Continuing on with our in-service education, we have covered the obvious
topics, and some of the not-so-obvious ones we all deal with in paranormal
investigating. Getting back to basics once again, it is a good idea to
define what we are talking about. Webster says:
PARANORMAL–adjective
Of or pertaining to the claimed
occurrence of an event or perception without scientific explanation, as
psychokinesis, extrasensory perception, or other purportedly supernatural
phenomena.
I’m bothering to list the definition here for one reason, no matter what
dictionary you look in, “paranormal” is always linked to purportedly
supernatural origins, without scientific value. Do you agree?
For my part, I tend to disagree. While studies going back to Duke and
Cornell have recently been attacked for lapses in scientific methodology,
most of what was learned in those studies were academic in nature and well
grounded, not fringe science as some claim. So, what is the truth? Well,
as Fox Mulder once proclaimed, “The truth is out there!”
Of course, if I am correct, then why can’t the scientific community
recognize the truth? If what transpired at Duke and Cornell was fiction,
then why did the U.S. Government buy those projects out, taking them from
the hands of the recognized scientific community? I’m far from a
conspiracy fanatic, but the easiest explanation is simply a wholesale
program of disinformation.
Now granted, the paranormal community is a mixed bag, with more than a few
cashews rattling around, but the truth is nevertheless still out there and
there are good researchers who uncover new insights every day, although
you won’t be seeing them anytime soon in Scientific American. Our
community is dysfunctional at best, we spend more time squabbling among
ourselves than in doing the job, but I suspect, that is as it should be;
our first job is to keep ourselves honest!
Sometimes you have to look over your shoulder to see the truth. All too
often we jump to a conclusion about one thing or another without being
truly objective. That is true whether we are looking at claims of fairies
or telephones to the dead. You may “assume” that anyone doing research in
those areas are lost, but until they publish their research and open it up
for further scrutiny, they deserve the same break as someone claiming
subatomic particle transport (I didn’t make that up, last year the U.S.
Government funded millions to study what one can only call a “transporter”
mechanism that is currently being tested to move ONE subatomic particle
the distance of ONE METER!).
I have in mind a case scenario that fits this debate. An individual named
George Adamski, who in the last years of the 1940’s was one of the very
first people to publicly reveal his encounters and experiences relating to
the UFO phenomena. Through his devotion and courage to speak, he
personally became responsible for pioneering the movement towards
establishing greater public awareness and education regarding the
existence of extraterrestrial life. Today, there is even a George Adamski
Center to further his work.
George Adamski supported his experiences with what was then called
“exceptional UFO photographs and color motion picture footage” of UFOs
throughout the world. His documented, witnessed encounters with Humans
from other planets made him one of the most fascinating people of the
twentieth century and lead to a lifetime of dedication to this subject. In
his day Adamski was invited to lecture before royalty, ecclesiastical
leaders, political bodies, military groups and the scientific communities;
he bravely presented his experience and proof before all who would listen.
Today, his official biography sounds more than impressive, and to be
honest, he did have a giant following throughout his life; but in
retrospect, he was basically a nice, soft spoken emigrant with some very
big misconceptions, not to mention delusions of little humanoid men from
space and beautiful women from distant worlds here to save mankind from
itself. He died in the 1960’s after writing several books and producing
several documentaries. He was self taught, and unfortunately had little
talent, either as a writer or film producer, he lived from hand to mouth,
but never backed down from his stories of space travel in an alien “scout
ship,” among his equally big hearted new friends.
Honestly, if you showed this material to a five year old, they would
reject it today. His prose was wooden, at best and there is little rhyme
or reason to his story lines, reading more like free association than
anything else. Our kids today would instantly recognize the absurdity of
what he was claiming, but as I said, millions of people were wrapped in
every word. There is no question he was a likeable human being, but what
he brought to the table only poisoned the UFO well for generations to
come. He was disinformation personified and he did it all without
government involvement.
Adamski was early proof that you don’t need government conspiracy to
convince the public that some “fringe science,” is better left to the Mad
Hatter Club. In fact, one might conjecture that he set the mold for
hundreds of others that followed to the present day. But let’s not close
the book on Mr. Adamski just yet; he at least deserves a post-mortem
glance at how he evolved.
Adamski’s story began with a UFO sighting, plain and simple. How that
evolved into a close encounter and dreams of tag-along space travel is
better left to the psychologists, but that is how things began for poor
George. But before you begin chuckling, consider how others have reacted
to basically sound ideas in the more recent past. Frank Sumption began
with the concept of alien communications when he made the first “Frank’s
Box”. Later Chris Moon adopted the box, calling it his own and claiming
that in his hands it was a telephone to the dead; finally the ASUP, with
the good graces of Sumption and able hands of Ron Ricketts created our own
“Box” for study of all these claims. The Mini-Box phenomenon was born and
put into production by Paranormal Systems, long before any worthwhile
study of the device could be offered. Today, some say that the material
being “heard” is simply nothing more than human matrixing, the ability of
our species to fill in missing information and create meaningful messages
from disconnected sounds; others go further saying that this matrixing is
augmented by transliminality or subliminal substitution, while yet others
say that it is simply noise, pure and simple. But even while the final
verdict is still far away, there is a core group who hang on their little
box of wire and diodes, deciphering every intonation while seeking a
greater source of wisdom; some simply will not make a meaningful decision
without consulting their electronic oracle.
The point is simple, if you think that someone like Adamski was mad, there
have been many others in that same drifting boat out there, but a word of
warning: What is now good theoretical physics was once fringe science and
before than pure science fiction. To be sure, you have to carefully
examine the evidence.
Today, the most obvious misinformation programs are allegedly tied to the
UFO phenomenon, but sometimes recognizing what is real and what is
misinformation requires a hard look at the trees and the forest in which
they grow; this phenomenon is multi-layered. You can begin the dissection
of this frog anywhere you choose.
Let’s start with Bill Burns, of UFO Magazine and his TV show UFO Hunters.
Bill starts out with some simple facts, as did Mr. Adamski; let’s say a
UFO sighting in Texas. Bill comes out with the basic information, so far
so good… then he spins it into a story…. Not so good. Bill wants to sell
magazines and pay his mortgage… good; he is willing to weave into his
tales some misleading information, again, not so well!
UFOs generally fit one of three classifications… conventional aircraft
that has been misidentified… military hardware that defies conventional
classification, thus really a UFO, but not of another world…. Or exactly
as the name suggests, an Unidentified Flying Object which could be
anything from space debris to time machines or alien spacecraft. Bill
simply likes to put a spin on every sighting to keep the mystery going…
and his magazines selling. He is not, as far as I can tell a government
agent paid to disseminate misinformation, but he does a pretty good job of
it anyway.
When looking at Military hardware, the original idea was to simply deny
the existence of anything that some citizen may have seen… when that did
not work, they began disinformation techniques… they no longer lied about
the existence of something, but rather chose to spin a story around the
sighting that was beyond belief… thus the entire episode would be
categorized that way. Enter a whole new industry the diehard conspiracy
investigator who sees everything as disinformation. You may laugh, but
remember the headlines on some of the supermarket tabloids, that claimed
everything from Bush being an alien to Obama being under mind control…
this is disinformation and some people will swear to it. Like good old
Bill from UFO Magazine, the tabloids want to sell papers and there is, as
Barnum once said, “One born every minute,” to buy it and the stories they
weave. You can put out a piece of misleading garbage out there and it will
evolve into something that some people will believe as credible. Adamski,
to Burns, to the Supermarket Tabloids…to the CIA?
I know, that sounds incredible, but if Out of Body experiments at Duke and
Mind Control and Remote Viewing studies from Cornell, both were bought up
lock, stock and pussycat by the CIA, which can you expect? Now you’ve got
it…disinformation! People hate a vacuum… smart people, average people,
even morons want to know… so if you have a secret the trick is to tell an
opposing lie…. And that is what disinformation is all about. You start
with the truth; there was a bright light over Iowa last night that
travelled from east to west at a fast speed. The local university releases
a report that it was space junk re-entering the atmosphere, but the
government doesn’t want anyone to know is was RUSSIAN junk, which they
intend to locate and exploit, so they say, “Nope, not space junk!” and
then get someone, like Bill Burns to suggest it was an alien scout ship.
BAM, you now have three stories, and each will then morph into secondary
versions and grow from there. By the time you are done you end up with
three headed sky serpents over Hawaii, while in fact it was a melting
urinal from a Cosmonauts latrine. God only knows what new technology they
may have had in 1990, we better get to it fast and cover it up so no one
will know!
The practice of lying about everything today is expected and the spin
doctors are always ready to add to the hysteria, it is the routine. This
brings us back to the point of this lesson… good research and better ways
to share it. We know that the scientific community expects nothing from us
of any value… we could be looking at an active black hole on earth with
cryptids crawling in and out of it, but science would not believe us, they
would not even get in their cars to take a look, not because they would
not be curious, but for fear of bad publicity. Science hates ridicule. So
we go our way and they go theirs, never the twain to meet…. Well at least
not in public.
The truth is that science is interested, in a back handed sort of way.
There are those who recognize that we could be on to something with all
our haunted houses and ghosties, but will admit it could cost them all
funding dollars… if we are on to something, somebody will decide to fund
our work, which means someone else’s house payment will not get paid.
Many have asked what has happened to funding for our kind of work. In a
word, disinformation! Yes, Mr. Bigelow is spreading dollars around, but
not to people like us. We keep sticking to that pesky idea about honest
reporting. Billionaire real estate investor and entrepreneur Robert
Bigelow of Las Vegas is now betting his bucks on MUFON to find valuable
new knowledge about alien propulsion systems. He quietly signed a pact
with MUFON worth several million dollars and investing a top flight team
of 50 scientists in his employ to the project. For those who might not
remember him, the good Mr. B. was the money behind the Skinwalker Ranch
study in Utah.
Based on that case alone, you can pretty much smell the coffee brewing.
Mr. B. moved his scientists onto Skinwalker, not a trained paranormal
investigator among them, except for one well know writer under contract to
tell the story. Down came the “cone of silence” and little was heard until
the book of the same name came up from the dust. The only information to
be released was to say nothing was learned, while the book had Bigfoot
climbing out of holes that suddenly closed by themselves and UFOs were
everywhere… yet no one has a single frame to share and the area, which is
reportedly dormant, is filled with drilling equipment, high tech towers
and armed guards…. Sound familiar… if there is nothing there, why guard
it?
Bigelow controls the coverage of such events by providing his own
watchdogs and “scientists” who call every shot. While MUFON will enjoy
some perks from this deal, in the end I would suspect there will be many
to jump ship when the old “Cone” comes down on them.
So to answer the question… legitimate money for research is gone.
Universities fear ridicule for funding fringe science but Mr. Bigelow can
come onboard with big bucks, if you are willing to pay the price; you
could get a TV show, but do you want to be the next Ryan Buell? What is
left is what we are, one of a handful of good investigative groups that is
self funded, and trying to make sense of the little things we learn.
