Friday, July 16, 2010

Everybody's Talking China UFO

Latest UFO sighting to make the international and mainstream rounds: the China UFO.

There's this:

Which some uberskeptics on JREF said was a long exposure shot of an airplane.

And this U.S. ABC mainstream news clip:


Here's a clip of two UFO sightings in China; one which looks to be a missile launch:


Here's a longer clip of the missile; which the person who put this together believes it to be:

No doubt.
Likely the other UFO is also a man made weapon/craft of some kind, in my opinion. A lot of sleight of hand has been going on in various nations, including our own, concerning objects in the skies. Nothing new there of course. Just seems busier than usual lately.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Tales of the Black-Eyed People

I have my favorite UFO, esoteric/Fortean/cryptid stories, like Bigfoot-UFO accounts, Lizard Men tales, Mothman and MIBS. The glowing, talking raccoon that Dr. Kary Mullis encountered in 1983 is one of my favorite stories. Shadow people are interesting, and I've even had my own brief sighting of what I call a shadow person (something woke me up; I looked around, and a fleeting movement of something humanoid/bipedal and black, darker than the surrounding dim of the room, moving quickly through the air. It was somewhat transparent, about two feet tall. It really unnerved me) but the shadow people phenomenon doesn't scare me or intrigue me as much as other phenomenon.

But one that scares the hell out of me and grabs my deep interest are the stories of "black eyed" people. I first learned about the black-eyed people in the March-April issue of Nexus magazine. Reading Jason Offutt's Invasion of the Black-Eyed Children article was good, clean, scary Fortean fun. (Of course, I don't know how much "fun" encountering one of the people (entities?) would be; does not seem "fun" at all.)

Offutt has more on black-eyed people on his blog From the Shadows, about encounters in Texas and Nebraska.

Stephen Wagner has a few different accounts of witnesses encountering these creepy and eerie black-eyed people.

One witness account Wagner posted, from "Missy," describes the black-eyed person she saw in a Starbuck's. The description sounds like a MIB:
I should note here: I did not see anything unusual in his manner of dress. Jeans, black shirt, lightweight black jacket, (no hat, no overcoat) not unusual dress. His hair was almost black, but didn't look any darker than my boyfriend's hair (boyfriend is of Japanese descent). His skin tone was a bit olive and pale but not overly so. It was the eyes and the aura, coming off of him that scared me.
However, "Missy" goes on to say this person, or being, was decidedly malevolent. From reading other accounts of black-eyed people, they don't seem to be MIBS, not entirely anyway.

Stephen Wagner writes about a weird bit of synchronicity involving correspondence with a friend in Australia and black-eyed people.

Most of the witnesses seem to say that they were convinced the black-eyed "people" they saw weren't human. They may look human -- except for the eyes of course -- dress like humans, though often wearing either all or mostly black, but something about their overall vibe is not human. The black-eyed people seen by witnesses are both men and women. Wagner wonders what they are; are they just humans with unusually dark eyes, due to drug use, a medical condition perhaps?

Offutt writes that black-eyed people are usually:
. . .  children to young adults who use language and assertiveness that would seem to be beyond their means. But the most common thread is their eyes; black, without iris or whites, and dead like a Hollywood vampire’s.
Both Offutt and Wagner discuss the overwhelming fear witnesses experience when meeting these black-eyed entities, and the intense waves of malevolence coming off these beings.

Comparisons to both MIBs and the bug-eyed grays are understandable. The black eyed people seem to have characteristics of both. MIB type beings have been around in folklore for a very long time, predating what we commonly call the "UFO era," or, say, post WWII UFOs. (for example, see William Bramley's Gods of Eden.)  UFOs in classical art has long been a subject of interest; and here's an interesting figure in Botticelli's 1475 painting Adoration of the Magi, painted for the Medicis, shown below in full:



 Here's an inset of the painting, showing the small white or white clothed being with large black eyes, or black covered eyes, complete with black cape-like clothing and black hat:



Who knows what they are, demons, aliens, mind controlled humans... whatever they are, it's a mystery, and a downright scary one. Like other stories that are downright weird, the one thing that always has me coming back for more is the consistency and fact of the tale. In other words, as unusual as stories of black-eyed people are, (and other tales, like MIBS, Bigfoot-UFOs, reptilians, etc.) we come across these stories over and over. There are dozens of accounts like this, with the same characteristics, which is fascinating. And, creepy.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Controlling Information: Colin Andrews on Conference Cancellation and the Future

Earlier today I posted a link to Colin Andrew's site, with a brief note on the cancellation of the Power Places International Crop Circle Conference. The conference was cancelled because, according to
Andrews, the conference coordinators refused to give in to the demands by researchers Michael Glickman and Gary King, who insisted Power Places directors dis-invite Colin Andrews, also scheduled to speak. Rather than acquiesce to Glickman's and King's ridiculous and arrogant demands, the decision was made to cancel altogether.  (Andrews linked to further commentary on his post; see here.

Andrews is both understanding and respectful of that decision, yet also understands what's at stake and who's responsible for the chilling reality that there are those on the inside -- our side -- as well as the expected outside, who would control information, and our ability to think for ourselves:
The public is treated as if they are no longer considered
worthy of receiving all points of view. Free thinking has
become a threat to easily led masses and many, from all
sides, are trying to control available information.
Andrews is not surprised that this happened however, and urges us to acknowledge these realities and then move on. At least, that's how I interpret his message; we are responsible for what can happen:
The situation we find ourselves in is not unexpected. It
fits perfectly into the discussion of “2012” and the
transitional period we are in. This is a time when old
structures of deceit and manipulation are failing.
Transformation into new and better structures for the
future is underway. What the future will look like
depends on what we create in the actions and decisions
we make today.  It depends on freedom of thought,
freedom of information and freedom of spirit. This is
what my research has been based on.
The point here, for me, is not whether one agrees with Andrews or anyone else; it's about access to information. There are those on the inside, let alone the outside of the fringes, who think nothing of making threats, behaving arrogantly and making demands in regards to information. That of course sends the clear message to the rest of us that we can't be trusted to think for ourselves. 

I've been commenting a lot here and there about the meme that UFOlogy is dead, and how it isn't dead at all. It's shifting, as all things are, within and without the esoteric world. The demands made by Glickman and King is just one more example of the shifts taking place in "fringe world." And while that may sound flippant, I will say, New Agey as it may be, that this is very important, and does affect, and will affect, all aspects of our world on many levels; from the mainstream to the anomalous.

I was surprised to hear that Glickman pulled this low brow stunt. I don't much of the crop circle research world or the researchers but from what I've seen of Glickman  -- primarily the Star Dreams DVD on crop circles -- he seemed above this kind of thing.

But, again, this isn't about agreement with this researcher or that, but the control of information, and, by natural extension, the control of "the people."  It's a pitiful reality we see this over and over in all categories of Fortean, paranormal -- call it what you will -- research. That, to me, is what "hurts" UFOlogy, or Bigfootology, or whatever -ology it is you're involved in. 

When I first heard Colin Andrews discuss his now famously misunderstood idea that most crop circles are "fake" I didn't want to hear it. I felt betrayed, and confused. But I listened. And found out Andrews isn't saying anything so simplistic at all --- far from it. Far from it. It seems to me that certainly fellow researchers would get that. I'll go so far as to say they do get it, and that's what makes their actions even more reprehensible.  I have no proof they do get it and are lying, simply my opinion. It's difficult to believe that researchers would be so lax in their awareness of what a Colin Andrews is doing and yet go so far as to demand he be removed from the presenter's list.






New Trickster's Realm: "Twilight Language: Cold War Inklings?"

My new Trickster's Realm is up at Binnall of America: Twilight Language: Cold War Inklings?" about the numerous Russian connections popping up in the culture stream.
Politics and entertainment (I know, what's the difference) merged when Vice President Joe Biden appeared on the Jay Leno show. Biden joined Leno in a comedy sketch and later, they discussed the busted Russian spy ring. Leno showed a photo of one of the alleged spies, Anna Chapman, who's been described as "sultry" by every talking head and newspaper it seems. Leno showed a photo of alleged spy Chapman and asked: "Do we have any spies that hot?" to which Biden, a frustrated comedian, said: "Let me be clear. It was not my idea to send her back." 
One element I could have added but didn't think of: the new movie SALT, with Angelina Jolie. I haven't seen the movie but here is another example of a "sultry" sexy female spy and a Russian connection. Is Jolie's character a good spy or a bad (Russian) spy?

Things are not what they seem in these culture episodes; politicians as thwarted comedians, Russian spies as citizens, Russian lovers/actresses/entertainers, betrayals, non-Russians appearing as Russians . . . is the culture missing the Cold War?

2010 Crop Circle Conference in England Cancelled "Due to Attempts to Dictate Program"

From Colin Andrews: bewildering news: 2010 International Crop Circle Conference Cancelled Following Due to Attempts to Dictate the Program.
“Power Places Tours Program Directors were contacted by Michael Glickman and Gary King, who were also speaking at the conference, insisting that I be removed from the ticket or they would not present. Power Places Tours Directors refused to do this, deciding instead to cancel the entire Conference"
I don't know why anyone, especially at a Crop Circle conference, would not want Colin Andrews speaking. Even if one disagrees with Colin's perceptions and what he has to say, so be it. Other speakers would present their views. What are some people afraid of? Parallels to UFO and Bigfoot conferences as well. It's sad and ironic that some other speakers themselves would pull this kind of thing. 

Monday, July 12, 2010

Vintage U.F.O. Back on Blogspot

Last year I moved Vintage U.F.O. to WordPress, and it was okay, but I can't afford to keep it going. So moving Vintage U.F.O. back to blogger.

Nick Redfern and Raven Meindel: Podcast: Exploring All Realms

Nick Redfern, with co-host Raven Meindel, will present their first episode of Exploring All Realms July 15th. Nick writes:

I'm very pleased to announce that from this coming Thursday night (July 15) at 9PM EST I will be co-hosting a regular, weekly, 1-hour-long radio show with good friend Raven Meindel called Exploring All Realms. For all the information on times, schedules, guests and more, see: http://apexn.com/

Sunday, July 11, 2010

The Red Bluejay: Birds and Omens

I'm standing inside a grove of trees. It's daytime. A woman is with me; she's tall, possibly in her mid to late thirties, long white hair, dressed in a long white gown, with gold trim. She's slightly pale; not unhealthy, just a white cast to her skin. She lives here, or knows all about this place, and is my guide to this place. Not many are allowed to come here, or know about this place. I don't know why I'm here exactly, or how I got here, but here I am.

I'm in the middle of the grove, the woman is behind me, slightly to my left. A blue jay appears and flies, in circles, around me, faster and faster. I am excited and surprised at both the appearance of the blue jay, as well as its behavior. The blue jay looks exactly like a blue jay, except that it's red. I call out "Look, look at that! The blue jay is red, it's red!" almost like a child would exclaim. The bird keeps flying around me, in a perfect circle, faster and faster. Now I'm feeling a little alarmed; this is strange behavior for any bird.


The woman tells me to stand still, and watch. And wait. 


The red blue jay keeps flying faster, ever faster, in a circle around me. Then it changes into a hummingbird. I call out, again almost like a child:  "It's a hummingbird, a hummingbird! It turned into a hummingbird!" The woman tells me to look closer, and I realize it's not a hummingbird, it's not a bird of any kind, it's an orb.


A small reddish-brown orb, a solid object, a definite machine of some kind. The orb keeps moving around me, ever faster, in a circle, as I stand there. The woman sternly tells me to stay there and watch. What I'm about to see is very important, she tells me, and I'm here for a reason.


And unfortunately, that's when I wake up.

I had this dream the night I posted this item about Colin Andrews news about an orb and crop circles. The next day I received an email from Colin Andrews. And found  that Nick Redfern had a moving post about his recent experiences with birds: Dead Birds, on There's Something in the Woods.

A few days ago I experienced bird synchronicities. We were driving out Lorane Highway on our way to "The House of Mystery," Oregon's vortex in Gold Hill (a place known for being a UFO hot spot of sorts, and home to some abduction accounts, one which I wrote about here.) The night before, I had a persistent uncomfortable feeling about driving out there. As much as I wanted to see the place, I just didn't feel right about going out there. I woke up bitchy and grumpy and told Jim if he didn't want to go it was all right. He said it was fine. As we were driving, we saw vultures on the side of the road. Not unusual to see vultures but we don't often see them right on the side of the road like that, just standing there. Suddenly, just as we drive by, one swoops up into the air, a long snake dangling from its claws.  We both thought that was odd, and kept driving.

I told Jim again that we didn't have to go; this time he said he didn't want to go either. By this time we were on the interstate; too far to turn back for nothing, yet, didn't want to go. He told me he couldn't explain it but had the same feeling. He didn't say anything because he didn't want to influence me, and knew I wanted to go. I assured him I couldn't explain it but had a bad feeling about going. We happily agreed to go to Wildlife Safari instead and had a great time.

On the way back, traveling again on Lorane Highway, we saw more vultures  standing right on the side of the road, several miles from where we saw the first vultures. We commented on how odd this was, then noticed the vulture was standing on top of a dead deer.
 

Saturday, July 10, 2010

From Speculative Realms: "DIe, UFOlogy, Die!"

The fraud is not the main event. The fraud is sleight of hand to accomplish the suspension of analytic activity in the reader’s mind so that the apocalyptic message can enter, through the backdoor, the rooms of the mind where it finds its welcome.
That's from an excellent article by Gary Haden at Speculative Realms: "Die, UFOlogy, Die!"



UFOlogy isn't dead now, and it never was. It's a meme, a myth, that UFOlogy is "dead."  UFOlogy is shifting, lots of upheavals as we've recently seen (Jacobs, Carrion, Texas MUFON, etc.) but all of those episodes and more haven't killed UFOlogy, just shook it up a lot.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Colin Andrews: New Images of Orb Object in Crop Circle

New information on an orb shaped object during creation of a crop circle, with witness comments. Very interesting!

Random Rant for the Day

There are some persnickety legal nitpicking minutiae over linking to sites, but basically, it's perfectly legal, ethical and normal in a common-sense-I'm-a-blogger-and-want-people-to-know-all-about-my-genius-insights kind of way to expect and want others to link to your blog or site. You don't need permission, you don't need qualifiers, ... if you don't want people linking to your blog, then try this: SHUT UP and stay off the internet.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Jacobs, Hopkins, Woods, Interpretations, and Getting It. . .

Everyone in UFO Land knows who David Jacobs and Budd Hopkins are. I believe that, way back when, both were sincere in their efforts to unravel a bit the mystery of UFOs. I believe Hopkins is still  sincere, but after hearing plenty of Jacob's participation in regards to Emma Woods, it just gets worse and worse. Any sincerity Jacob's might have had has turned into All About Me, and little about any UFO "truth." Woods may be fragile, may even have "issues" (for fucks' sake, who doesn't.)  If you have had a life time of weird experiences, finding no support or insights from various authorities whose job it is, presumably, to help in these matters, you too might be "obsessed" as Jacobs has called Woods. As Gary Haden at Speculative Realms said back in May:
Some of the so-called "balanced" observers maintain that the recordings Emma Woods made of her conversations with Jacobs were altered and content damning to Emma was edited out. I suspect they hope to find in the edited material evidence that exonerates Jacobs. I'll address that later in the post. The question here is whether any material could exonerate Jacobs.

David Jacob's actions as a UFO researcher -- note: UFO researcher, (and history professor), not psychologist, medical doctor or therapist of any kind -- are reprehensible. Jacobs makes it clear he isn't any of those things but his actions negate his empty explanations.  It's not about "is Emma nuts?" as so many have decided, it's, to quote Haden again, an:
"... attempt to use Emma's mental health history, in violation of confidentiality protections she is due, simply to justify belief in the existence of extraterrestrials would be a disgusting example of just how far gone certain paranormal authorities are."
Some contend that, well, it is all an even split. He's nuts. She's nuts.

No. It's not an even split. She is not nuts. He was insane.

Let's get something straight: hypnotizing someone and diagnosing them with multiple personality disorder for the purpose of evading capture by aliens was not just an act of a fruitcake. It was an insane act.
A few weeks ago Hopkins was the guest on Coast to Coast. Interesting interview but I found myself frustrated with much of what Hopkin's had to say; or rather, his interpretations of the UFO puzzle/question/enigma. . . for example, he isn't much given to spiritual religious considerations, which colors his interpretations of would be motivations and agendas of any aliens, UFOs, and the dynamic between witness and UFO/alien. And, for that matter, between researcher and witness. . .

And this is a key point. Both Hopkins, who has stood up for Jacobs throughout this disgusting Jacobs scandal, have come to conclusions about the UFO phenomena. They both have firm interpretations, -- answers -- to what UFOs and their occupants are, what they're doing and why . . .

Jacobs so much so he's created a surreal swirl of typical UFO insanity that include things like alien hybrid e-mails and requests for Emma Woods panties to be sent to him -- unwashed. (To check for DNA don't you know.)

I don't know what's going on with abductions; I don't know what missing time and other high strangeness weirdness is all about. NO idea. (A lot of possible explanations I do reject however; sleep paralysis? Can we please get past that stupid theory?)

I've had a life long experience with sightings, telepathy, "aliens" or non-human beings, shared experiences, missing time, and so much more. And I'm not any closer to answers than I was when I was younger.

Has anyone read what Woods has to say about her life long experiences? 
Most of my memories of my anomalous experiences are fragmentary and I am aware that there is much that I do not understand about them. Nevertheless, the experiences have had a major impact on my life. In part, this is because of my inability to have complete recall of them, and also because I have had no framework within which to understand, process and assimilate them.
That's what a lot of us can say about our experiences involving UFOs, aliens, paranormal and, as Emma says "anomalous."

I can thank Jacobs for something; just before the ugly nasty mess hit the fans in UFO Land, both Jim and I were discussing, kind of sort of, going through hypnosis to uncover what happened during our missing time/UFO events. Thanks to Jacobs, that's not going to happen.

Woods has said, on tape and on her website, that she questions the alien abduction scenario as explanation, at least in some cases. This has not set well with Jacobs, and this, if you listen to the tapes, is obvious. This is what has set Jacobs off; that his self-imposed role of an authority has been questioned, that his requests and theories have been rejected.

Interpretations of magnificent crazy events. That's all we have. Speculations tendril out from those events; which is also all we have, and that's an okay thing. We need speculation to inspire us, to move us forward. And to keep us honest, for all we have is speculation. 

But when two researchers well seated in UFO Land offer up interpretations as the truth, and one of them is deeply stewed in a roiling stinking mess, and the other one denies it stinks...what they have to offer doesn't seem so appealing.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Random Thought for the Day: Did the Ancients Hoax UFOs?

Just over at the ol' JREF and came across a post by some obviously new to the skeptoid realm and naive as to their evil ways, or, a troll. Either way, posts a link to a UFO documentary, with an account of his own sighting, and a "What do you think?"

Naturally the responses, short and few as they are, were anything but curious as to anything close to discovering anything about UFOs; just yawns and silly jokes, as well as insults. Among those responses, comments about UFOs being hoaxed.

Which got me wondering: while in our modern times there have certainly been UFO hoaxes, I wondered about all the centuries worth of UFO sightings. And did anyone from two hundred, three hundred, years ago hoax a UFO sighting? Or whatever it was they called UFOs back then. What about centuries ago? Did ancient Egyptians goof around and fake flying saucers? I doubt it. Possibly some snarky high priest did something with lots of incense and noise to confuse and lull the masses but as to UFOs...

Jacobs Gives Emma Woods False Suggestion

Why hasn't Jacobs been -- I don't know, arrested, called up on ethics charges, something? And why is the UFO community still oddly silent (save for a few, like Vaeni for example) on this?

Posted by Christian Fedor-Flores-Cordova via Facebook: Emma Woods given a false suggestion by David Jacobs.