Brittish MOD: "Worst Person in the World"

Future husband of Air America’s Stephanie Miller, and journalist Keith Olbermann mentioned on UFO Updates. Found this on UFO Updates: Keith Olbermann made The Brittish Ministry of Defense “worst person in the world” for its stand on UFOs.

Lisa Shiel on BoA!

Tim Binnall of BoA interviews Lisa Shiel, "paranormal" Bigfoot researcher -- and witness -- and author of Backyard Bigfoot. Listen to a preview of the interview here: Lisa Shiel on BoA.

Women of Wikipedia

Cliff Pickover, of Reality Carnival, edits Women of Wikipedia. Very cool!

“No, No! I’m the Bee Doctor:” Parodies and More on George Noory

In light of Jeremy Vaeni’s experience with George Noory on C2C, here are a few items I’ve found:

On Tim Binnall’s BoA, this item on
Touched by an Angel.

Parody of George Noory; this is very funny!

And Noory gets decidedly weird and peevish on the Fantastic Four Forum,
threatening some with lawsuits.

Lesley on Grey Matters writes about her feelings on Noory.

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.

From Spooky Paradigm: “The Different Phenomena of the Social History of UFOs and Other Weird Things”

There’s a great piece on the Spooky Paradigm blog:

“The Different Phenomena of the Social History of UFOs and Other Weird Things” by “ahtzib” who teaches a course on UFOs. As he points out, the problem with using academically approved type material addressing UFOs is that, well, it’s academically approved type material. (My words, not his.) These authors often are ignorant of the vast subject area of UFOs, and approach UFOs --or use UFOs -- as a pivot for their own pet field, theory, or study. UFOs are still cutting edge in academia, and you can do all kinds of things in terms of your own discipline. UFOs however aren’t to be taken seriously; not by themselves. Wrapped around anthropological theories and studies, or psychology, etc. it’s useful subject, as long as the writer "explains" UFOs away; as social anxiety for example, or post 9/11 fears.

Regarding Jung, this is what ahtzib writes:

A question I get asked all the time by academics is if I've read Carl Jung's (1978) writings (they typically haven't) on flying saucers. I have, and they're terrible. Mystical claptrap on how the saucer, being round, is a symbol of oneness in a dangerous age. Jung works largely with dreams and artwork that is only tangentially linked to UFOs. And yet because of Jung's name, this is top-shelf stuff. Saranov (1981) picks up the torch and jumbles up a bunch of vague similarities between 19th century Airship stories and various folktales, says it is all symbolic of something, and calls it a day.
The problem is in theories presented as “fact” to explain UFO sightings, rather than study those who see UFOs, and study UFOs. The problem with ignoring the latter, and focusing on the former Is:
What we cannot do is try to make those all the same people. Because if you do, your carelessness will simply muddy the water, and you'll just end up telling yourself a just-so story. These are different phenomena requiring different tools and theories to study. This happens all the time in conversation, or in informal study. Someone will put forth some vague broad brush notion to explain a social phenomenon. In this case, it might be "People see UFOs because they are concerned about some problem in society" or "People see UFOs because of status inconsistency" or "People see UFOs because of a symbolic need." But it then makes it into more formal opinion columns and essays in publications and blogs, and as I cite above, into scientific and academic articles.

As we know, this is true. It becomes a sort of meme; and often passed along by many within UFOlogy who should know better.

There is a lot more here, and it’s worth reading. His students are lucky to have a teacher who is introducing the study of UFOs from this perspective.

"Intrusive Ghost Hunters" on BoA

You can read my current Trickster’s Realm column on BoA, about
Intrusive Ghost Hunting, where I wonder if it’s not a rude thing, to be going about demanding that the spirits appear, shouting for them to show themselves, while clanging about with all kinds of clattering, heavy equipment and people calling out to Jesus every two minutes.

Wanted: Volunteers for Mars Experiment

The European Space Agency wants volunteers; half a dozen people to play astronaut here on earth for almost a year and a half. Volunteers will be placed in isolation tanks inside mock spaceships. (The isolation tanks are only part of the routine, they won’t be in them for the entire time.) Not only will the volunteers be in isolation tanks, they won’t have contact with anyone. Communication will be by radio. They’ll be sealed up inside a “research institute” in Moscow:
The goal is to gain experience about the psychological challenges that a crew will face on a trip to Mars.

So far, they’ve had about 150 people apply. 19 of those were from women.
Read more: Space pioneers wanted for 520-day Mars experiment

Occam's Razor in Context

Occam’s Razor

Just a passing comment on a comment made by David Rudiak on UFO Updates regarding “Occam’s razor:”

Occam's razor is not only the simplest explanation, but _the
simplest explanation that best conforms to the available
evidence._ Big difference. God being all-knowing and making us
out of mud 6000 years ago is a much simpler explanation than
billions of years of evolution, with all its various lines of
evidence involving physics, astrophysics, chemistry,
biochemistry, genetics, comparative anatomy, etc. But Evolution
through natural selection best fits the pile of evidence that's
been accumulated by science over the last two hundred years.
Evolution wins the Occam's razor contest. God's a loser.

Good point!
You can read more by going to UFO Updates.

"How Do You Know It Wasn't An Angel?"

I missed much of Jeremy Vaeni’s interview on C2C. I did catch the part where Jeremy was explaining his sighting, and he was very clear and upfront and came across quite reasonable and credible. Noory came across as a bit flippant, even, and then he asked Jeremy a question about the sighting: “How do you know it wasn’t an angel?” Or something to that effect, I’m paraphrasing, could have been "Do you think it was an angel,?" etc.) I almost fell off the chair! What the hell kind of question was that?!

Turns out Jeremy V. wants to know the answer to that too. So I was expecting Jeremy to come back on air, along with Budd Hopkins: I was looking forward to an interesting conversation with experiencer and researcher. What would Budd have to say to Jeremy? Knowing Jeremy’s style and humor, what would his responses be? But no Jeremy! Turns out Noory ditched him.

One of the things that strikes me as odd is that both Jeremy and Noory write a column for UFO Magazine. (ahem, as do I.) Don’t some of the columnists read what their fellow writers write? Naive of me, probably. I know I read the entire issue cover to cover. It’s like being in a club, and you chat with the other members who are in the same room. Noory didn’t seem to do much homework in that regard.

You can follow the thread about his appearance on his blog:I Was Kicked Off Coast.

Speaking of UFO Magazine
I received a letter from a woman in Northern California who had read my column and wrote to me, detailing her own UFO experiences with “an orange orb.” It was nice to know someone took the time to write a “real” letter (no e-mail, but a handwritten letter) and share her story. If I have her permission I’ll write more about this later on.

Updates on the "Kinky Kitchen Gadget" UFO

Linda Moulton Howe has updates on the odd drone object (s) in California.
Drone Eyewitness on the Record.

You are a New Age Girl!

You're bright, opinionated, and dedicated to changing the world. Even if it's one hybrid car at a time, you do you part to make things better. In fact, you may be so busy with your causes that you have little time for love. Take an extra yoga class or two, and you just might meet New Age Guy!

What Kind of Girl Are You?

"Course in Miracles" Government Mind Control?

This is a juicy piece of psy op mind control business regarding the “Course in Miracles” books, popular New Age stuff awhile back.

According to Dr. Helen Schucman and the Foundation for Inner Peace (FIP), Dr. Helen Schucman and Dr. William Thetford "scribed" the book by means of a process coming from a divine source through a form of channeling which Schucman referred to as "inner dictation". Schucman described the divine source of her channeling as none other than the person of Jesus Christ. Well.....Dr. William Thetford, headed the CIA's "Mind Control" MK-ULTRA SubProject 130: Personality Theory, while at Columbia University between 1971 - 1978.

Read the whole piece here:
A COURSE IN MIRACLES - A CIA Manipulation Device ?

Jeremy Vaeni on C2C!

Jeremy Vaeni on Coast to Coast!

Our friend Jeremy Vaeni will be on C2C this Thursday night. (June 14th.)

Jeremy writes for UFO Magazine, and is creator of the film “No One’s Watching: An Alien Abductee’s Story.”

Very cool, Jeremy! Congratulations.