Sign in Van

On our walk today, we took a slightly different route. I almost always have my camera with me, but I didn't today. Wish I had thought to bring it! We passed by a parked van on the street, in the rear window was a hand lettered sign that read (the best I recall from memory):

Chemtrails! Google it! Look up, watch the skies!

And a little drawing of an airplane with a white plume coming out of it.
I'll see if it's still there tomorrow and if it is, take a photo.

Happy Halloween!

I love this image; pretty witch flying through the air, taking one to slumber. An astral journey of witchiness!

Alejandro Rojas: The Top States for UFO Sightings

Alejandro Rojas reports on UFO sightings across the U.S.:The Top States for UFO Sightings, with Oregon coming in at thirteen out of fifteen states listed, according to MUFON. According to NUFORC, Oregon didn't make the list of their ten. (Ironically, I reported a sighting to Peter Davenport's NUFORC years ago, here in Oregon, -- one which he argued with me about, and insinuated I wasn't patriotic enough.)

Happy Halloween! Day 2

Time for Halloween Cards!

Ten days into October, and I've been remiss in posting Halloween images. Busy with house repairs and painting and work... so here's a vintage Halloween image, fitting for The Orange Orb. I hope to post an image a day, and on Women of Esoterica as well. If I can stay focused and have the time, it'd be neat to do a them related image for each of my blogs. We'll see. . .  in the meantime, enjoy! And Happy Halloween :)

Project Core

Jack Brewer at The UFO Trail: Paratopia Launches Project Core reports on Jeremy Vaeni and Jeff Ritzman's latest development: Project Core:

Paratopia is ambitiously undertaking Project Core, a broad study into all kinds of reported paranormal phenomena. The initiative includes Dr. Tyler Kokjohn, Dr. Kim Cooper and Paratopia personnel Jeff Ritzmann and Jeremy Vaeni. In Jeff's words:

Project Core has Launched. For the next 10 months we will collect your stories and answers to questions. No, this is not a gathering of accounts for a book, film or anything else – only research into paranormal experiences and those who’ve experienced them. It’s an anonymous submitting process, but one that requires raw truth...

What I like about this is the grass roots perspective: "...requires the raw truth..." as Ritzman continues, "no matter how odd or unbelieveable." I contributed some of my UFO and ghost experiences to the project. The only suggestion I had which I passed on to Jeremy was to add something about Rh Negative blood types. I'm not sure what the Rh Negative connection has to UFO experiences, except that, according to some researchers, it's a factor. Since I'm Rh Negative, I'm naturally curious about the possibility.

I'm looking forward to reading what comes of Project Core.

SOS: Original material, please – De Void - Sarasota Herald-Tribune - Sarasota, FL - Archive

Billy Cox has a good article on comedy, MSM, and their take on UFOs:SOS: Original material, please – De Void - Sarasota Herald-Tribune - Sarasota, FL - Archive

Teeing off on UFOs — or perhaps more accurately, on the people who suspect there’s something extremely weird going on upstairs — is easy. Actually, it’s expected, because it’s always been done this way. It’s like Gallagher’s watermelons or Henny Youngman’s violin or Ed McMahon’s “you are correct, sir!” jack-in-the-box. The humor is victimless, like Nazi-bashing, because everybody knows these UFO rubes are crazy and how are they gonna complain anyway since there’s no electricity in Appalachia. It’s as reliable as Moe pronging Curly’s eyeballs with his forefingers — and it never fails to amuse.

(thanks to Lesley for the link)

Penguin Moons and the Dreaming Mind

I am fascinated by the way our dreaming minds work, and the dream realm as another reality. A parallel universe? I've often thought, in context of story writing, how dreams function, the whys, the whats... and, what happens to the essence, the memory, of a dream once the dreamer has awakened? The memory of the dream still exists in the mind of the dreamer, but, only what was remembered. What of those dreams not remembered by the dreamer, yet, dreamt? Do they still exist? Do they continue on their own? The recurring themes and landscapes -- are they on simply on hold and non-existent until the dreamer returns to them. Or do they live on with their own lives, and the dreamer has merely visited, returned to in sleep?

I have many "stage sets" or landscapes that remain constant in my dreaming life. They may change slightly but overall remain the same. I have plots or themes that recur as well. Are these living, breathing stories active whether or not I am present, or do they only activate when I dream them?

Some dreams are surreal, some are pedestrian, some are scary, and so on. Some are spiritual and astral and of a most emphatically transcendent level that goes beyond "mere" dreaming. Some are visitations by others, as in the death of both human and non-human animal who have come tell me something. Some are announcements of things to come.

And some are simply silly yet nagging and bizarre. Like the "message" I had waking up this morning. I was just waking up coming out of sleep, and the last thought I had, distinct, specific, was "Penguin moons." What the hell are "penguin moons?" I have no idea. As far as I remember, I had no such dream of moons, penguins, birds, planets... no watching of TV or movies with penguins or even wildlife of any kind. Penguin moons, can't get it out of my mind. All day my mind has returned to those two words: penguin moons. At least I could point to something esoteric, something UFO-ish, paranormal or mystic if it had been owls. Particularly in the context of moons. Owls, now that's a symbol we can get behind. Penguins? On the moon? Or penguins that look like moons? Just downright silly.

---

So I searched for "penguin moon" and found this link on Wikipedia: Penguins on the Moon is the title of a Sack Trick album. Not familiar, but they're "classic" according to those who know.  There is the children's book Penguin Moon by Annie Mitra:

Penguin longs to talk to the moon but the moon remains silent. Through the five wishes of the giant starfish and with the help of friends, he is lifted up to the moon and learns that the moon has always answered but was just too far away to be heard. Penguin follows a long tradition of characters who have sought to befriend the moon in this tale told in the folktale style. (Amazon.com)

Which sounds charming but I'm not familiar with the book. Something about the motif of penguin/moon intrigues, since it comes up in various ways. . .

Nick Redfern: Alien Abductions: Military Manipulation? | Mysterious Universe

Nick relates one woman's abduction experiences, and her theories on MILABS and ufos/aliens: Alien Abductions: Military Manipulation? | Mysterious Universe. Writes Redfern:

There are those researchers and eye-witnesses (or perhaps “victims” would be a much better term) who believe that alien abductions have nothing to do with the activities of real-life extraterrestrials, but are, in reality, the result of clandestine work undertaken by the U.S. military.

So the theory goes, the military uses the alien abduction motif as a carefully-camouflaged cover to allow for the continued testing of new technologies, such as mind-altering and mind-controlling drugs, and sophisticated hypnotic techniques on unwitting and innocent citizens.

Is it possible that now, after all this time, the idea of MILABS is getting some serious consideration on a more open level among ufologists? I hope so. About time. I don't know if MILABS explains abductions or not, if ET is still involved in some ways, or what, but I do know that the subject has been on the fringe of the fringe and many have not wanted to look at MILABS in a serious way. Maybe things are changing. Leah Haley's recent statements concerning her own abduction experiences have startled a few into rethinking things...

In a snarky mood: Books

A UFO blog that shall not be named nor linked to recently posted "Three Books You Haven't Read" with cover images of the three books, and the comment that most readers of their blog had not read any of the books. Well, smart asses, I read one out of the three, it's on my bookshelf right now, I can see it from here: In Search of Schrodinger's Cat.

Feh. Pompous snark-masters.

Reminds me of the smug full of himself puritan professor I had who taught a James Joyce seminar each year. Me, in my enthusiastic naivety (older "returning student" as anyone over 40 was euphemistically called) and pure joy at being in college, said to him something like "I was happy to hear you teach a Joyce course; he's among my favorite writers." "Yes?" sniffed (literally, he sniffed!) Professor Important. "I love Joyce, I've read all of his work, ..." "You? You've read all of James Joyce?" he said. He seemed downright offended as well as shocked. And a bit suspicious. "Well, yes..." I said. "How interesting..." and he walked away.

From The UFO Trail: Guiley Cancels Second Book with Imbrogno, Cites Fabrications and Plagiarism

Jack Brewer at UFO Trail posts the latest news on researcher Rosemary Ellen Guiley and her past collaboration with "fallen ufologist" Phil Imbrogno: The UFO Trail: Guiley Cancels Second Book with Imbrogno, Cites Fabrications and Plagiarism.

I've defended Imbrogno in the past only in this sense: that his ideas about things paranormal and UFO were still interesting. Don't discount his ideas, which aren't new and have been proposed by many another through the decades, based on his dishonest behavior. Accepting his sources and research/data as valid is another issue, since it seems he has committed plagiarism.

Idle Fun

Taking a cue from Lesley at The Debris Field, who posts blog quizzes with her daily links, I took the "What Beatle Song Are You?" -- you know, being Sunday and avoiding housework I thought this was far more productive. :)

I had to laugh, because one of the questions was "If you could travel back in time to the 1960s, which event would you want to witness?" Moon landing, well, watched that happen. Beatles on Ed Sullivan: watched that when it happened. Woodstock, well, I wasn't there, but I remember the event, certainly. As I did with Maritn Luther King's speech: not there, but remember vividly watching it on the news and how it impacted all of us. So I chose the latter.

So here's what came up:

You Are "Across the Universe"

You are spiritual, deep, and at peace. You try to keep life in perspective. You can't help but realize how small you are in the universe. You're just thankful you exist. You tend to be a stream of consciousness thinker. You just let your thoughts flow, even when they don't make sense initially. You trust your intuition to guide you. You know that whatever is in your heart is right and true.

What Beatles Song Are You?

Blogthings: Waste Time at Work!

Love that "even when you don't make sense initially." Sounds right...

New Issue of UFO Magazine

Regan Lee, circa 1977, James Rich, acrylic on canvas

I'm on the cover of the new issue of UFO Magazine ! Well, sort of. The cover features one of Jim's paintings.  I remember when he did the sketch of me. I was indeed wearing what you see, reading on the deck at a friend's house on the beautiful McKenzie River in Oregon. Jim was sitting a few feet away from me, sketching away. He saved that sketch for many years and did the painting about three years ago.

In fact, Jim has a series of UFO themed paintings planned. He hasn't painted much lately (either have I) -- busy with a lot of writing projects, but I know we're both missing painting and will get back to it soon. 

Federal Court Rules Against "Filmaker," For Raelians

Glad to see that would be documentarians Abdulluah Hashem and Joseph McGowen's were found guilty of lying about the Raelians. I've been following this story since 2005 and have written about it through the years. Hashem had an agenda based on his own religious (and political) fanaticism that rivaled the Raelians for sure.My new Trickster's Realm column for Binnall of America, on the court's ruling and the agendas of Abdulluah Hashem and Joseph McGowen, will be up sometime today. 

U.S. Federal Court Rules Filmmakers Lied About Raelians - PR Newswire - sacbee.com

The Mentally Deranged Card

We expect the pathological skeptics to label anyone who insists they've had a UFO or anomalous experience mentally ill. The infrastructure does pretty well in that regard as well. General culture, mainstream media. And if therapy is sought and you're not fortunate or savvy enough to get yourself a Jungian therapist --  who might understand, even if interpreting the experiences as non-literal but nonetheless profound --  you might find yourself not only so labeled, but prescribed meds or worse.

I expect that crap from those groups, so when the Dr. Posners of the skeptic world pontificate, I'm not surprised. I do find it surprising  when I come across it within the filmy walls of UFO Land. (And not a little misogynistic, for it seems that the labels are more quickly applied when it's female experiencers that are the subjects.) Emma Woods has been called many things by some within UFO Land. The vitriol is astounding. Among the things she's been accused of: being "unstable," mentally ill, emotionally unbalanced. And much worse. A visit to just about any UFO forum will prove that. One forum and podcast in particular that I will not link to, that likes to promote itself as being of the highest caliber of metal is notorious for such insults.

Neither Jacobs, the UFO researcher and author who happily used Emma Woods as one of his subjects, nor those attacking Woods are shrinks. And even if they are, armchair psychoanalyzing is just that; hardly a diagnosis that's worth taking seriously. What often accompanies such easily thrown out labeling is a heap of nastiness with a topping of misogyny. Positive sneering, and a weirdly gleeful sneering at that.

Recently, Leah Haley came out with her perspectives on the alien abduction phenomena. Her current take is that there is no such thing as literal alien abduction. After years of experiences and her own research, she's decided the alien abduction scenario is a staged event, controlled by humans. Mind control. MILABS. This is her opinion. She's entitled, certainly, and it's highly interesting. She could even be right. (Wow, how about that!) I have no idea if she is or not. I have long suspected humans are involved in what we loosely call "alien abductions." The point here isn't if Haley is right or not; but the reactions her announcement has invoked. An example from the above mentioned forum:

What would I call it?....uhhh.....errrr...nutsy monkey-batshit koo koo?
Ya know, I normally like cutting edge people and ideas, but this isn't one of them. This is mental dysfunction of the kind that doesn't let you process your sensory input without it going through a "I'm Nucking Futz" filter.

From the same message board:

But, I think she may be suffering from a mental illness.

Calling Haley mentally ill because she thinks human created mind control is the cause for abductions doesn't even make sense. I understand not agreeing with that opinion, but deciding it's a mental aberration? The U.S. alone has a long history of mind control experiments; why is the idea of mind control with an alien/outer space theme so outrageous for some to accept as a possibility?

If one is mentally ill, then they need support and compassion. So why the threats, insults, and stupid jokes at the expense of those UFO witnesses whose opinions you might find yourself in disagreement with? It's not as if those witnesses are being "mentally ill" on purpose.

What is the purpose of rejecting witnesses with sometimes glib, sometimes nasty (and not a little threatening) statements that they're lunatics? I've answered my own question: by stating (almost always with a false authority) that witnesses are mentally ill, the rest of us don't have to consider what they have to tell us. Nothing to think about here, move on.

But of course, neither Woods nor Haley are mentally ill. Not in the sense their critics mean. Vulnerable, anxious,obsessive possibly, even paranoid, -- all those are on a scale from "a little bit," to "hell fucking yes!" Who wouldn't be some of those things, at some times, given missing time, screen memories, encounters of non-human entities, sightings of strange objects, and other anomalous events?

There is also a bit of irony here; those inside UFO Land who otherwise align themselves with experiencers/"believers"/witnesses have no problem accepting UFOs and aliens exist -- which skeptics, etc. would easily call them "mentally ill" -- but bring up mind control, or MILABS, or "obsess" over being manipulated, used and sexually harassed, and you're mentally ill. Aliens: sane. Tell your truth: insane.

It doesn't work that way. None of us knows what's going on, and we can only listen and share. Sometimes it's hard to listen, and certainly it's hard to share. Attacking others as being sick in the head because one has a hard time listening makes it even more difficult than it already is for others to tell their stories.

Personal interpretations are open to debate. We all have our buffers and our beliefs.