CLOSE ENCOUNTERS NEWS -- March 2006

MARCH "UFO MOVIES MONTH" -- ABDUCTEE JEREMY VAENI'S FLICK DEBUTS

New York City, March 28, 2006 -- A movie by a space alien abductee, "No One's Watching: An Alien Abductee's Story" by author and award-winning writer Jeremy Vaeni, a "UFO Magazine" columnist and TV/film professional, had a successful debut in Manhattan's East Village on Thursday evening, March 23, with a second showing on March 27. The showings landed at The Two Boots Pioneer Theatre, 155 East Third Street, just east of Avenue A.

Vaeni, who appeared at both showings, writes the "Vaenian Abductions" Insight column in "UFO Magazine" and is the author of "I Know Why the Aliens Don't Land," published by Filament Books (www.filamentbooks.com). He signed copies of his book, now in its second edition, at the screenings, where he spoke before the showing and answered questions after it.

Of his 90-minute "documentary" movie, which he produced and stars in, he said in its promo: "An alien abductee embraces his surreal side while searching for truth and UFOs... Remember how you've always wondered what would happen if a group of abductees met up on a UFO hotspot together in the dark of night? Remember that? No? Well, now you don't have to - it's all right there (in the movie)."

Sound familiar? It does to those who participated in, or read about, the multiple field trips by the S.P.A.C.E. Away Teams of Close Encounters Explorers, with experiencers and non-experiencers, which sighted and interacted with the UFO phenomenon on dozens of nights on Magnetic Mine Road Brewster, NY during the 1990s. Although this movie is not about those experiences, its theme is an attempted "open contact" by an abductee, a mark of empowerment. S.P.A.C.E. and Vaeni are on roughly the same wavelength.

This movie is strictly an abductee's own story, handled in terms of Vaeni's unique and talented sense of humor, and a touch of "spiritualty," as he navigates through his own personal search for the truth about UFOs, going from New York to a UFO hotspot in California at Lyons Bald Mountain in Sonora.

Produced by Vaeni, the cast includes Vaeni, Jennifer Jemison, Mark Olsen, Jed Freud and Vaeni's parents His mother, Mary Vaeni, was at the film's debut. There is a music soundtrack by several singers and bands. A party was held at CBGB's after the Thursday screening.

For more information about Jeremy Vaeni, the movie, his book and upcoming screenings, visit his Jeremy Vaeni VALIENS website at www.valiens.com. Information about the movie can be found by click-in "The Latest." It features a trailer and photos.

"No One's Watching: An Alien Abductee's Story" kicked-off The Pioneer Theatre/Two Boots Science Fiction Festival, although Vaeni's story is not a sci-fi flick.

"SECRETS OF THE SHADOW WORLD"

Besides "Muppets From Space" (1999), "Slaris" (1972), "Lifeforce" (1985), "Puzzlehead" (2005), and "Primer" ( (2004), all out-and-out sci-fi flicks, the only other UFO-themed movie shown besides Vaeni's movie is "Secrets of the Shadow World" (1999) by well-known film director George Kuckar. There was a solo showing on Saturday, March 25.

The Pioneer Theatre brochure's blurb reads: "George Kuckar is abducted by aliens! -- This three-part series (shown here in its full 140 minutes) explores the mysterious and the mundane in a splash of digital dioramas that wipe across the screen in a cascade of electronic barfs. Zeroing in on the paranormal theories of UFO author John A. Keel sweeps the viewer into a candy-colored world of scintillating mysteries made all the more intriguing by culinary digressions."

This has been a major UFO movies month on the big screen week missed by most of the city's UFO-prone community and leadership, but not missed by a UFO interested general public! This past week the Zeigfield Theatre, with its giant wide-screen (almost IMAX-size) showed three popular box office hits from the past: "2001 - A Space Odyssey" - "Alien" - and Steven Spielberg's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."

"CE3K" was first shown at the Zeigfield at its opening in November 1977, when Newsweek Magazine had a cover feature story on the movie.

And just as the Hayden Planetarium ended its long-running space show in mid-March, "The Search for Life in the Universe" and the PBS-TV network broadcast its new program special, "Exploring Space: The Search for Life in Space" on March 22, focusing on astrobiology research.

For information on Kuckar's movie and a photo of Vaeni and Egeln at the "No Ones Watching..." premiere, visit the following links,,,

JERRY PIPPIN SHOW FEATURES JEFF FOSS ("WE ARE IN CONTACT"), ARTIST DAVID HUGGINS, ACTIVIST NICK CURTO & UFOLOGIST FARAH YURDOZU -- "CUTTING EDGE" NYC TV SHOW ON UFOs

March 14, 2006 -- JEFFREY MORGAN FOSS is the latest fantastic close encounter explorer and witness to be featured on The Jerry Pippin Show, a terrific on-request Internet Radio program which offers a wealth of interviews on the UFO experience.

The interview with abductee Foss of Massachusetts, who advocates peaceful contact and is featured in the February edition of CEN, is due to appear this week and the link with audio will soon be posted below, once available.

This month Foss appeared on "The Edge" radio broadcast from Indianapolis in two hour-long mp3 interviews (www.theedgeam.com). Responses to the interviews can be viewed at "The Edge Radio Broadcast Forum," posted among the links below.

Recently posted on The Jerry Pippin Show website were on-request interviews with two NYC-area close encounter explorers. Both were interviewed by author and TLC TV "Dead Tenants" show host FARAH YURDOZU, Turkey's first female ufologist who moved to the NYC area a few years ago. One is with UFO artist DAVID HUGGINS, whose experiencer artworks have been displayed at art galleries in the city and elsewhere, including in a restaurant in his native Hoboken.

His riveting and wonderfully done paintings depict intense and colorfully graphic scenes from his own encounters, from his childhood in Georgia to his experiences through the years and continuing now. Huggins' artworks appear on various websites and in books, one of which appears in "Alien Rock" by NYC ufologist Michael Luckman. Huggins appeared in a short documentary of encounter witnesses produced by a NYU film studen, and shown in 2004 on the Manhattan Neighborhood Network "Uniquely You Now" program hosted by Mae Eisenberg. The Jerry Pippin Show link below offers an excellent sample of Huggins' work.

UFO activist NICK CURTO, a co-founder of the Disclosure Network-NY, was also recently interviewed on The Jerry Pippin Show, again by Yurdozu. The Disclosure group holds informational meetings with speakers on every aspect of the UFO experience are held monthly, usually on the first Sunday afternoon, at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transexual Center, where Cato is an activist, on West 13th Street in Greenwich Village. Curto is also a follower of the Urantia Book teachings.

The Jerry Pippin Show also features an interview of Yurdozu by Pippin and a recently posted interview with journalist and peace activist Harold Egeln, founder of S.P.A.C.E. and CEN editor, posted in the January 2006 CEN issue. The interviews with Yurdozu and Egeln are both also posted below.

Many fascinating audio interviews can be accessed from anyone of these links, including: Budd Hopkins, Dr. John Mack, David Huggins, Raymond Fowler, Richard Dolan, Nick Redfern, Linda Moulton Howe, Leah Haley, Peter Robbins, Jim Marrs, Larry Bryant, A.J. Geraerd, Bob Pratt, Nancy Talbot and several encounter witnesses.

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'THE CUTTING EDGE: The Truth Revealed" is another program focusing on the close encounter experience and is produced in New York City for the Manhattan Neighborhood Network, shown on cable TV Channel 57. It can be seen every Monday in Manhattan on MNN-57 from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. It is co-produced by Naomi Semeniuk.

For more information on this program promoted by "UFO Magazine" visit www.ufoshows.tv.

FARAH YURDOZU INTERVIEWED BY SEAN CASTEEL IN NEW "UFO MAGAZINE"

March 1, 2006 -- Ufologist and TV show host Farah Yurdozu, who lives in the New York City metropolitan area, was interviewed by famous UFO journalist Sean Casteel and the interview appears in the current Feb.-Mar. 2006 edition of "UFO Magazine." The article is ttled "Farah Yurdozu: Turkey's First Female Ufologist" and appears on pages 74, 75 and 76.

There are photos of Yurdozu's two UFO books - "UFOs Are Coming" (1993) and "UFO Truth and Lies" - and two non-UFO novels - "Metaphysical Love in Madrid" and "Life is a Horror Movie" -, all in Turkish.

The article gives a clear insight and fascinating background into Turkish culture and spirituality, and how the UFO phenomenon plays out in that ancient culture.

The magazine edition is a special issue about the SERPO Project, the cover feature story. Related websites: www.seancasteel.com -- www.farahyurdozu.com and www.ufomag.com.

UFO JOURNALIST SEAN CASTEEL & UFO REPORTING

By Harold Egeln

March 1, 2006 -- When UFO journalists are mentioned, the names that come immediately to mind are Sean Casteel, Antonio Huneeus, John Keel, Linda Moulton Howe, Hal Corbett McKenzie, Farah Yurdozu, and the late Bob Pratt, among others, including the late Jack Anderson and pioneer UFO radio reporter Frank Edwards.

It is fortunate that Casteel, considered by many ufologists as one of the finest UFO journalists today, interviews UFO journalist, author and researcher Farah Yurdozu in the latest issue of "UFO Magazine," of which Casteel is a Contributing Editor and frequent reporter.

Casteel has consistently produced outstanding and insightful in-depth interviews and articles, especially those with Whitley Strieber, among our favorites. In fact, his Q-&-A with Strieber in 1989 was sold to a Tulsa, Oklahoma newspaper, launching Casteel's fabulous career in UFO journalism, effectively raising journalism standards for ufology.

He has also written for Timothy Beckley's magazines (the now-defunct "UFO Universe") and he is the author of a few books, mentioned on his website.

On his Official Sean Casteel UFO Journalist Website, touted as the first such site when launched in 1996 (now with over 14,700 first-time visitors), many of Casteel's articles are re-printed.

These include several of the Strieber interviews (Confirmation, Communion Letters, Toronto Experience, etc.), along with articles and interviews of Raymond Fowler (the Andreasson Legacy, SynroFile), David Jacobs, Lisa Davis and Karla Turner, as well as articles on other topics, such as "Rachel's Eyes." All are great reads.

THE SCHOOL OF UFO JOURNALISM

As a fellow UFO journalist myself, although not in the top class of Casteel's work, I can highly appreciate what Casteel and other UFO journalists do with this subject. Mine is an insider's view, but with attempts to maintain an "omni-jective POV," as Strieber once called that technique.

Aside from the thousands of newspaper articles and columns written as a general assignment staff reporter and peace/environmental columnist in New York City since 1984 until now that cover every topic, subject and issue, I have written a few newspaper UFO stories, too, although far less than others.

The first was in my "Peace Talk" column in 1987 abut UFO overflights of U.S. ICBM bases and the second in a newspaper article in October 1989 about Lorie Barnes, Strieber's secretary at that time, and other abductees. Both appeared in the "Home Reporter & Sunset News" in Brooklyn, with the Barnes story ridiculed by my editor and future UFO stories banned!)

There were at least half-a-dozen UFO stories in my "Eco-Frontier" environmental column in the "Downtown" alternative newspaper in the mid-1990s. These included a review of Dr. John Mack's "Abduction: Human Encounters With Aliens" book, a two-parter on the work of Budd Hopkins and David Jacobs regarding human-alien hybrids, and one on crop circles. A review of Dr. Jean Mundy's "Believe Me!" play about a family of UFO abductees appeared in Beckley's "UFO Universe" a dozen years ago.

Aside from these pieces in newspapers, there have been a large number of articles and features in the S.P.A.C.E. print and on-line newsletters and journals since 1992, continuing with this "Close Encounters News."

So, Casteel, perhaps one of the best of objective UFO journalists today, along with others mentioned, and myself to a smaller extent, compose what I would call the School of UFO Journalism.

Occassionally well-known mainstream journalists have written one-time UFO books, such as former NY Times reporter Howard Blum's "Out There" in 1989 and C.D.B. Bryan's "Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind" about the 1992 MIT Abduction Research Conference.

Also, journalists have written books, such as Terry Hansen in "Missing Times," and articles about how mainstream journalism is not reporting on the greatest story of human history. In the USA it's not the hot topic on TV network news nor in the major newspapers and magazines, with sincere investigative journalists pursuing the subject.

The Official Sean Casteel UFO Journalist Website - www.seancasteel.com - is worthy of a thorough visit (it even has music!) at any time. It is maintained by John Anthony Miller of the Phantom Bookshop in Ventura, California, Casteel's home.

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A BIG "WOW! CONTACT" WEEKEND OF SYNCHRONICITIES

New York City, March 27, 2006 -- A sudden and surprising spike in the "WOW! Contact" events happened here in the city this past weekend. The newly reported accounts can be see in the "Project Wonderland's" "WOW! Contact Wonderlog" link at http://community-2.webtv.net/ValSpegeln/WOWCONTACTWONDERLOG/page6.html [The image of the flourescent rabbit is copyright @ Eduardo Krac].

"ALIEN ROCK" BOOKS GETS "DAILY NEWS" MENTION ON MICHAEL JACKSON New York City, Friday, March 24, 2006 -- UFO researcher Michael Luckman's book, "Alien Rock: The Rock 'n' Roll Extraterresrtrial Connection" (Pocket Books/VH1), was mentioned in connection with Michael Jackson in today's NY "Daily News" on Lloyd Grove's "Lowdown" page (on page 29). The item, "Take Me to Your, Uh, King of Pop," is about Jackson's interest in ET contact. "Michael indicated to me that he is open to making contact with otherworldly beings," Luckman said in the item, talking about his meeting with Jackson in the Abracadabra store in Chelsea. While a Jackson spokesperson derided Jackson's comment to Luckman, a musicologist and entertainment promoter, as untrue or as just being polite, Jackson's interest in ET contact and space has been well documented in the last three decades, with an excellent account in "Alien Rock" as well. The Daily News's Grove seemed unaware of Moonwalking Jackson's 1983 record album "ET- The Extraterrestrial" with the John Williams music and spoken excerpts from the 1982 Spielberg movie, which featured an excellent ET song sung by Jackson. Nor does Grove seem to be aware of "Star Child/Adult" Jackson's UFO landing pad. A movie which debuted last night here in the city, Jeremy Vaeni's "No One's Watching: An Alien Abductee's Story," shows Vaeni's posters of Jackson at his apartment. In Vaeni's book, "Why the Aliens Don't Land," he talks about Jackson and his ET-UFO connection. Luckman's "Alien Rock" received an upbeat book review by UFO journalist Sean Casteel in the February 2006 issue of "Fate Magazine." *********************************************************

MINDSHIFT INSTITUTE PRESENTED RICHARD TARNAS ON "COSMOS & PSYCHE" IN NYC

The Mindshift Institute in NYC presented Richard Tarnas, Ph.D (author of the critically acclaimed "The Passion of the Western Mind") speaking on "Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View" on Wednesday evening, March 22, at The Pratt Mansion, 1026 Fifth Avenue, Manhattan, across from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Mindhift Institute presentation was the Third Annual Alexander Imich Lecture, and was hosted by Mindshift Institute directors Trish Corbett and Michael Mannion. Corbett has written an award-winning essay on close encounters and author Mannon wrote the remarkable book "Project Mindshift: The Re-Education of the American Public Concerning Extraterrestrial Life 1947-Present." (M. Evans and Company, Inc., NY, 1998, ISBN 0-87131-856-3)

Full information about events of The Mindshift Insttute are on its website, featuring its fascinating E-Journal, is on the link below. For information call 212-721-6785 or Info@MindshiftInstitute.org

HAPPY 14th BIRTHDAY, S.P.A.C.E.!!!

Saturday, March 25, 2006 -- It was exactly 14 years ago today, on March 25, 1992, that S.P.A.C.E., the Search Project for Aspects of Close Encounters, held is first support group gathering in New York City. Composed of witnesses from Whitley Strieber's then defunct NYC Communion Network Group, Budd Hopkins support group and psychologist Dr. Jean Mundy's sessions, 16 people, including Strieber, inaugurated a brave new venue, at a Manhattan office, which has seen hundreds of encounter explorers involved in our gatherings and contact field trips. Conceived out of crisis and hope in February 1992, S.P.A.C.E. originally stood for Support Program for Abductee's Contact Encounters. The meetings continue, 14 years on.

MARIKO MORI, CREATOR OF "WAVE UFO" EXPERIENCE, SPEAKS IN BROOKLYN

Artist Mariko Mori, whose "Wave UFO" interactive installation created a sensation at a Manhattan public open space in Spring 2003 (see "S.P.A.C.E. EXPLORERS ORBITZINE"), spoke on March 7 at the Visiting Artists Series held at The Pratt Institute in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Mori's "Wave UFO" paperback book is available at bookstores and on-line.

EARTH MYSTERIES & UFO/ET CONGRESS - APRIL 1-2, 2006

The twice annual Earth Mysteries & UFO/ET Congress happened on April 1 and 2 in Bordentown, New Jersey at The Days Inn.

Among the many presenters were Posey Gilbert (My 55 Years of Quantum Events), Rosemary Ellen Guley (Inter-Dimensional Doorways), Maj. George Filer, USAF Ret. (Filer's Files), Peter Moon (Synchronicity & the 7th Seal), Robert Eurie (The Mysterious Visitors), and others. For conference information, visit www.drufo.org and 1-609-631-8955 - Pat Marcattilio.