Orb Roundup

It's time for blatant shameless self-promotion and reminders:

In the current issue of UFO Magazine, I share my thoughts on the Triangle UFOs. No conclusions, just musings. (Of course, if I, or anyone, had conclusions, there'd be no mystery.)

Frame 352: The Stranger Side of Sasaquatch, my Bigfoot blog.

Mating Hedgehogs, my other blog on: media, culture, sex, para-politics, Dr. Evils, Forteana, esoterica, paranoia, Genetic Food Manipulations, animal rights and welfare, art, feminism, Americana, and whatever else I feel like.

For Trickster's Realm on Binnall of America: Finding Sasquatch.

I'm also around on UFO Digest and American Chronicle.

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.

A Post Script on UFO Magazine Trianlge Article

The new issue of UFO Magazine is out. As usual, lots there, I'm looking forward to reading Farah Yurdozo's article on Adamski and Nazis. Yes! Haven't read the article, but it will prove to be very interesting. I've wondered for years about the Contactee movement and how there is a lot below the dichotomy of "they're nuts-lairs"/"they really did see ET".

My article on Black Triangles and the Trickster is in this issue as well. In the article I asked why the triangle hasn't changed in the many decades they've been present? You'd think that, over time and with their technology, they'd have changed quite a bit.

After the article, someone mentioned to me that there might be a couple of reasons why they haven't changed. We have ships; they really haven't changed much over several decades. If the triangle occupants are ET, time travel is a possibility: what may take a few hours in their life may seem like years in ours. I don't mesh with the idea of time travel; but who knows.

Another possibility: maybe they have changed, but they've changed to such a degree we don't recognize them as being triangles or related to triangles in any way. If that's so however, why use the triangles -- unless, as we do, use of older machines is still done.

All highly speculative of course. But it keeps me off the streets.

Tim Binnall Answers Five Questions

Blogger and filmmaker Paul Kimball interviews Tim Binnall, of the Binnall of America website.

John Greenwald Jr. Item on Yahoo News

I was surprised but pleased to see a UFO related article on the Yahoo News Page. . . a nice big headline, with photo. This is about the great work John Greenwald Jr. (of Black Vault) does in gathering government documents for the rest of us. Remember, John does this for free, too. Any support you can send his way I'm sure he'd appreciate.

Mary as Trickster?

I ponder. On UFO Digest: Speculation on Mary as Trickster.

Zetetic Scholar on-line

You can order some issues of Zetetic Scholar from George Hansen's website:
Trickster and the Paranormal.

UFOexperiences blog: On the (UFO) Road Again

From Aileen Garoutte's UFOexperiences blog, an unnerving story of one young man's UFO sighting. In this case, it isn't the UFO itself that's so unnvering:

38. MARK - ON THE (UFO) ROAD AGAIN
The following case has no involvement with MUFON but it is a case that represents the most blatant kind of injustice we have ever encountered. We were given the case in 1988 and at the time of writing this book, we are actively engaged in finding some recourse for the victim. I say victim because that is what he surely was - and is.

Psychic Peter James Passes

This is sad news; I just came across this link on the Yahoo group Fortean Phenomena Again. Must have missed it earlier.
http://www.sdparanormal.com/articles/article/1961531/84130.htm

Sasquatch Inside Mt. Shasta

Over on Frame 352 (my bigfoot blog) is a post on Sasquatch Inside Mt. Shasta.

UFO Semantics, Part Two

“Do you believe in UFOs?” is often asked. (Also “Do you believe in Bigfoot?”, “Do you believe in flying saucers?”, “Do you believe in aliens?” etc.)

UFOs exist. You can’t “believe” that they do, or even hold the opinion that they do. Or, that they do not. They do, the same as cars and houses and toasters and dogs and cats and microwaves exist. “Belief” has nothing to do with it.

One can believe that extraterrestrials exist. I believe they do. I’ve never seen an alien, and my opinion, which admittedly verges on “belief” or at least, a very strong opinion, is based on a life long journey of data collecting, and, I suppose, a bit of faith. Nothing wrong with the latter whatsoever. I’m not saying it’s fact, and I have no desire or need to prove anything to anyone.

Still, even though I may “believe” that extraterrestrials -- or some sort of entities, extraterrestrials or other -- exist, I don’t believe in them. There’s a very huge and very important distinction between the two: believing that a thing exists, and believing in that thing.

If ET exists (or whatever entity) I wouldn’t “believe” in it. Any more than I believe in my cat. Or my stove.

While there are those who have created religions around ET, believing that they are a new form of “God” usually in the Judeo-Christian framework, the use of the word belief can’t be used so carelessly, and that belief can’t be assumed.
.

My Brother’s Big Fat Mexican Korean Jewish White Beverly Hills Wedding

Nothing to do with UFOs or the paranormal, unless you consider me sitting in the bar at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills paranormal, but I just got back from a road trip (nothing like going down to L.A. on I-5 from Eugene, Oregon with your mother) for my brother’s wedding.

Overall, despite ridiculously pathetic family drama here and there, I’m glad I went, and am very happy for my brother and his beautiful bride. L.A. was fine, and all was good. I loved walking along the beaches; Long Beach, Venice, the Marina. My fantasy of living on a houseboat came back each time I walked by the boats at the docks. The smog has improved down there; last time I was down there was about six years ago or so. Although, I stayed mainly on the coast; and not in Hollywood, etc. so those areas might still be bad. The area has worked hard on improving air quality though and reducing smog.

Even though I had my laptop, it was hard to write much, so not much posting went on, though I managed here and there.

I’m back now in Oregon, where you don’t pump your own gas, there’s no sales tax, and the drivers remain rude and terrible. California drivers may be crazy, but they’re controlled crazy, and far more polite than Oregonian drivers. (Oregonian drivers believe it’s their constitutional right to: tailgate, run red lights, ignore use of the turn signal, and either go painfully slow at or below the speed limit, or bizarrely fast, exceeding it beyond all reason.)

Back to our regular programming.

Randi's "Hot News"

Oy. Must have been a slow news day for Randi,who, in his recent JREF newsletter, has an item captioned Hot News" on Uri Geller's name, as if this is some deep dark earth shattering revelation.

New things at Mating Hedgehogs

Bought myself the "U.S. vs. John Lennon" CD; in honor of that, there's a few things over on the Mating Hedgehogs blog related to Lennon, ufos, and mind control. There's also a poll; take a look, vote.

Fatima Oracle Cards

Arrived while I was gone. I mentioned the other day I wasn't that keen on the design of the Fatima oracle cards, but they're not that bad, kind of interesting. To my surprise, I liked using them. Can't always tell just by the art work and appearance of divination cards; you have to use them, go by other factors as well. For example, I wanted to like the "Mermaid" deck but after handling it I actually found it creepy, and didn't buy it.

The Fatima deck has 32 cards; very simple.