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BREAKING NEWS!!! Mexican Dept. Of Defense Officially Reports On UFO Encounter With Its Air Force (Reported on The New York Times Radio News on WQXR on May 12... See Updates on Links Below:) | ||
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Introduction by HAROLD EGELN
"I think this is probably the greatest discovery in the world, or the greatest discovery of consciousness in the world, and there's not going to be an end of it." -- Kenneth Arnold to Bob Pratt, 1978.
The modern "Age of Flying Saucers" took flight on June 24, 1947 as a result of the sensational Assocated Press newswire story of private airplane pilot Kenneth Arnold, then a 32-year-old Idaho businessman, who sighted nine mysterious crescent-shaped supersonic aircraft by Mount Rainer in Washington State.
During the next few days, weeks and months, UFO sightings were reported all over the country, even though there were reports prior to Arnold's sightings before the term "flying saucer" was coined by a reporter, along with sightings for thousands of years before all that.
Over 30 years after Arnold's historic sighting, another reporter, journalist Bob Pratt, had three in-depth telephone conversations with Arnold, in which the UFO pioneer discussed not only his 1947 sighting but many other incidents and experiences over the years.
Pratt is a retired journalist with 48 years of experience in "the Fifth Estate" where he worked in a variety of capacties, such as a managing editor, writer and reporter, for eight newspapers (e.g. "Louisville Courier-Journal," "Miami News," "Philadelphia Enquirer," "Buffalo Evening News"); "The National Enquirer" as a writer (1973-75); and as a reporter (1975-1981); and for Globe Communications (1982-1999).
He is well-known for the classic 1987 book "NIGHT SIEGE: The Hudson Valley UFO Sightings" by Philip Imbrogno and Dr. J. Alllen Hynek, of which Pratt was the writer for researchers Imbrogno and Hynek. (It was re-published and updated in a 1998 edition.)
Pratt wrote his own book "UFO DANGER ZONE: Terror & Death in Brazil -Where Next?" in 1996 (Horus House Press), about his hands-on research of Brazilian close encounters and sightings, with a foreward by Jacques Vallee.
After years of blantant skepticism about UFOS, Pratt's interest in the topic took off in 1975, and since then he has interviewed about 2,000 UFO witnesses, although he never has seen a UFO himself. He also has a fantastic and informative website, started two years ago, called "The Unreal World of UFOs: As I Have Seen It Through the Eyes of Hundred of People from a Dozen Countries."
"I am, simply, a reporter who became fascinated enough to be able to spend some time and money to find out what's it all about," he writes. "After more than 27 years, I'm still at it... still trying to find out what it's all about."
S.P.A.C.E. is fortunate to have Bob Pratt's permission to lead our May newsletter with his latest entry on his website, "CONVERSATIONS WITH KENNETH ARNOLD" culled from three utterly engaging and information-pack telephone interviews on February 6, February 24 and March 7 in 1978, six years before Arnold's death in 1984 at age 69. In 1952 Arnold wrote his own book titled "The Coming of the Saucers" about his sighting and other related events.
To read Pratt's enthralling talks with Arnold, just click-on "CONVERSATIONS..." below. Also, afterwards, you can visit Pratt's "The Unreal World of UFOs" website:
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The United States is planning a return to the Moon with human spaceflights within the next 10 years to set up a lunar outpost in preparation for a spaceflight to Mars by humans in the 2020s.
The administration in January appointed a U. S. Commission on the Moon, Mars and Beyond to hold a series of five public hearings and conduct studies on ths new "U.S. Space Policy Vision.The Commission, composed of leaders in science and technology, held its last hearing in New York City on May 3 and May 4. The Commission reports to the president on June 2nd, and the plan then goes to Congress with approval.
Click-on below for a SPECIAL REPORT on the NYC hearings. Then, in our June issue, look for a follow-up behind-the-scenes report, in light of the UFO experience.
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Last year, 2003, an entertainment producer approached me with an idea that he was working on with heavy backers for a live show which is to be beamed out into space by the former associated SETI, the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence. Since I am a composer as well as an experiencer, my contribution is to be musical. So, I wrote a theme song for the project titled, "We The People of Earth."
As I was playing this composition for the producer over the phone, he excitedly said, "Alan! This is wonderful! I've never heard a song about space written like that!"
My reply was, "If you're going to send something into space to other universal communities, I think it should be in a spiritual vein." He then agreed... I guess he expected the frivolous, humorous and silly-type songs that most seem to write about aliens, making the whole phenomenon look like one big delusional joke.
Although there are experiencers who harbor a deep grudge toward the visitors, I think mainly because of rough treatment and the feeling that their privacy is invaded during the abduction without their permission... I am one through all of what was early on in life traumatic and painful, and have risen above the prejudicial mentality of hate toward the alien beings on the positive premise that unconditional love is the most powerful thing on Earth beside a "THOUGHT" which is even more powerful than Love!
My song is like a message to any civilization receiving its lyrics. And it is offering the hand of friendship, understanding and, again, Love! Even if there is what Earthlings call negative being, and I admit there just has to be out there: despite the fact that Earth dreamers think because the aliens are from another world they are more intelligent and spiritual than We The People of Earth.
I do feel that the majority of advanced civlizations are spiritual, but we must enertain the thought that there may be underdeveloped planets and civilizations which may be like children not yet evolved, immaturely ranting and aving with an energy which is more bent on destruction rather than construction. So, as a representative of our Mother Earth making contact with outer space, I share with you here the lyrics of my song:
WE THE PEOPLE OF EARTH
We The People Of Earth do know we're not alone in the universe. We The People Of Earth who dare are aware of the need to relate to communicate! We offer your our mind. We hope that you are fair... spiritual and kind. If not, we say no blame! And know at least that you're humane. |
By Harold Egeln
In March, at my editor's request at the newspaper office where I work, I submitted a half-dozen suggestions for feature stories beyond the general news I write about. They included one about a church organist who's been his church's music director for over 50 years, a profile of "The Soprano's" TV actors from the area, and... the story of UFOs in Brooklyn.
These stories would be aside from my now countless articles on community activities, the visits of the mayor, and the usual news of lawmakers, schools, police, road repairs, accidents, local businesses, etc.
In April I wrote my feature, "Brooklyn In Orbit Over UFOs," careful not to mention my own intimate involvement nor S.P.A.C.E., being truly "A Dweller in Two Worlds" who leads "two lives," including a "secrtet life." It was an easy article to write at the office, in under an hour which includes my own proof-reading and fact-checking time.
It is my first UFO story in the weekly newspaper since October 1989 when I wrote an article about a local discussion group which, for the first time apart from its usual community topics, had a discussion with two close encounter witnesses (which I happened to arrange for the group!).
When I wrote the story, with a photo of the meeting, it was laughed outloud at by my editor at the time, who scolded me severely for writing the article so straight-forward rather than in a tongue-in-cheek vein. "I hope you don't believe in all this," I was asked. "No more flying saucer stories," I was then told.
When the article was published, it was badly edited, with the most serious comments of the two experiencers removed, which botheredme deeply. One of them refused to talk with me for over two years, incorrectly believing that I was at fault for the omission when I was actually innocent; that hurt a lot.
Although later in the 1990s and early 2000s I was able to put announcements of public UFO talks into the newspaper in a discrete manner by not using buzzwords like UFOs, Close Encounters, Abductions and Flying Saucers (I used words suc as otherwordly and outer space), I never wrote another UFO story until April of this year, 2004.
(However, I wrote two earlier pieces about UFOs as they relate to overflights of U.S. missile bases in my "Peace Talk" column in the late 1980s before I was hired there as a general assignment reporter in 1989. And I wrote a few in-depth close encounter features in my "Eco-Frontier" environmental column in a free-forum alternative Manhattan newspaper in the mid-1990s. And, of course, there is the freedom of the S.P.A.C.E websites and publications.)
Now, as of early May, I am awaiting the editor's decision about publishing my UFO article, which has probably caused some consternation. It mentions some classic UFO sightings in Brooklyn, Budd Hopkins' book "Witnessed: The Brooklyn Bridge Abductions," and other Brooklyn-related connections, including The Flying Saucer Coffee and Tea Bar cafe.
The mainstream media must usually confirm to "Consensus Reality" to perpetuate it and appeal to the lowest common demoninator, which a focus on fear many times, to get as many readers as possible to buy the product, a newspaper. Making money is the key in news reporting in our society, even if the truth is sometimes bent and twisted for political or commercial ends or, as it is with many UFO stories, ignored.
Check into this newsletter periodically to see if my article is published (unlikely), which would be a good step for the newspaper for which I have been working for 15 years, with thousands of articles with photos published.
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UPDATE: By AUGUST 1, 2004, the UFO article has NOT appeared and was DELETED from my file at the newspaper office... Does it matter? Who really cares, anyway? Click-on the front page of "THE BROOKLYN SPECTATOR" from January 7, 2004 with the FRONT PAGE composed of two of my HEADLINE articles:
*** One is an exclusive interview that I had with actor Joe Gannascola, who plays Vito Spatfore in HBO's "The Sopranos" and who had a role in the movie "Ed Wood" playing the actor from "PLAN NINE FOR OUTER SPACE."
*** And the other is about a visit of NYC MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG to launch the city's annual "Mulchfest" recyclying Program for discarded Christmas trees.
"THE BROOKLYN SPECTATOR" Front Page with Two Headline Articles by HAROLD EGELN: | |
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By Harold Egeln
Any competent close encounter researcher, scientist or journalist must be careful with the facts. Unfortunately in each of those fields, there is, at times, no thorough fact-checking done for various reasons and motives, depending on the person(s) reporting their findings.
Especially in Ufology, extra caution is a guiding principle, something that I, both as a journalist with many years of newspaper experience writing thousands of articles and as an involved encounter investigator, must always be mindful of, because I have, sometimes, made mistakes, misquotes and misjudgements, some innocent and others because of miscalculation. Nobody is immune.
But, at the end of April, I saw a gross example of bad astronomy and sloppy reporting on a prestigious website, monitored by a highly respected writer, longtime friend and close encounter witness who should have caught the error, but did not. Doing so does not help our cause but opens us to unneeded problems, since we have overwhelming evidence of a most extraordinary interactive presence on Earth.
In a News item on Whitley Strieber's Unknown Country website dated April 30, there is a story about a major UFO flap now happening in Iran, with sightings throughout this large ancient and dynamic nation. "Flying Saucer Fever Grips Iran," reports UFO city.com News, with many reports of UFOs making headlines in Iranian newspapers and top stories on TV news programs, creating significant public awareness and excitment.
But to my dismay, there is clearly a photo of the planet Venus, now very bright in the sky and close to Earth, in the Unknown Country News story with a caption identfying it as a UFO over Iran. This blantant error bothered me so much, that I found it necessary to comment on it immediately, not to criticize but to educate and warn of such dangers which have long plagued Ufology, giving us weird, dismissive sideglances and giggles by the misguided mass media and mainstream science.
What the website shows is an IFO, an Identified Flying (or Orbiting) Object Venus, not a UFO. Venus will soon make a rare "transit" between he Sun and Earth, an exciting astronomical event.
The story mentions that an Iranian astronomer also notes that it is Venus and it does seem that in some cases it is being mistaken for a UFO, the most common misidentifcation in UFO history. The story also mentions strange objects, some of which may be U.S. spy planes, almost certainly on patrol over Iran, natural objects and seemingly genuinely real UFOs zipping around.
In 1978 there were famous, well-documented reports of U.S. jets engaging UFOs over Iran, perhaps modern day Persia's most noted UFO experience.
Now, more on Venus news! "Venus is at a staggering peak of brightness, magnitude -4.6, as May begins," writes Fred Schaaf "Planets On Parade" in his monthly "Sun, Moon, and Planets" column in the May issue of "Sky & Telecscope" magazine ( www.SkyandTelescope.com ). "What is more, Venus then stands almost 40 degrees above the horizon at sunset and doesn't itself set until almost 3 1/2 hours later for viewers at midnorther latitudes."
"...What is happening in space is that Venus is rounding the bend on the near side of its orbit to us," Schaaf writes. "(On) May 1 Venus shows its greatest illuminated extent, 301 square arcseconds, with 28 percent sunlit." What the "UFO in Iran" photo on Strieber's website shows is a crescent Venus. Like our Moon and because its position closer to the Sun, Venus exhibts waxing and waning phases, with sunlit and dark portions.
Schaaf then notes the upcoming transit of Venus across the face of the Sun as seen from Earth. "June 8 - (Venus is) directly between the Sun and Earth." The last time this happened was on December 6, 1882 and, before that, December 9, 1874. The next Venus transit after the one this year is on June 6, 2012. Astronomers are excited about this rare event!
Last evening I was browsing the Science section of a Barnes & Noble bookstore and noted three books relevant to the concerns I just raised. One was "Faint Echoes, Distant Stars -- The Science and Politics of Finding Life Beyond Earth" (Wm. Morrow, 2004) by Dr. Ben Bova, author of many space books and president emertius of the National Space Society.
The other two are "The Life and Death of Planet Earth: How the New Science of Astrobology Charts the Ultimate Fate of Our World" by Peter Ward and Donald Brownlee, authors of "Rare Earth," and "Debunked! - ESP, Telekenisus and Other Pseudoscience" by George Charpak, a Noble Prize winner for Physics.
The last mentioned book has flaws typical of debunkers despite the author's otherwise excellent credentials. I read through Chapter Two on "Amazing Coincidence," because of a deep familiarity and experience of synchronicity. Aways aware of the trapfalls of syncs, I and others have experienced an extraordinary number of episodes which would not qualify for the scruntity of Charpak, who would not clearly see what we see.
The Bova and Ward-Brownlee books, just published, focus on the science of Astrobiology, the science of extraterrestrial life, formerly called Bioastronomy. A dozen years ago The Planetary Society, of which I was a member then, pubished a "Bioastronomy Newsletter" in addition to its own members magazine.
In Bova's book, after a fascinating look at this emergent science, he has a chapter towards the end on UFOs, abductions and ancient astronauts, which both bothered me (in the chapter's Reader's Digest brevity of study material) for its lack of a serious examination of encounter reports and its valid critical thinking exercise regarding truly sloppy UFO research. For the latter, Bova would have a field day with the Iran "UFO photo," unjustly judging all Ufology from one honest mistake!
More serious for us is the new book by the "Rare Earth" authors, who conclude that given the immense distances and energy costs, as well as the probable destructive tendencies of intelligent species based on humanity's history, that it is likely humankind's fate to be convened to our own fabulous solar system, never to be a star-faring race but creating a huge solar system-wide civilization. Then, when the Sun grows old and too hot for life on Earth, humanity's fate is sealed.
With the author's conclusion that interstellar spaceflight is very unlikely, making the "Starship Enterprise" synomous with "unicorns," they write, and that humanity and its possible successors are stuck, like most civilizations, within the confines of their solar systems, a very pessimitic future seems to be in store.
The May issue of "Sky & Telescope" also has a featue story titled "Pox Populi: A Commonsense Guide to Cosmic Nonsense" by the notorious debunker Philip Plait of www.badastronomy.com with lessons on "Alien Abductions and UFOS, Astrology, The Apollo Moon Hoax" and much more, with a plea for ameteur astronomers to treat UFO watchers respectfully.
The illustrations of UFO advocates in "Sky and Telescope" are offensive, with one portrayed wearing an "Elvis Lives" tee-shirt, relegating us to the "Weekly World News" audience. But Plait is wrong in his debunking, because UFOs of an extradinary nature are here and so are mysterious visitors from Somewhere Else, whatever their origins and source.
(One of the best articles on the fallicies of debunkers was written in a print edition of the "S.P.A.C.E. EXPLORER NEWSLETTER" by Meryl Johnson a few years ago. Johnson wrote "The Experiencer's Manifesto" on our main S.P.A.C.E. website.)
However, we as encounter experiencers and explorers, however diverse our interface wifh the unknown, KNOW better than Bova, Brownlee, Charpak and Ward, that Someone Else shares this Earth and Universe with us, perhaps from other dimensions, parallel worlds or realms stranger than Alice's Wonderland or Dorothy's Oz.
Please, with much love and compassion, Strieber with the falsely identified UFO and Hopkins with his recent admission of promoting an apparent bogus encounter case (the Jim Mortellaro Case), and other researchers, doing very hard and meaningful work with help for countless numbers of people, exercise extreme caution (that applies to a fuzzy-minded, hare-brained simpleton like me, too!) when posting items in public, especially in a field that has a built-in high weirdness factor which may contain both wonderfous and disturbing challenges for humanity.
No, Venus, a dazzling bright latern now in the western evening sky, is not a UFO as much as a bug on a sidewalk is not (necessarily!) a space alien out of the popular "Men In Black" movies. Venus, however, is, in a sense, a SPACESHIP, a planet some 8,000 miles in diameter orbiting in space about 60 million miles from the Sun, like what Buckminister Fuller called this world of ours, "Spaceship Earth."
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HOPKINSVILLE "UFO ALIEN" ENCOUNTER COMING TO SCI-FI TV
The famous 1955 Hopkinsville, Kentucky close encounter in which strange large-eared creatures beseiged a house at night will be the subject of a two-hour documentary, along with the Mothman and Flatwoods Monster accounts, to be shown later this year on the SCI FI Channel cable TV network, as reported in the news item below, sen on the UFO City.com news website. |
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The swirling, inward turning spiral seen here is one the first animated symbols visitors to the main S.P.A.C.E. Website see, depicting the exploration of what the late mythology expert Joseph Campbell called "the Inner Space of Outer Space." It is a common universal symbol with ancient origins and is used in many diverse contexts in our modern contemporary society.
Rather than a quirky design, Channel 13, the flagship TV station of the national Public Broadcast System in New York City, uses several of these spinning spirals along with a FLYING SAUCER in its station-breaks for its Children's Programing in a graphic that acknowledges support of one of its funders, the Helena Rubenstein Foundation!
The spiral was also recently noted on a popular soap opera, "The Young and the Restless" on the CBS-TV network. It is a design motif on two soft chairs seen in the Geneo City apartment of characters Raoul and Brittany.
A few years ago when Dr. John Mack spoke in New York City, there was an exhibit, in the lobby of the building where his presentation was made, of a large walk-through spiral, created by an artist to capture the extraordinary experience of close encounters.
"Spiral Jetty" is an environmental artwork in the Great Salt Lake in Utah, which appears and disappears with the tides.
Most of all, the inwrad turning spiral is the symbol of ESA, the European Space Agency!
Along with many writings in anthropological, mythological, biological, psychological and cosmological studies and books, there are many references to the uses and signifiance of spirals. So, S.P.A.C.E., rather than displaying a nutty and weird symbol which places us in The Twilight Zone, is in very good company.
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