MAGONIA Extra

A 17th-century UFO report?

2012-01-30T23:49:00.000Z

In the proceedings of an international conference on extraterrestrial intelligence (Carl Sagan (ed.), Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence (CETI), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1973), one of the participants, G.M. Idlis, discussed the possibility of past visits to Earth by extraterrestrials. He dismissed most stories of such visits but said that "we have found a certain number of cases that do merit certain study . . . " He gave the following one as an example:

This is a case from a document published in 1842—that is 130 years ago when there was no discussion about CETI [communication with extraterrestrial intelligence]. That, of course, makes it all the more reliable. This is a report of a monastery clerk in Northern Russia addressed to a high dignitary of the Russian Church who reports that on August 15, 1663, there was a visitation of the earth between 10 and 12 hours from the clear skies. A sphere appeared, about 40 meters in diameter; from the lower part two rays extended earthward and smoke poured from the sides of the vehicle. The body disappeared and reappeared again, again disappeared and reappeared, changing in brightness in the course of these peregrinations. The phenomenon occurred over a lake and lasted for an hour and a half. At the place where the sphere touched the water, a brown film appeared, resembling rust. The phenomenon was observed by two groups of people. Some watched it from the church; others from a boat which happened to be in the middle of the lake.

There are of course problems when considering such old cases. For example, some of these stories were probably never meant to be interpreted literally and their real meanings can no longer be interpreted, as we do not know enough about the contexts in which they were written. This one, though, does give the impression of describing an actual event, although it is possible that the clerk who wrote the report was not a witness but was basing it on a distorted account of the incident.

Perhaps some readers might like to search for comparable reports in web sites listing UFOs interacting with water, such as UFO Casebook, and UFO Evidence, and Water UFO.

SETI and space probes

2012-01-17T16:47:00.000Z

The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) seems to be largely concerned these days with attempting to detect radio signals from distant star systems. See, for example, the web site of the SETI Institute, which says of possible civilisations elsewhere in the galaxy, that

. . such a civilization could be detected across interstellar distances, and may actually offer the best opportunity for discovering extraterrestrial life in the near future.

However, it has long been realised that this would be very unlikely to yield results. In a book by I.S. Shklovskii and Carl Sagan (Intelligent Life in the Universe, Dell Publishing Co., New York, 1968) chapter 31 is devoted to consideration of the possibility of interstellar contact by alien space probes, based on the ideas developed by Ronald Bracewell. The authors were not optimistic about receiving messages from other planets. They commented:

The detection of artificial signals, even in the simplest situations, is a difficult and intricate task at our present level of advance, provided that we are listening to a vastly more advanced civilization. But it would become incommensurately more difficult if, over many centuries or millennia, we must direct beams of electromagnetic radiation with great precision at tens of thousands of stars, while patiently waiting, perhaps in vain, for a reply.

Those who consider interstellar space probes to be impractical should take note of the Voyager space probes, launched in 1977. Their progress can be followed on NASA's Voyager - The Interstellar Mission web site.

Apparently, Bracewell believed that an alien probe arriving in the solar system would listen for artificial radio signals. If it detected any it would record them and play them back to their source. Then it would attempt to establish two-way radio contact.

However, anyone who has enjoyed the interstellar adventures of the characters in the Star Trek series will know that this would be a violation of the Prime Directive, which forbids outside interference in the development of planetary civilisations. Surely any open intervention in human affairs, even if entirely benign, would effect profound changes in the development of our society.

Thus I speculate that the two main possibilities regarding space probes in our solar system are:

There are no space probes in the solar system.
There are alien space probes in the solar system, but they merely gather information for those who sent them and avoid contact.

More about Kecksburg

2011-11-29T16:29:00.001Z

In my posting of 16 October I dealt briefly with the Kecksburg case and mentioned that Tim Printy had one of the best summaries of it on his web site. He has recently issued Vol. 3 No. 6 of his pdf format magazine SUNlite, which is available HERE.

He, with Robert Young, gives as much documentation and informed comment as any ufologist could possibly want. In his introduction he writes:

The Kecksburg case stands as one of those UFO cases that never should have been one. If it weren't for the exaggerated claims of of a few dubious individuals and the efforts of several UFO promoters, the case would have remained in the dust bin of "old solved mysteries". However, when it comes to making something out of nothing, UFOlogists are experts.

While reading the materials and eyewitness testimonies, I found it most interesting that all sorts of people claim to have been present but there is little evidence to confirm they were there. Some of these witnesses came from tens of miles away and had no idea where to go to find the crash site. They then managed to get past all the local crowds and sneak into areas that were supposedly well guarded. Others were able to see underneath the tarp covering the "object" and, despite the flatbed driving rapidly by, were able to see distinctive writing. I wish my eyesight was this good in the dark. A lot of these stories just don't sound realistic to me but, to a UFO crashologist, they are golden nuggets to be presented as factual.

If the facts about Kecksburg presented in great detail on Tim Printy's web site don't convince you that the object was a fireball and the UFO crash story was nothing but misperception and fantasy, then nothing will.

UFOs and nukes

2011-11-23T20:27:00.001Z

Few ufologists will be unaware of the continuing controversy about the alleged interference by UFOs with nuclear missiles. Robert Hastings is the most notable proponent of this belief and anyone unfamiliar with his views on the subject can read about them on his UFOs and Nukes web site. One of Hastings's favourites is the Big Sur incident of 1964, when a nuclear missile with a dummy warhead was test fired and was allegedly shot down by a UFO.

However, those who are impressed by the details published by Hastings, and others, about the amazing UFO interference with this missile test have possibly not read the detailed rebuttal of this story by Kingston George, who ought to know rather more than most people about this matter, having been the project engineer. His version is available HERE on the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry web site.

The point I wish to make here is that you must choose between believing either that the saucers are constantly interfering with the nuclear deterrent capability of the USA, and other nations, or that it is all a lot of nonsense. If you believe the assertions of Hastings and friends then you must realise that you also must believe that nuclear weapons systems are quite useless, as the activities of the UFOs make them totally unpredictable. Will the space people allow them to be launched or not if a nuclear conflict seems inevitable?

Unreal UFOs

2011-11-14T00:03:00.003Z

It is often claimed that some UFO sightings provide important evidence of unusual aerial objects because there are multiple witnesses. One interesting example is the Rogue River, Oregon, sighting of 24 May 1949, where five witnesses reported seeing a circular object, silver in colour, which was in view for up to three minutes. Investigators could not correlate this sighting with the presence in the area of any known aircraft, and there is no generally acceptable explanation of the incident. A detailed assessment is available on Bruce Maccabee's web site.

Although there were five witnesses, they were all together in a boat and they all knew one another. There were no independent witnesses. Thus they obviously compared their impressions before talking to investigators. For example, in this case they apparently agreed that the object was at a height of 5,000 feet. I think it is generally agreed that witnesses can influence one another so that the version given to investigators tends to be that of the person with the most forceful personality in the group. However, there is another possibility, which is that in some such cases the witnesses might have been "seeing" something which did not exist. I must make it clear that I am not suggesting that this happened in the Rogue River case, or any particular case, but I am sure many of you can think of a number of cases where this might usefully be considered.

Many years ago the psychiatrist,C.G. Jung raised this matter in his book Flying Saucers: A modern myth of things seen in the skies. I quote from the English translation by R.F.C. Hull (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1959).

Apart from collective visions, there are on record cases where one or more persons see something that physically is not there. For instance, I was once at a spirtualistic séance where four of the five people present saw an object like a moon floating above the abdomen of the medium. They showed me, the fifth person present, exactly where it was, and it was absolutely incomprehensible to them that I could see nothing of the sort. I know of three more cases where certain objects were seen in the clearest detail (in two of them by two persons, and in the third by one person) and could afterwards be proved to be non-existent. Two of these cases happened under my direct observation. Even people who are entirely compos mentis and in full possession of their senses can sometimes see things that do not exist. I do not know what the explanation is of such happenings. It is very possible that they are less rare than I am inclined to suppose. For as a rule we do not verify things we have "seen with our own eyes", and so we never get to know that actually they did not exist. I mention these somewhat remote possibilities because, in such an unusual matter as the Ufos, one has to take every aspect into account.

How does one decide which UFO sightings are of real objects and which ones are of unreal objects? Perhaps if there were other potential witnesses nearby at the time who saw nothing unusual that would indicate a UFO that had no objective existence, but if there was independent confirmation then the sighting would have to be taken more seriously. How many interesting UFO reports pass this test? Any serious suggestions welcome.

Moon rock and meteorite

2011-11-08T17:12:00.002Z

The recent reports in the news media about the American grandmother Joann Davis getting into trouble with NASA over trying to sell a speck of moon rock, which had been given to her husband by astronaut Neil Armstrong, reminded me of an incident which occurred some time in the early 1970s, when Alan Sharp had the honour of being Science Editor of Merseyside UFO Bulletin which eventually became Magonia. Sharp was keen on astronomy and geology, and was president of Liverpool Astronomical Society from 1967 to 1970. He was engaged on some science project concerning the structure and composition of the moon and had been given (or lent) a few tiny bits of moon rock (I don't know the technical details).

One evening, he called to see me at the house where I lived at the time with my parents and my brother, and proudly announced that he had a piece of moon rock to show us. He produced a small tobacco tin stuffed with cotton wool. In the middle of this was a tiny grain of moon rock, which we gazed at respectfully as we passed it around. Finally it was handed to my father. "I can't see anything", he said.

Panic! Where was it? Frantic searching ensued, but of course it was not found as, after all, it looked no different from any other piece of grit unless subjected to expert examination under a microscope. Nevertheless, Sharp called round the next day and asked my mother for the vacuum cleaner, which he applied to our entire living room, including our cat, and desperately sifted through the contents of the dust bag, with negative results, of course.

He was greatly distressed by this incident, even though no NASA officials or American cops tried to arrest him. When we told others about this, though, it resulted in a great deal of what Americans call knee slapping and falling about.

There was another episode that I recall involving Alan Sharp and (alleged) extraterrestrial material. At about the time of the moon rock incident, or perhaps a little later (it was a long time ago, and I can't remember the details, as I'm getting on a bit) Sharp was appointed to the post of mathematics master at St Anselm's College, Birkenhead, a local grammar school which I had attended in the 1950s. I told Sharp that there used to be what was said to be a meteorite in the centre of the quadrangle. It certainly looked like a meteorite, when compared with photographs in astronomy books and meteorites in museums, and I would estimate its size as about 25 cm (10 inches) long. No information about its provenance was available, just rumours that it had been found somewhere locally or had been dug up when the school's foundations had been laid. It disappeared during the building of the school hall and was never heard of again.

Alan Sharp eagerly questioned the physics master who had been there when I was a pupil, and was still teaching there, but he denied all knowledge of it, as did everyone else he questioned. This was, of course, a mystery in itself. If anyone out there knows anything about this mysterious object, perhaps they will let me know.

The 25th Reich, UFOs and Nazis, Again!

2011-11-07T13:31:00.000Z

According to the press release: 'The 25th Reich is a rollicking, WWII sci-fi adventure - full of time-travel, duplicitous Nazi robots, faulty spaceships and giant mega-fauna...

'Based on the classic novella, 50,000 Years Until Tomorrow by J.J. Solomon, and with a screenplay penned by Amis, David Richardson and Serge DeNardo, the movie is a homage to sci-fi and WWII movies of the 1940's and 50's.'

Filmmakers as well as ufologists seem obsessed with the notion that the Nazis created UFOs and advanced spacecraft....

Projecting UFOs

2011-11-07T13:16:00.000Z

For all you UFO fakers (experimental hoaxers, etc), there is a news item titled,

'Volumetric projector makes 3D objects that float in space' at:

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-11/07/volumetric-projector

We shouldn't get too excited as its inventor Marc Reßl says, the effect isn't too strong, with low contrast. "The number of projectors is important, and we believe at least 100 are necessary for producing sharp and crisp images." So we needn't abandon our low-tech and cheap Chinese lanterns just yet.

The continuing Roswell obsession

2011-11-06T18:00:00.000Z

I remember once hearing Mark Pilkington giving his impression of American ufology as: "Roswell, Roswell, Roswell, Roswell . . ." How true, I thought, how very true. And I still think so; there is no escape. Here are two examples of American ufology's continuing Roswell obsession.

Kevin Randle has a posting on his blog A Different Perspective, October 31, titled "Roswell Investigation Dream Team". You will note that this team consists of Kevin Randle, Tom Carey and Don Schmitt. If you don't know why I consider these people to be an unlikely trio to discover the Utimate Truth about Roswell, then see my review of Carey and Schmitt's book Witness to Roswell and the article about Randle and Schmitt in The Roswell Files website.

There are comments about "The Dream Team" in the 1 November posting in The UFO Iconoclast(s) blog,
which also includes amazing news of Anthony Bragalia having discovered "some revelatory and truly significant material" which is "not trivial and opens cans of worms . . . "

Two predictions from me:

"The Dream Team" will not produce any significant results.
Bragalia's discovery is not significant and will not open any metaphorical cans of worms.

A book for contactee connoisseurs

2011-10-25T16:06:00.001+01:00

Yesterday, browsing in a local charity shop, I came across an interesting book about UFO contactees and abductees (Janet and Colin Bord, Life Beyond Planet Earth? Man's contacts with space people, Grafton Books, London, 1991).

As the title suggests, the book is almost entirely devoted to discussing the UFO contactees and their fantastic and absurd (if interpreted literally) stories. These include such old favourites as Adamski, Fry and Bethurum, and England's Arthur Shuttlewood, whose visitors from Aenstria liked to chat with him by calling him from a local telephone box.

Some of them are more obscure, and there is one in particular that I have never heard of before. I reproduce the relevant paragraphs here because I am sure that most of my readers will appreciate its delightfully ridiculous details. In the book it follows on from the better-known tale of the South African contactee Elizabeth Klarer, who claimed to have given birth to a son sired by a man called Akon, from Meton, a planet in the Alpha Centauri system.

An even earlier contact with the Alpha Centauri system was made by a Frenchman identified only as Monsieur Y. Some time during the war, in the early 1940s, he had been contacted by space people who had taken him in a spaceship to their planet Bâavi in the Alpha Centauri system. The journey lasted only one and a half hours, the distance of more than 4 light-years being covered so quickly because the spaceship, which he called a vaïd, attained more than 'gravific speed'. This caused them to enter anti-time, changing course three times on the way to Alpha Centauri. On the planet Bâavi Monsieur Y found that men and women had complete equality and lived in a large metropolis, the rest of the planet being left to the natural wildlife. In their early years the young people had children and were then sterilized, living for several hundred years without apparent ageing. They had no marriage or permanent partners but loved everyone equally and practised a form of free physical love among themselves. They foresaw that a great cataclysm would hit the Earth in a relatively short time and so they planned to save some humans to repopulate the planet afterwards.

Perhaps this is what Akon and his friends from Meton were engaged in when he met Elizabeth Klarer. Monsieur Y also returned with much documentation which included a grammar of the Bâavi language, descriptions of intergalactic spacecraft and their construction, a philosophy of time, and the fundamentals of Bâavian science written in Armenian: these last were discovered by Monsieur Y in Southern Algeria buried in a cave and revealed to him by an old desert nomad. Why an archaic Armenian text should be buried in Algeria and contain information on the planet Bâavi, not even Monsieur Y knew.

The Bords obtained this story from pages 277-86 of a book titled The Mysteries of the Skies, but, oddly, they didn't know the names of the author or publisher. It is certainly not the book Mysteries of the Skies, by Lore and Deneault, as this has a strictly nuts-and-bolts approach to the subject.

Interesting UFO cases revisited: 5. Kecksburg

2011-10-16T19:49:00.000+01:00

The alleged crash of a UFO at Kecksburg, Pennsylvania, on 9 December 1965 is interesting mainly because it is an example of the resolutely irrational approach taken by most ufologists, particularly when investigating reports which generate a lot of publicity. The cause of the incident did not remain a mystery; it was solved very quickly.

I can keep this posting very brief as the details are readily available on the Internet. The incident known to ufologists as the Kecksburg UFO crash is known to astronomers as the Great Lakes Fireball.

The reason why the UFO/fireball became associated with Kecksburg is simply because some people saw it apparently falling into a nearby wooded area, and could not know that it was not something nearby but of the order of 100 miles away. They could not judge its distance as they did not know what it was. Local news media published reports, together with some rumours and exaggerations.

The Kecksburg story was revived occasionally, each time gaining new alleged witnesses to increasingly sensational events, which they had apparently kept quiet about at the time. When Kecksburg believer Stan Gordon published some details of these alleged events on UFO UpDates without stating when they were first published, he was challenged by Brad Sparks, here, for example, who asked such pertinent questions as why there were no photographs, films or contemporary newspaper reports of the crowds of military personnel, and their vehicles, spectators, press reporters, photographers, etc.

One of the best summaries of the facts of this case can be found on Tim Printy's website. On the other hand, if you prefer the typical ufological angle on the incident you can find a pretty dire example on the UFO Digest site.

Stopping Cars

2011-10-03T14:49:00.000+01:00

Much was made of 'car stop' cases related to UFO cases years ago. John Keel
in Operation Trojan Horse (p63) notes that the alleged magnetic fields surrounding
UFOs would not be a plausible means of stopping cars. However, a new device
has recently appeared, that will put a glow on the face of any nuts and bolts
ufologist:

"Research and development company Eureka Aerospace has built a High-Power Electromagnetic System (MPEMS) that uses a compact power source and an antenna to beam microwave energy into the direction of a specific target, for example a moving vehicle, to bring it to a halt by disabling the ignition system. They have also developed a high-resolution imaging system that can detect objects behind walls using radar."
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-10/03/security-technology-startups-pitchlive

Obviously, the aliens were using them years ago, no doubt this device
was reverse-engineered to boot.

Interesting UFO cases revisited: 4. Yukon, 11 December 1996

2011-08-31T20:55:00.001+01:00

In my posting on 5 April this year about the Shag Harbour case, I noted that I could not find any serious suggestions for a mundane, non-ET explanation for it.

Another multi-witness Canadian incident has lately attracted my attention. This occurred on 11 December 1996 on the Klondyke Highway in the Yukon Territory, north of Whitehorse, between Fox Lake and Pelly Crossing, over a distance of 134 miles (216 km). It is described on the website of the UFO Yukon Research Society.

There were at least 22 witnesses and 19 of them were interviewed by the investigator, Martin Jasek, between February and September 1999. The UFO was described as a huge object with lights. Jasek estimated its size by triangulation by comparing witness statements and obtained figures ranging from 0.55 miles (0.88 km) to 1.3 miles (2.0 km).

Note the delay of over two years between the incident and the interviews with the witnesses, causing possible distortions of their memories of it. However, if any UFO sceptics have offered any plausible explanations I have not been able to find them.

Friedman's follies

2011-08-24T20:01:00.001+01:00

I recently wrote a review, for the main Magonia blog, of the book UFOs and Aliens: Is there anybody out there?. This book consists of 13 essays, two of which are by Stanton Friedman, and I mentioned both of them in my review.

Friedman took exception to my comments and has devoted about half of his regular column to them in the current issue (No. 520, August 2011) of MUFON UFO Journal. He begins by objecting that he never wrote that evidence of alien spacecraft can be kept secret indefinitely, but this is a mere quibble, as he obviously thinks that the US government has no intention of releasing the proof of UFO reality, which he he believes it possesses, at any time soon. He is usually keen to emphasise that they are very efficient at keeping secret information from leaking out.

The main problem about UFO secrecy, of course, is that it is nearly always assumed that the rest of the world will follow America's alleged policy on the subject and is not only willing but capable of doing so. In my review I suggested what might happen if a UFO crashed in some nation whose rulers decided to display the wreckage as a tourist attraction, so that UFO reality would be displayed to the world at a stroke. Friedman's answer to this is, "No nation would be so foolish". Brilliant! Why didn't I think of this myself? But, hang on a minute; in what way would it be foolish? And even if it were, some nations are ruled by people who are not merely foolish, but manifestly insane. However, I reckon that this could be a new addition to Friedman's collection of his famous "rules for debunkers", for it is followed by the all-too-familiar "Don't bother me with the facts, my mind is made up". What it really means is that you should not raise any questions for which it is not possible to devise what seem, to UFO believers, to be plausible answers.

He also objects to my mention of non-sceptical ufologists who have "allegedly" dismissed Frank Feschino's "outstanding" book, Shoot Them Down, by describing it as "science fiction" and by noting the lack of references or any evidence to support his fantastic claims about a great battle between US Air Force planes and flying saucers in 1952. To find such dismissive comments, by UFO believers, all you need to do is go to the UFO UpDates archive and search for "Feschino". Many similar comments can be found on other websites and blogs.

Friedman also criticises me for failing to publish the details to back up my critical remarks, but this is obviously not possible in a short review. I also did not review all 13 essays in the book, as this would have made it too long to hold the attention of most readers. But, of course, Friedman already knows this and thus knows that I am not following his first rule for debunkers: "What the public doesn't know, we certainly won't tell them".

Real ale aliens

2011-08-20T14:47:00.001+01:00

For those of you who admired my recently published photo of a captive Grey in Reading I now present pictures of some even more exotic aliens which appeared a few years ago at the Great British Beer Festival, in London (organised by the Campaign for Real Ale).

As you can see, they don't appear to have caused much panic or consternation, as most of those present will have been familiar with similar strange beings propping up the bars, and obstructing their views of the pump clips displaying details of the available beers, in their local pubs. I managed to take these few snaps before they disappeared, dematerialised or shape-shifted.

Perhaps if you always keep your camera handy you, too, can obtain proof of the reality of ETs.

Interesting UFO cases revisited: 3. JAL 1628

2011-08-15T21:04:00.001+01:00

This is the incident where a Japanese cargo plane encountered what was said to be a UFO (or UFOs) over Alaska on 17 November 1986.

In this posting I am not attempting to argue that any particular explanation for the incident should be accepted, I merely wish to draw attention to a few features of the case that indicate that it might perhaps not be so mysterious as some ufologists would like it to be. Also, please note that I am not attempting to discuss all the details of the case.

Let us look at a translation of the statement made by Captain Terauchi, the pilot of the aircraft and the main witness. The first officer and the flight engineer did not see all the detail reported by Captain Terauchi, as they didn't have such a good view from where they were seated.

After making a change of course, Terauchi "saw lights that looked like aircraft lights, 30 degrees left front, 2000 feet (600 meters) below us, moving in the same direction and the same speed as we were".

This suggests that the lights were at a great distance from the aircraft, but that Terauchi thought they were much nearer. He noted that "the two lights began to move in a manner different from ordinary aircraft, maneuvers like two bear cubs playing with each other". This suggests to me that he might have been watching an auroral display which he failed to recognise.

This possibility is discussed in a thread on the Physics Forums web site, where one of the contributors mentions that a satellite recorded a solar flare hitting the Earth's atmosphere over Alaska at the same time that the lights were seen. (There is more discussion of the incident on another thread on this web site.)

In his statement, Terauchi repeatedly refers to the lights as "spaceships", and says they had "numbers of exhaust pipes". His descriptions also seem somewhat incoherent, and his interest in the UFO controversy is obvious.

An important detail which partly accounts for his confusion is revealed when he notes some lights apparently on the ground and remarks: "The flight above Alaska is generally in the daytime, and it is confusing to identify the kind of lights."

The main point I am trying to make about this case is that I suspect that those who rate it as one of the best UFO reports, should perhaps study the details of the sightings and the investigations more carefully and more critically. As the other two men in the aircraft obviously did not get a very good view of the lights, and there is no independent confirmation of the presence of anything that could reasonably be described as a spaceship (or spaceships) in the area at the time, it is essentially a single-witness UFO report.

Interesting UFO cases revisited: 2. Roswell - the confiscated evidence

2011-08-04T20:33:00.002+01:00

In my review of Carey and Schmitt's book, Witness to Roswell, I noted that the authors repeat the assertion of others that the "UFO" wreckage could not have been a Mogul balloon rig because the material was so strong that it resisted all efforts to break, burn or melt it. I also noted that it was rather strange that it apparently shattered into small pieces when it hit the ground. So far as I am aware, no one has yet made any serious attempt to resolve this apparent contradiction.

I also noted that the authors asserted that many people travelled up to 75 miles to the crash site to collect pieces of the wreckage, which some of them then passed on to others. Carey and Schmitt went on to assert that the military (apparently possessing supernatural powers) succeeded in retrieving every scrap of the material.

All this may seem implausible enough to most of you who have the taste and discrimination to read this blog, but there is — or should be — some other evidence the military should have confiscated. The authors are emphatic about the recovery of the "unbreakable" metal, but what about the photographs?

Photographs? Yes. No one is going to convince me that if all those people thought it was worth the trouble and expense of driving up to 75 miles to the crash site along dirt roads that most, or many, of them would not bring their cameras with them to take advantage of a unique opportunity to photograph their families and friends posing amid the alien wreckage. In those days most people possessed cheap box cameras, and would certainly load them with film if they anticipated seeing anything worth photographing. At least, that was how it was in England at that time and I can't believe that the people of New Mexico were any less keen on taking pictures.

So where are these photos? Or are the stories about people collecting wreckage just lies, fantasies or false memories?

More about migraine and UFO encounters

2011-07-28T19:27:00.002+01:00

My recent posting about migraines and UFO experiences (12 June) has aroused some interest. There is a discussion on this topic on the Mysterious Universe website. Below is a very interesting article submitted by James Mitchell, who remarks: "I am truly suprised that more hasn't been made of the connection between migraines and UFO sightings as there are certain similarities that I imagine most migraine sufferers would spot. As the "trigger" for both migraine attacks and UFO sightings is often a bright light, this should in itself alert investigators to a possible connection."

Experiences of migraines and UFO phenomena

Being both a migraine sufferer and a (somewhat sceptical) follower of UFO phenomena, I'm surprised that the similarities between the two haven't been highlighted in the UFO literature before. I've had several migraine-related experiences that, had circumstances been different, may well have been thought to have been alien rather than neurological in origin. When I first started having migraines 30 years ago I experienced none of the "classic" visual manifestations of the condition, and it wasn't until I managed to see a GP while actually undergoing an attack that the condition was initially diagnosed.

Over the years, however, the symptoms have changed in that I now experienced visual problems including the loss of depth perception and various coloured / shimmering auras.

One such attack was, however, more of a hallucination than a distortion of vision in that its manifestations appeared to be external to me. In this, I saw a group of five or six glowing silver spheres floating in a silvery mist. The spheres appeared to be solid metallic objects that conformed to the perspective of the room I was in as I saw them. In short, they appeared real. The fact that I was aware of having a migraine, and that the person with me could not see them, verified the fact that they were a neurological phenomenon. Had I been alone outside on a dark night, then my interpretation of what I saw could well have been different, and I could well have put "feeling strange" down to what Jenny Randles has called the "Oz factor", the dissociative feeling experienced by those who claim to have seen UFOs at close range.

Although I haven't had a similar "external" hallucination since, recent developments in the migraine-related symptoms I experience have become quite disturbing. Last year, I had a migraine in the day which I thought had passed. Later that night, however, I had a truly frightening experience that showed I was still suffering from it. This manifested itself as an overwhelming sensation of being "taken over" by another, external consciousness. I was literally "losing consciousness", but, instead of passing out, other impressions and sensations were passing in, overwhelming my own, trying to force me not into unconsciousness but into another consciousness that wasn't my own.

I was also aware of the presence of an avuncular "boffin"-like figure discussing something with me, although I didn't know what it was we were discussing. In addition to this, there were immense amounts of information being passed either to or from my mind at a fantastic speed and, even though I knew it was information, it was flashing by so fast I couldn't tell what it was. While this was taking place, I was literally fighting for consciousness, that is fighting to retain my consciousness in the face of that which was trying to oust it.

What was most striking, however, was the thought / voice / realisation that I would not remember all of this, a thought that was being repeated over and over again in my mind as the attack took place. There was so much going on, especially with the "information transfer", that I just knew I wouldn't or couldn't remember it all.

(This last feature is, I believe, of some particular relevance to the UFO phenomenon as, in her book The Pennine UFO Mystery [Granada paperback edition, p. 120], author Jenny Randles cites a similar phenomenon where a subject is very aware that he will forget the UFO encounter he has unless he writes it down.)

Another similarity to UFO encounters was the fact that I thought I'd only felt the presence of the "boffin" figure when, after some days or weeks, I realised that I'd actually seen him. This late recollection is, I believe, not unknown in UFO encounters. The attack lasted only a few minutes but, without being able to determine this by external references, I would not have liked to have said how long it lasted.

(I should also mention that I had a similar hallucinogenic experience a year or two before the one detailed above that, at the time, I hadn't connected with migraine. This was a far less powerful experience which, in the absence of any accompanying migraine-like phenomena, I'd just put down to being a "funny turn".)

A friend who suffers from migraines to a far worse degree than I do made some interesting comments when I told them about my attack the following day. They informed me that they almost always have some accompanying hallucinogenic experience when suffering a migraine attack, in addition to which they are aware of having "memories" that they know aren't their own, i.e. that are not real.

The implications of this admission, both in the field of UFOs and the study of the so-called "false memory" syndrome relating to child abuse are obvious.

Another telling comment came from a friend who said they'd once "had a couple of migraines", which suggests that the condition may exist in an acute as well as a chronic form. From this, it is easy to imagine someone having a one-off migraine attack that under the right (or wrong) circumstances could be interpreted as an extraterrestrial / paranormal experience. This is, in my experience, underlined by the similarity in the way in which some details of the attacks - whether by migraine or alleged alien - gradually reveal themselves over a long period of time.

What I cannot stress enough is how real (and how frightening) such attacks can be. Having first-hand experience of this, it is by no means a stretch of the imagination to believe that such events could be attributed to a supernatural / extraterrestrial agency if one was not aware of their true cause.

Fortunately, I have had no more similar experiences with migraines, but it is now a constant worry that I may.

James Mitchell, 2011

Interesting UFO cases revisited: 1. Betty and Barney Hill's Interrupted journey

2011-07-14T18:16:00.001+01:00

Those who argue that there is plenty of evidence that some UFO reports are sightings of, or encounters with, extraterrestrial spacecraft employ two different approaches.

Some, like the late Richard Hall, attempt to convince the sceptics by drawing attention to the vast number of reports, an approach which reminds me of the title of an old British TV sitcom, Never Mind the Quality, Feel the Width. I have never found this at all convincing because if you add garbage to garbage you just get more garbage.

The other approach is to present a list of unexplained, or at least interesting, reports and argue that the best explanation for each involves the activities of ETs and their spacecraft.

If you read many of these accounts you will see that the investigators often get rather annoyed by people who insist on submitting them to critical examination. So I intend to criticise some of these "best cases", or to refer to criticisms and analyses of them which are available, but have apparently been largely ignored by those people known to Jim Moseley as "Serious Ufologists".

I'll start with the Betty and Barney Hill affair, as so many people seem to regard it as an actual alien abduction rather than giving serious consideration to a psychological explanation.

In this posting I just want to draw atttention to the work of Jim Macdonald, who drove by night over the route taken by Betty and Barney Hill on their return from Canada and compared his observations with the account of the journey given in Chapter 1 of John G. Fuller's book (The Interrupted Journey: Two lost hours "aboard a flying saucer", The Dial Press, New York, 1966). His findings appear on the website, Making Light, under the heading Alien Abduction: Betty & Barney Hill.

Macdonald's comparison with Fuller's version is very interesting and not only reinforces the sceptical attitude that the whole episode was psychological in nature, but also shows the advantages of actually following the route, rather than merely using maps and guides as Fuller did. He does not suggest that the Hills or those who investigated their story engaged in any deliberate deception.

Macdonald's account is well worth studying by those who have not done so already.

George Adamski's Alien Contacts

2011-07-09T17:48:00.000+01:00

I came across this documentary, which contains dodgy flying saucer movies by Adamski, Desmond Leslie forgetting Kenneth Arnold's name (how could he?) and supporters of Adamski's claims. Baffles me that this is 'the best evidence' - well it doesn't really!

Grey abducted

2011-06-20T20:32:00.002+01:00

We often hear of people allegedly being abducted by the Greys, but we don't hear much about people abducting Greys. Some people seem to manage it, however. Here is a photo I took in Reading about two years ago. This unfortunate alien has apparently been enslaved by a shopkeeper and doesn't look too pleased about it.

Migraine auras and UFO encounters

2011-06-12T20:31:00.005+01:00

In 1998, having read the book Migraine, by Oliver Sacks, I published an article suggesting that it was possible that some descriptions of UFO encounters were similar to descriptions of the symptoms of migraine, particularly the distortions of perception associated with the migraine aura. When this article appeared on the UFO UpDates mailing list, my views were dismissed as nonsense, on the grounds that I had not presented a fully developed, testable theory, even though I had only suggested the idea as being possibly worthy of further investigation. For the details, search for "migraine" in the UFO UpDates archive.

Nobody seemed interested after this rejection, perhaps because possible explanations for UFO experiences are not very popular, as so many ufologists do not want explanations, they want the space aliens. However, I recently came across a discussion on this theme by Pauline Wilson on the Australian UFOs - scientific research blog.

This one is based on a book titled Migraine Auras: When the visual world fails, by Richard Grossinger. She appears not to have heard of Sacks's book, as she remarks that the book is "the first comprehensive compilation of material about migraine auras". One quote which she gives from the book seems particularly relevant to the question of why this subject is rarely considered by ufologists and UFO percipients:

"Despite their commonness and frequency, migraine auras become an enigma. A majority of people in the West have either never heard of them or, if they have, do not know their nature, degree of seriousness, or ubiquity. Most people who have experienced their spontaneous distortions of vision have no name for these and have gotten no diagnosis."

Obviously, it would be absurd to suppose that migraine auras might account for all or most UFO reports, but surely a knowledge of them and other distortions of perception, might provide clues to the real nature of some otherwise puzzling UFO reports - apart from hoaxes, of course.

Weather balloons

2011-05-16T20:25:00.010+01:00

The first picture, which I took about half a century ago (in 1960 or 1961), shows what a weather balloon rig looked like in the good old days. I thought it might be of some interest to UFO crash enthusiasts.

This balloon is about to be launched from the Ocean Weather Ship Weather Watcher in the North Atlantic. The 500 gram latex balloon is held in place by a canvas cone until it is ready to be launched. Attached to the balloon is the radar reflector, made of aluminium tubing holding netting coated with metallic paint. These reflectors were opened out like umbrellas when they were to be used, and they were rather more substantial than the flimsy American ones. This is because the balloons could carry heavier loads, as they were filled with hydrogen - none of your wimpish helium here!

The man in the middle is adjusting the unwinder, which puts a suitable distance between the radio sonde canister and the balloon to prevent heat reflected or radiated from the balloon affecting the temperature readings. The canister contained a radio transmitter powered by a battery which took readings from instruments measuring pressure, temperature and relative humidity. The readings were transmitted in turn by using a revolving contact, powered by a windmill on the canister. One of the cups of the windmill can be seen on the right of the canister.

In those days it took four men to do a radiosonde ascent, after two of them had launched the balloon - the "beat" man who recorded the signals from the transmitter on graph paper, using an oscilloscope with a valve-maintained tuning fork (I hope that's quite clear?); the "comp" man, who applied corrections and turned the figures into readings of pressure, temperature and humidity; and the "winds" man, who used a plotting table to record readings of range and bearing of the balloon given by the radar operator to work out wind speeds and directions.

These days, though, the process has been largely automated. The winds are recorded using satellite navigation, and the balloons are much smaller and filled with helium, so that no special "health and safety" precautions are needed. It has become a one-man operation. Dark and lonely work . . .

The second picture, for those who are interested, is a picture taken by Bob Reid (on the right in the first picture) of Weather Watcher, which, if I remember rightly, was in James Watt Dock, Greenock.

The final picture, taken in 1960 aboard Weather Watcher, is a Portrait of the Blogger as a Young Man. As is obvious, I am "all at sea" -- as usual.

The Alien Deception Has Been Kindled

2011-05-11T12:14:00.000+01:00

After being briefly published as a paperback messed around by or ignored by publishers The Alien Deception is now available for a mere £4.21 as an ebook on Kindle. It covers the history of the alien abduction phenomenon using the Betty and Barney Hill case as a stepping stone and the Magonian frame of reference as the guiding light. To US readers this means Lit. Crit. armchair ufology, to the rest of us it attempts to provide a finely tuned sociopsychological perspective on this 50-year-old enigma.

Description

Since the 1960s thousands of people throughout the world have reported being abducted by aliens. They report being taken in broad daylight or at night. Some say they were simply looked at by seemingly alien beings, while others say they were horribly examined.

At times, after such encounters, the abductee has little conscious recollection of these events, and usually through nightmares, flashbacks and hypnosis they eventually learn more. Some abductees even believe they have been used as part of a breeding project to create hybrid alien/humans. Almost all are truly bewildered by their experiences.

Ultimately, alien abductions make us consider fundamental questions about our place in the universe and our future evolution as a species. Are abductions real events that have momentous consequences for the whole of humanity or are they the product of rumour, psychosis, hoaxes, media hype and sensationalism? Is there a grand Alien Deception manipulating our minds and our governments or are we deceiving ourselves?

Nigel Watson's groundbreaking exploration of alien abductions takes a comprehensive look at the reports by the earliest abductees (such as Betty and Barney Hill), right up to the latest encounters. Watson considers the possible historical, paranormal, extraterrestrial, psychological and media influences that might help explain the origin of these reports.

Product details

Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 450 KB
Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
Language English

Visit: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00506U1QC/ref=

SUNlite - a voice of sanity in ufology

2011-05-07T23:42:00.007+01:00

Tim Printy's UFO magazine SUNlite, is named in honour of the late, lamented, kindly old Uncle Phil and his Skeptics UFO Newsletter. The latest issue is Volume 3, Number 3, May-June 2011. The magazine is in pdf format, so you can easily print a copy (if you can afford the ink).

There is an interesting article by Martin Kottmeyer, whose name will be familiar to readers of Magonia and Magonia Supplement, concerning the notion that the US government uses Hollywood to educate the public gradually about the reality of aliens, which believers in it call "The Acclimation Program". He discusses a recent book by Len Kasten (Secret History of Extraterrestrials, 2010) and concludes:

"You think Hollywood cares about educating people about ufos? Get serious.

"And who should we fairly blame for ufology not being taken seriously? Studying the rest of Kasten's book will give you a good starting point for that problem."

Another interesting article, by Tim Printy, is devoted to examining the claims of Robert Hastings, who is notorious for his stories about US missile bases being constantly interfered with and put out of action by UFOs. Of course, there is no independent confirmation of his assertions and Printy concludes: "If he is going to present unverifiable evidence he is preaching to the choir. Of course, it is the "choir" that lines his pockets and begs for him to speak at their UFO conferences."

There's lots of other good stuff in SUNlite. Highly recommended.

Shag Harbour - where are the sceptics?

2011-04-05T20:45:00.006+01:00

Some of the "best" UFO cases continue to attract attention over the years, Roswell being the most notorious example, kept alive by constant arguments and investigations. The more credulous enthusiasts are kept entertained by the activities of ufology's hack writers and lecture-circuit liars.

Most of these cases also attract the attention of the sceptics, who are rarely short of explanations which are usually plausible and often almost certainly the correct ones.

However, one case in particular seems to stand out from the rest. The Shag Harbour incident of 4 October 1967 is remarkable in having quite a number of independent witnesses, singly or in groups, giving consistent testimony

The only detailed treatment of this case that I have been able to find is the book by Don Ledger and Chris Styles (Dark Object: The world's only government-documented UFO crash, Dell Publishing, New York, 2001). The authors began their investigations in 1995 and, considering the limited resources available to them, their results are a considerable achievement.

I have searched in vain for a sceptical treatment of the case by the "skeptibunkers" but have found that most sceptics take care not to mention it. Thus I should like to know if anyone has devised a mundane, non-ETH explanation of the Shag Harbour affair which makes sense.

Ed Conroy's phantom helicopters

2011-03-29T17:26:00.007+01:00

Many UFO reports involve alleged sightings of mysterious helicopters, which are usually said to have no visible identification markings. Some of these are eventually identified, either definitely or provisionally, but other sightings remain unexplained, although there are generally either single witnesses, or no independent witnesses to confirm the reality of the sightings. Most of these seem to be too vague or unreliable to be worth intensive investigation.

However, I have recently been reading a book by Ed Conroy (Report on Communion: An independent investigation and commentary on Whitley Strieber's Communion, William Morrow and Company, Inc., New York, 1989), in which the author reports experiencing strange phenomena, such as those described by writers such as John Keel or Jacques Vallée, after becoming involved in interviewing Strieber, and others concerned with reports of alien abductions, ranging from Budd Hopkins to Philip Klass.

Conroy recounts his strange experiences in his "Epilogue" at the end of the book, and these include the most remarkable phantom helicopter stories which I have found in the UFO literature. What is so remarkable about them is that these strange sightings are said to have taken place in full view of dozens, or possibly hundreds, of other witnesses, or likely witnesses.

One morning in March (date not given) 1987, Conroy was "momentarily distracted" from his work by the sight of a Bell 47-model helicopter outside his window in an office block which is "a seven-story structure located in the middle of downtown San Antonio [Texas]." This helicopter was equipped with a searchlight which was shining brightly, even though it was full daylight. This helicopter then began circling the office building, coming as close as 50 yards, and making wider circles around other buildings in the area. Conroy phoned the local Federal Aviation Adminsitration office, whose officials were polite, but regretted that they could not clarify the matter as he could not see any identifying numbers on the helicopter. Similar incidents allegedly happened a number of times, and there were said to be other witnesses. Conroy says he was given binoculars to help him to observe the helicopters but, curiously, he does not mention cameras.

The point I am trying to make here is that we are presented with a set of reports which should have been definitely confirmed or refuted soon after their publication, in view of the large number of persons who would have seen and heard the helicopters, and been distracted from their work by them, and would surely have made numerous official complaints and enquiries about them if these incidents had actually occurred as described.

If these helicopters were not real, however, we are left to puzzle out how to make any sense of what has been written. If Ed Conroy were just another hack writer of gee-whiz books about UFOs and other odd subjects, we could assume that he just made it all up. But his book is evidently a perfectly serious attempt to analyse Whitley Strieber's Communion, and, apart from the Epilogue, is one of the few serious works on alien abduction reports and beliefs.

Revival of this blog

2011-03-27T18:46:00.002+01:00

After a long gap I've decided to resume this blog. I will keep to the same theme of using it to publish any items I consider to be amusing or interesting.

Scientology and the BBC

2007-05-14T17:02:00.000+01:00

The BBC and Scientology have come into battle over a documentary to be screened tonight on BBC1.

In anticipation of its negative view of the cult they have posted a YouTube video of reporter John Sweeney losing his cool.

On the BBC website Sweeney defends his outburst:

'While making our BBC Panorama film "Scientology and Me" I have been shouted at, spied on, had my hotel invaded at midnight, denounced as a "bigot" by star Scientologists, brain-washed - that is how it felt to me - in a mock up of a Nazi-style torture chamber and chased round the streets of Los Angeles by sinister strangers.

'Back in Britain strangers have called on my neighbours, my mother-in-law's house and someone spied on my wedding and fled the moment he was challenged.

'I have met mothers who say they have suffered Scientology "disconnects" - meaning that their children have cut them completely out of their life so that they can spend more time with an organisation which a judge in 1984 characterised as "corrupt, sinister and dangerous".'

Scientology is not a cult that should be messed with, in the past they have taken on the notoriously anarchic South Park animation series who took a poke at them.

The current battle with the BBC shows that Scientology is able to run rings round media organisations by using the Internet and by making their own videos. The BBC has to acknowledge that they are no longer a privileged source of entertainment and education for the masses, and that groups or people with alternative viewpoints now have a media voice that is independent of national and establishment control.

The extraterrestrial origins of Scientology can be viewed on the OT III Scholarship Page. The pros and cons of the 'UFO' aspects of Scientology can be viewed here.

The Metaresonant Temple

2007-05-14T16:23:00.000+01:00

This blog is unusual and strangely hypnotic.

Mooch Factor 23 tells us that 'I have been absent for some time, however, this is just a perceptual limitation of your stupid eyes! For you see, I have been traveling at a consistent velocity of c for the past 1.4 days in a stolen concept-spacecraft of an alien corporation. What corporation is this, I hear you ask?

'Disney.

'It all started when myself as my robot sidekick, ‘Waa!’, had detected abnormally high levels of schizoid-fluxed psychic energy pattern outbursts amongst users of the “Buzz Lightyear space ranger spin” ride at Disneyworld. Disguised as pancakes, we observed from a distance as ordinary tourists stumbled from the ride’s exist, muttering alien obscenities against the human race and proceeding to the nearest confectionary booth, whereupon they proceeded to consume vast amounts of sugar-based products in an unconscious attempt to prevent the cellular bonds of their internal organs and bones from disintegrating due to the deadly vibrational impact that utterance of these alien words resonated throughout their bodies. But all of this maniacal consumption was in vain, for it was not long before each and every one of the poor wretches collapsed in a bundle of empty, Disney merchandise-clad skin.'

Makes more sense than 'real' UFO contactee stories with a dash more humour. Perhaps, the damned greys have got to this person without him suspecting?

http://20six.co.uk/omniresonant/cat/67597/0

Coincidences

2007-04-21T19:55:00.000+01:00

If you were to write a novel in which the hero lived to a ripe old age thanks to a series of similar coincidences, it is unlikely that any publisher would accept it. In real life, though, some people are remarkably fortunate, as an obituary notice in yesterday's Daily Telegraph reminds us.

Chief Petty Officer Gordon Selby, who has died aged 87, served in submarines in the Royal Navy during World War II. In September 1940 he was appointed coxswain of the submarine Upholder, and during 13 months he survived 24 patrols at a time when one British submarine a week was being lost in the attempt to cut supply lines to Rommel's army in North Africa.

Upholder disappeared in 1942, but a few weeks earlier, Selby had been drafted to the submarine P-39.

On the outbreak of war he should have joined the submarine Oxley, but his place was taken by a more experienced man; Oxley was lost.

On P-39 he escaped injury when the submarine was wrecked during a Luftwaffe attack on the submarine base at Lazaretto, Malta. With other survivors he was evacuated in the submarine Olympus, which struck a mine about six miles south of Malta. He was one of only seven survivors of the 90 persons on board.

In 1943 Selby arrived in Algiers to join the submarine Sickle, which after patrols off southern France, was lost with all hands, but Selby was not on board, having been selected to join the submarine Storm.

After the War he became coxswain of Truculent, which he left in 1949 when his 12-year engagement expired. The folowing year Truculent was lost in a collision in the Thames.

He was re-engaged to continue his Naval career and the most amazing coincidence occurred on the afternoon of 15 April 1951 when he was due to sail in the submarine Affray. He had already settled into the boat when, as president of HMS Dolphin's chief petty officers' mess, he was called ashore to attend to some last-minute mess business. He became ill and was admitted to hospital half an hour before the submarine sailed. That night Affray was lost in the Channel with all hands.

Things That Came To Come

2007-04-05T15:40:00.000+01:00

SCI-FI-LONDON, the UK's only annual festival of science fiction and fantastic film announces that the restored, extended edition of THINGS TO COME (TTC) will be given its first theatrical screening on 2nd May 2007 at the SCI-FI-LONDON Film Festival. This version of the film is the longest in existence anywhere in the world and contains four additional scenes which have not been seen since the film’s original theatrical release in 1936.

Every version of TTC shown in cinemas, on television and available on video since 1936 has been drastically cut. Network has commissioned the best and longest known version to exist of this film anywhere in the world in H.D.

The film adapted from the HG Wells novel The Shape of Things to Come (1933), can be viewed at SCI-FI-LONDON, from 2nd-6th May and it will be released as a special edition DVD on 7th May 2007 by Network DVD.

The film is of interest to us because it contains images of mobile phones, flat plasma video screens, voice projectors, desktop laptops, an education channel and biological weapons. So it's no wonder some have suggested Wells was a contactee who worked his experiences into his novels. I don't buy that, rather this just indicates that there was plenty of technological images of the future that contactees could draw on from "popular culture" even if they were never sf fans.

Wells' book also predicted World War II; it includes cities being destroyed by aerial bombs and predicts the rise of Fascist dictators.

Other amazing facts about THINGS TO COME, according to the press release:

* Mussolini banned the film in Italy because he believed that Ralph Richardson’s portrayal of The Boss was a parody of il duce

* Hitler also banned the film in Germany but Hitler was so impressed with the image of a British city being destroyed that he ordered the head of the German air force, Herman Goering, to screen it to his subordinates

* The last engineers and scientists establish their base in Basra - Iraq!

* TTC is the first western film to show human civilization reduced to ashes

* TTC was released in the year that Guernica was bombed

* Arthur C. Clarke showed the movie to Stanley Kubrick when they began production on 2001: A Space Odyssey

* Homage was paid to TTC in the 1951 Ealing Comedy The Man in A White Suit

UFO Hacker Loses Another Appeal

2007-04-05T15:29:00.000+01:00

On Tuesday, April 03, 2007, "UFO Hacker" Gary McKinnon lost his final appeal against extradition in the High Court, London. Lord Justice Maurice Kay told him:

"We do not find any grounds of appeal against the decision.

"Mr McKinnon's conduct was intentional and calculated to influence and affect the U.S. government by intimidation and coercion.

"As a result of his conduct, damage was caused to computers by impairing their integrity, availability and operation of programs, systems, information and data on the computers, rendering them unreliable."

For more than a year he searched for evidence for the existence of UFOs and advanced technology by hacking into US military computer networks. His activities were not discovered until after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and it largely due to this context that the USA has been determined to take legal action against him.

Reaction to this latest legal decision has been rapid and mixed in the UFO community. On UFO Updates one contributer callously wrote:

"Dude is sooooo screwed!

"That'll be the title of the movie about McKinnon.

"When his butt hits the shores of this star spangled land he won't see the light of day again until Jesus comes back.

"There'll be more headshrinkers on him than paparazzi on Britney Spears.

"After they vacuum his brain and turn him into the newest version of Charlie McCarthy he'll be a good boy from then on.

"Watch to see if he'll panic and start telling more secrets to barter his way out of this.

"Let this be a lesson, do not mess with the U.S. Government."

A more sympathetic view was that:

"This is an absolute outrage!

"It could be competently argued that a current administration lets bona fide terrorists into this country fore and aft or North and South, but then interrupts that meager effort to
hazard and persecute comparative innocents!

"McKinnon's crime? He exposed a blithe governmental incompetence and a criminal disregard of our security... on the backs of billions of dollars allegedly spent to secure same!
McKinnon performed a service; they should let him go with a cash award and the thanks of a grateful nation!"

McKinnon's legal team had argued that his human rights were breached under Article Eight of the European Convention on Human Rights. In addition, it is alleged that the US authorities had claimed that they wanted to see him "fry" for his hacking crimes that caused nearly a million dollars worth of damage. He could face an undetermined length of imprisonment before any trial in the USA, and he would not be allowed to appeal or to spend any of his jail term in the UK.

McKinnon's fight against extradition has not come to an end as he plans to challenge the current ruling through the House of Lords.

Magonia Supplement

2007-03-10T21:28:00.000Z

Magonia Supplement has not been published since August last year. This is because of a shortage of suitable material and my recent house move.

I am now working on the latest issue, which is to include my review of the January 2007 issue of International UFO Reporter (Vol. 31 No. 1). This is because it is such an old-fashioned, nuts-and-bolts ETH publication, full of dozy speculations about alien visitors, and rehashes of old UFO reports, even those which have long since been explained, so there is plenty of scope for critial comment. Most of the material it publishes would certainly never get into the pages of Magonia or Magonia Supplement.

The main article is about the Big Sur (California) incident of September 1964 (even the precise date was not recorded by the witnesses), in which it is alleged that a UFO was observed and filmed circling a ballistic missile which was being tested, causing it to crash to earth prematurely. Opinions differ as to what really happened, but of course author Robert Hastings goes for the ETH interpretation. It is no doubt more popular with his audiences on his lecture tours.

The Dry-Cleaning Ufologist

2007-02-21T20:27:00.000Z

The editors of Magonia are fond of looking through copies of old UFO magazines in search of items which are interesting or amusing (usually unintentionally), or both. We recently came across this delightful account of an informal meeting of ufologists in the BUFORA Journal and Bulletin, Vol. 1, No. 3, Winter 1964:

B.U.F.O.R.A. MEETS Mr JOEL RHENSTROM FROM FINLAND
On January 29th, at Mrs. Lloyd's home, Mr. Creighton, Mrs. Lloyd, Mr. Oliver and myself had pleasure in meeting Mr. Joel Rhenstrom (whose address is Oitti, Finland). Mr. Rhenstrom is Information Secretary of INTERPLANETISTITRIY, which has about 50 members and is the only Finnish U.F.O. society. He was visiting London to study our dry-cleaning methods as he has his own business in Finland.

We learnt that "Lentava Lautanen" is Finnish for "Flying Saucer". Mr. Rhenstrom has published a few American saucer books in Finnish (bearing the cost out of his own pocket) and very kindly donated a book to our Library entitled "Olen Ollut Lentavalla Lautasella", which translates as "Inside the Spaceships" (by Adamski).

Swedish is the Finns' 'second' language and Mr. Rhenstrom remarked that on about January 20th this year, a Swedish evening paper published details of the Russian cave painting of a "Martian spaceman". It would seem that the Russians are preparing for the day when they can announce the reality of flying saucers. Our guest has tried to interest the air defence authorities in flying saucers, without apparent success. However, Mr. Creighton remarked that these authorities the world over are keenly interested in UFOs and probably know more than they let it be known.

We were told of a contactee story about a gardener, Mr. Valkeinen, who was fishing at a lonely lake in Finland in 1952, when an Adamski type saucer landed by the lakeside. The man was irresistibly drawn towards the UFO, which he entered, and met three short mongolian featured, yellow skinned men with large heads and short spindly legs. He conversed with them (telepathically?) in Finnish and was taken for a ride round the world, stopping at Lake Titicaca in Southern Peru. He apparently gained considerable knowledge of the world's history from his hosts, which he would have been unlikely to know about otherwise.

Our conversation covered trolls and other gnome-like creatures, and it was agreed that some of these creatures might well be UFO entities. Mr. Creighton has made a special point of meeting people claiming to have seen "little people" and feels that these often tie up with contactee reports.

B.U.F.O.R.A. wishes Mr. Rhenstrom and Interplanetistitriy every success with their activities. Last year we welcomed Miss Lou Zinnstag of Basle, Switzerland, and Mr. Rex Stanford of the U.S.A., and will be pleased to meet other overseas UFO researchers visiting London.

Lionel Beer - Publicity Officer

Distorted Memories

2006-11-09T20:01:00.000Z

Ever since Captain James McAndrew's The Roswell Report: Case Solved appeared in 1997, ufologists have ridiculed his suggestions that some of the details recalled by witnesses actually referred to events which took place some years after 1947, in particular that some of the reports of alien bodies, were distorted memories of the recovery of dummies used to test parachutes.

However, such confusion of the timing of events is not unusual when persons are asked to recall events which happened many years ago. In 1998 Peter Rogerson discussed the confusion which resulted when witnesses to the Goose Bay case of 1954 were interviewed about 13 years later. The following article appeared in Magonia 65, November 1998:

PETER ROGERSON'S NORTHERN ECHOES

There has been some scepticism expressed about the claim made by the United States Government in The Roswell Report: Case Solved, that people had misremembered incidents occurring in the 1950s as having happened at the time of Roswell. Surely memories cannot be that distorted, can they?

Historians who work with oral testimony, however, are familiar with just this sort of problem, as one of them writes:

"Memories play tricks, as drastic pruning commences very soon after an experience, one person's selective processes operating very differently from another's, offering several perceptions of even the most mundane incidents. Memory is a mixture of fact and opinion, full of inconsistencies and excisions. Events may be reinterpreted over time, may relate to occurrences which [either] had no great significance for, or made a huge impression on, a child; several may be telescoped together, or recalled out of order, whilst a person's role in them might be enlarged by wishful re-enactment. Some may remember events as participants, others retell a story based on hearsay which has been recounted many times over with embellishments at every telling." (Colwell, Stella, Teach Yourself Tracing Your Family Tree, Hodder, 1997, p. 11)

An interesting example of just such a memory distortion, compressing events which occurred over a decade apart can be found in Jenny Randles's Something in the Air, concerning the Goose Bay Stratocruiser case. Interviewed by Jenny Randles (presumably in the early 1990s), the chief stewardess recalled that after being quizzed before they left Heathrow, she was later asked to go to the Air Ministry with Lee Boyd and James Howard. They asked her if she often saw things, whether she was psychic and if she had seen fairies.

After further questions at the Ministry all three were introduced to a Professor Black, a psychiatrist. He asked about their perception and eyesight, and speculated about optical illusions and light refractions. Then, quite remarkably, the officials requested Daphne and the pilots to undergo hypnosis. Jenny goes on to say how remarkably early 1954 would be for hypnotic regression, and how all trace of this incident is gone from official files.

In fact the name Black is a vital clue here, for it allows us to identify the correct time in which these incidents occurred. The crew of the BOAC Stratocruiser did not meet 'Dr' Stephen Black (who may or may not have had a degree in psychology) in 1954 but in either 1967 or just possibly early 1968. And the meeting was not at the instigation of the Air Ministry, but that of the BBC, for the documentary UFOs and the People Who See Them broadcast on BBC 1 on 9 May 1968. A detailed review by John Harney appears in MUFOB, volume 1, number 3, pp 23-25, and was the subject of an editorial by Charles Bowen in FSR 14, 4, pp 1-2. Both these reviews note the BOAC crew's appearance in the programme. This study by Stephen Black was indeed remarkably prescient, anticipating much of the psychosocial ufology of the 1980s and 1990s. There is no doubt that the interview with Black that the chief stewardess recalls was for this programme (in which she appeared). The hypnosis was not exactly hypnotic regression, but was part of Black's testing of his theory that close-encounter UFO witnesses were deep-trance hypnotic subjects. He suggested that flickering light, the way people react in groups, and hypnosis could all combine to explain UFOs. Many of us would think he may have hit on something very important.

This case of memory distortion is very informative. Daphne the stewardess had correctly remembered the doctor's surname and his line of questioning, but had the time frame and context totally distorted. Another person may well have remembered the day when the interview took place, could have told you what the weather was like, but could not have remembered anything of what was asked. This inciedent proves that time compression over a decade is possible, and that there is nothing totally improbable about the USAF claims over Roswell.

How many other such cases of memory distortion are there in which groups of events thought to have occurred at roughly the same time occurred ages apart, and where context is misremembered? It reinforces the warning Stephen Smith (then BUFORA's director of research) gave at a conference a quarter of a century ago: there is little point in investigating cases much more than a week old, and that the aim should be no later than 48 hours. Today's ufologists are becoming obsessed with cases from half a century ago, for which original documentation is sparse, and memories confused with the passage of time.

Beware of The Pelican

2006-10-26T22:17:00.001+01:00

On Tuesday (24 October) a pelican caused a sensation in St James's Park, London, by scooping up a pigeon in its bill and eventually swallowing it. Ornithologists expressed amazement, saying they had never heard of pelicans consuming birds.

Magonia has a formidable bird of this type, known simply as The Pelican.

The Pelican does not eat pigeons (unless properly prepared and cooked) but does eat True Believer ufologists, together with some of the barmier sceptics who come to believe that almost all UFO incidents have the same explanation, e.g., mirages, meteors, electrical phenomena, etc.

However, The Pelican does not make unjustified attacks on his victims. As Chilean ufologist Diego Zúñiga once so rightly remarked: "El Pelícano es fuerte en sus apreciaciones, pero muy razonable." The Pelican proudly adopted this as his motto.

Richard Dolan - Scholar or Entertainer?

2006-10-19T22:05:00.000+01:00

Recently, on UFO UpDates, Alfred Lehmberg wrote, about Richard Dolan:

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.

Those Elusive Multiple Witnesses

2006-10-17T18:52:00.000+01:00

We are often told that UFOs are real "structured craft" because there are many multi-witness sightings, including some with idependent witnesses. Unfortunately, most multi-witness sightings are of the "lights in the sky" type which usually have fairly obvious explanations. Others fail to stand up to critical examination, as in the notorious Trindade case, where investigators failed to obtain any statements from the alleged multitude of witnesses, apart from the photographer Barauna and a few of his associates. Also, investigators seemed strangely unperturbed by their failure to obtain the negatives of the UFO photographs.

At least a great deal has been written about Trindade, both pro and con, but, so far as I know, the following report, recorded by Jacques Vallée ("The Pattern Behind the UFO Landings", Flying Saucer Review: The Humanoids, October/November 1966) has aroused no interest whatsoever:

In Monza (Italy) a man saw a light in a stadium and soon a crowd of 150 people gathered, destroyed the barriers and rushed to get a closer look. They saw a disc set on three legs, emitting a blinding white light. Figures dressed in light colours and wearing transparent helmets were standing close by. They seemed to communicate with "guttural sounds". One of them had a dark face and a sort of trunk, or hose, coming up to his face. The craft flew away without noise.

Vallée certainly doesn't have much to say about the case. All I can find is the following sentence in his book Challenge to Science (Jacques and Janine Vallée, Neville Spearman, London, 1967), which presumably refers to it:

In one case a crowd of 150 people reported seeing the craft and its operators.

So there we have it. On the face of it one of the most well-witnessed, close-up UFO landing and occupant reports ever, and nobody is interested. So is this a made-up story or a distorted account of a real incident? Does anyone have any further information about it?

Uniformed Ufologists

2006-10-15T22:04:00.000+01:00

Some UFO groups take themselves very seriously and devise various rules and regulations for the conduct of their members, especially concerning the interviewing of UFO witnesses. These rules can sometimes have unintended consequences, especially in the case of dress codes, which can lead to ridicule or confusion rather than the intended respect.

Some years ago an American group APRO (not the Lorenzens' one) announced that members would wear uniforms when investigating UFO incidents. APRO spokesman Bill Heft said: "The uniforms will consist of a black jacket, with black pants, black shoes and a crisp white shirt. The back of the jacket will identify the wearer as an APRO investigator."

There would also be a shoulder flash on the jacket and investigators would carry picture identification and a pocket badge. Heft said that the uniforms "will show the public that APRO is taking the investigating of UFOs very seriously". The shoulder flashes would show the 'rank' of members within the organisation. When asked if he was inspired by the MIB film, Heft replied that he got the idea from his local fire department.

In recording these interesting details in Magonia (No. 63, May 1998), editor John Rimmer commented: "In fact I quite like the idea of uniforms and 'rank' badges for ufologists (I originally typed 'ufologits' there, which seems somehow appropriate). Obviously the rank of 'Editor' would involve an awful lot of gold braid and flashy badges, but one can scarcely imagine what the splendour of the uniform would be like for 'Supreme Commander' Jim Moseley!"

Of course, some groups merely insist that their investigators should be neatly dressed, but even this can cause problems, as happened in northern England where dress codes were quite strict. For example, members of the Northern Anomalies Research Organisation (NARO) efficiently investigated and explained a multi-witness UFO report, only to become aware that reports were circulating that witnesses had been visited by the MIB. It was eventually realised that these people were simply NARO members wearing their regulation dark suits.

Magonia Supplement No. 62

2006-08-05T21:03:00.000+01:00

The main item in the latest edition of Magonia Supplement is an article by Matt Graeber on what he calls "Minisaucers" - small, UFO-like objects reported by witnesses usually indoors. He suggests psychological explanations, based on his interviews with witnesses.

John Rimmer reports on a recent UFO conference at which he was one of the speakers.

Peter Rogerson reviews three recent books, two on ghosts and one on religious cults.

The HTML edition is now available here.

Religious Aspects of UFO Belief and Scepticism

2006-07-06T22:01:00.000+01:00

Last year, Peter Rogerson wrote an interesting piece in which he compared different interpretations of ufology and UFO reports to different varieties of religious belief. This article appeared in Magonia 87, February 2005, and I think it deserves a wider readership. So here it is:

PETER ROGERSON'S NORTHERN ECHOES

It's been a while now since I last wrote a Northern Echoes, 1 September 2001 to be exact, and that one was a sort of elegy on childhood innocence lost and warm, safe summers in which flying saucers flew in the evening sunshine over small mid-western towns promising the ecstatic "freedom of flight". Too spooky for comfort in light of what happened 10 days later!

These sorts of odd, spooky experiences seem to lie at the heart of ufology and the paranormal, and underlie much of the passion in the subject. So much activity in these fields is aimed not at looking for evidence to find out what happened, but at finding what theologians call 'evidences' to provide proof of the existence of a transcendental realm. In the 17th century writers like Joseph Glanville, Henry Moore, and the Cottons collected tales of ghosts, witches and remarkable occurrences to provide illustrations of the "certainty of the world of spirits", and to marshal arguments to traduce 'sadducees' and atheists.

Ufological collections like Richard Hall's UFO Evidence perform the same function today, marshalling evidences of the "certainty of the world of extraterrestrials". UFO experiences join the 'wondrous experiences' which provide hints of a transcendental realm beyond the boundaries of the ordinary, and are therefore seen as ineffable, spiritual experiences, which would be profaned if they could be explained by waht the historian Walter Stephens calls nature and the imagination.

Though many ufologists profess that UFO experiences are generated by mortal extraterrestrials flying secular machines, their language and emotions suggest otherwise. If their dreams came true and the saucers landed on the White House lawn, they would become yet more parts of the mundane world. Ufologists would smirk for a while and sneer at sceptics, but it would only be a few years, possibly only months, before they started arguing that explaining this or that wondrous experience in terms of the 6.15 flying saucer flight to Zeta Reticuli was to reduce it to the prosaic and human. The ETs would have been demystified.

It is not the solution which attracts but the mystery, and arguments about the rrality of UFOs and psychical phenomena look as though they are coded God-talk. It's not about ETs and ectoplasm but about the existence of a sacred realm over and above what is seen as the world of the prosaic whichj crashes into our world transforming lives.

Ufology and related topics therefore have many of the properties of religions based on immediate personal experience, where all criticism is heresy, which devalues the meaning of the experience and denies the existence of an extramundane realm. But there is another religious tradition which has a surprisingly modern incarnation: the Protestant Puritan tradition which emphasises the primacy of God-given reason, sobriety and hard work. The Protestant work ethic places a strong opposition between reason and 'animal passion', hence its opposition to a set of human activities such as sex, drink, laziness etc. which are seen as disturbing this reason.

This movement led much of 19th-century reform, including temperance, rational recreation, anti-vice leagues, opposition to animal cruelty etc. One of its current incarnations is CSICOP. But most members of CSICOP are atheists and humanists; how can they be a religious body? There is no reason why religious traditions cannot survive in the absence of belief in an anthropomorphic god, and CSICOP shows many features of the Puritan tradition. It emphasises reason, hard work and application, it fights against perceived dangerous social ills, and appeals to a scientific natural theology, which, though clearly not of a traditional theistic nature, nevertheless holds at its heart a sense of the 'divine' harmony and beauty of the universe. CSICOP sees occult and paranormal beliefs as a kind of intellectual hard liquor threatening divine reason.

It has other attributes of a religion, offering conversion narratives from people who profess to have been mired in the sink of paranormalist sin until they were converted by attending a lecture or reading a book by James Randi, Paul Kurtz, etc., revealing the power of reason and setting them on the path of truth.

The current fear of occultism is rather new: there was no CSICOP up until the mid 1970s. For many years cultural elites in the West saw 'wondrous experiences' in eactly the way that Glanville, Baxter and Moore dis; as providing 'evidences' against atheism and materialism, and especially 'godless atheistic communism'. Puritans who might have been suspicious of ecstatic relgious experience were much more afraid of what might happen if the working class lost its fear of God and belief in the afterlife. They might want their goodies now and revolt. Furthermore, 'unbelief' was seen as subversive of Puritan standards across class lines and conducive to wild antinomian behaviour.Psychical researchers and parapsychologists pandered to the mood of upper-class fear, and presented their topics as defences against communism and as a defence of traditional values.

But by the late 1960s things began to change. With the rise of the permissive society, student revolt, new religious movements and the drug culture, the paranormal seemed less of a defence against antinomian wildness, than part of it, no longer a bulwark against atheistic communism and materialism but part of a wider irrationalist revolt, which threatened divine reason. Many scientists began to fear that having fought their way up the cultural ladder against traditional elites they might be dethrined almost at once.

CSICOP took up cudgels against these threats to reason, in particular the paranormal's apparent promise of something for nothing. Defence of the Puritan values of hard work and hard study became quite a major theme. Some, like Carl Sagan, saw science as the candle of reason in a darkness of irrational, dare one say, animal passions.

Thus two religious traditions, which we might identify as the Dionysian and the Apollonian battle on with their opposed views of the sacred. For the Dionysian the sacred lies in a transcendental realm crashing into the safe, rational world from some wilderness outside consensus reality, producing shattering spiritual experiences, affirmed by personal experience which must not be challenged by others.

For the Apollonian the sacred lies in the habitat of reason and responsible behaviour on the one hand, and the order and harmony of the universe conceived of as a mathematical habitat on the other.

And as the two lock horns they forget to notice the rise of a third religious tradition, that of the Holy One True Book interpreted as an office memo from God the Chief Executive or Village Elder.

'UFO Car' Beams Into Spotlight

2006-06-30T21:47:00.000+01:00

A thread was started recently on the UFO UpDates mailing list about the case of Deputy Sheriff Val Johnson of Marshall County, Minnesota, who apparently encountered a UFO while on patrol on 27 August 1979. His police car sustained damage in the incident, which greatly impressed the True Believers, who insisted that there could not be any mundane or conventional explanation for it.

A detailed report on the investigation of this case can be found here. The thread on UpDates has the same heading as the title of this item.

When I joined the discussion I was subjected to the usual insults ("pelicanist", "debunker", etc.), then the thread was suddenly terminated without explanation. However, I don't want my words of wisdom to be wasted, so here is the post I sent in and which did not appear on UpDates.

From: John Harney
Date: 22 June 2006 20:27
To: ufoupdates
Subject: Re: 'UFO Car' Beams Into Spotlight

> From: Jerome Clark
> To: ufoupdates
> Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2006 09:27:39 -0500
> Subject: Re: 'UFO Car' Beams Into Spotlight

> >From: Bruce Maccabee
> >To: ufoupdates
> >Date: Tue, 20 Jun 2006 12:45:58 -0400
> >Subject: 'UFO Car' Beams Into Spotlight

> >>From: John Harney
> >>To: ufoupdates
> >>Date: Sun, 18 Jun 2006 21:57:13 +0100
> >>Subject: Re: 'UFO Car' Beams Into Spotlight

> >>Yes the US Air Force got it right where UFOs were concerned.
> >>It's no use trying to wriggle out of it; in this case the
> >>evidence points to the damage to the car being done either by
> >>Johnson or by someone else (with or without his knowledge).
> >>However, it is unlikely that all the relevant facts will ever
> >>become available.

> >PJK recycled!

> >Very well.

> >In the interest of the preservation of law and order you
should
> >write to the Chief of Police in Warren, Minnesota to tell him
> >that all evidence points toward Val Johnson (or someone else
> >known or unknown to him) as the cause of the damage to the
> >police car and that he should therefore be punished.

> In order to "solve" UFO cases pelicanist-style,

Jerry,

If you had bothered to read my postings you would notice that I
did _not_ claim to have solved the case. I merely pointed out
that, as the damage to the police car was evidently deliberate,
then either Johnson or someone else must have done it. It's just
elementary logic.

>it always helps

> (1) to have had no involvement whatever in the investigation
> (conducted in what anybody with any common sense - to borrow a
> phrase - would recognize as a thorough fashion by Allan Hendry
> [whom pelicanists, knowledgeable readers will note with
> amusement, customarily regard as the last word whenever he
> rendered a conclusion they want to hear] almost immediately
> after the incident's occurrence);

Hendry can't be expected to get it right every time.

> (2) to live an ocean away from the scene and the persons
> involved, therefore ensuring that no inconvenient reality
> interferes with the joy of airy speculation and character
> assassination;

Don't be silly Jerry; following where the evidence leads is not
airy speculation and it is certainly not character assassination.
You really must try to look at these things objectively. As I
said, perhaps someone else did the damage (character
assassination of unknown character?), but you can't just wave the
evidence aside just because you want to preserve the air of
spurious mystery which gets attached to such cases.

> (3) and, to of course, to possess a beak, wings, and the
ability
> to squawk in convincingly avian fashion and to the satisfaction
> of fellow flock members, if to nobody else's.

Now you're getting really silly.

> I would say that this thread has been a waste of time and band-
> width, Bruce. You did a fine job, but it was, as is so often
the
> case with these birds, utterly without point or purpose.

He hasn't done a fine job, he has just brushed aside or ignored
the points I raised.

>One
> could as easily deflect the moon from its course via
> psychokinetic powers as to challenge a pelicanist's touching
> faith that all is safe and ordinary in the world Next time,
just
> try to resist the temptation. I, of course, lay claim to no
> perfection in this regard, but I'm trying, too.

That's right, ignore all the weaknesses and unanswered questions
in these UFO cases, resort to inane insults when you are losing
the argument, and always tell the True Believers what they want
to hear.

John Harney

Your comments would be welcome.

Magonia Supplement No. 61

2006-05-24T18:51:00.000+01:00

In the latest issue of Magonia Supplement Martin Kottmeyer investigates the "collective shame" theory of UFO flaps, arguing that there is some evidence that the hurricane Katrina debacle was associated with a significant increase in UFO reports in the USA.

John Harney argues that the fondness of "serious ufologists" for the ETH ensures that the subject will never be taken seriously by mainstream science.

Peter Rogerson reviews Jerome Clark's The Unidentified and Loren Coleman's Creatures of the Outer Edge, now republished under one cover, and there are Notes and News from Nigel Watson.

The HTML edition is now available here.

Don't Miss Your Chance to Win £100

2006-05-16T21:58:00.000+01:00

This is a reminder that the closing date for the Roger Sandell Memorial Essay Competition is 1 June. If you have any ideas about the set subjects, just write us an essay and you get the chance to win £100. There is no entrance fee. The details are here.

Chilean UFO Magazine to Close

2006-05-07T17:46:00.000+01:00

The Chilean UFO magazine La Nave de los Locos is to cease publication with a special issue in September. It began in April 2000, and the editors are proud of having produced "more than 1500 pages of the best ufology published in Spanish". They have specialised in in-depth analyses of UFO reports and exposés of dishonest ufologists. Editor Diego Zúñiga writes that "... we have wiped the floor with some swindlers and sellers of illusions".

The La Nave de los Locos web site is to be maintained and updated, and the editors will contribute articles to magazines and other media. If you are interested and can read Spanish you can find further details here.

More on UFOs as Folklore

2006-05-01T17:05:00.000+01:00

On reading my recent posting on UFOs as modern folklore, excitable ufologist Stuart Miller, instead of attaching a comment to it, posted it to UFO UpDates, adding his own somewhat hyperbolic comments. This produced the expected hysterical response, which fully confirms the truth of my comments in my previous posting.

When Christopher Allan sent a posting generally supporting my approach to the subject, he was challenged by Don Ledger to explain a UFO report which was an Airmiss report from an aircraft near Manchester Airport in January 1995. I wrote in pointing out that this had been explained years ago by Jenny Randles as a meteor. This was not acceptable to Ledger, who wrote: "It doesn't really matter what Jenny says She's no expert in this area. She really should stay out of air cases." Some people don't want explanations; they will accept nothing less than the space aliens and their saucers.

Many thanks to those of you who added your comments on this topic.

May Magonia Readers' Meeting

2006-04-28T20:16:00.000+01:00

For any of you who are visiting or live in the London area (and are over 18 years old), this is a reminder that our informal May Readers' Meeting will be held on Sunday 7th, from about 7.15 p.m. at the Railway, Putney, opposite Putney station and about 10 minutes' walk from East Putney station. Drinks on sale include a selection of real ales, and meals and snacks are available, all at reasonable prices. To find our table just look for The Pelican.

Ufology as Modern Folklore

2006-04-25T19:02:00.000+01:00

I am attempting to write an article for the next issue of Magonia Supplement on the general theme that the whole UFOs and ufology business is nothing more than a modern myth, which is best studied by folklorists, psychologists and sociologists, rather than astronomers, physicists (nuclear or otherwise!), and self-styled "Serious Ufologists", most of whom are self-deluded buffoons.

The general idea is to dispel the lies, delusions and paranoid fantasies, by such methods as pointing out that reports of apparent "true UFOs" never stand up to critical examination. Your comments on this theme are welcome (but remember that comments are moderated).

Roger Sandell Memorial Essay Competition

2006-04-18T20:25:00.000+01:00

Magonia is marking the 10th anniversary of the death of our friend and colleague Roger Sandell with an essay competition. You have a choice of two topics - Conspiracy Theories, and Make Ufology History.

The winner will receive a prize of £100 (or equivalent) and there is no entrance fee. The closing date for receipt of entries is 1 June 2006. If you are interested you will find further details here.

Alien Autopsy

2006-04-17T10:51:00.000+01:00

UFO Updates has stopped discussion of this fake film, which is very unsporting of them.

I remember at the Fortean Times Unconvention in 1997 that most of the people in the audience were very sceptical of the footage. Philip Mantle worked hard to promote the film and to present it to the 'UFO Community' now (in The Sunday Times, April 16)he says he's pleased that it has been revealed to be a hoax.

Meanwhile, Santilli admits the film was faked to reproduce the genuine film that got destroyed.

Both Mantel and Santilli want their cake and eat it. For us cynics can it be more than a coincidence that these 'revelations' are being made as the Ant and Dec, Alien Autopsy movie is put on general release in Britain.

Psst, anyone want to buy my genuine pictures of an honest ufologist.

Wickedpedia

2006-04-14T13:37:00.000+01:00

Like some famous American politicians my entry on the Wikipedia website has been corrupted. It starts off fine then this paragraph has been inserted:

'For many years Nigel Watson lived as an animal roaming the moors of England attempting to recreate in his mind what it must have been like to be one of the "Hounds(s) of the Baskervilles" as set forth by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He felt that if he were to live an experience that Sherlock Holmes was familiar with he would gain greater insight into logical reasoning. For more than three years he lived in the moors and highlands raoming them naked and living off only that which the moors gave him to eat. He caused a minor stir in 2003 when a Catholic Nun saw him and was convinced that she had seen "Bigfoot," which is understandable as Nigel Watson is notable for an excess amount of body hair.'

This is obviously untrue because I don't have much body hair and the Nun knows nothing, honest!

Sci-Fi London Festival

2006-04-12T10:28:00.000+01:00

The UK’s only dedicated SF and Fantastic film festival,runs from 26 to 30 April 2006

The festival takes place at the new APOLLO WEST END cinema in Lower Regent Street, central London. Besides having a range of films that cover alternative histories and 'posthuman' androids one film is of specific interest to us. Here's what their enthusiatic press release says about it:

FIRST ON THE MOON (Perviyje na lune) (Russia 2005, Dir: Aleksey Fedorchenko, 75mins Colour & b/w)

A wonderful “alternative history” told with style, this "mockumentary" mixes facts and fantasy, vintage footage, and fake footage to show the successes and failures, the injustices and contradictions in Stalinist Russia, using the space program as the basis.

The film begins in the spring of 1938, in the mountains of northern Chile, where a flying object fell, in flames. Investigation by a film crew uncovers a secret space program developed in the Soviet Union before World War II. Scientists and military authorities, the film would have you believe, had developed a spaceship 23 years before Yuri Gagarin ever went to space.

The perfect timing of each scene, the meticulous attention to detail, the amazing amateur cast (none of the actors have appeared in a film before) the deadpan voice-over, the humour, and even the surprisingly moving tragic scenes - if you know anything at all about Russia, there's everything to guarantee that you'll love this film.

***

Is it really a piece of fiction, or part of the on-going propoganda programme to get us used to the concept of alien contact and reverse-technology? Que X-Files music and run credits...

Details of the event can be found at:

www.sci-fi-london.com.

Liars

2006-04-09T18:35:00.000+01:00

Today's Sunday Telegraph carries an interesting report about the sort of people we are all too familiar with in ufology - those who tell lies about their military service. The people mentioned in the reports are not ufologists so it perhaps took a little longer to unmask them, as their stories - unlike those of some of those who claim to know about UFO crashes, etc. - had a certain plausibility.

One of these people was Lisa Jane Phillips, a prize-winning university student at Meredith College who was also a US Air Force pilot, with the rank of captain, who flew over to Afghanistan or Iraq at weekends. Her college was so impressed that it waived tuition fees of $42,178 and invited her into tutorials to talk to other students about "what it's really like over there".

This went on for over three years until Frank Strickland, "Meredith's on-campus police chief", finally became suspicious. As a veteran of Vietnam, he found her stories of weekend sorties to the Middle East "a little far fetched". He finally became really incredulous when he noticed that "one of the many medals on Phillips's chest was awarded to those who had seen action in the Second World War", which was a bit odd for someone aged 34. When interviewed by the FBI, Phillips admitted that she had never served in the American armed forces.

Now Congressman John Salazar of Colorado has introduced a bill to increase the penalties for practising such deceptions.

At least those mentioned in this report admitted their guilt when they were found out, unlike certain ufologists and persons claiming knowledge of UFO secrets who insist that their military records must have been destroyed or tampered with as part of an evil government conspiracy. It is apparently not uncommon for people to lie about their military service and it is even more common for them to lie about their professional and academic qualifications.

Some of these dishonest folk are rather crafty, though. They never lie about anything that can be independently verified, so you can't easily catch them out, even though some of their claims seem just a teeny bit implausible. Does that remind you of certain prominent ufologists?

UFO "Documentaries" and "Serious Ufologists"

2006-04-07T21:20:00.000+01:00

The "Serious Ufologists" are at it again on UFO UpDates, complaining about being made to look like fools in TV "documentaries". Of course, it might help if they refrained from their inane speculations about government secrecy and ET spacecraft, and publishing such stuff on websites and in UFO journals, and at those crazy conferences.

Surely they realise that so-called documentaries about UFOs or other "fringe" topics are produced in order to provide popular entertainment, rather than setting out the facts? Anyway, on those few occasions when serious documentaries are produced, they are met with a barrage of protests by ETH believers among ufologists and the general public. This is what happened when a BBC radio programme set out the findings of David Clarke and Andy Roberts concerning Rendlesham and the Berwyn Mountain cases. The Berwyn case was explained to the general satisfaction of most sane people, but few such people are much interested in UFO stories. The reaction of listeners was somewhat unfavourable because they hadn't been told what they wanted to hear.

So, let the "Serious Ufologists" produce their own documentaries, record them on DVDs, or make them available for downloading, at reasonable prices. However, if they can't get together convincing evidence for the reality (i.e. the ETH explanation) of UFOs, then they can't reasonably expect the producers of TV documentaries to do so.

April Readers' Meeting

2006-04-03T19:31:00.000+01:00

We had forgotten that the first Sunday in April this year was Boat Race day until it was too late to change the date of our Magonia Readers' Meeting. The Railway in Putney was somewhat overcrowded. In our picture, Magonia editor John Rimmer poses with our mascot, The Pelican.

BUFORA Blues

2006-03-30T20:02:00.000+01:00

BUFORA has stopped publishing its journal, ceased giving public lectures (more devoted to entertainment than information), and yesterday I learned that it has started publishing a series of articles on its web site by none other than Alfred Lehmburg, whose incoherent ramblings and ferocious attacks on the even mildly sceptical can be found on UFO UpDates, and numerous other mailing lists and blogs. What next?

New Magonia blog

2006-03-29T15:01:00.000+01:00

This blog is devoted to comments, mainly about UFOs, including any of the topics discussed in Magonia and Magonia Supplement. Your comments are welcome.