Laurance
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Gold Star Award For Contribution To The Forum
Posts: 220
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Post by Laurance on Jun 12, 2010 16:30:08 GMT 1
Saw this and thought it was very interesting, it brings some good points. It is also the reason Myself and Judge360 decided to make this forum. was having a conversation with Brian Savage recently, and he made the observation that the UFO phenomenon has been derailed. He was formerly with the Alberta UFO Study Group, an earlier incarnation that produced in-depth investigation reports and scoured government documents for historical Alberta cases. Brian's comment was in reference to the many popularized UFO-related developments over the past 20 years which have destroyed the legitimacy of serious UFO research.
Examples of these derailments include the alien autopsy film, Lazar's Element 115, the strawberry ice cream nonsense, Greer's telepathic vectoring of UFOs, crop circles, exopolitics, Nibiru, and the resurgence of the contactee phenomenon. These and others have served to draw public and popular attention away from serious UFO case investigations and into the realm of wild arm-waving speculation and wide-eyed fanaticism.
It's too bad; it really looked like there was something developing there, for a while.
UFO cases themselves have radically shifted characteristics. Things seemed so simple when Hynek formulated his Close Encounter classifications: CE1 was a sighting at close range; CE2 was a trace case; and CE3 involved seeing occupants. There was no CE4 or CE5, as adopted by some ufologists now, reflecting abductions and contactee incidents. Only three categories, nicely defined and delineated.
The CE2s went extinct first. Ted Philips had several thousand physical trace cases documented by the time crop circles arrived on the scene. Then - poof! No more CE2s. People stopped seeing UFOs landing and taking off; aliens stopped landing their scout craft and leaving behind scorched patches and tripod marks in fields. Instead, mysterious circles (and later, patterns) appeared, almost always without accompanying UFO sightings, and it was assumed that the aliens were using some kind of "rotating vortex" to power their ships.
Then the CE3s went AWOL. No more sightings of landed UFOs where entities were seen exiting and re-entering their crafts. Instead, abductions ballooned in number, eventually overtaking classic CE3s. Really, have you heard of a decent CE3 case recently? No bedroom visitations, no alien faces in windows, no telepathic instructions about saving the human race. Just a simple CE3 observation. No? No.
Even CE1s are mostly gone now, too. Instead, we have YouTube videos of "mysterious orbs" and "Galactic Lightships" seeming to dance all over the pace because the witness couldn't hold the video camera steady. On the other hand, we have goofballs with too much time on their hands using video toasters to create obvious hoaxed UFO videos that experienced UFO investigators can tell are not worth bothering with but go viral anyway, getting retweeted and reblogged everywhere by UFO fans.
But a well-witnessed, well-investigated CE1 case? Rarer than a straight-talking politician or oil executive. Sure, if you look at popular UFO websites that list UFO reports, there are dozens and dozens from all over the world, posted by witnesses. But follow-up to get additional details to make an evaluation, such as direction of movement, where the UFO was in the sky compared with other things, and even an accurate time? Forget it. Onsite investigation? Impossible. Referral to one of the few reliable UFO investigators who lives nearby the witness, to allow proper investigation? Can't, sorry; privacy of witnesses is guaranteed.
So what we have in ufology today is the maintaining of a high number of UFO sighting reports, but a decrease on information content of the cases. Public attention surges when UFO stories in the news go viral, but critical thinking goes out the window.
Part of this is because no one person is viewed as someone who can speak for ufology today. Following the death of Allen Hynek, no one was easily identifiable as someone to take his mantle. (Not even Philip Mantle.) Not Stan Friedman, not Jerome Clark, Mark Rodeghier, not Jenny Randles, not Kevin Randle, not Bill Birnes, not any other of the dozen or so who might (or might not) fit the bill.
(Similarly, who speaks for debunkery? After Phil Klass passed away, is it now Phil Plait? James Oberg? James Randi? Bill Nye? Even Larry King can't decide who is an authority and whom to have on as guests to debate UFOs.)
Poor MUFON and CUFOS, the few remaining doggedly determined UFO groups. They're hanging on, with declining revenue, losing staff and trying desperately to carry on with serious UFO study, when UFO fans have not the slightest interest in that.
Ufology is greatly fractured. With thousands of UFO-related web pages, everyone (and anyone) can be an expert. Anyone can tell you the "REAL Truth" about the aliens' presence on Earth and their nefarious dealings with the government and how Obama is an alien and why I've been chosen as their emissary and why alien hybrids have pale skin and why aliens will arrive in 2012 and where the underwater alien bases are in the Gulf of Mexico and why the hundreds of orbs in my photograph are mental images of aliens and not dust particles and why some UFO craft disguise themselves as airplanes and why chemtrails are not just contrails and why this blog is passing through into another dimension.... uforum.blogspot.com/2010/06/demise-of-ufology.html
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uforn
Administrator
Investigator In Training
In Search For The Truth
Posts: 5,400
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Post by uforn on Jun 13, 2010 18:58:14 GMT 1
Saw this and thought it was very interesting, it brings some good points. It is also the reason Myself and Judge360 decided to make this forum. was having a conversation with Brian Savage recently, and he made the observation that the UFO phenomenon has been derailed. He was formerly with the Alberta UFO Study Group, an earlier incarnation that produced in-depth investigation reports and scoured government documents for historical Alberta cases. Brian's comment was in reference to the many popularized UFO-related developments over the past 20 years which have destroyed the legitimacy of serious UFO research.
Examples of these derailments include the alien autopsy film, Lazar's Element 115, the strawberry ice cream nonsense, Greer's telepathic vectoring of UFOs, crop circles, exopolitics, Nibiru, and the resurgence of the contactee phenomenon. These and others have served to draw public and popular attention away from serious UFO case investigations and into the realm of wild arm-waving speculation and wide-eyed fanaticism.
It's too bad; it really looked like there was something developing there, for a while.
UFO cases themselves have radically shifted characteristics. Things seemed so simple when Hynek formulated his Close Encounter classifications: CE1 was a sighting at close range; CE2 was a trace case; and CE3 involved seeing occupants. There was no CE4 or CE5, as adopted by some ufologists now, reflecting abductions and contactee incidents. Only three categories, nicely defined and delineated.
The CE2s went extinct first. Ted Philips had several thousand physical trace cases documented by the time crop circles arrived on the scene. Then - poof! No more CE2s. People stopped seeing UFOs landing and taking off; aliens stopped landing their scout craft and leaving behind scorched patches and tripod marks in fields. Instead, mysterious circles (and later, patterns) appeared, almost always without accompanying UFO sightings, and it was assumed that the aliens were using some kind of "rotating vortex" to power their ships.
Then the CE3s went AWOL. No more sightings of landed UFOs where entities were seen exiting and re-entering their crafts. Instead, abductions ballooned in number, eventually overtaking classic CE3s. Really, have you heard of a decent CE3 case recently? No bedroom visitations, no alien faces in windows, no telepathic instructions about saving the human race. Just a simple CE3 observation. No? No.
Even CE1s are mostly gone now, too. Instead, we have YouTube videos of "mysterious orbs" and "Galactic Lightships" seeming to dance all over the pace because the witness couldn't hold the video camera steady. On the other hand, we have goofballs with too much time on their hands using video toasters to create obvious hoaxed UFO videos that experienced UFO investigators can tell are not worth bothering with but go viral anyway, getting retweeted and reblogged everywhere by UFO fans.
But a well-witnessed, well-investigated CE1 case? Rarer than a straight-talking politician or oil executive. Sure, if you look at popular UFO websites that list UFO reports, there are dozens and dozens from all over the world, posted by witnesses. But follow-up to get additional details to make an evaluation, such as direction of movement, where the UFO was in the sky compared with other things, and even an accurate time? Forget it. Onsite investigation? Impossible. Referral to one of the few reliable UFO investigators who lives nearby the witness, to allow proper investigation? Can't, sorry; privacy of witnesses is guaranteed.
So what we have in ufology today is the maintaining of a high number of UFO sighting reports, but a decrease on information content of the cases. Public attention surges when UFO stories in the news go viral, but critical thinking goes out the window.
Part of this is because no one person is viewed as someone who can speak for ufology today. Following the death of Allen Hynek, no one was easily identifiable as someone to take his mantle. (Not even Philip Mantle.) Not Stan Friedman, not Jerome Clark, Mark Rodeghier, not Jenny Randles, not Kevin Randle, not Bill Birnes, not any other of the dozen or so who might (or might not) fit the bill.
(Similarly, who speaks for debunkery? After Phil Klass passed away, is it now Phil Plait? James Oberg? James Randi? Bill Nye? Even Larry King can't decide who is an authority and whom to have on as guests to debate UFOs.)
Poor MUFON and CUFOS, the few remaining doggedly determined UFO groups. They're hanging on, with declining revenue, losing staff and trying desperately to carry on with serious UFO study, when UFO fans have not the slightest interest in that.
Ufology is greatly fractured. With thousands of UFO-related web pages, everyone (and anyone) can be an expert. Anyone can tell you the "REAL Truth" about the aliens' presence on Earth and their nefarious dealings with the government and how Obama is an alien and why I've been chosen as their emissary and why alien hybrids have pale skin and why aliens will arrive in 2012 and where the underwater alien bases are in the Gulf of Mexico and why the hundreds of orbs in my photograph are mental images of aliens and not dust particles and why some UFO craft disguise themselves as airplanes and why chemtrails are not just contrails and why this blog is passing through into another dimension.... uforum.blogspot.com/2010/06/demise-of-ufology.htmlIn one respect this article is spot on, what with all the hoaxes etc youtube being the main one. Weve got videos cropping up on a daily bases on youtube yet there's no follow up of the sightings etc to the likes of Mufon or Bufora. No witness statement's or Records of the Event. Now if you really did video & see a genuine UFO surely you would would Report it I know i would as id want a Proper Explanation from the Authoraties. Its not just the Hoax's either..... Weve got people on forums all over coming out saying they contactee's & are in touch with numerous "Aliens" which is Total Lies and Dissinfo. Dont get me wrong i think some people may well have been abducted the Likes of Betty & Barney Hill & Travis Walton. But the rest are just downright Lies. I mean If youd been Abducted and were in contact you would most Certainly go and get help From Respected Researchers & Authorities as did Travis & the Hills.......... But No not one of them That Talks this Crap on these Forums Has as ive Questioned some of them, All we have from these people is what they say Nothing else!! Weve also got the GFL Talking utter Bollocks such as the Spirals they claim to have made . Penguins as Rulers you name it, its been talked about all over the place. I wont mention these forums as i know most people will know which ones i mean. Now all this kind of crap is putting doubt into Real Researchers Minds! Its like fighting a losing Battle a no win situation. Its not like theres No Genuine Sightings as there is, there's Loads. Its just really hard to filter them out. No ones reporting these sightings like they should and used too. You could say this has got something to do with the GOVT's spreading Dissinfo. I think All the GOVT's have done is plant the seed so to speak the Rests been done by eveyone Else. They must be Laughing there backs off as its working / worked. People need to waken up to these Hoaxes & Bullshit but they wont they thrive off Every thing they see / hear & read. I cant figure out the Mentality of these people. They Cant be interested in Finding the Truth as they Believe Everthing. Ufology Wont Die tho as there's too Many Serious Researchers out there now Looking for the Truth & pushing GOVT's to come clean its Just a slow Battle BUT Well get there in the End......
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Post by meldrew on Oct 17, 2010 12:50:10 GMT 1
agree with both of you, I find my research now is on old cases, before the new age of you tube and camera phones, another problem not addressed is the ufo subject being combined with paranormal and crypto, nessie and ghosts, bigfoot and yeti, also a fair bit of drug culture is thrown in just for good measure to make us all look like nut cases, the new reports is now an a place that annoys me, as are the grainy videos, maybe I will log how many reports I read in a week, old and new, lol
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Post by mrindigo on Nov 9, 2010 5:58:35 GMT 1
Good article,
Funny thing, I was contemplating the creation of a venting thread related to the themes covered by the blog/article, and what judge has touched on. In some unnamed forums, people will believe the most outlandish material possible. Much of it has no evidence or even weak backing. A certain thread comes to mind in which a user attempted to link depictions of humanoid feline statues of the ancient world as literal. The notion that they could have represented the empire's rise during the age of Leo was too practical. If I had tossed in some Caucasian blond extraterrestrials with names that sound like a Spanish dish, some Hollywood explosions, and natural cloud formations secretly being cloaked crafts, it would have been good for them. Instead the statues were absolute proof of shapeshifting feline extraterrestrials. It's no wonder that most of the public doesn't take UFOlogy seriously.
Another thing that annoys me is how some take the contactee phenomena as unquestionable material. Maybe some have had contact, but where's the proof? How about a bobble or small parting gift from the ETs? A picture? No one seems to produce anything like that. Then there are those who say, "I know what happened, so I don't need proof". That's well and good if it's kept between them and a small group of trusted friends, etc. It's another when they try and use that when writing books and doing lectures. If you're going to go out into the public arena, provide something tangible. The rest of us weren't there to experience what you did. Unfortunately in today's world, a person's word is not usually enough. There are a lot of charlatans and fraudsters about. Perfect example of that is 'The Agency', and the GFL nonsense that's been floating around the internet.
With all of the forums out there which people talk about being truth seekers, very few do seem interested in doing the legwork/research. One would think that with their knowledge, they would have more incentive. Nope, they feel content being bobble-heads, nodding in agreement at anyone who tells them what they want to hear.
Fraud - "Those bright orbs in your picture are fifth dimension beings from the planet Zarglag-9, working on your spirit body for the ascension. The fact that you snapped that picture on a dusty road near a street lamp has nothing to do with it. Now for fifty dollars more, I can give you this kit and my instructional DVDs to help you move along faster with the process. Remember, 2012 is the deadline!"
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Laurance
Member Of Distiction
Gold Star Award For Contribution To The Forum
Posts: 220
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Post by Laurance on Nov 9, 2010 6:10:56 GMT 1
Good article, Funny thing, I was contemplating the creation of a venting thread related to the themes covered by the blog/article, and what judge has touched on. In some unnamed forums, people will believe the most outlandish material possible. Much of it has no evidence or even weak backing. A certain thread comes to mind in which a user attempted to link depictions of humanoid feline statues of the ancient world as literal. The notion that they could have represented the empire's rise during the age of Leo was too practical. If I had tossed in some Caucasian blond extraterrestrials with names that sound like a Spanish dish, some Hollywood explosions, and natural cloud formations secretly being cloaked crafts, it would have been good for them. Instead the statues were absolute proof of shapeshifting feline extraterrestrials. It's no wonder that most of the public doesn't take UFOlogy seriously. Another thing that annoys me is how some take the contactee phenomena as unquestionable material. Maybe some have had contact, but where's the proof? How about a bobble or small parting gift from the ETs? A picture? No one seems to produce anything like that. Then there are those who say, "I know what happened, so I don't need proof". That's well and good if it's kept between them and a small group of trusted friends, etc. It's another when they try and use that when writing books and doing lectures. If you're going to go out into the public arena, provide something tangible. The rest of us weren't there to experience what you did. Unfortunately in today's world, a person's word is not usually enough. There are a lot of charlatans and fraudsters about. Perfect example of that is 'The Agency', and the GFL nonsense that's been floating around the internet. With all of the forums out there which people talk about being truth seekers, very few do seem interested in doing the legwork/research. One would think that with their knowledge, they would have more incentive. Nope, they feel content being bobble-heads, nodding in agreement at anyone who tells them what they want to hear. Fraud - "Those bright orbs in your picture are fifth dimension beings from the planet Zarglag-9, working on your spirit body for the ascension. The fact that you snapped that picture on a dusty road near a street lamp has nothing to do with it. Now for fifty dollars more, I can give you this kit and my instructional DVDs to help you move along faster with the process. Remember, 2012 is the deadline!" mrindigo I just want to kiss you for that amazing piece, but I won't as that would be gay. So true words, shame that we are the unspoken minority in UFOlogy it seems.
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Post by mrindigo on Nov 9, 2010 6:28:52 GMT 1
Good article, Funny thing, I was contemplating the creation of a venting thread related to the themes covered by the blog/article, and what judge has touched on. In some unnamed forums, people will believe the most outlandish material possible. Much of it has no evidence or even weak backing. A certain thread comes to mind in which a user attempted to link depictions of humanoid feline statues of the ancient world as literal. The notion that they could have represented the empire's rise during the age of Leo was too practical. If I had tossed in some Caucasian blond extraterrestrials with names that sound like a Spanish dish, some Hollywood explosions, and natural cloud formations secretly being cloaked crafts, it would have been good for them. Instead the statues were absolute proof of shapeshifting feline extraterrestrials. It's no wonder that most of the public doesn't take UFOlogy seriously. Another thing that annoys me is how some take the contactee phenomena as unquestionable material. Maybe some have had contact, but where's the proof? How about a bobble or small parting gift from the ETs? A picture? No one seems to produce anything like that. Then there are those who say, "I know what happened, so I don't need proof". That's well and good if it's kept between them and a small group of trusted friends, etc. It's another when they try and use that when writing books and doing lectures. If you're going to go out into the public arena, provide something tangible. The rest of us weren't there to experience what you did. Unfortunately in today's world, a person's word is not usually enough. There are a lot of charlatans and fraudsters about. Perfect example of that is 'The Agency', and the GFL nonsense that's been floating around the internet. With all of the forums out there which people talk about being truth seekers, very few do seem interested in doing the legwork/research. One would think that with their knowledge, they would have more incentive. Nope, they feel content being bobble-heads, nodding in agreement at anyone who tells them what they want to hear. Fraud - "Those bright orbs in your picture are fifth dimension beings from the planet Zarglag-9, working on your spirit body for the ascension. The fact that you snapped that picture on a dusty road near a street lamp has nothing to do with it. Now for fifty dollars more, I can give you this kit and my instructional DVDs to help you move along faster with the process. Remember, 2012 is the deadline!" mrindigo I just want to kiss you for that amazing piece, but I won't as that would be gay. So true words, shame that we are the unspoken minority in UFOlogy it seems. Thank you, Manx! The article and the posts before mine were inspirational. I hope more people start looking at UFOlogy more critically. It has been taken into an area it never should have been. Oh, and I misspelled bauble in there. ;D
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