Nick Redfern continues to be bugged by Mothman.Click here to read about it
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Is Nick Redfern adrift, near Monster Island?
Nick Redfern is an explorer looking for the Chupacabra, everyhere....Click here for his latest adventure
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Monster(s) of the ID?
Nick Redfern copes with monsters and other denizens of a deeper reality.
Click here for his take on the Chupacabra, or monster from the ID (as we see it).
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Nick Redfern and The Vengeful Djinn
Nick Redfern sees a connection (perhaps) between the demon-believers in his book Final Events and the genies in a new book by Rosemary Ellen Guiley & Philip J. Imbrogno: The Vengeful Djinn: Uncovering the Hidden Agenda of Genies
Click here for Mr. Redfern's take on the possible connection
Sunday, February 27, 2011
THE FABRICATION OF ALIEN ABDUCTION: MY CONVERSATONS WITH DR. JOHN MACK by Anthony Bragalia
Copyright 2011, InterAmerica, Inc. [Permission needed to post this material outside of Fair Use]
Recent and disturbing revelations about UFO abduction researchers Budd Hopkins and David Jacobs have been made by Hopkins’ ex-wife Carol Rainey. She is concerned about the questionable quality and professionalism of the two’s work in the field. There are allegations that the two were incompetent and gullible in their investigations. This has shaken those segments of the UFO community that believe that extraterrestrials take humans into their craft (usually without human concurrence) to perform invasive “experiments” on them.
The time is appropriate to now reveal my early experience with a famed UFO abduction researcher. I am unhappy to report that I share Rainey’s concerns about such “research” in light of my discussions with this psychiatrist and abductionist. These conversations were with someone that I had hoped could apply the rigors of scholarly research to these bizarre nocturnal events that were being reported by so many at the time. This individual was the late Harvard psychiatrist Dr. John Mack.
In these talks it became evident that this unquestionably great thinker was not a critical thinker. Wide-eyed and lacking true discernment, Mack was as susceptible to the suggestion that ET “takes us” as were his patients. His lack of historical perspective on UFOs was alarming. What Mack said to me left me genuinely shaken. It is with some reluctance -but without regret- that I now relate here what I know to be the truth about such abduction “research.”
DR. JOHN MACK
John Mack was a New Yorker who came to Cambridge in 1955 and earned his medical degree from Harvard Medical School, specializing in adult and child psychoanalysis. Mack would later teach and research psychiatry at the same school from which he graduated. Through the years Mack would also become noted for his more non-traditional work in areas such as Holotropic Breathwork, consciousness studies and more privately with Dr. Stanislav Grof, psychedelics. Mack was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1977 for his biography and exploration of the life of British Officer T.E. Lawrence.
Much later in his career, beginning in the early 1990s, he began a 10 year quest to study what he called “Experiencers” – those who have encounters with alien entities resulting in a spiritual or transformational experience. In 1993 Mack founded a non-profit center of study to further exploration of the abduction phenomenon which he named PEER (Program for Extraordinary Experience Research.) He maintained small offices in Cambridge and sometimes convened events at the Harvard Divinity School. After meeting Mack, for many years I received solicitation mailings from PEER.
Mack wrote extensively on the phenomenon, including the bestseller Abduction: Human Encounters with Aliens as well as Passport to the Cosmos: Human Transformation and Alien Encounters. In September of 2004 while he was in England Mack was fatally and tragically struck by a drunken driver while walking from a friend’s home. Since his death, another non-profit arose to carry Mack’s message, “The John Mack Institute” in Boulder, CO. They acknowledge that “elements of PEER’s work may be found within many of our initiatives.”
IN SEARCH OF ABDUCTION ANSWERS
In the early 1990s I was fortunate to meet Dr. Mack, converse with him on the phone several times and share dinner with him (with a small group of skeptics.) Living in Boston at that time, I occasionally attended the meetings of a small assembly of skeptics who were supporters of the national skeptics organization CSICOP. Much later a New England Skeptics Society was established which has no relation to this early informal group. Though I am not a “skeptic” in the common sense of the word (and am a vocal proponent of the reality of the visiting extraterrestrial) I do value the learned opinions of those who question mine.
I took the opportunity to reach out to Dr. Mack (who was in Cambridge, where our meetings were held) to invite him to meet with us to discuss his recent UFO and abduction research. The other group members had thought it a good idea and agreed to be respectful and civil in their questions of Mack. They recognized that he would be going into a potential “lion’s den” and I wanted to make sure that this did not happen.
Mack graciously accepted the invitation to meet for dinner with us at a highly-rated Asian restaurant off of “Mass Ave” in Cambridge in the early evening. The ensuing event was peppered with lively debate and Mack certainly held his own. He was not an argumentative type though and did not attempt to “convince.” And the feared “lion’s den” did not happen- everyone was on best behavior, even humorous and light-hearted at times. Of course talk got around to abductions and many of the questions and interest surrounded this topic.
THE DISAPPOINTING ABDUCTIONIST
It is with reluctance that I report this because Dr. Mack is not here to speak to what I am about to say. Nevertheless, this early insight into his work helps us to understand the dynamics of what was going on at the time. We all wanted answers about this strange thing called “abductions” but it became clear to me that Mack would never find them. Among other things, he was not asking the right questions.
One of the first things that Dr. Mack asked me was what I did for a living. At the time, I was in the environmental consulting industry. As he obviously knew, I also had an interest –and a belief- in “things ET.” It was then that he perked up. It was as if a light bulb went on in his head. I could sense that he felt this was somehow “profound.”
He said to me, “Do you know that concern about the environment is a recurring theme with those that tell me of their encounters? The beings tell them that they are concerned about the threats to our environment such as pollution and radiation. They are warning us that we are doing harm to Earth.” He then waited for me to respond to this, but I merely acknowledged what he said in a general way. Then he asked me if I felt that my work in the environmental field had anything potentially to do with my interest in the UFO phenomena. I replied that the two were entirely independent. I was not working in environmental advocacy or anything like that- rather I was a management consultant who happened to be working with client corporations who were major players in the environmental industry. And I told him that my interest in UFOs began very early on- and certainly well before my environmentally-related work.
He seemed very disappointed that my UFO and environmental interests were not in some way “connected.” This was the first sign or red flag to me that Mack may be “shaping” and “overly interpreting” others’ experiences. He brought it up yet again later- he simply could not seem to reconcile that I had no deeper connection to “the environment” and that my UFO experiences and interests were not related to it. I told him that though I am “eco-conscious”- my environment-friendly attitudes about this had no link to concern about aliens warning us that we are destroying our planet.
I had many “background” questions of Mack. I began by asking him about the UFO “Contactees” of the 1950s and about the New Age “Channelers” of aliens in the 1980s
Though Mack had done an outstanding and detailed historical analysis of a military figure (and even was awarded a Pulitzer for it) it became quickly obvious to me that his historical analysis of the UFO phenomenon was sadly lacking. He did not possess a command of other such alleged human-alien encounters from the past. He knew of early contactee George Adamski for instance. But names such as Daniel Fry, Truman Bethurum, Howard Menger, Wayne Aho and others apparently did not ring a bell with him.
In a similar vein to Contactees, I asked him about his thoughts on Channelers. I mentioned “Ramtha” and also I later had mentioned “Ashtar.” Neither of these seemingly “rang a bell” with him either…
Mack was investigating alien abductions and was linking human consciousness with alien encounters. For Dr. Mack to have not completed deep analysis of these before psychoanalyzing his patient “abductees” concerned me. Though we eventually got around to discussing the abduction phenomenon, his apparent lack of historical reference and perspective on such things was bothersome to me. How could an esteemed Harvard doctor be so lacking in knowledge of such essential elements of the UFO phenomenon’s past? How could he not see that the dynamics of those Contactees and Channelers provide precedent for his study of “Experiencers”?
Clearly this was a man who was just now gaining information about UFOs. Here was a man trained and working as a Professor of Psychiatry who was going to write books about UFOs. My immediate fear was that here before me stood a man of some renown who would hypnotize and regress patients to elicit memories about personal penetration by aliens! His need for more understanding about things UFO was obvious. He was a “career transition” MD who had yet to learn valuable lessons of UFO history that could have helped him in his assessment of this abduction “phenomenon.”
During another conversation I had with Dr. Mack I brought up the ever-present prospect of “hoaxing.” After all, we were in the midst of Cambridge- the quintessential “college town” with young MIT science students always devising pranks. In fact, just some years prior, MIT students has somehow placed a life-size cow figure (stolen from a steak house) atop the famous MIT Dome building on Mass Ave without being seen (where Mack and I had before had dinner.) He had to have been aware of the propensity of people to hoax. Had he ever studied this or considered it relative to those claiming abduction? Was he aware of UFO hoaxes from the past that supposedly included human-alien encounters and communication? Though he had heard of UFO /alien hoaxer Billy Meier (and offered no opinion on the authenticity of his contacts and photos) Mack had not apparently ever heard of such people as Carlos Dias or of Paul Villa when asked. I really wonder if Mack realized that some of his patients (called “Experiencers”) simply never had such an experiences because –consciously or unconsciously- they made it up!
Mack struck me as someone who was open of spirit and overly trusting. He seemed to want to find the positive in things. He believed that all things had a meaning. Because of this I could easily see how he could be easily deceived by others and indeed by himself.
Again, I was astounded at Mack’s credulity and his lack of completing essential “homework.” Dr. Mack could not see that hoaxing –making things up- was something that should always be heavily considered when considering things strange, including alien abductions. He seemed perplexed that this would happen. I was crestfallen that he had never examined the “hoaxer mentality” or that he had not done an intense study on the history of UFO hoaxing.
Incredibly, just a few years later in 1996, my fear that Mack did not understand the hoaxer dynamic came true! One of Mack’s former patients, Donna Bassett, admitted to a NOVA television documentary team in Boston that she had made up the alien and UFO encounters that she had once told Dr. Mack. She based her story on her understanding of what others had said and written about the abduction phenomenon. Mack had never suspected it. He was entirely “taken in” by the woman’s fabrication.
In the end, I realized a lot about Dr. Mack:
- He was relatively new to the world of UFOs. He was not at all well-versed in its strange and long history, and he should have been given his position and what he was seeking to accomplish.
- He was a ”researcher of the mind” yet he never examined what made a Contactee’s or a Channeler’s mind tick, or even knew much about them at all. But like abductees, they too made claims of personal mental communication and interaction with UFO entities. Someone who is studying the human mind and alien interaction should have had some background knowledge of this.
- Though a perceptive man in some ways, he was not astute enough to be aware of hoaxers, even those that were within his own midst. He seemed oddly non-committal about hoaxes and abductions when I discussed the history of hoaxes and things alien and UFO.
- He suggested to me links that did not exist between my “interest in the alien” with my work in the environment. He was “overanalyzing” me. He tried to make ‘connections” that simply were not there. He dearly wanted me to agree with him.
- He seemed to me to be far too academic and cerebral to be engaged in this type of “work.” He was not someone I felt that had ever spent a lot of time in the “real world”- and especially to be cognizant of the motivations behind some in the UFO industry. He lived and worked in the bubble of Harvard Square for far too long to understand the larger world.
- He displayed a naiveté about the intrinsic reliability of humans, what they report and why. He did not seem to be an “investigator” who vetted what others told him. He seemed compelled to assign a ‘higher meaning’ to anyone we talked about that made UFO or alien claims.
A CLOUDED QUEST FOR TRUTH
This information is not given as a condemnation of the abduction phenomenon. It is well beyond my scope to offer a determination of the causes, meanings or essential truth about alien abductions. And I do not mean this piece as a “Mack attack.” I believe that Dr. John Mack was genuine in his pursuit. He was an honest man- but he did not look at the abduction phenomenon honestly. He was a brilliant man and I share with him some of his concepts on consciousness. But I am frankly today conflicted about what I see as his clouded quest for truth.
Did he somehow encourage the fantasy-prone or those suffering false memories or paralyzing sleep disorders? Did he understand the potential for contagion within the phenomenon? Did he unwittingly enable the hoaxers and the fantasists? The delusional? The psychologically needy? Or were some of his patients indeed the “real deal?”
One thing for me is certain- though an MD, Mack did not have the proper credentials to make his “diagnosis.” For so many reasons, he should never have been offering such “treatment.”
Recent and disturbing revelations about UFO abduction researchers Budd Hopkins and David Jacobs have been made by Hopkins’ ex-wife Carol Rainey. She is concerned about the questionable quality and professionalism of the two’s work in the field. There are allegations that the two were incompetent and gullible in their investigations. This has shaken those segments of the UFO community that believe that extraterrestrials take humans into their craft (usually without human concurrence) to perform invasive “experiments” on them.
The time is appropriate to now reveal my early experience with a famed UFO abduction researcher. I am unhappy to report that I share Rainey’s concerns about such “research” in light of my discussions with this psychiatrist and abductionist. These conversations were with someone that I had hoped could apply the rigors of scholarly research to these bizarre nocturnal events that were being reported by so many at the time. This individual was the late Harvard psychiatrist Dr. John Mack.
In these talks it became evident that this unquestionably great thinker was not a critical thinker. Wide-eyed and lacking true discernment, Mack was as susceptible to the suggestion that ET “takes us” as were his patients. His lack of historical perspective on UFOs was alarming. What Mack said to me left me genuinely shaken. It is with some reluctance -but without regret- that I now relate here what I know to be the truth about such abduction “research.”
DR. JOHN MACK
John Mack was a New Yorker who came to Cambridge in 1955 and earned his medical degree from Harvard Medical School, specializing in adult and child psychoanalysis. Mack would later teach and research psychiatry at the same school from which he graduated. Through the years Mack would also become noted for his more non-traditional work in areas such as Holotropic Breathwork, consciousness studies and more privately with Dr. Stanislav Grof, psychedelics. Mack was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1977 for his biography and exploration of the life of British Officer T.E. Lawrence.
Much later in his career, beginning in the early 1990s, he began a 10 year quest to study what he called “Experiencers” – those who have encounters with alien entities resulting in a spiritual or transformational experience. In 1993 Mack founded a non-profit center of study to further exploration of the abduction phenomenon which he named PEER (Program for Extraordinary Experience Research.) He maintained small offices in Cambridge and sometimes convened events at the Harvard Divinity School. After meeting Mack, for many years I received solicitation mailings from PEER.
Mack wrote extensively on the phenomenon, including the bestseller Abduction: Human Encounters with Aliens as well as Passport to the Cosmos: Human Transformation and Alien Encounters. In September of 2004 while he was in England Mack was fatally and tragically struck by a drunken driver while walking from a friend’s home. Since his death, another non-profit arose to carry Mack’s message, “The John Mack Institute” in Boulder, CO. They acknowledge that “elements of PEER’s work may be found within many of our initiatives.”
IN SEARCH OF ABDUCTION ANSWERS
In the early 1990s I was fortunate to meet Dr. Mack, converse with him on the phone several times and share dinner with him (with a small group of skeptics.) Living in Boston at that time, I occasionally attended the meetings of a small assembly of skeptics who were supporters of the national skeptics organization CSICOP. Much later a New England Skeptics Society was established which has no relation to this early informal group. Though I am not a “skeptic” in the common sense of the word (and am a vocal proponent of the reality of the visiting extraterrestrial) I do value the learned opinions of those who question mine.
I took the opportunity to reach out to Dr. Mack (who was in Cambridge, where our meetings were held) to invite him to meet with us to discuss his recent UFO and abduction research. The other group members had thought it a good idea and agreed to be respectful and civil in their questions of Mack. They recognized that he would be going into a potential “lion’s den” and I wanted to make sure that this did not happen.
Mack graciously accepted the invitation to meet for dinner with us at a highly-rated Asian restaurant off of “Mass Ave” in Cambridge in the early evening. The ensuing event was peppered with lively debate and Mack certainly held his own. He was not an argumentative type though and did not attempt to “convince.” And the feared “lion’s den” did not happen- everyone was on best behavior, even humorous and light-hearted at times. Of course talk got around to abductions and many of the questions and interest surrounded this topic.
THE DISAPPOINTING ABDUCTIONIST
It is with reluctance that I report this because Dr. Mack is not here to speak to what I am about to say. Nevertheless, this early insight into his work helps us to understand the dynamics of what was going on at the time. We all wanted answers about this strange thing called “abductions” but it became clear to me that Mack would never find them. Among other things, he was not asking the right questions.
One of the first things that Dr. Mack asked me was what I did for a living. At the time, I was in the environmental consulting industry. As he obviously knew, I also had an interest –and a belief- in “things ET.” It was then that he perked up. It was as if a light bulb went on in his head. I could sense that he felt this was somehow “profound.”
He said to me, “Do you know that concern about the environment is a recurring theme with those that tell me of their encounters? The beings tell them that they are concerned about the threats to our environment such as pollution and radiation. They are warning us that we are doing harm to Earth.” He then waited for me to respond to this, but I merely acknowledged what he said in a general way. Then he asked me if I felt that my work in the environmental field had anything potentially to do with my interest in the UFO phenomena. I replied that the two were entirely independent. I was not working in environmental advocacy or anything like that- rather I was a management consultant who happened to be working with client corporations who were major players in the environmental industry. And I told him that my interest in UFOs began very early on- and certainly well before my environmentally-related work.
He seemed very disappointed that my UFO and environmental interests were not in some way “connected.” This was the first sign or red flag to me that Mack may be “shaping” and “overly interpreting” others’ experiences. He brought it up yet again later- he simply could not seem to reconcile that I had no deeper connection to “the environment” and that my UFO experiences and interests were not related to it. I told him that though I am “eco-conscious”- my environment-friendly attitudes about this had no link to concern about aliens warning us that we are destroying our planet.
I had many “background” questions of Mack. I began by asking him about the UFO “Contactees” of the 1950s and about the New Age “Channelers” of aliens in the 1980s
Though Mack had done an outstanding and detailed historical analysis of a military figure (and even was awarded a Pulitzer for it) it became quickly obvious to me that his historical analysis of the UFO phenomenon was sadly lacking. He did not possess a command of other such alleged human-alien encounters from the past. He knew of early contactee George Adamski for instance. But names such as Daniel Fry, Truman Bethurum, Howard Menger, Wayne Aho and others apparently did not ring a bell with him.
In a similar vein to Contactees, I asked him about his thoughts on Channelers. I mentioned “Ramtha” and also I later had mentioned “Ashtar.” Neither of these seemingly “rang a bell” with him either…
Mack was investigating alien abductions and was linking human consciousness with alien encounters. For Dr. Mack to have not completed deep analysis of these before psychoanalyzing his patient “abductees” concerned me. Though we eventually got around to discussing the abduction phenomenon, his apparent lack of historical reference and perspective on such things was bothersome to me. How could an esteemed Harvard doctor be so lacking in knowledge of such essential elements of the UFO phenomenon’s past? How could he not see that the dynamics of those Contactees and Channelers provide precedent for his study of “Experiencers”?
Clearly this was a man who was just now gaining information about UFOs. Here was a man trained and working as a Professor of Psychiatry who was going to write books about UFOs. My immediate fear was that here before me stood a man of some renown who would hypnotize and regress patients to elicit memories about personal penetration by aliens! His need for more understanding about things UFO was obvious. He was a “career transition” MD who had yet to learn valuable lessons of UFO history that could have helped him in his assessment of this abduction “phenomenon.”
During another conversation I had with Dr. Mack I brought up the ever-present prospect of “hoaxing.” After all, we were in the midst of Cambridge- the quintessential “college town” with young MIT science students always devising pranks. In fact, just some years prior, MIT students has somehow placed a life-size cow figure (stolen from a steak house) atop the famous MIT Dome building on Mass Ave without being seen (where Mack and I had before had dinner.) He had to have been aware of the propensity of people to hoax. Had he ever studied this or considered it relative to those claiming abduction? Was he aware of UFO hoaxes from the past that supposedly included human-alien encounters and communication? Though he had heard of UFO /alien hoaxer Billy Meier (and offered no opinion on the authenticity of his contacts and photos) Mack had not apparently ever heard of such people as Carlos Dias or of Paul Villa when asked. I really wonder if Mack realized that some of his patients (called “Experiencers”) simply never had such an experiences because –consciously or unconsciously- they made it up!
Mack struck me as someone who was open of spirit and overly trusting. He seemed to want to find the positive in things. He believed that all things had a meaning. Because of this I could easily see how he could be easily deceived by others and indeed by himself.
Again, I was astounded at Mack’s credulity and his lack of completing essential “homework.” Dr. Mack could not see that hoaxing –making things up- was something that should always be heavily considered when considering things strange, including alien abductions. He seemed perplexed that this would happen. I was crestfallen that he had never examined the “hoaxer mentality” or that he had not done an intense study on the history of UFO hoaxing.
Incredibly, just a few years later in 1996, my fear that Mack did not understand the hoaxer dynamic came true! One of Mack’s former patients, Donna Bassett, admitted to a NOVA television documentary team in Boston that she had made up the alien and UFO encounters that she had once told Dr. Mack. She based her story on her understanding of what others had said and written about the abduction phenomenon. Mack had never suspected it. He was entirely “taken in” by the woman’s fabrication.
In the end, I realized a lot about Dr. Mack:
- He was relatively new to the world of UFOs. He was not at all well-versed in its strange and long history, and he should have been given his position and what he was seeking to accomplish.
- He was a ”researcher of the mind” yet he never examined what made a Contactee’s or a Channeler’s mind tick, or even knew much about them at all. But like abductees, they too made claims of personal mental communication and interaction with UFO entities. Someone who is studying the human mind and alien interaction should have had some background knowledge of this.
- Though a perceptive man in some ways, he was not astute enough to be aware of hoaxers, even those that were within his own midst. He seemed oddly non-committal about hoaxes and abductions when I discussed the history of hoaxes and things alien and UFO.
- He suggested to me links that did not exist between my “interest in the alien” with my work in the environment. He was “overanalyzing” me. He tried to make ‘connections” that simply were not there. He dearly wanted me to agree with him.
- He seemed to me to be far too academic and cerebral to be engaged in this type of “work.” He was not someone I felt that had ever spent a lot of time in the “real world”- and especially to be cognizant of the motivations behind some in the UFO industry. He lived and worked in the bubble of Harvard Square for far too long to understand the larger world.
- He displayed a naiveté about the intrinsic reliability of humans, what they report and why. He did not seem to be an “investigator” who vetted what others told him. He seemed compelled to assign a ‘higher meaning’ to anyone we talked about that made UFO or alien claims.
A CLOUDED QUEST FOR TRUTH
This information is not given as a condemnation of the abduction phenomenon. It is well beyond my scope to offer a determination of the causes, meanings or essential truth about alien abductions. And I do not mean this piece as a “Mack attack.” I believe that Dr. John Mack was genuine in his pursuit. He was an honest man- but he did not look at the abduction phenomenon honestly. He was a brilliant man and I share with him some of his concepts on consciousness. But I am frankly today conflicted about what I see as his clouded quest for truth.
Did he somehow encourage the fantasy-prone or those suffering false memories or paralyzing sleep disorders? Did he understand the potential for contagion within the phenomenon? Did he unwittingly enable the hoaxers and the fantasists? The delusional? The psychologically needy? Or were some of his patients indeed the “real deal?”
One thing for me is certain- though an MD, Mack did not have the proper credentials to make his “diagnosis.” For so many reasons, he should never have been offering such “treatment.”
Monday, January 24, 2011
A Nick Redfern Review
Nick Redfern reviews Stan Gordon's new book, Silent Invasion: The Pennsylvania UFO-Bigfoot Casebook.
Click here for Nick's review
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Adventures of an Earthling
Noted documentary filmmaker Mishara Canino-Hussung and her equally noted filmmaker husband Bill Hussung have produced “Adventures of an Earthling” – an investigation and film about some strange sightings that occurred in the Hudson Valley area by residents there in the early 1990s, one of whom is Bill Hussing’s mother.
Skeptical Bill Hussung, while wary of the encounters delineated by his mother and others, including a sighting of a giant space ship, does what any respectful son would do: treat the stories as authentic. After all, why would his mother, a smart, successful woman in her own right, make up such a story. And, he asks, why would she seem so terrified when she recounted the sighting(s)?
To read more about this intriguing tale and other UFO encounters and to get a DVD of Ms. Canino-Hussung’s quite wonderful “documentary,” visit the Boom Potato Films web-site:
http://boompotatofilms.com
From what we’ve seen, the encounters that Bill Hussung’s mother recounts can’t be dismissed out of hand. We’ll be checking further into the sightings.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Nick Redfern reviews Paranormal America
That Nick Redfern can't help himself -- he just has to examine everything paranormal, in America, and the world.
Click here for his review of a new book, Paranormal America
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
GENeration eXtraTERrestial by Aurelio O'Brien
Aurelio O'Brien provides a look at his new book (fiction) that some might find interesting and/or an enjoyable read.
Click here for the free introduction to his novel
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Nick Redfern see dead animals....
Nick Redfern sees dead animals/birds as connected to National Security somehow.Read that "somehow" by clicking here
Friday, January 14, 2011
The Moth Man continues to gnaw
Nick Redfern directs us and you to a new book about The Moth Man, which Nick shall be reviewing soon.
Click here for Nick's note
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Nick Redfern deals with Owlman? Who?
Nick Redfern, again, manages to find weird things. This time it's an "owlman." (We don't make this stuff up.)Click here to Read Mr. Redfern's note about Jonathan Downes book,The Owlman and Others, along with Mr. Redfern's musings on related birdy things.
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Nick Redfern's The NASA Conspiracies
Nick Redfern’s latest effort at deriving truth from within the corridors of government and other bureaucratic constructs involved the National Aeronautics and Space Administration: NASA.His book, The NASA Conspiracies: The Truth Behind the Moon Landings, Censored Photos, and the Face on Mars, [New Page Books, Pompton Plains, NJ], is replete with information readers will think they are familiar with but will find out they are not.
Mr. Redfern’s forte isn’t just ferreting news from FOIA documents. He actually has accumulated first-hand information, via face-to-face interviews with persons privy to the inner workings of NASA, the military, and other relevant agencies – insiders.
He has done this again for his NASA book, with a fellow named John, from Bloomington, Minnesota about Area 51 (page 57 ff.), Nick Pope, former U.K. Minister of Defense staffer about contactees, et cetera (Page 97 ff.), Matthew Williams, an investigator with the U.K.’s Customs & Excise Agency about crashed UFOs in the Britain (Page 125 ff.), and a NASA employee with NASA’s Public Affairs office about the Gary McKinnon affair (Page 199 ff.).
Mr. Redfern also presents incredible stories about alleged alien abductions (Sharon, Page 146 ff.) and persons who have experienced mothman-like creatures in and around NASA facilities (Hilda Walker and Frank Shaw, Chapter 13, The Monsters of NASA, Page 153 ff.).
Mr. Redfern also offers a kind of paean to Sci-Fi writer and UFO maven Mac Tonnies, who died recently but left a legacy of hypothetical thought that is unique and provocative, about the so-called Face on Mars (Chapter 9, Page 101 ff.) and cryptoterrestrials, a concomitant, hidden Earthian civilization that interacts with human beings who share this planet with “them.”
Mr. Redfern also provides illuminating minutiae about Roswell, the Moon landing, and the Frank Scully Aztec story.
His ruminations about the Space Shuttle and NASA’s astronauts, some of whom who are believers in extraterrestrial visitation, offer grist to those who believe that the UFO phenomenon is ET oriented.
But most of all, Mr. Redfern confirms for the rational observer that NASA and other U.S. agencies (such as the CIA and FBI) harbor secrets that would be explosive if revealed.
The NASA Conspiracies is a must-read for those who would like a heads-up on the agency that is at the fore-front of our Space exploration and efforts, including the next trips to the Moon and Mars (and beyond).
What does NASA know now, and how would that “secret” information, if made public, impact humanity, and human civilization? Mr. Redfern gives readers some insightful clues.
Mr. Redfern’s book may be had via Amazon.com or from Career Press, Inc., 220 West Parkway, Unit 12, Pompton Plains, NJ 07444 (careerpress.com or newpagebooks.com).
Monday, December 20, 2010
Nick Redfern is Ubiquitous!
Nick Redfern will make an appearance at The Truth Event, Saturday, February 26, 2011.
Click here for more information
Nick will provide relevant updates to his best-selling book, Final Events.
Nick also made an appearance on Jeff Ritzmann's Paratopia "radiocast."
Nick provides a link to the show which you can hear by clicking on this link:
Nick Redfern on Paratopia, talking about Final Events, and other things
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Nick Redfern, on the radio
Nick Redfern will be talking about his book The NASA Conspiracies on several radio shows upcoming.
Click here for the list of shows and broadcast dates
Monday, December 13, 2010
Nick Redfern on strange flying thingies
Nick Redfern addresses things that fly and are scary/weird, such as the Mothman.Click here for Nick's musings
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
The NASA Conspiracies by Nick Redfern
Nick Redfern's latest book is getting attention.
Click here for more on The NASA Conspiracies
Click here for a review by Paranormal News
Monday, November 29, 2010
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
The NASA Conspiracies: The Truth Behind the Moon Landings, Censored Photos, and the Face on Mars by Nick Redfern
Nick Redfern announces his latest, new book:
Click here for Nasa book cover
This week, I'm pleased to announce, New Page Books have published my new book, The NASA Conspiracies: The Truth Behind the Moon Landings, Censored Photos, and the Face on Mars. I was asked to write an article about the book as part of the publicity campaign, and I am attaching that article for you, in Word format.
Click here for the article (in WORD format)
If you would like to reproduce this article at your website, magazine, or blog, you are very welcome too. I am also attaching the book cover image (see above), which you are also very welcome to reproduce.Click here for the article (in WORD format) Some of you on this list will be receiving copies of the book direct from me.
However, if I have not yet contacted you about that, and you would like a review copy of the book for your blog, website, magazine or radio/TV show, please contact Amanda at Warwick Associates at: warwick@vom.com and title the email "Nick Redfern's The NASA Conspiracies," and include your mailing address, and details of your site/radio show etc, Amanda will be pleased to mail you a review copy.
Click here for Nasa book cover
This week, I'm pleased to announce, New Page Books have published my new book, The NASA Conspiracies: The Truth Behind the Moon Landings, Censored Photos, and the Face on Mars. I was asked to write an article about the book as part of the publicity campaign, and I am attaching that article for you, in Word format.
Click here for the article (in WORD format)
If you would like to reproduce this article at your website, magazine, or blog, you are very welcome too. I am also attaching the book cover image (see above), which you are also very welcome to reproduce.Click here for the article (in WORD format) Some of you on this list will be receiving copies of the book direct from me.
However, if I have not yet contacted you about that, and you would like a review copy of the book for your blog, website, magazine or radio/TV show, please contact Amanda at Warwick Associates at: warwick@vom.com and title the email "Nick Redfern's The NASA Conspiracies," and include your mailing address, and details of your site/radio show etc, Amanda will be pleased to mail you a review copy.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Crypto-Rats??
Nick Redfern says,[This is] "one of the strangest tales I've ever come across, and I've come across some strange ones!"Link to the strange tale
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Nick Redfern and Texas Chupacabras on TV!
Nick Redfern recently traveled up to Oklahoma to film a segment for the local Fox News channel on a sighting there of a so-called "Texas Chupacabras."
"As noted in the segment, there's no doubt at all that these animals are canine, but there do seem to be some genetic anomalies going on too. For example, take a look at the photograph that appears in this film segment, and you'll see how the front limbs look extremely short, which is typical of a number of witness reports."
Click here to see the Fox report
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Nick Redfern's FINAL EVENTS
Many of you have read, we assume, Nick Redfern’s recent “best seller” FINAL EVENTS and the Secret Government Group on Demonic UFOs and the Afterlife [Anomalist Books, NY and San Antonio, TX, 2010].
If not, you should, and we’ll enumerate why here.
The thesis of Mr. Redfern’s book is that there exists (or existed) a governmentally-initiated group called The Collins Elite which was obsessed with the idea that UFOs were demonic entities (angels, as it were) who were gulling people and agencies into believing UFOs were extraterrestrial when in fact the operatives – the UFO entities –were paranormal entities out to “capture the souls of human beings.”
Yes, the concept is staggeringly bizarre, which is grist for Mr. Redfern, who often presents obtuse conjectures about UFOs, as he did with his book about Roswell, Body Snatchers in the Desert.
Now if you’re inclined to dismiss the demonic UFO hypothesis and Mr. Redfern’s book, you’d be missing out on what Mr. Redfern does best, and that’s present peripheral information and material that enlightens those who have limited knowledge about things germane to UFOs and human existence itself.
For instance, in FINAL EVENTS, Mr. Redfern provides a succinct dissertation on philosophy’s view of the soul [Chapter 16; Demons, Souls, and Fallen Angels].
He also gives background on some UFO players who get short shrift, if any shrift at all, in the UFO literature: Jack Parsons, L. Ron Hubbard, Aleister Crowley, Theodore von Karman, et al.
He also references UFO researchers with acumen and cachet but don’t get a lot of play in the States: the U.K.’s David Clarke and Andy Roberts and America’s own Michael Heiser who has a few terrific web-sites or blogs dealing with UFOs and Religion -- http://www.michaelsheiser.com/ will get you to those blogs and sites.
Mr. Redfern also presents a précis about the Hebrew concept of the Golem, which is an intriguing story worthy of a book all by itself.
You will also get introductory but insightful views of contactees (those flying saucer reprobates that Mr. Redfern, and others now, find worthy of another look).
Mr. Redfern does what other good writers do. He provides asides that illuminate items that might be of interest to readers. (James Bond’s creator, Ian Fleming, was extolled for doing the same thing in his books about the British secret agent.)
For instance, Mr. Redfern allows information about oft-excoriated UFO persons or things (Bob Lazar and MJ-12) that fill in lacunae which may be important in the over-all UFO mystery.
His Chapter [20] on U.S. President Ronald Reagan tells much that news media has glossed over about the ex-President; information that makes clearer what Mr. Reagan’s presidency was about, in large part.
And the Biblical detritus should thrill anyone who has a predilection for things theological, and arcane, such as the mysterious Book of Enoch, which tells religious mavens what the early Jews believed about God and his celestial plans for humanity.
Now, this “reviewer” is not enamored of The Collins Elite scenario, nor is Mr. Redfern I assume. But it is an idea that Mr. Redfern presents thoroughly and objectively, as usual.
And one that can’t be dismissed out-of-hand, if one considers Mr. Redfern’s remarkable accumulation of circumstantial information that bolsters the Collins Elite thesis.
Get the book – via Amazon or Anomalist Books (online) – and give yourself a treat, one that will be intellectually stimulating in many, many ways….
RR
If not, you should, and we’ll enumerate why here.
The thesis of Mr. Redfern’s book is that there exists (or existed) a governmentally-initiated group called The Collins Elite which was obsessed with the idea that UFOs were demonic entities (angels, as it were) who were gulling people and agencies into believing UFOs were extraterrestrial when in fact the operatives – the UFO entities –were paranormal entities out to “capture the souls of human beings.”
Yes, the concept is staggeringly bizarre, which is grist for Mr. Redfern, who often presents obtuse conjectures about UFOs, as he did with his book about Roswell, Body Snatchers in the Desert.
Now if you’re inclined to dismiss the demonic UFO hypothesis and Mr. Redfern’s book, you’d be missing out on what Mr. Redfern does best, and that’s present peripheral information and material that enlightens those who have limited knowledge about things germane to UFOs and human existence itself.
For instance, in FINAL EVENTS, Mr. Redfern provides a succinct dissertation on philosophy’s view of the soul [Chapter 16; Demons, Souls, and Fallen Angels].
He also gives background on some UFO players who get short shrift, if any shrift at all, in the UFO literature: Jack Parsons, L. Ron Hubbard, Aleister Crowley, Theodore von Karman, et al.
He also references UFO researchers with acumen and cachet but don’t get a lot of play in the States: the U.K.’s David Clarke and Andy Roberts and America’s own Michael Heiser who has a few terrific web-sites or blogs dealing with UFOs and Religion -- http://www.michaelsheiser.com/ will get you to those blogs and sites.
Mr. Redfern also presents a précis about the Hebrew concept of the Golem, which is an intriguing story worthy of a book all by itself.
You will also get introductory but insightful views of contactees (those flying saucer reprobates that Mr. Redfern, and others now, find worthy of another look).
Mr. Redfern does what other good writers do. He provides asides that illuminate items that might be of interest to readers. (James Bond’s creator, Ian Fleming, was extolled for doing the same thing in his books about the British secret agent.)
For instance, Mr. Redfern allows information about oft-excoriated UFO persons or things (Bob Lazar and MJ-12) that fill in lacunae which may be important in the over-all UFO mystery.
His Chapter [20] on U.S. President Ronald Reagan tells much that news media has glossed over about the ex-President; information that makes clearer what Mr. Reagan’s presidency was about, in large part.
And the Biblical detritus should thrill anyone who has a predilection for things theological, and arcane, such as the mysterious Book of Enoch, which tells religious mavens what the early Jews believed about God and his celestial plans for humanity.
Now, this “reviewer” is not enamored of The Collins Elite scenario, nor is Mr. Redfern I assume. But it is an idea that Mr. Redfern presents thoroughly and objectively, as usual.
And one that can’t be dismissed out-of-hand, if one considers Mr. Redfern’s remarkable accumulation of circumstantial information that bolsters the Collins Elite thesis.
Get the book – via Amazon or Anomalist Books (online) – and give yourself a treat, one that will be intellectually stimulating in many, many ways….
RR
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Nick Redfern Discusses BIGFOOT
Author Nick Redfern provides a mini review of a Bigfoot conference he attended and spoke at in October 2010.Click here for Mr. Redfern's review
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Nick Redfern's CRYPTO Blog
Nick Redfern notes, at his Crypto blog, a new book about that ever ubiquitous Bigfoot thing and "its" connection to UFOs.Click here to access Mr. Redfern's blog and the new book
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Nick Redfern reviews Andy Roberts' book "UFO DOWN?"
Andy Roberts is one of Ufology's premier investigators, a noted researcher in the U.K.
Nick Redfern reviews Mr. Roberts newest book, UFO DOWN?.
Click here for Nick's review
Monday, October 18, 2010
Nick Redfern on Fox (and he's not even a Tea Party guy)
Nick Redfern was interviewed by Fox about the pending expedition to China to search for the Chinese yeti -- the Yeren.
Click here for link to interview
Friday, October 8, 2010
The new Paratopia web-site is up and running
Jeff Ritzmann informs us that his podcast ventures now make way to the internet via a new web-site.
Click here to access the splendid, informative Paratopia web-site
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Nick Redfern: A Kind of Cryptozoological Bio
Nick Redfern's interview by Paranormal The Other Side, the British web-site, tells us more about Nick than we should know (perhaps).
Click here to access the interview
Monday, October 4, 2010
Nick Redfern gets a jump on Halloween
Author Nick Redfern attends Lake Worth Monster Bash and provides a report.
Click here for Mr. Redfern's account of his weekend "in the woods."
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Nick Redfern extends his writing presence
Mr. Redfern will be writing in TAPS Paramagazine (a news-stand publication) under a new column "Realm of Monsters."
The first effort deals with mermaids -- yes, mermaids.
Click here to let Mr. Redfern tell it.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Soul-Harvesting by UFO aliens?
Nick Redfern gets futher immersed in the "demonic" aspect of UFOs (which we are a bit loath to accept at the moment).
But visitors here can decide for themselves.
Click here for Mr. Redfern's take
Nick Redfern on a religious charade?
Nick Redfern addresses an issue related to the topic(s) in his recent book, Final Events.
Click here for the commentary
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Great Web-Site: UFO Comet
A new, for us, paranormal site -- UFO Comet -- has much about UFOs and some fine forums.
Check it out and sign up:
http://www.ufocomet.com
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
ALIENS AND CONSERVATIVES: THE RIGHT WING VERSUS ET by Anthony Bragalia
The recent and frightening re-emergence of the hard religious right as a political faction will have an impact on all of us. Whether or not such "Jesus-driven" candidates as Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, Christine O'Donnell and Jan Brewer actually win elections to "govern by God," their fanatically held political and social beliefs will have repercussions for all of us who promote the study of things ET.
The words and actions of this frightening faction show that they oppose the Alien. They would never want extraterrestrial contact as they reject so many things that are "different" from them. They have repeatedly demonstrated their difficulty with inclusion of those who are not the same. And nothing could be more "different" that ET. Their near-racist opposition to Muslims and immigrants demonstrates their likely fear and loathing of extraterrestrial Visitors. As both history and current events reveal, extreme evangelical Christians even believe that ET are "demons."
GOING BACK TO PAT: "STONE THE ET BELIEVERS WITH ROCKS"
In July of 1997 religious right extremist Pat Robertson (of the "700 Club") issued a public statement on aliens and UFOs. He planned his proclamation to coincide with the news of the July 4th Mars Pathfinder landing that year. In a rambling diatribe, Robertson said that aliens and ET are in reality "demons" that are attempting to steer people away from Christ. So grave is the offense to study ET, Robertson maintains, that it is "God's word" that such people should be put to death!
Robertson says, "The Bible says the Earth belongs to man, but the heavens belong to the Lord. He has given us the Earth." Robertson warned of ET, "these things are at best lifeless nothings, intelligent and demonic. They are not a host of heaven, they are fallen angels."
Robertson, who still retains millions of followers to this day, continues, "Can a demon appear as a slanted-eyed, funny-looking creature? Of course he can, or it can. Of course they can deceive people. They can lead people away from the true God." Quoting Deuteronomy, Robertson instructs us what to do with those who study saucers: "stone to death that man or woman with stones." Note Robertson's racist and ignorant words to describe others not like us: "Slanted-eyed and funny-looking creature."
Deceased ultra-right wing conservative Christian (and founder of the "Moral Majority") Reverend Jerry Falwell echoed Robertson's sentiments that when "playing with ET, you are playing with the devil." Both Robertson and Falwell had a major impact on the political thinking and positioning of rightist Republicans and extreme conservative politics that continues to reverberate to this day.
CHRISTIAN SYMPOSIUM 2009: "ALIENS ARE DEVILS!"
A Christian outreach ministry led by Roswell resident Guy Malone preaches a strange mix of counter-cult evangelism, Biblical perspective on UFOs and what Malone describes as "Alien Resistance." During the annual Roswell UFO Festival last year, Malone organized an "all Christian speaker symposium" which included pastors, ordained ministers and pastoral counselors who came from around the nation to deliver papers. From the Best Western Ballroom, these men of the cloth lit the torch of ignorance. They explained to the exceptionally gullible that we are in "spiritual warfare" with these unwanted Visitors. Some they say, are demon abductors. The ET utter false New Age gospel and the messages to contactees are from Satan.
Presentations from the conference included such topics as: "Communication with Non-Terrestrial Beings: Biblical Warnings" and "Why an ET God Appeals to Today's Culture." as well as "ET's Message to Humanity: A False Gospel." Speakers included those from such places as Creation Ministries International and Evangelical Ministries. Such topics would be humorous if they were not so dangerous.
Such thinking of course is exclusionary in the extreme. Not only do these extreme rightists believe that they have the gift to "discern demons" - they believe that those who believe that ET is another species from another planet are anathema, and that to think that is dangerous and immoral.
A REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR AND ET
Former Governor, Minister and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee apparently has also weighed in on the ET issue. When the late TV journalist Tim Russert asked Huckabee about UFOs while moderating a 2008 presidential debate, Huckabee spelled out his reply. He said that he preferred "G-O-D" over "U-F-O" to audience applause. A volunteer for the Huckabee campaign, John Jones Nichols, was quoted at the time that "UFOs are really demons disguised as spaceships." Nichols added that he was "sure that the Governor agreed with the bibical experts" on this.
DEMONS AS ALIENS IN 2010
Over the centuries, many things have been ignorantly viewed as demonic. Things that change the way we live -and that give us a wider expanse of knowledge and viewpoint- are always first feared. People believed for centuries that physical disease could be caused by demon possession. They did not know of the world of microbial life. It was at one time considered sacrilegious to consider that the Earth is not the center of the Universe.
But what is so profoundly disturbing is that these notions of demonic ETs is so prevalent today in 2010, well into the new millennium. A Google search using key words "Alien" + "Demons" yields over 1,500,000 matches. Countless websites warn of the connection between UFOs and Satan. Aliens, they proclaim that ETs are "Fallen Angels."
Right-wing Christian blogger Jefferson Scott said recently on his website: "I believe UFOs, aliens, abductions and animal mutilations are all real and that the American Government maintains relations with these beings." But then Scott alarmingly adds: "But I believe that the whole thing is demonic."
Scott is recycling a decades-old meme. It is a theme of extreme conservative Christians that maintains that Earth is "number one," that the Earth was gifted to humans by God- and that ET that come here are not of God. They are not welcomed. They are undesired intruders who are of the devil himself. The demons are disguised as aliens. But Scott also reflects a paranoia and distrust of "Government" that has reached irrational proportions in the recent political climate.
These "fundamentalists against flying saucers" extend this extreme mistrust of anything in government to the point of believing that some of those in Military and Intel really cavort with ET devils!
FINAL EVENTS
Author Nick Redfern's new book "Final Events" discusses this potential infiltration of elements of US military and intelligence by extreme Christian fundamentalists. This fundamentalist faction believes that extraterrestrials are demonic in nature. Redfern describes a specific group within US military and Intel that has even named itself: The Collins Elite.
Some of these demon-fearing government groups have apparently been operating since the late 1940s. Some have even dreamt up scenarios where even the Roswell "memory metal" is seen as a "plant" by demonic forces. The material was created through "demonic alchemy" and placed in the desert by these evil entities as a devil's Trojan horse" for man to open doors best remained closed. That such religious fantasies may be held by those entrusted to protect our country is a frightening thought.
Though I have yet to delve into "Final Events" I do know that "evangelical infiltration" of our US Military and Intel has occurred. One only has to visit the Christian Embassy website to see how the corridors of power are infested by religious rightists who believe their mission is divinely inspired. The organization gives new meaning to the admonition: "Onward, Christian Soldiers!"
OBAMA AS ALIEN: FEAR AND PREJUDICE AGAINST CHANGE
Such reactionary, divisive and rightist thinking is troublesome, even creepy. I cannot help but make this analogy:
Many of these misguided are the very same types that believe that President Obama is not really who he says that he is. They believe that he is not an American. They scream that he is not a U.S. citizen. In veiled terms they hint that he is "not like us." They lie about his religion. One yelled out during a McCain speech that Obama was "an Arab." Others rant that he is in fact the Anti-Christ.
Obama is "Alien" to these groups.
And the "fear of change" would be profound if such reactionary religious conservatives had to accept the visiting extraterrestrial. The perceived threat to their "order of things" would be too great for the bigoted and narrow-minded. Such people wish to restrict the immigration of Muslims and the construction of mosques in this country. The Christian Conservatives would rally strenuously against the construction of an alien's place of worship. They would no doubt take up the Palin call to violence: "Don't Retreat, Reload."
Rather than recognize that extra-solar planets likely teem with sentient life, they say that such things are Demons from Hell. They do not see that ET represents the splendor of God's diverse creation made evident throughout the universe. Like the delusional Florida pastor who called out to burn the Koran, they would no doubt burn ET's bibles. And just as they treated the "witches" of yore, such fanatics would falsely accuse ET and seek to destroy them.
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