James Carlson 'Responds', Again

James Carlson responds, in his own way, to a I post I wrote back in October on Snarly Skepticism.

hidden experience: audio conversation with Nick Redfern on the ETH

Mike Clelland interviewed Nick Redfern recently; please listen! It's a great "audio conversation" as Mike calls his podcasts (I like that.) What Nick says about the ETH and UFO research is very important, I hear his frustration!! And there's some discussion of "paranormal" Bigfoot as well, which is a subject close to my heart.

hidden experience: audio conversation with Nick Redfern on the ETH

LUMINOSITY: The Minerva Current

I just really like this:LUMINOSITY: The Minerva Current

From Nick Redfern: Abductions: What do we Really Know? | Mysterious Universe

Nick has a good post at Mysterious Universe, pondering the mystery of what we call 'alien abductions.'

Abductions: What do we Really Know? | Mysterious Universe

ShukerNature: BLUE PIGS AND HYAENA-DOGS

Wondering about blue pigs and more, from Dr. Karl Shuker. Delightful and interesting article. (thanks to Lesley for link)

ShukerNature: BLUE PIGS AND HYAENA-DOGS

Research Shake-ups

The latest responses coming out of the revelations about Jacobs and Hopkins have to do with other researchers. Dr. Mack, Richard Dolan, and sure to be many more, are being held up under a blinding light of inspection.

Nothing wrong with examining and questioning research, as well as theories, conclusions, speculations. But the issue for me isn't if a researcher is too gullible, or too willing, or naively believes a witness, entertains incredible speculations (a subjective call on our part) ... it's about intentional deception. Comparing some researchers to Jacobs, or even Hopkins, is unfair. Disingenuous even. Unless that researcher has lied, planted false instructions under hypnosis that the witness has MPD, encourages the witness to wear a chastity belt and to send him her panties, then, comparison is ridiculous as well as dishonest.

We might at times be too willing to mold experiences into our ideas about what's happening. For example, I know of a local group of UFO "enthusiasts" who are also very energy conscious and concerned about environmental issues. For some reason I still can't grasp, everything UFO wise comes back around to that agenda. I spent a pleasant afternoon once with one of the founding members discussing UFOs, but, could not seem to get him to understand that sometimes, for some of us, parts of  the UFO "experience" aren't always positive. I'm not going to put up with being scolded for being of the "wrong vibration" or put up with smug spiritual bullying because I'm not fitting into the party line. (Somewhat ironically, Oregon MUFON is closely involved with this group...) Good people, good intentions, but stubborn as to ideas about the UFO phenomena and insistence it fit into their values. This is not any different from just about any local UFO group I've known.

But hardly on the same level as David Jacobs.

The good thing about the news concerning Jacobs, and Hopkins (though I'm not suggesting the latter is equally heinous as the former) is that we all needed a reminder to rethink things. Maybe we were all getting too comfortable.

Excluding Jacobs and other researchers who act with intentional deceit, we need to be kinder to each other when it comes to our attempts at research.

On the Frequency: Owls, Beeping, Radio Voices

I had a very strange experience last night. I spent much of the night sleeping little; listening mainly to Coast to Coast and the news coming in on the earthquake in Japan, and soon after, the tsunami warnings. Earliest reports were warnings for Hawaii and the Washington and Oregon coasts; later, California and Alaska.

I was compelled to listen through the night because of the sheer tragedy and immensity of another overwhelming earth disaster, and also, because we had planned to drive to the coast that day (approximately fifty miles from our home) and spend the weekend there. I was also concerned about my mother and friends on the Oregon coast, as well as family living up and down the Pacific coast.  I tried to sleep, managed to doze off for a while but kept waking up, turning the little transistor on again. Throughout Coast to Coast local tsunami warnings came through, announcing beach and school closures for the Oregon coast.

At one point, a deep beeping sound woke me up. This beeping was deep within me; not from an external source, not an acoustic anomaly. It was inside of me. It became louder, and with it, I saw a large dark bird come flying towards me. All I could see was the shape, no details. Slowly flapping its huge wings as it came towards me, as the beeping got louder and louder. A glowing whitish-blue light or "halo" surrounded this bird. This bird vision was indie my head, not external, but it was definitely connected to the beeping sound. At first I thought the bird was an owl; and it might had been, but it seemed to be something else as well. What, I'm not sure. I had conflicting responses to this bird; one, that all this was pretty damn interesting but as the owl, or bird-creature, came closer, along with the light, I became a little scared and tried to shut it out. It sort of exploded when I did that, and I had the feeling this bird-like creature was both frustrated with me and disappointed that I chose to ignore it.

Then, I heard, again from that same, deep-within place inside me, the sounds of voices talking on the radio. So I told myself it was the radio; I still had it on, the ear buds in my ears. But the radio and ear -buds were both on the night table, and the radio was off.

I cannot describe how this was not a dream. It was not a dream that I awoke from, it was not a hypnogognic dream, it was not a dream then I awake to find I'm really still dreaming, ... none of that. None of that. I was completely awake. The radio talk within continued; I tried very hard to listen to make sense out of it but the voices were indistinct.

Thunderbird Synchronicity
After I wrote this, I visited The Anomalist to find this link to a post from Loren Coleman at Cryptomundo: Tsunamis and Thunderbirds, which explores the stories of Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest and earthquakes:

It is amazing what Thunderbird folklore may tell us about past tsunamis, says Ruth Ludwin, a University of Washington scientist. Her research has found that Thunderbird and other cryptid stories and traditions “could relate to a large Seattle fault earthquake around A.D. 900 and specific eyewitness accounts linked to a mammoth 1700 earthquake and tsunami in the Cascadia subduction zone.”

“Along the way, I picked up a lot of stories about landslides,” she said. But she couldn’t find anything that seemed to match the 1700 event, until she took a closer look at the story of Thunderbird and Whale.
“It’s a story of the underworld versus the over-world,” Ludwin said.
The Whale was a monster, killing other whales and depriving the people of meat and oil. The Thunderbird, a benevolent supernatural being, saw from its home high in the mountains that the people were starving. The great bird soared out over the coastal waters, then plunged into the ocean and seized the Whale.
A struggle ensued first in the water, the tribal tale says. “The waters receded and rose again. Many canoes came down in trees and were destroyed and numerous lives were lost.”
The Thunderbird eventually succeeds in lifting the evil Whale out of the ocean, carrying it “high into the air (and then) dropping it to the land surface at Beaver prairie. Then at this place there was another great battle.”

On the Coast
After phone calls back and forth and following news reports we decided to drive to the coast, which turned out to be a beautiful drive. The tsunami warnings for this area have been lifted. As I'm typing this I'm looking out at the shore, listening to the ocean.

"Leave Alien Abductions Out of UFOs..."

Amongst the debris from the Jacobs-Woods-Hopkins-Rainey events, are comments I've come across in various places regarding alien abductions.  Comments like (to paraphrase) "Leave alien abductions out of UFO research," or "Abductions have nothing to do with the UFO phenomena."

 It may turn out that what we call alien abductions have nothing to do with UFOs, but for now, we have no idea what we loosely call alien abductions are. How can someone say that UFOs and abductions have nothing to do with each other? Thousands of accounts from witnesses that contain: aliens, UFOs, kidnapping. So far, the connection between UFO and alien abduction obvious.

We're calling strange entities "aliens" that usually mean ET from another planet, and that may or may not be what is happening. Witnesses may be led to believe they're being abducted by ETs and taken aboard UFOs, and if so, who's doing the leading and why? MILABS, possibly. Satan? Elves? Is the abduction experience some sort of metaphysical phenomena that doesn't have anything to do with outer space, ET, or spaceships in any way? If any of those theories turn out to be the answer to the abduction puzzle, then and only then can we say "UFOs have nothing to do with abductions." But actually, the two do have something to do with each other, even if only in the fact that one (abductions) likes to manifest itself as part of the other (UFO event.)

Whether we're interpreting abductions as UFO events or dutifully accepting the scenarios presented to us by whatever force is responsible for abductions as alien-UFO based, there is still a connection. There is a valid relationship between the two, whether it's symbolic or literal.

None of this is to say I think the alien abduction scenario is a literal event (though even that is possible) but it is a phenomena that is being not only experienced by humans all over the planet, but manipulated by some kind of "other" (non-human) as well as  humans.

Are we going to go back to the days when researchers left out elements of witness accounts of abductions because they were found to be too off the wall, embarrassing, and just plain weird?

The obvious leading of witnesses by some researchers, whether intentional in order to support a personal bias, or unintentionally because that's a hazard in this field (as is losing it completely by falling so far down the rabbit hole there's no chance of ever getting out) isn't enough reason to disregard abduction accounts. 

We have no idea what's behind abductions, but we do know that aliens and UFOs appear in these narratives. An obvious relationship. Whether or not that relationship is true remains to be discovered. Until then, it seems both ignorant and arrogant to insist "UFOs have nothing to do with abductions." I find it persistently curious that some have the assurance of what are, and what aren't,   valid elements of the UFO phenomena.

Who are we going to pass alien abductions off to? If those UFO researchers who insist abductions have nothing to do with UFOs reject those accounts, and, continue to be disinterested in the subject, we're still left with the existence of the phenomena.

Science, well, so far they've done a poor job. At best, passing if off as aspects of sleep disruptions. By definition, science will never acknowledge the Fortean/UFO elements of abduction unless it's given a label that designates it as a disorder. Accepting the reality of esoteric, metaphysical, or UFO phenomena isn't the job of science. Neither is accepting the reality of conspiracies, like MILABS.

What if abductions turn out to have nothing at all to do with UFOS, but everything to do with ... Satan? (In that I'm being flip, but not much. While I don't believe in a literal devil framed within a Christian or other religion mythology I don't discount the reality of negative energies/entities.)

So we discover that MILABS are at the key to understanding abductions, which means an insidious and illegal action has been taken against global citizens. Wouldn't we care about that? In this not quite so hypothetical scenario, humans are "hoaxing" UFOs, manipulating the idea of an alien presence to fit their own terrifying agendas. UFO researchers are quick to expose the hoaxers and fakes, the liars and the hucksters, why afraid to tread the cold murky waters of so-called conspiracy in this case?

"The Aliens Are Coming for Us!" More From my Invisible Aliens

I dream a lot about UFOs and aliens, though I rarely see  ET type alien entities in my dreams. They are always invisible; their presence known, felt, but unseen. Occasionally the "aliens" are human enough looking but just off enough to convey a creepy and threatening intent.

I also have a series of dreamscapes, or "sets" that appear in my dreams. One such recurring dreamscape is a small coastal town. In my waking life, I love the coast, and am looking forward to when I'll finally be able to move there. Yet this dreamscape is not a happy place; it's always depressing. It's almost a ghost town, very shabby. There's a crumbling, dirty white stucco wall along side the shore, buildings are falling apart, it's just sad and dirty.

So Jim and I are here, and we get a frantic call from someone who wants us to come and investigate strange paranormal activity. It's a run down gas station; maybe a customer once a week, that kind of thing. We find a lot of poltergeist activity and assume it's a ghost, some kind of haunting, and are about to leave on that note, telling the owner that yep, there's a ghost here all right. Suddenly, UFOs appear, and the "aliens" are all over the place, but I can't see them. They're here all right, right up next to me, but I can't see them. They are very nasty and we all start running in ciricles and screaming "The aliens are here, they're coming after us!" It sounds damn funny now, but it was very scary in the dream.

A bit later, we get another call from someone else in town. More ghostly activity. We go to investigate, decide it's a haunting, and are about to leave when the invisible aliens in their UFOs arrive. The previous scene repeats itself: running around, screaming "The aliens are out to get us!" and escaping just in time. And, again, I can't see them.

I have a bit of a lucid moment in the dream, where I wonder, after making my escape, if these invisible aliens "have anything to do with the orange orb I saw on Lorane highway years ago?" Then I think, "Well, that's an interesting thought."

Colin Andrews: Crop Circles - End of the road. Colin Andrews reveals the findings of his 30 year investigation. An intelligence is at work and we are NOT in charge

Colin Andrews: Crop Circles - End of the road. Colin Andrews reveals the findings of his 30 year investigation. An intelligence is at work and we are NOT in charge

Dark Magic and Crop Circles

An interesting account from Nick Redfern on a crop circles, peacock feathers, and dark magic with sinister intent: Crop Circles and Sorcery | Mysterious Universe.

Although many students of the Crop Circle phenomenon conclude the intricate formations that dominate the fields of Britain each summer are the work of aliens, evidence suggests the world of the Occult may play a far more significant role in the phenomenon than anything that E.T. might ever have to offer.

An odd bit of coincidence here; a few days ago I had posted here on the Orb a dream I had involving crop circles and unseen, malevolent forces: Cold Crop Circles.

This is an interesting idea about magick and crop circles. Like  the UFO phenomena in general, from sightings of objects to non-human entities and abductions, there are definitely  occult aspects to all these things. (That was the subject of Redfern's book Final Events.)

The Mind Bending Close Encounters of the Third Kind/DIA Connection

Thanks to Above Top Secret for this link, in which, as Lucas of Rabbit Hole says, "...he Rabbit Hole seems like a bottomless pit and just when you think you're near the bottom, surprise, another 20 stories to go." It involves the Denver International Airport, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, synchronicity, and all around shivering Fortean stuff:

The Mind Bending Close Encounters of the Third Kind/DIA Connection

Divinorum Psychonauticus: From the Satanic Rite to the UFO to the Afternoon Nap: Sleep Paralysis is coming to get you!

A great post from Eerich Kuersten at Divinorum Psychonauticus:
Divinorum Psychonauticus: From the Satanic Rite to the UFO to the Afternoon Nap: Sleep Paralysis is coming to get you!

From Examiner: Anderson on Dr. John B. Alexander, and a bit about Redfern's Final Events

From Donna Anderson at Examiner: UFOs: Government disclosure vs government confirmation - National Coast to Coast Radio | Examiner.com:

"If there's one word in ufology that suffers more than its fair share of use it's 'disclosure.' But Dr. John B. Alexander, last night's guest on Coast to Coast AM Radio, says fuhgeddaboudit. The government has been disclosing information all along, lo these many years, and you're still not happy. You don't really want disclosure. You want confirmation. And that, my friend, just ain't gonna happen.

Dr. John B. Alexander, author of “UFOs: Myths, Conspiracies and Realities,” is a former Special Forces commander and Army Intelligence officer, worked on non-lethal weapon research at Los Alamos National Labs and has been around long enough to not only remember Roswell but to know many of the people involved in the incident. He admits, right off the bat, that what he has to say is going to tick off just about everybody who listens to Coast to Coast."

Interesting article. As to the lack of response from authorities to UFO sightings, on which I've commented many times, Alexander doesn't think there's anything to get conspiratorial about:

But Alexander says all of these agencies have one thing in common. They were all created to defend the people of the United States against the threat of human invaders. If a UFO were deemed a threat to national security, then certainly they would have investigated. But only to the extent needed to determine the level of the threat and how to counteract. Since nearly all UFO sightings are either peaceful or too wacky to even be considered legitimate, there has been no reason for these agencies to investigate their appearance. It doesn't matter to them what they are, where they came from or who is sitting at the wheel as long as they don't try to attack the U.S.

The gist of the Alexander's position is that disclosure has been happening for a very long time; via film, media, advertising, sighting reports of politicians, you name it. It's confirmation that is lacking, and that confirmation will never come.

Intuitively, I don't agree with everything here --- but then I'm not a UFO researcher immersed in searching out documents or with an employment history with government agencies -- but I do think that the intentional release of information, coded within the easy to swallow medium of movies, television, stories, and so on, is the disclosure so many are demanding from government.

On the other hand, read Nick Redfern's Final Events and the Secret Government Group on Demonic UFOs which offers a different take on things... including an answer to what UFOs and aliens (at least some of them) are. I'm just about finished with the book and will write more about it when I'm through. I will say it's highly exciting and intriguing.

Cold Crop Circles

I've been working on a writing project; a science-fictionish, paranormal, conspiracy themed novella. It doesn't have anything to do with crop circles  but my request to my subconscious to bring up ideas took a turn last night in my dream state. I woke up feeling disoriented. At the same time, I also woke up with some ideas about the direction my story will take.

I'm standing on a little hill, in England, with Colin Andrews. We're discussing crop circles, in particular, the cases where a specific thing is mentioned, or even thought of, between two people, and within hours, a crop cirlce appears with the very designs or in the location discussed. At first, it's very pleasant standing here on this small rise, amongst the crop circles. Then things begin to change...


A wind comes up, and we find we can't hear each other very well. It's also hard to see any crop circles. We know they're close by, but they're impossible to see. Then it gets very cold. I start to whine, like a small child, "It's so cold!" and can't wait to get out of here.


At first I'm disappointed that the positive feeling I have about crop cirlces has been turned inside out. Nothing warm and fuzzy going on right now; it's cold, it's windy and gritty and uncomfortable, and we can't see anything, hear much. Then I realize that it's not the crop circles, it's something else, some other force, that is ominous and creating this disruption. That makes us feel a little better, but not much. 

I said that I woke up with ideas about some ways to go with my story; which, to my surprise, is a sinister direction. I like it, but it's not what I had intended when I began this project.

Bonus link:
The 'Mowing Devil' Investigated Swirled News, 2005