Book: "UFOs, Time Slips, Other Realms and the Science of Fairies"

A nice review of the bookBlows Against The Empire-The ET Hypothesis Comes Under Attack In...
UFOs, Time Slips, Other Realms and the Science of Fairies, by Edwin Sidney Hartland; additional material by Tim Beckley, Sean Casteel, Brent Raynes and Tim R. Swartz, on UFO Digest by Sean Casteel. The book sounds intriguing and I'm ordering it right away. The book deals with the issue of ET vs. "fairy" or rather, terrestrial entities we assume or interpret as ET. As Casteel writes:

... there is another interpretation, one which, while it is taken quite seriously by premiere UFO researchers like Jacques Vallee, remains a definite minority point of view: What if what we are witnessing and experiencing actually originates on Earth and has been here throughout mankind's struggle to understand the strange environment he finds himself thrust into? Are the diminutive gray aliens so frequently claimed to have visited hapless mortals as they lay abed really just a variation on millennia of old folklore about fairies, changelings, elves and other forms of wee people?

That is the primary thrust of this 2008 release from Global Communications, called "UFOs, Time Slips, Other Realms and the Science of Fairies." The bulk of the book is a reprint of a much older book by Edwin Sidney Hartland, in which he offers a wonderful overview of the folklore of fairies and other mysterious creatures that frequently cross over from their shadowy dimension to enter ours.

This is Vallee territory (among others) as well of course, and I don't disagree. But I acknowledge I have a bias for the reality of ET as well, and I don't see why the explanation needs to be an either/or one. Isn't it possible there are at least two concurrent reasons for phenomena like this, one being literal extraterrestrials from outer space (whether from our own solar system or beyond)? It's also possible one manipulates the other for our benefit -- in order to deceive, which is one characteristic of the phenomena. There's also a symbiotic relationship between us and "them," -- all of "them" -- whoever "they" are, of course.

Looking forward to reading this book.

UFO Author Frank Strangeness Passes

Frank Strangeness, UFO author of classic vintage UFOlogy, has passed. Strangeness is probably most known for his book Stranger at the Pentagon, about Valiant Thor, the Venusian. You can read more from Greg Bishop over at his blog UFO Mystic.

I remember reading Stranger at the Pentagon in my teens; not knowing quite what to make of it, but enjoying it immensely.

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!

Reading Dolan

Jim on the left, Richard Dolan on the right

“What kind of crazy monkey wrench shit is going on here??!!”

Said my spouse, Jim, as he's reading Richard Dolan's UFO's and The National Security State

Jim was familiar with the book,(but hadn't read it, til now) and, as is usual, gets most of his UFO book info from me like this:

Me: (reading something or another) "Holy shit! Jim, listen to this!"
Jim: (as he's painting or watching the game) "Wow, I have to read that book when you're done!"

After our visit to McMinnville for the UFO Fest, Jim settled in to read Dolan's book for the first time. He can't put it down. I love it.

The Black Triangle Abduction

Right now I'm reading Bill and Nadine Foster's book The Black Triangle Abduction. I don't know what to make of it; it's written by someone who isn't a narrative writer (he writes how to books) - he writes in a folksy, straight forward style using too many commas. Which sounds and feels right. There are a lot of eerie parallels to other encounters, including my own. Foster details his regression sessions, and he's contacted MUFON, NUFORC, Budd Hopkins and other "bona fide" (LOL) researchers.

Like many experiencers, he didn't have any interest or knowledge of UFO/close encounter events until this happened to him. A missing time episode and sighting with his wife and friends was the trigger for him that led him to discover his experience.

I haven't finished the book, just about in the middle. I don't know what to make of it; it's the first triangle abduction I know of, which makes it different. There are similarities however, as I mentioned. Foster mentions some interesting facts; the way journalist just put words in his mouth, for example. And a package delivered to him by an unnamed source in his town related to the sighting; the affects of the sighting on the town, which can be verified. So something did happen.

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

Laura Knight-Jadczyk: The Most Dangerous Idea in the World

Okay, I acknowledge freely I am no intellectual, and certainly not knowledgeable -- not academically or scientifically knowledgeable that is -- about physics, hyper-dimensions, astrophysics, or parallel parking. On some subconscious intuitive Piscean level, I “get it” but that’s another story.

My approach to all this anomalous UFO weird realm usually originates from the personal, moving outward, usually on a mythic/folklore/symbol/narrative/comparative/juxtapositional perspective. Whatever that means.

I’m not sure exactly what Laura Knight-Jadczyk is talking about, but she is very very smart. She writes extremely well. I seem to have a vague memory of something I read on her site or blog that I liked, up to a point, but then rejected, due to what I perceived as anti-Semitism (all that Israel is the big bad guy stuff) but if I’m mistaken, I apologize.

There’s a lot -- a hell of a lot -- of stuff here, and I don’t understand much of it. There is so much material that one has to take time to go through it, and be familiar with her references, which I’m not.

But I’m promoting her here for one reason: those “academics” and “scientists” who would otherwise welcome her views, as long as she gets rid of her UFO bent. Apparently Knight-Jadczyk annoys all sides: the New Age camp, the mystical camp, the political camp, etc.

All the scientific hyper dimensional physic stuff aside, the gist of Knight-Jadczyk core “belief” is that there is an “official culture” which I so far go along with. (Of course, her idea of who, and what, is responsible for that “official culture” may be very different. I don’t know.) And this fact, along with the fact that we’re all just pawns in a huge cosmic game, is what she calls “the most dangerous idea in the world.” I don’t think I gave this justice, but that seems to be the idea. I go along with that as well. It doesn’t sound too different than William Bramley, or even in some ways (good great goddess) David Icke (oy) -- not a new idea. And not sure why her ideas are rejected by all sides.

I’ll leave it to you. I just like subverting things, and so, in the spirit of that, here’s a link to Laura Knight-Jadczyk on her experiences and thoughts on her book, The Secret History of the World.

Early California Bigfoot-UFO Story

Received my copy of Preston Dennett's UFOs Over California yesterday, and discovered this:

"The many popular Native American legends of wise visitors from the sky could be the legacy of early California encounters. One of the first UFO-Bigfoot accounts occurred in 1888, and comes from the journal of a cattleman who had wintered with a tribe of Native Americans in northern California. During his stay, he saw a member of the tribe carrying a platter of raw meat into the forest. He followed the Indian to a nearby cave. Upon entering, he was amazed to see the Indian feeding the meat to a large, hairy man-like creature. The creature was totally covered with thick hair, except for its palms. Also, the creature had no neck, but ws much larger than a man. The Indian tribe called him "Crazy Bear" and explained that he had come to the earth in a "small moon" which carried two other similar creatures. Inside the "small moon" were several other entities who were human-looking, only very short and they wore shiny, silver clothes. After disgorging the three creatures, the object too off into space. The Indians told the cattleman that similar incidents had happened throughout the years, but only rarely." (Preston Dennett, UFOs Over California, Schiffer 2005, p10.)

Well, I wasn't expecting to read that!