Rock Creations

Besides the "Conspiracy Park" images I came across while walking along the Willamette River, I've come across these rock constructs in the water. You can still see stone from the foundation of a structure that used to be there, before the pedestrian bridge was built. Probably remnants of an old power station -- the current EWEB (Eugene Water and Electric)  buildings are nearby. About a month ago, we had walked this same walk and these rock formations weren't there. Some one, or probably more than one person, enjoyed themselves creating these rock creations in the river. I realize you can't see them too well; as I said in my previous conspiracy park post, I'm not a photographer and use a cheap camera. But hopefully you'll get an idea:

This one looks like wings; a definite mothy vibe! 

Back to Conspiracy Park

For a few years now, in various parks around here, I've been coming across  images of NWO, electronic harassment and anonymous/V spray painted on the ground, on light poles, on support beams of bridges, or on stickers and paper stuck on poles and walls.

Last summer I found one on a telephone at the end of my block:

About a block from my house, last summer 

 Here's a picture I took in August of 2009 at the other end of the park:

Taken at Valley River/Greenway Bridge, August 2008

The above, spray painted at either end of the bridge, was painted over by the city. Same signage on the ground at the other end, near where we were today, at the intersection of two paths, since covered over by the city.

I'd been seeing these for at least a year. Randomly (so it seemed) one of the local news programs aired a small segment on these signs; I wrote about it at Oregon L.O.W.F.I.:

A couple of nights ago, the local news had a short segment on these signs. Some neighbors in the area are “upset” because the signs are offensive. Apparently someone, and I suspect someone else not the original sign maker, sprayed swastikas on some of these signs. I haven’t come across any with swastikas. The news said the signs were publicity for “a movie.” I’m not so sure about that, it seems like a strange explanation, especially when no title was given or reason why they came to that conclusion. Hand lettered signs on cheap paper stuck to bridge supports, telephone and light poles; hand painted banners on flimsy paper stuck to wooden fences — doesn’t seem like much of publicity campaign.

I couldn’t find anything on-line about this from any of the local news outlets. I’m not sure which local news it was either, since they’re all the same and I switch back and forth. The short segment ended with the warning that it is illegal to affix any kind of flyer or poster, etc. to city property such as telephone and light poles.

Today, I came across these, at the other end of where we usually walk, and where I've seen the images. Today, we were walking close to the University side and Alton Baker Park. The lettering reads "What is the plan? We won't forget. Expect us." I didn't do a great job of taking pictures, I'm no photographer and my camera is just a cheap one, but I think you get the idea.

Camera Glitch in Masonic Cemetery

One of my favorite places to walk around here is the Masonic cemetery. It's an old cemetery with a lot of local history, and a group of volunteers that work very hard to preserve the integrity of the cemetery (plant life, trails, history, signs, grave markers, etc.) and keep it available to the public. There is a mausoleum as well, which is open to the public once a month. We went up there today to walk around.

I took a lot of photographs and even brought my recorder along in case I was lucky enough to get any EVPs (which didn't happen. I did feel two slight "buzzy" feelings I get when in the presence of spirits, but didn't feel that when I was inside the mausoleum, though I did get that feeling very strongly during the opening and dedication of the mausoleum a few years ago.) One odd thing happened when we saw this grave; we were both struck by the lovely simplicity of the marker and the grave.

Jim sitting on bench at grave marker

I joined Jim and we were sitting there, talking about how nice a spot it was, how we both liked the marker and the appearance of a natural piece in that setting. I started to take pictures of the marker when this happened:

I said "Look what's happening to the camera" and the images in the window were going crazy with color and jumping around. It isn't just that the images turned out this way, while I was just holding the camera the images in the window were jumping around and I couldn't make it stop. I just started taking pics anyway to see what, if anything, would happen.

Here's the same marker appearing normally

Possibly supernatural experience, who's to say. But it could also be a camera glitch. It's a cheap camera, and if you notice in the first photo of Jim, the flowers seem almost psychedelic in color. Camera on its last legs, or spirit communication. Either way nice effect.

Ed Komarek at UFO Digest: MUFON Psyops?

Ed Komarek on the morphing of MUFON, from investigative UFO entity to apologist faux serious UFO research entity. MUFON Psyops?. For some time now, MUFON has just gone over the edge, with upheavals in staff and shifts in philosophies.

MUFON's corporate decision to promote Astronaut Musgrave as its featured speaker at it's July symposium is a slap in the face to its membership and to the general public as well. Already Musgrave has been interviewed by the press speaking the NASA-SETI propaganda and misdirection deceptions that aliens may be out there, but are not here.

Komarek points out that it may be old news, but still valid news, to consider MUFON has ties to the intelligence community. I don't know if I agree with Komarek's ideas on what to do about this, only because it wouldn't do any good, in my opinion but MUFON is really a dead entity at this point.

Entering the Orb: Stumbling on the Hill (s)?

The area where we saw the orange orb is hilly. We lived at the top of a hill. Well, already we're in a land of confusion, because Jim insists we weren't living there yet when we saw the orange orb; we were living on Hilyard St. "downtown" ish, near the U of O campus. I insist that simply isn't correct at all, that the orange orb was seen when we were living at the house on top of the hill at Friendly St.

Inspired by a comment left here yesterday I was skimming through my copy of Captured! (Stanton Friedman and Kathleen Marden) about Barney and Betty Hill. Specifically I was looking at sections regarding Dr. Simon, who used hypnosis to help recover their memories of what happened during their missing time.

Last night I had a dream:

it's night, very dark, and Jim and I keep walking up a hill. It's not the hill where we lived, but around there, up a ways. (Kind of near where I saw the orb drop down behind a house.) We get almost to the top of the hill, but then stop. We're lost, can't see well, things sort of dead end. So we try again. Go back, walk around, come back up the hill. Same thing. We're both getting very irritated with each other, and the whole thing, just all of it. We just keep doing this over and over and are getting very frustrated with "them" and  Jim kind of calls out to "them" to knock it off. It's like "they" are close by and can see us but we can't see them.

I was telling Jim this dream as we were taking our walk. I said it was like Sisyphus and Jim said "I was just going to say, it reminded me of that." Just at the part where I said "We keep getting to almost the top of the hill then things just stop..." I almost fell flat on my face, thankfully Jim caught me. I had tripped on the sidewalk, the top of my sandal got caught somehow. It wasn't a small stumble but a big one; really yanked my toes! If Jim hadn't caught me I would have fallen.

The Psychic Connection | True UFO Sightings

I came across this article on the True UFO Sightings site by Marilyn, who read my article on UFO Digest about alien eavesdroppers. The Psychic Connection | True UFO Sightings She makes a good point about openings... in disucssing these things, with serious, like minded people, did we "invite" and or open a way in for these entities?

Entering the Orb part 2: Decision on Regression

For a long time, both Jim and I completely rejected hypnosis, or any other form of regression into our missing time episodes. We both admitted much of that rejection was due to plain old fear. (It was really years before we talked to each other about them in any kind of depth, and, a lot of details were left out when either one of us retold these stories to others, including each other. Sometimes this was due to simply not remembering, other times, particularly with Jim, he just couldn't voice it.) Over time, we talked more deeply of these experiences, but for a variety of reasons -- culminating with David Jacob's sociopathic behavior -- we continued to reject hypnosis.

The past few months, I began to work on getting at my memories in order to uncover what happened during those missing time periods. Inner work. Meditation, pendulum, dreams, and so on. Jim knew I was doing this. In his way, he was doing that as well.

A couple of weeks ago, we were driving out to the coast, and were talking about our experiences. Casually, Jim mentioned he feels comfortable with the idea of finding out what happened. Specifically, of going through hypnosis or something. I agreed. The idea of doing this journal/book came out of that discussion.

Regan, circa 1977 by James (Jim) Rich

So now we need to decide a few things. Exactly what process do we want to do here? I'm undecided on the idea of hypnosis; can it be trusted? Maybe we should be looking at it, not so much as the end all and magic answer to questions, but a tool, a guide, one more method to use in the journey of exploration. Maybe I'm over thinking it.

And of course there is the question of the hypnotist or regressor. As we all know from our UFO current events here, the quality and agendas of any person doing such work must be pure. Whatever that means. We need to be very wary of biases from all perspectives. A hypnotist who believes there are aliens under every bed isn't any better than a hypnotist who thinks anyone remotely considering the idea of UFOs and ET is mentally ill.

Finding such a person in our area might be difficult. I have some people I can ask; and probably we'd have to go up to Portland, about 2 hours away. Not too bad. So, next on our agenda: finding a qualified person we're comfortable with, can afford, and isn't too far away.

P.S. I know I wrote in my earlier post that I'd discuss the very different memories of one of our missing time episodes; I'll hope to discuss that in the next entry.

News From Elsewhere presented by The League of Western Fortean Intermediatists.

News From Elsewhere presented by The League of Western Fortean Intermediatists.

A bit late on this round up from the L.O.W.F.I. site, but it's full of good Fortean things to follow up on, like the interview on The Veritas Show with Colin Andrews, link at the top, being the most recent. And lots and lots of links to all kinds of news. So take a look!

Alfred Lehmberg at UFO Magazine Blog:..Frying Eggs, Ever After...

UFO Magazine - UFO Magazine Blog - ...Frying Eggs, Ever After...

Very powerful piece by Alfred Lehmberg.

Book Project: Entering the Orb

I've begun a new project. Not sure yet how I'll end up doing this; interactive, as Nancy Birnes suggested, e-book, Kindle, self-publish, blog, pay per installment...so many options. I think, however, that it will be in a sort of journal format, fairly traditional in terms of publishing (e-book/Kindle/self, or through a publisher) with segments posted here at The Orange Orb.

So here it is, working title: Entering the Orb: A Couple's Journey into Missing Time, Screen Memories and UFOs.

Jim and I have decided, spontaneously and independently of each other, to go through some kind of regression and retrieval process to find out what happened during our missing time experiences. We've agreed that we would not share what we found out about our own experiences until all the work has been done. We don't know yet if we would see different people, or the same person. If we saw the same person, there's the possibility that person would be unconsciously influenced by the both of us.  Than again, maybe not.

A lot of this is absolutely trust based. How can we prove to others that we're telling the truth when we say we won't discuss with each other what's been discovered, until it's all done? We can't.

There's also a large issue of vulnerability here. Some possible causes for the missing time episodes are obvious -- as in, oh my god they really were Reptilian Overlords. Other reasons concern memory. As you'll see in my next post, Jim and I have very different memories of one of our missing time events. Clearly, one of us is wrong. So why the difference in memories? And if it turns out the cause for missing time isn't UFO related, alien related or some other esoteric or metaphysical cause, then what, and why? Are we unstable? Did someone drug us? (If so, why, and that's certainly scary on its own.) I could handle any of those, (I think) but what I don't think I could handle is the possibly we made it all up. Unintentionally of course, but made up nonetheless. If that is so, why in the world would we do so? That in itself is intriguing.

Grass Roots Welcome Committee

The latest scandal in UFO Land -- Phil Imbrogno's lies about his academic and service background -- is still being discussed. I'm not supporting Imbrogno's lies, nor defending him for doing so. His ideas about things UFO -ish are still interesting, and, while not new, still worth exploring. I had respect for Imbrogno and am sorry this happened. But, it does seem clear it did happen. Which made me wonder: why would someone feel the need to lie about his or her background, when it comes to UFOlogy? Phil Imbrogno isn't the first person to have been exposed for lying about his credentials, and realistically speaking, he probably won't be the last. Yet, why do some people feel they need to lie, in the context of UFOs?

UFO culture is a grass roots culture. Anyone --- despite the UFO Police and snarky researchers who dismiss whatever, or whoever, they don't agree with -- can live in UFO Land. (Well, except scofftics.) Anyone. It doesnt' matter if you have degrees or not, or what those degrees are in. Degrees do not denote intelligence; oh, they point to a specific type and tell us the degreed person has focus and perseverance in order to receive that degree. Don't misunderstand me, I am not "anti degree" and I have one myself. [Sidebar: full disclosure in case anyone tries to out little ol' me: I have an Associate Degree in Early Childhood Ed, a Bachelor's in English lit with an emphasis on Folklore, a Certificate in Ethnic Studies and Folklore, and two years of grad school. ] Does this make any more or less qualified than anyone else? Nope. Not a damn bit. I'm intelligent if discussing Beat poetry or folkloric applications but a goddamn dummy when it comes to math, business or 12th century military history.

So why do some feel the need to lie or exaggerate in context of UFO research? I have a theory. Ahem.

It's the damn debunker skeptoids. As well as those within UFOlogy, many of whom are in the UFO Police camp, who drone on about being "scientific" and academic and all kinds of -ics. No, I'm not implying science is useless, of course it isn't. We need it all in UFOlogy. But because someone holds a degree in the sciences, or at the least, in academia, does not make them any more qualified in any way to research UFOs. Not one damn bit.

In this culture we place a lot of esteem onto those who have college degrees. We automatically think they're smarter and better than the rest of us. Studying UFOs is a fringe thing to do, a kooky, silly thing to do. You're not serious or smart if you consider UFOs to be anything more than a curiosity. (I know, some co-workers and acquaintances think I'm not as smart as they thought I was, once they find I'm "into" UFOs. Surely someone intelligent wouldn't waste their time...) Some think that having a degree gives a little bit of legitimacy to an illegitimate field.

But there's no need. No need to lie about your background, whatever it is. As long as you're using your head, are truthful and honest and following your own voice, you can't go wrong. Despite what some others might say to you about that, the research and the work will stand on its own. And that's all you need.

At Snarly Skepticism . . . (and Unofficial JREF Watch): Imbrogno: Just a Baby Kraken

Snarly Skepticism . . . (and Unofficial JREF Watch): Imbrogno: Just a Baby Kraken

Snarly Skepticism . . . (and Unofficial JREF Watch): At Skeptiko Blog: Science at the Tipping Point Blog Archive 134. Dr. Rupert Sheldrake on the Persistence of Richard Wiseman’s Deception

Snarly Skepticism . . . (and Unofficial JREF Watch): At Skeptiko Blog: Science at the Tipping Point Blog Archive 134. Dr. Rupert Sheldrake on the Persistence of Richard Wiseman’s Deception

Seriously, A New UFOlogy. Seriously...

Another intent to remake UFOlogy, and they are serious. Here they are: The Serious New UFOlogy Institute. Words like "serious" and institute" are heavy and pregnant with meaning, well, you know, serious. They have a paper, authored by Paul Budding: BEYOND THE LIVING MYTH… AND FROM SERIOUS ‘OLD’ UFOLOGY TO SERIOUS ‘NEW’ UFOLOGY

The group admires  Richard Dolan's work and gives him plenty of credit, a very good thing. But something about any organization, especially with the words "serious" and "institute" both in their name, makes me want to run in the other direction. By definition, organizations are things, (er, "institutes") that defy my wanting to join them. (Or, er,  take them seriously.)  That's my nature.

The Institute of Serious UFOlogy (I can't help but get a bit of a Monty Python vibe when I read that title) contrasts serious old Ufology with serious new UFOlgy. No longer concerned with collecting UFO accounts, the new serious UFOlogy is only concerned with: what are [UFOs] they?  Excellent question, and I share their opinion the ETH isn't a given. It isn't a given, but it is a good possibility. It's also possible there are many answers all at once, because UFOs seem to be many things all at once. An ET here, an ultra-crypto-terrestrial there, a rogue government Dr. Evil thing over there. Or even the demons and Djinn and dark energies called up by semi-pathological rocket scientists.
 
The institute is concerned with the "Living Myth" of the ETH:

The Extraterrestrial Hypothesis (ETH) equates to a Living Myth. Many people love the feeling of awe and fascination that goes with the UFO Phenomenon and therefore they will not give up ETH. Giving up ETH would amount to giving up on archetypal awe, fascination, mystery etc. Therefore scientific and academic Ufology lacks confidence in itself precisely because the mythological projections onto the field contain so many archetypal contents and unconscious assumptions. Hence the field senses its own biases and makes it impossible to establish consensus within itself. Indeed for ETH to be the correct explanation there would have to be a coincidence of the myth equating to the reality of the phenomenon and vice versa.  

Much is true of the above. Budding writes the institute does not "condemn" the Living Myth, just that it needs to be excised in order to get an accurate  picture. But at what point does one decide the living-myth-projections-unconscious-assumptions et all are to be discarded? Like it or not, and obviously there are some UFO researchers who do not, there is a whole mess of confusing, seemingly magical at times, and certainly huge WTF moments within UFO events. Discarding those because they're part of a "living myth" taints the research. Now you're left studying only a bit of the thing. How can it be expected that one will find something of validity using that method?

To their credit they acknowledge that it is reasonable to assume there are many concurrent theories that are fairly equally true:

However, as already said, it is possible that no single theory can explain the whole phenomenon. Just because ‘X’ is true doesn’t mean that ‘Y’ is false in this case. Oddly enough there is an obsession for one theory answers: whether they are debunkers, ETH proponents or advocates of other dimensions, or those advocating an earth/human based answer.

It doesn't matter if it's Bigfoot, UFOs, ghosts or any number of anomalous events; many people demand a "one theory answer." Are UFOs solid craft or high strangeness events, are abductions fantasy or alien (ET) caused, is Bigfoot flesh and blood or paranormal, and so on. Black and white theories that are of a compact size, leaving no room for those gray baskets.

 As with the disclosure and other movements, the new serious ufology is brightly naive in thinking that skeptics, scientists and politicians will be open and accepting of UFOs once the phenomena is presented, well, seriously:

Politicians would be forced to show the field respect if Serious Ufology really was able to clearly demonstrate its differentiation from the Living Myth. This necessitates that serious physicists and technologists study the phenomenon.

No one will be "forced to show the field respect" because the field will never get respect. The existence of UFOs -- and their occupants -- are known among the politicians controllers of the world, as well as many in other areas. The details may or may not be known, but the fact of UFOs is. There are concurrent forces at work: one, the phenomena itself. Call it trickster or something else, the UFO phenomena -- which includes the high strangeness/"living myth" stuff -- has a built in function that ensures it remains marginalized. The second concurrent force are the agendas of those humans (above mentioned controllers) who have their own reasons for playing games with the rest of us. As cliche as it sounds, good old cover-ups, conspiracies and disinformation are the human created responses to the UFO presence.

Meanwhile, there are the witnesses. Remember us? Speaking of which, if the "new serious ufology" isn't concerned with collecting new UFO events, how will they recognize the ever shifting manifestations of UFOs? Questions and ideas about UFOs will never be addressed, because they're not being looked at. Soon the new ufology -- sorry, the new serious ufology -- will become the stagnant serious ufology. Before becoming the new old ufology, when another takes its place.

TORCHWOOD TONIGHT!

At long last, the new Torchwood, back this time on STARZ. I could say all kinds of things about Torchwood, but others have done it much better, particularly the excellent Monster Island News. MIN has plenty of posts on the latest regarding the new incarnation of Torchwood. So visit MIN for posts, interviews and  pics -- including the Captain Jack Harkness action figure bust -- and get ready for tonight's episode.