Green Orbs in BC

I find this report of green orbs in Vancouver from the HBCC site very interesting, because it has some of that eerie high strangeness stuff attached to the sighting.

The witness and a friend saw "a flashing green orb in the sky." This was around 12:30 a.m. Both were in a car, witness drops friend off, then witness experiences something strange with his cell phone. Which, it turns out, his friend also experienced with his phone.

What does it mean? Who can say; alien, military,paranormal, who knows. Very odd though.

Snarly Skepticism: Bill Nye, the Bow Tie Guy

Bill Nye, The Bow Tie Guy, over on Snarly Skepticism. I know, me and everyone else has been yakking about the Larry King Roswell program but I just couldn't help myself.

Lehmberg in UFO Magazine, April Issue

There's just not enough time to write about all the great writing that's around, in blogs, on UFO and Fortean news sites, in print. I'm just now getting to the issue before last of UFO Magazine; April's issue.

In that issue, Alfred Lehmberg wrote, for his An Alien View column: Ufological Obstacles, Culture: Risking Validity, Relevancy, and Credibility in the Postmodern Age. (I think it fits in well with the current issue's piece by Professor Jaynes, but more on that later.) I hope I can do Alfred's article justice but here goes.

Lehmberg asks what most all of us from the most mired in psychotic skepticism to the so-called "believer" asks, and that is: why hasn't UFO research progressed in 60 years? Despite all the efforts. Lehmberg asks:

"What keeps ufologogy in its giggle-factor limbo? What banishes UFOs to the realm of tabloid magazines and the reflex derision of, say, current uberklasskurtxian apologists James McGaha or Micheal Shermer when the actuality of UFOs seems otherwise so assured?"

Great question, one we're all asking. Lehmberg gives the what should be an obvious answer; it's the:

"...paid cadre of busy imps at the Committee for Sceptical inquiry (CSI)."

It is also, Lehmberg goes on to say, in so many words, the powers that be, the ones in control, the infrastructure, the system. This is so damn obvious and simple, and yet so many within the field chase their own tails looking for other causes. We haven't made friends with science yet, there are too many kooks or "New Age mush brains" as Richard Hall recently put it in his article on getting up a UFO Commission; it's all kinds of things except for the one simple fact: they don't want us to. (Lehmberg also addresses the "why they don't want us to" part.)

Lehmberg gives several excellent reasons why there is such a strong and successful legacy of cover ups and disinformation. Lehmberg doesn't stick to UFOs; he makes his case for the methodical control by the infrastructure by comparing other societal disconnects. Politics, culture, business, academia, and sex. The same mechanism in place that ensures control of our responses (and knowledge) to UFOs is the same used in the previously mentioned. Take sex, for example:

"Revealed is the shame of dishonesty concerning sex because it is teasingly pushed in our faces on the one hand, and then we're penalised, persecuted, diseased, and made lunatic for induldging in it on the other."

(We can have a crude show like Two and a Half Men in prime time, with an eleven year old as fodder for the adolescent and shallow sex jokes that occur every three seconds, but Janet Jackson shows a glimpse of boob, and the entire nation goes insane in fake moral outrage, demanding the involvement of government, fines, and punishments for all concerned.)

The UFO researcher has to constantly look at the cultures around her to understand UFOs. Lehmberg writes:

"The point? If culture lies and denies about the everyday, they'll work overtime to clutter up the inordinately strange. Especially if this highly strange complicates their program. Especially if the highly strange invalidates them in the commissions of their crime. Especially, good reader, if the highly strange interferes with their very convenient and coveted status quo. And please, please, please challenge me on who they are. Dwight Eisenhower knew who they are and could point them out to us today.

Again, this is so damn obvious, and yet so many who should know better dismiss this as conspiracy minded kook stuff, or insist it's something else. Anything but this. Well, it's exactly this. (I've been saying this forever as well, although in a different way; that a happy shiny moment with science, mainstream media, academia, and politics will never take place -- not fully, not completely, not ever -- because of the Trickster element, which ensures that such things will never reach the light of day. Moaning about how nothing's changed in sixty years is non productive, and the wrong complaint. And, I realize I'm starting to digress here; is it really true that we've not progressed in sixty years? We don't have the answers -- but is that the goal? We need to shift our focus. But as I say, I'm dissgressing. . .)

There's much more to the article, well worth reading.

Coincidentally, I was just over at UFO Magazine's site, and discovered a comment by a reader who had some positive things to say about this same article in Alfred Spikes Another One Over the Net!


Notes:
Alfred Lehmberg, An Alien View in UFO Magazine: Ufological Obstacles, Culture: Risking Validity, Relevancy, and Credibility in the Postmodern Age, p14.

Vaeni On Dolan

In the April (2008) issue of UFO Magazine, contributor Jeremy Vaeni has an article about Richard Dolan: Praise for Dickie Dolan. In giving kudos to Dolan for his research, Vaeni also says:

He isn't all about compiling government documents -not that that's an easy task or one I'm taking lightly. I'm saying he's got more to his repertoire, and it's about damn time someone with genuine intellect,genuine curiosity, and the ability to sift through new data just sat down and considered everything anew.

Vaeni says what should be obvious, but to my constant surprise, isn't to many: that we don't know what the aliens are, are from or are up to, so any pronouncements about that are only speculation. Nothing wrong with speculation -- we need specuatlion -- as long as we remember that's all it is. Instead of asking, (or telling) others what we know about UFOs and aliens, we should ask, Vaeni suggests:"What do we know about us?"

Vaeni has been "crying this" for years, giving Dolan credit for also understanding this:

If anyone is qualified to ponder it, it's him. Why? Because he doesn't have his answer and he's not looking for it. He's looking, period. (italics mine.)

I like it!

Source:
Jeremy Vaeni in UFO Magazine, April 2008: Praise for Dickie Dolan, pp 28 - 29

Well, that sounds about right! Hat tip to Lesley, who I always steal from!

What Your These Fireworks Say About You

You are chaotic, inspired, and very creative. You're so creative, people don't really recognize your creativity. What's expressive for you sometimes looks like a mess. But you don't really care... you enjoy making your messes!

The Fireworks Test

The Debris Field:
thedebrisfield.blogspot.com/

Random Bits . . .

Torchwood Quotes
I love the BBC program Torchwood. I hear they're coming back for a third season, but in a limited way, a mini-series of five episodes. I hope not. But I'll take it. Here are some quotes from the show:

Gwen: The thing is I just don't understand—
Jack: I'll tell you what I don't understand. You're going to rattle on with that "How can this be true?" kind of shtick. What's it going to take for you people. If you want evidence of aliens, how about that great big spaceship hovering over London on Christmas day? What about the battle of Canary Wharf. A Cyberman in every home.
Gwen: My boyfriend says it's like a sort of terrorism. They put drugs in the water supplies. Psychotropic drugs. Causing mass hallucinations.
Jack: Yeah well, your boyfriend is stupid.

Jack: Alright, usual formation.
Gwen: What's the usual formation?
Owen: Varies.
Gwen: How can the usual formation vary?

Jack: No other race in the universe goes camping, Owen. Celebrate your uniqueness.

Captain Jack Harkness: Contraceptives in the rain. I love this planet. Still at least I won't get pregnant. I'm not doing that again.

I Believe in Aliens
I have a little item on my Snarly Skepticism blog about my "belief" in aliens and UFOs.

Jeremy Vaeni and Culture of Contact
It's that time again, Vaeni's been working hard at getting it together. Buy his book and DVD by the way. Why am I plugging his stuff? Why not? We're all in this together. So, buy something, visit his site, buy a ticket. After all, as he says, he doesn't want to put a Donate button on his site. It's so tacky and needy after all.


New Blog Link Feature

I love bloggers new link feature that updates links to other blogs. I don't have it set up on all my blogs but I do on Vintage UFO and The UFO Proletariat. It gets kind of clunky if you have too many but overall, I like it.


Off For The Summer!
So I'll be writing a lot. Finally off since yesterday until September. Our school goes two weeks beyond the usual, so we didn't finish until yesterday. Now back to writing, writing writing. I hope to put something up at Lulu.com in a week or two; probably about the Trent and McMinnville event.

Mystical UFO Experiences

A bit on the mystical side of UFO experiences, as well as insectoids and drug induced journeys on UFO Proletariat.

Appartions and UFOs and Control

The news that the Vatican will be, for the first time, officially investigating the apparitions at Medjugorje inspired this week's Trickster's Realm column for Binnall of America. It should be up sometime tomorrow, so look for it there.

Also be sure, as always, to read all the great columns, and listen -- for free! -- the podcasts Tim does with some amazing guests.

As to my article, on apparitions and UFOs, a book can be written on all the aspects. In fact, there have been several written! I just touch the surface of one . . .

Quote of the Day

The Regan Lees, Frank Warrens, Don Ledgers, Moulton Howes, Steven Greers, Chris Rutkowskis, et al. are the UFO proletariat; they don’t count or matter. ~ UFO Provocateur(s)

Heh. Hey, I made it first on the list! Hooray for me.

Proletariat: pro·le·tar·i·at (prl-târ-t)
n.
1.
a. The class of industrial wage earners who, possessing neither capital nor production means, must earn their living by selling their labor.
b. The poorest class of working people.
2. The propertyless class of ancient Rome, constituting the lowest class of citizens.


All their other nonsense aside, they sure are a snooty bunch, aren't they?

The UFO Potluck

Okay, so it's a rant. What are blogs for?

The study of UFOs is not cohesive. There is no UFO Guild, no UFOLogy, no set standards -- scientific or otherwise -- and this, complain the skeptics, as well as a good chunk of those within UFO research -- think is wrong.

There has to be rules, standards, approved researchers with credentials, science, labels, rulers, overseers! There has to be someone who stands guard and kicks out the gaudy, the kooks, the Contactees, the over the top abductees, the New Age types, the channelers!

No, there doesn’t. Not one bit. Not at all. Not one damn bit!

The UFO phenomena is full of people. Well, people, aliens, and flying saucers. People who have stories to tell of their experiences, which both vary wildly and share eerie similarities. People come forward and share their encounters with strange beings, unexplained happenings, and unusual craft. We’re all trying to figure it out in our own way. Everyone needs to get this: there is no right way to go about this stuff.

A lot to sift through, a lot to think about. Depending on who we are and our own experiences, we accept or reject the stories of others for what amounts to, in the end, arbitrary reasons. This is valid; it’s not wrong to do so. We’re all human, and we’re all dealing with something we know very little about. So how can we possibly dare to say UFOs are such and such? We have no idea.

If the Contactees strike you as ridiculous attention seeking kooks, you’re entitled. Ignore them and move on. If stories of Reptilians from outer space coming to our planet to make torrid lizard love with earth women have you laughing so hard you wet your pants, okay. Move on.

Some of us find value in these stories. And if that makes you crazy too, it’s not my problem. Move on.

But it’s the people that carry the stories of these encounters, and we need to listen to them out of respect. Oh, I know, both the arch skeptic and many UFO students (for we’re all students) will say that some wack jobs aren’t worth respect. We can only say that after we’ve given them our attention, thought about what they have to say, then move on. If we decide they’re lairs, nuts, or simply disagree, fine.

Some are in need, some are deluded, -- it’s part of the package. Most are not. Most are average people with definitely not your average kinds of experiences and the brave ones share them with the rest of us.

All perspectives are welcome (well, except for the usual gang of pathological irrationalist skeptibunkies. . .) and that includes science. Sure, they can play too. But “UFOlogy” --- such as it is, and, we should ask, should it even be? ---- isn’t exclusive to science. Science doesn’t own UFOs, nor does any other discipline. (If anything, it’s the spiritual/folklore/historical/sacred mythology systems that have a better claim.)

The UFO Phenomena is a grass roots phenomena. It’s truly of the folk, and if the smug, the self righteous, the smarmy, want to fling their weight around in self important proclamations that such people are nothing more than trailer trash, or ignorant, or drunks, or unscientific, or uneducated, or not versed in this discipline, or that . . . let ‘em. They’re wrong, but we can’t stop them. They’re wrong because their classism, elitism, sexism, ageism, even at times racism, and all other “isms” are a form of bigotry that excludes a huge number of individuals with UFO experiences.

We need data. We need all of it. We need the documents, the paper trials, the historical perspective. We need the stories. We need people who know all kinds of things, from science to Trickster tales to pop culture punditry. We need it all, which means we can’t exclude those we don’t like or think are wrong.

The UFO Playground isn’t just yours, or mine, or for those that want an exclusive and controlled venue for their agendas. It’s for all of us.

What are people afraid of? We can think for ourselves. Let the people make up their own minds. Put the stories out there about Bigfoot and UFOs, UADS and aliens, hybrid babies, the Contactees, and all the rest. We can take it.

The argument that these things only muddles things is nonsense. We don’t know what we’re looking at in the first place; how can we be so pompous as to say certain genres under the UFO umbrella are unimportant or silly, while others aren’t? Who decides that?

Complaints that science doesn’t take UFOs seriously, that UFOlogy needs to .. . whatever one thinks it needs to do, (and that there’s a “UFOLogy” to begin with), that the mainstream media makes fun of and ignores UFOs,are wasted. It will always be so, most likely, so move on. Study what you want to, talk about the stories that interest you.



Go to the people, go to the thing itself -- UFOs -- go to yourselves. Yes, that last bit was kind of New Agey, but I’m kind of New Agey. It’s who I am. I don’t like it either some days, but there you go.

The biggest mistake those who are into UFOs can make is to insist on some kind of controlling faction that decides content, approves information, bestows rights upon individuals to speak.

If we really care about the UFO phenomena, we need to recognize we’re all in this together. So-called UFOlogy isn’t a private club. It’s an open pot luck, and some of the attendees may be embarrassing, like some relatives you see only once a year, but you can’t really kick them out. You don't have to ask them to dance; just ignore them if you must. But you aren't allowed to kick them out.

Orb News

Which isn't much.

Busy as usual with work and projects unrelated to UFOs and the esoteric. (I realize that for some Orb readers, that comes as a shock -- the idea I actually have a life outside of wasting time on UFOs.)

As a couple of recent posts here have shown, there's heavy chemtrail activity in Eugene. Today there isn't any. . . as far as June weather goes, it's more muggy than anything. Yesterday was what we call "spaceship" weather. Heavy, muggy, humid, -- like the sky is waiting and watching, and you can feel it. So we call it spaceship weather, because it seems like the perfect setting for the ten mile wide mother ships to come through and land.

I have a couple of things on Mating Hedgehogs about the Anonymous movement and Scientology. Besides the zeolotry exhibited by these people, it also strikes me as ironic in many ways.

Lesley has some interesting reflections on Sexism in Esoterica on Women Of Esoterica.

I like what's happening over at the UFO Magazine site and blog. Lots of good and interesting postings over there.

My blog Vintage U.F.O. has a new look. I changed the black.

chemtrails 6/8/07

Here's a video from someone who lives in Eugene, Oregon (same town I'm in) who shot trails being made on June 8th.

Photographer Documents 189 Secret Spy Satelittes

Very interesting. . . his photographs are currently on exhibit in California. For story and images go here.

http://www.wired.com/culture/art/news/2008/06/
secret_satellites?npu=1&mbid=yhp

Today's Chemtrail Synchronicity:It's a Bit Eerie

It's June. Summer, school's out, warm-hot days, etc. But things are askew here in Eugene, Oregon. The school I work for, a public school, is on an alternative schedule; we don't get out until July 1, and the days here this June have been cold, rainy, strange indeed. The past few days however have been June like: hot. And all under a chemtrail laden sky.

Today and yesterday were particularly bad; tons of chemtrails in the skies. And not just straight ones, but criss crosses, loops, half circles. And a huge "chembow" around the sun today at about 1:00 pm. Yesterday gave us a sky fulll of trails, and patches of iridescent oily patches.

We've seen the chem bows before, and we've seen the oily rainbow bits as well. Not too often, but there.

Today the trails came out early, squashing hope of a blue sky, as the morning promised. Soon the sky was littered with the trails. And by 4:00 pm the sky had gone from blue and sunny with a few clouds, to a glazed milky haze that covered the sky, going from hot to muggy.

TALKIN' 'BOUT CHEMTRAILS
At work, outside, and three of us (and another adult nearby but out of ear shot, I assume. . .) discussing all the weird stuff up there, particularly the chembow. Someone thought it was because "it's the first day of summer." They hadn't heard of chemtrails; both asked me what I meant when I said that. I just told them to Google it. At least they looked up, and had noticed the weirdness, and even commented on the weirdness. One person said they don't look up much, and that anything could be going on up there, they don't think about it. I'm paraphrasing but that was the sense of it.

(With these kinds of perceptions and responses to what's right above us, it's not surprising the government can blithely get away spraying that stuff right over our heads.)

STRANGE E-MAIL
So I go inside, on break, check my e-mail. And find an e-mail from someone who said they read one of my "blog postings" about chemtrails They also live in Eugene, and commented on the chemtrails, including the chembow. Indeed, he or she called it a chembow.

What's even stranger is that the e-mail was sent at the same time (1:00 pm) I was outside with the others, looking at sky, talking about the trails. Pretty eerie!

Reminds me of the stories of people discussing crop circles and then go out to find, later that day, or the next day, a crop circles in the very spot they were discussing, etc.

Well, Good to Know I Guess

Lesley (Debris Field, Beyond the Dial, etc.) always has neat blog quizzes at her place; I stole this one from her.



Created by OnePlusYou