I do not have time to write the post I want to write here. But for me, as an anthropologist, one of the most fascinating topics for me that is an excellent example of the Spooky Paradigm is the relationship between these topics and government officials.
The title of the post refers to a story in The Guardian this morning, concerning declassified documents about Britain's Ministry of Defence and the UFO question.
Now, in America, we're used to seeing documents like this, typically from the 1940s and 1950s (most famously the Estimate of the Situation after Project Sign [note, this is a pdf]). But the MoD documents are from the 1990s, and the proposal for research they detail resulted in the ironically named Condign (not Condon) Report. Some excerpts from the Guardian article
High Strangeness
I Directed "Dan Aykroyd, Unplugged on UFOs" and other UFO films because they are real to me. I am not a believer alone. I am a UFO witness. When you see one of these things, all of the video tape you see in this film is "as it is": truly real. This is the truth to me because I saw a UFO metallic Flying Saucer, with several other witnesses, hovering in the sky above Berkeley, CA, 1967-68 for over twenty minutes. It changed my life. After twenty minutes, the Flying Saucer blinked out and went invisible. My story and experience has been heard by millions of people on the hundreds of radio shows I do. When I learned that Flying Saucers were a world wide phenomena, I engaged myself into the subject. I studied and became and Expert in this field.
The military has been conducting secret tests to find out if British soldiers can be trained to use psychic powers - possibly to locate hidden weapons stores or discover where Osama bin Laden is based.
The Ministry of Defence study, conducted in 2002, involved blindfolding volunteers and asking them to "see" the contents of sealed brown envelopes.
The MoD said the tests, which cost the taxpayer £18,000, found that "remote viewing theories" had little value and the project was abandoned.
The Ministry of Defence study, conducted in 2002, involved blindfolding volunteers and asking them to "see" the contents of sealed brown envelopes.
The MoD said the tests, which cost the taxpayer £18,000, found that "remote viewing theories" had little value and the project was abandoned.
It was about 7:30 Wednesday night when Gehri Rinaldi took time out from her son's 14th birthday party. She went outside to the front porch and lit a cigarette.
That's when she saw the strange lights in the sky. In all directions.
By the time the UFO show was over, Rinaldi and her son, Dalton Mosher, had seen weird, inexplicable sights.
"I saw four of them in a row, and I went, 'wow,'" Rinaldi recalled. "The lights were reddish-orange. I called Dalton out. We looked left and saw two more. And then we saw them going through the trees. That's how low they were."
The family's experience was one of at least four reported Wednesday -- all at about the same time and in the same general area -- to the Somerset County Communications Center.
There might be an explanation in the form of the Vermont Air National Guard.
That's when she saw the strange lights in the sky. In all directions.
By the time the UFO show was over, Rinaldi and her son, Dalton Mosher, had seen weird, inexplicable sights.
"I saw four of them in a row, and I went, 'wow,'" Rinaldi recalled. "The lights were reddish-orange. I called Dalton out. We looked left and saw two more. And then we saw them going through the trees. That's how low they were."
The family's experience was one of at least four reported Wednesday -- all at about the same time and in the same general area -- to the Somerset County Communications Center.
There might be an explanation in the form of the Vermont Air National Guard.
I was watching the National Geographic Channel the other day because the topic was on alien life and SETI. I was curious about how a "scientifically" oriented channel would deal with this slightly outside the mainstream of science topic and if they would even address UFOs.
They did.
And in what has to be among the shortest segments ever broadcast about the Roswell case, they dismissed it in about a minute and a half. They said that some believed that Roswell represented the crash of an alien craft, but the Air Force explained that it was actually a balloon with the then top secret Project Mogul and the drop of anthropomorphic dummies during tests of ejection systems some six to tn years after the completion of Mogul. They made it sound as if this was the final answer and that any thinking person would know it.
The problem as I see it, based on my years of research into the Roswell case is that they ignored evidence because it didn't fit into their preconceived notions of the case. The Air Force said that they had the answer and the Air Force must be right. This was an "appeal to authority" meaning that we should except the answer because an authoritarian organization said it is so.
They did.
And in what has to be among the shortest segments ever broadcast about the Roswell case, they dismissed it in about a minute and a half. They said that some believed that Roswell represented the crash of an alien craft, but the Air Force explained that it was actually a balloon with the then top secret Project Mogul and the drop of anthropomorphic dummies during tests of ejection systems some six to tn years after the completion of Mogul. They made it sound as if this was the final answer and that any thinking person would know it.
The problem as I see it, based on my years of research into the Roswell case is that they ignored evidence because it didn't fit into their preconceived notions of the case. The Air Force said that they had the answer and the Air Force must be right. This was an "appeal to authority" meaning that we should except the answer because an authoritarian organization said it is so.
On Jan. 2, the Chicago Tribune did something extraordinary for a major newspaper: It ran a UFO story on its front page. The newspaper reported that in the late afternoon of Nov. 7, 2006, a gray, egg-shaped object was observed hovering over Gate C17 at Chicago O'Hare International Airport.
The object was unusually low (below the 1,900-foot overcast ), remained visible for several minutes, and was observed by several mechanics and various United Airlines ground personnel. The object eventually disappeared straight up through the overcast by reportedly "punching a hole" through the clouds.
Observer descriptions of the object are remarkably consistent. It had no wings or lights. Its surface appeared metallic but with a soft luster that shone "like a pearl." Several witnesses reported a haze around the bottom of the object akin to heat waves off a hot road. One witness in an airport parking lot said that the object appeared to be spinning counter-clockwise. She also said that a small crowd of fellow observers were pointing up at the object and that several were taking pictures with digital cameras.
The object was unusually low (below the 1,900-foot overcast ), remained visible for several minutes, and was observed by several mechanics and various United Airlines ground personnel. The object eventually disappeared straight up through the overcast by reportedly "punching a hole" through the clouds.
Observer descriptions of the object are remarkably consistent. It had no wings or lights. Its surface appeared metallic but with a soft luster that shone "like a pearl." Several witnesses reported a haze around the bottom of the object akin to heat waves off a hot road. One witness in an airport parking lot said that the object appeared to be spinning counter-clockwise. She also said that a small crowd of fellow observers were pointing up at the object and that several were taking pictures with digital cameras.
Here are some of the most interesting sighting reports that have come my way this past week.
Arizona-01-09-07-Witness was driving east when he saw lights low in the sky. Witness believes that the lights were over Gold Canyon, AZ. The lights were in a straight line, with the far left light coming on and going off. As we know there has been a wave of new sightings over Arizona lately, and this may well be the same phenomena that was captured on video recently.
Arizona-02-09-07-Exactly one month after previous report, a family was walking when again to the east an object was seen. They thought at first it was a fireball, but then it split into two objects, and stopped in mid-air, and split again. Finally, the objects merged into one, and continued until they disappeared.
Arizona-01-09-07-Witness was driving east when he saw lights low in the sky. Witness believes that the lights were over Gold Canyon, AZ. The lights were in a straight line, with the far left light coming on and going off. As we know there has been a wave of new sightings over Arizona lately, and this may well be the same phenomena that was captured on video recently.
Arizona-02-09-07-Exactly one month after previous report, a family was walking when again to the east an object was seen. They thought at first it was a fireball, but then it split into two objects, and stopped in mid-air, and split again. Finally, the objects merged into one, and continued until they disappeared.
One week after Chile's Armed Forces released photos and videos of UFO activity around the country, Chile's mainstream media has once again gone extraterrestrial with various Chupacabra sightings reported throughout the country.
(click here to read Armed Forces UFO story)
Chupacabra - literally translated as goat sucker - is the name for a mythical creature known for sucking the blood out of farm animals throughout Latin America and the southern United States. Many enthusiasts speculate that Chupacabras are aliens - or escaped alien pets - as evidence of the creature is frequently reported in tandem with nearby UFO sightings.
(click here to read Armed Forces UFO story)
Chupacabra - literally translated as goat sucker - is the name for a mythical creature known for sucking the blood out of farm animals throughout Latin America and the southern United States. Many enthusiasts speculate that Chupacabras are aliens - or escaped alien pets - as evidence of the creature is frequently reported in tandem with nearby UFO sightings.
Calls poured in to police and TV stations Feb. 6 after many residents of the metropolitan Phoenix region observed a line of four bright lights near the horizon in the western sky at approximately 8 p.m. Arizona time.
Videotape of the lights was taken and broadcast on local TV news programs shortly after the incident occurred. According to news reports, military officials stated the lights were flares being used as targets during Marine Corps and Air Force pilot training operations nearby.
Videotape of the lights was taken and broadcast on local TV news programs shortly after the incident occurred. According to news reports, military officials stated the lights were flares being used as targets during Marine Corps and Air Force pilot training operations nearby.
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| ©National Ledger |
| The Original Phoenix Lights from March 1997 |
Be the holy! It's been a while since Blather found itself in the middle of a UFO flap. That is, we mean, in the actual *middle* of one, with a spate of UFO sightings in the area of Archway, near to Crouch End in north London, where this particular BlatherGoon resides. The sightings appear to have taken place on February 1st at 5.30pm with the Police recieving a brace of phone calls to report the objects...
Comment: Are we really to believe that "remote viewing project" was abandoned on grounds of little results or value?
What if the reason behind this project wasn't looking for a phantom named "Osama bin Laden" or non-existent "weapons of mass destruction" but to conduct tests of soldier's suitability for mind programming under the veil of "paranormal research"?
The Greenbaum Research
Chemical Hallucinations, Mind Control, and Dr. Jose Delgado
Manchurian Candidate