CLOSE ENCOUNTERS NEWS -- AUGUST 2005

"HAVE YOU SEEN THE SAUCERS?" -- Jefferson Airplane

"ALIEN ROCK: The Rock 'n' Roll Extraterrestrial Connection" -- A Stunning Book by Michael Luckman

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE MUSIC KIND: ROCK STARS CONTACT WITH STAR-FOLK

By Harold Egeln

"There's a UFO over New York and I ain't too surprised!" -- John Lennon ("Nobody Told Me")

New York City, Tuesday, August 2, 2005 -- "ALIEN ROCK: The Rock 'n' Roll Extraterrestrial Connection" has landed on Broadway... and in bookstores.

First contact was made with the media on "Mars" - that is, the Mars 2112 Restaurant in the city's theatre district -- where a press party was held this afternoon for a landmark rock and roll music book, lushy filled with eye-popping details on stunning and surprising revelations of the rock music-ET connection.

"ALIEN ROCK" will become the uniquely essential volume on the many rock musicians who have had close encounters and UFO sightings, and who have incorporated the UFO-ET theme into their music based upon those experiences.

"It is clear to me, after a three year investigation, that extraterrestrial musical forces are in contact with many of today's rock stars in a direct effort to influence our popular culture," said author Michael Luckman, a professional publicist and musicologist who is the director of the New York Center for Extraterrestral Research and founder of the Cosmic Majority. For two decades, Luckman's networking Center has been an organizing and newsmaking source for several UFO conferences, events and press conferences in the city, bringing pizzaz to Ufology.

"MUSIC IS THE MESSAGE"

Thanks to Luckman's stellar research and use of his expert knowledge for the book, published and released today by VH1 Books and Pocket Books (a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.), the public will learn lots, in very well written and riveting accounts, about the UFO experiences, including some abductions, of:

Elvis Presely ("Musical Ambassador From the Stars"), The Beatles and The Rolling Stones ("Intergalactic Rock 'n' Roll Royality"), David Bowie and Jimi Hendrix ("Men Who Fell to Earth"), "star child" Michael Jackson ("Singing and Dancing on the Moon"); the quoted words are chapter titles.

Of "John Lennon's Close Encounters," among much more material about this beloved musician, Luckman writes: "Lennon referred to his UFO sighting in the liner notes of his 'Walls and Bridges' album. He wrote, 'On the 23rd of August 1974 at 9 o'clock I saw a UFO--J.L." (page 13). That's a reference to his evening sighting in the Tower Apartments on East 52nd Street, before he moved to the Dakota.

There is more amazing material about the Beatles story, including that of Ringo Starr, as on his "Goodnight, Vienna" album cover, and Yoko Ono, as in her "Starpeace" album. What Luckman tells here is not fodder for the tabloids, but nutrious food for thought, an informative and enlightening exercise in knowledge.

Then there are "Other Cosmic Personalities," such as Elton John, Madonna, Sting, Bob Dylan, Tina Turner, Sun Ra, Marc Bolan (T. Rex), Willie Nelson, Deborah Harry (Blondie), Lance Bass (In 'Sync), Judy Collins, Jamiroquai, George Clinton, Reg Presley (the Troggs), Merle Haggard and Laurie Anderson, among others.

And in "Rock 'n' Roll Secret X-Files" we learn of the UFO connectons of, to name a few, Jerry Garcia (Grateful Dead), Nina Hagen, Rick Wakeman (Yes), Cat Stevens (Yusaf Islam), Phoebe Snow, Johnny Rotten (Sex Pistols) and Olivia Newton-John.

Other chapters include the accounts of UFO raves where concert music at the parties is used to make contact (these are lengthy youth music events that usually escape UFO investigators attention, a major disconnect!) and UFOs seen over the historic Woodstock, Altamount and Isle of Wright rock festival concerts.

There are also accounts of the UFO music or deep interest, again to name a few, of Joan Carra, Helen Wheels, Al Cohen of Aloid and the Interplanetary Invasion, Janus, The Foo Fighters, The Pixies and Maria Cuccia.

Cuccia was a special guest at today's press party. She is an independent record producer (Elijah Records) from Comack, Long Island, who recorded a very affecting album, "Abduction," in the 1990s about her experiences, regarded by many who listened to it as a vital account of what stealth close encounters feel like and what goes through the mind of a witness. "I dedicated the album to the Bridges network of experiencers," Cuccia said today, speaking of a network of supporters and the Bridges Conference she once attended.

"SPACE IS THE PLACE"

The press party for the book attracted some famous UFO researchers, such as journalist Antonio Huneeus on the UFO lecture circuit for 25 years, Luckman's personal assistant for the book; seasoned lecturer Peter Robbins, co-author of "Left At East Gate," contributor to "UFO Magazine," and editor of the now defunct "UFO City" news website (he is the brother of the late singer Helen Wheels); Timothy "Mr. UFO" Beckley, editor to now-also-gone "UFO Universe" and Inner Light Publications, involved on the UFO scene since the 1960s; and, fairly new on the U.S. scene, Farah Gore, author of encounter books in Turkey.

Also, in a corner of the Mars 2112 party room was a demonstration of cutting edge interactive brainwave technology with computer graphics designers and researchers, such as Masahiro Kahata, who's responsiible for the brainwave interface in artist Mariko Mori's interactive "Wave UFO" installation, demonstrated at a New York City public space atrium two years ago and currently at the Venice Biennale. The technology will be used in ET concerts planned for next year, said Paras Kaul of Paras West Productions, also involved in brainwave research and interface technology.

In the few weeks leading up to the "ALIEN ROCK" press party, advance items about the book were featured in the "Daily News" and "New York Post." Coincidently, The New York Times ran a feature story in its "The Arts" section about the late Sun Ra, who claimed an outer space origin, and his space jazz music tradition being carried on by his Arkestra band, demonstrating that this major and influential newspaper is aware of the space-ET-music connection.

Back in 1971 when "the '60s spirit" was still strong, Luckman gained publicity here for being the first teacher of a college-level course on rock-and-roll and the youth counterculture. Later in the 1970s he also produced and hosted a pioneering, trend-setting cable TV live talk show in the city, the "Underground Tonight Show."

Among the successful and well-publicized UFO conferences that Luckman organized in New York City were: on the 40th anniversary of the Orson Wells radio "War of the Worlds" broadcast in October 1987 at the former Hollywood Club in Times Square; at a Public School 41 in Greenwich Village in 1989; the first-ever UFO Festival at the famed Village Gate in 1993, where Richie Havens performed; and an event in connection with UFO-space art exhibit at the Hudson Bar and Grill in 1997, featured in the "Housing and Living" section of The New York Times (Sept. 1997). (This reporter attended all.)

"CALLING OCCUPANTS OF INTERPLANETARY SPACE"

Luckman has also been working on "The Signal to Space Concerts" to be launched in Summer 2006 in Berlin, New York and Tokoyo, beaming the music message into space; Luckman's last chapter tells more about this project, and how music was employed to contact and inform ETs by NASA through its 115 "Earth's Greatest Hits" gold record disc aboard the now distant Voyager 1 and 2 space probes, launched almost 30 years ago to Jupiter, Saturn and beyond.

The book recalls that in the 1977 Spielberg movie "Close Encounters" that musical notes were used to communicate with the ETs. The aliens may also use music and art to contact us, as Luckman speculates in a section about SETI.

Musician and composer Alan White, a S.P.A.C.E newsletter columnist and composer of the hit song "After the Lights Go Down Low," has written a wonderful "Signal To Space" theme song to launch these "Signal To Space" concerts which this reporter and others highly recommend.

One of the surprising unknown facts revealed in Luckman's bonanza of a book is that jazz master Duke Ellington not only sang "Take the A Train" but "take the UFO" with his 1969 score for the ballet "The Ballad of the Flying Saucers," which was never recorded nor performed. Even famed folk singer Woody Guthrie wrote a song about a flying saucer 50 years ago, a fact not mentioned in Luckman's book but in a feature N.Y. Times article a few years ago.

There's an openly positive theme about extraterrestrial contact throughout "ALIEN ROCK," reflecting both Luckman's and the rockers' optimism about contact. "Rock 'n' roll has always been at the forefront of important social movements. It is my sincere hope that rock stars can and will play a pivital role in efforts to inform the public about UFOs presently visiting our planet," writes Luckman in "ALIEN ROCK" Author Notes, adding that such a key "rock role" may faciliate "peaceful contact."

And of David Bowie (who did his first UFO skywatches as a teen) on this "star-bright, star-light" positive UFO spin, Luckman writes: "Talking about 'Starman,' the centerpiece song of the 'Ziggy (Stardust)' album, Bowie said, 'Starman can be taken at the immediate level of "There's a starman in the sky saying 'Boogie, children!'" but the theme of it is that the idea of things in the sky is really quite human and real and we should be a bit happier about the prospect of meeting (these) people.'" (page 82)

That hopeful view, reflecting the best in humanity, is not shared by all UFO witnesses and researchers, given the complexity of close encounters. Luckman's book does not ignore the "dark side" of "UFO alien abductions," citing musicians, such as Third Stone Invasion, who said they have experienced disturbing intrusions and they write about them, and their unwelcomed implants, in their songs.

However, the book conveys the reasons for its dominent upbeat perspective in a beautiful manner, giving a welcomed bouyant beat to Ufology that will surely make "ALIEN ROCK" a joy to read and fully informing readers about the profoundly deep music-UFO connection.

The highly informative and endlessly entertaining "ALIEN ROCK" is like a concert in book form and it may make readers dance with delight!

For those of us who are UFO witnesses, through our encounters, sightings and interactions, "ALIEN ROCK" may strike a chord because it relates the true life stories of musicians who are mostly "experiencers" and how they have engaged their music as a message from or to "elsewhere," dealing with and expressing their cosmic interface.

The closest comparisons for "ALIEN ROCK" are two books: "Hollywood Vs. the Aliens: The Motion Picture Industry" by Bruce Rux and "Project Mindshift: The Re-Education of the American Public Concerning Extraterrestrial Life, 1947-Present" by Michael Mannion, which look at both external (ETs) and internal (government) forces in the entertainment industry.

But Luckman's book should resonate more on a visceral level with the public, (experiencers and non-experiencers alike), maybe a potential "hit" best seller if vigorously promoted given its enthusiastic tone, and certainly an enduring classic in both the fields of Ufology and musicology.

Luckman's marvelous book is fully illustrated throughout its pages with many entertaining pictures and photos. It has an absolutely great index and bibliography for easy reference. The book's wrap-around cover is awesomely attractive and inventive, with a guitar-shaped flying saucer, a fun piece of artwork!

We will soon post an in-depth review of "ALIEN ROCK" here and explain further why this book by Mike Luckman is an essential book and a treasure of informaton and knowledge about the entralling and widespread "Alien Rock" connection, and how S.P.A.C.E. can, through our specific experiences, confirm the concept of the "UFO music connection" in our own encounters and proactive contacts.

The press party at MARS 2112, at 1633 Broadway at West 51st Street was the perfect out-of-this-world setting, with an underground Mars atmosphere in the bar section, making this reporter feel right at home! On at least two other occassions, MARS 2112 has hosted UFO book release and signing events. (www.mars2112.com)

With his book, Luckman, who says that "music is the message," hopes to reach other musicians who had close encounters."Undoubtably there are others. We hope now they will be moved to step forward and share their experiences with the public," he said. If so, they can contact author Luckman at alienrockstars@aol.com.

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ON THE RADIO: LUCKMAN DISCUSSES "ALIEN ROCK" Author Michael Luckman was interviewed on "FOX News Live with Alan Colmes" on late Friday everning, August 12, heard in New York City on WWRL 1600 AM. He was also interviewed about "ALIEN ROCK" on "AM Coast To Coast with George Noory" on August 4, just two days after the book's press party.

ALAN WHITE'S "SIGNAL TO SPACE" SONG

"Beam It Up!" Alan White, New York City composer and musician, has written a wonderful theme song, endorsed by S.P.A.C.E., which he proposes for beaming it spaceward to "receptive aliens out there" at the "Signal to Space" concerts next year, highlighted in the last chapter of Michael Luckman's exciting "ALIEN ROCK" book.

The song has been presented to Frank Yandolingo, one of the co-producers of the superconcerts (the others are Luckman and Peter Saile), for their consideration.

"The history making concert tour is a celebration of the future of all humankind and is based on this author's (Luckman's) concept of beaming live music into space to make peaceful contact with an extraterrestrial civilization," writes Luckman in his "ALIEN ROCK" book (page 300).

White became famous with his hit song some years ago, "After the Lights Go Down Low." White has written the first autobigraphical musical proposed for Broadway, "POP's PLACE UPTOWN," described on the attached liner notes website below, telling of the many famous performers and entertainers who frequented a popular family spot in Harlem where a younger White saw them many years ago.

White has been a columnist for S.P.A.C.E. on-line and print newsletters since 1994. He was featured in a front page feature story five years ago in the Sunday "New York Post" about his $99 apartment, where his rent has stayed the same for 40 years.

Of his "Signal to Space" theme song, which many people who heard it say that they love it, experiencer White said, "My song is a song of peace to space people from the people of Earth."

Alan White can be contacted at galaxala@verizon.net.

UFO SIGHTING NEAR NEW YORK'S PENN STATION

By Posey Gilbert

New York City, Friday, August 26, 2005 -- Today at 7:45 p.m. as I was waiting for the light to change at Eighth Avenue and 32nd Street, I noticed that there was something in the skies to the west. I turned to look at what looked like a dark swirling black hole hovering in the clouds over New Jersey (see my photo here).

The traffic light changed and people hurried by me as I tried to get a better look at what I first thought was an opening in the dark area of the clouds. It was kind of a distortion whirling about its edges that seemed to make it impossible to get into focus.

As I stood there, the object started to move silently to the north. Only, when it started to move, did it seem that I could make out its shape.

At times it looked like it was two flat rectangular objects travelling side by side (see my photo here); at other times it seemed to be a series of black triangles attached to two long rods, because I could, at times, see the sky through them and saw what appeared to be triangular openings in the slabs themselves.

It started to go behind the 33rd Street Post Office (the city's famous main post offce), so I walked back to try and keep it in sight, but the shifting field around it made it hard to see what it was I was looking at.

As I watched, a helicopter passed between me and the object, and the object, which was now further off, seemed to be the same size, although it was more distant than was the helicopter.

The object looked to be over the Hudson River or, possibily, New Jersey.

I made the two separate drwaings of the things afterwards, which are displayed in this report. The frst is a poor rendition of the swirlng darkness and the second drawing is what the object finally became.

This thing was too big not to have been noticed by others on either side of the Hudson Rver, so I am hoping that someone else saw it or them will read this report.

copyright-2005©Posey Gilbert

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EDITORS's NOTE: Posey Gilbert is a well-known UFO experiencer who has appeared on national and local TV, in newspapers and at conferences, talking about his many experiences and his videos of UFOs over mid-Brooklyn. He is a talented musician, writer and filmmaker; he was the co-producer along with the late and equally gifted Carolyn Barnes of the "SpaceBridge" cable TV show over ten years. He is co-founder of The Moonstruck Group in the city for experiencers.

Gilbert was interviewed on the Jeff Rense Program on Friday evening, September 16.

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THE NEW YORK TIMES KIDNAPS THE FACTS ABOUT UFO ABDUCTIONS!

Tuesday, August 9, 2005 -- The New York Times ran a feature book review in today's (August 9, 2005) issue in its Science & Health section about Harvard University psychologist Susan Clancy's upcoming new book "Abducted: How People Come to Believe They Were Kidnapped by Aliens." The review was written by Benedict Carey under the headline: "Explaining Those Vivid Memories of Martian Kidnappers." Here's a CEN-LOG EDITORIAL about the badly misleading NY Times article and the false premise of Clancy's book....

"No New York Times reporter would have believed in the early years of the 21st Century that our world was being watched by intelligences greater than our own" -- to paraphase the opening lines in "War of the Worlds" by H.G. Wells

WHAT "MARTIAN KIDNAPPERS?" DON'T BELIEVE ALL YOU READ IN NEWSPAPERS!

By Harold Egeln

"Just the facts, m'am," -- TV Detective Joe Friday in "Dragnet."

New York City, Wednesday, August 9, 2005 -- The big science fiction movie hit of this Summer is Steven Spielberg's "War of the Worlds," a re-make of George Pal's 1953 movie based on the original 1897 book by H.G. Wells. It stars Tom Cruise, a space enthusiast whose Scientology beliefs are based on science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard's concept of space alien influence on human culture, as well examined by the pop media recently.

The movie is science fiction and tells of alien space invaders. But there is a question of where science fiction and science fact in the public and academic mind when it comes to "UFO alien abductions." Is humanity actually under the scrutiny of of minds far vaster aand more advanced than ours?

Now, in today's "Health & Fitness" portion of The Science Times section of The New York Times is a feature article, a "Books On Science" book review (pages F5-F8) by Benedict Carey of "Abducted: How People Come to Believe They Were Kidnapped by Aliens" by Susan Clancy, a Harvard psychologist well-known by Ufologists. The article's headline by Carey about the Harvard University Press book reads:

"Explaining Those Vivid Memories of Martian Kidnappers"

The headline, an attention grabber for Times readers, is incorrect in two aspects. First, a very tiny miniscule number of close encounter witnesses describe "Martians" as such. Rather they describe a variety of much stranger otherworldly visitors, address unknown.

The other glaring thing wrong with the headline is "Explaining." What Clancy does in her research does not explain the visitation enigma nor does it provide closure on "UFO abductions" or the source of stealth close encounters, from what I and others have read about her work previously.

Carey's article, while doing a good job on telling readers what Clancy's unreleased book is all about (as it should), is unbalanced and unfair in its reportage of the stealth encounter experience. And it does not refer to the work of others in this field of study, such as the late Dr. John Mack, the Pulitzer Prize winning Harvard psychiatrist (for "A Prince of Our Disorder") and his two books "Abducted! Human Encounters with Aliens" and "Passport To the Cosmos."

Unfortunately, Carey's article is a journalistic irresponsible job, making false or distorted assumptions about the complex nature of the UFO interface, and reducing it all to a matter of "belief" - a buzzword - and "a search for meaning" on the part of "believers" who, Carey's article states, are influenced by TV and movie images of aliens and spaceships, and who are on some sort of "religious search."

There is, instead, for most witnesses, a Search For Answers, which can take people in many different directions, some of which may be termed spiritual or transformative, or beingin denial or feeling ambilvence, or in dread and fear or anger. That's a fact.

The latest UFO-related article in a major newspaper is typical of the mass media and of The New York Times old and tired spin on UFOs, the last example being a feature article, also in The Science Times, a few years ago on explaining sleep paralysis as the source of "UFO abduction memories." The Times has also featured Clancy, and Harvard colleague Richard McNally, in both its Magazine and Education section.

DRAGGING SLEEP PARALYSIS OUT OF BED

Carey's article drags that sleep paralysis issue out of bed for The Times yet again in his review of Clancy's book and her studies of that connection. In the ABC News UFO Report by the late Peter Jennings in February, the producers did the same, ignoring shared experiences, experiences that did not take place in bedrooms and homes, and the many conscious encounters, in order to fit their false thesis.

There is a "War of the Worlds" of sorts going on with Ufology. It's an ongoing contest, also old and tired, between what is real and unreal about UFOs and close encounters, and the nature of its profoundly difficult and complex interface with countless numbers of humans. This occurs within the field of study itself as well as outside of it, such as with Clancy's new book, due for release in October, which we, of course, have not seen.

Here I write as both a journalist -- for I am that with a 21 year solid record of writing factual newspaper articles by the thousands -- and as a close encounter witness -- drawing from my own rich history of encounters, mostly not recalled by relaxation techniques but experienced fully consciously in real time circumstances and drawing from working with hundreds of encounter witnesses for 13 years through S.P.A.C.E. And a lifetime interest in the subject, dating to around age six, keeping track of all developments.

This Editorial is primarily concerned with the way the mass media treats the UFO close encounter subject, and this is my response as a professional journalist. And seeing, sometimes firsthand, how editors and other reporters skew the facts and bow to mass public consensus a bothered by The Times review.

"MEMORIES ARE (NOT) MADE OF THIS"

"An Explanation for Those Memories of Green, Goggle-Eyed Kidnappers -- Images of aliens arise from the deep well of popular culture" -- subheadlines in Carey's article, from page F8.

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In Carey's review of Clancy's book, the focus is on memories of alleged UFO abductions recalled under hypnosis, and how that process, also used in Clancy's work with dozens of witnesses, is flawed and influenced, claims Clancy, by the hypnotist and the so-called "belief" in space aliens gleaned from the hypnotists themselves and the pop culture influence of space movies, TV shows and books.

The review also discusses Clancy's finding that the abductees whom she studied where largely predisposed to paranormal and metaphysics. That is not totally true, through our experience in S.P.A.C.E. However, certain inituitive abilities which are construed as metaphysical in witnesses seem to attract the visitors or intruders, and they may be enhanced by the encounters. Clancy's study notes this, but places a different value judgement on it than we do.

Carey's review does not mention Dr. John Mack, who is no longer here to speak on the latest news, but whose words and the work of the John E. Mack Institute still strongly speak out. The Institute, which has responded to Clancy's work in the past, will almost certainly respond to this Times article or Clancy's book when it's released, as well might other famous UFO abduction researchers, such as Budd Hopkins and David Jacobs, along with Whitley Strieber and other researchers and witnesses.

Often Dr. Mack asked encounter witnesses to speak out, and many have, as we do through S.P.A.C.E. and its publications. "You have a voice to talk about your experiences," he once said at a meeting here, and Dr. Mack saw that voice becoming a mightly chorus. That is a key to empowering people who may, often, feel either victimized or powerless in the encounters forced or visited upon them.

While Clancy, writes Carey, does not dismiss witnesses as "daft or psychotic," she does describe witnesses as being on a quest for "personal understanding" of an almost religious kind and who use the UFO abduction scenario to give that quest a meaning.

While acknowledging that witnesses are intelligent and sincere, which she does not refute, Clancy, writes Carey, says that witnesses have "a susceptibility to what are called source errors, misattributing sources of remembered information by, say, confusing a scene from a barely remembered movie with a dream."

Dismissed here are the importance of dreams in uncovering material, as exemplified by the 25-year work and study of Swiss psycholoanalyist Dr. Remo Roth of Zurich. Dr. Roth's findings hint that the encounter interface may be far more than an experience with technological advanced civilizations (as people may think) but with something instigated by an interface with other dimensions, a true scientific possibility within the realm of reality.

Clancy's talk of "confusion" telling the difference between a vaguely remembered movie and a dream sounds like the official U.S. Air Force explanation of Roswell witnesses confusing crash-test dummies, dropped from airplanes in the early 1950s, that were found on the ground with the "aliens" at a reported UFO crash in July 1947. (In The NY Times story on this A.F. disinformation eight years ago, a photo of the crash-test dummies was shown on the front page, along wih a full page on the A.F.'s spin on Roswell.) The Clancy and Air Force explanations are more absurd than UFO reports themselves!

POP CULTURE OR UNKNOWN CULTURES?

Pop culture explains the source of the most commonly reported space aliens, Clancy thinks, rather than outer space entities. Carey cites Clancy's examples of the 1953 "Invaders from Mars" movie about kidnappings and implants, and an unspecified "Twilight Zone" TV episode in 1961 as possibly influencing the shared dreams of abductees Betty and Barney Hill. Clanc also mentions the influence of Spielberg's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" in 1977, without mentioning that UFO reports declined at that period.

"Thus does life imitate art, and vice versa, in a narrative hall of mirrors in which scenes and even dialogues are recycled," writes Carey of Clancy's conclusions. It all boils down as to "why people believe in weird things," as Clancy is quoted in The Times book review.

Time and time again, encounter witnesses have reported what they have seen and experienced in real time when they are awake, aside from those recalled by other means. This does not invalidate the recall work of many emminent UFO abducton investigators, but adds to their knowledge, no matter what source may control some of the retrieved memories.

Speaking now as an encounter witness and investigator, my own first hypnosis session with an eminent psychologist in July 1988 did not convince me of my own close encounters, although it served as an vitalzing emotional release and the beginning of a journey.

It was the actual sighting of these supposed strange entities that I sought out, based on the empowerment paradigm I've employed in my work for a peaceful world, in August 1988 and May 1991, experiencers that I sought with other witnesses, that convinced me, and them, that there is an actual reality, beyond bedroom visitations, to all this.

These real-time field-trip encounters, along with several subsequent proactive ventures involving over 100 witnesses throughout the 1990s (going beyond the great work of other investigators), demonstrate a highly complex and ambigious interface that is far stranger than simply being contacted by spaceship occupants, as would be assumed by popular culture and SETI scientists. That conclusion has also been demonstrated, without field experiments, by other researchers through their own refined methods and studies.

Well, as Clancy might say of her limited work with abductees, "Thanks for the memories." But her research is badly flawed in that it does not take in the Big Picture of the close encounter experience, chosing to narrow its focus, and thus justify her conclusions. That's not true science, but an attempt to narrow the scientiific search to fit and justify a fanciful fallacy: that what we, as witnesses, experience is based on belief not fact.

We know better. There is a difference between belief and knowledge. The Times, like much of the corporate mass media, does not accept the UFO reality and, therefore, stealth close encounters simply cannot be happening, and their writers must tow that line, seduced by an approved consenus reality. Yes, The Times should do a better job of reporting the real news of close encounters (whatever their source), the greatest story in human history.

Benedict Carey's book review of Clancy's "Abducted" makes her book sound more like science fiction, such as that of "War of the Worlds," when compared to the real hard research that The Times so arrogantly disregards.

We will now await for the release of "Abducted!" so that we, and others, can give a complete critique rather than one based upon a mass media journalist's skewed report.

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Below are three relevant webpages relating to the above discussion: An article from the "Harvard Gazette" (Oct. 31, 2002) about Dr. Susan Clancy; responses to a UFO abduction psychological study by Prof. Chris French in England from the John E. Mack Institute, Nick Pope and Will Bueche, JEMI Communications Coordinator (June 2005); and the "Exploring Close Encounters of the Contact Kind" Report from S.P.A.C.E.

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BUT THE TIMES DOES TALK ABOUT UFOS... IN ARCHITECTURE, ART & MUSIC By Harold Egeln August 16, 2005 -- The New York Times, although it was not objective in its UFO alien abduction study report cited above, recently ran three UFO-ET related feature articles: "Futuro Flashback: The Prefab From Another Planet" by Phil Patton appeared in its House & Home section on July 28 (pages F1-F6), telling about Finnish architect Matti Suuronen's 1968 flying saucer shaped prefab houses, first built in 1968, easy to transport and afford when mass produced. Several were produced but few survive. The article centered around Futuro fan and authority Richard Pisani's attraction to them (he lives in one in Illinois), with his interest shown on his Futuro fans website. -- www.futuro-house.net The Futuro was the star of Finnish filmmaker Mika Taanika's 1998 documentary, "Futuro: A New Stance for Tomorrow," and in 2002 he and Marko Home co-authored "Futuro: Tomorrow's House from Yesterday" a coffee table book published by Desura. There's even music on a Finnish group's CD about the Futuro flying saucer-style house (Michael Luckman -- take note re: "Alien Rock"). Of the Futuros that are around today, the article said, "One in Pensacola, Fla., survived Hurricane Ivan 'because of the aerodynamcs of flying saucers,' Mr. Pisani said." Remember the famous Pensacola Beach UFO sightings of two decades ago? "Feng Shui in Venice? China Lands at Biennale" by Carol Vogel, which appeared in The Arts section of The Times on June 11 (pages B9-B14) featured a photo showing "Sun Tuen and Penh Yu's flying saucer, assembled by farmers from Anhui" (a rural province in China) at the China Pavilion at the famous art show. A few years ago The Times, to its credit, ran a front page piece feature article on a UFO flap in China and the government asking universities to research UFO reports. There was no follow-up, however, in later issues as the stry then fell off the radar screen of The Times. "Keeping A Legend Alive -- The Struggle to Sustain The Sun Ra Arkestra" by Corey Kilgannon, appearing in "The Arts" section on June 30 (pages E1-E10) told of pioneering space-music jazzman Sun Ra's legacy and his band being sustained by the surviving members of his Arkestra. Sun Ra, who died at age 79 in 1993, believed that he came from another world, and made a movie 30 years ago called "Space Is The Place," now on a DVD. "He spoke of making music sublime enough to elevate humanity beyond Earth, to transcend reality. He spoke of a world to which people traveled n cars and rocketship powered by music alone." A quote from Michael Luckman's "Alien Rock" book? No, but direct from The New York Times article just mentioned here! We may be free to wonder if American musician Sun Ra, Finnish architect Matti Suuronen, and Chinese artists Sun Yuen and Peng Yu were directly or indirectly affected by "contact" or were they just picking up on the most fascinating currents in a world touched by the UFO interface, translating it into ART? They certainly were and are ahead of the times and The Times did report on them in its own fashion and style. MISSING TIMES Not mentioned in The Times article on the Vience Biennale was another "flying saucer" at the art show: artist Mariko Mori's "Wave UFO," the interactive, biofeedback installation which dazzled countless visitors at a public atrium by the Trump Tower in New York City two years ago. Below are links to the "Wave UFO" at the Biennale, along with a feature article from the "S.P.A.C.E. EXPLORER ORBITZINE," a predecessor to our "Close Encounters News."

S.P.A.C.E. SOUTH's CUFOG WEBSITE LAUNCHES INTO CYBERSPACE!

Lakeland, Florida, August 3, 2005 -- S.P.A.C.E. South's first website, "S.P.A.C.E. South CUFOG," debuted on-line today.

"CUFOG, the Central-Florida UFO Group, is S.P.A.C.E. South's new investigative and research component," said Director Roberta Puhalski, founder of S.P.A.C.E South in Florida in 1999.

"Our first investigative case involves three sincere fisherman and their nighttime sighting of an lumnious object that behaved strangely. forcing them to seek an explanation, bringing it to our attention," she said.

S.P.A.C.E. SOUTH is a spin-off of the main S.P.A.C.E. group in New York City. The first item is a case study of a UFO sighting on April 24 in Orange County, reported in a recent Filer's Files.

"At CUFOG we use a process of procedures similar to those used in investigative law enforcement. CUFOG works in conjunction with other groups, agencies and organizations," said Puhalski.

The new website is S.P.A.C.E.'S ninth website since November 22, 1999. The websites encompess the main portal, a number of journals and newsletters, and a five volume e-book or chronicles. In addition, there are also two website journals with newsletters published by Cosmic Ecology Media on the space program and ecology.

"S.P.A.C.E., dedicated to the findig the truth behind close encounters and using fact-finding missions, welcomes CUFOG's investigative work which will add more knowledge of this mystery," said Harold Egeln, welcoming CUFOG on the Web. "Close encounter work requires a variety of methods to understand what on Earth is happening."

http://community.webtv.net/HalSpace2/THECUFOGREPORTS

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"THE FLYING TRIANGLE MYSTERY DEEPENS" article by Nick Redfern

August 3, 2005 -- Read an article by UFO researcher and author NICK REDFERN, "THE FLYING TRIANGLE MYSTERY DEEPENS" (Aug. 3, 2005) on the link list below, as well as reviews of his new book on the 1947 Roswell "UFO crash," - "Body Snatchers in the Desert" - which offers a more Earthbound explanation to the mysterious and controversial event. -- [The painting for Redfern's article is copyright © Patrick Wilson, the artist.]

WOW! CONTACT UPDATES from "THE PROJECT WONDERLAND CHRONICLES"

"WOW! CONTACT" events, suggesting an on-going communication or conversation (of a kind that SETI seeks and UFO contacts get) among humans and possible nonhuman sources, continue in earnest. The latest accounts, "Alien Rock 'N' Rabbit" by Harold Egeln and "Gary's 'Time Travels' to Disneyland & Beyond" by Gary from England are reported from the "WOW! Contact Wonder-Log" below:

U.S. ATTACKS "UFO" OVER LOS ANGELES IN 1942

August 31, 2005 -- During the dark hours of early morning of February 25, 1942, just a couple of months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor drawing the United States into the Second World War, anti-aircraft guns fired at an "unidentified aircraft" cruising over jittery Los Angeles in what has become known as the mysterious "Battle of L.A."

The unknown aircraft apparently escaped damage, and cruised over suburbs before being lost. Tens of thousands of witnesses, awakened by the constant racket of artillary barrage saw the "battle."

Perhaps as important as any major UFO case of the modern era, the one-hour battle, with shells damaging buildings on the ground and three people dead, has come under new scrutiny by Steven Lacey, whose Adobe Photoshop analysis results were posted on the Rense.com website today (see link below), with dramatic photo enhancements.

"Witnesses told a LA Times reporter that the bombs exploded in rings around the craft," writes Lacey. "Could it be that the craft had shields that are very similar to the shields used by the imaginary craft of Star Trek?" The photos, seen in the report below, show that effect.

"The Battle of LA makes a very convincing argument for the presence of alien craft in our skies. The fact that something not of this Earth flew slowly over LA County is very clear," writes Lacey. No bombs were dropped by the unknown aircraft nor did they fire back under the heavy attack.

"What happened suggests intent," writes Lacey, speculating at the craft's motives. "They ignored the provocation of our attempt to destroy them. It might have been done to make a statement. I think the pilots of that craft were trying to say that we couldn't hurt them and that we shouldn't be afraid of them."

Ten years later, in July 1952 during the Cold War and Korean War, unknown objects overflew Washington, DC. No anti-aircraft weapons were fired at them, although military jets tried to chase them.

The "Battle of LA" happened in a world at war with itself, which would result in 52 to 60 million deaths, the greatest human-made calamity in the the history of the species. Also, for the first time humanity touched the edge of space as V2 rockets were launched by Nazi Germany upon England, with the rocket scientists dream of landing humans on the Moon deferred as their suborbital rockets killed humans on Earth first.

The incident came almost three-and-a-half years after the Orson Wells "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast causing panic (Oct. 30, 1938) and five years before the modern "flying saucer" era began in 1947.

In the George Pal movie version of H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds" in 1953, the center of action was in and around Los Angeles, 11 years after the "Battle of LA," shown in the movie poster above.

[Below are links to the Rense site item and to others about the Battle of LA, which include the front page of the LA Times on the incident.]

TOP UFO DEBUNKER PHILIP KLASS DIES Professional UFO debunker Philip Klass died at 85 after a long illness on August 10. For details, read the news item from the John E. Mack Institute (JEMI) below: