport of NUFORC, John Greenwald of Black Vault, UFO Digest, etc. Tim provides us anomalist junkies with a quality resource for free. (Are you listening C2C?)

Tim, like many (Greenwald, etc.) do ask for donations. He has a PayPal button on his site; easy to do. So I urge those of you who can to donate a little something towards the expense of keeping Binnall of America going. There isn't anything as too little; after all, $5.00 is better than no dollars.

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.

Women in Esoterica

I started a new blog: Women in Esoterica. The title's too stuffy for my taste, but at least it gets the idea across. Also, do we want Women and Esoterica, Women of Estoerica, etc.

I'll write more on the whys and whats of the blog in my next Trickster's Realm column for Binnall of America, which help be up sometime on Monday.

Tim Binnall on The Blue Rose podcast

Finally got to listen to the interview with Tim Binnall, of Binnall of America. It's a good interview, I liked what Tim had to say about those in this field who think, or want, just one theory, who choose one side, to answer all things.

My favorite quote; "There are no sides, it's just round." Perfect.

You can listen to the interview here.

Lesley: On Air War (More on 'Smackdown')

Lesley, of Debris Field, Beyond the Dial, etc. actually heard the Streiber/Pinchbeck interview, Her comments are in this week's Grey Matters, her column for Binnall of America. As always, be sure to read the rest of the good stuff over there (including my Trickster's Realm, heh) and check out the forums too.

New Trickster's Realm on BoA

The new TR - my column Trickster's Realm - is up at Binnall of America. This week's column shares stories of not only a haunted house, but a haunted road. The whole area itself seems to be haunted, from the cemetery at one end, to the Indian (yes, cliche) burial grounds at the other end. Furthermore, the question of hauntings and other weirdness following a family is posed.

While you're over there reading TR, be sure to check out all the great material on Binall of America: Lesley's Grey Matters, among others.

Lesley for Grey Matters: Money in the Sky (Part 2) : The Pointless Point

Lesley (Debris Field blog, and Beyond the Dial in UFO magazine) has a good piece for her Grey Matters column for BoA: Money in the Sky (Part 2) : The Pointless Point. Lesley writes about the “they’re only in it for the money” line many scofftoids (and some UFO people, sadly) use to dismiss people who write about UFOs and happen to make money.

“Make money;” it doesn't matter how much money, if that “making money” is a few dollars here and there or enough to make ones living from. The latter is rare, I suspect. I write like the hepped up caffeine junkie I am about UFOs and related phenomena, but so far, I haven’t made a cent. So what? When the day comes that I do make “some money” I’ll be happy of course, but I’m happy now too. The point is, as Lesley writes, is that there is nothing wrong with “making money” from writing about these topics. However, there are plenty of the “UFOlogy Police” (as Lesley calls them) who spend their time attacking those who “make money’ or who they suspect “make money” from their UFO books, videos, and lectures.

Another comment Lesley makes is about humor. Lesley discusses UFO experiencer, writer and filmmaker Jeremy Vaeni -- one of the accused “money makers” -- and how some have added the sin of having a sense of humor to his crime of money making. I’ve been attacked for my sense of humor as well; in fact, I believe that those who’ve gone after me with such psychotic vengeance is the fact that UFO pundits aren't supposed to crack wise. And women especially aren’t supposed to be so damn cheeky.

I don’t know Jeremy personally, never having met him, but we’ve corresponded quite a bit, including an interview he did of me for UFO Magazine (Grilling Regan Lee) and I’ve always been impressed with his humor. He comes across as quirky, sure, but quirky is good, and there isn’t enough of it. More importantly (for we all can’t be quirky; you either are or you’re not) he is his own damn self. He’s not afraid to be who he is, doesn't pretend to be anything other than himself. That’s all anyone can expect in this arena: honesty.

As to “making money,” I doubt Vaeni is going to be moving to that villa in Tuscany any time soon.

This whole idea that “making money” from one’s UFO passion - and that it somehow proves the individual is lying -- is ridiculous.

I loved Lesley’s comment regarding this faux moral concern:

”What is Ufology? The Priesthood? You must give up all your worldly good and take a vow of poverty? Maybe you also need to promise to only bath once a year and crawl around your house through broken glass? Ridiculous!”

There are those -- way too many -- who have blogs and websites that write incessantly about how people who write about UFOs are wasting time. Apparently we;re wasting their time, our time, everyone's time. The irony escapes them: that they’re wasting time telling everyone else how much time we’re wasting. But they also can’t resist reading the material they judge to be crap. Rather than ignoring such “crap” and doing something productive, they attack, often going so far as to lie about the people they’re attacking. They harp on the “truth” and decide that they’re the ones able to judge. They insist material such as abduction accounts be classified as fiction, instead of nonfiction. True, there’s no ultimate “proof” of these encounters, which is a whole other topic, but here’s something Lesley said about this that I think is very important:

"I hate to sound all anarchist, but why should we be so concerned about whether something is true? If we find the story thought provoking, does it really matter if it is true? There are certain fiction books that have influenced my entire life, not because they were true, but because the values I learned from them are true and because they caused me to think about things that are beyond my ordinary daily life. I am not really terribly concerned about what Jeremy or anyone else says being completely true or accurate, I am more concerned about whether it is interesting and whether I can learn anything from it. Since I look at almost all Ufology as being subjective, none of it is really true. If dozens of people had the same esoteric experience, the chances that most would interpret it differently is highly likely. Even if they all agree that they saw the same thing, many will take different meanings from what they saw. This is not only true of esoteric events, ask any policeman about robbery witnesses. One person will swear it was a blue shirt the guy was wearing, while another insists that is was green. Both of these people will be completely sure they are right and the other is wrong. Human minds interpret things differently, that is just how it is.”

And it all gets down to this: for those that find some sort of twisted joy in attacking UFO and Fortean writers, Lesley suggests the following:

"Besides which, if they are so sure that they know the truth, then they should spread it, instead of spending their time sitting at their keyboard constantly griping about what others are doing.”

Excellent advice.

King UFO Program, Binnall of America

My Trickster’s Realm: Exhilaration and Coincidence, is up now over at binnall of america.

Also on the site is Tim Binnall’s piece Larry King’s UFO Show, on the Larry King UFOs: Are They Real? program on the 13th. The show was just what we’d expect, and it was dismal. I think it inspired many of us observers of the esoteric to comment. (I did: see The Persistence of Chronic Skepticism.)

Tim’s article cracked me up; I almost spilled my morning coffee all over the laptop as I was checking the dailies before work. Tim doesn’t hang back at all, and he’s come up with some precious comments, like calling the program “the festivus” and referring to Michael Shermer as “esoterica’s resident douche bag.” Okay, that’s not mature at all and it’s an ad hominin. Still, it made me laugh. I also loved his calling Shermer a “clown shoe,” that’s a far more creative term.

I agree with Tim’s thoughts; way too many people on the panel, and jumping around from the Phoenix Lights to Roswell to Aldrin’s weird this is a rocket ship kids show and tell. (Which was inspiration for another article; it’ll be up soon. I sense an agenda there. Yes, I know, I’m the agenda Queen.)

Other good things on Binnall of America as usual, so be sure to take a look.

Sunday Self-Promotion Round Up

The Persistence of Chronic Skepticism, on American Chronicle.

Visit my blog Frame 352 about Bigfoot, with a focus on "high strangeness" Bigfoot, etc. Fram 352 supports and promotes a "No Kill" policy.

If you have a pro UFO blog, you can list it on UFO Blog Listings.

Some time tomorrow, my next Trickster's Realm column, Exhilaration and Coincidence, will be up on Tim Binnall's website, Binnall of America. (BoA)

And if you live in Oregon, the Pacific Northwest, or interested in UFOs and weird events in that area, join Oregon Fortena.

The new issue of UFO Magazine should be out pretty soon; focus is on, of course, Roswell, what else? There'll also be articles by the usual wonderful writers; not sure who'll be in this issue but no doubt Farah Yurdozah, Lesley (of Debris Field) Beyond the Dial's column, Alfred Lehmberg, Nick Redfern, hopefully Jeremy Vaeni will have something as well, Dirk Vander Ploegg of UFO Digest, and others.

Tim Binnall, Brad Steiger, and Trickster

Tim Binnall’s season two finale interview with Brad Steiger was inspiring, reminding me of what I consider to be the crucial points of esoteric research and phenomena. (Including UFOs.)

Steiger stressed that at the core of all these anomalous events (always keeping in mind this includes UFOs) is the Trickster element. (Steiger isn’t the only researcher that believes this; see George P. Hansen’s The Trickster and the Paranormal.)

Another point Steiger made was that no one has the answer, (which should seem obvious) and yet so many come out and insist that that is exactly what they have.

There was also the point made that younger researchers sometimes are ignorant of the older, previous researchers that have gone before and set the way for others; Steiger himself, Keel, Sanderson, Fodor, etc. Young ghost busters tromping through haunted houses with high tech equipment, or UFO “researchers” who read one or two books and think they know it all. I’d add to this that it isn’t just young people, nor all young people, but that this attitude is found among all age groups. There are calls to ignore the history and focus on the now, which is a disservice to all research. (At the same time, you don’t want to get stuck in the past.)

The chronic skeptics, in all their varieties, point to the fact that after so many years -- whether it’s sixty years or a thousand -- we haven't found any answers. That’s true, if one means, by “answer,” the final one size fits all solution to the UFO question. We haven't found “the answer.” The point is, we very likely won’t. That’s unacceptable for some. For others, it’s a non-issue, since we heavily suspect we’ll never find the “answer” and anyway, that’s beside the point.

(Painting: section of Boticelli's Adoration of the Magi 1475)


The persistently skeptical also tell us us that much of UFO and anomalous phenomena seems silly and downright pointless. Conflicting information given by “aliens,” their general behavior, the elusive nature; it’s too uselessly complex and nonsensical.

But that’s what makes it fun; and it’s what the Trickster does; confuse and play cruel jokes. Maybe it makes sense to itself; tough if we can’t get it. Or maybe it knows we can’t get it, and that’s why it delights in doing what it does. Maybe it’s nothing personal at all and we’re personifying; it just is what it is, and we are what we are. No matter, for the Trickster is still at it, regardless of what we think about it.

None of this means there really aren’t Martians living beneath the surface of Mars, or that there are bases on the back side of the Moon. (Maybe.) If any of that is so, that’s only a fraction of the Big Paranormal Picture. A lot more is still to come.

And actually, I suspect that it is really very “simple” in a way: as Steiger called it, we live parallel to a “shadow” world/reality. They do their thing, we do ours. Sometimes, more often than some of us would acknowledge, we meet each other, We find ourselves plunked into their world, or we meet up with “visitors” from theirs. The boundaries between the two aren’t all that firm, as much as some of us like to pretend it is. Indeed, one of the main functions of the Trickster is crossing boundaries.

So thanks to Tim Binnall for all his great work in bringing us (and for free) solid interviews with all kinds of UFO and esoteric researchers, including Brad Steiger.


Resources:
Binnall of America
Brad and Sherry Steiger
The Trickster and the Paranormal

Trickster's Realm: 'Popcorn Machine Aliens'

Latest Trickster’s Realm: Popcorn Machine Aliens,about memories of aliens, on board craft, and giant insectoid creatures, by moi.

Also on BoA (Binnall of America:) Lesley’s Grey Matters: on Ian Punnett and C2C, Tina Sena’s Estoericana: The Witching Hour, where she writes about 3:00 am being the weird hour (as have many a UFO experiencer; indeed, that does seem to be the hour,)
Wrath of Joe’s Whiter UFOlogy? and Khyron’s The K-Files.

Plus all the great audio interviews Tim Binnall has done over the past two seasons!

Grey Matters: “One Week, Two Disasters”

Lesley of the Debris Field blog also has a column over on BoA: Grey Matters. This week Lesley writes about George Noory,his Sci Fi show, and the weird “Could it have been an angel” interview with Jeremy Vaeni.

About the interview with Jeremy, Lesley writes:
The interview started out like any other, but within a few minutes it was obvious that Noory was not listening to what Jeremy was saying and was instead probably reading prewritten questions. I have known for a long time that Noory uses prewritten questions, but never has it been so obvious. At least I hope he was reading prewritten questions because if he was coming up with those based on anything Jeremy said, it must have been some Jeremy in an alternate universe.

I agree; it was a surreal moment when Noory asked that question about the alien. The whole interview (what I heard of it) was surreal.

There’s more; be sure to take a look!

“Young” UFOlogy

At the risk of appearing patronizing, as well as guilty of some kind of “ism” (youthism? ageism? oldism?) there has been discussion here and there, now and then, about younger UFO and paranormal, Fortean researchers. Kimball, Loren Coleman, and others have commented on this not too long ago.

It is a good thing to see younger people (jesus, that makes me sound so old!) (Well, guess I am, let’s face it. . .) involved in these studies. What do I mean by “younger people?” Seems a bit arbitrary to just cut people off at an age. I don’t know, under forty? Under fifty? I’ll let you all decide. Me, I’m fifty er, um, okay, three. I said it! Fifty damn three years old. In my head, I’m still twelve, somedays twenty-two, but the outside doesn’t show it. Or feel it. Anyway, enough about me and my old age, here are two younger people writing on UFOs and related topics:

Tina Sena is one that’s been mentioned earlier. She has her own blog, Yufology, and writes for BoA, writing her Esoterica column.

Another younger person is Ross Howard, author of the blog AETHER THEORIES.