Wednesday, February 26, 2014

UFO: The Psychosocial Hypothesis


Posted on 24/01/2009 by johnr
From Magonia 15, April 1984
This article was originally presented as a paper at the Anglo-French UFO Conference held in Brighton in February 1984
Over the past few years a growing number of French ufologists have become increasingly doubtful about the existence of UFOs as a genuinely original physical phenomenon. I should like to analyze briefly the origins and limits of this doubt.
The first French ufologist to have said “the emperor has no clothes” was Michel Monnerie, in two hotly debated books.  He was until then a very classical ufologist, and a member of the editorial board of Lumieres dans la Nuit, the leading UFO magazine in France, from which post he was fired after publication of his second book. Monnerie’s reasons for doubting can be summarized in two main arguments:
1. The non-specificity of the residue of unexplained cases – in other words the lack of distinction between explained and unexplained cases: exactly the same patterns and the same characteristics appear in both sets of cases. Indeed, cases with typical UFO effects have been explained: electro-magnetic effects, landing traces, humanoids, effects on animals, physiological effects, etc. I personally have investigated with friends a case which involved two witnesses, a burnt trace in a field and a howling dog – it was the rising moon: The unexplained cases have no unique peculiarities.
2. The continuity between the trivial and the extraordinary: for any phenomenon it is possible to define a set of median, or most probable characteristics (for size, colour, speed, etc.). But all these parameters are distributed about the median, and sometimes the appearance of a phenomenon is very far from the median, because of the inherent variability of the phenomenon, because of had sighting conditions or misrepresentation by the witness. It follows that the further the characteristics are from the median, the less will people be able to recognize the true nature of the phenomenon. For Monnerie, UFOs are situated at the ends of the distribution function, at the ends of a bell-shaped curve. They are thus ‘fringe phenomena’ of a larger set of phenomena, but their peripheral location is not perceived as such because ufologists remove the more central part of the curve, where the less strange phenomena are identified by the witnesses themselves or by the field investigators. Ufologists, Monnnerie says, arbitrarily call the minor misinterpretations ‘false UFOs’ and the major ones ‘true UFOs’, and do not realize that there is a perfect continuity between the two series, and that the difference between them is of degree not of nature.
But by what process does a well-balanced person (even skeptical ufologists accept that psychological cases are rare) interpret an unrecognized phenomenon as a high strangeness UFO? According to Monnerie, when there is a lessening of attention or if the witness becomes anxious, he lives in a sort of daydream. He distorts the observed phenomenon and transposes it through the unconscious influence of a rumor or myth. One of the great myths of our time, Monnerie says, is the extraterrestrial concept, because it is so well suited to our scientific and technological civilization. But it must be emphasized that this type of serious misinterpretation is not pathological, and can happen to anyone. A physical support, a real object which is not identified, is always necessary; it is not a perception without object, it is not a hallucination.
Monnerie’s hypothesis was not exactly welcomed by French ufologists. But now, some years later, the situation has markedly changed. Why? It happened that as time went by an increasing number of allegedly “hard” cases – great “classics” of ufology – have been explained, not by skeptics, but by ufologists themselves. Let’s quote some examples: the well-know Leroy, Kansas, “calfnapping” case of 1897 has been explained by Jerome Clark as a hoax [2]; the famous photograph from Salem, Massachusetts, 1952 has been explained by Hynek as a reflection of lights on a window [3]; the very complex case of San Jose de Valderas, Spain, which involved two allegedly independent photographers and an object left on the ground by the UFO has been explained by Claude Poher and myself as a hoax [4].
There are serious doubts also about the renowned UFO accident case at Ubatuba – it might be an accident indeed, but involving a rocket launched by the Brazilian Army [5]. Almost all of the often quoted sightings by American astronauts have received very mundane explanations, and Hynek himself has admitted it [6]. The complex set of sightings in the north of France on October 3rd, 1954 was in fact caused by the moon (in one of these cases the moon allegedly landed, and later took off!) [7]. As a last example, the intricate French case of Taize in 1972, which had the honour of being published in FSR [8], has recently been explained by Bertrand Meheust as powerful lights around a house on the other side of the valley.
Apart from facts like these, more theoretical studies also reinforced sceptical attitudes. Several authors pointed out the many analogies of UFO sighting details with the occupations, the psychology and the fields of interest of the witnesses involved, or with traditional and classical symbols (9]. Let us also mention Alvin Lawson’s experiments: imaginary abductions induced by hypnosis gave the same details as the allegedly real abductions aboard UFOs (10]; this Is a good example of non-specificity [11].
Above all there was, for French ufologists, Bertrand Meheust’s book [12]. Meheust is not a sceptic, but the many similarities he points out between science fiction and UFOs in fact support the psycho-sociological hypothesis: almost all the UFO patterns were already present in SF novels before the Second World War (shapes, behaviour, types of entity, solid lights, physical effects, etc.). Why then search for an exotic explanation, if human symbolism and inventiveness are quite sufficient?
Firstly, it goes without saying, but goes even better for saying it, that the kind of doubt I am speaking about has absolutely nothing in common with the attitude of the lifelong sceptics
But this new and pervasive form of scepticism has its limits. Firstly, it goes without saying, but goes even better for saying it, that the kind of doubt I am speaking about has absolutely nothing in common with the attitude of the lifelong sceptics. The doubt of some French ufologists is only based on a thorough analysis of the facts and not on prejudice. No-one amongst these new French ufologists has any scientific or philosophical prejudice against the possible existence of extraterrestrial visitors or paranormal phenomena. I am certain that they are ready to reverse their attitudes if the facts require it.
Secondly, I and most of my colleagues continue to believe that there remains a small residue (although much tinier than we believed some years ago) of unexplained sightings (or perhaps we have to say more cautiously “not yet explained sightings”). But if explained and unexplained cases reveal the same patterns, what distinguishes these residual cases? Well, essential characteristics which are external to the phenomenon: number and quality of witnesses, multiple independent witnesses, psychological circumstances that exclude a hoax, or the absence of a suitable support for a misinterpretation.Let’s recognise that the reasons why we consider such and such a case as genuine are often difficult to make explicit: it is more a feeling than clear-cut reasoning. This is not to say that it is pure belief, but it may alas appear as belief to sceptics, for we have no real proof. Statistical evidence, as presented by Jacques Vallee, James McCampbell, or Claude Poher, is no longer valid, because many cases on which they are based have now been explained, and we often lack sufficient information on the remaining ones [13].
As I wrote some years ago [14], our ufological quest is a quest for the non-transmittable: although we may squire a personal conviction, we cannot pass this conviction on to ‘good faith’ sceptics (or at least not to many of them). All cases, even the ‘hardest’ ones, contain elements that legitimate a doubt. For instance, the famous Boianai, New Guinea, sightings appear at first glance to be very ‘hard’: many witnesses, object seen at short distance for some time, with humanoids and many observable details. However, Hynek had to concede that a doubt remained, because the position in the sky, and the time of disappearance of the main UFO fitted the movement of Venus [l5].
This continuing absence of really convincing proof (the problem is the same in parapsychology) is too general in this kind of phenomena to be merely bad luck. To me, it has only two possible explanations: either there is no new physical phenomenon – this is the psycho-sociological hypothesis described above – or we are faced with a phenomenon which deliberately escapes proof, that is, a phenomenon characterised by what my friend Bertrand Meheust called – in English in his French book! – “elusiveness”.
To try and solve this dilemma, I think that one of the most urgent tasks for ufologists is to attempt to determine whether the non-specificity is really total. Are there patterns which would be unique to the unexplained cases? Perhaps some details which do not appear in science fiction may be unique, like some types of physical traces, or sudden disappearances or the fusions and dislocations of UFOs. This is one of the main reasons why French ufologists recently launched the ‘Concreting Operation’, that consists of defining new and more severe credibility criteria for selecting really solid cases. Indeed it appeared that cases which figured high in the usual credibility scoring were nevertheless explainable.These new criteria, which are presently being developed by a small group of French researchers, fall into four categories: criteria concerning the phenomenon characteristics, concerning the sighting conditions, concerning witnesses, and concerning the field investigation.
More generally speaking, ufologists have now to think about the following question: what methods would allow us, on the basis of UF0 sighting reports and without prejudice about the solution, to distinguish phenomena relevant to behavioral sciences from phenomena relevant to physical sciences, and to distinguish, in the two subsets, known from new phenomena?
In any case, there is no reason to despair. I see at least two certainties in the present state of ufology: 
1. Ufologists are unanimous, even the most skeptical, on the fact that most UFO sightings have at their base a real physical stimulus that was genuinely not recognized by the witness. Hoaxes and hallucinations are rare.
2. In any event, UFO reports remain an unresolved problem and testify to the existence of at least one unknown phenomenon. Indeed, even if all the reports were triggered by the misperception of a known phenomenon (this is the minimal hypothesis) the distortion of reality would be so great and so frequent that this particular type of misperception would be in its own right an important new phenomenon, which would deserve a thorough study. This remains true even if there is a physically originated residue, because the numerous serious misrepresentations have to be explained in any case.
Because of this second certainty, ufology would not disappear if there were no new physical phenomenon. A psycho-sociological phenomenon of misinterpreted and distorted perception may be less appealing than an extraterrestrial or parapsychological one, but when it has the extent and persistence of the UFO phenomenon, is nevertheless revolutionary from the standpoint of present theories in the behavioral sciences. This, is clearly emphasized by the near absence of thorough studies of UFOs in the human sciences literature. Apart front Jung’s hook, there are practically no books, PhD theses or scientific journal articles about sociological aspects of UFOs [16]. This absence is quite strange in view of the rich study material UFO reports provide for behavioral sciences. Some sociologists even manage to write whole books on modern myths, of rumors in our society, without any allusion to UFOs! It is as if UFOs were put, as Meheust puts it, into “semantic-brackets”.
The extent and persistence of the UFO phenomenon, is revolutionary from the standpoint of present theories in the behavioral sciences
I think that this profound reluctance stems from the central dogma of the most influential school of thought in present day sociology, namely that man is an essentially rational being, whose behavior is in most cases entirely predictable. The UFO phenomenon is an ideal case to point out the pervasiveness of myths, of irrational behavior, even in our technological society (and to demonstrates the falseness of this dogma) because it is new (so new we can study its origin and development), frequent and perceptive (that is, based on a false perception, contrary to most myths and rumors which are based only on false reasoning and which can he qualified as cognitive). For these reasons it is also ideal for understanding the function that myths fulfill in our society. This is really revolutionary, but perhaps more in a political than a scientific sense, because both capitalist and Marxist theories are based on the assumption that man is rational. Both give a pre-eminent role to economic causes in human behavior, and economic reasons are essentially rational.
Thus we ufologists are in any event revolutionaries! However, let us not exaggerate our power: of course we cannot seriously shake the rationalist or “economistic” dogma of our society, but we may and must be watchers, collecting and preserving as much information as we can, in the hope that sometime in the future mankind will be sufficiently adult to study these data without any prejudice in either direction.
****************************************************************************
“The psychosocial hypothesis builds on the finding that most ufo reports have mundane explanations like celestial objects, airplane lights, balloons, and a host of other misperceived things seen in the sky which suggests the presence of an unusual emotional climate which distorts perceptions and the perceived significance and anomalousness of merely terrestrial stimuli. In the more exotic situation where people claim direct contact with extraterrestrials, the need for a psychosocial approach seems obliged by the presence of at least 70 claims of people meeting Venusians and at least 50 claims of meeting Martians; both worlds now known to be uninhabitable and devoid of any advanced civilization. Hoaxing seems to explain some of these contactees claims, but visionary dreams, hallucinations, and other mental processes are clearly implicated in such myth-based material. By generalization, the other material suggesting the presence of extraterrestrial entities from elsewhere is hypothesized to be explainable by similar means. The observed presence of surreal dream-like activity and imagery or themes based in the cultural environment and historically understood sources reinforces the proposition that the extraterrestrial hypothesis is unnecessary and, by Occam's razor, probably incorrect.”


Monday, February 24, 2014

Jesus Crucifixion- Andrew Basiago, the time-jumper..!

Andrew Basiago - Jesus Crucifixion & Resurrection seen on a screen using Timetravel Technology (Video)
Andrew D Basiago Talks About Jesus Chris (Yeshua Ha-mashiach) Crucifixion & Resurrection being shown on a screen using Timetravel Technology of the real event !!




Saturday, February 22, 2014

Ancient Aliens Myth debunked

Since Mythic ufologists fight for making their ET hypothesis believable, they had a powerful ally in the well known "discovery" of ancient cosmic visitors in the distant past.
A 3 hours documentary film shows in full detail the fallacy of these "evidence" created by fiction-as-fact writers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=j9w-i5oZqaQ

This is a must see for believers and skeptics.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Are UFOs the big problem?


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The show must go on...!give me a break.

CONGRATULATIONS RICHARD DOLAN..!

In a positive reaction, Richard Dolan, told the TRUTH about social inequality, injustice, and the insatiable greed of those few who have so much and the exploited people, which have so little.
Apparently Richard Dolan will follow the steps of that intellectual giant called Noam Chomsky.
Included R.D. video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vf-cUcn5KXc

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

My apologies to Dr. Michael Salla and his lovely wife Angelika.

Some unreliable source told me that Dr. Michael Salla and his wife Angelika were divorced. I WAS WRONG...
This was my original message in facebook
It's true that Angelika divorced Michael?. They were into a good business together, reading dolphins messages for the public and teaching galactic diplomacy..!
This was Michael’s answer.
It is a shame you have to make things up to get attention James Black. Angelika and I are still happily married and working to raise consciousness on a planetary level.
As Soon as possible I apologized.
I am so sorry Michael. Someone told me about your divorce and since the "source" is also a self-proclaimed exopolitician...I am truly happy learn that you both remain happily married. Please give my regards to your lovely wife and to Braco, the Croatian healer. He must be also working to rise consciousness on a planetary level. We are so primitive..! Such a waste of time studying Medicine when Braco can heal his patients just watching them..!

Fwd: dying memes

I am posting here Martin Kottmeyer's answer to my "Death of the ET-UFO meme". This is  mature, rational polemic. 

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Martin Kottmeyer <mkottmeyer@frontier.com>
Date: Wed, Feb 19, 2014 at 1:26 AM
Subject: dying memes
To: "tscolarici@gmail.com" <tscolarici@gmail.com>


    I feel obliged to advise that ufo people who predict a more steady-state model of ufo belief tend to be proven more often correct in the long term.  Rich Reynolds has been predicting the death of ufos since the start of the UFO Iconoclast(s) blog.  Two examples: “Ufology, a pseudo-science surely, will be a dead donkey in 2016…” [April 21, 2006 – “Ten Years Hence….” http://ufocon.blogspot.com/2006_04_16_archive.html ] “…UFOs are themselves dying even as this is being typed. [February 20, 2009 – “UFOs and the Death of God” http://ufocon.blogspot.com/2009_02_15_archive.html ] While Reynolds can spin this post hoc as true in certain senses, a critical individual could show the number of ufo books being put out are basically status quo.  And in certain domains like abduction belief, the number of new claims have clearly not declined since - see “Chart of abduction claims” and “Abduction Mythos Timeline” attached.  A fair percentage of new abduction claims have ‘good ETs’ populating them and channeled ETs can be shown minimally to be not be going away despite 2012 failures.  (I have no chart for them.) Nordic humanoids are also still around in Rosales humanoid catalogue with Orthon, Adamski’s friend, recently seen in Japan!  [Rosales humanoid catalog 2010; case #12]
     Maybe it is hazardous to point this out, but such rhetoric metaphorically mirrors the ‘aliens from a dying world’ meme which has been around for decades and also shows no signs of disappearing, perhaps for psychological reasons.  I accept the general thesis that science is continually voiding ETH arguments – chapter 11 in Chalker’s Hair of the Alien gives a good critical survey and Dr. Tyler Kokjohn’s dissection of abductioneers like Kathleen Marden [http://centerforbadideas.com/ ], but herds survive occasional predation.



--
entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem,
"Occam's Razor"
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/criticalufology
http://ufoculture.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

UFO researchers and the big taboo.



There are indeed honest UFO researchers. Some of them tell the public the truth: Investigative journalist Leslie Keen, author of the 2011 book “UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go on the Record,” has noted that  in roughly 90 to 95 percent of UFO sightings, observers turn out actually to have seen weather balloons, ball lightning, flares, aircraft, and other mundane phenomena. 
It's generally accepted that 95 percent of all sightings are easily dismissed. Some turn out to be conventional aircraft, others are satellites or weather balloons -- and then there are the hoaxers with Photo shopped concoctions.
Kevin Randle confirms that the conventional wisdom is that there are very few hoaxes in the UFO field. Researchers suggest that 90 to 95 percent of all UFO sightings can be explained in the mundane as simple misidentifications of natural phenomena, misidentifications of aircraft or balloons, or as normal things seen under abnormal conditions. Of that 90 or 95 percent, some, maybe two percent are hoaxes, according to the researchers.
The public's fascination with UFOs is a modern expression of an age-old enchantment with remarkable events in the skies, notes Albert Harrison, professor emeritus of psychology at the University of California–Davis and author of the 2007 book Starstruck: Cosmic Visions in Science, Religion, and Folklore.
For the UFO industry, that 95 % of natural phenomena are taboo for several reasons. First it makes less credible the conspiracy theory that relies in the argument that the government and the Army are worried about the “massive” UFO presence. What we truly have a massive misidentification, so it’s perfectly possible that the remaining 5 % in no way represents a problem for the powers that be.
However, professional story-tellers waste time (and book buyer’s money) with fallacies, faked sources, impossible conjectures and obvious nonsense. What we have is not a massive presence of UFO, but a colossal mass of fiction sold as fact.
Besides if it’s true that there is a cover up of the UFO “truth”, why the world intelligence agencies don’t care about what ufologist say?
The answer is simple: they don’t care because UFO are a psycho-social phenomenon, and second because they see with “sympathy” the inconsequential ET-UFO-Conspiracy rhetoric which is the real cover-up of many big problems that have nothing to do with Unidentified Flying Objects.



Monday, February 17, 2014

The death of the ET-UFO meme.

A meme is "an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture." A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena. Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes in that they self-replicate, mutate and respond to selective pressures.
We will show that the Extraterrestrial-UFO meme is losing strength because of the lack of evidences and   irrational and contradictory rhetoric of the self-proclaimed experts in Ufology.
The original meme relied in the classical narrative of the good extraterrestrials visiting our planet with the purpose of saving us, humans, from self-destruction.  
In the 50’s and 60’s most of the UFO books relied on this paradigm, promising that the open and public contact between these cosmic saviors would take place very soon.
However, this hypothesis led to a series of books describing imaginary contacts and messages given by these invisible visitors to selected humans, and the original perspective lost strength. The UFO-ET publishing industry was born and the competence between “experts” and “contactees” for the market brought new ideas and massive nonsense and fiction was sold as fact.
The original good aliens sometimes were bad, and obviously the experts created the idea that there were several ET civilizations, some good and some evil. Some contemporary ufologists talk about hundreds of different alien races with contradictory agendas, and since the visitors remained invisible for the public, the conspiracy theory of a big cover up created to keep the secret of the ET presence.
The “men in black” mythology and the presumed abductions of humans sold books and created new characters for this theater of the absurd.
Now, some writers and lecturers suggested that perhaps the ETs were not ETs at all but extra dimensional entities, gnomes, ascended masters, time travelers or evil psychic entities like the archons.
 Biblical readings gave us also demons, angels and other imaginary intelligences. At the same time, the computer technology produced hoaxes and faked aliens.
Different ufologists contradicted themselves and became psy-ops for the competence while new books were written with lots of copy & paste and nothing new to say.
Demands of disclosure  were signed by people who didn’t have any concrete idea about what governments knew of didn’t knew and this chaos  was nourished by the irrational references to  faked sources, invented whistle-blowers, non-existent scientists and imaginary insiders. There was however one basic taboo: the fact that 95 % of all the UFO sightings were produced by natural phenomena or manmade artifacts.
The original good ET meme is dead. Some new ufologists talk about the “others”, and all of them have one thing in common. They cannot show a single shred of evidence to prove what they say and write.
By the way, superstition is defined as a belief or notion, not based on reason or knowledge, in or of the ominous significance of a particular thing, circumstance, occurrence, proceeding, or the like.



  


A truly DANGEROUS business.

From a UFO "experts" conference.

We are told an absurd tale by Kathleen Marden (Stanton Freedman's collaborator on Captured, the Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience) about a woman, who was previously unable to conceive, who became pregnant after asking the ETs to help her. She was taken on board one of their craft and show a sort of library of foetuses in jars. A Grey indicated one and said "this one looks about right". A few days later she found out she was pregnant. The child subsequently born, we are told, "looked pretty normal, but had some physical characteristics that were different from the physical characteristics of his family". Hmmm. Well, there may be other explanations.

Richard Dolan's response to this gives more cause for concern. He's heard stories about women having their fetuses taken from them, and he's worried that they may end up being similarly 'adopted'. He then come up with this outrageous suggestion:

"If someone is adopted, and his or her mother or father worked in a military situation at the time the person should really think very long ... I think there's a type of collaboration happening among human and non-human groups. I don't know who is behind this, but there are women who become pregnant, they lose the baby. And I know of at least one case at least explicitly in which the baby was raised as an adopted child elsewhere and has all the same characteristics. These children have gifts. How do I put this? They are monitored their whole lives."

Can no-one in MUFON, and the wider US UFO community see how outrageous and dangerous this is? Much of this line of thought started with David Jacobs' The Threat, and was greatly expanded in Budd Hopkins' later books. Those writers, and the contributors to this conference discussion, seem to be building up a modern Malleus Malificorum, a witchfinder's manual. So far the atmosphere of fear and hostility they are creating is confined to a fairly small element of society, most of whom, when it comes down to it, probably don't really believe it anyway. But if this were to start becoming more mainstream, there are certainly large numbers of vulnerable people who could be targeted for their perceived 'differences' from us 100% humans. The disabled and 'different' are subjected to enough hostility and harassment already without being accused of being an alien fifth column. READ MORE





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Sunday, February 16, 2014

After Disclosure A.D.

http://pelicanist.blogspot.com/2012/06/disclosure.html

Richard M. Dolan and Bryce Zabel. A.D. After Disclosure. New Page Books, 2012.

The authors make it plain that the nature of this book is speculative, but they assert that their speculations are informed by "solid research". They also state: "It is not hard to see why the world's top power brokers would want to conceal the reality of something as monumental as UFOs." They thus constantly emphasize the claim often made and stoutly defended by Stanton Friedman that it is perfectly possible for there to be a world-wide conspiracy of powerful people, which they refer to as "The Breakaway Group", who can keep the proof of UFO reality secret indefinitely. They even repeat the old argument that the development of the atomic bomb (the Manhattan Project) was successfully kept secret for as long as was necessary, but they of course fail to mention that those in charge had control of the project, whereas UFOs can appear anywhere, at any time, unpredictably.READ MORE


Saturday, February 15, 2014

The "curse" of Philip Klass and my own perspective.

Before he died, the UFO skeptic Philip Klass actually included a “curse” in his Last Will and Testament that was related to the drive to solve the UFO mystery. In his Will drawn in 1983, Klass included a bequeathal to UFO researchers:

“No matter how long you live, you will never know any more about UFOs than you know today. You will never know any more about what UFOs really are, or where they come from. You will never know any more about what the U.S. Government really knows about UFOs than you know today. As you lie on your own death-bed you will be as mystified about UFOs as you are today. And you will remember this curse.”

Certainly this is not a denial of the UFO phenomenon but a recognition of its existence and insolubility.
It is perfectly possible that this insolubility of UFO phenomenon is not a temporary circumstance but the substantial meaning.
In his “curse” Klass however suggests that perhaps the government knows more than us about UFOs .
On the contrary, after 4 decades of personal research, I am convinced that this is not so. The real cover up is precisely this ignorance. Those in power want us to believe that they know something but that is not so.

Disclosure can be synthesized in three words: NOBODY KNOWS NOTHING. The alternative is the Psychosocial Hypothesis. We are the conscious and unconscious creators of the UFO phenomenon.  Our fear, our anxiety and our hopes are the UFO builders. 

The imaginary ufologist short story.

Please, imagine a young, well-informed and educated person which in some moment makes contact with the UFO subculture. He or she reads every book available, and becomes convinced that there is something here, something that deserves research.
After some time, this imaginary protagonist of our story finds also that he knows enough and also has some personal ideas on the subject and side issues such as the paranormal and alternative science.
He writes a book and the book sells, and some people come to his first lecture about UFOs, cover-up, shadow governments and conspiracies.
Without wasting time, she or he begins a new book and after some time our friend becomes a professional. The initial curiosity has become a more or less lucrative profession and indeed it is a business that demands time and effort. Of course there is competition and the market has its laws. The professional after some marketing, learns more about what sells and what doesn't.
She or he also learns the tricks of the trade. Conspiracy theory solves the lack of evidences and anonymous informants, imaginary insiders and mysterious sources will help a lot.
However, the protagonist of this sad story is a decent human being.
He is an ethical person so, sooner or later our professional ufologist must choose between what he or she believes is true, and what sells.
We are talking about an intelligent man here, so it’s possible that he will see that paranoid ideas about conspiracies, secrets, and non-human entities will reach the minds of some unstable “true-believers” and borderline personalities. This is not good of course.
 Meanwhile the rhetoric concerning UFOs, cover-up, shadow governments and conspiracies becomes nothing more and nothing less than a job.
Precisely at this time, our ufologist and conspiracy theorist will have some ethical problems and even will learn something about Cognitive Dissonance and some mild but persistent guilty feelings.
The solution of course exists, but only he or she can find it inside.




Friday, February 14, 2014

Cognitive Dissonance & Descent into Madness.

Is important to recognize the problem of cognitive dissonance in the UFO subculture, because in the ufological  and “paranormal industry”, we find intelligent individuals whose life becomes a permanent contradiction between their real convictions and public rhetoric.
Cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding two contradictory ideas simultaneously.
The "ideas" or "cognitions" in question may include attitudes and beliefs, and also the awareness of one's behavior. The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance by changing their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors, or by justifying or rationalizing their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.
Cognitive Dissonance usually manifests when a person perceives a logical and perhaps an ethical inconsistency among his or her cognitions.
Let’s imagine that someone is forced to do or say publicly something they privately really don't want to do, dissonance is created between their cognition (I didn't want to do this) and their behavior (I did it).  Forced compliance occurs when an individual performs an action that is inconsistent with his or her beliefs.
Now, this cognitive dissonance will have also a great impact on the social life of the individual affected.
Most probably she or he will became growingly isolated and loose self-esteem.
If the differences between real and proclaimed convictions grow, the situation will eventually become critical.
It is probable that individuals forced to remain in such a cognitive dissonance will “lose their minds.”
Even Insanity is possible for some border line personalities.
I think those cognitive dissonance crises are worse when the inconsistencies and contradictions include ethics.
In addition, cognitive dissonance is particularly critical when the affected individuals live in a familiar context that makes these contradictions more and more obvious.
We should not believe that Cognitive Dissonance is an uncommon phenomenon. On the contrary, the mass of information-disinformation and misinformation makes the C.D. inevitable in many cases.
What should we do about it? We should be aware of the works of our Mind.
A rational approach to the information we receive is a must for those who want to eliminate this uncomfortable feeling or prevent what some researchers call the descent into Madness.”
Obviously things go from bad to worst with professional ufologists. Publishers want books that sell, not books that are true. 
Also, sooner or later, UFO researchers understand that the UFO phenomenon is unsolvable and this make things worse.
The alternative is a secret skepticism, but this is no solution for the cognitive dissonance if the researcher is an ethical individual.  


Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Everything is possible in the UFO subculture.

One of the subcultures characteristics is its very limited space of influence. Subculture is defined as a cultural group within a larger culture, often having beliefs or interests at variance with those of the larger culture.
In the UFO subculture, these limitations are disguised by the leaders of the group and the UFO industry and the UFO paradigm is presented as a problem that attracts the attention of all the society, including the government.
The indifference of the media, the government and the scientific establishment is presented as a complex conspiracy of silence.
But since 95 % of all the UFO sightings are identified as natural phenomena and man-made artifacts; this statistic is taboo for the believers and for the self-proclaimed experts.
In the limited environment of the UFO subculture, anything can be proclaimed without recognizing the need of clear and reliable evidences.
Between professional ufologists and believers anything goes. Fantasies, misinformation, lies and fictions are the rule of the law inside the rarified atmosphere of the subculture and even the contradictions between different UFO-ET mythologies are not recognized as clear evidence of ignorance and personal fictions presented as facts.
A mythological ufologist can talk about thousands of UFO sightings as evidence, without mentioning that 95 % of these sightings are planets, balloons, meteorites, hoaxes and aircraft.
That’s why is possible in Richard Dolan’s mythology to imply that the so called Security State is a consequence of the UFO presence and the need of a giant cover-up  to keep the tremendous secret.
That’s why the invasion of Iraq was motivated by some Stargate (sic) in the southern part of that country.
That’s why Alfred Webre tells us that a council of Extraterrestrial civilizations keeps our Earth in quarantine, isolating us from the civilized galactic community, and Andy Basiago tells us about his time-jumps and his meeting in Mars with the man who is now president of the United States

Anything goes when the show must go on.


Friday, February 7, 2014

Debunking or watching the show ?


Debunking requires some credulity and a lot of seriousness. The classical debunker thinks that the debunked believes in what he says, but this is not so. On the contrary, the “public figures” of Ufology and Exopolitics are intelligent enough to understand, after becoming professionals that the whole thing belongs to the industry of entertainment, and in the show business, the best show attracts more people (and money.)
In other words they sell a product regardless of their beliefs. The difference between fiction and fact is secondary for the market, and a book sells if it’s written following the public preferences.
The following comments about Richard Dolan, UFO historian and “dark journalist;” show the difference between debunking and watching the show.

Above Top Secret
“Richard Dolan is a Smart guy who believes stupid things without evidence.
Does the same mental and cognitive gymnastics other believers do.
Has some notoriety now because of some books, TV appearances on SciFi Channel, and now his own radio program.
So now that he's economically invested in the nonsense he will defend his cash cow and discount any disconfirming evidence as part of a conspiracy.”
Paul Kimball
“The key, however, is to make sure your speculation is grounded in evidence – that you can offer something to back it up beyond just saying “well, it could have happened.” A historian might not be able to prove something beyond a reasonable doubt, but he should be able to show that it was more likely than not that a certain thing happened.
With this in mind, an objective read of UFOs and the National Security State, on which Dolan’s reputation in the UFO field as a serious researcher is largely based, shows it to be nothing more than conspiracy theory masquerading as a serious historical study.”
UFOculture
“The Washington Post article makes Richard Dolan mad. He loses his nice guy image and writes: “This article is another shameful and absurd attempt by the Washington Post to debunk something that the publication has never, ever bothered to do the slightest bit of real investigation about.”
Of course, this is pure, unadulterated nonsense. Either Dolan doesn’t read the commentary, or he is blinded by his resentment.”
Reddit
“I saw two of his books (National Security State series) listed as recommended reading recently in a thread here, and I thought, before reading his book, that he was a reasonable and well-regarded researcher in the UFO field. I have read through some of his book, and it's fraught with delusional conspiracies about Freemasons and Trilateralists. He also cites dubious sources like Jim Marrs (who himself doesn't source any of his claims. I've read one of his books--absolute crock).
Am I right to think that Dolan is unreliable? I can't see how someone can plan out a historical overview of the phenomenon if a lot of what he supplies are unverifiable anecdotes and questionable inclusions of transnational banking conspiracies.”
UFOwatchdog
“The problem is that Richard Dolan appears to take all evidence at face value. He will quote Morris K. Jessup on an equal basis with Jacques Vallee. He will talk of Gray Barker on the same level as J. Allen Hynek. He puts Philip Corso at the same level as Jerome Clark. In other words, he does not seem to discriminate between sources. He considers them all valid. Rather than sifting through vast amounts of disinformation for the Truth, it’s more like he’s amassing a mound of evidence without regard to its veracity or corroboration. He doesn’t even allude to the possibility that there might be some problems with some of this evidence. The clowns are thrown in with the professors.
Dolan also comes to some dubious conclusions. It’s quite clear he believes James Forrestal was killed for his knowledge that he might spill the beans. And what about Ruppelt’s early death? No one dies of a heart attack at age 37. Hmmm. And James McDonald. Did he commit suicide, really, or was he murdered because he was getting too close to the secrets? This stuff is not corroborated at all. His standards of proof are way too low. This would not be allowed in academia. You wouldn’t be able to get away with this and be considered seriously.”
Magonia
“I think it's important to remind everyone that Dolan's scholarship is not competently questioned _anywhere_ and it is largely uncontested, moreover... ...Excepted, that is to say, by a few more concerned with the disruption of their personal paradigms than chips falling where they may.
I disagree. Anyone who reads his book UFOs and the National Security State carefully will find that a lot of what he has written is anything but scholarly, especially his reliance on single, unreliable sources and his giving credence to wacko conspiracy theories. For more detailed criticism, read my review, which I wrote shortly after the book was published and is available here.
If Dolan has written any scholarly works, this book is not one of them. It is an example of a book written to provide entertainment rather than reliable information.”



Thursday, February 6, 2014

The improvised prophets are wrong as usual.


My comments in bold, italic.


“Humanity, Mother Earth, and this Universe are raising its frequencies into the higher dimensions. Some are calling it a spiritual transformation or a planetary ascension because the entire human race would be affected by the new energies coming to mother earth and changing within the human DNA.

Humanity is about to jump thousands, if not millions, of years into the future this coming year in terms of spiritual and technological progress. I am truly convinced that the following events to take place this year in 2012, will be the greatest show in the Universe. “

I wrote before that the improvised prophets are always wrong. You can see this above. However, after their failure, after being refuted by the NNS, Nothing Happens Syndrome, they change the year.

“Updated  2013 - Removed Dates as realization that Sources and Whistleblowers and many others don't truly know the timing of events.  All this information comes from research from multiple sources listed at the bottom of page.”

They were wrong again of course. The Universe doesn’t play games. We are now in 2014, and from their predictions we can have a good idea of the value of all these “sources” and “whistleblowers.”

There is no Ascension, and Mother Earth environment is destroyed by corporate capitalism. We, humans are living our lives in the same old dimension.
See my own “prophesies for 2014” please. Thanks.
Be all happy and well.



Tuesday, February 4, 2014

The astrologer Eli Sadhanusari about Human-Alien bases in Mars

Andrew Basiago declared that the US government has a full base operation on Mars including aliens and humans. Is this true?
The first house is in Libra, and significators are Venus and Mars present in this house.
The first stricture is the Early ascendant at 1 degree, 3 minutes of Libra, and when the Ascendant is at less than 3 degrees of its sign, the question is premature. Perhaps there will be alien-human bases in Mars in the future but not now.
The second stricture is the Moon Void of Curse, and when void of course she doesn’t complete any major aspects before leaving its current sign. Moon here is 25 degrees 58 minutes of Aries. A Void of Curse Moon can sometimes perform in Cancer, Taurus, Sagittarius or Pisces, but this is not the case in this chart. A Void Moon tells us that nothing happens. The question is meaningless.
Secrets of any kind are ruled by the 12 house; here with cusp in Virgo, therefore, Mercury signifies the question, the quesited matter.
Venus, ruler of Libra, can be found peregrine in Capricorn on the 4th house. A peregrine planet has little influence, if any, in horary astrology.
Mercury, ruler of the 12 house of secrets is also peregrine, so we have the two primary significators weak and devoid of influence. Besides, there are no aspects between Mercury and Venus.
Mercury conjuncts Neptune and this conjunction imply rumors, alienation and obsession.  This conjunction is frequent in illusionists, deceivers and impersonators.
So, the answer is NO. This question is meaningless. Nothing happens. There are no human- alien bases in Mars.The whole thing is a fantasy.

 Eli Sadhanusari




Saturday, February 1, 2014

Sadhanusari and the presumed Human-ET alliance

This is an important contribution from Eli Sadhanusari

Some UFO researchers suggest that there is some kind of alliance or agreement between terrestrial government(s) and non-human entities. The question is this alliance exists or not.
The complexity of this question requires a careful analysis of those astrological houses, luminaries and planets involved in the Horary Astrological chart.
The Ascendant of the first house which represents the querent is at 8 Degrees 35 minutes of Virgo, and Mercury is the Ruler of this sign particularly at Night.
Alliances and pacts are matters that fall under the rulership of the 7th house, whose cusp is 8 degrees and 35 minutes of Pisces, ruled by Jupiter. This planet retrograde and in is in his exaltation in Cancer, zodiacal signed ruled by the Moon, which even if it is  void of course, applies to a very close conjunction with the first house ruler Mercury conjunct Neptune in Pisces.  
And here we have a surprise, (not a nice one,) because Moon, Mercury, Sun and Neptune are in the Sixth House of dependence, servitude, submission and in old times, slavery.
Mercury in this bad six house, conjuncts Neptune and this conjunction talks about rumors, treachery, psychic powers used for negative purposes and abdication. Also, Neptune rules places of confinement and mass delusions. 
Now, Neptune is conjunct the Fixed Star Fomalhaut and this conjunction means “many secret enemies, connected with secret affairs or government work, occult interests.”
What is this chart “telling me?” If I understand all this well, the answer is NO, there is no alliance, because alliance means agreement.
The traditional astrologer has the right to deny some readings. I am reading a negative answer and also am convinced that the stars are telling me too much. Sorry about this. After all, the Void of Course Moon is a stricture.



Ufology, Exopolitics, Conspiracies, Paranoia, Memes, Hoaxes, 2012, UFO, Aliens, Disinformation, Cultism, Brainwashing, Rational Thinking, ET, Xenopolitics, Contactees, Abductions, Disclosure.
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