History of Mystery - UfO part 8

DNA, Kary Mullis and Jurassic Park 

We are just taking a detour today - why? because we can and we want to cover all our bases. 

The early 90's is quite an extraordinary time with regard to the UfO story, but lets just have a look at some interesting events that played a pivotal role in the thinking and development of these extraordinary times. 

Well in the early 1990's Whilst I was busy exploring mysteries and conspiracies there were some pretty important and world changing events

Mandela walking out of Victor Vester prison outside Cape Town as a free man, 11 February 1990

Kurt Cobain committed suicide

or . . .

Did he?

AND . . .

Jurassic Park

Now I mention these three seemingly random and unrelated events merely to paint a backdrop to the particular time in which we are talking about

Jurassic Park, however, is going to play an important role in our discussion - particularly related to this idea of a materialistic world-view. This is obviously the central premise of this piece of evolutionary propaganda. (you think movies are made just for entertainment?)

Section One

The basis of the story pivots around a specific scientific finding. . . In the film, scientists extract dinosaur blood from the gut of a prehistoric mosquito, preserved in amber. 

They then use the DNA in the dinosaur blood to revive various extinct species of dinosaurs who then proceed to create madness and mayhem on the island.

ok firstly . . . Back to School 

DNA was first identified and isolated by Miescher in 1869 at the University of Tübingen, a substance he called nuclein, and the double helix structure of DNA was first discovered in 1953 by Watson and Crick at the University of Cambridge, using experimental data collected by Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins.

The following is taken from Genetics Home Reference

•  NA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms. Nearly every cell in a person’s body has the same DNA. 
• Most DNA is located in the cell nucleus (where it is called nuclear DNA)
• The information in DNA is stored as a code made up of four chemical bases: adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and thymine (T). Human DNA consists of about 3 billion bases, and more than 99 percent of those bases are the same in all people. 
• The order, or sequence, of these bases determines the information available for building and maintaining an organism, similar to the way in which letters of the alphabet appear in a certain order to form words and sentences.
• DNA bases pair up with each other, A with T and C with G, to form units called base pairs. Each base is also attached to a sugar molecule and a phosphate molecule. Together, a base, sugar, and phosphate are called a nucleotide. 
• Nucleotides are arranged in two long strands that form a spiral called a double helix. 
• The structure of the double helix is somewhat like a ladder, with the base pairs forming the ladder’s rungs and the sugar and phosphate molecules forming the vertical sidepieces of the ladder.
• An important property of DNA is that it can replicate, or make copies of itself. Each strand of DNA in the double helix can serve as a pattern for duplicating the sequence of bases. This is critical when cells divide because each new cell needs to have an exact copy of the DNA present in the old cell.

Thats about all my little brain can take in right now, 

Just as an aside I always wonder if I could zoom down to the size of a cell, is that what I would be looking at (the double helix) or is that a diagrammatic construct that gives us a visual aid to something thats too small for the eye to see? Its all very interesting to me and I find it quite sad that I never took science class very seriously when I was young. So maybe we can try to piece it all together in future blogs - just one bit at time so we don't get too confused . . .
anyway back to Jurassic Park. . .

So how do we extract this DNA from a dead fossil and build a living organism?

What on earth made this idea possible albeit theoretically? 

 Although molecular genetic research has gone on since the mid 1980s, apparently there has been research using ancient remains such as mummies, plant remains, and fossils going back to the 1930s.

 Most recent attempts at reviving an extinct species was an attempt to clone the Qagga which is a more recently extinct creature. The next goal was to get the DNA code from something far more ancient. The best preserved ancient bodies available are, ancient mummies.

The tremendous strides made towards isolating a DNA gene created a powerful optimistic atmosphere, it was confidently proclaimed that this research was going to prove the development of DNA in ancient fossils. The hope was to see a demonstrable changes in the DNA strain and thereby provide evidence once for all to prove the process of change and mutation in the theory of evolution.

But they soon hit upon a snag - this was the simple fact that ancient DNA was damaged and the chief damage was caused immediately upon death.  

What is needed is a "Genome Template" in other words they need to have an intact genetic code to copy and paste (I admit my limitations in understanding this). But this is not that simple a process.
DNA simply degrades over time and there was never a scenario where scientists could ever realistically hope to reproduce an ancient life.

section 2

So another amazing event occurred in the early 90's 

Enter Kary Mullis 

http://www.karymullis.com/altermune.shtml

Dr. Mullis received a Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1993, for his invention of the POLYMERASE CHAIN REACTION or (PCR). 

This discovery was (in my layman understanding). . . a method used to amplify (or multiply) DNA particles, by this the PCR process causes a microscopic strand of genetic material to multiply itself billions of times within a few hours (how? I couldn't tell you)

http://www.karymullis.com/pcr.shtml

Nobel Prize Winners 1993 - I'm assuming thats Kary at bottom left corner

It was this process of reproducing DNA strains in ancient fossils and recreating, theoretically at least,  extinct creatures such as the dinosaurs.  

The process has multiple applications in medicine, genetics, biotechnology, and forensics. PCR, which was the theoretical basis for the novel and motion picture Jurassic Park because of its ability to extract DNA from fossils, is in reality the basis of a new scientific discipline, paleobiology.

With renewed passion a special taks force was headed up a a team of scientists headed by Edward M. Golenberg who had been interested in using PCR on aDNA for some time.
So began another attempt to track the changes in DNA in ancient fossils and again to find the truth of evolution in the DNA record.

http://bio.wayne.edu/profhtml/golen/golenberg.html

In 1990, Golenberg and his team set about extracting DNA from the 20 million year old Miocene plant fossil and guess what? they discovered it was found to differ from living relatives by 17 base pairs which apparently is quite significant!

They then extracted the DNA they found a fossilised termite. The DNA was sequenced, and it too was analysed and found to differ from living species, this time by 10%.

They then tried it on some beetles fossilised in Amber (just like Jurassic Park)  the results were released around the time Jurassic park was published and the idea exploded. Insects in amber were in high demand.

Now one must keep in mind all the hype that came out at this time, together with the making of the film. No-body accepted the idea that Dinosaurs could be created anytime soon of course. But the general public was nevertheless thoroughly indoctrinated with idea that evolutionary processes were observable in the fossil record.

But the conclusions were loudly celebrated before the results were concluded

Enter Tomas Lindahl

http://www.sussex.ac.uk/broadcast/read/19992

Not so loudly announced was the entry upon the scene of a certain Tomas Lindahl, a Swedish born scientist with a background in cancer research.

He made it clear from the outset that he was not so sure about any such conclusive proof of evolutionary traits in fossilised DNA . Again to put it simply. . . he simply doubted whether the DNA molecule can survive for such long periods of time.

He demonstrated that in order to obtain the samples they had to be contaminated in the process. 

Obviously creating a false result. Also he raised an objection that the extraction of DNA samples totally destroyed the fossil sample they were taken from. So having established these a huge outcry went out about the destruction of rare and precious fossil finds.

In 1993 he published a major critical review of the reports outlining the problems associated with aDNA preservation in fossils. Suddenly it was a race against time to prevent more fossils being destroyed for worthless DNA.

This blew the lid off the whole experiment, to further its demise the scientists were not allowed any more access to precious fossils, but , very importantly as it turned out, they returned to working with the same samples they used previously they discovered the results were totally un-replicable.

Lindahl was right. The millions of years old aDNA samples were just contaminants. By the end of the craze around 1996, reports of ancient DNA from fossils were met with widespread scepticism.

read the whole article in scientific American HERE

Well what has this got to do with UfO's you may ask?

The whole UfO story is a very complex situation in which our view of reality is being completely challenged.

My Issue is with the "Materialist" world view 

1. It places so many limits on our assumptions that, to my thinking, creates a huge problem on our interpretation and understanding of the world we live in.
2. The problems are also associated with a "uniformitarian" understanding of world History that simply means the conditions of the world are as they always have been and this universe developed in exactly the same environment we have around us today. A big topic to be sure but we can and will go there.
3. The narrowminded idea that there are a limits to dimensionality and our own physical dimension is the only reality there is. We can see that even materialist approach to scientific study observes all kinds of anomalies and in the end they find its all so much vaster and smaller and higher and longer than they ever imagined, and the very fabric of reality is not as straightforward as the paradigm would have us believe. A huge topic . . . and we can and will go there too.

There are so many examples of these basic premises that are rendered totally useless in the light of people's experiences, UfO reports are really just the tip of an enormous iceberg of anomalies and sightings and experiences that totally demolish the idea that our material world is the only truth in people's experiences.

We will have al look at as many of these events as we can - there are so many we simply do not have the space or time for everything.

But getting back to to Kary Mullins

Now I have to be fair and admit from the start that he certainly is a bit "different" when thinking about the image we have in mind of the average scientist.

It seems to be that he indeed goes out of his way to present himself as an independent thinker, a rebel and non-conformist. Personally I find that quite appealing.

Certainly not your average white coated laboratory geek with his his eye clamped over a microscope and clipboard in hand
He's also great fun to listen to Kary Mullis on TED

No not so our Kary, his image of himself is presented with Clarity on his website where his "Devil may Care" attitude is demonstrated with his nonchalent pose with feet up on his desk (shown above)


He has written an autobiographical book titled Dancing Naked in the Mind Field (published by Pantheon Books in 1998), in which he is seen with surfboard and DNA strain together on the cover the "maverick genius".

Well having said all that lets just have a look at his achievements 

Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1966. He earned a Ph.D. degree in biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1972 and lectured in biochemistry there until 1973. That year, Dr. Mullis became a postdoctoral fellow in pediatric cardiology at the University of Kansas Medical School, with emphasis in the areas of angiotensin and pulmonary vascular physiology. In 1977 he began two years of postdoctoral work in pharmaceutical chemistry at the University of California, San Francisco.

Dr. Mullis joined the Cetus Corporation in Emeryville, California, as a DNA chemist in 1979. During his seven years there, he conducted research on oligonucleotide synthesis and invented the polymerase chain reaction.

In 1986, he was named director of molecular biology at Xytronyx, Inc. in San Diego, where his work was concentrated in DNA technology and photochemistry. In 1987 began consulting on nucleic acid chemistry for more than a dozen corporations, including Angenics, Cytometrics, Eastman Kodak, Abbott Labs, Milligen/Biosearch, and Specialty Laboratories.
Kary's Website

Not bad:  I think he probably feels quite satisfied with his accomplishments and we would have to agree he is a pretty clever guy. 

That doesn't mean he doesn't have issues just like the rest of us, but it does mean that when it comes to out of this world experiences he is not just some fringe nut . . . I think we can safely assume that. 

OK , so in his autobiography Dancing Naked in the Mind Field he tells a really bizarre story in chapter 13 which I will summarise below. . .

I must say he has a great sense of humour and I found myself chuckling along with his account, but it also does describe a rather sinister tale which he feels important enough to add to his autobiograhy.

He begins by giving us the background to a very unusual event, which he is reluctant to categorise but does draw a parallel to "alien intervention".

He bought a property in 1975 I along the Navarro River in Mendocino County, California. It was a retreat and he explains it was a place to cultivate trees, but was more a good escape to go to on weekends.

He tells how he travelled there on his own and arrived around midnight. He describes a rather dark and eerie path he had to take to get down to the outside Loo. He was about to go round a turn in the path when he noticed . . .

"at the far end of the path, under a fir tree, there was something glowing. I pointed my flashlight at it anyhow. It only made it whiter where the beam landed. It seemed to be a raccoon. I wasn't frightened. Later, I wondered if it could have been a hologram, projected from God knows where.
The raccoon spoke. "Good evening, doctor," it said. I said something back, I don't remember what, probably, "Hello."
The next thing I remember, it was early in the morning. I was walking along a road uphill from my house. What went through my head as I walked down toward my house was, "What the hell am I doing here?" I had no memory of the night before. I thought maybe I had passed out and spent the night outside. But nights are damp in the summer in Mendocino, and my clothes were dry, and they weren't dirty.

In his house he felt disorientated and confuse, the events of the previous night slowly came to mind and he ran out to look for his flashlight. Upon returning he felt exhausted and slept for several hours. 

later that day he went down from the cabin to clean out a blocked pipe that fed a pond. So he headed toward the woods where there was a spring that watered the pond. He then began to experience fear and panic as he walked into that area of the woods.

He could not bring himself to go near to this place which was difficult to understand since previously he had always enjoyed going there. It took him a couple of years to get the courage to go back there. He describes getting an automatic rifle, attaching a new torch onto the end with some tape and heading off to the woods. . . 

"I stood outside the first trees and yelled into the dark. "This is my property, and I'm coming in. Anything moves - I'll shoot it. If it doesn't move, I may shoot it anyhow. I'm pissed off." I was yelling really loud. "Get out of my woods. Now. If you can't move, scream. Maybe I'll have mercy. Maybe not. Get the fuck out of my woods." John Wayne would not have said "fuck," but times have changed.
I felt like that kind of screaming would at least clear out anybody who was innocently there. It was also part of the therapy. My D-cells cut a clean beam into the darkest part of the forest. There was a giant old hollowed laurel growing right out of a little waterfall full of ferns. I was fifty feet away from it. I loved it, but it had become the focus of my fears. John Wayne, at my side, wearing the same kind of hat I had donned for the occasion, said, "Let 'em have it, kid." I opened up with the AR-15 and riddled the area of the laurel. "Blow 'em to hell, kid!"

But here's a really strange connection

He describes going into a bookstore sometime later. There he sees Whitley Strieber's book Communion. 

Striker's account of a strange experience in his own cabin in the woods "He wrote of waking up in his cabin in the woods of New York State and seeing an owl staring at him. He spoke to the owl, then two beings, who looked like the figure on the cover of the book, appeared in his doorway and escorted him out of the house."

And then even Stranger . . . 

His daughter Louise then phones him while he is busy reading the book and says

"Dad, there's a book I want you to read. It's called Communion."
"I'm reading it right now."
She began to tell me what had happened to her in Mendocino. She had arrived at the house with her fiancé late one night. And just like me, she had wandered down the hill.

She was gone for three hours. Her fiancé had spent the time frantically searching for her everywhere, calling her name, but she was nowhere to be found.
The first thing she remembered was walking the same road on which I’d found myself, hearing her fiancé calling her name. She had no idea where she had been.
When she saw the book, she had experienced the same sort of vague recognition as I had. After she finished telling me her story, I told her about my experience. It was the first time I’d told anyone."

I love his statement about the event 

I wouldn’t try to publish a scientific paper about these things, because I can’t do any experiments. I can’t make glowing raccoons appear. I can’t buy them from a scientific supply house to study. I can’t cause myself to be lost again for several hours. 

But I don’t deny what happened. It’s what science calls anecdotal, because it only happened in a way that you can’t reproduce.  .  .  But it happened.

He is saying that the scientific fraternity is limited in examining this event because it simply has no frame of reference in which to deal with it, but he adds with certainty that "it was real" .

This so beautifully illustrates what generally happens with these kinds of reports.The people involved are told they are hallucinating or dreaming or lying, anything that can fit within the limitations of the materialistic viewpoint of reality.

 I can only say that our limited frame of reference is just that: Limited. This doesn't mean our white jacketed guys won't figure it out eventually but I submit that the frame of reference that materialistic world view will have to shift as well, but this will be seen in the science itself and in fact it already has. . .

Next: This Story was picked up by Australian UFO Research Network 

History of Mystery - UfO part 7

Whatever Happened to Dr Kala Turner? part 1

Dr. Karla Turner addressing a group on her abduction experiences

Who was Dr Karla Turner?

Karla Turner was widely respected in the UFO community for her research on alien abduction. 

she was a lecturer with a Ph.D. in Old English studies and taught at the university level in Texas for more than ten years.

1988 - Karla Turner's blissfully successful American lifestyle life was about to undergo a dramatic change.

She experienced, with her family a series of events that were so bizarre and so terrifying that she came to a decision to quit her professional career and begin researching, writing and discussing these events in an effort to understand them and also to help others. 

Her first book, Into the Fringe (Berkley Books, 1992), 

told of her own experiences and those of her family.

Her second book, Taken

Inside the Alien-Human Abduction Agenda (Kelt Works, 1994), profiled the abduction stories of eight women whose experiences included both "alien" and human intrusions, and both benign and negative elements, illustrating the profoundly complex nature of the abduction mystery.

Her most recent book, Masquerade of Angels (Kelt Works, 1994), 

Was co-written with psychic Ted Rice and recounts Ted's lifelong encounters with strange entities whose identity hovered in a shadowland between angelic and demonic.

Another reference to the "demonic" and "angels" As we will see Dr. Turner and her husband's involvement in this phenomena is as extensive as any other person who has ever studied these things.

Whilst other abduction researchers such as Bud Hopkins and Dr. John Mack did not apparently have an abduction experience (Hopkins was a UfO witness) Karla turner and her family experienced the phenomena first hand and tried to examine the experience from as logical and scientific standpoint possible.

A Psychic?

But, again, the question arises - what is the necessity for including a psychic in an objective Scientific study? 

The reference to the demonic and use of occult practitioners is once again, the underlying thread. . .

In masquerade of angels Ted Rice reportedly mentions

  “You know, the aliens, or spirits or whatever they were, kept telling me to write a book, to call it ‘The Light Worker,’ and I think that’s what I should do. Only I can’t call it by that title and play into their hands promoting their goodness and kindness. I’ve got to call it something else, something that will be closer to the truth as I see it.”

According to Karla these beings were anything but good, more like deceptive, constantly contradicting themselves and outright liars.

The Veil

This gives us a clue as to where all the derision comes from in the so called "scientific community". Anything that sounds "religious"(in its broadest possible defination) is outside the realm of the materialist view of reality.
This is the "veil" that we will see, separates our present world and the world of the unseen.
We all are born in this materialistic reality which is our "official" view in education and the media and are thoroughly indoctrinated in this throughout our lives.
The obvious problem with this viewpoint is any phenomena or happening that occurs outside of this accepted paradigm that cannot be tagged and placed in a "materialistic scientific box" is either written off as delusional or given a materialistic explanation which bears no resemblance to what was originally reported. 

Another Awakening !

Back to Dr. Karla Turner, in her book "Into the Fringe" she describes a very interesting beginning to her story. It aroused my interest since it was a similar experience that sparked my own little quest.

She explains that she and her family were not given to fanciful delusions but were also not close-minded about the topic of aliens. Anyway it was not a subject she considered as particularly important. So just what was it that got her onto this "fringe" path?

So one fine day that was much like any other day . . .

"quite inexplicably while teaching a freshman course in argument and logic I did something I'd never done before in my eight years as a university instructor: I brought up the subject of UFOs in class, as part of an assignment.

UFOs were one of three topics, actually, including the Loch Ness monster and Bigfoot, and my students were asked to make an objective evaluation of the evidence pertaining to one of these phenomena. I chose these three because I assumed the evidence would be weak and inconclusive when examined from a clear-thinking, insightful, educated point of view. In truth, however, I had never really looked at the evidence with more than a passing curiosity. . ."

The assignment began to arouse her interest until one day, she continues . . .

"I suddenly decided to buy a paperback I'd seen for months at the mall bookstore, one which had never interested me before: Communion, by Whitley Strieber.

UfO sightings is one thing but . . . Abduction . . . maybe going a bit too far?

Now this book is a very pivotal book in the whole UfO phenomena and apparently in Dr Karla Turner's Life and to some extent. . .

 . . .in my life as well.

Remembering back to 1987

• It's a fascinating Story in itself, I remember when it came out in 1987 at this stage of my life I was not particularly interested in the story and had a healthy dose of skepticism towards the idea. But it was on TV being discussed on various shows and became quite a worldwide sensation.
• I had not really heard much about "Alien Abduction" stories and the small amount of information I had heard presumed that some cookie people had been affected by sleep paralysis or hallucinations and needed either psychiatric care or were desperately looking for attention. 
• I have a vague memory of the book being discussed on TV and of course the element that I clearly remember is the book was released as non-fiction. Whitley Strieber was insisting that it was a genuine   experience. Notice the book cover "A true Story".

This was being ridiculed as preposterous and would have remained that way if not for the enormous response the book received. But firstly lets just have a quick look at Whitley Strieber. . .

Whitely Strieber: More to him than meets the eye

He worked for several advertising firms in New York City, rising to the level of vice president before leaving in 1977 to pursue a writing career.
Became a successful horror story writer. The Wolfen (1981) and The Hunger (1983), for which he earned renown as one of the best of the "new wave" of horror writers. Both of these novels were made into films.

Right: Strieber promoting his new book, Solving the Communion Enigma, which takes a radical new look both at his own close encounter experiences as well as the nature of the alien experience and human life itself.

It is quite an interesting point of interest - Streiber's fascination for the "Dark side"

• 1986 - Strieber's fantasy novel Catmagic was published with co-authorship credited to Jonathan Barry, who was billed as an aerospace industry consultant and a practicing witch.

• (This is an interesting connection we have to return to later)

• In the 1987 paperback edition, Strieber states that Jonathan Barry is fictitious and that he is the sole author of Catmagic (?!)Well this is all related to his penchant for the horror story genre . . .I guess.

• He has been, understandably, accused of using his flights of imagination in his communion book, and it is really just another horror story that exists mostly in his own imagination a kind of pseudo reality kind of "blair witch project" type of idea . . .perhaps.

• The crossing over from horror story writer to Alien Abductee Victim can understandably only give Whitley some credibility problems. He has countered these by saying that some of the characters from books like "CatMagic" may very well be pulled from subconscious memories of Alien abductors. He insists that these accounts are true and real events that actually happened and he has no explanation for them but is trying to understand and study them.

• I have say that sales from his book "communion" made Strieber a rich man when prior to these events he wrote in communion how he was struggling financially, perhaps hitting on a rich vein he has milked ever since.

BUT. . . His response to this would most certainly be something like . . . he would trade all his wealth for a normal life and he certainly did not invite these things to come and ruin his life in the way they have done and he has suffered much hostility and derision which no amount of wealth can soften, and it's only a mixture of courage overcoming fear and curiosity that have motivated him to pursue the story for so long. . . .

This determination to overcome the prevailing paradigm of materialistic prejudice does take an enormous step of courage and we shall see that most people would rather hide these stories than risk all by speaking out  knowing full well the persecution and derision that will no doubt come. . .

I for one am not convinced that Strieber would so steadfastly stick to a fictitious story in order just to make money

 Strieber claimed he had been abducted by non-human beings in 1985

http://www.joblo.com/horror-movies/news/whitley-striebers-the-nye-incidents-to-be-made-into-a-tv-series-101

1987 - He wrote about this experience and related experiences in Communion (1987) an autobiographical account of his experiences with strange alien "visitors" who he says came to his cabin in the New York countryside.

This Number 1 New York Times Non-Fiction Bestseller (on the list for 15 weeks) was also turned into a film.

The book rapidly became a best seller but at the same time was subjected to much skepticism as well as ridicule.

The Important Question

The most amazing thing is, despite all the criticism and derision, the book was a best seller.

Why was this so?

Suddenly - it seemed, it blew the lid off a phenomenon that had been hidden in a dark underworld of people's experience, remaining untold and unacknowledged.
People had experienced something quite inexplicable and fear of mockery and derision had kept them quiet.
The book seemed to ignite a powder keg, giving people the courage to speak out mostly for the first time. So many people reported similar experiences it thrust Strieber into a spotlight he scarcely could have predicted.

In an interview on Biography.com he describes the reaction after the publication of his book 

"the Public reaction to the book was very complex, as soon as the book was published, letters started coming in, we have had well over 200 000, maybe 500 000 letters over the years. After I began to read them I began to realise that something was happening on Planet earth that we do not acknowledge. We don't know what it is, is it Aliens? Is it something to do with us, something to do with the way we are that we don't yet understand? I don't know. . .But it's real!

http://badufos.blogspot.com/2012_03_01_archive.html

This picture of Whitely and Anne Strieber at the UfO conference I found a Blog called "badUfO" badufos.blogspot.com . I was quite intrigued at the negative tone of this blog. I found it fairly typical of the kind of prejudiced mentality of the materialist. (should be called "Bad blog spot") 

By "Tone" I mean this . . . 

• He firstly makes a mocking resemblance of Whitley and his wife to a rather unflattering portrait of two 'salt of the earth, but, simple types' from Grant Woods painting called "American Gothic". Really cheap shot but it doesn't end there.

• He then talks about Whitley's "Strange Behaviour" but doesn't say exactly what he did or said. Ive seen several interviews with Strieber on TV and youtube and he seems pretty sincere erudite and articulate to me. But hey maybe I'm just gullible. . . 

• He then points out how Whitley promotes his website unknown country particularly the 'paid' section. The 'fraud' implication is clear here(Heaven forbid that he should actually make money out of his writing profession.)

• He then tells about taking some photos of the speaker (one seen above) and someone next to him says "see any orbs floating above him?" 

In summary: he is saying, Whitley and Anne Strieber are funny looking ugly people. Whitley behaves really weird and does weird things. He is a greedy Charlatan and wants only to make money out of his outlandish  UfO claims. And makes odd claims about floating orbs which are clearly not there so obviously this means he's totally nuts.

All that before we are told a single thing about the actual conference!

• Being a skeptic is not a bad thing and in fact it is very necessary to help find the truth of these claims, maybe sift the truth from the lies out of the evidence presented. 

• Sure. . .There surely are plenty of unbalanced people out there who should not be taken at face value. 

• So then . . . surely a skeptic is someone who looks at the evidence kind of like an investigator in a murder mystery, a process of elimination?

• It is not very helpful in finding the murderer if a suspect is arrested because our investigator (the skeptic) thinks he is not very good looking!

How about a report   ?

• Write a report, accurate and concise of what was actually said and claimed. 

• Then perhaps an evaluation based on scientific and objective principles. 

• He only very briefly, addresses Whitley's talk about his experiences in which Whitley discusses seeing deceased people, which to be sure is a bit weird . . . but as for me I immediately ask myself who else claims to have dealings with the dead? Psychics and mediums of course - so perhaps there is a connection there. (more of that later) 

• Anyway there is simply not much of a report here at all, just a load of venom and spite which is pretty lame and childish at the end of the day.

• After this he unleashes some more weak humour in further  narrow-minded prejudice against Dr. Steven Grear the 'disclosure project guy'.

• By this stage I've had enough . . . 

Why am I wasting time even mentioning this?

Because: 

• This is a pretty typical example of the materialist mindset, although they claim to deal only with hard facts and evidence, their emotions always seem to get in the way of their objectivity. Their sneering mockery seems disproportionate to the topic at hand . . . "the lady doth protest too much ". 

• It also clear to any observer (this is me by the way . . . I am observing, not making claims or judgements and frankly think this is a superior approach . . . kind of like the Jury listening to both sides of the argument and waiting for as much evidence to be presented before we can come to any objective conclusions)

• Anyway Whitley Strieber and Dr. Greer and Dr. Karla Turner etc. etc. all knew they were going to have to face up to this kind of narrow-minded prejudice before speaking out and part of their accomplishment is to bravely go ahead anyway.

I say well done and respect from me. 

Reactions to the Book

This is an excerpt from Strieber's wife in  "Anne's Diary" blog post from unknown country.com the Strieber's website
What the Bleep
Sunday, March 8, 2009

When Whitley published "Communion" in 1987, he put our New York City mail center address in it, as a sort of last minute whim, and asked people to send him letters about their own experiences. By this time, we had both met with groups of people who were having identical experiences to his, so we knew that Whitley wasn't the only one who this was happening to, but we had no idea how many other people were going through almost identical experiences?sometimes in the same city, sometimes far away in other parts of the world. We met our secretary, who worked for us for many years, when she wrote us a letter about her own experiences. It turned out she lived one street away from us, so we met her and then hired her.

We attended a UFO conference once, where a speaker suggested that this was happening to only a handful of people (and he had most of those people sitting up on the stage with him). But the huge number of letters we received from just one mention in a single book proves that this isn't true.

Shortly after the book was published, we began getting so many letters that the mail center refused to take them any more, and sent the postmen directly to our apartment. They dragged in huge, gray cloth bags, stuffed with mail, and heaped them up in the living room.               Read the original source:

A Movie was made with the same name. . . released in1989

Check out this very fascinating TV program  I found on youtube all about the Strieber case together with the making of the film "Communion" starring Christopher Walken. The film is a bit dated now but probably still worth checking out HERE 

Strieber and his wife Anne began to be contacted by so many people who sent them letters detailing their own experiences. They began to invite some of them to meet with them at their cabin to share and discuss their experiences. Here is Whitley on his radio program "Dreamland" interviewing some of the witnesses. Whitley interviews 

I read this book in the 1990's

I remember being quite interested and intrigued when I began to read it but after the first couple of chapters I began to feel very disturbed. . .

• I was very conscious of the truth of what I was reading but at the same time completely horrified. 
• It had a very disturbing effect on me and at the time I actually could not finish it - I felt I had opened up something very demonic and evil. 
• I still have this feeling today and regard these abduction stories as very real and very terrifying. I do not want to ever go through something like this 
• I had a similar reaction when reading Dr. Turner's book "Into the Fringe"I feel a bit more objective now as a researcher putting together pieces of a vast jigsaw with some vague realisations but not solidified just yet, or ever. . . 

• In Jacque Vallee's Book "dimensions" he attempts to trace the phenomena back in time and draws a parallel to ancient stories in which demonic activity as it was called then, is eerily similar to abduction stories today (more of this later). 
• Vallee talks of an "inner dimensional reality that speaks of parallel dimensions and it is this reality that begins to present itself more consitently than an "outer" dimensional or extra terrestrial reality. This seems to be the albeit not conclusive opinion of Karla Turner.
• What is also a very important question is Are they Good ? Both Vallee and Turner seem to agree that they definitely are not. 

And Finally: and this really is quite Strange . . . 

• My eye fell on this article in the Huffington post   and I am not sure what to make of it but include it in as yet another intriguing chapter in Whitley's story. . .

• In the predawn hours of June 6, 1998, Strieber was allegedly visited in his Toronto hotel room by a mysterious but very ordinary-looking elderly Caucasian man, who delivered an unsolicited lecture covering various subjects from spirituality to the environment. When queried, the man airily suggested that he might be called "Michael," but Whitley has taken to referring to him as the "Master of the Key." Strieber first reported the visit in his online journal in 1998 and later gave a more complete account in his self-published book The Key (2001).

• "I got up to open the door, thinking it was the room service waiter. It was not. It was a man I described as about 5 and a half feet tall, older-looking, like someone in his 70s. He wore dark-colored clothing, a turtleneck and charcoal slacks," Strieber told The Huffington Post.
• Strieber's unannounced visitor stayed nearly an hour and never sat down or walked around -- he stood, motionless, by the window.

• As the stranger spoke, Strieber took notes, eventually privately publishing the first edition of his book, "The Key," two years later, in 2000.
• Strieber claims that the stranger in his room informed him that humans have an electron floating in front of their foreheads, and that that may indeed be their soul. He also claimed the stranger handed him a vial of unknown white liquid, instructed him to drink it, and he did.
• He does indeed advertise the book on the link below and seems be quite happy to make money out of it but I have to ask should he not do that? and if so why not? 
• You tube link here. . .

Next: Whatever Happened to Dr Kala Turner? part 2

History of Mystery - UfO part 6

The Lead Masks case part 2

From skeptic to Believer

Allen Hynek (left) and Jacques Vallee

What I didn’t know back then was Jacques Vallee and J Allen Hynek, complete skeptics to begin with, both underwent a complete turnaround in their beliefs from doubter to believers after a very prolonged period of thorough and scientific study. Not only that, but Vallee in particular was of the opinion this phenomenon is not really extraterrestrial in nature as so many claim, and these sightings and experiences are not really visitors  from a Galaxy far far away . . .

but in fact much closer to home. . .

Heres Jacques Vallee again . . .
ln my earlier works, most notably in “Dimensions”, I have enumerated the difficulties of the extraterrestrial theory and the concerns raised by the abduction reports. I will not repeat the details  here. Careful analysis of the reports shows that there are many more landings and "close encounters" than would be required for a survey of our planet. The reported interaction with the occupants of the objects is absurd and their overtly "scientific" experiments are crude to the point of being grotesque. The "medical examination" to which abductees are said to be subjected, often accompanied by sadistic sexual manipulation, is reminiscent of the medieval tales of encounters with demons. 

Lets see how this concept ties in the the reports. . .

1966 - Rio de Janeiro

The bodies of two men are found on a hill outside Rio. 

The City of Campos - over 200 km from Rio 

A boy named Jorge da Costa Alves (who was 18 at that time) was flying a kite at the Morro do Vintém (Vintém Hill), situated in the relatively wealthy Rio de Janeiro suburb of Niterói. I when he stumbled across two dead men and immediately alerted the authorities.
As the investigation began, the case became more and more bizarre Police were summoned and found the two men, Manoel Pereira da Cruz (32) and Miguel José Viana (34), who were electronics repairmen in Campos dos Goytacazes, which is about 200 kilometres away. Both men lived in the town of Campos where they were well known and respected citizens.

The bodies were next to each other, slightly covered by grass, they were both wearing business suits and raincoats, with a package containing an empty water bottle and two small towels. But the oddest thing of all is that they were wearing lead masks. There was no clue what the lead masks were, or what the cause of death might have been.

The first angle of investigation was to see if they had been murdered, but this was ruled out.

Reconstruction of Events

After an investigation, the detectives reconstructed a plausible narrative of the last days of both men.

On August 17, they left their city, Campos dos Goytacazes, stating that they intended to buy some materials for use at their work. They took a bus and arrived in Niterói at 14:30. 

The men took a bus to Rio and had a reasonable amount of money on them (about the equivalent of $1000) apparently enough to buy a used car. The bodies were found with very little money on them, which placed some suspicion on the policeman who found them.

They had also bought the raincoats on that day since they had the receipts and it was raining they also had a  receipt for a bottle of water, which could be later returned for the deposit

The waitress who served them on the bar stated that Miguel seemed very nervous and looked at his watch frequently. From the bar, they went directly to the place where they were later found dead.

No obvious injuries were discovered at autopsy. The coroner Astor de Melo concluded that death was by natural causes (cardiac arrest) and closed the file. No trace of poison was found in the bowels (although in another report it was stated that the bodies had decomposed too far for this to be verified.)Apparently a second autopsy was conducted which also revealed nothing. 

Jacques Vallee visits the site

In his book “confrontations” Valle writes . . .”everything I knew about the case had come to me secondhand through the U FO rumour mill or through the media, a notoriously unreliable source in Latin America.

 The only way to learn more about the precise circumstances of the event was to fly to Rio and climb that hill. 

With me were my wife, janine, and a small party of investigators : Saulo Soares de Souza, a detective from Rio police headquarters who specializes in long-term follow-up of unsolved cases; Mario Dias, a journalist; Alberto Dirma, a press photographer; a local French teacher who was kind enough to serve as my interpreter; and the first adult who had seen the bodies that August day in 1 966, when a group of boys came running to his house. 

He had accompanied them to the police station at the foot of the hill, where they described their grisly find to the officer in charge, Oscar Nunes. 

The Lead Masks

The masks appeared to be a ‘homemade’ cover used for possibly for protection from radiation. 

But in an article from “Skeptoid's” Brian Dunning says the following  

“English and Brazilian blogs both describe these eye shields as being similar to what's used to protect against radiation.

Ummm.... no. They're not. I dug to find as many different radiation shields and masks as I could to see if there was anything like these lead eye shields. Masks for working in high radiation environments cover your whole head or face, and incorporate goggles so you can see what you're doing. These were the opposite; leaving the entire head and face unprotected, but blocking and blinding the eyes. There is no environment in which such shields would be useful.”

http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4398

Police found a small notebook stating: "16:30 estar no local determinado. 18:30 ingerir cápsulas, após efeito proteger metais aguardar sinal máscara", which translates to "16:30 be at the agreed place. 18:30 swallow capsules, after effect protect metals wait for sign mask [or 'mask sign’]".

Were the two men expecting to be contacted by a UFO? Or were they, more prosaically, taking part in a spiritualist experiment that went wrong? 

Occult Society 

Police found similar masks in Miguuel Jose Viana’s home along with remnants of the lead that had been used. Also found was a book called “Scientific Spiritualism”. Passages had been underlined with regarding spirits, intense luminosity and masks. Miguel’s sister was interrogated, she mentioned he spoke of a “secrete mission”

The widow of Manuel Pereira da Cruz told of a “spiritist group” both men were members of, an occult society of unknown objectives. 

A civilian pilot, Elcio Correa da Silva, was also a member of this group. He described a number of “experiments’ that were conducted one of them on the beach at Atafona in which a huge blast occurred. This was two months before the tragedy in Niteroi.

A priest and parapsychology professor said that they could have been making an experiment to see to the "other world", some people apparently say that there is a very strong light for which protection is needed, and that people who make that experiment take some kind of drug before.

The Note found on the Bodies with the bizarre instructions 

Calling Mars

Gomes said the three of them were interested in trying to contact Mars, and that the explosion had been the unfortunate failure of some device they'd built in pursuit of their spiritualist interests. Compounding this was a book found in Miguel's home workshop, where police found the tools and scrap used to cut the lead masks, with passages highlighted pertaining to "intense luminosity" related to spirits. Someone expecting to be exposed to "intense luminosity" might well choose to protect his eyes with lead shields.

Apparently, four years before, a television technician died in the same place in similar circumstances; no signs of violence, no other objects and a lead mask. He was trying to catch a "television signal" without any electronics and he died after taking a round pill.

UfO presence

Skeptoid mentions an article by Charles Bowen who did as thorough an investigation as possible way back in 1967. He found articles reporting a round orange coloured UfO hovering near Vintém Hill on the night that the men went up there.

Jacques Vallée mentions in his book “confrontations” that after the initial newspaper report the police were ‘deluged with calls’ from the public in the Niteroi area.

He reports on a caller, a ‘society matron’ called Gracinda Barbosa Coutinho de Souza. She reported she was driving with three of her children when her daughter told her to look up at a large oval orange coloured object, “sending out rays in all directions” hovering over Vintem Hill. She stopped the car and observed the object as it rose and fell vertically for a few minutes, giving off a distinctive “blue ray”. She told her husband when she arrived home, he drove back to the vicinity but didn’t see anything. 

This account was confirmed by a large number of witnesses who called the Police independently and described a similar object. All of these reports placed the mysterious object at the same time in the vicinity of the  two dead victims. 

Vallee reports: March 16, 1966, at 9: 15P.M., two months before the tragedy. A luminous object, elliptical in shape, was seen al an altitude of 100 feet. The witness, a Fifty-four-year­ old manager with an electronics firm trained as an industrial technician. He drew a sketch of a series of what he called "effervescent" spheres that he observed with his wife, his daughter, and his future son-in-law, an official with the Bank of Brazil. The object flew over the Morro da Boa Viagem, in Niteroi. 

Possible theories

Murder

Theories abound as to why these men died that fateful day on Vintem hill.  One was that the two men were lured to the location by an unknown third party and murdered.  Proponents of this idea point to the note, claiming the spelling and grammatical errors were due to the words being dictated by someone else, possibly in an attempt to take advantage of these men’s gullibility in order to rob them.  Acceptance of this scenario requires several assumptions, however, the main clue was the missing money, stolen from the men after unwittingly ingesting poison pills.

Gay suicide Pact

Another popular theory is they were homosexuals who had made a suicide pact and wanted to go out with a misleading story.

Time travel

Or perhaps they were attempting to put to the test a scientific test to do with time travel or worm holes.

UfO Rendevous

The UfO connection to the men is not clearly determined but there certainly seems to be a strong link between these events. The most persistent theory was they were attempting to make contact with extraterrestrial visitors.  The victims were both said to be very intrigued by the mysteries of flying saucers, researching them extensively.  

Unanswered questions

But then why take the capsules and what were the two towels for? There is no evidence the men even took the capsules since the note is the only reference to them. The organs of the men were too decomposed for a definitive report on the contents of their stomaches.

we are not even sure if the notes refer to that day, though at least that seems likely. “Protect the metals” may refer to some metals they were meeting to get rid of. “Wait for mask signal” obviously means they were waiting for someone to tell them to put on their masks.

Even years later, grass refused to grow at the location where the bodies were discovered giving rise to many sinister theories. Apparently the area was checked for radiation, but nothing was found. In the case of decomposing bodies investigators who work the scene sprinkle formalin around the area to hide the smell, and that this is what could have contaminated the soil.  

References:

Bowen, C. "The Mystery of the Morro do Vintem: How Did the Men with the Lead Masks Die?" Flying Saucer Review. 1 Mar. 1967, Volume 13, Number 2: 11-14.

DIMENSIONS: A Casebook of Alien Contact (Alien Contact Trilogy 1)Jacques Vallee

CONFRONTATIONS: A Scientist's Search for Alien Contact (Alien Contact Trilogy Book 2) by Jacques Vallee 

REVELATIONS: Alien Contact and Human Deception (Alien Contact Trilogy Book 3)Jacques Vallee 

Dunning, B. "Solving the Lead Masks of Vintem Hill." Skeptoid Podcast. Skeptoid Media, Inc., 21 Jan 2014. Web. 19 Jul 2015.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_Masks_Case

Where to from here?

One more quote from Jacques Vallee:

Like many of my colleagues, I have become convinced that the U.S. government, as well in other governments, was very much involved in the UFO phenomenon. This involvement is not limited to the kind of data collection that is the normal responsibility of intelligence agencies. It extends to the close monitoring of the UFO organisations themselves and, in some cases, to the staging of false sightings and the occasional leaking of false documents. It is not my business to interfere with such activities. The belief in extraterrestrials, like any other strong belief, is an attractive vehicle for some mind control and psychological warfare activities

  That’s some pretty heavy statements to make and to be sure what ever information is available out there we are gonna check it out piece by piece 

follow the rabbit hole Alice. . . 

History of Mystery - UfO part 5

The Lead Masks Mystery: part 1.

 Alice and the matrix

ALICE was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do . . .when suddenly a white rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.

There was nothing so very remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so very much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, “Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!” (when she thought it over afterwards, it occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time it all seemed quite natural)

Humankind seems in general to be in a trance state. 

I often think back to years past when I too was living in this state, you are aware of whats around you and there are many aspects of life that fill your thoughts and actions but you are so insulated in your own world that a much broader reality is not accessible. The media is very much a part of encouraging this in that we as humans are fed daily information that re-inforces this mindset.

“Welcome to The desert of the Real World" 

This statement made by Morpheus in the Matrix was originally coined by French Philosopher Jean Baudrillard which is clearly referenced in the movie “the matrix”. . . in an early scene Neo stashes his illegal software inside a hollowed-out copy of a book by Jean Baudrillard entitled Simulacra and Simulation published in 1981. Watch it Here 

Baudrillard argues that late-twentieth-century consumer culture is a world in which simulations or imitations of reality have become more real than reality itself, a condition he describes as the “hyper-real.” 

My summary

• The Matrix film is a little misleading in that it takes this idea rather literally which is understandable in making a popular film Baudrillard's concept is a little bit tricky to grasp. We have to understand this concept is to do with us being rooted in a reality that is not merely  simulated in our minds but in fact has become changed, over time, by perceptions that are bogged down by the limitations of language and the media.

• Your perception of Reality compared to mine is infinity variable, (one can see references to existentialism here . . . )But this simulacrum idea is that there is an "architect"  that creates reality not at all as it is, but a mental construct that exists only in our consciousness. One has to question the motives of this "Prime mover" or "instigator" and what their, (no doubt,) nefarious goal is. Who controls information? or does it simply flow organically and fluidly in an unrestrained and natural manner? 

• Well no it certainly doesn't . . .

• The ideas and views that are so confidently asserted by many are not at all based on their first hand experience but rather a mental construct that can be created or 'projected' into our minds by second hand means such as television and other forms or media. 

• Our education system is a more subtle means of creating simulacrum, we as children are 'plain slates' upon which the system (architect) can create a view of reality that covers all aspects of our lives. We don't have to go beyond the walls of the classroom to develop a solid view of truth and reality that is very powerful and impregnable, even though we have never been able to check these ideas or question them. 

• This is not to say we are brains in a vat in a literal sense but rather our collective consciousness is controlled by certain interpretations of reality that we have no possibility of proving by empirical means and we simply accept them as they are fed to us. 

We will return to this but lets get back to our case at hand 

This Story about the Lead masks case had a peculiar affect on me personally and it seemed to create a response in me that I feel was instrumental in my own "wake up Neo" experience

This happened around the early 1990's on a day much like any other day. . . 

 What happened to me was a casual picking up and reading of a very nondescript book whilst waiting in the reception room for a doctor or dentist,  cant remember which. 

http://www.ronankavanagh.ie/blog/waiting-room-for-improvement/

The book i picked up was “confrontations” by Jacques Vallee. I had no clue what it was about or who Jacques Vallee was and bored i began reading the prologue in which he describes his journey to Rio in order to investigate a bizarre story involving the mysterious death of two men found on a hillside who were found with lead masks on their bodies.
Well its a book on UfO's I guessed correctly. . .

Now I had naturally heard of the UfO phenomena and I had seen Spielberg’s  “Close Encounters of the third Kind” but beyond these I had heard little and was vaguely curious but not particularly interested or involved. 

Upon reading this book my eye fell upon a particular section of the tale that read .

 . . Also interrogated was Manuel Pereira da Cruz's widow. Her testimony indicated that the two victims were members of a "spiritualist" group, an occult society. It was rumoured that the group attempted to communicate with other planets. 

. . . A lengthy discussion we had at the home of Professor Silvio Lago, a medical doctor who had been called by the court as an expert witness on parapsychology, threw some light on the spiritualist aspects. Ac­ cording to Professor Lago, the victims may have been engaged in a series of seances during which a paranormal entity was supposed to manifest itself.

 I immediately made a connection between the UfO phenomena and the Occult.This was not simply because it was part of this particular tale, but rather as if a light went on in my head and I realised there was a connection to the phenomena as a whole. By “Occult” I mean people who attempt to connect with the spirit world using various methods from religious rituals trances and seances, astro travel and various psychedelic drugs. 

This is a kind of awakening experience form me and triggered a host of strange experiences which seem very mundane in the telling but in fact could be a struggle to get out of a kind of a stupor into something broader and more encompassing, there begins a here a tale that linked me with so many interesting people and a shared journey that doesn't always run parallel but has a recognisable link. I have meddled on and off with this story for over 20 years. Very often against the good advice of my peers. . . 

But that initial realisation has become more and more of a conviction, over time and I keep being drawn back into the study of this kind . . .in spite of myself.

Perception and Awareness 

This is still introductory, there is so much more to be said in this regard but there is an angle that I want to narrow the focus onto.

Firstly if we understand the difference between perception and awareness.
 I can illustrate this . . . when we look around ourselves at any given time we are aware of what is going on around us only at a certain level. 

Think of your age, your sex and what are your chief concerns. If a man went to the Mall with his wife and teenage daughter and pre-teen son. If someone asked them to write down everything they noticed, keep in mind they are a family and live together, same race background etc. . .

. . . They would all have noticed vey different things and they would probably would have noticed totally different things. This demonstrates the effect of our own mindset that sees the world quite differently from person to person. 

TEST YOUR PERCEPTION

Another example: When my wife was pregnant for the first time, I was astonished to see just how many pregnant woman  there were all around us, it was as if there was nothing other than pregnant women. 

I even began to think that maybe this must be a very fertile time in history in our city. 

Well obviously my awareness had become heightened by my own experience, even as I write this today  I think to myself how many pregnant women am I aware of? Well. . .I do remember a few here and there. . . but not anything like when I think back to that time. 

I am sure there are any number of examples in which many people can say they had a similar experience/s.
This is beautifully demonstrated by Derren Brown using subliminal suggestions to manipulate people's choices i his TV series "Trick of the Mind"

DERREN BROWN - Perception without awareness.

The Advert for his TV show says this "Derren Brown demonstrates his unique powers of psychological mentalism, hypnotism, misdirection and showmanship."

Perception and Awareness
It even says Toy Story- How to Control a nation. . . This program is just for fun but surely it could be the tip of a more sinister iceberg? 

We are Fed - not just Information but also our responses  

Isn’t this how we are made aware of so many aspects of our perception of reality? Just how many elements of reality are we only aware off through third party reports such as books Newspapers and television? We accept these things as truth without questioning them simply on the basis of what fits in with our society.

We would simply believe just about anything we are fed through the mass media. The passive  acceptance of most people we encounter is perhaps due to our need for peace and happiness. It is far more important to us to go with the flow than to go against the grain and questioning widely accepted ideas. 

Isn’t it true that people can and do believe quite absurd ideas when they are in the company of a large enough community that reinforce these ideas no matter what they may be? I am thinking of the mentality of Nazi Germany and how the masses simply went with the flow rather than object to the madness they were being fed.

Of course the media in 1940 was not as sophisticated as it is today, but nevertheless what was available was used to manipulate the thinking of the German people to brilliant effect.

What about today? I wonder how many people remember a movie called “Wag the Dog” in which the media is shameless manipulated in order to get the president re-elected. when robert de Niro's character is told there is no war in Albania he simply quips "of course there's a war I just saw it on TV"  Wag The Dog

One can begin to see the problem here, how do I explain an experience or activity to someone who  has ever experienced it? 

Is common practice to listen to debunkers trying to explain away UfO experiences by trying to find a “fit” for them in our own limited sphere of understanding. 

Brings to mind the “swamp gas” explanations and the “weather balloon” stories one can sense the frustration and anger in the witnesses when having to deal with these unimaginative debunkers

Jacques Vallee: The scientific community is far behind the times, fighting rear­ guard skirmishes in the name of Rationalism. Academic scholars periodically rally behind some luminary who has just "discovered" the final, rational explanation, and periodically the explanation has to be withdrawn under public ridicule. Flying saucers have been "explained scientifically" as plasma discharges, swamp gas, status inconsistency, cognitive dissonance, refraction effects, and temporal lobe epilepsy. But they keep right on flying, under the noses of the explainers. 

But getting back to our UfO Phenomenon 

Now you can shift this perception thing to a whole new level. This may be a small clue that can help explain what went wrong with the guys in the Led Masks