tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87911089284028830002024-03-13T01:13:36.535-07:00AnachronismUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8791108928402883000.post-79594807477856133922023-07-12T12:18:00.001-07:002023-07-12T12:18:55.436-07:00 Let’s Play UAP Limbo!!!<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR9JokOAFQFqaikdgxxGnOPF4bUYkFgS4diA1AQO_sInEiLeaj_D0bmaeBqXSQ98uyB2-L4tqOxLzkzMhdvAdkIZ9R7oagRUYzds5CVwPATOJh1j_o1ZHVcxD_Pw5ALTZCR_Iz4IrQSire-f1vck4W59fUaOEOeb1VtE8zH5Ok3-qgeVaZPXQA3dUqvVPa/s900/limbo.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="900" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR9JokOAFQFqaikdgxxGnOPF4bUYkFgS4diA1AQO_sInEiLeaj_D0bmaeBqXSQ98uyB2-L4tqOxLzkzMhdvAdkIZ9R7oagRUYzds5CVwPATOJh1j_o1ZHVcxD_Pw5ALTZCR_Iz4IrQSire-f1vck4W59fUaOEOeb1VtE8zH5Ok3-qgeVaZPXQA3dUqvVPa/s320/limbo.png" width="320" /></a></div>If you have ever played a game of limbo at a local pool
party, you know that you can only go so low before your back gives out and you must
slink back to the comfort of your Pina Colada. It’s meant to be a mindless, fun
game for wasting away a sunny day, but what if the stakes were much higher than
just a sore back and bruised knees? What if the game was used for more
nefarious reasons?<p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Today, the whole world seems to be playing UAP limbo, where
with every new revelation of crashed UAPs, reverse engineered craft, off-world
objects, SAPs hiding from Congressional oversight, leaked UAP videos and other wild
and unsubstantiated claims streaming out of every allegedly hyper-top-secret orifice
- the evidence bar is lowered incrementally.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Except this time, not only is the traditional UAP community
of believers, skeptics, debunkers, and snake oil peddlers lining up to dance
their way under the bar; now we also have impressionable journalists, scientists,
Congress, NASA, and DOD personnel also lining up to play.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Well look there – its Kirsten Gillibrand and Marco Rubio doing
the limbo before heading to the back of the line for another round! The bar
drops further. Whoa!! George Knapp and Jeremy Corbell just cleared the bar while
releasing another leaked video. Who’s up next? Why it’s none other than Avi
Loeb, sporting a recent tan from life on the high seas, mining the sea floor
for objects of extraterrestrial origin. OMG! Is that Ross Coulthart asking to
drop the bar even lower? Hey, check it out! I see the head of NASA back there
and behind him a bunch of other Congress people, maybe even from the Gang of Eight.
Wait, is that David Grusch I see, fresh off his recent visit to a UAP
convention? Can you believe how whistleblowers always seem to be the best at
slithering under the bar! Oh, I spoke too soon! The head scientist for the UAP
task force, Dr. Travis Taylor, got even lower - all while being interviewed for
an Ancient Aliens episode and holding a mutilated calf from Skinwalker ranch.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">What madness! Why is this UAP charade being played out in
the public domain, with not even enough real evidence to get a passing grade on
a high school science project? Indeed, there is something amiss here, something
that smells of a purposeful public relations campaign, ginning up the UAP noise-sphere
and spawning a bazillion #ufotwitter flame wars and speculation that just boils
down to a regurgitation fest of unsubstantiated, but portrayed-as-fact claims. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The news media has joined the limbo line, sending their “top”
journalists under the bar, most of whom cannot bring themselves to ask even the
most basic hard questions. Instead, they repeat the hearsay, the confirmations
of “hey, I know that guy, and you gotta believe him if he says it’s true” supporting
bobbleheads, some pseudonymous.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">At some point the game will have to stop and the bar raised,
but will that translate into our understanding why the game was played to begin
with and why the players so eagerly and so effortlessly participated, enjoying the
music and exotic drinks, answers and truth be damned?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Welcome to the modern world, where the spectacle has become
more important than the truth. We have crossed over into a realm where make-believe
is sold as reality, for the sake of someone’s agenda (perhaps one which originated
in the halls of an Intel agency). That is our new normal. While real wars and
violence play out in far-away lands to untold human suffering, our first world
plays out its wars in the information sphere via perception management, manufactured
narratives and where the most outrageous claims can be bantered about with no
resistance, like a giant beach ball in the crowded stands of a football game
where the crowd doesn’t know or care why they are keeping that ball in the air.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Be deathly afraid of Artificial Intelligence (AI) the tech
pundits say in unison as ChatGPT and other AIs increasingly become an integral
part of the modern information landscape. Meanwhile, manufactured reality is embraced
by a willing audience of those who have traded critical thinking for a feel-good
game of limbo, while its dangerous implications are ignored. I for one, am far
more terrified of the latter. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8791108928402883000.post-51187241901272801412023-01-07T18:56:00.005-08:002023-01-09T17:56:05.088-08:00The Great UAP Reckoning<p> An unprecedented event is about to occur in our lifetime, one
that has the potential to level reset the very soul of America, and to redefine
the trust relationship everyday Americans have with their institutions of
Government. On December 23, 2022, President Joseph Biden signed into law H.R.
7776, the “James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year
2023”.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Among its many provisions:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">Not later than 120 days after the
date of the enactment of the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023,
the Secretary of Defense, in coordination with the Director of National
Intelligence, shall establish an office within a component of the Office of the
Secretary of Defense, or within a joint organization of the Department of
Defense and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, to carry out
the duties of the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force, as in effect on
December 26, 2021, and such other duties as are required by this section,
including those pertaining to unidentified anomalous phenomena.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">The office established … shall be
known as the ‘All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office’.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In addition to its primary duty of investigating unidentified
anomalous phenomena (UAP), the office also is tasked with preparing reports for
Congress, in both classified and unclassified form, including a historical
record report, as follows:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">Not later than 540 days after the
date of the enactment of the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023,
the Director of the Office shall submit to the congressional defense
committees, the congressional intelligence committees, and congressional
leadership a written report detailing the historical record of the United States
Government relating to unidentified anomalous phenomena, including: (i) the records
and documents of the intelligence community; (ii) oral history interviews; (iii)
open source analysis; (iv) interviews of current and former Government officials;
(v) classified and unclassified national archives including any records any third
party obtained pursuant to section 552 of title 5, United States Code; and (vi)
such other relevant historical sources as the Director of the Office considers
appropriate.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">‘ The report shall (i) focus on the
period beginning on January 1, 1945, and ending on the date on which the
Director of the Office completes activities under this subsection; and (ii)
include a compilation and itemization of the key historical record of the
involvement of the intelligence community with unidentified anomalous
phenomena, including:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in;">(I) any program or activity that
was protected by restricted access that has not been explicitly and clearly
reported to Congress; (II) successful or unsuccessful efforts to identify and
track unidentified anomalous phenomena; and (III) any efforts to obfuscate,
manipulate public opinion, hide, or otherwise provide incorrect unclassified or
classified information about unidentified anomalous phenomena or related
activities.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">The Archivist of the United States
shall make available to the Office such information maintained by the National
Archives and Records Administration, including classified information, as the
Director of the Office considers necessary.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Essentially, one of the Office’s first tasks is compiling a historical
record stretching back some 77 years of intelligence community history to document
the IC’s involvement with unidentified anomalous phenomenon (UAP). This
includes all restricted access programs that Congress was not privy to. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">You can be assured that if Congress was not made aware of
these programs – neither were you, or I, or anyone else in the public for that
matter. Don’t expect this report to be a re-hash of known government/military/civilian
led UAP investigations like Project Sign/Grudge/Saucer/Twinkle/Blue Book or the
Condon Report, etc. Those are known publicly. What is being sought after here
are those programs that have been collecting dust at very high classification
levels in various intel agency vaults, restricted on a need-to-know basis that did
not include Senators and Congressmen/Congresswomen. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">More importantly, it specifically calls out for a historical
accounting of any intelligence agency’s complicity in abusing the UAP subject for
information warfare purposes (obfuscate, manipulate public opinion, hide, or
otherwise provide incorrect unclassified or classified information about
unidentified anomalous phenomena or related activities). This is unprecedented, as Pandora’s Box will
be flung wide open on the UAP topic that has spawned a thousand conspiracy
theories and that has greatly contributed to the erosion of citizen trust in the
institutions of Government.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But why all the way back to January 1, 1945? Although the UAP
believer community and sensationalist media are already trying to point to an
unsubstantiated 1945 UAP crash as the reason for this earlier date, there is a
much more mundane and far more plausible explanation, one that already has a set
precedent.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The last great soul cleansing of the Intelligence community
was the 1975-76 <i>Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations
with Respect to Intelligence Activities</i> also known as the Church Committee
whose mandate was to investigate “the extent, if any, to which illegal,
improper, or unethical activities were engaged in by any agency of the Federal
Government.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Church committee decided that most of its hearings would
be held in closed, executive session, to protect intelligence sources and
methods. The committee held a series of public hearings in September and
October of 1975 to educate the American public about the “unlawful or improper
conduct” of the intelligence community, highlighting a few carefully selected
cases of misconduct.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For 16 months the Church Committee labored away, creating
various internal reports, the most well-known of these, the CIA’s so-called
“Family Jewels,” which outlined the agency’s misdeeds dating back to President
Dwight Eisenhower’s administration. This report, as well as those found in
other agencies, provided road maps that staff investigators used to piece together
complicated histories of domestic, foreign, and military intelligence programs
during the Cold War era. Even with a peak staff of 150, however, organizing and
analyzing these materials proved to be an arduous task.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">After holding 126 full committee meetings, 40 subcommittee
hearings, interviewing some 800 witnesses in public and closed sessions, and
combing through 110,000 documents, the committee published its final report on
April 29, 1976. Investigators determined that, beginning with President Franklin
Roosevelt’s administration and continuing through the early 1970s,
“intelligence excesses, at home and abroad,” were not the “product of any
single party, administration, or man,” but had developed as America rose to a
become a superpower during a global Cold War.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It was the Cold War – the life and death struggle between
the United States and the Soviet Union – that gave life and unfounded rationale
to the abuses uncovered by the Church Committee. However, UAPs were not part of
that historical accounting as they were not on the radar of Church Committee investigators.
It stands to reason that any abuse of the UAP topic for information warfare
purposes since 1945 would have as its backdrop, the Cold War. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The inception of the Cold War can be traced to the
unraveling of the uneasy alliance between the United States and the Soviet
Union soon after the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945 <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/foreword">https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/foreword</a>
This is the most likely reason for dating the historical report to January 1,
1945. If the United States inadvertently created a myth making machine in its
cold war tit for tat with the Soviet Union, those secrets must be revealed.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The 1945 date presents some interesting challenges, as what
was considered the intelligence community then differs dramatically from the IC
of today. From 1945 till mid-1947, the IC was made up of leftover remnants of
the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the Special Services Unit (SSU), the
Central Intelligence Group (CIG) and other intel components of the War Department
(Army and Army Air Force) and the Department of the Navy (Naval Forces and Marines)
and the Department of State. There was no Secretary of Defense and no US Air
Force at that time. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For those in the UFO believer community who believe this historical
report will provide the long-waited Disclosure - the US Government’s mea culpa
confession to covering up proof of contact with non-human intelligence or
physical proof in the form of recovered biological or physical evidence of non-human
intelligence, I would like to taper your expectations.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In the X-File episode: “Jose Chung's From Outer Space”, FBI
Agents Mulder and Scully investigate the alien abduction of a Klass County,
Washington teenage couple. When returning from a date one evening, the teenagers’
car suddenly stops; they see a UFO and are then captured by a pair of gray
aliens. However, the gray aliens are themselves captured by another UFO with a giant
third alien from another race.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Fast forward later in the episode where the captured gray
aliens are unmasked as two US Air Force personnel in disguise. This fictional episode
explains perfectly why this 77-year historical report is so crucial to getting
to the truth of UAPs. Unless we unequivocally know what the human hand has been
in creating and promoting UAP noise (the Air Force personnel in gray alien
disguise), we will never be able to focus on the true signal (the giant third
real alien).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">When the flying saucer craze of the summer of 1947 made
headlines all over the world, and the military and civilian leaderships failed
to provide an adequate accounting for what the citizenry was witnessing, the
vacuum of silence was filled with speculation, innuendo, rumor, hyperbole, and fantasy
– all ultimately just noise.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Throughout the decades since, it is that same noise that has
reigned supreme, promulgated by amateur UFO organizations, and brought to mass
consciousness by science fiction fantasy movies/TV and sensationalist
journalism. Today that noise is amplified to even greater levels by social
media and cable TV shows – the focus on the sensational and the outlandish –
standards of evidence be damned. As the noise levels grow, so does the average
citizen’s distrust in the Government’s ability to inform its citizenry the
truth. Conspiracy takes hold. The hidden hand is not to be trusted. One
conspiracy begets a thousand more.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Further exacerbating the UAP noise sphere are the unscrupulous
click baiter social media posters who have a greater love affair with the number
of views and likes they receive than they do with finding and promoting truth. Amateur
UFO organizations like MUFON are noise collectors. The average citizen is a
noise consumer. Sandwiched in between are the noise creators, the cable
channels being the worse offenders. <i>Ancient Aliens</i> is noise, <i>The Secrets of
Skinwalker Ranch </i>is noise. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Social media is not far behind, with baseless UAP assertions
with zero real evidence to back it up being posted around the clock – Facebook
is noise, #UFOTwitter is noise. Noise perpetuators are those that have no
interest in UAP truth – they only care about making the rounds of the UAP talk
circuit or their next talking head gig on some UAP TV special. A UAP perpetuator
has no interest in lessening the UAP noise but instead amplifying it. They have
zero interest in finding a true signal. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">A clue as to whether this historical report is a sincere
effort or just a whitewashing expedition will be to examine the framework on
which the report is built. If the focus is on UAP noise, for example, hauling
in witnesses to talk about alleged UAP intrusions at missile silos or dogfights
with UAPs over military ranges, or alleged crashed UAPs, then the historical report
will come up short. If the report attempts to address just the noise sphere of WW2
foo fighters, Roswell, MJ-12, Nazi UAPs in Antarctica, underground alien bases,
reverse engineered alien technology, alien abductions, secret alien exchange
programs, etc. the report won’t be worth the paper it is printed on.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The other clue will come from those whose testimony is
collected. If the parade of witnesses includes UAP noise creators and noise
perpetuators, then ultimately what will be produced is a report that accounts
for the UAP noise sphere but does not accurately reflect the historical record.
If the collected testimony is from the usual suspects, like Mellon, Elizondo, and
Puthoff, who have one foot in the UAP community and one foot in the
intelligence community, or the UAP gatekeepers who funnel “leaked UAP footage”
to the mass media like Knapp or Corbell, or the faux UAP historians like
Richard Dolan or the faux UAP journalists like Linda Moulton Howe or Leslie
Kean, their testimony as printed in the historical report will also not be
worth the paper it is printed on.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">If instead, the focus is to recruit cold war, intelligence,
and military historians along with sociologists and conspiracy theory experts who
can jointly create an investigative framework based on intelligence community precedence,
Cold War existential triggers and adversarial fears, and the realpolitik for
which the 20<sup>th</sup> century was known, then this historical report may be
the catalyst for citizen trust reset that America so desperately needs.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">A glimmer of hope may be found in Sec. 6413 of the same 2023 NDAA , where a Historical Advisory Panel of
the Central Intelligence Agency is being formed to assist in conducting declassification reviews and providing other assistance with respect to matters of historical interest. Perhaps it will be just this panel that will take on the arduous
task of determining the CIA’s (and predecessor organizations like the CIG) role
in UAP information warfare and provide the agency’s response to the All-domain
Anomaly Resolution Office’s historical report.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Even then, special attention will have to be paid to records
that may not even be considered traditional intelligence agency records but
must still be preserved. For example, if a defense contractor while developing
the latest class of stealth fighter, cloaks the project with UAP obfuscation
for counterintelligence purposes, will those records be included in this
historical accounting?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In the Arthurian legend of the Fisher King, the Knight Parsifal
is invited to the wounded King’s castle in a kingdom that lays desolate and bare.
That night, Parsifal witnesses a strange parade of characters baring holy
objects from one room to the next, including the holy grail itself. The Fisher
King’s wound could be healed if Parsifal simply asks: “Who does the Grail
serve?” But, Parsifal fails to ask the question and when he wakes the next
morning, everyone is gone and the castle is overgrown with thorns. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Holy Grail of UAP truth is separating what is signal and
what is noise, and more specifically, what was our government’s own role in
creating, promoting, and amplifying UAP noise. Only by knowing the obfuscation
efforts it was/is actively involved in, and and throwing out that noise, can we
focus on the true signal, if one exists. Only by asking the question, who does
the UAP Grail serve, and having our wounded Fisher King – our own government –
truthfully answer – can our land begin to heal. </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;">So here we find ourselves at a crossroad that
has consequences for the survival of the United States as a Democracy. Will
those who have been tasked with this enormous responsibility do the right
thing, and provide the American people what they have demanded for all these
years – the plain, simple, and unvarnished UAP truth? Will a complete and
accurate UAP historical record finally allow us to separate the signal from the
noise? Will the creators of this historical report ask the right question: “Who
does the UAP grail serve?” </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;">Or will they squander this once in a lifetime opportunity and leave us in a desolate and bare
wasteland of ignorance, mistrust, and conspiracy – one that has grave
consequences for us all and for future generations to come? The Great UAP Reckoning
is coming – and may God help us all.</span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8791108928402883000.post-416408668964843242022-08-01T16:57:00.005-07:002022-08-01T20:29:11.922-07:00Caught Between Area 51 and a Gaslighting Billionaire<p>The term gaslighting means to manipulate someone by
psychological means so they question their own sanity. Gaslighting is a form of
psychological abuse for the purpose of control. Not just the individual but also the masses
can be gaslit into believing that which is blatantly red, is white, or what is
down is up, or what is plainly observed - never happened. This is not a possible
Orwellian dystopian future – it is happening now.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">We live in a world of “alternative” facts, where truth itself
has become subjective, forcing us to constantly ask ourselves - is this real or
does someone want us to believe it is real? Between foreign adversaries pushing
disinformation on social media or domestic politicians manufacturing culture
wars, or the entertainment media constantly feeding us fiction as fact; we find
ourselves in the fight of our lives – not a physical brawl – but an all-out information
warfare throw-down.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Each of these manipulators has an agenda for terraforming
our reality. Adversaries and politicians seek to divide us, and the media
companies look to reap mass viewership. But what if the manipulator is our own
National Security apparatus and the manipulation is in the name of “freedom”? We
can look at similar abuses in the past to understand that the ends don’t always
justify the means. The Church Committee final report established that “Intelligence
agencies have undermined the constitutional rights of citizens, primarily
because checks and balances designed by the framers of the Constitution to
assure accountability have not been applied.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">One example of such abuse is the very sad story of <b>Paul
Bennewitz</b>, who was manipulated by Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI)
agent <b>Richard Doty</b> and UFO researcher <b>William Moore</b> into believing something about
UFOs that was not real, contributing to Bennewitz’s mental breakdown. In Doty’s
case, this was allegedly done in the name of National Security, and in Moore’s
case, allegedly in the name of cultivating inside UFO sources. You can read all
about it in <b>Greg Bishop</b>’s book: <i>Project Beta: The Story of Paul Bennewitz,
National Security, and the Creation of a Modern UFO Myth</i><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But have you heard about the sad manipulation tale of <b>Joseph
Junior Hicks</b>? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Junior was the co-author along with <b>Dr. Frank Salisbury</b> of
the <i>Utah UFO Display</i>, a book that documented the numerous UFO sightings
in Utah’s Uintah basin. A Jr./High School science teacher for 33 years, primarily
teaching the local Ute tribe children, Junior began collecting close-encounter UFO
stories from the local community where he had lived all his life. A confidant
who never ridiculed anyone, Junior faithfully recorded, without judgement, what
Uintah basin citizens recounted of their encounters with the other worldly.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I met Junior Hicks in 2009 when visiting the Uintah basin,
at the invitation of Dr. Salisbury who was updating his co-authored book, and
together we visited the neighbors that bordered the Skinwalker Ranch (SWR).
This, after Billionaire <b>Robert Bigelow</b>, the then SWR owner, refused our request
to visit the ranch itself. Those precious days spent with Dr. Salisbury and
Junior had an enormous impact on me and directly led me to break ties with both
Bigelow and MUFON over what I perceived to be manufactured manipulations of the
UFO subculture. I wrote about my decision and reasoning in 2011 in this blog
post <i>Hunting the Skinwalker</i>: <span style="background: white; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><a href="https://followthemagicthread.blogspot.com/2011/02/hunting-skinwalker.html">https://followthemagicthread.blogspot.com/2011/02/hunting-skinwalker.html</a>
Note that as Junior had told me in confidence, I did not reveal his name and called
him “Brad” in the 2011 post. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">At that time, Junior told me about his work on SWR, but what
really piqued my interest was him recounting that after a cow was mutilated on
the SWR property, strange metal rods were found nearby. Junior said that he was
told by a NIDs scientist who happened to work at Area 51 (pay attention as this
will be important later) that the rods were made of Element 115. If you are asking
yourself, what is Element 115, then Google the <b>Bob Lazar</b> story and the bogus claims
he made of allegedly working at S-4 (Area 51) and tales of reversed-engineered alien
spacecraft. You can also read about it on this blog post I posted back in 2020:
<a href="https://historydeceived.blogspot.com/2020/02/wag-ufo.html">https://historydeceived.blogspot.com/2020/02/wag-ufo.html</a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But it was only after getting into a “who’s really telling
the truth” contest with current SWR owner <b>Brandon Fugal</b> as told here: <a href="https://historydeceived.blogspot.com/2021/11/dead-men-tell-no-tales.html">https://historydeceived.blogspot.com/2021/11/dead-men-tell-no-tales.html</a>
that I began to fear that Fugal was trying to whitewash the SWR with a revisionist
paranormal “forever” history. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Perhaps, in Fugal’s case, telling an unsubstantiated tale that
SWR is “special” in the Uintah basin would justify for paid subscribers their
access to the paywall/merchandise-hawking “Skinwalker Ranch Insider” site. Fortunately,
the paywall has a free 7-day trial and so I subscribed to access the “exclusive”
content that a “transparency” loving multimillionaire, for some reason just can’t
make available free of charge.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">On the site are seven video interviews with Junior Hicks from
the year before he passed away on June 7, 2020, at the age of 92. I found two
things enlightening about these video interviews. First, Junior discussed his
interactions with former SWR owners <b>Terry and Gwen Sherman</b> and Robert Bigelow
and present owner Fugal but did not once talk about any interactions with the <b>Myers
family</b> who leased/owned SWR from 1934-1994. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Let’s put this first point into context. Junior lived his
whole life in the Uintah basin, having been born in Cedarview, Utah on June 19,
1927. He was the UFO guy of the basin, the go-to confidant for anyone who had a
UFO tale to tell. Junior collected over 400 close encounter cases during his
decades in the Uintah basin, but somehow the X that marked the spot of paranormal
central which the revisionists want you to believe is Skinwalker ranch is not the
focus of his co-authored book. Junior’s time on the ranch can be only traced
back to when after the Shermans bought it. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">So, Fugal’s charm offensive at trying to prove a “decades” long
paranormal history of the ranch fizzles because it simply can’t be
substantiated, at least not by the guy who would know best – Junior Hicks. But
that’s not even the focus of this story.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Second, Junior provided much more detail on the metal rods
than he revealed in 2009. Let’s get back to Element 115 and why that is
important.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">When Junior told me the story in 2009, he called the
scientist who gave him this information, a “NIDS scientist who worked at Area
51”. The video interviews elaborate:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">The Rods:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">As Junior recounted in the
interview, the Shermans were raising hybrid cows on SWR. Terry Sherman asked
Junior to come out one day to investigate a recent cattle mutilation on the
ranch. Junior brought his daughter along on the mute investigation. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">Before arriving at the ranch, Junior
received a phone call from a scientist out at area 51, who told Junior of some
of the things happening at the ranch and that there could be a portal that could
open in the ground, warning Junior to be careful. The scientist told Junior to
bring a compass along and to monitor the compass. If the compass needle froze
in place, Junior needed to leave quickly because something was about to happen that
would cause him harm and if it occurred where he was standing, he may not come back.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">Junior examined the mute, and on
his way back to the truck, the compass needle started rotating around and then
stopped and got stuck. Junior told his daughter to run to the truck.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">Later, Terry Sherman, when examining
the mute, found a 6 inch long, 1 inch diameter metal rod on the ground that was
heavy, and he put in his pocket. Junior returned to SWR the next day and Terry showed
Junior the rod. Terry tried to whittle the rod with his pocketknife to no avail
and tried to hit it with a hammer but all it did was nick the hammer and the anvil.
Terry heated the rod with a torch, and after taking the torch away, the rod
would become cold again. Terry called Bigelow and Bigelow flew out on his
private plane. There were three scientists there at the same time and Bigelow
took the rod to be analyzed.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">Bigelow came back after a few days
and Junior asked if the rod had been analyzed. Bigelow responded that it was a
part from an old-fashioned battery. Junior told Bigelow he didn’t believe that
because a battery part could be whittled. Bigelow responded that he didn’t want people
to get excited about it (apparently to explain why he lied). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">Then Bigelow lined up all the
scientists in a line on their hands and knees, to crawl across the pasture to
see what else they could find in the direction of the mute. Five more rods were
found in the search, with three of them shorter than the rest (about 3 inches
long and the diameter of a pencil). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">Junior later asked Bigelow if these
newly found rods had been analyzed and Bigelow said they were parts from an old
searchlight used during WW2 to spot aircraft. Junior just happened to have a
friend that had one of these old spotlights and he confirmed it could not have
come from that. Junior went back to Bigelow and said that’s not the answer.
Bigelow said we will have it analyzed for sure, but we don’t want a lot of
people to know about it. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">In the meantime, Junior got another
call from the Area 51 scientist who told Junior that the rod that had been
found was called Element 115 and that it was the power source for the UFOs. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">Bigelow wanted to borrow Junior’s
case files and compare them to cases from the ranch. Bigelow picked out 30 that
he thought were like NID’s files. Junior thought Bigelow was covering up what
was going on at the ranch and he (Bigelow) didn’t want anyone else to see what
was going on. Junior also said he thought that the scientist at area 51 knew
more perhaps than Bigelow did.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">Every time Bigelow came to the
ranch from Las Vegas, he would take Junior to dinner to discuss the ranch. Junior
told Bigelow the rods were element 115 and powered the craft and when they were
depleted of their power, they were ejected from the craft. Bigelow was skeptical
and said he didn’t know anything about that. The rods then disappeared but Terry
Sherman had taken a picture of the first rod and Junior still had the photo.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">Bigelow told Junior that he had
positive proof that there was an underground base under the ranch, but the base
was now abandoned. What is left is just paranormal activity in the absence of
the UFO drivers. Junior believes the paranormal and the UFOs are connected. Junior
himself hadn’t witnessed himself much at all. Junior also said he had never
signed an NDA.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Gaslight Pilot</b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">So here is what I find intriguing in Junior’s video interviews.
First, that Junior had an alleged inside source at Area 51 who was feeding him
information about the ranch. Information that Junior would then relay to
Bigelow. Yet, in 2009 he called this source a “NIDS scientist” who happened to
work at Area 51. So, I was surprised to learn that Junior considered this unnamed
scientist to be independent of Bigelow and who allegedly knew more than Bigelow
about what was going on.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Second, Bigelow can’t stop gaslighting Junior on the rods. First,
they are a car battery part, then parts from an old WW2 searchlight, then they disappear
altogether. Meanwhile the alleged NID’s/Area 51 scientist is telling Junior
exactly what they are – a non-existent at the time Element 115. To add psychological
insult to injury, Bigelow then tells Junior about the definitive underground
alien base under the ranch. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Third, much to my surprise, Junior had not signed an NDA. I
would venture probably the only person ever to be affiliated with Bigelow not
to have signed one. So, when Junior told me in 2009 in confidence about the
NIDS scientist and Element 115, I assumed he was doing so because he was under
NDA, but it turned out he was not. Evidently, Bigelow did not mind at all who
Junior was talking to. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">What kind of game was being played here?<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Whatever the “play” was, it appears that the thrust of it
was to convince Junior of the bogus Bob Lazar story as having some basis in fact.
Whether to simply add on to the UFO folklore pile or as part of a counter-intelligence
campaign to obfuscate the real down-to-earth high-tech aircraft that Area 51 was
harboring, the alien mythology of both Area 51 and SWR were being shoved down
Junior’s throat in a good-cop (the transparent Area 51 scientist) / bad cop
(gaslighting, secretive, concealing Bigelow) back and forth, aimed at manipulating
Junior’s beliefs in the process.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So, in the end, how did this affect Joseph Junior Hicks? Unlike Paul Bennewitz who already suffered from a mental illness that Doty/Moore helped nudge over the edge, Junior was too centered, honest and sure of himself to cause any real psychological damage. But the intent was to manipulate his beliefs and from that perspective it succeeded - an abuse perpetrated on an honest American. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And therein lies the problem. How many thousands of Joseph Junior Hicks have had their beliefs similarly psychologically manipulated in the process by forces who believe the ends justify the means? These are the central questions that must be honestly examined and answered by the UFO fact-finding mission that Congress suddenly finds itself on. A reckoning is long overdue.</span></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8791108928402883000.post-57273478823622227772021-12-06T20:22:00.000-08:002021-12-06T20:22:13.726-08:00The MUFON Ambient (Abduction) Monitoring Project (AMP)<p><b><span style="font-size: large;">Ambient Monitoring Project History and Status </span></b></p><p><b><i>by Thomas Deuley, MUFON</i></b></p><p>The Ambient Monitoring Program, AMP for short, was a scientific
research project that the MUFON fully supported as a one third
member of the UFO Research Coalition. The other members of the
coalition are the Center for UFO Studies, and the Fund for UFO
Research. </p><p>The AMP originally stood for Abduction Monitoring Project, but the
early days of dealing with equipment and parts suppliers and after
some consideration we changed the name, and I noted that I got
better and more serious attention when I used the term Ambient
instead of Abduction. In actuality the term Ambient Monitoring is
probably the more precise term, so it was adopted as the operative
word in the title for the project. </p><p>The overall idea of the project was to place a data collecting sensor
system in the home of a repeat abduction experiencer. We did this
with great success and learned many valuable lessons along the
way. The experiment allowed us to collect very large amounts of
physical data that may or may not correspond to the abduction
phenomena. </p><p>For five years the UFO Research Coalition actively operated the
project with basically two years devoted to instrument development
and to three years devoted to data collection.</p><p>In the past, and as it may still be heard today, it has been alleged that
attempts at physically monitoring abductees has failed in one way or
another. Often the failures have been attributed to some outside force
causing the device to either quit working all together or to work so
badly that no new information has ever been collected. In the
process of working this experiment we attempted to track some of
these alleged situations down, but never found any more than
anecdotal information about such interference, and no documentation
for such. The one good report we did get, however, was from
researcher David Jacobs, where there was an attempt to use a video
camera to monitor an abductee, but the subject reported that just
before the abduction was about to occur, they got an overwhelming
desire to turn the camera off, but here again there was no physical
act from the outside. </p><p>From the beginning, in our design, we attempted to build a unit that
would get around some of these problems. First of all our device,
when in use, is on all of the time, even when the subject does elect to
turn it off, it does not turn off all functions and some data continues to
be collected. In particular it continues to record the time, by the
second, so that we can see when it is turned off or when it looses
power. We could also detect if someone, or something, if you wish,
attempted or did get into the interior of the device. In such a case
that particular case would come under very special scrutiny and
would have had have been handled with special provisions and
special precautions. This was never necessary.</p><p>In all of the cases we never saw any signals that would suggest that
anyone or anything had attempted to so much as touch the sensor
unit. On occasions, when it was touched out of necessity by the
subject or someone who lived in the same house as the subject, we
found an explanation in the subjects Journal, or we sent a message
to our installing researcher to go back to the subject to find out what
the problem was: and there was never anything out of the ordinary.
On one occasion it was the subjects cats walking on the unit that
caused very unusual signals, and on another occasion the subject
had spilt a glass of iced tea that required the monitoring unit to be
moved to clean up the mess, after which the monitor was returned to
its original position. </p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">History </span></b></p><p>The AMP project started out several years before it actually began as
28th Proposal that had come before the CFM Coalition. The basic
idea had been around for a long time, but was now in writing. </p><p>The CFM was made up of the Center for UFO Studies, The Fund for
UFO Research, and, the Mutual UFO Network, the same group that
later became the URC. The coalition was started up with the help of
the Bigelow Foundation. However, the CFM coalition did not get to
present this particular research proposal to Mr. Bigelow, since the
CFM broke off its relationship with him on the very same day that we
were ready to make the presentation the project. </p><p>After the loss of that opportunity the proposal was held for about one
year while the coalition was realigning and while we were looking for
sponsors and donors for this and many other projects. All the while
the initial project idea, which was somewhat simpler than what I will
be presenting here today, was being groomed and perfected into a
much larger and a much more formal scientific effort than what we
had started out with. </p><p>The proposal was in essences given off to the Fund for UFO
Research, a member of both the old and new coalitions, with intention
that they in turn offer the idea to some prospective donors, whom
they were aware of, and whom they thought might be interested in
this project. </p><p>Over time the Fund's efforts got a positive responses which
eventually lead to sufficient funding for the work. In the meantime the
CFM Coalition had become the UFO Research Coalition or URC, and
was now wholly on its own and no longer associated with Bigelow. </p><p>I might point out here that the Bigelow Foundation was never and is
not considered any form of enemy or adversary or anything like that
by any one of the groups that make up the coalition. Our separation
from Bigelow was strictly based on business and management
practices. He then opened the NIDS organization, wherein all three
groups that form the Coalition had a good relationship with NIDS, and in general, supported the work of NIDS, just as they supported our
work. </p><p>With a good prospect for a sponsor the URC continued to make
changes to the proposal that had been recommended by the
prospective financing organization, and then resubmitted the
proposal. After several rounds of changes and negotiation the
proposal for the Ambient Monitoring Project had been accepted. </p><p>From the initial idea being presented to the sponsor, to the beginning
of the first work was nearly three years. Finding a project and
someone willing to support the work is not as easy as it may seem. </p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Project Start Up </span></b></p><p>The project got under way with me quitting my engineering job in May
of 1998. At that point I picked up the full responsibility of getting both
the AMP project underway and carrying it through to completion. </p><p>Because of the long lead times necessary to design and build the
custom electronics the first thing needed was to find someone
capable of the work. Over the time period from the initial idea to the
approval to go forward we had developed a good idea of the shape of
the sensor unit and the number and kind of sensors we wanted in it,
so, based on that very soon after the start up of the project a contract
was let to a small research lab for developing the electronics to our
specifications and for building the first prototype. To our surprise it
6
was only weeks and that we were shown the size and shape of the
electronics package that had been developed, and a recommended
container. We approved both and told the contractor to proceed with
the building of the first trial unit, show below as picture No.1. That
same lab eventually built four prototypes for us, and then, later on,
supplied the electronics for all of the final design units, which I
designed and built up. The lab remained a consultant through out the
run of the experiment, should we have needed to go back to them for
any level of assistance. </p><p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgYHs1unKtse9sk2gln12bkTsSksMncjvxQeL4f76en4IgBKPqnDvbWAckOktGzee7Z1o07FDPZVreccMminMAY2tKnjRMi15-hvQfrqOr_k1EQonNYvkeKt3ZjqZybXfXn7HDNh-bia8KnXkLz_r_Zb49N2Z7puYHbX_6t8Ik8FxjevIKRibb6ptJdfg=s458" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="392" data-original-width="458" height="548" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgYHs1unKtse9sk2gln12bkTsSksMncjvxQeL4f76en4IgBKPqnDvbWAckOktGzee7Z1o07FDPZVreccMminMAY2tKnjRMi15-hvQfrqOr_k1EQonNYvkeKt3ZjqZybXfXn7HDNh-bia8KnXkLz_r_Zb49N2Z7puYHbX_6t8Ik8FxjevIKRibb6ptJdfg=w640-h548" width="640" /></a></b></div><p></p><p><b><i>Picture No. 1. The URC AMP Project’s first prototype shown closed. </i></b></p><p>The electronics package consists of a custom electronics board for
the ambient sensors, a special power supply and a separate power supply to keep the batteries charged. The electronics board has a
sensor for light level, which only measures the amount of light in the
room; and a sensor for sound level, which only measures the
instantaneous volume and does not record any voice. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiXcf43SIqYcA6NKUtylzyif1h0pdbdioxertuSJHNny-sTeKeTpTg0KyQs1uCQV5slfetrWGdD7RIqUeLYEbVcxXcxPzW0so1txwF7NH07FkNmkDRukWtieGBx9SY_Bb5TANlfoRFmDlmwabdaUh__WluRK9go7bgFvnlHr7xH9NbFD9O_ysEb2KSJbw=s559" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="559" data-original-width="499" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiXcf43SIqYcA6NKUtylzyif1h0pdbdioxertuSJHNny-sTeKeTpTg0KyQs1uCQV5slfetrWGdD7RIqUeLYEbVcxXcxPzW0so1txwF7NH07FkNmkDRukWtieGBx9SY_Bb5TANlfoRFmDlmwabdaUh__WluRK9go7bgFvnlHr7xH9NbFD9O_ysEb2KSJbw=w572-h640" width="572" /></a></div><p><b><i>Picture No. 2 Prototype 1 open. Batteries, power supply, and data logger
are under the electronics board. </i></b></p><p>Then there is an array of electromagnetic sensors and there is a
basic weather station inside that peeks out through the back of the
unit, and measures temperature, humidity and barometric pressure. </p><p>Once the sensor unit was finally and properly placed in the home of a
subject it took a set of data every second, 24 hours per day, and
recorded this internally to be downloaded daily and then available to
us for storage. I could also monitor the data real time. </p><p>The electronics board feeds its readings to a purchased item known
as a data logger. The data logger is a device that is specifically
designed to collect electric signal data. Some data loggers simply
graph, real time, the information put into them by sensors. Some
data loggers take in the sensor information for storage in its memory
for later extraction and use. Our particular data logger is of the
second type, and has the ability to be talked to through telephone
lines and a modem, so that we can call it up and download the data
on a periodic basis. We can also call in and watch the data
accumulate in a real time mode and make adjustments to parameters
and reading times. </p><p>There is also an auxiliary memory module built into the package so
we can collect more information than the data logger alone can hold.
Power is supplied from the subjects household power but is backed up by a battery system in the sensor unit. It can operate in the
passive battery mode for over 24 hours in case of a power failure. </p><p>After a couple of months, and several meetings with lab personnel,
the first prototype unit was delivered. The first unit was built into a
women's make up travel case which had been hollowed out and had
a small window in the back for reading the light, plus a small box
mounted on the back for bringing in power and the data line. </p><p>Pictures of the first unit are shown above. Note that the carrying strap
is taken off for this picture. This unit weighed nearly 23 pounds.
Most of that weight was from a gel cell lead acid battery that supplies
the back up power. </p><p>This first unit was tested for several months working towards
calibration methods, sensitivities, ruggedness, and EMI/EMC, that is
(Electromagnetic Interference and Electromagnetic Compatibility)
considerations. A great deal was learned from this testing but only a
few changes had to be made when we built the second prototype. </p><p>This first prototype unit was used for the first live test with real
subjects. The first test with subjects was used to iron out the "in
briefing" process, data collection methodology, "out briefing" process
and for trying out the various documents used in the study. The
documentation package for one case consists of some 30 pages. </p><p>The first test case ran for 3 months with the electronics unit never
failing and holding up through one power failure. This first test,
however did result in several changes in the documentation used for
the cases.
This first unit did have some minor problems. First of all it did not
dissipate heat well enough and was causing the temperature to
always read higher than it actually was. The temperature build up
was due to a lack of ventilation. The second problem was with the
case, in that it was too heavy, and very expensive for us to be ripping
apart inside. The case alone cost right at $300.00. Lighter, less
expensive make up cases, of a similar sort, were not found to be
substantial enough for the weight it had to carry. While this first box
was being used in the first live testing, ideas were kicked around on
how to get a design with more ventilation. </p><p>As a result a second design, using an identical electronics package,
was agreed to and was built into a medium size boom box.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhycYjJyp0zRbGMo3thMsuiTIEyPsL3EUNnrrQDBLfB_lfc_tjUmvK21z0D3Td6-iQQ3ZYr-RiSxdpbu50H440c7qaePY3X_4oGZz2_FN2PLw5BEbzuNNmsmsEWBu2NpYHp9EjfU6_uma7wsHEt_bcgoERV4v40EauXcdLTvFZxsXn2pCsxZRwWF6RFug=s497" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="292" data-original-width="497" height="376" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhycYjJyp0zRbGMo3thMsuiTIEyPsL3EUNnrrQDBLfB_lfc_tjUmvK21z0D3Td6-iQQ3ZYr-RiSxdpbu50H440c7qaePY3X_4oGZz2_FN2PLw5BEbzuNNmsmsEWBu2NpYHp9EjfU6_uma7wsHEt_bcgoERV4v40EauXcdLTvFZxsXn2pCsxZRwWF6RFug=w640-h376" width="640" /></a></div><p><b><i>Picture No. 3 Prototype 2. </i></b></p><p>This design was used to gain the openness necessary to have
sufficient air flow to keep the electronics cool. In this respect it
worked very well. </p><p>This boom box model was used for two more prototype tests with real
subjects. This design, too, had problems. The biggest one, and a
very important one, was with internal breakage during shipping,
starting with the first shipment. The combination of the weight of the
batteries and the weakness created by hollowing out the boom box
left the unit too weak to handle the jolting of being shipped. </p><p>The make up case design just did not seem to be something that
would be out in a room all of the time while the boom box did fit OK,
in most rooms, but not all. So, all in all, a compromise design was
needed for these and other reasons. </p><p>During the 4 or so months of live testing with the second prototype,
knowing that they too had a problem, a final design was developed by
me, which was settled on and was adopted by the URC Board. This
final design was completely designed on paper before going out and
building the first unit. The idea was to build the sensors into a fine
finished wooden box of substantial strength, yet with sufficient
ventilation to prevent heat build up. Like the make up case, having
custom boxes made was going to be very expensive. I had shopped
everywhere and had ran across several possibilities. The one
wooden box I had found that seemed to fit the needs best cost a little
over $80.00, while there was lessor candidates for comparably less
money. Coincidentally on a trip to Sam's Club the perfect box was
found and it only cost $40.00. One was immediately purchased and
brought home. It turned out to be exactly the same as the $80.00
dollar box I had found at another store, but now at half price. It
fulfilled all of the needs, so that is what we built up and used for all of
the actual test units. This final design was engineered from the
beginning to meet the needs of appearance, heat dissipation and
strength for shipping. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgU_XX2dfu_S4ZfECmYhNnGUV8rMLdv-LGFy_frjeaRZbc5bO8IRocUjlLQXwe0fJUddalw2WxMi-O_7Q1Dw7B7rud_8QUMt4H32KBy8rTd9dk-Jn54vuI1sjlacMgyvuuSXPMyaUFgzS0qQArhUzPZwHiUL10bQgc5_Sd3NUqF6sHc8Ty_6abdZ4qGmw=s456" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="311" data-original-width="456" height="436" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgU_XX2dfu_S4ZfECmYhNnGUV8rMLdv-LGFy_frjeaRZbc5bO8IRocUjlLQXwe0fJUddalw2WxMi-O_7Q1Dw7B7rud_8QUMt4H32KBy8rTd9dk-Jn54vuI1sjlacMgyvuuSXPMyaUFgzS0qQArhUzPZwHiUL10bQgc5_Sd3NUqF6sHc8Ty_6abdZ4qGmw=w640-h436" width="640" /></a></div><p><b><i>Picture No. 4. Final design of the sensor unit. </i></b></p><p>This model, of which I built 6, completed 13 full data collections of 4
months or more. Data collection ended in June of 2003. </p><p>This final design was shipped in standard airline approved shipping
containers which had proven far more rugged than the best
cardboard box. In some 16 round trip shipments we did not have any
breakage with the final design units. </p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Case installation and data collection</b> </span></p><p>A new study case was started by finding a prominent and known
researcher who had identified a willing subject. So it was researchers we went looking for and not subjects per se. We arranged with the
researcher to have an extra telephone line put into the subjects
home, if that was necessary. The researcher also arranged for a
psychological evaluation of the subject. This was done for both the
subject's protection and our protection. Lastly, we sent a predated
Journal for the subject to use for each day the sensor unit would be in
their home. The researcher would also run a set of tests in the home
to help establish normal background readings and usual noise levels.
Finally, the researcher makes a drawing of the room where the unit is
located showing exactly where the unit was placed. Often pictures of
the units location were taken. </p><p>Since the unit is extremely sensitive the researcher puts marks on the
surface where the unit is sitting so that if it ever has to be moved it
can be put back to exactly where it was originally placed. </p><p>The electronic data is collected each day from each unit. This was
accomplished automatically by a collections computer in my office in
San Antonio, Texas. The computer was programmed such that at a
specific time each day it called out through the modem to each one of
the units that were in the field. Each collection took approximately
one hour. The long distance bill was quite high. </p><p>Each days data from each unit consisted of about 1500 or more 8 1/2
X 11 pages. All of the pages looked pretty much the same without
close inspection. Here is a sample.</p><p>55,21,2354,40.37,292.7,337.1,.114,15.5,1.012,20.08,1.748,72.8,75.2,36.16,30.55
55,21,2354,40.37,292.7,337.4,.114,15.5,1.003,20.08,1.748,72.8,75.1,36.03,30.55
55,21,2354,39.7,293.4,338.1,.047,15.5,1.048,20.08,1.748,72.8,75,35.79,30.55
55,21,2354,40.37,293.4,338.1,.08,15.5,1.036,20.08,1.748,72.8,75.1,35.86,30.55
55,21,2354,40.03,294.7,337.8,.08,15.5,1.003,20.08,1.748,72.8,75.1,36.13,30.55
55,21,2354,40.37,295.4,337.8,.147,15.5,1.036,20.08,1.748,72.8,75,36,30.55
55,21,2354,39.7,294.7,337.1,.08,15.5,1.023,20.08,1.748,72.9,75.1,36,30.55
55,21,2354,39.7,294.4,340.8,.08,15.5,1.036,20.08,1.748,72.8,75.1,35.79,30.55
55,21,2354,39.7,295.4,340.1,.047,15.5,1.027,20.08,1.748,72.8,75.1,35.86,30.55
55,21,2354,39.7,295.4,339.4,.013,15.5,1.03,20.08,1.748,72.8,75,36.06,30.56 </p><p><b><i>Picture No 5. Sample of data. 1500 pages per day, 6 megs or so</i></b>. </p><p>There was a little over 6 megabits of data per day per unit. (If we
were to print it out it would be three reams of paper for each file, each
day) (Over a case and one half of paper every two days.) about 260
cases of paper per year. Needless to say - I didn't print it out, nor did
I need to. Electronic storage makes much more sense here. </p><p>After each collection I converted the data into a graphic file and then I
reviewed the graph for the entire day for each case looking for
technical problems with the data and gross anomalies that may show
unusual activity. After the review, both files, the data file and graphic
file, were backed up to a Read / Write CD. A CD holds about 55
days worth of data. </p><p>A typical graphical presentation of the data looks like this. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjdT_DyY3H6jp1yuzwNq0KVaWvy97HewbgW5NWgneJgLK8XmCOYp3hWU22NvK3O2qDCMTkxBYtk5m6_SwhuQa7AS7Fg1-2Xh8G2Oe7tfppmGC3bGEUzFFtwvUehgI-gWgkIfD24iHAF3bCvmglSG3ltDYuaw0zIQ90NzlTgezhPuKR4xiv2njnYo8pQHw=s532" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="348" data-original-width="532" height="418" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjdT_DyY3H6jp1yuzwNq0KVaWvy97HewbgW5NWgneJgLK8XmCOYp3hWU22NvK3O2qDCMTkxBYtk5m6_SwhuQa7AS7Fg1-2Xh8G2Oe7tfppmGC3bGEUzFFtwvUehgI-gWgkIfD24iHAF3bCvmglSG3ltDYuaw0zIQ90NzlTgezhPuKR4xiv2njnYo8pQHw=w640-h418" width="640" /></a><b style="text-align: left;"><i>Picture No. 6. 24 hours of data in a single presentation. </i></b></div><p>The data graphical program was capable of showing however much
data that was in a file, normally 24 hours worth, however if necessary
only one minute could be looked at or if need be only two seconds at
a time, maybe to see exactly when a sudden event occurred. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgWpMzpkz8yAeyBBT4L-HVawjBM9kcSnYPZixLuRQEQB9Ytwi6JYDTo62nCcWYWzivHP8yL7cOQFqFGhnoETD4kQqJm3ME4enFRgb5YKH-06bHK_tqcIpuNQ0VG0um0Jb--ny5suDdkCFgxWs4THxvnFTVkfcKa66TEk2BJYwBG9BmHxFmPhctGSIQsdw=s531" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="531" height="422" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgWpMzpkz8yAeyBBT4L-HVawjBM9kcSnYPZixLuRQEQB9Ytwi6JYDTo62nCcWYWzivHP8yL7cOQFqFGhnoETD4kQqJm3ME4enFRgb5YKH-06bHK_tqcIpuNQ0VG0um0Jb--ny5suDdkCFgxWs4THxvnFTVkfcKa66TEk2BJYwBG9BmHxFmPhctGSIQsdw=w640-h422" width="640" /></a><b style="text-align: left;"><i>Picture No. 7. 15 minutes of data from the graph above. </i></b></div><p>During the entire study, the subjects in their homes, kept a daily
journal of their abduction experiences, if any should occur. Here is a
sample of the top of the page. The bottom was fully lined for writing. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj2po4ozTEOWzxdEH3offc8RkfK1oMkenyfyPxZ_ite2QevY4-Iq1NR9Z-3LdmkIzsLQZ-UYbk4XG4WGTNpQx_rv0ORSday9LoZUAZ1z1CjF9lmx5zSjoU15sMo7bvu3OBJWPaGuzvRJ06PMk7t7jou0KIIRrS3gOpGi4yuiriKhv3dyBQad16mOCw19Q=s570" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="194" data-original-width="570" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj2po4ozTEOWzxdEH3offc8RkfK1oMkenyfyPxZ_ite2QevY4-Iq1NR9Z-3LdmkIzsLQZ-UYbk4XG4WGTNpQx_rv0ORSday9LoZUAZ1z1CjF9lmx5zSjoU15sMo7bvu3OBJWPaGuzvRJ06PMk7t7jou0KIIRrS3gOpGi4yuiriKhv3dyBQad16mOCw19Q=w640-h218" width="640" /></a></div><p>Each day they mark NO, MAYBE or YES at the top of the page. "No"
means they do not need to go any further. A "maybe" or a "yes" requires some additional comment. If necessary extra pages are
supplied at the end of the Journal for continuing a long entry. </p><p>At the end of the case the remote researcher removes the unit,
debriefs the subject and obtains the journal. The researcher would
then send me the sensor unit and would send the journal to Dr. Mark
Rodeghier at CUFOS. I, in turn, created a permanent set of read only
CDs and sent all of the electronic data to Mark. </p><p>When all of the data had been collected for all of the cases, the data
and the Journals are to be compared by other third party researchers
and a final report for the project is to be written. The data is being
analyzed now. </p><p>The final results from the report will be published and available to
everyone and if significant will likely be the subject of a paper to be
delivered at some future MUFON Symposium. </p><p>That's the project, but before you ask any questions I'd like to answer
some of the obvious questions first. </p><p><b>Q1). Could the aliens, if there are aliens involved, detect the box? </b></p><p>We were careful to engineer the box such that it is completely
passive. It does not make any noise, electronic or otherwise, and it
does not send out any form of signal except during data collection or
when real time monitoring is occurring. It would, however, be
detectable with most any non sophisticated "bug" detector. This would be particularly true during the time the box is sending us data.
But that only occurs one hour per day and when possible that was
when there is was no one home. Any piece of wire with a digital
signal on it is easy to detect. Also there is an electronic clock running
in the unit at all times that has an extremely low signal that could be
detected by a more sophisticated detector. </p><p><b>Q2). If the box is detectable can it be fooled? </b></p><p>Yes, but we don't
know how it could be "frozen" without us knowing it. It would
probably quit working all together if it was "frozen". Also the data
collection is a very specific number of data bits and if it was
completely "turned off" for some period of time the clock would be
wrong, with a gap in the time and the number of data points would be
short. If this occurred this would be very telling for us and very
exciting. This then would tell us much more than we know now and
would call for a new approach. If they could turn off the unit and
leave the clock running we would then have a clock signal but all of
the data would be gone - again a very telling situation that would be
important to us. </p><p><b>Q3). Can the unit be turned off if the subject feels the need for
complete privacy? </b></p><p>Yes. There is a switch on the back of the unit that
allows for privacy, but the subject is told that if it is turned off too often
or for long periods of time they would be voiding the experiment and
we would probably stop the test. </p><p><b>A word about our scientific approach. </b></p><p>In a good scientific test, the
test is conducted in a double blind fashion. That is, one subject is
tested with a real test unit, and one is tested with a false test unit. In
this case, an abduction situation, this would require a false test unit in
the home of a close neighbor with very similar family and work
relationship profile. We concluded that this would make it nearly
impossible to conduct the study. </p><p>We have instead opted for a separation of duties. I as the data
collector was to never know the name or address of the subjects. I
was to only know the name of the researcher for a given case. All of
my correspondence is through a third party. Likewise the subject
never knows who I am. I also was to never have access to the
subjects journal so I can not make changes to the data to match
something the subject has reported. Lastly, as mentioned above,
after all of the data was collected, some third researcher who has had
nothing to do with either the Journal or the data, will do the comparing
of the data and the Journal and write the case report. </p><p><b>A final comment: </b></p><p>Part of my purpose was to try to get some interest
up for additional researchers. MUFON provided three researchers
and we would have liked to have had more. Harry Wilnus from
Michigan, Craig Lang from upper Michigan and Beverly Trout from
Iowa handled cases for us. In addition Dan Wright and Dave Jacobs
have conducted cases with us. We negotiated with Budd Hopkins for
doing a case with him but he never felt like he had a case that fit with
our needs.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8791108928402883000.post-3230778307835521282021-12-04T08:11:00.002-08:002021-12-04T08:57:35.489-08:00Where There's Smoke, There's Mirrors<p>In the natural world, where there’s smoke there’s normally fire.
But in the world of the paranormal, filled with extraordinary claims of UFOs,
poltergeists, demons, and other weird phenomena: where there’s smoke, there’s often
only mirrors.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">These mirrors only serve one purpose: to focus your gaze on a
shiny new extraordinary claim that makes you exclaim Wow! Ooh! or Ah! Meanwhile,
the claimant hopes that with your attention on the novelty and the mystery of
the claim, you won’t notice that the corroborating data is non-existent, made up,
or baselessly correlated as proof.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Most TV shows making extraordinary claims are clearly just about
the entertainment value, but now we have a TV series that is alleging true
science investigation of their high strangeness stories. Factor in that the
series will still live or die based on viewer ratings, and it now has the basic
ingredients for a pseudoscientific menagerie that can be best described as “science
gone wild”. This in a nutshell is the 18-episode-two-season self-proclaimed “scientific
docuseries” known as <i>The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch</i>. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">From the very first episode, unsubstantiated assertions are
flung at the viewer, starting with the biggest whopper of all, that “Skinwalker
Ranch has been a center of UFO and paranormal activity for 200 years.” Never
mind that the paranormal tales of the ranch can only be traced back to when the
Sherman family moved on the ranch in 1994. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Or that the ranch is “downwind” from nuclear testing in
Nevada, with ranch crewmember Thomas Winterton baselessly stating that “the
Uintah Basin was a hot spot for the downwind” radiation and that “some of the
highest concentrations measured were just 30 miles from here.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This is at odds with what is reported officially here:
<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6828876/">https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6828876/</a> with the southern part of the state getting
the highest nuclear fallout readings from the 100 nuclear tests conducted at the
Nevada Test Site. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Downwinders, those exposed to nuclear testing fallout, can
be compensated via the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), <a href="https://www.justice.gov/civil/common/reca">https://www.justice.gov/civil/common/reca</a>
if they live within one of the Utah affected areas as shown on this map. Note
that the Skinwalker Ranch in Uintah County, in Northeast Utah, is not included.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhju5hlI5ZDj5C-_ZwvuJuJslsGvVwiXpxuTrLzkVcMNveUxzf-lYoz-YJkWV1sxE7Qct8H1UZxGysOsEPBrh9olVn9GyuB2e6jdY2FP0p9HmYVOhDEu0tC_g3QBQxYj-2wgTg6tni36rQE_2REW_dx3JwwAWauI4NMU7adFD8IF8uRLr4BAz_PUdmNwg=s1950" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1506" data-original-width="1950" height="494" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhju5hlI5ZDj5C-_ZwvuJuJslsGvVwiXpxuTrLzkVcMNveUxzf-lYoz-YJkWV1sxE7Qct8H1UZxGysOsEPBrh9olVn9GyuB2e6jdY2FP0p9HmYVOhDEu0tC_g3QBQxYj-2wgTg6tni36rQE_2REW_dx3JwwAWauI4NMU7adFD8IF8uRLr4BAz_PUdmNwg=w640-h494" width="640" /></a></div><br /><o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I am not proposing that Uintah County received zero radiation
from the prolific Nevada nuclear testing, but the true downwind hot spot is the
southern part of Utah. By failing to accurately state this, the series starts
off on the wrong scientific foot.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The ranch is likely affected by one known environmental source
of ionizing radiation. This article <a href="https://www.deseret.com/indepth/2020/1/29/20862792/radon-radioactive-killer-utah-lung-cancer-picocuries-huntsman-cancer-institute">https://www.deseret.com/indepth/2020/1/29/20862792/radon-radioactive-killer-utah-lung-cancer-picocuries-huntsman-cancer-institute</a>
describes how although Utah has one of the lowest smoking rates in the country,
it has a high incident rate of lung cancer, most likely due to Radon exposure. Uintah
County is one of seven counties in the state with the highest Radon concentrations.
Now, Radon gas may kill you after years of exposure, but it is not going to suddenly
strike you down like a lightning bolt nor cause the strange manifestations
allegedly occurring on the ranch.<o:p></o:p></p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiBGNsyr1t8Q8sSCG9ljO5jaEwCIl67fDJ1UvimB1AvV3KCqZDETSNfoqG8q81RibtVK2ilw2ilBTf1RmVB98dl6fAVMHVu7YwptSEt0_UYWu5nhUR7ilJGw0o-PJ3xSni8gAnkCpGY4yf8vViIY0iZTJZI0-nW0K3LHYmX2czy1EAv90AzLp1rOZXHmw=s624" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="470" data-original-width="624" height="482" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiBGNsyr1t8Q8sSCG9ljO5jaEwCIl67fDJ1UvimB1AvV3KCqZDETSNfoqG8q81RibtVK2ilw2ilBTf1RmVB98dl6fAVMHVu7YwptSEt0_UYWu5nhUR7ilJGw0o-PJ3xSni8gAnkCpGY4yf8vViIY0iZTJZI0-nW0K3LHYmX2czy1EAv90AzLp1rOZXHmw=w640-h482" width="640" /></a><br />
<p class="MsoNormal">Yet, despite there being no real reason to bring up the
radiation angle to begin with, Dr. Travis Taylor describes in the first episode
how radiation exposure could cause people to have strange symptoms including hallucinations
and then suggests digging a hole for radiation measuring. It is at this juncture
that science gets reality checked by the paranormal. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Because of the ranch lore that digging on the ranch causes
bad things to happen, Taylor’s idea is shot down. Exhibit A is Thomas Winterton
who allegedly experienced a life threatening and strange brain injury after
digging on the ranch. Exhibit B is Dr. Travis Taylor himself who in a later episode
claims he received a high dosage of ionizing radiation that caused immediate
medical effects to his body, not while digging, but taking a cover off a cistern.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">So, despite showing no direct repeated observations that digging
on the ranch causes bodily harm, the “no digging” theme is emphasized until it falls
way to “cautious digging”. And when the digging finally does occur with a drill
rig going to depths of 100 feet, no discernable bodily injuries occur. This is unscientifically
explained away as the ranch choosing the time and place when it decides to
mete out human punishment for daring to disturb its dirt.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Another example of paranormal lore taking a front seat to
science is the unsubstantiated statement that exposing the ranch to new people triggers
strange stuff to happen. This is tested by a constant influx of experts brought
on to the ranch including radiological surveyors, thermal imaging surveyors,
rocketeers, soil resistivity and ground penetrating radar experts, LIDAR and laser
experts, magnetometer surveyors, veterinarians, a petroglyph expert, an oncologist,
and a tesla coil expert. To supplement the technical experts, a Ute tribal
elder and a Jewish Rabbi are brought in. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Also paraded on to the ranch are Uintah basin UFO investigator
Junior Hicks’ family, an extended member of the Sherman family, as well as
others who claimed to have had firsthand high strangeness experiences on the
ranch. Finally, paranormal investigator Ryan Skinner (Mormons are anti-UFO) and
investigative journalist Linda Moulton Howe (she of a 1000 unsubstantiated claims)
show up for good measure of “science”. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Despite this constant influx of new human subjects, not to
mention “biosensors” in the form of a new herd of cattle and a couple of
alpacas, no interdimensional portals open up, no monsters crawl out, no cattle
are mutilated, no metal rods materialize unexpectedly, and no dogs get evaporated
into gooey puddles within the two-year period that the series is filmed – roughly
the same length of time that the Shermans lived on the ranch. Ditto for the
three-year period that Brandon Fugal owned the ranch prior to TV cameras
setting foot on the property.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">What takes the place of the very high strangeness as documented
in the George Knapp/Colm Kelleher book <i>Hunt for the Skinwalker</i> are very unimpressive
blobs of light in the sky, strange lights on the mesa, cattle running scared,
alpacas being attacked by “some animal”, suddenly discharged batteries, cell
phones randomly acting strange (inexplicably called hacking) and a myriad of geiger
counters, trifield meters, lightning detectors and other instrumentation
recording “crazy” anomalous readings while beeping away for the cameras. In
other words, the ranch showed its most impressive side from 1994-2016 and for
the last five years appears to be hibernating in low-activity mode. Perhaps at
season 3 or 9, it will rear its paranormal nastiness back to bio-level 5 once
again. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch</i> is part <i>Jurassic
Park</i> (we spare no expense), part <i>Ghostbusters</i> (anomaly detectors at the
ready), part <i>Paranormal Activity</i> (cameras pointing in every direction),
part <i>The Keep</i> (strange room keeping something in), mixed in with what
seems to be every sci-fi/horror movie theme known (aliens, werewolves, bad
spirit tricksters, mysterious energy sources and time-space warps). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">When science can’t explain the bad things that the ranch may
conjure up, and the armed guards carrying AR-15s and shotguns appear to be the
most skittish and fearful of the group, then it’s probably best to throw in a Mormon
prayer, a native American blessing, and a Jewish rabbi’s chant for added protection,
as seen in later episodes.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Is it entertaining? Absolutely! Is it science? Not in the
least. It has taken on the mantle of science but without following the scientific
method of coming up with hypothetical explanations for what has been directly observed,
instead relying on past unsubstantiated observations. This reverse logic is seen
throughout the series as we are reminded of the high strangeness that Native
American lore, the Sherman family, and the Bigelow NIDS and BAASS studies allegedly
observed on the ranch and using these stories as the basis for formulating hypotheses.
When a blob of light is seen in the sky, and ground instrumentation pick up anomalous
energy readings, the narrative immediately turns to underground alien bases and
interdimensional portals.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It takes this reverse approach by “poking the hornet’s nest”
to see what can be observed, without first defining what the hornet’s nest is
or even why it’s being poked to begin with. If the poking results in something that
seems to confirm the past unsubstantiated observations, that is presented as proof
of a correct “scientific” approach. It is upon these unsubstantiated past and
not current direct observations that predictions and experiments are conducted.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This can be seen when Dr. Travis Taylor proposes that the
sum of all the observed strange phenomenon can be explained by a wormhole bending
time and space, without first considering other more mundane and less exotic possibilities.
It is the deductive equivalent of the ancients dropping a virgin into a volcano
to appease the gods, hoping to ward off a drought, failed crops, and a famine.
If the drought never comes, then it must have been that human sacrifice that was
the cause to the effect. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch</i> is a never-ending paranormal
roller coaster ride of uncorrelated observations to prove preconceived beliefs
about a place whose best thrills are long past their heyday. In one of the most
memorable lines from the series, as the Skinwalker crew towers above a dead cow
that per a local veterinarian died of natural causes, but somehow still manages
to get a paranormal explanation, Dr. Travis Taylor exclaims: “It’s just dead." "It’s hard to kill a cow.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And I predict that this cow of a series will be just as
difficult to kill off and will be with us for some time. Perhaps, even as many
seasons as <i>The Curse of Oak Island</i> where I fully expect the Lagina brothers
to pop through to China in season 20, or perhaps as many seasons as <i>Ancient
Aliens</i>, with its incessant faux history lessons. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">If you are open-minded and curious about the paranormal, yet
long for real science to solve the mystery of what’s really going on in the Uintah
Basin, you will probably feel exasperated by <i>The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch</i>.
If science is not your thing and you are only here for the thrills, then hang
on and enjoy the ride.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Avi Loeb, if you are reading this, we are sending out to you
a science SOS! Please rescue us from this televised land of science ignorance and
smoke and mirrors.<o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8791108928402883000.post-86860588468268586752021-11-24T11:24:00.002-08:002021-11-25T11:17:02.411-08:00Brandon Fugal Responds to Dead Men Tell No Tales<p> After posting <i>Dead Men Tell No Tales</i> on this blog, an email exchange between Brandon Fugal and I ensued. Brandon has provided permission for me to detail the entire exchange here. I am omitting Brandon's personal information such as phone/email addresses.</p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Email from James to Brandon, November 23:</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal">Hi Brandon,<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Before I publish the attached article on my blog, I am
extending to you the courtesy of reviewing it and correcting any mistakes, for
the record.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Regards,</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">James<o:p></o:p></p><p><br /></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Brandon response email to James. November 23:</span></b></p><p>James:</p><p>I appreciate the opportunity to respond and provide clarification and correction.</p><p>I do not understand why you are trying to provoke contention or disagreement. I invited you in open public forum to come meet with me and visit the ranch, and I have responded to your statements and concerns with facts and respectful dialogue.</p><p>I am relying on living, first-hand witnesses to strange activity on the ranch pre-dating the Shermans. This also includes members of the Locke family, and visitors to the ranch in the early 1980s, that have requested that I not involve them. You are calling Kris Porritt, Gwen Sherman, Junior Hicks and anyone else that has stepped forward with an account that contradicts Garth Myers a liar. Why are you doing this? </p><p>Can you please help me understand why you are trying to be adversarial, and cast me in a negative light? I am eager to resolve your concerns and provide you further information and perspective. </p><p>Best,</p><p>Brandon Fugal</p><div><br /></div><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;">James response to Brandon, November 24:</span></b></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Brandon,</div><div><br /></div><div>I am not sure why you perceive this as adversarial. I am a truth seeker like you and in the end, it is the truth that matters. I am not accusing anyone of lying but showing that their versions of events are not the only ones. You can help clarify the truth by making public Hicks’ video interviews.</div><div><br /></div><div>If the Skinwalker Ranch has real activity that can be scientifically investigated, then why would the paranormal history of the ranch need to be proven?</div><div><br /></div><div>Dr. Garth Myers, Dr. Frank Salisbury and Junior Hicks deserve to have their reputations defended. Surely you can understand that.</div><div><br /></div><div>Regards,</div><div>James</div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Brandon response to James, November 24:</span></b></div><div><br /></div><div><div>James:</div><div><br /></div><div>You claim to be a truth seeker, yet you dismiss the testimony of many people, including law enforcement, which calls into serious question the narrative you keep pushing. That’s not truth seeking, that’s confirmation bias. </div><div><br /></div><div>I do not understand why you would want to continue to illuminate the fact that the testimony of one person who is no longer living contradicts the testimony of several that are living (including recent testimony from the co-author of the very book you continue to cite), with first-hand experiences. </div><div><br /></div><div>You bring up a good point, in that the history of the ranch really has little impact on the legitimacy of our current investigation, or the reality of what we have been documenting. But that data may be important, in that demonstrates a potential pattern. In reference to Junior Hicks and his testimony, we had Ward Hicks (Junior’s son, who is current faculty with BYU-Idaho, and well respected) ask Junior directly on May 22, 2020 (two weeks before he died) whether there were accounts of UFO activity and strange cattle mutilations on the ranch during Myers ownership. Ward replied in writing the following day on May 23rd stating, “I talked with Dad tonight and he remembered the Myers, and he said yes there were episodes when Myers were on that place”. </div><div><br /></div><div>Have you watched my docuseries? I am a truth seeker. I have a proven track record. I have never defaulted on anything in my life, and after closing thousands of significant transactions, I have never been sued. I currently represent billions of dollars in projects, including Fortune 500 companies, significant institutions and entities throughout both the public and sector. </div><div><br /></div><div>I acquired the ranch as a skeptic, and had even funded past ventures requiring scientific rigor, discipline and resources to investigate extraordinary claims, and ultimately disproved them. Based on that experience, I truly did think there was a 95% chance that anything unusual reported regarding Skinwalker Ranch had a natural, prosaic explanation. I also believed that it had been most likely an adult scientific snipe hunt of sorts. The data and evidence collected under my stewardship proves otherwise. </div><div><br /></div><div>What does the data relative to your history in this arena illustrate? Should I investigate that, since you seem to insist on attacking me and questioning my integrity and those involved with my scientific investigation? You also attack and call into question the professionalism and integrity of the scientists and researchers involved in my investigation, which I have a serious problem with. Calling them “pseudoscientists” is not only inaccurate, it’s libel.</div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;">James response to Brandon, November 24:</span></b></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Brandon,</div><div><br /></div><div>I haven’t dismissed anyone’s testimony, I simply pointed out the discrepancies.</div><div><br /></div><div>I am not sure why you believe this is an attack on you personally, as it is not. It is a fact, that you came out and publicly called Garth Myers a liar and based that on what others have said. You don’t know for certain Garth was lying. You just believe the conflicting voices are the ones telling you the truth. The fact they are still breathing doesn’t make their voices more credible.</div><div><br /></div><div>As to whether pseudoscience or science is being pursued on the ranch, so far you have only cited people’s credentials as proof of sound science. If the current Theranos trial shows us anything, it is that having many credentialed people on staff, does not establish that science is being pursued. </div><div><br /></div><div>I am not sure why you are pursuing investigations on the ranch in the manner that you are. Perhaps once you have published your data and others in the wider scientific community have had a chance to review the data, it will all make sense.</div><div><br /></div><div>Regards,</div><div>James</div></div><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8791108928402883000.post-30631246162832125092021-11-24T05:50:00.000-08:002021-11-24T05:50:35.769-08:00Dead Men Tell No Tales<p>It is not nice to speak ill of the dead, but even more so if
you are calling them a liar, since they are no longer around to defend their
reputation. Recently, I had a discussion with Brandon Fugal, current owner of
the Skinwalker Ranch in Utah where he suggested that Dr. Garth Myers, deceased,
was lying about the nonexistent long paranormal history of the ranch, as
detailed in Dr. Frank Salisbury’s book: <i>The Utah UFO Display</i>.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In 2009, Salisbury interviewed Garth, whose brother Kenneth
Myers and sister-in-law Edith Myers lived on the ranch decades longer than the
Sherman family – the Shermans being the first to claim strange activity. On page 218,
Garth states: <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">“I can tell you right off that my
brother died in April of 1987. My sister-in-law lived alone there until about
1992. She died in March 1994. And I can tell you unequivocally that up to 1992
there had never been and there never were any signs of that [UFO and similar
activity].”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">On Page 219, Garth continues:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">“The next thing I knew I get this
information that there were UFOs, and he [Terry Sherman] was scared to death,
and then this man in Las Vegas phoned in and was going to buy it…<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">All I know is, about a month or six
weeks after he bought it, Bigelow called me on the phone and wondered why we
hadn’t told anybody about the UFOs. I told him they didn’t get there until [Terry
Sherman] got there, and he said: ‘UFOs were coming there, and you had dogs
keeping the people away.’ And I said all they had at most were two dogs, and
the last time my sister-in-law lived there five years with a three-legged dog
and part of the time with no dog at all, and there were no UFOs. And he said
‘Oh, you’re not telling me the truth.’ I said, “If you don’t believe it, I
guess we don’t need to talk and more,’ and that was about it.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">When Salisbury asked Garth Myers if it were possible that
his brother and sister-in-law didn’t tell him about UFO activity they were
experiencing. Garth vehemently denied it: <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">“He said he was very close to his
brother (in spite of the age difference), knowing every detail of their lives.
After his brother died, he kept in very close touch with his sister-in-law –
many visits and close emotional ties as he worried about her living there
alone. He feels totally confident that his brother and sister-in-law would have
told him about any strange activity, especially under the circumstances.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Fugal however doesn’t believe Garth, stating: “Garth Myers
was not truthful and was purposely misleading in his statement to Salisbury. As
reported by Gwen Sherman, Garth Myers acknowledged and confirmed strange
activity on the property historically to them, even though he never really
spent time there.” </p><p class="MsoNormal">Fugal continued: “I am simply relating the facts, as
presented by first-hand witnesses, including numerous recent statements from
the co-author of Salisbury’s book [Junior Hicks], which contradict Garth Myer’s
statement.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I’ll get to Gwen Sherman’s allegations and Junior Hicks a
little bit later but first let me respond to Fugal stating that Garth never
really spent time on the ranch. Per Dr. Salisbury, on page 220: “Remember,
however, that he [Garth] was there himself (as a teenager) for three summers
without seeing any UFOs.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In addition to the many visits over a five-year period to
check on his sister-in-law after his brother died, Garth also checked in on the
ranch during the two-year period it was vacant after Edith left. I would say
that constitutes time on the ranch.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Dr. Garth Myers was no country simpleton, but was a M.D. in
pediatric neurology, having spent most of his career at the LDS Primary
Children’s Hospital and having worked for the State Department of Health. Garth’s
obituary mentions that he was from the greatest generation having served in
WW2. “His parents taught him to work hard and to accept responsibility for his
actions. Honesty and integrity were expected.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">If only he was around so he could confirm all of what was
revealed in Salisbury’s book: the time spent on the ranch, the zero strange
activity, the close relationship with his brother and sister-in-law and the
Bigelow phone call, but unfortunately dead men tell no tales.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The pro-paranormal Skinwalker investigators like Ryan
Skinner and Brandon Fugal want you to believe that the ranch always had
paranormal activity on it, and if anyone tells you differently, they are lying.
They reach their immovable position, not with firsthand knowledge of what the
Myers experienced while on the ranch for six decades but based on stories they
have collected from adjacent property owners, other investigators, or just
other strange stories from the surrounding community. Let’s examine each
source.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Skinwalker investigator Ryan Skinner believes Garth Myers
was lying and bases that position on interviewing others who told him so.
Skinner cites Gwen Sherman’s testimony that Myers was being less than truthful.
As proof, Skinner presented a snippet of the interview here:<o:p></o:p></p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEiS61ZV0gjae7abNfHQWZtExqprw9xZcuTP0KAWaK2FcDY3omV0pXK-Yt-jb0hK4_ARERxYtVNlsJqkKHldifeBhKWFGldTEiUhaE8zutIkw5ihKrWx3FM3soOrcwceNLsf5a5qtluZai/s624/GwenSherman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="199" data-original-width="624" height="203" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEiS61ZV0gjae7abNfHQWZtExqprw9xZcuTP0KAWaK2FcDY3omV0pXK-Yt-jb0hK4_ARERxYtVNlsJqkKHldifeBhKWFGldTEiUhaE8zutIkw5ihKrWx3FM3soOrcwceNLsf5a5qtluZai/w640-h203/GwenSherman.jpg" width="640" /></a>
<p class="MsoNormal">Gwen Sherman states: <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">“Garth was not one of my favorite
people. He knew what was going on there and sold it to us putting my children
at risk. So, my opinion of him is extremely low. He pulled into the yard one
day and asked how things were going [and] we started asking him questions.
Quote: ‘I hoped it had gone away and wouldn’t bother you.’ Asked why we asked
we told him everything we had experienced. Cattle mutilations go on everywhere
there’s cattle. Junior Hicks might have names. He was the local who would
gather up UFO info.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This is interesting from two perspectives. First, Gwen is
accusing Garth of knowing that Skinwalker was paranormal central when selling
the property to her family – thereby lying through omission. Fugal and Skinner however,
directly accuse Garth of lying to Salisbury when denying any activity took
place on the ranch while brother Kenneth and sister-in-law Edith lived there. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Second, if Gwen is to be believed, this would imply that her
family had already experienced some activity, and at some point, after
experiencing that activity, had an encounter with Garth after the property
already had passed hands. Why would Garth have “pulled into the yard one day”
after having already sold the property? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Garth lived in Salt Lake City and would have had to drive
over 2 ½ hours to the ranch to have this encounter with Gwen. Why? To appease
his conscience for having omitted the paranormal aspect of Skinwalker when
selling it? None of this is explained or analyzed by Skinner. Gwen Sherman
perhaps can still elaborate, given that I believe, she is still in the land of
the living.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Gwen’s clarification pending, there is one glaring detail
that calls her entire testimony in question. In Salisbury’s book, page 224,
Salisbury recounts his interview with Terry Sherman, Gwen’s husband.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">“The witness [Terry Sherman]
basically supports Garth Myers’ version of the history of the ranch. So where
did the exaggerated version – the ranch as the center of UFO activity – come
from? This was a version that Bigelow learned early, as indicated by his
calling Garth Myers a liar when Garth would not confirm it. Although I have
some suspicions, I don’t know where the embellished story originally came from.
(I’m assured that it did not come from Zack Van Eyck, the Deseret News
reporter.).”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">So here we have a conundrum that neither Fugal nor Skinner
would comment on – how can we reconcile Gwen Sherman’s testimony of confronting Garth for knowingly lying
via omission with Terry Sherman’s testimony confirming Garth’s account that
there was no strange activity on the ranch prior to their purchase? Either the
wife or the husband is not telling the truth. Remember that Terry was
interviewed in 2009 whereas the alleged Garth-Gwen encounter would have had to
occur from 1994-1996 while she still lived on the ranch.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Ryan Skinner however takes his accusations against dead men
a step too far – accusing both Garth AND Dr. Frank Salisbury of an outright
cover-up – based on their adherence to the Mormon faith. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">“Frank Salisbury was forthright
about his religious bias towards ‘UFOs’. Stating it’s not a part of his ‘belief
structure’, & ‘not something he wants to be involved with. As an LDS
Bishop, Garth had even more reason to cover up Kenneth's blasphemous UFO claims
for religious reasons.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">“Garth due to his overzealous
devotion to the Church as a LDS Bishop wanted to distance himself from aliens
and demons clearly...” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">When I pointed out to Skinner that Brandon Fugal was also an
adherent of the LDS faith and therefore by Skinner’s reasoning could also be complicit
in an anti-UFO coverup, Skinner did not respond. In addition, anyone reading
Salisbury’s book will come away with the impression that despite being a
science minded person (professor emeritus at Utah State University), Frank leans
more toward the belief that UFOs are real manifestations, and in no way was he
hell-bent on covering them up because of conflicting religious beliefs. If only
Frank or Garth was around to confront their accusers, but sadly, dead men tell
no tales.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">According to documents that Fugal/Skinner found, Kenneth and
Edith Myers leased the ranch from a Henry Lister in 1934. Lister then sells the
property to a Benton Locke and Locke subsequently sells the property to Edith
Myers in 1961. Let’s review this ownership chain for a second. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Myers leased and lived on the property for 27 years
before buying it – yet they made the purchase even though they knew it was
paranormal central? They deliberately continued to live there despite the
alleged dangerous activity to humans and animals taking place on the ranch?
Fast forward some 26 additional years later to 1987 when Kenneth Myers died, and Edith
Myers continued to live on the ranch ALONE for five whole years, till she moved off the ranch in 1992. Either the alleged paranormal forces on the ranch took a
liking to the Myers, or there is something amiss here. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In 1994 the Sherman family bought the property from Garth
Myers, the executor of the estate, after Edith Myers died the same year. The
Myers lived there a total of 58 years; the Shermans, only two, having sold the
property to Robert Bigelow in 1996. It is those two years when the Shermans
owned the property, that are documented as a real-life horror story in the
Kelleher/Knapp book: <i>The Hunt for the Skinwalker</i>. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Skinner alleges that the adjacent neighbors, the Winn and
the Garcia families had numerous strange stories to tell about the ranch. When in
2009 I interviewed along with Dr. Salisbury, both families, as documented in
the second edition of <i>The Utah UFO Display</i>, they revealed far less
sensational accounts than Skinner has collected. Neither family appeared to be
holding back any information in 2009.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Salisbury on page 240 of his book, points out why Charles
Winn’s testimony to Skinner may be flawed:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">“Charles said that for a long time
he denied any special activity there, but now he had become convinced, mostly
on the basis of stories he had heard.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">“…it is hard to know how much
Charles knew by personal witness or how much he had heard. He had clearly read <i>The
Hunt for the Skinwalker</i>”.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For high strangeness cases, firsthand testimony is
paramount, but one must be careful to corroborate that the accounts have not
been embellished or appropriated by assimilating other’s experiences. As I
pointed out earlier, Charles’ own firsthand paranormal experience on the ranch
did not even meet the bar of high strangeness.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In a recent exchange with Skinner, he even conceded that
perhaps Skinwalker was not the epicenter of strange activity in the Uintah
basin, although his web site continues to promote this idea. But if you read
both <i>The Hunt for the Skinwalker</i> and <i>Skinwalkers at the Pentagon</i>,
you would come away with the impression that the ranch was the X that marked
the spot of high strangeness in the Uintah basin. If you are thinking, big deal,
so what if the Skinwalker Ranch is not the epicenter, I have $22 million dollars’
worth of reasons to differ.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Fugal went further and alleges that Junior Hicks, the
coauthor of <i>The Utah UFO Display</i>, knew firsthand of what the Myers
experienced on the ranch, stating “We have countless hours of video testimony
from Junior Hicks attesting to all of these things & confirming
contradictions, from 2016 until shortly before he died last year.” When I asked
him to publish Hicks’ interviews so I could ascertain what exactly was said
regarding the Myers time on the ranch, Fugal’s response was: “We are editing it
all right now. Everyone present, can attest to his testimony.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Until those videos see the light of day, I will put Hicks’
confirmations of pre-Sherman activity in the unknown column, especially since
Hicks had an opportunity to reveal the same information to Salisbury, so it
would make it in the book, but chose not to? Salisbury on page 225 of the book
discussed Hicks’ interaction with the Shermans but there is no mention of
Hicks’ direct interactions with the Myers. Unfortunately, Junior Hicks died in
2020 and can’t confirm any of this. Dead men tell no tales.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">So, who among the living can confirm that Kenneth and Edith Myers
experienced high strangeness yet chose not to mention any of that activity to
even their closest relative, Garth Myers? The witness that both Fugal/Skinner
rely on is Retired Uintah County Deputy Sheriff, Kris L. Porritt who in a video
interview claims to have witnessed strange activity in his interactions with Kenneth Myers on the ranch.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Porritt claims he knew Kenneth Myers because they both had a
shared fascination with horses and that they became good friends. In his video
interview, Porritt claims that Kenneth had locks and chains on everything,
including the refrigerator and cupboard. When asked about the locks, Porritt claims
that Kenneth Myers told him of alien visitors and that things came up missing
and things came up dead. Ryan Skinner who was on video with Porritt, asked if Kenneth
could see the aliens, to which Porritt responded that Kenneth could feel their
presence. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Porritt also
recounted a tale he claimed to have witnessed firsthand. Allegedly, Kenneth
couldn’t find three heifers; Porritt arriving to help in the search but finding
no tracks. There was a shed on the property that both men tried to push open,
but it wouldn’t budge. Porritt looked through a crack in the door and told
Kenneth that he wasn’t going to believe it, but his heifers were in there. To
which Kenneth responded that the animals couldn’t possibly fit in that shed.
When the door somehow opened, Porritt claimed that the three heifers were stacked
one on top of the other in the small shed. Kenneth then said the heifers were dead,
but Porritt said no; they are still alive because the snot is still running out
of their noses. Porritt asked Kenneth to get a glass of water and dump it on
their heads which brought the animals back to life.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Now that sounds downright spooky, but it also sounds an
awful lot like the story told in <i>The Hunt for the Skinwalker</i>, Chapter
16, Hunt for the Bulls:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">On the afternoon of April 2, Tom
and Ellen [pseudonyms for Terry and Gwen Sherman] had set off toward the west
end of the ranch on a routine mission to spot and count the animals. As they
passed the bull enclosure, both of them looked fondly and proudly at the four
burly bulls in the corral. They truly were magnificent beasts, two each of pure
black Simmental and Black Angus, each weighing more than two thousand pounds.
With muscles rippling healthily beneath the shiny black coats that perfectly
reflected the setting afternoon sun, the animals made the Gormans proud. Ellen
said wistfully, “I would go out of my mind if I lost any of those animals.” Tom
nodded in agreement as they drove west on the narrow dirt track past the
corral.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">Forty-five minutes later they drove
back. All the animals seemed to be accounted for, yet they could not shake that
nagging feeling of unease. An unnatural calm hung over the property, broken
only by the sound of the truck engine. Abruptly Ellen screamed and pointed out
the windshield. Tom hit the brakes, fearing he was about to run over something.
He followed her finger and gasped. The corral was empty. Tom’s stomach knotted.
Each of those four registered bulls was worth thousands of dollars. They were
irreplaceable. Tom looked into Ellen’s tear-stained face. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">They stopped the truck by the empty
corral, and he got out to search for some evidence that the four magnificent
animals could have left behind. Tom’s knees felt weak. There was no sound as he
walked around the corral.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">Tom walked around looking at the
footprints in the corral. The animals had been there only forty-five minutes
ago. Ellen was sobbing in the truck. His search meandered over to an old small
white trailer located at the west end of the corral. There was no entrance to
the trailer from the corral except a door that was tightly locked and hadn’t
been opened in years. As he passed the trailer, he glanced in.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">Tom froze. All four animals were
standing silently, crammed into the tiny space. They seemed frozen hypnotically
and appeared to be barely conscious. Tom, with relief flooding through his
veins, yelled loudly for Ellen. At the same time, he banged forcefully on the
side of the metal trailer. The noise seemed to break the silent spell.
Instantly, all four animals appeared to wake up. They began kicking and
bellowing to get out of the narrow, confined space. Within seconds the four
huge animals went berserk and devastated the interior of the trailer. Finally,
a metal door was kicked out and instantly all four animals tumbled blindly out
the broken door and began stampeding in a panic.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I’ll leave it to you to decide whether Porritt witnessed the
heifers in the shed, or like Charles Winn, came to believe he had, after
reading stories and assimilating those stories into his own experiences.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Porritt in a separate Facebook post stated: <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">“In the early 80's l was an Uintah
County Deputy Sheriff and lived on and was assigned to the west side of the
county. In a period of about three months, I responded to five separate
incidents involving Mr. Myers cattle none of which were mutilated by any type
of animal. They were surgically operated on, and different body parts removed.
It was done in a way that could not have been done with the technology that we
have today. There was also two other Ranches that it happened on.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The problem with Porritt’s statement is the lack of
confirmation data. There should be police reports that back up both Porritt’s investigations
and the details of the mutilations. Per Ryan Skinner, however, “when we
contacted the local county about the records, we found out they had all been
destroyed (due to age, not conspiracy).” In addition, Porritt’s comments on
surgical precision and advanced technologies sounds a lot like the UFO
community’s take on cattle mutilations.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Unlike Fugal and Skinner, I am not calling Porritt a liar,
but the only one who can confirm the veracity of either the stacked heifers in
the shed or the 1980s cattle mutes is Kenneth Myers, who died in 1987, and dead
men tell no tales.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">So herein lies the problem with confirming a long history of
high strangeness on the Skinwalker Ranch. Kenneth and Edith Myers would be the
ones to know if their 58 years of living on the ranch were punctuated with just
the normal sounds of a country ranch setting, or the blood curdling screams of mutilated
animals and shapeshifting Skinwalkers and things that go bump in the night, but
they are no longer with us. Neither is their brother Garth Myers who knew them
best and denied any strange activity whatsoever. </p><p class="MsoNormal">On the flip side of the long paranormal history debate, Gwen Sherman’s testimony is at odds with her husband’s, and the alleged Junior Hicks testimony has yet to make it to the public domain. Complicating all
of this is that <i>The Hunt for the Skinwalker</i> has been out long enough
that its stories have been inculcated into the cultural fabric of the Uintah
Basin and make suspect any alleged testimony as possible assimilated
experiences.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">So until Gwen/Terry can reconcile their conflicting accounts and Fugal releases the Hicks' videos, don’t let anyone try and convince you they have
unequivocal evidence of strange activity on the Skinwalker Ranch prior to 1994; as they don’t. In the end, the truth of what occurred on the ranch has died out
with the passing of each participant, leaving us with just campfire stories to
ponder, and lamenting that dead men tell no tales. Now on to other high strangeness. If you have had the experience of a Billionaire call you out of the blue and try to convince you of something you know is not true, I want to hear from you!<o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8791108928402883000.post-85059061554287865052020-08-03T10:43:00.001-07:002020-08-03T14:45:55.473-07:00Truth Contortionists<p class="MsoNormal">Have you ever watched a contortionist squeeze their way into
the tiniest of spaces? They calculate every move, having practiced many times which
limb and joint should precede which into the void - a carefully choreographed dance
to occupy micro-spaces in ways the human form was never intended.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Equally, in what has increasingly become a fact-free and
conspiracy leaning society, we watch truth contortionists in our own politics twist
their extreme “version” of the truth into public discourse while attracting new
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>adherents with battle cries of
combating the <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Deep State”. Q-Anon
endorsers are elected to public office and whole swaths of the population, enduring
the worse pandemic in 100 years, shun scientific experts in favor of conspiracy
mongering and snake oil pushing politicians. People die. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And as I watch this train wreck of what I once thought was
the greatest country on earth, with its supposed deep-rooted institutions and traditions
of civility and decorum, literally going to hell in a handbasket fast, I can’t
help but experience Déjà vu. I have seen this self-destructive and corrosive behavior
before, in the world of UFOs.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The microcosm of UFO-world is both fascinating and exhausting
to observe. It too is an alternative reality where facts are in constant free
fall, conspiracy runs rampant and its truth contortionists are exceptionally
adept at their trade. Instead of the Deep State it is the Cosmic Watergate,
where the “Government” allegedly wages an almost century old war hiding the “truth”
of extraterrestrials visitation to planet earth. In UFO-world, there is no middle
ground in this war – you are either against the “truth embargo” or you are labeled
a Government agent, an agitator, a disinformer, or a debunker.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">To give you a taste of how UFO truth is stretched, warped
and ultimately consumed by the public as “fact”, let me share with you a recent
Facebook exchange with Donald Schmitt of “It was Aliens” Roswell fame. I want
to focus on two specific areas – standards of evidence and factual reporting.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Let us begin with standards of evidence which are pretty
much non-existent in UFO-world. Ufologists for some odd reason often either believe
themselves exempt from professional standards of evidence or cherry pick the
standards they employ. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Because the Roswell Incident suffers from a complete lack of
public domain physical evidence, i.e. the bodies, the craft, etc., Schmitt
believes that Roswell is foremost a people investigation. His reasoning is that
if he finds the witnesses to the event, at some point the physical evidence is
going to pop, and then he can call in the UFO-world equivalent of CSI to scientifically
analyze the material evidence. By his reasoning, the real-world standards of
evidence would be those that involve witness testimony, i.e. the same standards
involved in civil or criminal proceedings. Fine, I can sort of agree with that.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">So, let us examine legal standards of evidence. Direct
evidence like witness testimony is admissible in a court of law when the
witness is present in the court room and subject to cross examination by both the
prosecution and the defense. Hearsay, where the witness is not available for
cross examination, and instead their words are introduced by a third party, is not
admissible with a few exceptions – one of these being the Dying Declaration
exception which Schmitt not only endorses but believes trumps all prior testimony.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Dying Declaration hearsay exception however does not
exactly match up to Schmitt’s use of it. Dying Declaration is invoked for example
if a person is murdered and they can name their murderer right before dying, or
as another example, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a person confesses to
a family member with their last dying words that they had committed a crime.
But with Roswell, no crime has been committed; instead, we are talking about
memories of an event.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Schmitt believes that if Roswell Witness A has been saying X
for years, and now close to their death they state Y instead, in his opinion, this
end-of-life change-of-heart deathbed testimony is superior to and supersedes any
conflicting testimony the witness gave prior. I would love to hear real criminal
and civil lawyers (I am not one) opine on this. This sounds like nonsense to me
as this change of heart is not related to knowledge of a crime but the radically
differing testimony of a witness.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This appears to be more akin to a contested will case. If I
write up my will leaving all my assets to my children and toward the end of my
life I write a new will leaving it all to my dog, well something’s up that prompted
such a radical departure. The will gets contested and various factors like Lack
of Testamentary Capacity (read mental capacity) and Undue Influence (prompting
by others to modify the will) must be considered. The end of life will does not
automatically supersede the prior.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The second issue I want to touch upon is factual reporting, i.e.
telling it like it is, straight-up, without embellishment and without leaving
out important details. Equally important is not obfuscating or making ambiguous
statements that are open to assumption and interpretation. In our lengthy Facebook
exchange, Schmitt has provided some glaring examples of non-factual reporting.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Let us take the case of Doyle Rees that Schmitt mentions in
his book <i>Cover-Up at Roswell: Exposing the 70-Year Conspiracy to Suppress
the Truth.</i> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Schmitt believes Rees provided
deathbed testimony to back up Roswell as an alien event.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Rees is first mentioned at the end of chapter 6 in which Schmitt
summarily disqualifies Sheridan Cavitt as a witness, because Cavitt allegedly repeatedly
lied to Schmitt over many interviews. Here is an excerpt from the book:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">Cavitt’s own former boss, Lt.
Colonel Doyle “Dode” Rees, who was stationed at USA/OSI at Kirkland AFB in Albuquerque,
New Mexico, wrote a letter at our request to him around the same time. In it,
he remarked, “When you call the press conference to tell the world, let me
know, because I want to be there”.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Note how this paragraph has a double connotation; that Cavitt
was “in the know” and Rees was also potentially in on the secret and waiting
for his more directly involved subordinate to spill the beans. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, Doyle Rees (DR) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>gave a taped interview to Sign Oral History Project’s
Tom Tulien (TT) in October 1999 <a href="https://sohp.us/interviews/pdf/Rees-Doyle-1999.pdf">https://sohp.us/interviews/pdf/Rees-Doyle-1999.pdf</a>,
where Rees’ knowledge of the Roswell Incident comes into focus.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">DR: [Laughing] Yeah. Well, I came
after the Roswell incident. I came out there after that.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">TT: Were you aware of that at the
time?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">DR: No, I wasn't. And one of my top
officers was down at Roswell at the time, you know. You've probably heard of
Sheridan Cavitt, have you?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">TT: Yeah.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">DR: Well, he was one of my top officers,
and they've always - the people I've talked to – have always suspected that he
was holding out. That his lips were sealed. And he told me - and I have lots of
correspondence here with him - where he says, "I don't know
anything." He says, "If I'd have known, I would have told you."
But that may not be so - I don't know. If you're sworn to secrecy, maybe he's
got to keep - maybe his lips are sealed, I don't know.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This exchange paints a different picture. Rees believed Cavitt
may have known more than he was saying but clearly professes his own lack of involvement
or knowledge. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And in Sheridan Cavitt’s (SC) own May 24, 1994 interview with
Colonel Richard Weaver (RW) as part of the US Air Force’s report on Roswell: <a href="https://media.defense.gov/2010/Dec/01/2001329893/-1/-1/0/roswell-2.pdf">https://media.defense.gov/2010/Dec/01/2001329893/-1/-1/0/roswell-2.pdf</a>
, Cavitt mentions the letter Rees sent him:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">RW: Well the names I recognize here
that were still: are Doyle Rees and John Stahl.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">SC: Doyle is still alive. I have a
letter from him.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">RW: I think he's in the Association
of Former OSI Agents.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">SC: Yeah. Right.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">RW: And I am also a member of that
so I see a lot of that. So, I see a lot of their letters and stuff, pictures
that they send.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">MC: We get correspondence from
Doyle… (NOTE: MC is Sheridan Cavitt’s wife)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">MC: Nice, nice man.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">SC: He is a nice man. And a nice
family. I don’t know what the date on that is. Letter from Doyle, it says:
“When you call the press conference to tell the world, let me know, because I want
to be there.“ So, I just got reams of this stuff from books.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">So, Cavitt acknowledges the letter from Rees with the “tell
the world” message. None of this is technically non-factual, at least until Schmitt
states this in our Facebook exchange: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/donald.r.schmitt/posts/10217218700087129">https://www.facebook.com/donald.r.schmitt/posts/10217218700087129</a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">Rees was not in Roswell and not
involved as we have ever been able to determine. I quoted his letter which he
was kind enough to have written on our behalf to Cavitt where he clearly
implied that he had a BIG story to tell. We have that letter.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Put into context with Rees and Cavitt’s interviews, we see an
alternate picture: Rees professes no knowledge of the Roswell Incident but
believes Cavitt may be holding back something, although Cavitt has also denied
any knowledge. Schmitt asks Rees to write the letter to Cavitt with the “tell
the world” message. Schmitt states in a public forum that Rees was implying that
Cavitt had a BIG story to tell, but who prompted Rees to write the letter in
the first place? Schmitt & CO. This is a self-generated and twisted version
of the truth where Schmitt is simply playing one witness against the other and
then trying to attach importance to a letter that has no significance whatsoever.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">To explore Doyle Rees (DR) knowledge or involvement with the
Roswell Incident further, let us examine this excerpt from his interview with Tom
Tulien (TT):<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">TT: Yeah, it is odd too that the
whole thing began during the time that we developed nuclear capability.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">DR: Yes, yes.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">TT: And you know, the green
fireballs around Los Alamos.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">DR: Yes.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">TT: You know, that is curious, too.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">DR: Yeah, it, it's a strange thing.
There isn't an answer to it yet, as far as I know. You can't dismiss it,
because of the reports you get from good witnesses. But then on the other hand,
why haven't we got the concrete evidence somehow. A photograph- or really a
crash.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">TT: Yeah.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">DR: I have lots of reservations
about the Roswell incident. I doubt that it occurred myself. I can't believe
that it occurred, and it went to Washington, and went to Wright-Pat. And those
of us who are in counterintelligence and intelligence - if that did occur we'd
have had rumors of it, somehow. But I never did hear a rumor from within the
Air Force that there was anything like that going on.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">But I hope there can be a
resolution to this and put it to rest. Or, if there is something to this, let's
make an all-out effort to resolve it. Because if there are UFOs coming from
other galaxies, they have some scientific information that would be awful
valuable to us.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">What is striking about Rees’ response is that he reveals his
non-involvement or knowledge of the Roswell Incident, unprompted! Schmitt in
his book paints a different picture:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">"Rees refused to tell anyone
about the '47 incident..."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">When I asked Schmitt <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>why he didn’t mention Tulien’s interview in his
book, he initially gave lengthy and irrelevant explanations of how deathbed
testimony was superior to prior testimony <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and argued this point ad nauseam until he claimed he had never seen the Tulien
transcript to begin with and only first heard of it when I brought it up. OK,
benefit of the doubt granted.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But as oftentimes happens when one does protest too much
while contorting the truth, slippage occurs where you say something that sounds
good in the moment but does not exactly fit the overall story. Here’s some
relevant Facebook exchanges where Schmitt talks about Rees:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><b>Rees was not in Roswell and not
involved as we have ever been able to determine</b>. I quoted his letter which
he was kind enough to have written on our behalf to Cavitt where he clearly
implied that he had a BIG story to tell. We have that letter.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">Rees was not at Roswell at the time
of the incident, <b>so he remains a non-witness</b>. <b>The only reason we
sought him out was because he was Cavitt's boss</b> and Cavitt wouldn't even
admit being at Roswell in 47'.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">For the umpteenth time; Doyle Rees
was in Albuquerque at the time and <b>not involved at Roswell</b>.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">The fact that you intentionally
select <b>a non-witness</b> to argue your point demonstrates how flaccid your
effort.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">The fact that <b>Rees was not at
Roswell at the time of the incident</b> is the bottom line.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">If the best you or anyone else can
do is <b>relegate an individual who was 200 miles away from Roswell at the time
to somehow being involved</b> <b>- your misrepresentation</b>.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Which really begs the question, if Rees was such a
non-character and the only reason Schmitt sought him out was because he was in Cavitt’s
chain of command, why in the world would Schmitt write this about Rees?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 2.4pt;">"Unknown to
his family, he was also involved with the CIC investigation of the Roswell
Incident"<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Twisting the truth here is saying it mildly. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Now to be fair to Schmitt, since he does place such importance
on end-of-life testimony, let me finish this off by relating the anecdote in
the book where Schmitt ties in Rees’ alleged endorsement of the extraterrestrial
hypothesis. Summarized on Facebook:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">Rees died in 2007 and according to his
daughter Julie, who we interviewed in 2011, just before he died she was
spending time with him at his home in Utah. One day she found him sitting in a
chair staring through a window up at the sky. "What are you looking for Daddy?
she asked. "I'm looking for UFOs. They're real, you know," he replied
and then he added, "I saw the bodies."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The problem with this “deathbed” anecdote is that there is absolutely
nothing to tie it to Roswell. Rees is not quoted saying “I saw the Roswell
alien bodies” but it is a general statement in support of the Extraterrestrial
Hypothesis. This exchange remains hearsay and would not be considered anything
close to a Dying Declaration. However, Schmitt believes this anecdote trumps Rees’
taped interview where he opines on the UFO phenomenon:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">TT: You've been looking at this
phenomenon for fifty years, what's your attitude about it these days?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">DR: About?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">TT: About the phenomenon in
general?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">DR: Well, I would say this: I'm not
convinced that there are UFOs. I'm convinced that people are seeing something
that they are accused of being UFOs. Some of the testimony of the people that have
observed them, and my own observation - it's something you can't just laugh about
and forget about. They did -people that were honest and trustworthy - make
awful sincere, honest reports on what they saw. I don't know. I'm not convinced
that there are flying saucers. Yet, I'm - I can't understand, if there isn't a
strange phenomenon going on, why people are seeing them. Not only in New Mexico
or the Southwest - but all over the world. They're observed them all over the
world. So, it's strange. But then it's strange, if there is such a thing - why
haven't we had concrete evidence to show that there is? That would be my
thoughts.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Note that Rees did not deny the plausibility of UFOs but denied
knowing what UFOs are, due to lack of concrete evidence. Rees also denied any
knowledge of the Roswell Incident itself. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">To summarize, Rees when interviewed on tape in 1999 at the
age of 91, by all appearances was in a sound state of mind, based on his
coherent answers to Tulien’s questions, as reflected in the transcript. But
then eight year later, in 2007 when he died at the age of 99, Doyle Rees
allegedly had a radical change of opinion on UFOs. I say we contest the will! <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Schmitt was livid that I called him out on these factual errors,
and he did not hesitate to mention the 150 other witnesses that he had interviewed
multiple times over many years. But if he is so nonchalant about distorting the
record of one of the least important of the characters in his book, what are we
to assume about the central witnesses that he attaches great importance to? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I’m happy to give him the benefit of the doubt, but if Schmitt
really wants to avoid being labeled a truth contortionist, it would be in his
best interest to release the complete transcripts of his witness interviews so
we can judge their testimony for ourselves. Other wise we are at the mercy of
his interpretations, factual errors, and unconventional standards of evidence
and in UFO-world that bar has been set far too low for way too long. <o:p></o:p></p><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8791108928402883000.post-76199968983668361732020-07-28T19:19:00.001-07:002020-07-28T19:19:43.192-07:00UFO Gatekeepers: You Shall Not Pass<div class="MsoNormal">
The recent sensational New York Times’ headline thrilled readers
across the world: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/us/politics/pentagon-ufo-harry-reid-navy.html">No
Longer in Shadows, Pentagon’s U.F.O. Unit Will Make Some Findings Public</a>.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am not going to discuss the details of the article or the Time’s
subsequent corrections or the buzz generated in UFO circles of imminent disclosure.
Instead, I want to focus, as I have for the last ten years on the human side of
the UFO subject, and specifically on those who play a role in pushing the UFO
narrative through the mass media. In this latest sensation - Leslie Kean and Ralph
Blumenthal who also broke the Times’ 2017 AATIP story, follow up on their tic-tac,
paddywack, give a Navy dogfight a bone story to the now even more sensational
retrieval of off-world vehicles.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If my multi-decade experience with the UFO subject has taught
me any one core truth, it boils down to the following observation. The modern-day
UFO subject has been dominated for the last seven plus decades by humans
deceiving humans and because the deceivers are affiliated with domestic or
foreign government agencies, what truly lies at the core of the UFO phenomenon
cannot be unequivocally ascertained until the role of those agencies is brought
fully to light. A tall glass to fill indeed.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am not talking about the MIB, or MJ-12, or the IPU, all
mythical or made-into-myth organizations that have no basis in reality. I am referring
to, at least on our side of the pond, our run-of-the-mill agencies like the
CIA, the DIA, and in years pass the AFOSI. Now it is the ONI – the Office of
Naval Intelligence – that is taking the central role in this hall of mirrors.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We are enticed to believe that soon, some of the ONI’s UFO
findings will be shared with the public, although I am not holding my breath for
clarity but just further muddying of the
UFO waters, likely generating more
questions than answers. I anticipate the “findings” will be piecemeal-ed out in a
very controlled manner using the same human mouthpieces that have been serving
their intended purposes from 2017 until the present day. It won’t just be Kean and
Blumenthal but also Mellon, Elizondo, de Longe, and Silva, who will act in there
already pre-established roles as “gatekeepers”. Those who came before them like
Knapp and Moulton-Howe have long since served their purpose of pushing false
narratives like the Skinwalker Ranch. New gatekeeper blood has emerged but the
myths they are helping to build have at their base the dung hill of deceptions
past. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Gatekeepers </b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You may remember the iconic movie scene from the Lord of the
Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring where the wizard Gandalf prevents the demon Balrog
from crossing the bridge; slamming down his magical staff while uttering the words,
“You shall Not Pass!” The bridge crumbles and the Balrog falls into the chasm. UFO
truth seekers who shun the sensational and instead critically explore and
research facts are just as doomed to cross the UFO bridge of enlightenment, stopped
from further progress by the sponsored gatekeepers of the UFO narrative.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Playing an analogous role to Gandalf in UFO world are the UFO
mouthpieces who release and promote their sensational UFO news stories, oftentimes
fed by an inside source. Ego-driven by
their “chosen” status and preconceived beliefs, they are more than eager to regurgitate
the sensational allegations, irrespective of glaring red flags. Facts and journalistic
integrity often time take second place to getting the story out. The UFO narratives
that make it into the mass media flow directly from deceivers through these
gatekeepers and alternative narratives simply cannot compete. Conspiracy and sensationalism
sell and anything mundane simply falls away into the deep black void.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Gatekeepers most likely are not cognizant they are being
taken for a ride, although I would venture some do and simply don’t care.
Others are just plain old naïve and truly believe they are the conduits to
imminent disclosure. Some may think they can role play their way to the inner
circle of UFO enlightenment when in fact they never make it over the bridge themselves.
Some may even be cognizant of their roles and the masters they ultimately serve.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Critical thinkers will see it as just the same ole nonsense of
imminent disclosure they have been hearing about for years. Jack Brewer discusses
the same in his recent blog article <a href="http://ufotrail.blogspot.com/2020/07/ufo-debris-disclosure-and-congressional.html">UFO
Debris, Disclosure, and Congressional Investigations</a>. If you think Senator Marco
Rubio is a visionary for pushing for Congressional briefings, then take the
time to read this <a href="https://kvisit.com/QA/qL8B" target="_blank">1988 document</a>. Congress has had an interest in UFOs since Kenneth
Arnold kicked off the modern-day UFO era in 1947. Since that time, neither the most
ardent UFO believers who scream Cosmic
Watergate nor the official agencies that had UFO investigation oversight until
1969, have been able to muster sufficient concrete evidence to interest the
scientific community or to grab the short attention span of politicians. Congressional
inquiries have gone nowhere.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And are we supposed to believe that by the time the Air
Force stopped investigating UFOs in 1969, that the Office of Naval Intelligence
(ONI) was asleep at the UFO wheel for decades? If the ONI wants to truly brief
the public, they can start by explaining what the hell they have been doing with
UFO intelligence since 1947. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
UFO Gatekeepers come and go, but what always eludes us is
the plain and simple UFO truth. Instead it is obfuscated, muddied, built on
deceptions and minutely orchestrated by those who control the narrative for selfish
reasons. The same old gatekeepers show up time and time again in UFO circles, monopolizing
the news cycle; propped up to media roles, their sensational voices drowning
out logic and reason. Did you catch Linda Moulton Howe’s cameo on the History
Channel’s <i>The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch</i>?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When they have outlived their usefulness, UFO Gatekeepers are sidelined, and new young guns take their place. The sooner you accept that UFO disclosure is a fallacy, the less disappointment and frustration you will endure when the ONI’s findings do not live up to your expectations. But if you insist on skipping and hopping your way across the bridge to UFO enlightenment – just remember that like all who desired the same before you and were denied - <b>You Too Shall Not Pass</b>.<o:p></o:p></div>
<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8791108928402883000.post-60295906349347951182020-02-21T21:33:00.002-08:002020-02-22T04:12:09.765-08:00Wag the UFO<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is a damn shame that the sensational always drowns out common
sense in this world. If you have any doubt that is true, then you haven’t been
paying attention. How else do you think a reality TV star with zero political experience
and a lifetime trail of criminality and corruption but with the gift for razzle and dazzle became President of the United States? Seducing the masses is
a fine art.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The same holds true for the world of the Paranormal
including UFOs. The more sensational the claim, the more likely it is to be
embraced by the general public who have an insatiable appetite for the macabre,
the bizarre and the strange. Once a UFO well runs dry however (hint: Roswell), then a
new rabbit hole is dug by charlatans and perpetuators. Sometimes the UFO rabbit
holes are dug by our own intelligence agencies who have for decades involved
themselves in the business of UFOs for any number of mundane reasons – from foreign
counterintelligence concerns to black project obfuscation.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Occasionally, however, a UFO rabbit hole is dug that is so
ostentatious in its myth building that it spawns a whole cottage industry
including wasting of millions of taxpayer dollars. One such rabbit hole is the
Skinwalker Ranch in Utah’s Uintah basin.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you can just for a moment ignore the sensational claims
that have been pandered in George Knapp and Colm Kelleher’s book <i>Hunt for
the Skinwalker</i> and spend the time examining the red flags that have popped
up surrounding this fairy tale, hopefully critical thinking will win out over <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>your appetite to be entertained.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So let’s start with three major red flags that gets lost in
all of the noise about DIA funded UFO research, newfound Navy interest in the
subject, conflicting DOD statements, and To The Stars shenanigans.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Red Flag # 1:</b> The myth of a long UFO/Paranormal history of
the Skinwalker Ranch. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Get yourself a copy of the revised edition of Dr. Frank
Salisbury’s book <i>The Utah UFO Display</i>, copyright 2010 and focus on pages
218-226. Here you will find an alternative interpretation of reality then the
sensational Knapp/Kelleher fairy tale. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You see, Dr. Salisbury in 2009 was able
to interview Garth Myers, the brother of the original owner of the ranch, who
just happened to live nearby Salisbury’s home in Salt Lake City. Garth Myers' brother Kenneth Myers and Kenneth’s wife Edith Childs purchased the ranch in
1933. Kenneth died in 1987 and Edith continued to live on the ranch until she left
for a rest home. When Edith died in March, 1994, the ranch reverted to Garth
Myers and his sisters, Helen M. Baxter and LaPriel Poulson. Garth was the executor
of the estate and sold the ranch some three month later in mid-1994 to Terry and Gwen Sherman.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Garth vigorously denied that there was any UFO activity or otherworldly
events occurring on the ranch while his brother and sister in law lived there and
before it was sold to the Shermans, some sixty plus years of zero high
strangeness. But here comes the kicker. Soon after Robert Bigelow bought the
ranch in 1996 from the Shermans, Bigelow called Garth Myers and asked Garth why
he never told anyone about the UFO’s on the ranch. Myers responded – that’s
because the UFOs didn’t show up till the Shermans bought it. Bigelow’s
response? “Oh, you’re not telling me the truth.” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, stop for a second and ponder the strange scene I just
described as recounted by Garth Myers to Dr. Frank Salisbury. Why was billionaire
Bigelow attempting to bully Garth Myers who sold the ranch to the Shermans into admitting high strangeness activity on the ranch that had no basis in
reality? Wag the UFO. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Red Flag # 2:</b> The Bob Lazar tie-in to the Skinwalker Ranch.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Junior Hicks who coauthored the <i>Utah UFO Display</i> had
his own interesting story to tell Dr. Salisbury and me when we interviewed him
in 2009. Hicks mentioned that one day he arrived on the ranch during the time
when Bigelow’s National Institute for Discovery Sciences (NIDS) group was there allegedly
conducting research. Some strange metal rods had been found on the ranch after
a recent UFO sighting and one of the NIDS' scientists told Hicks that they had
the metal rods analyzed, and lo and behold, they were made of Element 115. Cue
the sirens and flashing lights! Element 115 is the core component of another
deep UFO rabbit hole that has spawned its own mythology – the Bob Lazar story.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you are not familiar with the Bob Lazar story, well than google
his name and familiarize yourself with this two-bit charlatan who by the way
was also promoted by George Knapp. So why is this an important red flag? Well you
see, Element 115 did not exist in 2009, except in the vivid imaginations of
Lazar and his promoters. Today, Element 115 is known as Moscovium, a synthetic
chemical element first synthesized in 2003 by a joint team of Russian and
American scientists at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna,
Russia. Wag the UFO.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Red Flag # 3:</b> The Bigelow-Lazar Business Relationship<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Robert Bigelow is an interesting character – the Howard
Hughes of our day – and despite all his so-called altruistic enthusiasm for the
study of UFOs, he sure keeps some strange bedfellows. One of them was charlatan
Bob Lazar who worked in 1990 for a Utah corporation that Bigelow was president
of called Zeta Reticuli 2. Interesting name for the company. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Looking at the Lazar story chronology – Lazar went public in
late 1989 with his fantastic tale of reverse engineering alien craft at Area 51.
In an interview with George Knapp, Lazar claimed that he was shown photos of alien
beings that came from the fourth planet of the second star of the binary star system
Zeta Reticuli in the constellation Reticulum. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And Lazar didn’t just pull that
particular star system out of his own reticulum…it was already known to those
in UFO circles as the potential origin of the alien beings who abducted Betty
and Barney Hill in 1961. Except, Zeta Reticuli was pinpointed by a schoolteacher
and amateur astronomer based on a star map that Betty Hill drew post hypnosis –
a hypothesis that has since been disproved. Wag the UFO.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So you take the mythology built from a 1961 <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>UFO abduction story – aliens from Zeta Reticuli
– and meld it into the mythology of Bob Lazar’s claims of seeing photos of Zeta Reticuli aliens and reverse engineering alien
spacecraft that can fly with the help of at-that-time non-existent Element 115 –
and then that same Element 115 that was “impossible to synthesize”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>as Bob Lazar claimed in his George Knapp
interview, mysteriously shows up as metal rods on the Skinwalker Ranch. You see
where this is going? Yes, wag the UFO.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So before you become too enamored of AATIP and AAWSAP and
DIA personnel on the Skinwalker Ranch, spend some time first pondering these
red flags that indicate that all is not as it seems. Myth built on top of myth, built on top of more myth and sprinkled with a Billionaire trying to bully you
into his version of the truth equals a whole lot of BS. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The fact that millions
of US taxpayer dollars were spent chasing after these fairy tales is what investigative
journalists should really be exposing to the light of the day. Instead we are
being fed a daily diet of the sensational and the amazing – with even respected
newspapers like the New York Times falling under the spell of feeding the
public what they most desire. Are you entertained yet?<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8791108928402883000.post-86516112948106159652018-11-27T20:42:00.002-08:002018-11-27T20:42:24.989-08:00<br /><i></i>
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<i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieS9gVYCQKERzu6TTIR3qaXltUeIbBJKV4f4JROuNDO8KJOKps586Kp5TTyolGlij8KuQzM2OugjVePGM350O2iAQ1rhy3IT_-TTRymq0dbGUWJ81VreSYWx47EwhBCzhOqr-nBh_VcJjR/s1600/WaitIsOver.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieS9gVYCQKERzu6TTIR3qaXltUeIbBJKV4f4JROuNDO8KJOKps586Kp5TTyolGlij8KuQzM2OugjVePGM350O2iAQ1rhy3IT_-TTRymq0dbGUWJ81VreSYWx47EwhBCzhOqr-nBh_VcJjR/s320/WaitIsOver.jpg" width="273" /></a></i></div>
<br />
<h3>
After 10 long years of continuous research, I am finally releasing my book, <i>Th</i><i>e Roswell Deception</i>. Click the title of the book below to download a free copy.</h3>
<br />
<br />
<h2>
<a href="https://kvisit.com/QA/kKgB">The <span style="color: red;">R</span>oswell <span style="color: red;">D</span>eception</a></h2>
<br />
<h3>
Please note that all original source documentation can be downloaded by going to the end notes and clicking on the embedded links.</h3>
<h3>
<br />James P. Carrion<br />james_carrion@hotmail.com</h3>
<div>
<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8791108928402883000.post-7002063414521279482016-03-06T07:17:00.003-08:002016-03-06T10:55:04.069-08:00<h2 style="text-align: center;">
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