Random Bits . . .

Torchwood Quotes
I love the BBC program Torchwood. I hear they're coming back for a third season, but in a limited way, a mini-series of five episodes. I hope not. But I'll take it. Here are some quotes from the show:

Gwen: The thing is I just don't understand—
Jack: I'll tell you what I don't understand. You're going to rattle on with that "How can this be true?" kind of shtick. What's it going to take for you people. If you want evidence of aliens, how about that great big spaceship hovering over London on Christmas day? What about the battle of Canary Wharf. A Cyberman in every home.
Gwen: My boyfriend says it's like a sort of terrorism. They put drugs in the water supplies. Psychotropic drugs. Causing mass hallucinations.
Jack: Yeah well, your boyfriend is stupid.

Jack: Alright, usual formation.
Gwen: What's the usual formation?
Owen: Varies.
Gwen: How can the usual formation vary?

Jack: No other race in the universe goes camping, Owen. Celebrate your uniqueness.

Captain Jack Harkness: Contraceptives in the rain. I love this planet. Still at least I won't get pregnant. I'm not doing that again.

I Believe in Aliens
I have a little item on my Snarly Skepticism blog about my "belief" in aliens and UFOs.

Jeremy Vaeni and Culture of Contact
It's that time again, Vaeni's been working hard at getting it together. Buy his book and DVD by the way. Why am I plugging his stuff? Why not? We're all in this together. So, buy something, visit his site, buy a ticket. After all, as he says, he doesn't want to put a Donate button on his site. It's so tacky and needy after all.


New Blog Link Feature

I love bloggers new link feature that updates links to other blogs. I don't have it set up on all my blogs but I do on Vintage UFO and The UFO Proletariat. It gets kind of clunky if you have too many but overall, I like it.


Off For The Summer!
So I'll be writing a lot. Finally off since yesterday until September. Our school goes two weeks beyond the usual, so we didn't finish until yesterday. Now back to writing, writing writing. I hope to put something up at Lulu.com in a week or two; probably about the Trent and McMinnville event.

Mystical UFO Experiences

A bit on the mystical side of UFO experiences, as well as insectoids and drug induced journeys on UFO Proletariat.

Appartions and UFOs and Control

The news that the Vatican will be, for the first time, officially investigating the apparitions at Medjugorje inspired this week's Trickster's Realm column for Binnall of America. It should be up sometime tomorrow, so look for it there.

Also be sure, as always, to read all the great columns, and listen -- for free! -- the podcasts Tim does with some amazing guests.

As to my article, on apparitions and UFOs, a book can be written on all the aspects. In fact, there have been several written! I just touch the surface of one . . .

Quote of the Day

The Regan Lees, Frank Warrens, Don Ledgers, Moulton Howes, Steven Greers, Chris Rutkowskis, et al. are the UFO proletariat; they don’t count or matter. ~ UFO Provocateur(s)

Heh. Hey, I made it first on the list! Hooray for me.

Proletariat: pro·le·tar·i·at (prl-târ-t)
n.
1.
a. The class of industrial wage earners who, possessing neither capital nor production means, must earn their living by selling their labor.
b. The poorest class of working people.
2. The propertyless class of ancient Rome, constituting the lowest class of citizens.


All their other nonsense aside, they sure are a snooty bunch, aren't they?

The UFO Potluck

Okay, so it's a rant. What are blogs for?

The study of UFOs is not cohesive. There is no UFO Guild, no UFOLogy, no set standards -- scientific or otherwise -- and this, complain the skeptics, as well as a good chunk of those within UFO research -- think is wrong.

There has to be rules, standards, approved researchers with credentials, science, labels, rulers, overseers! There has to be someone who stands guard and kicks out the gaudy, the kooks, the Contactees, the over the top abductees, the New Age types, the channelers!

No, there doesn’t. Not one bit. Not at all. Not one damn bit!

The UFO phenomena is full of people. Well, people, aliens, and flying saucers. People who have stories to tell of their experiences, which both vary wildly and share eerie similarities. People come forward and share their encounters with strange beings, unexplained happenings, and unusual craft. We’re all trying to figure it out in our own way. Everyone needs to get this: there is no right way to go about this stuff.

A lot to sift through, a lot to think about. Depending on who we are and our own experiences, we accept or reject the stories of others for what amounts to, in the end, arbitrary reasons. This is valid; it’s not wrong to do so. We’re all human, and we’re all dealing with something we know very little about. So how can we possibly dare to say UFOs are such and such? We have no idea.

If the Contactees strike you as ridiculous attention seeking kooks, you’re entitled. Ignore them and move on. If stories of Reptilians from outer space coming to our planet to make torrid lizard love with earth women have you laughing so hard you wet your pants, okay. Move on.

Some of us find value in these stories. And if that makes you crazy too, it’s not my problem. Move on.

But it’s the people that carry the stories of these encounters, and we need to listen to them out of respect. Oh, I know, both the arch skeptic and many UFO students (for we’re all students) will say that some wack jobs aren’t worth respect. We can only say that after we’ve given them our attention, thought about what they have to say, then move on. If we decide they’re lairs, nuts, or simply disagree, fine.

Some are in need, some are deluded, -- it’s part of the package. Most are not. Most are average people with definitely not your average kinds of experiences and the brave ones share them with the rest of us.

All perspectives are welcome (well, except for the usual gang of pathological irrationalist skeptibunkies. . .) and that includes science. Sure, they can play too. But “UFOlogy” --- such as it is, and, we should ask, should it even be? ---- isn’t exclusive to science. Science doesn’t own UFOs, nor does any other discipline. (If anything, it’s the spiritual/folklore/historical/sacred mythology systems that have a better claim.)

The UFO Phenomena is a grass roots phenomena. It’s truly of the folk, and if the smug, the self righteous, the smarmy, want to fling their weight around in self important proclamations that such people are nothing more than trailer trash, or ignorant, or drunks, or unscientific, or uneducated, or not versed in this discipline, or that . . . let ‘em. They’re wrong, but we can’t stop them. They’re wrong because their classism, elitism, sexism, ageism, even at times racism, and all other “isms” are a form of bigotry that excludes a huge number of individuals with UFO experiences.

We need data. We need all of it. We need the documents, the paper trials, the historical perspective. We need the stories. We need people who know all kinds of things, from science to Trickster tales to pop culture punditry. We need it all, which means we can’t exclude those we don’t like or think are wrong.

The UFO Playground isn’t just yours, or mine, or for those that want an exclusive and controlled venue for their agendas. It’s for all of us.

What are people afraid of? We can think for ourselves. Let the people make up their own minds. Put the stories out there about Bigfoot and UFOs, UADS and aliens, hybrid babies, the Contactees, and all the rest. We can take it.

The argument that these things only muddles things is nonsense. We don’t know what we’re looking at in the first place; how can we be so pompous as to say certain genres under the UFO umbrella are unimportant or silly, while others aren’t? Who decides that?

Complaints that science doesn’t take UFOs seriously, that UFOlogy needs to .. . whatever one thinks it needs to do, (and that there’s a “UFOLogy” to begin with), that the mainstream media makes fun of and ignores UFOs,are wasted. It will always be so, most likely, so move on. Study what you want to, talk about the stories that interest you.



Go to the people, go to the thing itself -- UFOs -- go to yourselves. Yes, that last bit was kind of New Agey, but I’m kind of New Agey. It’s who I am. I don’t like it either some days, but there you go.

The biggest mistake those who are into UFOs can make is to insist on some kind of controlling faction that decides content, approves information, bestows rights upon individuals to speak.

If we really care about the UFO phenomena, we need to recognize we’re all in this together. So-called UFOlogy isn’t a private club. It’s an open pot luck, and some of the attendees may be embarrassing, like some relatives you see only once a year, but you can’t really kick them out. You don't have to ask them to dance; just ignore them if you must. But you aren't allowed to kick them out.

Orb News

Which isn't much.

Busy as usual with work and projects unrelated to UFOs and the esoteric. (I realize that for some Orb readers, that comes as a shock -- the idea I actually have a life outside of wasting time on UFOs.)

As a couple of recent posts here have shown, there's heavy chemtrail activity in Eugene. Today there isn't any. . . as far as June weather goes, it's more muggy than anything. Yesterday was what we call "spaceship" weather. Heavy, muggy, humid, -- like the sky is waiting and watching, and you can feel it. So we call it spaceship weather, because it seems like the perfect setting for the ten mile wide mother ships to come through and land.

I have a couple of things on Mating Hedgehogs about the Anonymous movement and Scientology. Besides the zeolotry exhibited by these people, it also strikes me as ironic in many ways.

Lesley has some interesting reflections on Sexism in Esoterica on Women Of Esoterica.

I like what's happening over at the UFO Magazine site and blog. Lots of good and interesting postings over there.

My blog Vintage U.F.O. has a new look. I changed the black.

chemtrails 6/8/07

Here's a video from someone who lives in Eugene, Oregon (same town I'm in) who shot trails being made on June 8th.

Photographer Documents 189 Secret Spy Satelittes

Very interesting. . . his photographs are currently on exhibit in California. For story and images go here.

http://www.wired.com/culture/art/news/2008/06/
secret_satellites?npu=1&mbid=yhp

Today's Chemtrail Synchronicity:It's a Bit Eerie

It's June. Summer, school's out, warm-hot days, etc. But things are askew here in Eugene, Oregon. The school I work for, a public school, is on an alternative schedule; we don't get out until July 1, and the days here this June have been cold, rainy, strange indeed. The past few days however have been June like: hot. And all under a chemtrail laden sky.

Today and yesterday were particularly bad; tons of chemtrails in the skies. And not just straight ones, but criss crosses, loops, half circles. And a huge "chembow" around the sun today at about 1:00 pm. Yesterday gave us a sky fulll of trails, and patches of iridescent oily patches.

We've seen the chem bows before, and we've seen the oily rainbow bits as well. Not too often, but there.

Today the trails came out early, squashing hope of a blue sky, as the morning promised. Soon the sky was littered with the trails. And by 4:00 pm the sky had gone from blue and sunny with a few clouds, to a glazed milky haze that covered the sky, going from hot to muggy.

TALKIN' 'BOUT CHEMTRAILS
At work, outside, and three of us (and another adult nearby but out of ear shot, I assume. . .) discussing all the weird stuff up there, particularly the chembow. Someone thought it was because "it's the first day of summer." They hadn't heard of chemtrails; both asked me what I meant when I said that. I just told them to Google it. At least they looked up, and had noticed the weirdness, and even commented on the weirdness. One person said they don't look up much, and that anything could be going on up there, they don't think about it. I'm paraphrasing but that was the sense of it.

(With these kinds of perceptions and responses to what's right above us, it's not surprising the government can blithely get away spraying that stuff right over our heads.)

STRANGE E-MAIL
So I go inside, on break, check my e-mail. And find an e-mail from someone who said they read one of my "blog postings" about chemtrails They also live in Eugene, and commented on the chemtrails, including the chembow. Indeed, he or she called it a chembow.

What's even stranger is that the e-mail was sent at the same time (1:00 pm) I was outside with the others, looking at sky, talking about the trails. Pretty eerie!

Reminds me of the stories of people discussing crop circles and then go out to find, later that day, or the next day, a crop circles in the very spot they were discussing, etc.

Well, Good to Know I Guess

Lesley (Debris Field, Beyond the Dial, etc.) always has neat blog quizzes at her place; I stole this one from her.



Created by OnePlusYou

Bright White Synchronicity

I saw an interesting object this afternoon. Outside, about 1:00 pm, cloudless sky. No clouds, no chemtrails. . . nothing. It was slightly breezy, about 75 degrees.

I notice a bright white round object almost still up in the sky. At first I though t it was a balloon. Or maybe a blimp. I watched it; thinking that, as it moved, the shape would be revealed; wings, or an elongated shape, something. Nothing; it stayed round the entire time.

It moved very slowly across the sky. It seemed to curve a bit but was headed in a North to South direction. It was very bright; seemed to be lit from within but really hard to say; it could have been the sun reflecting off it. Although, while possible, it seemed odd it would have looked like that when I first saw it, which was way off.

As I was watching it, I took off my huge solar lens glasses -- the kind that fits over your prescription glasses. With my regular prescription glasses (which are transition lenses) I could barely see the object. With the solar lens glasses on, I the object just popped out; and I could also discern a slight round ring around it in the air; like the object was moving he air around it. Or, could be just an optical illusion.

I sure was surprised when I got home to find this on the Phantoms and Monsters site. (hat tip to Lesley at Debris Field.)

Looking at the video, the object there looks a lot like the one I saw today. It’s hard to see how high up it was, etc. but overall, very similar.

Something was up there all right, and it wasn’t a plane or balloon. Most likely some kind of man made probe, monitoring device, something like that.

The Watercolor Alien Ant

Untitled, watercolor 1979? by James Rich


This painting is a watercolor Jim did many years ago, when we were first together. I remember when he painted it. It's a small watercolor on paper; about 18" by 18". He was going through his old portfolios last night and found it.

I told him it was an "interesting painting" and that it reminded me of an alien; some kind of alien painting. He said he had no idea what was going on when he painted that; what he was thinking or why he painted it. No recollection of the inspiration or what he was trying to do.

He asked me what I meant by "alien painting" I said, well, it immediately, for some reason, just screamed alien and spaceship at me. I have the impression the ant is female, very large, "alien," and is holding something, some sort of tablet. Jim looked at it and said he saw what I meant. I reminded Jim of all the giant insect alien stories; usually praying mantis type creatures, or giant grasshopper type beings some speak about in connection with UFO encounters. After he looked at it he said it reminded him of a female being as well; probably because of the way it's sitting and the long robe or whatever it is it/she is wearing.

It was at that time that Jim and I were experiencing a lot of unusual UFO events, including an episode of missing time. I had my "Geisha Woman Alien" dream during that time frame.

Speaking of alien insectoid beings, in a bit of synchronicity I was listening to George Noory last night on C2C. (By the way, say what you will about him, and I have, he is a goof ball in many ways, but he was defending the medical marijuana use law in California, so good for him) and he and a caller were sharing praying mantis stories. Not in the context of aliens or UFOs however, more mundane than that. And earlier today I read Richard Thomas Room 101 column on Binnall of America, where he writes about Ghosts, Aliens, Yeti and the Late Great Nigel Kneale British "father" of sci fi television and movies. Which inspired me to post something on my blog Frame 352: The Stranger Side of Sasquatch with this image:

I'm deathly, pathologically afraid of insects. I had some chilling experiences as a child -- I won't go there, far too personal and wrapped up in family dysfunction abuse horrors -- but at the same time, I don't like to see people just stomp on insects for no reason. (There was also a weird event in Crescent City, California, involving a Japanese beetle, alcoholic abusers though not to me, hmm, a theme here I see, and I kid you not, a real life scene with "Deliverance" type redneck hillbillies, complete with shotguns and a truck full of pitbulls. But I digress.) (And there was another thing with a bumble bee when I was a kid, and my sister as well, I found out years later, that has to do with missing time and high strangeness.)I'll certainly go out of my way to kill bugs in the house, depending on what kind; wasps, etc. Others I take outside. Well, okay, I try to get Jim to take them outside, but the point is, I don't like killing things if I can help it.

Well, that all took a weird turn, I see. As disjointed as all this might seem, one thing stands out: a conflicting relationship with insects. I like some of them, they're pretty, many are harmless, etc. Others I am fearful of to the point of vomiting. People with encounters with giant insectiod alien beings report both terrifying experiences, as well as ones of learning, wisdom and beauty. Why this contrast? Are our mundane encounters a relfection, on a symbolic level, of these experiences?

Chemtrail Connections

Are chemtrails "spiritual?" Victoria Hardy thinks so. Whatever you think about that, chemtrails exist, and people are astoundingly apathetic. What are chemtrials, and why the apathy?

Chemtrails exist, and this isn’t a piece about proving how they do exist, or debating, debunking, or anything else. They exist. They’re not “just contrails.” Like UFOs, they are. What they are -- and what they’re not -- is the question.

Over the years, as I explore the chemtrail mystery, I’ve come across some odd connections people have made, including myself, about the chemtrails.
Who would have thought to put chemtrails and Forteana together? But that’s exactly what Colin Bennett did in his excellent piece Chemtrails: A Fortean View
A New Look at a Mystery of the Skies :Chemtrails: What's Going On? (January 22 2005. By Colin Bennett)

I wrote a piece about chemtrails and black triangles; suggesting that some of the behaviors of the phenomena, and the mindset of observers as well as skeptics and researchers, are similar.

Victoria Hardy has made another connection, one that I hadn’t considered, in her article on American Chronicle; The Spiritual Nature of Chemtrail Belief. Don’t let the title turn you off; while I don’t agree with Hardy on that one point, which we’ll get to later, she has written a good article on chemtrails, and the apathy surrounding these things literally right above our heads.

When reading the title, I thought “Well, I don’t think UFOs are “spiritual” either (although there’s that element in all paranormal things) and I sure don’t see anything spiritual in chemtrails” but I read on.

Hardy describes the first time she realized something wasn’t right up there in our increasingly milky skies:

As I have stated previously from the first time I noticed a trail being unleashed across the sky my mind shifted into metaphysical thinking and looking back, it felt like I was witnessing a blurring of realities. As I stood in the yard that day, rather stunned, I felt an instinctual grip of fear in my belly and the sure knowledge that what I was witnessing was simply not right. And in the first weeks of my newfound awareness I couldn't´t help but wonder why others were not standing on the streets and pointing out the aberration. And even now, despite the trails showing up on commercials and television shows and despite the myriad of explanations, my mind still refuses to budge from the idea that the writing in the sky is telling us something important, something spiritual.

Exactly! I agree with everything she’s said, except for that last bit about “the sky is telling us something important, something spiritual.” But I am continually astounded at the lack of interest by the majority in what’s right above their heads. (They literally don’t see! Maybe, in some round about way, that is metaphysical.)

But the trails themselves as some kind of spiritual signage, akin to crop circles? I can’t go there.

Hardy however can, and does:

But for me, I believe we are seeing the signs spoken of by the ancient prophets.
Victoria writes that we’ve been taught since birth to trust authorities, not to question; no one would argue with that. I don’t see chemtrails as “signs spoken of by the ancient prophets” however.

Hardy has experienced what I have as well, when I was naive and silly enough to think you could actually have an authentic discussion with skeptics. Like her, I’ve been accused of intentionally panicking people. (Imagine dahlings! Me!):

Over the years I´I've heard chemtrail believers referred to as insane, ignorant or deliberately trying to instill fear in others and many months ago I created a survey attempting to understand the common thread that connects those who feel undeniable concern when witnessing the webs dripping in our skies

Victoria Hardy has done some research into those who “believe” (though I dislike that word when it comes to chemtrails, just as I do when it comes to UFOs) and her results are interesting. I’m not going to reiterate them here; I encourage you to read her article. There’s interesting information like religious beliefs, education, UFO witnesses, etc. but I found this personally interesting:

Many spoke of sadness, depression, fear and shock and several mentioned questioning their sanity because those around them did not seem concerned. A couple reported losing friends after speaking out about the subject.

Hardy asked individuals what they thought the purpose of chemtrails were; many responses, but this was caught my eye:

Several believed that the trails in the sky create a perfect backdrop for holographic imagery and will be used in Project Blue Beam.

That never occurred to me And, it’s not one I believe, although I do believe there has been, and will be, all kinds of things up with Project Blue Beam. I just found it interesting many do think this in relation to chemtrails.

While I don’t personally see the chemtrails as literal signs in the sky in relation to ancient prophecies, I enjoyed reading Hardy’s article, and appreciate her efforts in doing her own small research to add to the data. It’s always encouraging to come across others who look up, and really see what’s there, and actively wonder about what it is they're seeing.

MUFON on Stephenville

I have a new piece up at UFO Digest: MUFON On Stephenville.

Reading Dolan

Jim on the left, Richard Dolan on the right

“What kind of crazy monkey wrench shit is going on here??!!”

Said my spouse, Jim, as he's reading Richard Dolan's UFO's and The National Security State

Jim was familiar with the book,(but hadn't read it, til now) and, as is usual, gets most of his UFO book info from me like this:

Me: (reading something or another) "Holy shit! Jim, listen to this!"
Jim: (as he's painting or watching the game) "Wow, I have to read that book when you're done!"

After our visit to McMinnville for the UFO Fest, Jim settled in to read Dolan's book for the first time. He can't put it down. I love it.