C.E.N. -- DECEMBER 2005 Newsletter

HARVARD UFO BOOK AUTHOR WITH THE WRONG STUFF -- HOPKINS REVIEWS CLANCY'S "ABDUCTED"

By Harold Egeln

December 21, 2005 -- Are UFO stealth encounters (abductions) the stuff of overactive imaginations tied into the influence of movies like "The Day The Earth Stood Still" and TV shows like "The Outer Limits" or are they the result of recurrent, factual events taking place at the edge of reality?

That enduring question has been answered by the latter for most of us, but, for many, the debate remains. Once again it comes into major focus with the publication of a major new UFO theme book, with two Harvard educators coming to widely different conclusions about the UFO abduction phenomenon: Who's to be believed?

The one who says it's all imagination based on the entertainment industry, wish fulfillment and sleep paralysis -- or the one who says it has a basis in some sort of unknown reality not fully detectable by current scientiic methods and tools?

These Harvard "alienographers" - psychology department fellow Susan Clancy and the late Dr. John Mack - represent the two major camps of Ufology, specifically tales of stealth close encounters. And Clancy's recently released Harvard University Press book, "Abducted: Why People Believe They Were Kidnapped By Aliens," is written by an aliengrapher with apparent right intentions but with the wrong stuff.

"ARE PEOPLE BEING ABDUCTED BY ALIENS? NO." -- SAYS CLANCY AS HOPKINS SAYS "YES!" In an upcoming book review here, Clancy's smug "Abducted" will be carefully examined and the review's conclusion is that Clancy's study is gravely flawed due to her incomplete and biased research based on the assumption (or her "faith-based science" as Budd Hopkins correctly states) that space aliens -- or whoever the are -- are not at all real and not interacting with people. Period. The influence of science fiction movies, TV programs and UFO books, along with ignorance of sleep paralysis, scientifc illiteracy, prejudiced UFO abduction researchers, misunderstood hypnosis and relaxation techniques and the misinterpretation of the data, fabrication of false memories, and a sincere search for personal meaning and attention, Clancy firmly asserts, all combine to create fictional UFO alien abducton scenarios, widely believed by the public. Those reporting stealth close encounters, Clancy concedes, are otherwise normal, mostly sane and intelligent people who are somewhat more creative, imaginative and fantasy prone than the general population. In other words: they're largely a likable lot but a wee bit on the weird side, tending to be wayward travelers in "The Real World" taking the occassional side roads rather than sticking the main highways of consensus reality. Clancy's book, based on interviews gotten from people responding to a newspaper ad, galled me: both as a journalist seeking facts and balance, and as a close encounter witness, who has also worked on the same playing field with hundreds of other witnesses. She raised old arguments in new clothing, at times making me sleepy. I, like many, once wondered if it were, indeed, all imagination and fantasy, but I discovered, by putting it to a reality test, that there is most definately a material reality to encounters and the reported "aliens" that I and countless others have experienced, fully awake, in real world. That statement would only give Clancy a faint, "I've heard that before" smile, because she knows better than we, who, she states with blank statement smugness, are mostly science illiterates anyway prone to creative, imaginatve beliefs and false memory construction. I say: Nonsense! Having read the book, the book review will appear here soon, giving me time to write a fully prepared review. Unlike the astronauts who have "the right stuff," Clancy has "the wrong stuff," and we'll tell you why! In October Budd Hopkins wrote his own excellent review of Clancy's book, "The Faith-Based Science of Science Clancy," on the link from his Intruders Foundation website below:

HARVARD UFO ABDUCTION AUTHOR CLANCY DROPS-OUT OF UFOLOGY --

Dec. 1, 2005 -- Harvard Psychology Professor Susan Clancy is "sick and tired" of the UFO abduction subject.

According to an Associated Press wire service story a month ago, on November 20, Clancy, author of "Abducted: Why People Come To Believe They Were Abducted By Aliens" (Harvard University Press), a recently released book about her research into the UFO abduction phenomenon which discounts its physical reality and posits a more naturalistic explanation such as sleep paralysis, has given up any further study and interest in the field due to the storm of controversy directed at her, she said, by Ufologisits. The full AP article is on the Rense News website link below.

FAMED D.C. NEWS COLUMNIST JACK ANDERSON, UFO BOOK AUTHOR, DIES AT 83

By Harold Egeln

December 18, 2005 -- Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jack Anderson, the famous investigative reporter, nationally syndicated Washington, DC.-based columnist and "Watch on Washington" radio host, has died. He was 83.

Mr. Anderson, who died of Parkinson's disease yesterday, authored "Millennium" published in 1994. It's a fictional novel about a mysterious space alien visitor, masquerading as a human, arriving in Washington, D.C. to earnestly warn humanity about its impending destruction by an advanced interstellar civilization, of which he is a renegade, Humankind, the visitor warns, must radically alter its incredibly violent and warlike behavior.

The intriquing UFO novel, with stealth UFO abductions as part of its theme, is based on the real-life investigations of Anderson, his interviews with leading Air Force and Defense Department offficials, and deep studies of ancient, recently translated Babylonian texts which predict humanity's demise should it prove to be unworthy of cosmic citizenship.

If the basic plot sounds familiar, taken from the premise of the 1951 classic sci-fi movie "The Day the Earth Stood Still" by the late producer Robert Wise in which intersteller representative Klaatu issued his warning to Earth, it is noted here that Anderson was an understudy, starting in 1947, for famed D.C. syndicated columnist Drew Pearson. Pearson, whose column was called "Washington Merry-Go-Round," appeared on screen in the early flying saucer era flick: "This is Drew Pearson..." announcing on TV about "the arrival of a spaceship in Washington,"

Pearson wrote several columns about UFOs in the 1950s and 1960s (which this reporter, as a child and teen saved). When Anderson took over Pearson's "Washington Merry-Go-Round" column, syndicated in over 1,000 newspapers nationwide with 40 mllion readers (accrding to The New York Times), he continued having occasional columns about UFOs.

"One day scientists may be able to verify whether or not beings from beyond our horizons are actually visiting us -- perhaps in violation of a cosmic quarintine," writes Anderson in his Author's Note in "Millinnium (published by Tom Doherty Associates Book-Forge Books, NY, NY - ISBN 0-312-85401-3). "I attempt no such ambitious project here. But this is the stuff that makes fascinatng novels. Mine is pure fiction, based though it is on unproven and unsanticified scripture."

In that introduction Anderson notes that government cover-ups of UFOs may be due primarily to their unexplainable source, and, as a result, the U.S. debunks and ridicules UFO sighting reports and witnesses. He theroizes, based upon his own investigation of ancient texts, that space alien visitations have happened since "before the dawn of time" and that these cosmic civilzations have influenced and quarintined the Earth.

To his 40 million readers in the U.S., Anderson was famed for his investigative reporting on the D.C. political scene, offending many government and political figures, including President Nixon, who put Anderson on his infamous "enemies list." The NY Times featred obituary of Anderson (Dec. 18, 2005, page 58) headlines across the top of the page "Jack Anderson, Investigative Journalist Who Angered the Powerful, Dies..."

With his occssional UFO reporting included in his columns and the 1994 book out, the point is: Anderson was UFO extraordinairily savvy. The Times obit did not mention his book. Anderson's column faded down to 150 newspapers by 2002. Like radio news reporter and UFO books author Frank Edwards, during the 1950s and 1960s, Anderson was in that class of true UFO journalists who sought the facts not the excuses.

Much like close encounter witness Whitley Strieber did in his third UFO book, "Majestic" in 1989, "Millenium" seems to weave truth and fact with speculation and fiction, delivering information by riddled imagination (like the UFO phenomenon seems to do itself!) to convey a big message, much like the arm-waving man running through Washington, DC streets in 1951 pass a trolley car in "The Day the Earth Stood Still" shouting wildly:

"THEY'RE HERE!!!"

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EX-DEFENCE MINISTER OF CANADA OPENS UP ON UFOs

Former Canadian Defense Minister Paul Hellyer declared in public that UFOs are real, that government hearings should be held on them and that President Bush is preparing a "Star Wars" strategic defense initiative on UFO intrusions.

Hellyer, who served under late Prime Ministers Lester Pearson, a Noble Peace Prize winner, and late Pierre Trudeau, made his statement at a speech at the University of Toronto on September 25, and the ensuing controvery made headline news across Canada, in newspapers and on TV.

Read one of the articles attached below.

THE NYC "PANCAKE SYRUP" SMELL MYSTERY: A "NOSEGRAM" FROM UFOS or IRISH FAIRiES?

By Harold Egeln

New York City, Friday, December 9, 2005 -- Hungry for news about UFOs? Take a whiff of this food smell mystery which puzzled Manhattan yesterday for the second time this Autumn.

There is a UFO connection unmentioned in the news reports. Well, what do most mainstream news reporters know about UFO history, anyway?

In a New York Times article today, "Once Again, Whiff of Syrup Baffles City?" by Anthony Ramirez (page B8), he writes: "It's back and as maddening as ever, or so some noses supposed. In October, people all over New York City reported the sweet smell of syrup, like something out of a Vermont dinner, only bigger and spreading. 'It's like maple syrup, with Eggoes or pancakes,'" a smell witness said.

The first phenomenon was widely reported in all city newspapers and local TV newscasts in late October. In "Strong Whiff of Worry Downtown" in the N.Y. Post (Oct. 28, 2005, page 23), it was reported, "Pedestrians around City Hall claimed there was an overpowering smell reminiscent of pancakes or maple syrup." That article told of a significant number of calls to the city's 311 citizen alert phone number, said an Office of Emergency Management spokeperson.

In the latest incident, like the first, the city's Emergency Management Office investigated the widespread pancake syrup smell, in case it was a sneak toxic terrorist attack. The Times reports, that the source and cause of "the mystery smell proved elusive" and untraceable, like the first time. Verdict: Origin unknown.

Most reports came from downtown, Greenwich Village, Chelsea, the Upper West Side up to Columbia University. Nothing hazardous was found, and the www.gothamist.com blog catalogued many reports, The Times report said.

Perhaps there is a simple, down-to-Earth explanation to this mystery, based on the Occam's Razor principle. But there's another possible, more intriquing one: UFOs. Rotten egg smells, for instance, have long been associated with close encounter reports.

But for the knowledgable UFO educator and those capable of connecting widely separated dots, what comes to mind - or to the nose - is the famous Incident at Eagle River in Wisconsin on April 18, 1961, which chicken farmer Joe Simonton, 60, experienced and reported. From his house, Simonton, while eating breakfast, saw a silver disc zip in and hover over his field and he went to check it out.

PANCAKES & THE FLYING SAUCER

Inside the craft, he said, were three Mediterran type dark-skinned men, seen through an open hatch. He was handed a jug and asked to fill it with water. Then he returned. Simonton noticed a man aboard the disc "apparently frying some food on a flameless grill. When he expressed an interest in the food, one of the men handed him three greasy pancakes perforated with small, round holes." Then the craft left. [quotes from "The UFO Encyclopedia" edited by Margaret Sachs, 1980]

Simonton ate one, saying that "it tasted like cardboard" (a typical smell reported around Men In Black). Samples of the pancakes were sent to NICAP (National Investigation Committee on Aerial Phenomenon), which was busy with trying to get Congressional UFO hearings, and to the Air Force. The A.F. investigative team was Dr. J. Allen Hynek and two A.F. officers. Analysis by the federal Food and Drug Labs of the U.S. Heath Dept. concluded that the pancakes were made with the usual Earthly ingredients, except that salt was missing. The A.F. team concluded that Simonton, who Dr. Hynek called "absolutely sincere," must have had a "waking dream." UFO investigators mostly ignored the flying saucer pancake incident, lacking the insight and knowledge of a Jacques Vallee.

In Vallee's classic book, "Passport To Magonia: From Folklore To Flying Saucers" (1970), the French-born scientist begins "Chapter Two: The Good People" with the Simonton story ("Food From Fairyland").

"Irish faires were reported to live on pancakes and to utilize the exchange of food as a means of making contact," writes Sachs, referring to Vallee's "Magonia." Vallee noted the salt, which fairies eschew. was missing from the buckwheat pancakes. Vallee states that he believes, although there is no firm explanation for Simonton's close encounter except that it was real and not a dream, and that the odd contact was like a traditional "rite of hospitality," as reported in Edwin Hartland's 1891 book, "The Science of Fairytales -- An Inquiry into Fairy Mythology."

Commentator Peter Stenshoel, writing on the incident in "E.F.L. Infested Spaces" (Issue 4, Summer 1996), noted "it is the appearance of the name "PAN," the god of the Earth, the god of paganism, the dweller of Findhorn and other magical spots upon the planet, originally the child or consort of Gaia, that provide us with the key to this scenario. Pan gives a gift, his own version of the bread of life, a communion wafer."

The incident also occured only six days after the first human orbital spaceflight, that of Yuri Gagarin on April 12, and over a month before President Kennedy's famous May 25 speech on "landing a man on the Moon before this decade is out" proposal, which would lead to Apollo 11's "the Eagle has landed."

So, is there a subtle connection with the two mysterious smells widely reported by New Yorkers to a classic close encounter, the Simonton incident of 1961, and the customs of Irish fairies, as described by Vallee? Perhaps. Maybe.

It should be noted that the latest incident occurred on Decmber 8, the Catholic holy day of the Feast of the Annunciation of Mary. The first incident was on October 27, four days before Halloween. There are even subtlier possibilities which may be at work here, too complex t relate here.

Perhaps, if the mystery is not solved, the mystery odor incidents that twice befuddled many thousands of New Yorkers, may have been a "nosegram" from the enigmatic realm or theatrics from an unknown source, like that of the Eagle River story?

It is essential, in trying to comprehend the close encounter enigma, to think outside of the box (in this case, outside of the kitchen), making at what seem at first to be absurd connections.

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SYNCHRONICITY: While writing this article, with the "UFO Enclyclopedia" page opened to the Eagle River, Wisconsin item on page 87, I accidently closed the book. When I re-opened it to find the item, I just happened to open to page109. It had an entry on "FLYING PANCAKE, also known as the flying flapjack," prototype aircrafts designed by Charles Zimmerman: the silver and yellow Vought V-173, first flown on Nov. 23, 1943 (Charles Lindbergh also test flew it 200 times), and the heavier XF5U-1 "flapjack" the Navy scrubbed the program and the V-173 flying pancake went to the Smithsonian Institution storage building. In the book "X-Planes and Prototypes," author Jim Wnchester writes: "The disc-shaped V-173 was the cause of several UFO sightings, and was unofficially dubbed the 'Flapjack.' Production of convential fighters was given priority and the concept was then overtaken by higher-performing jets." (page 222)
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"HOW SWEET IT IS!" - PANCAKE MAPLE SYRUP MYSTERY SCENT UPDATE -- NEW JERSEY OR UFOs? By Harold Egeln January 5, 2006 -- Seeking an explanation for the pancake maple syrup odor that has waffed over Manhattan Island three times this Autumn (Oct. 27, Dec. 8, Dec. 15, 2005), NY Times reporter Jonathan Miller has a lengthy front page feature article in the newspaper's Metro Section today, from South Hackensack, NJ: "Trying to Make Some Sense Of That Syrupy Scent. Why? It's Thursday. -- When All Else Fails, Inhale and Look To New Jersey." [pages B1, B7] Although the mystery has not yet been solved, Miller discovered that New Jerseyeans in Bergen County and the Meadowsland area have been hit by the strange strong scent as it drifted to Manhattan. He attempts to pindown a South Hackensack factory where fragrances and flavors are manufactured as a possible cause, but spokes people there reject the theoy. "It could be a new form of art," one person said there. Hmm, that may be closer to the truth? A city offcial in Hoboken, where the odor was detected, too, stated that the smell is a result of "food processing." Such smells are not unusual in those parts of New Jersey, Miller reports. The N.J. Environmental Protection Department checked out the reports, seeking a cause, and came up empty-handed, Miller reports. What is unusual about this scent is that it is overpowering. And, furthermore, it wasn't first reported until October 27. Also, the article reports, there were "temperature inversions" on those days which could have trapped the scent and sent it on its merry way. Remember the official Ai Force explanation for the UFOs over Washington, DC in July 1952. "Temperature inversions!" Will Meadowlands swamp gas be next? While Miller writes, "Look to New Jersey" for a possible source of the scent, there is no awareness present to say, at The Times, "Look to UFOs" or "Look to Fairy Lore" as those speculations are not within the knowledge-banks of The Times! The Times did, however, run a delightful page 3 story a few months ago about Icelanders successfully protesting a government plan to construct a road through what local residents claimed was a place where ELFS dwell. Mischevious UFO or fairy folk may not be the explanation for the strange scent, either, (no proof to the puffs!), and The Times would not air it, since it's beyond sensible consideration and would certainly be considered absurdly eccentric by any reasonable journalist. But, here we have a "Nose For News" -- Close Encounters News, that is, -- and it can't be helped that there may be some sort of a UFO connection here, "The Simonton Factor" as it may be called after the Wisconsin farmer's UFO-pancake incident of April 18, 1961. ********************************************************

THREE DECEMBER UFO SIGHTINGS IN NYC & ONE IN HELSINKI

Dec. 30, 2005 -- CEN Space Explorer correspondent Kathy Nelson has infomed us about three recent UFO sightings in New York City.

According to Peter Davenport's National UFO Center, Nelson noted, there was a circular UFO reported on Dec. 3; a teardrop-shaped UFO on Dec. 5 in Forest Hills, Queens; and a rectangular UFO reported on Dec. 13 in Long Island City, Queens.

Also, according to Filer's Files of Dec. 28, a slow moving luminescent or highlY reflectiVe UFO was spotted by numerous witness over Helsinki, Finland on December 13, 2005. One witness got a video of the anomolous object from his camcorder. The sighting was reported on news programs on MTV3, a natonial Finnish TV network, with a brief clip of the UFO video.

Finland is one of three major sources of the "WOW! Contact" synchronistic episodes, as reported by university student Anders von Bergen in the "Project Wonderland Chronicles."

For the NEW YORK UFO REPORTS, click-on the following links:

www.nuforc.org/webreports/048/S48055.html

www.nuforc.org/webreports/048/S48075.html

www.nuforc.org/webreports/048/S48316.html

For the HELSINKI UFO REPORTS:

www.nuforc.org/webreports/048/S48280.html

Credit: Thanks to Peter Davenport, National UFO Reporting Center & Filer's Files #53-2005.

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UFO DEBUNKER PHIL KLASS GETS FULL PAGE IN "NY TIMES MAGAZINE" The late Number One UFO Debunker, Phililip J. Klass, who died recently at age 86, got a whole page, with a 1967 photo of him holding a fake UFO model, in the annual "The Lives They Lived" special edition of "The New York Times Magazine" (Dec. 25, 2005, page 58). Klass, an "Aviation Week & Space Technology" magazine writer and senior editor, was cited as "the voice of cool reason," wrote Michael Sokolove, "seeking to demonstrate that a temporary inability to fill in the whole story should not open the door to wild speculation" in regards to UFO accounts. To his supporters, he was "a Klass act" and to his detractors he was "Klass dismissed." Magician James Randi and scientist James Oberg remain among the noted debunkers and skeptics.