Confessions of a UFO Dilettante (D. Brenton's blog)

Daniel Brenton, author of The Meaning of Existence and all that blog, has written another insightful, and reflective, piece on UFOlogy. Not only UFOlogy as UFOlogy, but all of us in here.

Like Daniel, and so many other bloggers out there who write on UFOs and Fortean things, I’ve had a fascination -- and personal experiences -- with UFOs and related things since childhood.

Brenton brings up the idea of ‘value’ in the context of a personal involvement with UFOs; all this blogging, writing, more writing, discussion, exchanges. A search indeed.

He also brings up the complicated matter of abductees and experience as well as UFOlogists, among other things.

It’s the “truth” and, as my favorite philosophy professor said to us years ago, the truth is different for each of us. Many call that a contradiction, others a paradox. Either way, it’s the truth. (hee.)

Whether one brings the personal to all this in terms of experiences of UFO sightings and all manner of paranormal/Fortean stuff, or the personal in the sense of . . . just themselves, somehow, their willingness to share some of themselves in their research, studies, documentation, it’s all good, it’s all needed, it’s all valid.

Most of all, it contributes in a real (or “truthful”) way towards this journey.

'UFO' DOES NOT MEAN LITTLE GREY MEN

A New Meme: We All Know UFO Really Means Aliens From Outer Space by yours truly.

'Two Questions' comment on CSICOP

Comment on Ray's X-Ray Blog on the new look of good old CSICOP, now known as CSI. Yes, CSI. They've gone Hollywood, I tell you.

MY CAT’S NAME IS ROSWELL : UFOLOGICAL INTEGRATION

image source: http://www.rion.nu/v5/archive/000371.php
rion.nu v5


Really, it is. We found him ten years ago; he was the most freaked out little thing I’ve ever seen. One night, I heard this awful yowling; it just wouldn’t stop. I couldn’t take it any more. It went on for a couple of hours. I went outside, found that the sound was coming from a house across the street. Looking around, I discovered the sound was coming from underneath the porch. I could see a tiny little black and white kitten (a hell of a noise coming from such a small thing) and I tried to coax it out but no way was he going to leave. Yet he wouldn’t stop yowling.

What surprised me was the complete lack of interest from the neighbors. Already at that time we had a reputation; one neighbor did step out and say to me, “Oh, we wondered when you’d come out and get it.” Some people. (And what of the people who lived in the house? Oblivious. I find that astounding.)

I kept leaving little bits of food, further and further away, until he came out, only to run back under the porch. After a few days he came out and stayed on our porch. While I kept agreeing with my husband, who said, every five minutes, “We are NOT keeping him,” I knew better. So did he. (He’s the one who said, “Where’s our heating pad? Poor little guy shouldn't be out there in the cold.”) Next thing we know, he’s in the house.

The name Roswell fits; he’s a happy though slightly hothouse pampered little thug of a cat, never going outside since his traumatic brief life outdoors. We’ve tried to put him out; he won’t have it.

When I say my cat’s name is Roswell, almost everyone gives a slight, startled, brief little laugh. A few have paused and said, knowingly, “Roswell, eh?” then I realize I’ve entered a dimension, a secret society of people who know. He/she too is “into” UFOs , and so the conversation begins. Others are aware of the name and its place in pop culture, but don’t go further.

Maybe I’m wrong about my firm opinion that the infrastructure will never allow things like full disclosure, scientific respect and investigation, etc. (At the same time, I’ve also always maintained that the lone squeaky voice needs to be heard and maybe, over time, all that nudging will bump the paradigm enough to cause a shift, no matter how slight.)

Maybe I’ve been too harsh. Jeremy Vaeni’s recent piece in this issue of UFO Magazine,: Whose Time Has Come?, suggests that we put it all out there, without expectations, or offense. Yes, the meme of alien probes appears in sit-coms, from the mouths of talk show hosts and comedians. Corporations appropriate abductions; the Energizer bunny shows us how well its batteries work, even while being sucked up into the Mother Ship. While “they” may think they’re diluting the phenomena by trivialization, maybe they're also, inadvertently, helping us all to acknowledge the reality.

Yes, let it be known that 2007 heralds the arrival of the new phase: The complete integration of ufology into normal everyday acceptance by the average person. Gone are the days of paranoia and demanding the truth. Gone are the days of highs and lows, the peaks and valleys of public clamoring.

Vaeni urges us to just put it out there, and not expect everyone to get it, because they won’t. That’s okay Don’t take offense; just put it out there. My cat’s name is Roswell. You get it or you don’t. Some may even snicker. I tell them I have a UFO blog. They can Google me, ignore me, or back away, slowly.

The inspiration for Vaeni’s piece is his review of the book U.F.O., written by four artists “with philosophical and anthropological underpinnings.” (Vaeni.) Part of that inspiration was the search for the identity of a graffiti tagger who calls himself (or herself) UFO. Vaeni describes the graffiti art:

UFO tags the city with bulbous-headed alien and fiery spaceship spray art.”

The artists who wrote the book U.F.O. discovered that this graffiti image has appeared all over the world, including Thailand, and that the image is a replica of the symbols found in Australia, painted by the Wanjina.

Vaeni interviews one of the artists involved in the book, Jack Warren, who told Vaeni:

If you’re going to write an article on this book, I think the story is that we’re bringing this [ufology] to the broader public.”

Vaeni says something very important about UFOlogy and the general public’s interest:

”We’ve been trying to shovel legitimacy down the public’s throats for decades now, haven't we? This is real! This is real! Pay attention! They did; they didn’t; did; didn’t, like a tide. then the tide stopped. We thought the field was dead.”

Vaeni believes that this yo-yo effect is done; now we’re entering a phase of above board acknowledgment of aliens, UFOs, the anomalous.

He may be right.

We’re not quite finished yet.

Discussions about the book U.F.O. continue on graffiti blogs.
The
Razor Apple blog has a very different take on the book, and the author’s (who are also artists themselves) exclusion of U.F.O., the tagger:

Last week, U.F.O. showed up in disguise to chat with Combustive Motor Corporation at the release party they held to push their book. Though no minds were changed, the discussion continues on Suckapants. Intentional or not, we agree this book exploits U.F.O. and his work. Conducting an “urban anthropology” on U.F.O. without involving him is unethical and exploitative research by any definition.

Worth noting. Another layer to the phenomena.

My background is in folklore and, aside from UFOs and related topics, my other favorite area was folk art. Graffiti is certainly folk art. This does bring up questions of appropriation, or maybe just laziness. The issue of the artists being ignored is a personal one with me; being an artist myself, and married to one, I am acutely aware of the treatment of artists in communities. (For example, using the artists art to push/sell institutions to corporate and municipal entities, all the while either ignoring the artist, or treating them like an embarrassing bastard stepchild. They will use our art, but they don’t want to stink up the place with us.)

There’s a parallel here with some of those who study UFO cases, from the chronic skeptic to the UFO researcher, while ignoring the witnesses. At some point, and this is true in the case of anti UFOists, the witness is long forgotten.

CHRONIC SKEPTICISM: ANECDOTAL EVIDENCE

Despite what UFO mavens proclaim, the UFO enigma is long on anecdotes and short on evidence.

Somber words by the very somber bloggers of The UFO Reality blog, apparently a sister blog to the UFO Iconoclast blog.

So, if the word ‘maven’ means expert, then wouldn’t the experts -- in this case, the ‘UFO mavens’ -- be correct? Being as how they’re experts and all.

Therefore, any non-UFO “maven” would be incorrect, since they are not experts.

heh.

And yes, the UFO phenomena is “long on anecdotes and short on evidence.” Er, not exactly. For anecdotes are evidence.

UFO MAGAZINE: LEHMBERG ON CSICOP

I’ve decided that Alfred Lehmberg is the Keith Olbermann of anti-chronic skepticism.

Lehmberg, as many of you who read these UFO blogs know, is either respected and liked, or considered a “troublemaker” (At best. After all, he did win the
2006 Zorgy Award for ‘best UFO/paranormal troublemaker.’)

The usual division continues: the dysfunctional skeptics attack, and in typical fashion, respond with outrage when called on their stuff. Those that respond to the chronic skeptic’s actions are harassed, stalked, followed, insulted, mocked, hacked, lied to and lied about. One anti-UFO, chronic skeptic has a banner on his blog: The Lehmberg I Hate You Foundation, which doesn’t make sense to me, but then, much of the skepti-loons insults and humor is full of non-sequitors.
Another suffers from the paranoid delusion that I have “sent” Lehmberg to his blog to act up and “fight” on my behalf. (If only I had that kind of power! )

Others call him a loon, and worse. Even those who still can’t make up their minds if they’re in or out regarding UFOlogy don’t get it: they take issue and end up siding with the Pelicanists when it comes to Lehmberg. That’s not surprising though; for if they weren’t in the position of fence sitter and hill hopper they wouldn’t be so confused to begin with.

So the lances are still being thrown at the rest of us, and when we pick them up and throw them back, we’re accused of “name calling”
on the same level of a racist flinging slurs, and stirring up trouble simply because, (they accuse, and falsely) we have nothing better to do. All kinds of arrogant, paranoid, and defensive behaviors rise up like some ugly, slime covered, multi headed sea monster. Like some ugly, slime covered, multi headed possessed sea monster, for they do not give up. Not ever. They trail behind them grudges, old insults and injuries, and when they can’t reach back there to pull one out, they simply lie. They may flag, but they never quit.


A recent program on
20/20 (which I never watch, but just happened to catch the last few minutes of recently) reenacted the famous psychological Milgram experiment (That is a whole other topic for a very different column.) Among other things, the new experiment suggested that a moral/ethical voice, a positive voice, even if in the minority, can change things for the better. That one lone voice can change the actions of others. That’s a very good thing of course, and in the context of UFO Land, a reason to encourage others, as I always say, to speak up. To tell their stories, their experiences. And to speak up against chronic skepticism.

There have been some recent comments on pathological skepticism from other bloggers,(including myself) - it’s about time. Daniel Brenton’s


An Open Letter to the UFO Community is one.
In the January issue of UFO Magazine, Alfred Lehmberg’s column An Alien View, is titled CSICOPING a Feeling. (Of course, the recent news is that CSICOP, in a sort of Keystone Cops kind of move, renamed itself CSI )

Whenever one of us goes on about all the types of skeptics; all the qualifiers and modifiers: skeptibunkies, chronic skeptic, fanatical skeptic, skepti loon, pathological skepticism, irrational rationalism, etc. one thing that always happens is the knee jerk denial. “Why, I’m a skeptic! How dare you call me that?!” and no matter how many times you explain to the hopping little Pelicanist that “if the shoe doesn’t fit, don't wear it” they can’t hear it. All the games played around the disingenuous denial that they are a skeptic are just that: games. Designed to distract, deny, and most of all, discourage.

Lehmberg writes:

”True skeptics are never the issue,reader.

I know that, many of you know that, but the ones that need to know that don’t. Skeptics, Lehmberg writes, are a good thing. But it is not skeptics he is holding up for the thick minded thugs they are; it is, to repeat:

”Skeptics[tic are not to be confused with scurrilous skepti-bunkies, ponderous Pelicanists, or insipid CSICOPians and scurvy klasskurtxians.”

Lehmberg addresses many aspects of CSICOP and their lie that they are concerned with skeptical thought:

”Since the very beginning and as typified by the Dennis Rawlins imbroglio over the StarBaby paper, any research critical of or in opposition to that CSICOPian party-liners remains remarkably non-included in these not so efficacious bibliographies. Why was StarBaby published in FATE Magazine and not in the Skeptical Inquirer?

Good questions. There are more:

Why can’t Dr David Rudiak get a peer review for his Mogul-balloon investigative work in the same canted CSICOPian rag? Frank Feschino for Shoot Them Down? Stanton Friedman for MAJIC? Robert Hastings for UFOS and Nuclear Missiles? Richard Dolan for UFOs and the National Security State?”

As Lehmberg notes, “why indeed.”

Excellent article. And UFO Magazine overall this month is very good; in fact, since they went back to the newsprint and once a month format, the magazine is better than ever.

DON'T USE THAT RENSE

Jerome Clark, who I do respect, has been criticized recently by some for his per snickety comment that Mac Tonnies (Posthuman Blues blog) term “cryptoterrestrial hypothesis’ is “pretentious.” I agree with that criticism; it did seem huffy, to say the least. But Jerome Clark did say something I appreciated concerning Jeff Rense:The Rense site on UFO Updates.

I haven’t checked out the Rense site in awhile; and I’ve realized I don’t need to. The same kind of information,sans the purple tinted yellow hyperbole, can be found on other sites that don’t stoop to anti-Semitic hysteria, thinly veiled misogynist columnists, and paranoid xenophobic articles.

And Clark is correct in saying that UFO and Fortean studies have always had a taint of anti-Semitism.

You are 82% in tune with the paranormal!

 

You believe to a certain point, but you don't see the paranormal in everyday life like true believers do.

How Much Are You In Tune With The Paranormal?
Create a Quiz

(Thanks to Lesley of the Debris Field Blog; that's where I stole the quiz)

LOCAL RADIO STATION DEMOTES COAST TO COAST

If you live in the Eugene-Springfield, Oregon area you know that AM radio station KPNW replaced the first hour of Coast to Coast with -- of all people -- Lars Larson. (Larson is a right wing radio dj) From 8:00pm to 11:00pm we get Lars. C2C follows. (On Saturday C2C airs at 10:00pm.)

Why they did this, who knows. But if you’re in the area, or even if you’re not, letting them know this is unacceptable would be appreciated.

A few years ago, KUGN, the rival AM radio station, pulled Jeff Rense from its programming. I'm not fan of Rense, but I did like the fact that we had two Fortean/UFO programs -- at the same time -- to choose from. If I didn’t like the guest on one, I could tune to the other.

Now we only have one, C2C, and not the whole program at that.

CHRONIC SKEPTIC CAPERS

(credit goes to writer and Fortean Colin Bennett who coined the term "chronic skeptic")



There’s a handful of anti-UFO, chronic skeptic/mega skeptic/skepti loon blogs out there. Usually it’s best to take the usual daily lurk and move on. Some days -- blame it on bio rhythms or solar flares -- you just feel compelled to call them on their silliness. Today’s one of those days.

From the UFO Iconoclast blog, we have this comment on the O’Hare UFO sighting:

Whether or not a bona fide UFO was sighted remains to be determined.

Since no one seems to know what it was/is, it’s a UFO. Maybe they believe the modifier “bona fide” forgives their clumsy attempt at splitting that poor hair even further.

Then there’s interesting choice of gender specific analogies:

The episode has become a laughing stock, and further emasculates the UFO phenomenon,

Hmmm. They really are taking this to, er, heart.
And this:

which remains as elusive as ever, and now relegated to the bottom of society’s concerns, except as a joke stimulator.

They’re reading the right book but are on the wrong page. UFOs will always be elusive. It’s also always been at the “bottom of society's concerns.” The infrastructure won’t allow anything else. And yes, UFOs -- outside of entertainment -- are a “joke stimulator.” Always has been, always will. They have it backwards; the reasons for this are related, but it’s basically a defense mechanism of society that causes these perceptions, not UFOlogy’s “behavior.” (See George P. Hansen:
The Trickster and the Paranormal.)

And there’s this; the mantra of the chronic skeptic, who believes with blind, fanatical faith, that anyone “pro” UFO is a loser:

The UFO community’s delusion of a resurrected interest in UFOs is as misplaced as the all the copy being invested in by UFO diehards and persons seeking their daily dose of silliness (to enliven their boring, petty lives.)

And to that last comment we say: “pot calling kettle black.”

Sex and UFOs

Before you say "Hey, not you too, I just read at least two other blogs that wrote about this" I say:

You all heard it here first dahlings!

Sex and UFOs (Don't know why the image is broken, sorry for that.)

An Open Letter to the UFO Community

From Daniel Brenton's 'Meaning of Existence blog.' As I said to him the other day, he says it well and clearly. And the more UFO bloggers that say this the better. (I also told him I say similar things all the time here; I'm just usually crankier.)

An Open Letter to the UFO Community.

I MISSED IT!

UFO OVER CHICAGO’S O’HARE AIRPORT

I don’t mean I missed the UFO over Chicago, of course I did, I’m in Oregon; wasn’t in any airport at the time.

I mean I missed the article my husband so thoughtfully put aside for me the other day. Yes, our local paper, the Eugene Register Guard, actually had an item in the paper on the UFO in Chicago. And just when I recently commented that the local papers, and it seems many papers, haven’t been printing UFO items in recent years. Not like they used to. (post September 11th?)

So my darling puts the paper on the ottoman so I’ll find it when I get home from work, say “oh, how nice of him!” read it with glee, cut it out, and put it in my files. But instead I walk in, see the paper left out, and put it in the recycling, which he puts out that night. Trash came and took it away the next morning.

Encouraging to know that the newspapers around here still print UFO stories.

This UFO sighting is interesting of course; as, as always, the really Very Silly Chronic Skeptic Nonsense going on over this on places like the JREF. To be expected, to be sure.

They're not sure what was hanging out for several minutes in the restricted airspace, but they are upset that no one in power has taken the matter seriously.

A United spokeswoman said there is no record of the UFO report. She said United officials do not recall discussion of any such incident.

"There's nothing in the duty manager log, which is used to report unusual incidents," said United spokeswoman Megan McCarthy. "I checked around. There's no record of anything."

Reminds me of the response, or, lack of response, during the Phoenix Lights event. (yet later the United employees were asked to draw pictures of what they saw, and not discuss it.)

And yes, one official had an explanation: it was a weather balloon.

MORE BOOKS!

Still reading Colin Bennett's Looking for Orthon, his book on Adamski. Which, among other things, has me curious to read Timothy Goods book on Adamski.

More Christmas books arrived today; Greg Bishop's Project Beta: The Story of Paul Bennewitz, National Security, and the Creation of a Modern UFO Myth, and Nick Redfern's Body Snatchers in the Desert: The Horrible Truth at The Heart of the Roswell Story.

This should keep me busy! And there's one more still to come; Redfern's Spies book.

ZORGY AWARD WINNERS

The votes have been counted, and Mac Tonnies, author of Post Human Blues blog, won for "best UFO blog" with Kevin Randles coming in second for his blog A Different Perspective, and me, dahlings, came in third, but that's fine! As they say, it was a pleasure and an honor to be nominated.

Congratulations to Tonnies; his blog is an excellent one.

And congratulations to Alfred Lehmberg, of Alien View blog, for "best troublemaker." (!)


The Zorgy awards was the idea of Kimball of blog. Other side of Truth" blog. You can read more about them there.