From Eyewear (the blog): THE GREAT COLIN WILSON HAS DIED

Sad to read that Colin Wilson died at age 81. Rest in peace Mr. Wilson. Colin Wilson was one of my early influences -- I was first exposed to him in my early teens. I still have several of his books on my shelves.  A great thinker, not afraid to go into areas often considered fringe, or where his mind took him, from fiction to crime to the occult to philosophy.

Here's a nice and personal excerpt from a blog post at Eyewear blog on Colin Wilson:

Eyewear (the blog): THE GREAT COLIN WILSON HAS DIED: As such, almost no British media, TV, radio, or papers, reported his death. It will be interesting to see if the nationals run mocking obituaries, or if some sort of decency will prevail. I wrote many years back at nthposition THE CASE FOR COLIN WILSON, and I stand by it. I corresponded with him by email, and sent him this link, which he appreciate, and he read my poetry with some enjoyment though he preferred older poets he told me. I was thrilled to hear from him, though we never met. His books meant a lot to me when I was a teenager. I was not alone: Groucho Marx was a huge fan.

Fortean Nerd Dreams: Of Mothman and Strieber

My new Trickster's Realm column is now available at Tim Binnall's BoA: Fortean Nerd Dreams: Of Mothman and Strieber.

Talking with a friend a couple of weeks ago who has had UFO and alien encounters since cTalking with a friend a couple of weeks ago who has had UFO and alien encounters since childhood — as her entire family — she mentioned that she had contacted Whitely Strieber years ago. She didn’t get to speak to Whitly, but did speak with Anne, who, according to this friend, kept referring to Whitley as ‘the master” and “the priest” which creeped out my friend. I can’t speak to anything other than reporting this little anecdote, and I’m not making any comments either way on Strieber, his work or his experiences. It’s just a background story to the following dream I had last night;

Jim (my husband) and I are walking through a large station of some kind, like a train station, or bus station. We’re pretty happy but in a hurry, we have to catch a bus somewhere. We’re going out of town; east towards the McKenzie river area.  We want to get there before the snow hits hard. (Now in waking life, snow was predicted for today, but it wasn’t snowing quite yet, and, while I like the McKenzie river area, it’s not where I particularly want to live or visit, certainly not in the snow — where snow hits hard up there — I don’t like snow!)  As we’re walking through this place, full of bustling people, a boy about seven or eight comes up to me. He’s wearing a grey hooded sweatshirt and has such large black eyes! He’s a cutie. He takes my hand, and is very self assured, leading us. He pulls up his hood to cover his head. I laugh and tell Jim that “Oh well, he’s just a kid,” and I worry a little about him being alone and so young, and not wearing enough warm clothing. He seems fine however. As he’s leading us, holding my hand, but in a very take charge way, he turns and asks me “Is Streiber still the Master?” This throws me for a loop; unnerves me a bit. Then he disappears, just vanishes before our eyes, as we step out onto the bus loading area. 

Hasbro's Magic Jinn Game

A poster at Binnall of America left this link to "The Magic Jinn Game" from Hasbro. "Think of an animal and I'll try to read your mind!" Interesting appropriation and culture stream to insertion. Magic Jinn Game | Electronic Games for ages 6 YEARS & UP | Hasbro

Target on-line has it a few dollars cheaper. Some customers have left reviews.

It glows or lights up. The pictures at Hasbro, Target and elsewhere show a turqouise colored Jinn in a yellow box, Toys R Us has a purple one in a blue box.

Part 2 Skeptiko Interview with David Jacobs: Spiritual Side of UFOs

Part 2 of the Skeptiko interview with David Jacobs:

Alex Tsakiris: I’m not a religious person and I’m certainly not pushing any kind of religion or any kind of specific spiritual tradition. I just come at it from the data and I think there’s a reality to these unity-consciousness experiences.
Dr. David Jacobs:  Well, you’ve asked me a personal question that has nothing to do with the abduction phenomenon.
Alex Tsakiris:  Why do you think that?
Dr. David Jacobs:  Because all I know is when I started doing abduction research I really didn’t know what I was doing and I didn’t know what I was going to hear. If this turned out to be a spiritually enlightening phenomenon, that would have been fine. That’s okay with me. That’s great. I’d like to be spiritual enlightened. That would be terrific. But I just never hear this. It’s just not part of this phenomenon.

Abduction Research and the "Spiritual"

I find it incredible Jacobs rejects any type of metaphysical aspect to UFOs and abductions, and, while I don't know he's outright lying, I do wonder at his statement that "It's just not part of this phenomenon." He says he hasn't heard anything from witnesses concerning more paranormal/spiritual/esoteric experiences. Maybe that is true, but again, I find that very strange that not one witness has ever shared this aspect of the phenomena with Jacobs, according to Jacobs. 

That aside, Jacobs "works around" certain details of an abductees memory because, according to Jacobs, such things simply aren't true. They don't exist, aliens really don't look like that, whatever. The witness is "confabulating" Jacobs says, which gives Jacobs the right to mess with their heads by planting suggestions to the witness. This is one of the things he did with Emma Woods --  giving her the suggestion she had multiple personality disorder. This is dangerous and not research that can be taken seriously.

Good for Tsakiris for pushing on this issue; that for lack of a better term "spiritual" experiences are a part of the UFO and abduction phenomena. 

The entire UFO phenomena is still being consistently dissected into either/or paradigms.

Hypnosis and Rejection of Data

Several times Jacobs makes statements, presented as facts, that are his opinions on the UFO/alien/abduction theater the world has been witnessing for thousands of years. What hasn't occurred to Jacobs (or maybe it has, and he's rejected the idea due to extreme hubris) is that this whole UFO performance is incredibly interconnected within itself and includes an array of contradictions, correspondences, synchronicitiess and experience. Removing one aspect to study is worthwhile. Stating that the data gleaned from the study of that one aspect is the answer and the facts is irresponsible.

We cannot be sure that hypnosis is a valid tool for UFO research. I don't know. I have gone back and forth with my own experience and hypnosis; do I undergo hypnosis? I've arrived at the point now where, if I do, it would simply be for the data. But, I would not want any hypnotist to plant suggestions into my head or ask me leading questions or outright tell me I am "confabulating" when I relate what I believe to be true. 

And that's the thing. I don't know what happened to me. But something did. So if I don't know, how the hell can anyone else know? 

With my own experiences, I've had "spiritual experiences" as well as non-spiritual experiences. Everything from nuts and bolts: straight forward sighting of a craft, to out of body astral realm entities appearing before me and down the rabbit hole experiences. 

I think part of the problem is the use of the phrases "spiritually enlgithed" and "transformative spiritual experiences." those statement s assume that once you had an experience you're somehow evoled, better, smarter in a metaphysical sense, than the rest of us. Nope. Some of us have just seen that blazing light and are trying to figure it out is all. And of course, there's always the possibility that those experiences are manipulated by "them."

It is a puzzle. There are those "new age" types who are so blissed out they make want to spit nails, and I have found them both terribly patronizing as well as naive.

 Tsakiris on Worldview
Excellent points by Alex Tsakiris on Jacob's worldview and how that personal view affects his research. Also an interesting rebuttal shared by Tsakiris to Jacobs statement as fact that John Mack simply gave up on the metaphysical aspects of UFOs because there was nothing there. 

Skeptiko Interview with David Jacobs Part 1

Skeptiko interviews David Jacobs, part 1 of 2:230. Dr. David Jacobs Claims Academia Has Abrogated Responsibility to Investigate Alien Contact | Skeptiko - Science at the Tipping Point

I'm posting the link to the interview because it's important to get what Jacobs is about and continue to analyze his research and his methods. He is still taken seriously by many in the field and I find this very interesting for many reasons. One being the contradictory and hypocritical nature of critics from within, who moan about what should not be considered UFO research, what researchers, witnesses and all around UFO scholars should not be taken seriously. More often than not those reasons are invalid. Those reasons have nothing to do with the reality of witness accounts, but the personal biases of individual UFO researchers.

Meanwhile, people like Jacobs still go about their thing, taken seriously by many, including women. Now this is another point; simply because one is female, does not mean said female is on the "right" side of the Jacobs debate. We're not a one celled entity, we have our own minds and experiences. Jacobs has, say many a woman witness, helped that witness. I can't speak for or against that. But at the same time, I cannot fall into some sort of party line -- ignoring what I perceive to be the most unethical, immoral and frankly, deranged, treatment of Emma Woods -- and support those women that support Jacobs simply because I too am a woman. Expecting all women to blindly support each other's veiws on the UFO phenomena -- that's not solidarity, that's fascism.

Interesting Jacobs talks about his early research as as student:

"I was actually working on a dissertation on the image of women in very early film history, pre-1915. That was my target date.I had done about six months’ worth of research on that but in my feted brain all I did was think about UFOs and the UFO phenomenon."

Now, Jacobs does have valid things to say regarding the utter lack of interest -- outright visicnousness in fact -- from science and acadmia about UFOs. Jacobs has contributed to UFO studies. Regardless of what you think about his theories on abductions, the information presented is not to be dismissed. It is worthy of consideration. The interpretations, that's another issue. And certainly the entire issue of hypnoisis as a valid UFO research tool is another. Much to be dicussed and thought through. Jacobs points about the global UFO phenomena being ignored by those that could "own it" : science, academia, authorities, are good ones.

But what to do, what to do, about Jacobs now? 

Jacobs aside, I like Skeptiko host Alex Tsakiris questions concerning the spiritual side of abductions; human consciousness, telepathy, etc. Jacobs acknowledges those are not his areas, but at the same time, I am frustrated by his resistance to this aspect of abducitons. And here is where Jacobs hubris creeps in. Jacobs contends that Dr. John Mack gave up abduction research because he could not fit the experience into his ideas of consciousness:

Alex Tsakiris:  Yeah, but we have to be careful with that because a lot of people would make the same accusation to you.
Dr. David Jacobs:  No. That they can’t do.
Alex Tsakiris:  They can do it.

Jacobs treatment of Emma Woods aside for the moment, the end of Part 1 of this interview shows us how far off the fringe Jacobs has gone. His opinions stated as fact on hypnosis and "confabulation" are astounding. Jacobs presents himself as the only researcher who knows how to ask the right questions during hypnosis, how and why abduction hypnosis is different than other hypnosis in other contexts, and how downright sneaky the aliens are, which only Jacobs can perceive.

Finally, the blithe manner in which Jacobs admits he leads witnesses and feeds them false information is, again, astounding. It is unethical and truly bizarre. These are tactics Jacobs used on Woods, including the bizzarro world of alien spy vs. spy stuff that, again, should be a huge red flag for  UFO witnesses and researchers.

1918 Occult Film: Mysteries of Myra

Thanks to anomalist scholar Theo Paijmans for his tweet on 1900s Mysteries of Myra, which can be found on YouTube:

Psychic mind control on Coast to Coast

Always a favorite subject here around the Orb; mind control. Tonight's topic on Coast to Coast,  guest Stewart Swerdlow, host Noory.

My new tarot/oracle blog: White Wolf Oracle

The Magician, Black Cats Tarot

After gnashing of teeth and lots of tears born of agonizing frustration, I gave up on trying to create a website for my oracle enterprise. While I have listings on Ebay and Etsy (and those are always iffy, given the conflicting policies of both sites) I still wanted something else. So I just went with a blog. I'm pleased with it so far; lots of work to be done but it's a start:White Wolf Oracle

New Trickster's Realm on Binnall of America

It feels good to be back posting for Tim Binnall at his site! The new site looks fantastic by the way. My new Trickster's Realm: Archons, Sky Fish or Aliens?

Angel Alien Cricket Voices

This is amazing and wonderfully eerie, and for those of us immersed in esoterica and general UFO high strangeness -- that whole giant insect alien thing -- a most definite added dimension and juxtaposition to the realm of intelligent Insectoid overlords. : Expanded Consciousness: Recorded Crickets Slowed Down Sound Like Humans Singing.

Related bit of synchronicity, in a very round about way. Recently I've been thinking of the time, decades ago, when a friend and I dropped acid and went up into the Topanga Canyon hills. At dawn, watching the sun rise, the clouds come in, and I "heard the clouds." My friend insisted she did too. The clouds were signing, angelic voices above us, very much like this. Singing angel clouds. I'm not sure why I've been remembering that day, other than the usual and  general musings on consciousness.

The more I listen to this, the more beautiful I find this, and am stunned as well as aware of Nature as spirit, and the world of Fae, and how the multiple "tracks" (as with the two tracks of cricket songs) of reality there are that we remain unaware of, for the most part.

Post menopause and abductions

As an "experiencer"  abductee (for now I'll call her Ashlyn) recently told me, "The accepted theory is that abductions and visitations lessen, if not outright stop, for women anyway once we're past menopause." As usual with UFOs, not so fast. They haven't stopped for Ashlyn. As for myself, I have never said I'm an "abductee" so I can't speak to that, but, while UFO activity has lessened, I wonder if it isn't so much because of my own intent and work in that area, rather than being in the post (or pre-post, who the hell knows when you're in the realm of hormone hell) menopause phase of life.

Underground Cows

Dreams are fascinating. I find them so, although I realize there are those who don't find dreams interesting. I also know that many don't enjoy reading or hearing about dreams. But in the UFO world, we all know that dreams are another aspect of the UFO realm. Do aliens communicate to us, at times, through our dreams? Do they use dream time to manipulate us? I say yes, most definitely.

So one little snippet of a dream from one of my many recurring dreamscapes/settings had me thinking of UFOs, probably because of the cow imagery. (You know, cows beamed up into the mother ship.) However, the dream (as far as I remember, which isn't much at all) had nothing to do with UFOs. But, intrigued as I am with imagery and  the surreal, the subconscious and the esoteric, and how those all might meet and perform, I found the following bit weird and a bit funny even, in its weirdness:

     Jim and I are in one of my dreamscapes; this one is the slightly ghost-townish neighborhood of asphalt lots, weeds, alleys, run down houses, wide slightly crumbling streets with businesses that just seem tired. Not sure why we're here, but here we are. I think we were looking for someplace and got a little lost, or we have to pass through here to get to wherever. 
     I find that we're in the backyard of my house on Corning St. in L.A. I lived in that house when I was very young. The backyard was weedy and had tall grass and a brick decorative well (I think it was decorative) and then, after the wooden fence, the alley. We go across the alley and some people in the large barn like building the people stop us. We assure them that "I used to live there," pointing to the yard behind me, and that fact makes it okay for us to pass. 
     We're standing around in a huge hanger like barn type interior. No furniture or anything at all, except a few people. The few people are all farmers, and not just farmers, but stereotypes, cartoons of rural farmers. They're dressed in overalls and baseball style caps with John Deere logos, chewing on long stalks of straw and saying things like "Yep, it's a gonna rain, I reckon!" Ridiculous. More ridiculous since this is in the middle of L.A. 
     The only other thing in here with us besides the farmers, are cows and bulls. Tons of cows and bulls. We're all standing around them, the cattle are in the middle. No stalls; the cows and bulls are just free, milling around a bit. 
Suddenly we hear a rumbling and it gets dim. The farmers say "Oh, damn! Looks like they're here, we're going to have to go down!" (Who or what "they" are, no idea.) And the entire barn like hangar room, cows and people, start to do down into the ground. Some kind of mechanism allows the whole building to go down into the ground, to hide, and on the surface, no one would know there was a building there. 
     So down we go, like riding in an elevator. Cows and farmers are calm, though a bit annoyed by the inconvenience. Jim and I however are freaked. 

Now I wrote that this has nothing to do with UFOs, and I'm not suggesting for one moment that the dream does have anything to do with UFOs. But it didn't occur to me until I started typing here into my bloggie dashboard that the house in the dream, on Corning St., was where I had my "Patio Alien" experience. 

Trickster cow dream!

Drawing of Patio Alien on Corning St, L.A. Calif. 1958? by Regan Lee

Fairiechick's Fantasy Book Reader

Fairiechick's Fantasy Book Reader

More Dragonfly; and White Wolf Tarot

I posted the other day about dragonfly synchronicity; today were two more moments. I was going through a long neglected drawer today (setting up my tarot/oracle business, more on that later) and found two pieces of dragonfly jewelry I had completely forgotten about. A little green rhinestone pin, and a bronze and green pendant.

As to my new adventure, I've been gnashing teeth and pulling out hair over trying to set up a Homestead web page. I don't know if I'll keep it, I might go with another site. It's  not published yet; still trying to get everything to work right. It's called White Wolf Tarot -- hopefully I'll get somewhere with it!

Speaking of Dragonfly, I found this card using dragonfly motif from a deck called the Tarot of a Moon Garden. I can't get past the use of dragonflies replacing swords -- the imagery doesn't feel right -- but I don't know anything about the deck and not having seen it in person.

Dragonfly and Dog

Dragonfly has come up a lot in the past few days. I've been seeing people wearing dragonfly jewelry, the name coming up in synchronistic ways: on television, driving or walking by a sign or flyer, and so on.

In two of my many oracle decks there is a Dragonfly card. From the Medicine Cards, an animal oracle.

From the Medicine Cards Animal Oracle Deck

This Dragonfly card is from the Angel Dreams oracle, created by angel expert Doreen Virtue and her daughter Melissa Virtue. This card says: "Transformation, Magic, Illusion."

From Doreen and Melissa Virtue's Angel Dreams oracle

I like the Angel Dreams Interpretation oracle, but was surprised to see a Dragonfly image in the deck. Not sure why; just seemed out of place. While I appreciate dragonflies -- they are certainly lovely to watch -- I don't have a particular affinity for them as an image. Yet that's not what it's all about when it comes to animal messages appearing in one's life. 

Dog has appeared as well. I was thinking, driving up the hill today, about animals in general, including Dragonfly, and then the random ADD thought about tigers, Big Cat sightings in the UK, and how strange it would be to see that on the road. I turn the corner and see a huge dog, beautiful! Very tall, clearly had wolf in him, standing on the corner. He had a collar with tags. He looked so damn intelligent and was looking right at me. Very sweet and he even looked a little lost and scared; worried.  When I came back the same way a few minutes later he was gone. But further down the hill, was another dog; this one had a collar and tags as well. He or she also seemed sad. Resigned. 

There are two dog cards from oracle decks I have; this one from my Druid Animals Oracle:

And this one from the Medicine Cards animal oracle. This card says: "Be loyal to yourself. Be true to others. Bolster your integrity."

I don't know about "bolstering my integrity" or much about the latter card (it's a deck I have issues with; I like the deck in many ways, but go back and forth on matters of cultural appropriation, even though the deck was created by two Native creators.) I prefer the Druid Animal deck both for its art work as well as the Celtic tradition it is based on. Even though I have Native blood I find I have more of a natural connection with my Celtic heritage. 

A lot can be said about Dog as a totem. Dogs are loyal, wolf is a solitary leader and teacher. Dogs guard. Their relationship with humanity goes back a very long way. Friends, co-workers, saviors, guardians. They are also omens; warnings. They can be friendly and loving but also dangerous and unpredictable. Like humans, it all depends on how they've been treated and nurtured.

How to interpret these images? I go with my gut, my intuition. For Dog, I automatically go to my mother, who has been a huge dog lover her whole life. Her health is not good right now and the family situation around that is very very tough right now. As to Dragonfly, I'm not sure, though I like the idea of discarding illusions (maybe that's connected with family after all, come to think of it) but any time synchronistic moments appear in one's life, it's often enough to simply notice that for its own sake.