Remote viewing and exopolitics

Dear readers

I've spent a bit more time in trying to find out the origins of where remote viewers formed the opinion that we live in a "populated" universe.

I found a reference, back in 1986, to Ed Dames, a remote viewer in the US Government's official remote viewing program. "The "most important thing" he was looking for was tied into his fantasies about a "Supreme Galactic Council" of aliens." (Source: Smith, Paul H. "Reading the Enemy's Mind." 2005. Tom Doherty Associates Book. New York. ISBN 0-312-87515-0 page 308.)

Later, one of Dames' students, Courtney Brown, wrote about his 1996 book "Cosmic Voyage" "Using SRV, Brown suggested the existence of a distant galactic federation of extraterrestrial civilizations, which humans may one day be fortunate enough to join in." (Source: http://courneybroan.com/publications/CosmicVoyageBy CourtneyBrown.pdf.)

Are these the origins of views on a populated universe? (See previous posts on Exopolitics.)

How many ETs in the galaxy?

Hi readers

One of the most discussed topics in SETI is how many (if any) civilisations there are out there?

Exopolitics students and many UFO researchers will happily list off a number of different civilisations who are visiting the Earth right now!

However, astronomers and SETI researchers will go back to something called the Drake equation. This was named after Frank Drake who was asked by the US National Academy of Science, back in the 1960's, to come up with a way of estimating the possibility of extraterrestrial life. He came up with an equation with seven terms, each of which can be assigned a possible number. Multiplied together you end up with a guess as to the number of communicating civilisations in the galaxy.

An article in the April 2010 issue of "Astronomy" magazine pages 24-29 titled "How many civilisations lurk in the cosmos?" by Steve Nadis, updates our best guess. In 1961 Drake estimated there could be 10,000 communicating civilisations. Today he says "...the numbers we've been plugging in are too small." This would lead to a number higher than 10,000!

It's a fascinating article if you happen to come across a copy of the magazine.

Exopolitics - my comments

Hi

I have so far written four posts on the Exopolitics movement. Now, I'd like to conduct a bit of analysis. Firstly, looking at Salla, Bassett and Webre, where did their ET interest come from?

Salla's ET research interests came from seeing the Disclosure Project Press Conference in May 2001. "I decided to begin researching evidence concerning an undisclosed extraterrestrial presence ." ("About this site" area of http://www.exopolitics.org)

Bassett's ET interests started in 1995 while working with PEER. (http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org)

Webre's interests were already present before 1977 (http://www.peaceinspace.net) and resurfaced in 2000 when he coined and used the term "Exopolitics."

I was interested in finding out where their conviction that we are part of a populated universe came from. Bassett was exposed to the work of Dr John Mack and abductees; Webre's peaceinspace website records part of this knowledge came from remote viewing methods. Salla was introduced to the testimonies of whistle blowers.

I also noted Webre's reference to remote viewing derived data and the fact that he was at the Stanford Research Institute in 1977. Readers who have read my remote viewing posts may recall that remote viewing research all started at Stanford Research Institute in 1972. I wondered what the connection is here, was Webre across this research while at SRI?

Readers will no doubt be aware of my love of all things Jacques Vallee! Recalling that Volume 2 of Vallee's diaries covered the year 1977, I browsed the book for any reference to Webre. His name was not listed in the extensive index. However, there was an intriguing entry dated 31 August 1977 (page 393). "A colleague from SRI has gone to Washington to see Stanley Schneider, assistant director of the Office of Scientific and Technology Policy under Carter. He said Schneider told him that Robert Frosch, of NASA, was planning to set up a UFO office. Could Vallee's colleague have been Webre?

I Googled "Jacques Vallee Alfre Webre" and at http://exopolitics.blogs.com/earth_changes/2005/09/earth_changes_a_2.html I found an item written by Alfred Webre.

" Years ago-in 1977-I had the opportunity to seek the advice of Jacques Vallee...At the time I was a futurist at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) and I was developing a proposal for the Carter White House and the US National Science Foundation to re-open the government investigation of the UFO phenomenon, then closed by Project Blue Book.

"In the course of a conversation over lunch, it became apparent to me that our views of UFO intelligence shared a great deal in common...The essence of my view was that the intelligence behind UFOs was dimensional...the intelligence behind UFOs was psychologically reinforcing human kind to the existence of a higher intelligent form."

I can start to see where their current views derived from.

Exopolitics 4

Dear readers

I have so far written about Michael E Salla and Stephen Bassett. The third main person in the Exopolitics movement in the USA is Alfred Lambremont Webre (born 24 May 1942.)

To find out about Webre I went to (1) http://www.exopolitics.com; (2) http://www.peaceinspace.net and (3) http://www.exopliticsradio.com

Alfred Webre was a graduate of Yale University and Yale Law School in International Law. He taught in the Economics Department at Yale, and also at the University of Texas (website 1.)

"As Senior Policy Analyst in 1977 at the Center for the School of Social Policy at Stanford Research Institute...Alfred Webre was Principal Investigator for a proposed civilian scientific study of extraterrestrial communication between the terrestrial human culture and that of possible intelligent non-terrestrial civilizations. The proposed study was presented to and developed with interested White House staff of the Domestic Policy staff of President Jimmy Carter during the period from May 1977 until the fall of 1977 when it was abruptly terminated." (2)

In the year 2000, Webre coined and used the term "Exopolitics" when he wrote a 22,000 word ebook "Exopolitics: Towards a Decade of Contact." This was later expanded and published as a book "Exopolitics:Politics, Government and the Law in the Universe." (hht://www.exopolitics.org)

The site (1) introduces Webre as "...an author, futurist, international lawyer, peace advocate, environmental activist, space activist, and radio talk show host." The site states that Webre is:

* International Director of the Institute for Cooperation in Space
* On the board of the Exopolitics Institute
* Chairman of MARS, Mars Anomaly Research Society
* On the board of the New Energy Movement
* Co-host of "The Monday Brownbagger"-Vancouver radio show on CFRO 102.7FM
* Host of Exopolitics Radio

The site contains items relating to Mars exploration by NASA etc; the coming 2010 cataclysm; secret technologies; directed energy weapons; 9/11; and a secret DARPA time travel program.

Site (3) -Exopolitics Radio- shows Alfred Webre as host. On the site is the following. "Exopolitics turns the dominant view of our Universe upside down. It reveals that we live on an isolated planet in the midst of a populated, evolving, and highly organised inter-planetary, inter-galactic, and multi-dimensional Universe society. It explains why Earth seems to have been quarantined for eons from a more evolved Universe society."

Exopolitics Radio has featured such guests as:

* Jim Sparks -author of "The Keepers." This book "...documents Sparks' unique recall of an Extraterrestrial civilization's human genetic-farming and educational outreach..."

* Laura Magdelene Eisenhower who tells of someone trying to recruit her for a secret human survival colony on Mars, in 2006

* Joseph Montaldo -International Director of the International Community for Abduction Research who believes "...there may be as many as 1 billion humans...who have been abducted..."

Site (2) peaceinspace describes "The Star Dreams Initiative" (SDI) whose International Director is Alfred Webre. "The Star Dreams Initiative (SDI) will advance existing knowledge gained through the modality of remote viewing...Remote viewing-derived data suggests that an organised spiritual galactic society exists..."

Contactees and intelligence agencies

Hi

Issue 259 of the "Fortean Times" magazine also carried a book review by Andy Roberts. The book is Nick Redfern's "Contactees:A History of Alien-Human Interaction" published by New Page Books. ISBN 978 160 1630 964. (Click here to go to Amazon.)

The book is an examination of the accounts of "contactees." However, the following section of the review caught my eye. Those readers of my blog who know of my fascination with the role intelligence agencies have played in the UFO phenomenon, will understand why.

"And, of course, despite the unproven claims of the contactees and their proponents, the intelligence agencies were interested in the contactees. Not because they had a hotline to the stars, but because the 'messages' given to them by space folk were essentially antithetical to the consumer boom of the '50s and '60s.

"Messages of equality, love and peace , early ecological concerns and speculations about new ways of living were emphatically not what the military-industrial governments of the US and UK wanted spread around. There was real belief that communists and their organisations could harness the contactees and their organisations for their own subversive ends. Redfern cites UK police files, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, which indicate that the AEtherius Society was watched for that very reason. But within UFOlogy, there are always at least two sides to every story, and Redfern suggests it could have been possible that the FBI were using the contactees to spread disinformation about UFOs and aliens in order to bury genuine UFO cases."

Comment:

We know from the work of the Disclosure Australia Project, that the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) kept files on at least the Queensland Flying Saucer Research Society and the Australian Flying Saucer Society. (Click here and here.)

Redfern's latest book looks like it will be a great read.

The return of Jenny Randles

Hi

My local Library carries copies of the English magazine "Fortean Times." The latest issue, number 259, has a fascinating opinion piece by long-term UK UFOlogist, Jenny Randles.

Jenny has been in the background for some time now, after making a significant contribution to both British and global UFOlogy. So it is good to see this piece on page 29 of the magazine.

The piece is titled "UFOlogy in 2010," and is a discussion on where the study of UFOs might be in ten years time. A couple of her points caught my eye.

Commenting on the percentage of mundane reports out of all the incoming raw reports she states "...it was largely correct to say that most UFO sightings are misperceptions-there is little (if any) hard evidence for an alien presence on Earth, while a small residue of puzzling cases do indeed challenge our understanding of subjects as diverse as atmospheric physics, metaphysics and the notion of consciousness. This is the reality that researchers now confront..."

Jenny goes on to say "Finding answers to the UFO mystery will not involve some 'big reveal.' It can only be solved piece by piece, because there is no single UFO mystery to be revealed-just a mixture of different phenomena caused by a bewildering array of things."

Comment:

Jenny's views are derived from over 30 years of investigating cases, predominantly in the UK. She has always reported exactly what she found. Some of these UFO sightings have taken years to come up with a mundane explanation.

Dear readers, do you share Jenny's views?

Exopolitics 3

Dear readers

I am continuing my reading on the subject of "Exopolitics." As I mentioned in previous posts, Stephen Bassett will be in Australia speaking at the "Nexus" conference, so I thought he should be my next piece of research.

I went to http://www.paradigmresearch group.org which is Bassett's main website (click here).

I found there, that Stephen Bassett spent 15 years, between 1980-1995, in the field of business development and consulting. He has a degree in physics.

In 1995 he spent five months working at the Program for Extraordinary Experience research (PEER.) PEER was founded by the late Dr John Mack (click here for more on PEER.)

The following year, 1996, he established the Paradigm Research Group (PRG) and registered himself as a lobbyist.

In 1997, he attended the Steven Greer/CSETI press and congressional briefings in Washington. That same year, he assisted a Phoenix, Arizona Councilwoman, Frances Barwood respond to critics of her speaking out about the Phoenix Lights (click here). Also, that year, he became involved in the issue surrounding lawsuits taken out by former employees of Area 51.

Two years later, in 1999, in collaboration with MUFON, he became involved with a UFO State Ballot initiative. Also in 1999, Bassett founded the Extraterrestrial Phenomena Political Action Committee (click here).

In 2001, the PRG assisted with the Disclosure Press Conference held on 9 May 2001.

2002 saw Bassett announce his Maryland 8th District Congressional campaign.

Between 2004 and 2008 he was busy organising X-conferences (click here for more) , discussing his interests and bringing in other speakers.

In 2008 the "Million fax on Washington" campaign was aimed at the transitional HQ of the new president elect.

2010 sees the latest X-conference (click here.)

Stephen Bassett in Australia

Hi readers

In a recent post, I mentioned that Exopolitics speaker Stephen Bassett would be speaking at the Nexus conference in Sydney. My apologies for an incorrect city here. A check of the Nexus conference details (click here) reveals it will be held on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland.

NASA fragology files

Hi readers

As you can see by the range of UFO topics I cover in this blog, I spend quite a bit of my spare time browsing magazines, books, and the net in search of material. Sometimes I come across an item of interest, put it away, and only later does a connection appear to some other piece of material in my head. Such a connection occurred yesterday, so today I post!

As part of the ongoing research into the Kecksburg, Pennsylvania, USA case of December 1965; journalist/author Leslie Kean, in 2003, submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for certain NASA documents. (Click here for the full story.)

Part of the request letter read "Please send all NASA Fragology Files for 1962-1967." Kecksburg researchers had in fact already previously obtained a list of these files (click here for the list.) The document containing the list, shows a number of NASA files "...consisting of reports of space objects recovery analysis of fragments to determine national ownership and vehicle origin." The dates 1962-1967 appear on the top of the list. Included in the list is: "F24 Titanium sphere/Australia."

I wondered if the Disclosure Australia Project came across a titanium sphere recovery in Australia in the period 1962-1967, while they were researching the Australian Government's UFO files? I thought it was long shot but worth a look at the Disclosure Australia website material at (click here.)

It took me a while to find a reference to a titanium sphere, but I did so (Click here). Newsletter 9 dated 2004.

In looking through files from the National Archives of Australia, the Project found information about a 50cm diameter titanium sphere found in September 1965 at a place called Merkanooka, in Western Australia. The Project found a Department of Supply file number SA5644/3/1 titled "Joint Intelligence Bureau request for an examination of a sphere found at Merkanooka, WA."

A Department of Supply memo dated 1 April 1966 stated "...the object is certainly of USA origin..." The sphere was forwarded to Defence R&D Attache in Washington for handing over to NASA.

A later report on the file said that NASA determined the sphere "...was a fragment from the Gemini 5 spaceflight" specifically a Gemini 20 inch OAMS fuel tank.

So, although we have not located the NASA fragology file number F24; it would seem that we have a good knowledge of what it was about. To my knowledge, and a search of the net, no one else has ever found an official Government file relating to one of NASA's fragology files.

Adelaide UFO group

Hi readers

For those who live in Adelaide and wish to locate a UFO group (click here for UFOSA)

Exopolitics 2

Dear readers

Now to tackle one of the research papers by Dr Michael E Salla. This one is from 2005 titled "The history of exopolitics:evolving political approaches to UFOs and the extraterrestrial hypothesis."

In this paper the term "Exopolitics" is defined as:

"Exopolitics is the study of the key political actions, institutions and processes associated with the UFO phenomenon and the extraterrestrial hypothesis."

Salla proposes that although the term was coined in the year 2000, various people in the past have pursued the aims of exopolitics.

He outlines four phases of exopolitical activity:

Phase 1 1948 The Flying Saucer Conspiracy. A key person was Donald Keyhoe. Critical events were in 1953, The Robertson Panel; 1954 the issuing of the JANAP 146 instruction; the Brookings Report; the 1969 Condon report; 1987 Timothy Good's book "Above Top Secret"; and Richard Dolan's book "UFOs and the National Security State."

Phase 2 was 1974 onwards. The Freedom of Information Act, leaked documents and Cosmic Watergate. Critical events and people were: 1974 FOIA in the USA; Late 1970's Citizens Against UFO Secrecy (CAUS); the 1984 book "Clear Intent" by Laurence Fawcett and Barry Greenwood; documents leaked to Jaime Shaidera, William Moore, Tim Cooper and studies of these documents by Robert Wood and Stanton Friedman;the 1997 book "UFOs are Real" by Clifford Stone.

Phase 3 1992 Political activism and the UFO cover up. Ed Komarek and Mike Jamieson -Operation Right to Know 1992-1995; 1993 Laurence Rockefeller -effort to brief President Clinton on UFO issues; Dr Steven Greer-Disclosure project, testimony of whistle blowers "Greer built an impressive database of testimonies by whistle blowers who outlined how military authorities and national securiy agencies were systematically covering up evidence confirming both the reality of the UFO phenomenon and the ETH." 2002 -candidature of Stephen Bassett for congressional election.

Phase 4 2003 onwards Exopolitics emerges as a distinct approach to UFO evidence. Key people, Alfred Webre; Stephen Bassett and Michael E Salla.

Alfred Webre - 2000 - coined and used the term exoplitics; wrote an e-book 22000 words. "Exopolitics: Towards a Decade of Contact." Expanded and published as a regular book in 2005 titled "Exopolitics:Politics, Government and Law in the Universe."

Stephen bassett - 2004-2005 organised "Exopolitics Expos" in Washington, DC.

Comment:

This paper gave me a much clearer understanding of the topic of exopolitics and the key players over the year. I'll take a look at some of thes key players in later posts, and save my analysis comments till then.

Exopolitics 1

Hi readers

I was trawling the Internet the other day and came across a reference to "Exopolitics." Unsure as to exactly what this term meant, I opened up a few websites and started to read...

The first website (click here to go there) defines the term as follows "Exopolitics is the study of the key individuals, political institutions and processes associated with extraterrestrial life." The introduction on the home page continues "Information concerning extraterrestrial life and technology is kept secret from the general public, elected political representatives and even senior military officials."

The front page provides for "announcements" such as the release of a new book on the topic "March 19, 2010- Spanish edition of Exposing U.S. Government Policies on Extraterrestrial Life to be released at UFO World Conference, Mexico City." There are also "recent articles" such as "Examiner Article (February 23 2009) - Is 2010 the year of discovery for extraterrestrial life? (850 words." Plus links to research papers such as "Exopolitics Journal Article (July 1, 2009) - Kennedy’s Deadly Confrontation with the CIA & MJ-12 - (4800 words)." There are links to other Exopolitics websites in at least 14 other countries.

I was interested to find out a bit about who founded the site, so clicked on the link to "Founder."

The founder was a Dr Michael E Salla. "His interest in exopolitics evolved out of his investigation of the sources of international conflict and its relationship to an extraterrestrial presence that is not acknowledged to the general public."

Salla wrote a 2004 book titled "Exopolitics: Political Implications of the Extraterrestrial Presence." A second book appeared in 2009, titled "Exposing the US Government Policies on Extraterrestrial Life."

The site advises that Salla holds a PhD in Government from the University of Queensland, Australia and an MA in Philosophy from the University of Melbourne.

Academically, Salla was (1994-1996) in the Department of Political Science, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia; then (1996-2004) the School of International Service and the Center for Global Peace, American University, Washington, USA.

The "About this site" area reveals that Salla's ET research interest came from seeing the Disclosure Project Press Conference in May 2001 (click here for more information.) "I decided to begin researching evidence concerning an undisclosed extraterrestrial presence."

He then ran into difficulties with his employer, the center for Global peace and American University, so he created the Exopolitics.org website on 20 January 2003. Since 2003, the site has carried the results of his research work.

The "Recommended Reading" page lists, and links to several research papers which provide an overall view of exopolitics.

"UFO in her eyes"

Hi readers

A lovely autumn day here in Adelaide. Maximum of 24 degrees centigrade with an minimum of 13. A lovely temperature for sleeping overnight. This weather I like to go to bed a little earlier than normal and spend a little time reading before sleep.

One of the books I have just read is a novel. It's not very often that I read a novel about UFOs, but I recently made an exception for "UFO in her eyes" by writer Xiaolu Guo (click here for more information about her.)

Set in 2012, the story tells of a UFO event in the village of Silver Hill, in China, mainly in the form of interviews with villagers.

A villager, Kwok Yun sees a "flying metal plate" above rice paddies, after hearing a strange sound from the sky. She collapses and when she comes to a human "foreigner" is lying nearby.

Later, the foreigner's identity is revealed; and the villages makes progress as a result of the UFO event. However, progress carries a price.

An intriguing read, which illuminates (even if fiction) the social; and other after effects of a UFO encounter.

Gold Coast sightings boom

Hi

"According to UFO Research Queensland, an organisation established in 1956 which records and researches UFO sightings, the Gold Coast ranked second to Brisbane in the number of unexplained sightings between October 2008 and September 2009, with 25 reports out of a total 123 coming from the Coast."

For the full story click here.

Origins of the fantasy-prone hypothesis

Dear readers

Well, autumn has arrived in Adelaide. Since the last post, average maximum temperatures have dropped to the low twenties centigrade, and we have had a nice drop of rain! In fact, last week, one day we had more rain in a day than any other day since 2007 which is good for us. The government may now lift the water restrictions which have seen many household lawns die.

Now, on to today's post. I have often wondered where the idea of UFO abducteees/experiencers as possible fantasy-prone personalities, came from? I couldn't really find a definitive answer on the net, but recently was re-reading a book which provided the exact answer, and the fantasy-prone story started right her in little old Adelaide!

The book was "UFOs:a report on Australian encounters" by Adelaide researcher Keith Basterfield. Reed Books. 1997. Kew, Victoria. ISBN: 0-7301-0496-6. As the book is now out of print (click here for Amazon copies) I will post the relevant pages 120-123.

"In the early 1980s, two American psychologists, Sheryl C Wilson and Theodore Barber, stumbled over a new type of personality which they came to call the fantasy-prone personality (FPP)(click here for more information ). Among their findings from a group of women who rated as excellent hypnotic subjects were:

* 60 per cent of FPP subjects reported that they had had a false pregnancy at least once. Not only did they believe they were pregnant but typical symptoms of pregnancy occurred. Two women went for abortions, at which time they were told that no foetus had been found. In a control group only 16 per cent of the women experienced false pregnancies, but there was no "missing fetus" report

* With their eyes open, 65 per cent of the FPP subjects experienced their 'imagery' as 'real as real' in all sense modes. The other 33 per cent found most sense modes as 'real as real'

* The fantasises had a life of their own; they were not directed or controlled by the subject

*Of all FPP subjects 75 per cent could achieve sexual orgasm by mental fantasy alone

* As children the FPP subjects lived in a make-believe world of their own construction

* When they were children, almost all of the subjects believed in fairies, leprechauns and elves, and other such beings

* of the FPP subjects, 58 per cent had childhood imaginary companions, whom they described as 'real' to them. This was in contrast to just 8 per cent of the control group

* Most FPP subjects had an incredible memory recall for childhood events, beyond the memory recall of most of us

*Of the FPP subjects 92 per cent saw themselves as psychic and reported numerous telepathic and precognitive experiences. This contrasted with 16 per cent for the control group

*Of the FPP subjects 50 per cent reported out of the body experiences (control group: 8 percent)

* Of FPP subjects 50 per cent reported an ability to perform automatic writing (controls: 8 per cent)

* Of FPP subjects 66 per cent reported a perceived ability to perform healings, which none of the control group reported

* Reports of seeing apparitions: 73 per cent of FPP versus 16 per cent controls

* On the question of hypnagogic imagery: 64 per cent FPP versus 8 per cent controls reported frequent imagery when falling asleep.

It should be noted here that all the FPP subjects were socially aware, happy, normal, healthy people, free from mental disorder...

Having come across this research by Wilson and Barber I mentioned the possible relevance of it to Robert E Bartholomew, (click here for books by Bartholomew) an American PhD student in Sociology at Flinders University, South Australia, whom I knew. We saw that:

* Many experiencers who have undergone regression hypnosis were rated by the person performing the hypnosis as 'excellent' hypnotic subjects. This fact is in itself interesting, in that only a small percentage of the general population are in fact 'excellent' subjects

* Female experiencers were reporting pregnancies then 'missing foetuses.' This unusual claim closely matched the experience of two non-experiencer FPP subjects

* If abductions were internally generated FPP imagery, then they could appear as 'real as real"

* My own research revealed that local experiences were reporting having above average memory recall for very early childhood events

*Many experiencers reported that they were either psychic before their abductions or that their psychic abilities blossomed after the abduction

We therefore felt that there were enough parallels between the FPP and abductions to warrant further research."

Comments:

Reading the above I can see why Keith and Robert thought that the work of Wilson and Barber had relevance to abductions. Keith had by this time interviewed a number of local Australian abductees and made observations which fitted the FPP. (Click here for a 2005 Australian abduction catalogue.)

So, this is the origin of the suggested link between the FPP and abductees/experiencers. My earlier post indicated that following Keith and Robert's suggestion, which they published in a couple of articles in the International UFO Reporter published by the US Based Centre for UFO Studies, at least seven studies set out to look at whether or not there was a link.

Dear readers, what do you think of the FPP?

CIA and UFO propulsion systems

Hi readers

Today, I was re-reading the document "UAS files located in the Australian Government's Record Systems" on the Disclosure Australia website (click here to go to the full document.)

On page 33 I noticed a comment which I had obviously previously overlooked. On file 3092/2/000 titled "Scientific Intelligence-General-Unidentified Flying Objects" held at the time by the Joint Intelligence Bureau/Joint Intelligence Organisation, was a document written in 1971 by Harry Turner. Harry, you may recall if you've read the material on the Disclosure Australia website, was associated with the RAAF's UFO investigations from 1954.

In a two page summary "RAAF attitudes to UFOs" he wrote:

"In general, the RAAF attitude has been guided by the USAF public releases which were aimed at allaying public interest by denying the reality of UFOs. Consequently, most of the Australian reports were given identifications without a great concern for rational correlation...as a result there has been negligible scientific analysis of the data. If Australia is to follow the US lead, then instead of following the public USAF attitude, it would be preferable to follow the USAF/CIA role of concentrating on gaining a knowledge of the power sources involved..."

"...the USAF/CIA role of concentrating on gaining a knowledge of the power sources involved"? In 1971?

This led me to think of the 1966-1970 McDonnell-Douglas aerospace company UFO study, which looked at UFO propulsion systems (Click here to read Dr Robert M Wood's article in the October 2008 MUFON Journal.) In 1970, one of the US Intelligence agencies had contact with the McDonnell-Douglas UFO study group. The study group submitted a proposal for further study, called Project Skylite but according to Wood no contract was ever written.

Back to harry Turner's comments in 1971. This was right about the time of the unnamed US intelligence agency's interest in the McDonnell-Douglas study of UFO propulsion systems. Could the agency have been the CIA? Harry Turner's statement was obviously based on his knowledge of what the CIA was doing as the JIB/JIO would have had contact with the CIA on many issues, so why not this one?

Although to Wood's knowledge, no McDonnell-Douglas/US intelligence agency contract for a project was written, Jacques Vallee made a fascinating statement in Volume 2 of his diaries (Vallee, J. 2008. "Forbidden Science" Volume 2. Documentica Research, LLC)(See here to purchasde a copy) page 277 in an entry dated 10 December 1974. "Kit reluctantly confirmed that there was a group of 15 engineers in the Midwest (I assumed it was McDonnell in St Louis) secretly doing UFO research for the CIA under cover of "aeronautical research.""

Kit was Dr Christopher "Kit" Green, who ran the Life Science desk in the CIA's Office of Strategic Intelligence.

So, it would seem fair to deduce that the CIA was indeed looking to gain "a knowledge of the power sources involved."

I don't think I have ever come across a reference to this aspect of the CIA's interest, in the UFO literature.

What do readers think? Have you ever come across references to the CIA studying UFO propulsion systems?

Fantasy proneness and abductions

Hi

At my local library the other day, to my surprise and delight, I found a copy of "The Fortean Times" (FT) magazine. Inside was a piece by UFOlogist Peter Hough about fantasy proneness. Later, I found the same piece was available on the FT's website. Two people had left comments, one of whom was Adelaide's Keith Basterfield. Keith listed seven studies taking a look at the question of whether or not UFO experiencers rate higher on a scale measuring fantasy proneness than controls. With Keith's permission I reproduce his FT comments.

Keith's comments:

1. Ring, K & Rosing, C (1990.) "The Omega Project: A Psychological Survey of Persons Reporting Abductions and Other UFO Encounters." Journal of UFO Studies new series 2:59-98.

"...UFO experiencers in general, while not more fantasy-prone than their controls..." p59.

2. Rodeghier, M; Goodpaster, J; Blatterbauer, S. (1991.) Psychosocial Characteristics of Abductees:Results from the CUFOS Abduction Project." Journal of UFO Studies new series 3:59-90.

"...we found that our subjects as a whole cannot be characterised as fantasy-prone..." p80.

3. Spanos, N P; Cross, P A; Dickson, K; DuBreuil, S C. (1993.) "Close Encounters: An Examination of UFO Experience." Journal of Abnormal Psychology. 102(4):624-632.

"On a battery of objective tests Ss in the 2 groups did not score...more fantasy-prone...than a community comparison group or a student comparison group." Abstract.

4. Gow, K; Lurie, J; Coppin, S; Popper, A; Powell, A; Basterfield, K. (2001.) "Fantasy Proneness and Other Psychological Correlates of UFO Experience." European Journal of UFO and Abduction Studies. 2(2):45-66.

"Firstly, it was found that all UFO experience groups scored significantly higher on the ICMI than did controls." p61.

5. Hough, P and Rogers, P. (2007.) "Individuals who Report Being Abducted by Aliens: Investigating the Differences in Fantasy Proneness, Emotional Intelligence and the Big Five Personality Factors." Imagination, Cognition and Personality. 27(2):139-161.

"...no group differences in any of the three fantasy sub-scales..." Abstract.

6. French, C C; Santomauro, J; Hamilton, V; Fox, R; Thalbourne, M A (2008.) "Psychological Aspects of the Alien Contact Experience." Cortex 44(10):1387-1395.

"Experiencers were found to show higher levels of...fantasy proness..." Abstract.

7. LeLieuvre, R B; Larson, T; Remington, H. (2008.) "Ring's "Omega Project" Revisited: Antecedents and Consequents of UFO Encounters and Alien Abductions." MUFON Journal Mar 2008 pp8-11.

"Experimental subjects...were also slightly more prone to fantasy than control subjects..." p10.

My comments:

Out of the seven studies, items 1,2,3,5 report that experiencers are not more fantasy-prone than controls, while items 4,6 & 7 reveal that experiencers are more fantasy prone than controls.

Hough in his FT piece commented about the nature of the definition of "experiencers", "abductees" and "contactees" used in the various studies he cites (Keith lists more studies than Hough). A quick look at four studies revealed:

1. Gow et al - 155 controls, 19 UFO sighters, 12 UFO contactees and 12 UFO abductees.
2. Hough & Rogers - 26 experiencers and 26 controls.
3. French et al - 19 UK based experiencers, and some controls.
4. LeLieuvre et al - 19 controls and 11 experiencers (8 significant sighting of a craft, 2 humanoids close by a craft, 1 lifelong abductions.)

Two things are evident to me. One, that the numbers of "expereincers" are low in all studies. Two, that we are not talking about studying "UFO abductees" as defined by the 1991 CUFOS definition, which is:

"1. A witness must be taken against his or her will from normal terrestrial surroundings by non-human beings.
2. These beings must take the witness to another enclosed space that is not terrestrial in appearance and is assumed or known by the witness to be a spacecraft.
3. In this place, the witness must either be subjected to various procedures that appear to be examinations of some type, engage in communication (verbal or telepathic) with the beings or both.
4. These experiences may be remembered consciously or through various means of focused concentration, such as hypnosis, or by a combination of the two.

Rodeghier, M; Goodpaster, J & Blatterbauer, S. (1991.) "Psychosocial Characteristics of Abductees:Results from the CUFOS Abduction Project." JUFOS ns 3:64.

This is a very strict definition, but squarely defines an "abduction" in classical terms.

Gow et al used the following definition in their study:
"When a person is taken from a normal terrestrial environment and finds themselves in a non-terrestrial environment, where they meet non-human beings, and engage in some form of experience there, before being returned to a normal terrestrial environment."

Obviously, for the purpose of conducting the above seven studies, defining who is an "abductee" or "experiencer" is an issue.

However, problems of definition aside, at least seven studies have been published which throw some light on the Fantasy-Prone hypothesis.

Speaking of which, where did the idea of linking UFO abductions and fantasy-proneness come from? I must take a look into its origins. A topic for a future post?