tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29119864272538947542024-03-13T11:14:50.985-04:00ParasociologyThis blog is dedicated to the conceptual and empirical development of parasociology, a sub-discipline of sociology studying how societies and paranormal or “psi” phenomena interact.
It looks into phenomena like UFOs, Marian Apparitions, Poltergeists, and Parapsychology.Eric Ouellethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02630372990055395413noreply@blogger.comBlogger138125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911986427253894754.post-14105565541025246062017-10-04T17:19:00.000-04:002017-10-04T17:19:01.356-04:00Video Interview with Anthony Peake<br />
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I recently gave a video interview to Anthony Peake, and it can be found on his website <a href="https://www.anthonypeake.com/consciousness-hour-august-2017-dr-eric-ouelett/" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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<br />Eric Ouellethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02630372990055395413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911986427253894754.post-57020687331272220842017-09-26T11:56:00.000-04:002017-09-26T11:56:21.320-04:00Book Review of Jérôme Huck’s Le Feu des Magiciens<div class="MsoNormal">
I stumbled a while ago
on an interesting and relatively recent (2011) book that presents a new
perspective on UFOs, emphasizing physical traces, something we have not seen in
a while. It is written by Jérôme Huck, and entitled <i>Le Feu des Magiciens</i>, or the “Magicians’ Fire”. As the title
implies, it is written in French, but I certainly think that the
English-speaking world ought to know more about this book and his author, and hopefully an
English version will be available in the near future.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Huck’s book is a think
one, with 650 pages. It is divided essentially into two sections. The first one
proposes a critical review of the analyses produced so far on the material
aspects of UFO, and the various hypotheses associated with them. The second
part is built around his findings about physical traces, which seem to have a
common tread if they are looked at from an alchemist’s point of view. More on this
below. Huck does an extensive and very detailed analysis of a wide range of
cases, some well-known, others less so. Also, contrary to most books on the
topic, it is properly referenced, so that his arguments and facts can be
properly doubled-check by anyone who cares to do so. A rarity in the UFO world!<o:p></o:p></div>
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The first part of the book is rather descriptive in nature, going through a meticulous look at what we know about the physical nature of UFOs. The material is presented in a way that is in my opinion relatively balanced and enlightened, and although he acknowledges that governments and the military might not have been entirely upfront in the past, creating an unhelpful aura of mystery around the phenomenon. Yet, Huck does not fall into the intellectually lazy trap of conspiracy theory. He clearly shows when human-made explanations are more likely to be valid, and offers several convincing human-made explanations for cases that were deemed unexplained in the past. However, he concludes that there are indeed physical traces associated with UFOs, and makes a very strong case in this regard; and many of such traces, in spite of various overt and covert efforts, remain unexplained. And if they are unexplained in spite of various failed hypotheses, like the ETH, then something new needs to be tried. </div>
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The second part of the
book offers something new and refreshing. Huck has studied in detail the work
of Jacques Bergier (1912-1978), well-known for his book <i>The Morning of the Magicians</i> co-written with Louis Pauwels, and his
interest in the UFO phenomenon [1]. Bergier was a complex character, with a
complex and convoluted life, and his written works are a controversial mixed
genre between non-fiction and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_realism" target="_blank">fantastic (or magical) realism</a>. What really federates his writing, however, are alchemical themes, concepts,
and notions. Inspired by Bergier’s worldview, Huck considered the rather odd
and non-sensical findings about UFO traces, oftentimes showing out-of-place
chemical compounds that seem in the end meaningless. Through an in-depth description
of the alchemic way of thinking, which is in my opinion very much a form a lateral
and symbolic thinking similar to the language of night dreams and of the
unconscious part of the mind, Huck explains why certain elements must mutate
from one specific form to another according to the alchemists' precepts. And
that’s where it becomes really interesting: he found numerous cases where physical
traces are showing such specific alchemic mutation path. For instance, traces found at
the Whitehouse events in Ohio in 1967 follow a clear alchemistic path of
mutations from Chrome to Magnesium to Iron to Nickel. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Huck is very careful
in avoiding any premature conclusions about what is behind the phenomenon, as he
does not assign a particular agent or agency to it. He only takes note that the
ancient alchemists seem to have put their finger on something we do not quite
understand, and the UFO phenomenon, somehow, seem to be linked at least
partially to that “something”. It is also interesting to note that Jacques
Vallée, in a recent post in <a href="http://www.dailygrail.com/Essays/2017/9/Rendezvous-Vallee-UFOs-Unidentified-Flying-Objects-UAMs-Unidentified-Alchemical" target="_blank">dailgrail</a>, is now engaging with the Alchemic
Hypothesis, but nowhere he or dailygrail acknowledge the seminal work of Huck on the topic.<o:p></o:p></div>
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On the minus side, the
book could have been shorter, as some of the analyses seem a bit of an
overkill to me. There is also a chapter on the alchemical thematic found in the cult TV
show of the 1960s <i>The Prisonier</i>,
which is interesting but off topic. Huck suggests that he developed a “scientific
proof” that alchemic analysis works. I do not agree that we have a scientific
proof here, but we certainly have a very worthwhile hypothesis that would benefit
from being followed by more researchers. Lastly, not all UFO cases leave traces, and in fact very few do, but it would have been interesting for Huck to look into
the symbolic aspects of UFO events and see if alchemic allegories can also be found. Overall, this is a very interesting book, and if you have an
interest in UFOs and read French I strongly suggest you get it. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The book can be purchased directly from <a href="http://laboratoire.vulcain.pagesperso-orange.fr/" target="_blank">Huck’s website</a>, and he does understand English quite well, so you can also reach to him for more questions. </div>
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Notes:</div>
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[1] In particular, <i>Extraterrestrials visitations from
prehistoric times to the present</i>. Chicago: Henry Regnery, 1973; originally
published in French in 1970, as <i>Les
Extraterrestres dans l’histoire</i>.</div>
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Eric Ouellethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02630372990055395413noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911986427253894754.post-55469530276652637982017-08-15T15:53:00.000-04:002017-08-15T15:53:29.484-04:00Book Review – Annie Jacobsen’s Phenomena<div class="MsoNormal">
A few days ago, I
stumbled on Annie Jacobsen’s <i>Phenomena:
The secret history of the U.S. government’s investigations into extrasensory
perception and psychokinesis</i> (published by Little, Brown and Co., in 2017).
This is the latest book touching on the American government interest in the
paranormal, and it brings a number on interesting ideas together.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Annie Jacobsen is a
journalist, who wrote a number of books that made to the <i>New York Times</i> best selling list. Unsurprisingly, it is
well-written, easily accessible, and it provides an interesting narrative. What
is particularly valuable in this book, however, is that it covers governmental
interest in the paranormal from the very early days until the present, and
hence goes beyond describing the Star Gate project. It provides a holistic view.<o:p></o:p></div>
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On the Internet, there
are all kinds of rumours around the connections between Nazi sponsored science
in Germany and post-war American government sponsored science. That Internet
material has usually zero references, and is vague and most of the time simply
aims at discrediting the American government. Jacobsen’s book considers this
issue, but this time with real references and a credible and well-articulated narrative.
The interest of the Nazi regime for the occult is a relatively well-known issue,
and Paul Roland published an excellent book on this very topic in 2012. What is
less known is that in the post-war days both American and Soviet intelligence
teams seize Nazi research material on the occult, among other topics, and
although very little of this material could be used for anything useful, this
planted the idea on both sides of the Iron Curtain that research on the
paranormal might worth trying. The Nazi regime and its sponsored science were
certainly sinister, but not the American discovery of this material.</div>
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It is also often said
that the US government only started to be interested in the paranormal in the
early 1970s, when they discovered that the Soviets had a substantive research
programme on the topic, leading to the creation of the Star Gate project. It is,
in fact, incorrect. Jacobsen’s book shows very nicely that it had an interest
throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, especially through the research conducted
by Dr. Andrija Puharich, who received numerous research grants on paranormal-related
research. In particular, one of the sub-projects of the really sinister MKULTRA
programme, was to find drugs that could enhance psychic abilities. The results
were a dismal failure, but it shows that the idea of gaining advantages over
the Soviet through non-conventional research was not invented in the 1970s. The
book provides a detailed and fascinating account of the research conducted in those
days, using in part declassified documents (and references are the back of the
book).<o:p></o:p></div>
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Of course, most of the
book is about the Star Gate remote viewing programme and the interest in the
psychokinetic abilities of Uri Geller. In terms of money and efforts, this is where
the bulk of the research was done. The book divides the story into the CIA
years and the DOD years. Although there are already very good books on the Star
Gate project, like the one published by Jim Schnabel in 1997, it updates the
topic with the most recent information. In particular, it covers the now mostly
declassified documentation about the strange events that occurred at Livermore
Laboratory in 1975, where a psychokinetic experience involving Uri Geller appears
to have mutated into a poltergeist-like story, scary enough for several
scientists to resign from their job at Livermore shortly afterward. Of note, the
popular TV series <i>Stranger Things</i> is
partially inspired by those events at Livermore. It is unfortunate that this
event was not seen at the time as an opportunity to create quasi-experimental
poltergeists (or RSPK - Recurrent Spontaneous PsychoKinesis). Parapsychology
would have certainly benefited from such type of experiment.</div>
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The last part of the
book discusses what is happening now, and there appears to be very little. One
projects consider enhancing the Marine’s intuition and premonition capabilities
to avoid hidden dangers like improvised explosive devices (IED). Another project
is about so-called synthetic telepathy, were electrical signals can be sent
from one brain to the next via connected helmets. Finally, some research on
lucid dreaming are conducted to help soldiers with PTSD is also noted as fringe
governmental research. The scars caused by the criticism laid against the Star
Gate project appear to remain deep. As well, although there might be some more openness
to study the so-called paranormal in the world of science and universities, it
is still a topic with a low social status. But more fundamentally, it appears
that all those research projects tend to come to a similar conclusion: there really
is something odd and unexplainable happening, but it is too flimsy and
unpredictable to be used as a reliable tool or capability. Hence, no one should
hold their breadth for a return of something like the Star Gate project anytime
soon. <o:p></o:p></div>
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It would have been
interesting, however, if Jacobsen had looked more into the rumor that the NSA
is still using remote viewing, probably through contractors, and that the technique
was apparently used to find Saddam Hussein after the invasion of Iraq in 2003. This
would, if true, be a counter-point to the notion that extra sensory perception
would be too erratic to be used as a regular approach for accessing knowledge. But
overall, this is a good book, and anyone interested in this topic should read
it, as it provides a rational, balanced, and documented study of the American
government interest in the paranormal. It is, for sure, quite a breeze of fresh
air from what one can find on the Internet. </div>
Eric Ouellethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11290961231297852128noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911986427253894754.post-26750964164220886542017-07-16T09:08:00.001-04:002017-08-19T09:25:53.973-04:00Video interview with Dan Schneider of Cosmoetica<br />
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<img src="http://www.cosmoetica.com/Cosmologo2016.jpg" height="43" width="400" /><br />
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I just gave a video interview to Dan Schneider of <a href="http://www.cosmoetica.com/" target="_blank">Cosmoetica</a>, with David Halperin.<br />
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It can be found here: <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DYiUgaH5jWGM&source=gmail&ust=1500296715172000&usg=AFQjCNGShspcbTcXBUJDD5k4m8pble0C5A" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiUgaH5jWGM" style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?<wbr></wbr>v=YiUgaH5jWGM</a><br />
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Enjoy!<br />
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<br />Eric Ouellethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11290961231297852128noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911986427253894754.post-59796475108514066012016-12-16T09:56:00.000-05:002016-12-16T09:56:19.587-05:00New Interview at Spaced Out Radio<div style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;">
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Dear all,<br />
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I gave an interview a few days ago on <a href="http://www.spacedoutradio.com/home" target="_blank">Spaced Out Radio.</a><br />
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The interview is touching on a number of topics, but it emphasizes the challenges of appreciating UFO and paranormal events as being both objective and subjective in nature.<br />
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Eric Ouellethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02630372990055395413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911986427253894754.post-33749719433722111312016-11-24T09:22:00.000-05:002016-11-24T09:22:33.819-05:00Who's Who in the UFO Zoo- Addendum<br />
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After receiving a few messages about this series of posts about the various schools of thought found in the UFO study world, I decided to add a short clarification post about all this. This clarification, however, is based on using more technical language about how we think, and how we do research in general.<br />
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The fundamental topic behind this three-part post series is <a href="http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Ontology" target="_blank">ontology</a>, which can be defined as looking more rigorously into how various
collection of assumptions about the nature of reality we use are affecting how we look at reality. For many people this may sound as a silly question, but it is indeed an important question when dealing with topics like UFOs, and the paranormal in general. UFO events cannot be studied at will in a laboratory; such events are spontaneous and unexpected. As well, they do not often leave any physical traces, and when they do such traces are ambiguous at best and can be interpreted in many ways. Hence, we have a phenomenon that exists essentially as reports from witnesses, and as evidence open to interpretation. In such circumstances, where there is no real clarity about what we are dealing with, it is even more important to clarify our own assumptions about how we approach an ambiguous topic like UFOs.<br />
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All the UFO schools of
thought that were briefly presented
are in one way or another <a href="http://www.iep.utm.edu/dualism/" target="_blank">dualist</a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in their <a href="http://salmapatel.co.uk/academia/the-research-paradigm-methodology-epistemology-and-ontology-explained-in-simple-language" target="_blank">ontological<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>assumptions</a>. This means that, implicitly, either we are dealing with something which would be
objective or subjective, but it cannot be both. It is either a "real thing" out there, or it is "all in the head". Hence, the notion of dualism. Anyone familiar with
the <a href="http://apps.lonestar.edu/blogs/mwhitten/files/2009/11/kantepistemology.pdf" target="_blank">Kantian epistemology</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenomenology_(philosophy)" target="_blank">phenomenology</a> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in general, can only be skeptical
about dualism. We can safely state that the world exists independently from us (the objective side), but yet we
can only relate to the world through our subjective mental make-up. <br />
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For instance, when someone sees something " weird" in the sky and declare having seen a UFO, it is only a UFO because it considered " weird." Conversely, if what is seen in the sky is considered as something natural, even if odd and exotic, then it is not construed as "weird," and therefore it is not a UFO. In both cases, however, given that what was seen in the sky is transient and not amenable to further direct study, then we are left only with we have made of this observation: for some it is a UFO, for others it is a an odd and exotic natural event. If fact, in this case, the only thing we know for sure is that we do not know what happened, and that people have put forward different interpretations of what happen. Worse, because it is transient, we will actually never know for sure. Something objective happened in the sky, and yet we only noticed subjectively the phenomenon because it was perceived as "weird". If everybody agreed that it was a plane, then it would have been construed as a non-event. To draw a sharp distinction between the objective and the subjective is quite silly in such circumstance because it depends of what we are making of it.</div>
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When I say I propose "new relationships" between the main macroscopic variables found in the UFO world (witnesses, society, and the phenomenon), I mean
here new <em>ontological <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>relationships</em>; how our
assumptions about reality are in relationship with reality. My first key point is that the
study of UFO, if it is to be successful in moving forward, cannot be entrenched
in naïve dualist ontological assumptions. One has to accept that all the
variables are interdependent, the subjective
and the objective are mutually influencing each other. <br />
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In the example given above, we can make all kinds of inference about what happen, like checking with the airport and finding that there was no plane or helicopter in the sky at the time; or looking for weather patterns that were similar to other occasions when a weird natural phenomena was observed. In all these situations, whatever conclusions we are coming with, these are only reinforced through inferences, but they are no proof. Yet, other explanations that are not dualist are possible. A mundane object like a plane was in the sky, but somehow created a telepathically shared vision of something else. Or, a PK-like apparition occurred, but because of the materialist mental predispositions of the observer, it was constructed as a natural phenomenon. As one can see, a dualist world is very limiting when one tries to research a challenging phenomenon like UFOs.<br />
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This bring me to my second key point, which is that if we
add psi and social psi to the ontological perspective, then we need to be ready
for new assumptions that further undermine naïve dualism. Psi implies that the
mind (the subjective) can alter the physical realm (the objective) through PK,
and other people's mind (the enlarged subjective world) through ESP, without
using physical or direct means. If one accepts this assumption about psi, then insisting
on separating the objective and the subjective is not only silly, it is a
serious impediment for understanding of the phenomenon. <br />
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UFO events, especially the ones that are construed as " high strangeness", involve usually witnesses in altered state of consciousness. The witnesses' perception of reality is oftentimes mix-up with powerful images and impressions coming from their unconscious mind, and yet it is also in such circumstances that psi events are more likely to occur, whether they are of a PK or ESP nature. What is objective and what is subjective in such circumstances are all mixed-up. The common recurrence of paranormal phenomena found in UFO reports makes psi-related ontological assumptions that more important. Having an open-minded attitude towards an ontology that is not only about avoiding a strong distinction between the objective and subjective, but it is also about accepting a " two-way street" where the subjective can also alter the objective. </div>
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Eric Ouellethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02630372990055395413noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911986427253894754.post-64765253175359491722016-11-02T13:25:00.001-04:002016-11-02T13:26:28.302-04:00Who's Who in the UFO Zoo? - Part 3<br />
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In my book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Illuminations</i>, I proposed what I called the Parapsychological Hypothesis. It may constitute a 7th approach, but I think it is more than that. It was not intended to be a declaration of the “Truth” about UFOs, as in the present state of knowledge no one can make such a claim. Rather, it is an attempt to put together a more holistic construct that could integrate the so-called paranormal aspects of the UFO experience, reported by many witnesses over the years. </div>
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Another feature of the Parapsychological Hypothesis is that it actually builds on all the previous schools of thought. Like all the other approaches, the Nil hypothesis is integrated in that I am not questioning the issue that many mundane objects and phenomena have been declared unidentified, while in fact they were identifiable. Similarly, I am also supportive of the ETH and sophisticated ETH approaches in that I acknowledge the existence of numerous cases where the phenomenon has a degree of objective reality that cannot be simply dismissed out of hand. As well, I agree that in a number of occasions, UFO observations can lead someone to think that objects appear controlled by some form of intelligence. The real question is whose intelligence? Poltergeist events also appear to be controlled by some form of intelligence, and yet there are every reasons to think that such intelligence is the unconscious one of those involved in the events. <o:p></o:p></div>
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My approach also integrates many elements of the psycho-social hypothesis (PSH). The UFO phenomenon is socially constructed, as the language and the images we use to describe odd events have an impact on our understanding of the phenomenon. Similarly, the psychological conditions of the witnesses will shape their perception (like any of our perceptions about everything else, for that matter). The sophisticated version of the PSH provides interesting additional tools to study UFO events from a psychological perspective, even if the PSH cannot explain any aspects that have a degree of objective reality. Yet, I must also underline that I reject unequivocally and forcefully every aspect of the PSH that builds on condescending assumptions towards the witnesses that they are just ignorant, syndrome suffering or fantasy prone individuals (especially in the simplistic and improved versions of the PSH). This is certainly a major and completely unacceptable flaw of that hypothesis. In the 21<sup>st</sup> century, no social scientist worth of that name would accept such implicit assumptions based on crude 1950-style scientism. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Yet, there is still more to the Parapsychological Hypothesis, as it is in many ways “plugging the holes” that exist in the study of UFOs; it opens the way to a truly comprehensive approach for studying UFOs. As noted, in the first post of this series, the UFO phenomenon is based on three fundamental elements:<o:p></o:p><br />
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><strong>Witnesses</strong>, or experiencers, who report very odd and strange events;<o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><strong>Phenomena</strong> that have a degree of external, or objective, reality, as there are physical traces left, multiple witnesses reporting very similar observations at the same time, and a core experience that is relatively invariant across time;<o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> <strong> </strong></span></span></span><!--[endif]--><strong>Society</strong>, and its cultural dynamics and particular relationships of power, that influence how we understand the world, as well as what is being reported and what is being ignored. <o:p></o:p></div>
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A sound study of the UFO phenomenon cannot be done properly unless all those three elements, or variables, are integrated into the analysis. The problem of all six schools of thought presented earlier is that really only integrate 2 of those elements, never all three at same time.</div>
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If we represent graphically the entire literature (that tries to explain the UFO phenomenon, which is by the way a small percentage of the UFO literature), it would look like this. </div>
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Let me explain.</div>
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<li>The arrow showing relationship 1, between the witnesses and the phenomenon, represents the focus of the Nil Hypothesis, namely how the witnesses are projecting their own assumptions into reality.</li>
<li> Relationship 2, is what the simplistic ETH is emphasizing by looking into how the phenomenon is impacting the witnesses who report odd things. </li>
<li>The sophisticated ETH focus also on relationship 2, but implies that there is a relationship 3, where the phenomenon also influences society in subtle ways (notion particularly prevalent in Jacques Vallée’s texts). </li>
<li>The simplistic psycho-social hypothesis (PSH), on the other hand, focusses on the relationship 5, where the narrative about aliens and spaceships is the driving force behind any UFO observation. As well, the supporters of the simplistic PSH take for granted that relationship 1 is directly determined by relationship 5. In other words, witnesses are not important for them. </li>
<li>The improved PSH adds also a focus on relationship 6, where prominent individuals can also influence society’s narrative about aliens and spaceships. Yet, the improved PSH also assumes a relatively direct relationship between 5 and 1, so for them too the witnesses’ experience is not that important. </li>
<li>Finally, the sophisticated PSH still focusses on 5 and 6, but adds a revised version of relationship 1 that is not fully dictated by social narratives about UFOs. In other words, in the sophisticated PSH, what is going on in the life of the witnesses counts, but they still ignore the possibility of a somewhat objective phenomenon.</li>
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The Parapsychological Hypothesis introduces, fundamentally, two innovations. The first innovation is done through the notion of social psi being possibly involved in UFO waves, which adds the relationship 4 to the mix, where collective social psi could actually provide shapes, content and behaviour to the phenomenon. In concrete words, if people were actually seeing airship in the late 19<sup>th</sup> century, ghost planes and ghost rockets in the early and mid 20<sup>th</sup> century, and a variety of “spaceships” in the 2<sup>nd</sup> half of the 20<sup>th</sup> century, then unless one is considering all the witnesses as inept people, then society is influencing the phenomenon directly. By doing so, the Parapsychological Hypothesis actually completes all the six possible ways of looking at the UFO phenomenon. It patches this hole.</div>
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The second innovation, by adding the parapsychological concept of psi in the study of UFOs, is that it actually fully embraces the possibility of the inter-dependency between all three variables. In the case of the relationship between the witnesses and the phenomenon (relationships 1 and 2), if a psi effect occurs, then the witnesses can possibly affect the objective reality of the phenomenon (through ESP and Psychokinesis) while being affected by the same phenomenon (altered state of consciousness, traumatic experience, etc.). There is no need to decide if it is a subjective issue (relationship 1) or an objective phenomenon (relationship 2), as it can actually be both at the same time (new relationship “C” on the chart). </div>
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Similarly, the Parapsychological Hypothesis is fully embracing the interdependency between social narratives about UFOs and aliens (relationship 5) and the witnesses’ capacity to influence the same social narrative about UFOs and aliens (relationship 6). Yet, by doing so, the Parapsychological Hypothesis does not ignore the existence of the phenomenon like the supporters of the PSH do (in all its three versions). The witnesses and larger society exchange on ideas, images, narratives, and understanding about what is behind the UFO phenomenon (new relationship “B” on the chart), but such information is not translated directly into the content of the phenomenon. Such transfer of information about shape, content and behaviour of the phenomenon can only be understood by a careful analysis of how witnesses interact with the phenomenon (the personal dimension), and how society interacts directly with the phenomenon (what I called the impersonal aspects of the UFO phenomenon in my book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Illuminations</i>).</div>
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Lastly, as noted above, there is a possible direct interaction between society and the phenomenon (new relationship “A” on the chart) where collective social psi effects can affect the phenomenon and in turn it can shape new ways in society (like the creation of UFO-related cults). <br />
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By adding the possibility of the Parapsychological Hypothesis in the study of UFOs, it certainly makes things much more complicated. It forces the researcher to incorporate all three central variables (witnesses, phenomenon, and society) in the analysis, instead of only two as the other schools of thought on UFO do. As well, by accepting that all six possible interactions between those variables can be relevant, instead of just picking a handful of them that fits one’s worldview, we have an approach that requires multiple levels of analysis. This is harder, but this is also more rigorous and it creates better conditions to elucidate what we are dealing with.<br />
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The final question is, then, who in the UFO zoo is seriously willing to take a <strong><u>truly comprehensive approach</u></strong> to study UFOs? </div>
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Eric Ouellethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02630372990055395413noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911986427253894754.post-47237720124280704222016-10-17T20:07:00.001-04:002016-10-21T16:43:27.670-04:00Who's Who in the UFO Zoo? - Part 2<br />
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The fourth school of thought is the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">simplistic</b> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Psycho-social Hypothesis.</i> </b>This
approach has a different focus than the older approaches seen so far. It essentially
emerged as a popular idea in the early 1980s. For the supporters of this
approach the UFO phenomenon is essentially a mass phenomenon, made of socially
shared narratives about UFOs, and alien visitations. These narratives are built
on science-fiction literature and cinema, on the thousands of ETH books on UFOs
that are essentially acting as rumour mills about aliens. Those narratives are
influenced by the commercialization of popular culture, as well as by the decline
of traditional religions compensated by belief systems linked to UFOs and
aliens. A crucial difference, here, is that these authors are not interested in
looking into actual individual observations, except to use the ones that
fits their own explanation as illustrations of their theories. For them, the
social narratives about UFOs and aliens is what makes people see UFOs in the
sky and aliens on the ground in the first place. The magazine <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Magonia</i> has been a well-known source of
publications for this approach. To put it in scientific terms, society (or
social and cultural dynamics) is the independent variable, having an influence
on the observers (dependent variable) by filling their mind with images of
aliens from outer space. As a second order of effect, mundane objects becomes interpreted
as aliens from outer space, and by doing so integrates also the Nil Hypothesis
into its framework.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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For instance, in the April 1984 issue of the magazine <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Magonia</i>, Peter Rogerson wrote that “It
must be further emphasised that the UFO experience is not ‘all in the mind’ in
the sense of being the product of the imagination of isolated individuals. It
is a social and cultural phenomenon much more than a psychological one. The
whole problem of the content of the kind of experiences I have been discussing
is wholly unresolved. Why, for example, should hypnogogic imagery involve
‘faces in the dark’? What are the reasons behind the transcultural stereotyping
in UFO experiences? In recent years the interests of the Editors of this
magazine have been increasingly concentrated, not on individual anomalous
experiences, but on the social context within which such experiences take
place, and which generates them. The experiences both condition, and are
conditioned by, the beliefs of society by a process of mutual feedback. Within
a social context many apparently ‘absurd’ beliefs and experiences have depth
and meaning” (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Magonia</i>, <a href="http://magonia.haaan.com/2009/mind/"><span style="color: #0563c1;">http://magonia.haaan.com/2009/mind/</span></a>).
As noted by Rogerson, the linkages between the individual experiences and the
greater social context is not easy to make, and the simplistic version of the
psychosocial hypothesis has been criticized on this ground, leading to more
sophisticated approaches within the realm of the psychosocial perspective. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><em> </em><img src="https://rashidhassan2013.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/signs.jpeg" /></o:p></div>
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The fifth school of thought is in many ways an improved
version over the somewhat condescending attitude towards observers that is implied
in the simplistic psychosocial hypothesis. Because of that, I would call it the
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">improved
Psycho-social Hypothesis</i></b>. This approach, contrary to all the previous
ones, originates mostly from academia and emerged in the 1990s. One well-known
authors from this school of thought is the British folklorist David Clark. It
is definitely more sophisticated than the simplistic version of the
psychosocial hypothesis in that it brings back the experiencer in the analysis,
even if its main tenets are similar to the simplistic version of the
psychosocial hypothesis. The experiencers are now considered as being candid in
reporting their experiences and thus are active agents in creating unwittingly the
UFO myth. Similarly, experiencers’ reactions in face of zealous defence
officials or scientists trying quell the UFO rumours at all costs are perfectly
understandable in taking their own experience even more seriously, and thus in
turn reinforcing even more the UFO myth. Clark’s website provides ample
evidence of this much more generous attitude towards experiencers (<a href="https://drdavidclarke.co.uk/"><span style="color: #0563c1;">https://drdavidclarke.co.uk/</span></a>). In
scientific terms, both the observers and society are inter-dependent variables, as they
influence each other, but in the end, like in the simplistic Psycho-social
Hypothesis, there is a second order of effect, where mundane objects become interpreted
as aliens from outer space by observers, and by doing so integrates also the
Nil Hypothesis into its framework.<o:p></o:p><br />
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<o:p style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/_A8xFYDuNB5U/TELPBrK-5JI/AAAAAAAAAFU/nLaTzBVrkb0/s320/UFO+Files+CURRENT+COVER.jpg" width="246" /> </o:p></div>
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In Clark’s book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">How
UFOs Conquered the World: The History of a Modern Myth</i> he wrote that he
does not “seek to disparage the UFO syndrome as a false belief held by deluded
people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the contrary, the PSH
[Psycho-Social Hypothesis] sees all aspects of ufology … as interesting and
worthy of serious study.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It seeks to
understand the whole syndrome both as modern folklore and as a myth in the
making.” Later he adds “accounts of UFO experience form the core of the
syndrome, but the stories do not constitute ‘evidence’. They are folklore. […]
Culture—not experience—creates the UFO interpretation but some experiences are
independent of culture”. In other words, the actual experience of people is
still fundamentally irrelevant, and there are no phenomena to talk about except
the myth-making process about UFOs. Clark is often accused of ignoring both the
observers’ own experience and that there is a physical substrata linked to the
UFO phenomenon and that his approach cannot account for many difficult cases. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> <img src="http://www.ufocasebook.com/hillpic3.png" /></o:p></div>
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The sixth school of thought can be seen as further
refinement of the psychosocial hypothesis by bringing back the subject own
reality into the phenomenon, and by doing so trying to close the difficult gap
between the “psycho” (individual) part and the social (or collective) part of
the hypothesis. In this sense, it can be called the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">sophisticated<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Psycho-social
Hypothesis</i></b>. It emerged somewhere in the early 2000s. The main tenets of
this approach is that UFOs exist both as social reality that influences the
inner worlds of observers and social representations of the outer world, but
the individual’s inner world is also an important variable that it is not
necessarily a “sample” of larger social narratives about UFOs. Hence, according to
this approach individual UFO events deserved to be studied in full, including
developing a good understanding of the witnesses as people. To put in
scientific terms, society is an independent variable, and to a lesser extent the
inner world of the observers is also an independent variable, both of which have only a
degree of interdependency. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> <img height="400" src="https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5158/14039430396_c290b23eaf_b.jpg" width="319" /></o:p></div>
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The research conducted by religion scholar David Halperin is
a good example of this perspective. In this case, although social dynamics and
narratives do play an important role in shaping UFO experiences, the individual
observers’ own reality is not dismissed nor ignored. Like in the case of the improved
psycho-social hypothesis, influential individuals can indeed shape societal
perspectives on UFOs, and therefore what sociologists call human agency is
recognized. One can think of George Adamski as an example of someone who
created a new genre (the contactees) soon to be copied by many others. This
approach is also much less deterministic (and much less condescending) than the
simplistic Psycho-social hypothesis, given that it fully recognizes the need to
investigate also the inner world of the observers to make a sound analysis of a
UFO event. Each UFO event is seen as unique because they are experienced by
unique individuals having a unique life history. <o:p></o:p><br />
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For instance, Halperin on his excellent blog <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Journal of a UFO Investigator</i>, takes
great care to look into the information available about the personal life of
UFO witnesses: what kind of symbolism would be specifically meaningful to them,
what kind of difficulties and tensions they were facing at the time, etc.
Furthermore, this approach does not judge the projection of one’s inner world
into the outer world as some sort pathology or as the behavior some naïve or
ignorant people. We all do this in one form or another, it is not just about
UFOs. In a way, this approach resembles quite a bit the writings of Jung on UFOs.
<o:p></o:p><br />
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<o:p style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img height="320" src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/16/14/fe/1614fe8e08f9c83e428b55320d72ebaa.jpg" width="311" /> </o:p></div>
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Like with the simplistic Psycho-Social Hypothesis and the improved
approach, there is no recognition that an anomalistic phenomenon occurred in
any case. This is a significant problem when physical traces can actually be
pointed out or very odd anomalies occur, as those approaches do not have any explanation
to offer for them. <o:p></o:p><br />
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In the next post, I will discuss the place and role of what
I have called the Parapsychological Hypothesis. <o:p></o:p></div>
Eric Ouellethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02630372990055395413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911986427253894754.post-298749057423840132016-10-07T11:02:00.000-04:002016-10-21T16:42:41.904-04:00Who’s Who in the UFO Zoo? - Part 1<br />
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When people use the expression “UFO”, whether it be in a
book, a documentary, a newspaper article, on a website, or on YouTube, there is an implicit
assumption that the meaning is actually understood, and that everyone agrees on
such meaning. The fact is that it is not the case. “UFO” has many implicit
meanings. How people define UFOs, in turn, tells us a lot about the various ways of
thinking about the topic, and more particularly helps identifying clusters of authors
thinking along the same lines. In other words, this helps figuring out the
various “school of thought” on UFOs. Although some of those schools of thought are well-known, some important variations are often under estimated.</div>
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<o:p></o:p> </div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0PBG-sIe2qs/V_eypD2YGdI/AAAAAAAAATQ/2UeBE-atzYgE1Zf6ywleW_OMmhpJB85zgCK4B/s1600/ufo-buildings-in-rizaho%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0PBG-sIe2qs/V_eypD2YGdI/AAAAAAAAATQ/2UeBE-atzYgE1Zf6ywleW_OMmhpJB85zgCK4B/s320/ufo-buildings-in-rizaho%255B1%255D.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The first obvious misunderstanding comes out of thinking
that “UFO” necessarily means a spaceship from another world. Many people using
the term “UFO” are actually conveying a meaning that stays close to the
actual origins of the acronym to mean “Unidentified Flying Object’, namely
something that is not identified and therefore they do not jump to the
conclusion that it is a spaceship of some sort. The second common misunderstanding
comes from that many people use the work “UFO” out of convention, or for
simplicity’s sake, because UFO is the best known term on the topic, but they
actually mean “UAP” (for Unexplained Aerial Phenomena), as they do not even
think that it is necessarily an “object”, and let alone a “spaceship”. I am
certainly guilty of that.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wr6N_NXXPZI/V_eyyfFQzfI/AAAAAAAAATY/n4aTwYnp7Ig599aFbji8REv3Rzyf1ICCACK4B/s1600/Drone%2BSurvival%2BGuide%255B1%255D.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wr6N_NXXPZI/V_eyyfFQzfI/AAAAAAAAATY/n4aTwYnp7Ig599aFbji8REv3Rzyf1ICCACK4B/s320/Drone%2BSurvival%2BGuide%255B1%255D.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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The misunderstanding becomes even greater when one is
reading the specialized literature on the topic. Depending on the writer’s
starting assumptions, the actual detailed meaning of what are UFOs will vary
greatly from one author to the next. In spite of individual variations among
writers on the topic of UFOs, it is possible however to group them in loosely
arranged “schools of thought”, by using their core assumptions about what they
mean when the use the word UFO, and what degree of reality they do assign to the phenomenon (ontological assumptions). To complicate matters a bit more, some of those
“schools of thought” have evolved over time, and older assumptions are now
rarely used without much caveats and nuances. Hence, distinctions across time
are crucial to understand who is who in the UFO zoo.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3O8sMWJPjsU/V_ezDnJgorI/AAAAAAAAATg/7by5GckLlW8i4f5BDyPlLrrnZn_My7VcQCK4B/s1600/basic-categories-of-existence%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3O8sMWJPjsU/V_ezDnJgorI/AAAAAAAAATg/7by5GckLlW8i4f5BDyPlLrrnZn_My7VcQCK4B/s320/basic-categories-of-existence%255B1%255D.jpg" width="318" /></a></div>
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By using the core assumptions of the main writers on the
topic of UFOs, it is possible to identify 6 different schools of thought that
have emerged over time. This post intends to present a brief overview of each.
But more fundamentally, this overview of the various schools of thought on UFO
leads to a key observation: UFOs are made of weird phenomena, people observing
them, and a social context for people to make sense of the weirdness. Those
three dimensions of the UFO phenomena are <strong><u>all necessary</u></strong> for UFO to exist, and
when must take of all into consideration to try understanding the phenomenon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Six Schools of
Thought <o:p></o:p></b></div>
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The first one is often called the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nil Hypothesis</i></b>. This approach
to UFO emerged in parallel to the ETH (Extra-Terrestrial Hypothesis – see below)
in the late 1940s. Its main focus is a negative one and it is deeply
intertwined with the ETH, in the sense that it tries to proof that none of the
UFOs are spaceships, but rather mundane objects. This approach is rather
simplistic because it is built on a binary assumption of real or not real
object, implying that the “alieness” of a UFO is only in the head of the
observer. The inner world (beliefs, ignorance, wishful thinking, etc.) of the
observer is what “creates” the UFO phenomenon and it is projected on a mundane
object or natural event. To put it in scientific terms, the inner world of the
observer is the independent variable; the parts that calls the shot. The
phenomenon is the dependent variable, the one that is transformed by the
independent variable. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hH4xcm9s8ys/V_ezW0fgErI/AAAAAAAAATo/6f7KJjDZoNQSOKUlOZP6EKIzF9dem9AGACK4B/s1600/ufo-skeptics-philip-j-klass-donald-howard-menzel-steuart-campbell%255B2%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hH4xcm9s8ys/V_ezW0fgErI/AAAAAAAAATo/6f7KJjDZoNQSOKUlOZP6EKIzF9dem9AGACK4B/s320/ufo-skeptics-philip-j-klass-donald-howard-menzel-steuart-campbell%255B2%255D.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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<o:p> </o:p></div>
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The illustrative authors of this school of thought regarding
UFOs are Donald H. Menzel and Lyle G. Boyd in their book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The World of Flying Saucers</i> (1963). They wrote in the preface that
“he [Menzel] soon concluded (with a slight feeling of disappointment!) that the
flying saucers were not vehicles from other worlds but were only mundane
objects and events of various kinds, some of them commonplace, some familiar
chiefly to meteorologists, physicists, and astronomers” (p. xiii). According to
this perspective, an abnormal aerial phenomenon is only abnormal due to the
ignorance of common people who reports those objects. In other words, they are projecting
their ill-informed beliefs into an event they misinterpret. This approach takes
into consideration “fads” and “panics” about UFOs, which relates to the social
realm, but the central argument is one of a physical object or natural
phenomenon being misconstrued. This approach is now less accepted among
sceptics given its simplistic nature, and at times the quite condescending tone used towards observers, as they are complex psychological and sociological
factors that require being included in the analysis, as well as very exotic
natural phenomena poorly understood by the scientists themselves. </div>
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<o:p><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
The second school of thought is certainly the best known one
and it is usually referred to as the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ETH</i> </b>(<strong>Extra-Terrestrial Hypothesis). </strong>As noted above, this approach
emerged also in the late 1940s, when weird aerial phenomena started to attract
greater attention by the general public and were increasingly accredited to
alien visitors from outer space. This approach integrates the criticism from
the Nil Hypothesis in that it accepts that many reported UFOs are indeed
misconstrued conventional objects or exotic natural phenomena. Its authors
often refer to the Blue Book Project statistics that about 5% of all UFO
observations are true ‘unknown”, namely well documented and yet unexplainable.
For them, UFO means this residual group of unexplainable reports. Many will use
implicitly, and sometimes explicitly, the logical fallacy that “what else could it be but alien
from another world”, invoking the apparent “intelligent” behavior of
the phenomenon. And then, from the “what else could it be” they usually take
the last step to declare that those UFOs are indeed aliens from another world. This
approach grants full autonomy to the phenomenon by ascribing it to powerful
extra-terrestrial visitors, makes the observer essentially a passive bystander,
and relegate the problem of identifying those observations to governmental
authorities. In scientific terms, the phenomenon is seen as the independent
variable, while the observers are the dependent variable (they will see only
what aliens want us to see). <o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p> </o:p></div>
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The list of authors illustrative of this approach is long,
and each of them have their own little variation and interpretation of the
phenomenon. However, just to take one example, Coral Lorenzen wrote in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Flying Saucers: The startling evidence of
the invasion from outer space</i> (1962) that “there are no definite
indications of hostility on the part of our visitors; but equally important
there is no indication of friendliness either. […] To fail to educate the
public concerning the facts at hand, however, is to court danger of a
particularly insidious nature. The existence of a species of superior beings in
the universe could cause the civilization of earth to topple” (p. 278). In same
breath she calls for governmental authorities to be both more transparent and
proactive against the implied threat. In spite of having absolutely not physical proof that UFOs are spaceships from another world, this approach still has many followers
today, particularly in the movement of the so-called “exopolitics”. </div>
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The third school of thought has been oftentimes labeled as
the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Paranormal
Hypothesis</i></b>, but at closer look it would be more accurate to call it the
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sophisticated
ETH</i></b>. This approach builds on the last two approaches. It incorporates
the criticism of the Nil Hypothesis that many observations have indeed nothing
anomalistic about them. Yet, this approach also criticizes the ETH on a number
of grounds, but mostly about the completely illogical behaviour of the alleged
aliens visitations and the complete lack of physical evidence of any ET visitations. However,
it does not ignore the strangeness and physical reality of many UFO-related
events. Instead, it implies that some intelligent forces that we may not ever
be able to understand are behind the unexplainable events, and they affect
individual observers and societies as whole. To put in scientific terms, the
phenomenon is the independent variable, while both the observers and society
are the dependent variables.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p> <a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5aBIKq443xQ/V_e0Npmxg4I/AAAAAAAAAT8/XaOpE9AzhDktmwNZA4VggAKpir0gGfHXgCK4B/s1600/John_2BKeel_2BPrivate_2BPlane%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5aBIKq443xQ/V_e0Npmxg4I/AAAAAAAAAT8/XaOpE9AzhDktmwNZA4VggAKpir0gGfHXgCK4B/s320/John_2BKeel_2BPrivate_2BPlane%255B1%255D.jpg" width="320" /></a></o:p></div>
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The main authors who have sponsored this approach are
Jacques Vallée and John Keel, emerging in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Their
approach is very much an extension of the ETH however, but it removes some of
the most problematic elements of the ETH, namely the persistent absence of
physical proof of extra-terrestrial visitations. The phenomenon is still
considered as somewhat independent of the observer, even if the experience can
be very personal and unique to each observer. UFO events are oftentimes construed as being physical
in some ways, but resisting conventional explanations. At times, Keel described them as something similar to hauntings or demonic manifestations. Hence, it is attributed to
undefined forces that influence in complex ways both individuals and societies,
for better or for worse. This approach still advocates for greater transparency and
involvement of the authorities, but in the name of science rather than in the
name of handling visitors with dubious intentions. The conclusion of Vallée and
Aubeck’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wonders in the Sky </i>(2009)
covers most those ideas in a succinct manner. It is deemed the “paranormal”
hypothesis because it implies some form of non-human intelligence being behind
the phenomenon, but such intelligence is not necessarily extra-terrestrial or
embodied in the usual ways of using those terms. This approach has been criticized
by the both the supporters of the ETH for its lack of capacity to explain how such ethereal visitors could exist in the first place, and by the supporters of the more sophisticated version of
the nil hypothesis whereas disembodied entities and object are simply projections of our own unconscious unto our perception of reality (to be discussed in the next post).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Eric Ouellethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11290961231297852128noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911986427253894754.post-83229665490939048862016-09-30T14:26:00.000-04:002016-10-01T10:02:09.045-04:00Real Conspiracies and Conspiracy Stories that Sell – Part 2<br />
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My last post was raising the question as whether the
content of UFO-related conspiracies is actually possible. This question was not
asked based on whether extra-terrestrial life is possible, nor if it is
possible to produce technological devices to travel the vastness of
interstellar space. The actual veracity of UFO conspiracy has never been proven
(i.e. what is allegedly hidden), so this is not an issue that can be addressed
in any meaningful way. Similarly, the question was not about how human can
invent such narrative about conspiracies and get such narrative spreading
throughout popular culture. Social scientists have already studied this issue
in great detail. No, my question is in many ways much more sociological in
nature, and it is about whether humans can actually enact such conspiracies? </div>
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There are many variations of the UFO-related conspiracies,
and it would completely unrealistic trying to assess them all. So, I intend to
focus on the main characteristics rather than specific elements that might be
unique to one version or another. The narratives linked to UFO conspiracies are
not a new, and pre-dated very much the Roswell story that emerged in the late
1970s. Very early in the 1950s, the issue as to whether the American government
was not truthful about its knowledge of UFOs was raised by a number of authors. Just
as an example, in 1953 Donald Keyhoe wrote that “the secret intelligence
analysis should be made public, with all the evidence which led to the final
conclusion. […] their massed evidence that the saucers are interplanetary […]”
[1]. The same story is repeated a dozen years later by Coral Lorenzen, as she
states that the layman “[…] is faced with the fact that official opinions often
contradict the available evidence. He concludes that a ‘conspiracy of official
silence exists’ concerning ‘true facts’ "[2]. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p></o:p><br />
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These two examples illustrate the basic, or original,
conspiracy about UFOs. Summarily, it can be described as “the government”
(whatever that means) knowing the true nature of UFOs, which is that they are
spaceships from another world and are driven by aliens visiting the Earth. The
intents of the aliens are not clear, but “the government” knows what it is, and
it may be an accomplice in having done some sort of deal with the aliens. For
reasons unclear, “the government” refuses to disclose such knowledge publicly.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">There is a more sophisticated version of the conspiracy story surrounding UFOs. It
is less dramatic but also much less popular, and it is based on the notion that
there are real anomalies linked to the UFO phenomenon, and people in “the
government” know about it, but they do not really know what to make of it. They may have some small secret programmes to keep track of them, but these are not terribly successful. Yet, there
is a fear that governmental ignorance might be seen as problematic by the population, and therefore “the
government” prefers hiding the little it actually knows, and suppresses those
who want to discuss it. This is actually a reasonable statement, and there is enough evidence to show that it was more or less true some time ago. Yet, “the government” also hides secret research programmes
behind stage fake UFO events to confuse people, distract attention, and
potentially trying to influence populations for purposes that are quite unclear.
This is also a reasonable statement, as there is evidence to support it, but it dies not seem to be as extensive as one might imagine. Finally, the phenomenon being itself quite elusive, seems to be engaged in its
own cover-up, independent from the one of “the government”. This last secret can be explained by the elusiveness of psi, and does not require a non-human intelligence to be. Jacques Vallée is a
well-known representative of this view on UFO-related conspiracies. In his book
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dimensions: A casebook of alien contact</i>
(1988), he has an entire chapter on this issue entitled the “Triple Cover-up".</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Some people might say that people or artefacts actually came
forward with the “real deal”. Yet, those stories appear to be make-belief events, as many analysts noted about Philip
Corso, Bob Lazar, several of the Roswell “witnesses” and the quasi-totality of
the Majestic papers, which after much verifications leave us rather empty handed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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So, what should we make of all of this?<o:p></o:p></div>
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</span>As noted in the previous post, the first characteristic to
keep in mind is that secrecy is a normal social dynamics found in every walk of
life. To find secrets surrounding UFOs is actually normal. A complete lack of
secrecy would be actually suspicious. The fact that many governments of the
world have surrendered most of their UFO files over the years (as noted in my book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Illuminations</i>), but have kept a few away from the public eye is
actually a good sign. We are dealing with a “normal” secrecy situation. The
next question should be: are there secrets worth trying to keep to maintain
social relationships? Obviously, the military and the defense establishment have
relationships with their parent state, which they are charged to defend.
Secrets involving the protection of the state are therefore to be expected. As UFO-related
documents are being declassified over time, every single UFO files that
remained classified for a longer time had a component that, if revealed at the
time of the first disclosure, would have endangered the relationship (e.g. individuals named in
documents, sensitive detection system still operational, sensitive military
activities, etc.). There are no big alien invasion stories, ever. There is only attempts to protect relationships of trust between various parts of the government. Furthermore, those declassified files illustrate that the direct
or indirect admittance of governmental ignorance about UFOs was finally acknowledged. The cover-up about
governmental ignorance is no more, because no one inside or outside government seems able to crack the UFO
mystery in any meaningful way; there is nothing to be ashamed of anymore.<br />
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Then, there are relationships with industries involving at
times massive amounts of money, which demand secrecy (to keep the technological
edge of both the supplier and the client). New technologies are constantly developed
and new military applications are routinely classified. This is perfectly normal. This
illustrates that only something valuable need to be keep secret, the second
characteristics of secrecy. Yet, once again, when a secret loses its value, the
secrets goes away. A good example of it is about balloons and UFOs. The US Air Force
historical service published in 1958 <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Contributions
to Balloon Operations to Research and Development</i>, an unclassified
document. In there, (pp. 72-74) it states clearly that balloons were often
mistaken for UFOs and they knew about it, and the chief scientist Gildenberg even wrote in the
unclassified Holloman base newspaper about this issue. By 1958, balloon-based
research had lost its edge, and there was no need to keep the secret about it.
Gildenburg testified at the U.S. Air Force official investigation on Roswell in
the mid-1990s, saying the same thing he wrote in 1950s…. Once again, no
sinister secrets about alien invasion. Once the need to camouflage
technological research into UFO stories is gone, people are quite open about it.
Another example can be found in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Project
Beta</i> (2005), written by Greg Bishop, where he describes an elaborate UFO-related scheme
that was put in place for distracting a ufologist to figure out the latest research
on ground to satellite communications. Bishop, years later once that technology was no more a big deal, was able to uncover
the whole story without major difficulties, people readily admitting what they did. </div>
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This leads us to the third characteristics, which is about
that it is hard to keep secrets. People will talk, especially if they have an
issue with those who keep them out of the secret. The UFO literature is filled
with stories of people who were told to shut up, and one of the latest incarnations of
these stories can be found in the various testimonies of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Disclosure Project Briefing Document</i>
(2001), produced by Steven M. Greer. Yet, a closer look at those testimonies
shows that there were attempts to put a lid on UFO stories, not that their
actual alien-related content was true or proven… A critical distinction. The document attempts to show that there was a conspiracy about the "conspiracy". From a sociological perspective, this needs to be interpreted in a sound perspective. Those who are kicked out of
the secret tend to talk, especially if it is done in a hurtful way. That does not mean the had a good understanding of the secret, especially if they stumbled on the secret by accident. Yet, even more importantly, many
other people who were “in”, once they leave in good terms, actually do speak as well! All
those military people and officials who came forward telling their story about
the “no big deal” are also participating in spilling the secret. Their voice cannot be ignored just because it is inconvenient. There stories are also quite
clear that those UFO-related secrets were not about aliens from other space or
bizarre and complicated social experiments conducted for nebulous reasons. The secret is consistently described as much pragmatic and down-to-earth in nature and quite localized in scope.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Finally, the last characteristics is about the ethical
nature of secrets. The less ethical and the more people involved the harder it
is to keep it secret. The vast majority of people in the military and defense
establishments are actually very ethical people. Once they get engaged in
something unethical, the secret is bound to come out, even if it takes some
time to occur. One can think about the MK-Ultra experiment or the secret
military operations in Cambodia during the Vietnam War or the Abu Ghraib
scandal; people’s conscience will eventually act out. If the governments of the
world would have a sinister grand deal with aliens going back all the way to the
1940s, it would have been out long time ago. Similarly, if grand scale weird, complicated,
and risky techno-social experiment would have been conducted in various areas of the world, this would have come out
too. Unethical conspiracies to be enacted by normally ethical people do not remain
secret for long.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Does any proponent of UFO-related conspiracies
actually try to make sense of them sociologically? After all, conspiracies are
human-made and are therefore explainable by tools of social and human sciences!
But of course, these proponents do not feel any need to meet such requirement.
Why would they? It makes their stories a lot more interesting and captivating. It allows their
stories to remain consistent with the original UFO narrative. In the end, it helps
selling books of a particular genre. In other cases, it is partially unconscious,
as some of those authors come to believe their own stories in spite of the blatant lack of evidence, and their complete inability to explain why such grand and risky conspiracies would be put in place. This explains why
such dynamics can go on forever.</span><br />
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In fact, if there is a conspiracy it is the one put forward
by the numerous UFO-related authors going back all the way to the 1950s and
their unscrupulous publishers (and now audio-visual producers)who are maintaining alive the narrative about
conspiracies. Like in Umberto Eco's <em>Foucault's Pendulum</em> we have a conspiracy about imagined
conspiracies. But let's face it: this little dirty secret has been out for quite a while. It is seriously time to move on. </div>
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<o:p> </o:p><o:p> </o:p></div>
<strong>Notes:</strong><br />
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[1] Keyhoe, Donald. (1953). <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Flying Saucers From Outer Space</i>. New York: Permabooks, p. 217.<o:p></o:p></div>
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[2] Lorenzen, Coral. (1966). <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Flying Saucers: The startling evidence of the invasion from space</i>.
New York: Signet, p. 278.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p></o:p> </div>
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Eric Ouellethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02630372990055395413noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911986427253894754.post-80867740806675560562016-09-12T22:33:00.002-04:002016-09-12T22:34:02.717-04:00Real Conspiracies and Conspiracy Stories that Sell – Part 1<br />
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Finally, I am able to resume the blog. I apologize for my
long silence.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I attended a symposium a little while ago on UFOs, parapsychology,
and other related topics. The symposium was attended by first class researchers
and writers, and it made me think a lot about the notion of conspiracy in the
UFO world. The two notions of UFO and conspiracy are inextricably linked to one
another, particularly in the United States. One must be aware, however, that it
is much less the case outside the U.S., even in neighboring Canada. In Europe and elsewhere, research on
UFO tends to focus on the new physical science aspects, the social dynamics,
and to a lesser degree on the paranormal dimension. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span> </div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">This post is looking at what we actually know about conspiracies, and how this knowledge could be helpful to make an assessment of UFO conspiracies, which are otherwise opaque in nature, and their place in framing our understanding of the phenomenon.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span> </div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><o:p></o:p> </div>
A number of authors in the U.S. have studies the belief in
conspiracy theories in general, and on UFOs in particular. For instance, one
can refer to Michael Barkun’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Culture
of Conspiracy</i> (2013), the edited volume of Debbora Battaglia <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">E.T. Culture</i> (2005), Jodi Dean’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Aliens in America</i> (1998), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">UFO Crash at Roswell </i>(1997) by Saler,
Ziegler and Moore, or the classic book by David Jacobs <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The UFO Controversy in America</i> (1975). These books and others, in
one way or another, look into why people believe in conspiracies, why conspiracies
are enduring even if no substantive facts emerge or when counter-proofs are
provided, what kind of people believe in conspiracy, and how conspiracies theories
evolve and mutate. These questions are certainly legitimate social science
research issues to study, and these books provide a very illuminating analysis
of the American society, and of the inner social dynamics of the UFO buffs’ world. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><br />
What has been much less done is to study UFO-related
conspiracies from the point of view of the sociology of conspiracy; to try
understanding whether UFO-related conspiracies make any sense from a sociological
perspective. After all, conspiracy is a real social phenomenon with its own dynamics
like project management, or bureaucracy. The sociology of conspiracy is in fact
quite old and can be traced back to an article from the well-known sociologist
Georg Simmel in a 1906 issue of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">American
Journal of Sociology</i>, entitled “The sociology of secrecy and of secret
societies”.<br />
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<br />
Simmel wrote that: “The keeping of secret is something so
unstable, the temptations to betrayal are so manifold, in many cases such a
continuous path leads from secretiveness to indiscretion, that unlimited faith
in the former contains an incomparable preponderance of the subjective factor.
For this reason those secrets societies whose rudimentary forms begin with the
secret shared by two, and whose enormous extension through all times and places
has not even yet been appreciated, even quantitatively—such societies have
exerted efficient disciplinary influence upon moral accountability of men. For
there resides in confidence of men towards each other as high moral value in
the companion fact that this confidence is justified”. (p. 473)<o:p></o:p><br />
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<o:p>
Here are some of the insightful observations from Simmel about
how secrecy and conspiracy decorticated. First of all, secrecy is one of the oldest form of
social dynamics. As soon as you have three people or more, then we have at
least three pairs of people who have their own unique one-on-one relationship,
who will inevitably not share 100% of the relationship with the other pairs.
Hence, secrets are born. This observation at the micro level also stands at the
macro level. People have work and family secrets that do not cross into the
other realm. Similarly, large organizations have secrets that are shared only
internally to their members, and it can become a key issue of competitiveness between
organizations, like between Apple and Samsung. The same can be said of
intelligence agencies that have a hard time sharing information with each other
because they want to protect their own sources. <br />
<br />
</o:p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BiXcWWN_OVw/V9dhA_yjYbI/AAAAAAAAAKM/gSQtxSmd4RIQZFDbXi5HdeS01oFtrO9KwCLcB/s1600/29-content-marketing-secrets-cover%255B1%255D.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BiXcWWN_OVw/V9dhA_yjYbI/AAAAAAAAAKM/gSQtxSmd4RIQZFDbXi5HdeS01oFtrO9KwCLcB/s320/29-content-marketing-secrets-cover%255B1%255D.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<o:p><br />
The second point is that secret information becomes
valuable because only those who are in have access to it. It is true in creating
special relationship between individuals. The secret moments are what make
their relationship special and valuable. This is also true for large
organizations, which compete against each other. Conversely, once the secret is
spilled, the information loses its value. Sometime, it is not the content of the
information that actually brings value, but simply the existence of a secret.
The classic example is Freemasonry, which has it rituals published in many
different books over years, while its true value is in “having been there” when the ritual
is performed. The real value in this case remains in the common experience
rather than in its content. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QGumFHv0-lQ/V9dgugY42lI/AAAAAAAAAKE/pP0477RvsoECPOa1I-vqc2dYgy0VPWDPwCLcB/s1600/OlegPenkovsky%25282%2529%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="219" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QGumFHv0-lQ/V9dgugY42lI/AAAAAAAAAKE/pP0477RvsoECPOa1I-vqc2dYgy0VPWDPwCLcB/s320/OlegPenkovsky%25282%2529%255B1%255D.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
A third characteristics is that secrets are very hard to
keep! Bragging about being part of a secret is a phenomenon that goes back to beginning
of time, and it is how the police today very often catches small time
criminals. Then, revenge against those who wronged you, or selfish calculations
to obtain favors in exchange for information are the story of modern spy
recruiting. For instance, Oleg Penkovsky was profoundly disgusted with the actions
of the Soviet Union and became a volunteer spy for the West who had a key role during
the Cuban missile crisis. Richard Ames simply sold crucial American secrets to
the Soviet Union for money. <o:p></o:p><br />
</o:p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-e7gJVQcfh6Y/V9dg2ddXDMI/AAAAAAAAAKI/LwZKwRxf-A8rBxIZ17IGwq5vYApNXnG9ACLcB/s1600/Ames_time.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-e7gJVQcfh6Y/V9dg2ddXDMI/AAAAAAAAAKI/LwZKwRxf-A8rBxIZ17IGwq5vYApNXnG9ACLcB/s1600/Ames_time.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
Large organization based on secrecy are well aware of those
problems and try establish various measures to protect their secrets. One of
those measures is to ensure that those entrusted with secrets are sharing the values behind
the secrets. For instance, the secret of the cryptographic work done against
German signals during World War II at Bletchley Park was a very well guarded
one, and this many years after the war was over. The people were fully
dedicated to protect Britain and the Western world against fascism, raid
bombing, and U-boot attacks. They had very strong motivations to keep it
secret. The Mafia, on the other hand, tries to keep secrets based on family
values, and try to recruit among family members. But their goals are much less noble,
and eventually someone talks. That’s what gangsters’ stories are made of. The
Watergate scandal was easily uncovered by two journalists because of the immorality
of what was done. People were willing to talk and provide proofs. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
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<br />
Another measure is fear and intimidation. This can work up
to a point, but eventually people reach a point where they have nothing to
lose, and they spread the secret. Once again, organized crime is a classic
example of using fear and intimidation, and yet people eventually talk. Witness
protection programmes have been created to give these people a second chance
after they reveal the secret. State intelligence agencies can use the threat of
prosecution and jail time, or even worse, if people reveal their secrets, and
yet we have people like Snowden who was willing to risk it all. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GB3KmpPqJc4/V9djK3T7thI/AAAAAAAAAKY/gqRn1-vDnZ0olsDuODrDIH40xJP9epM3wCLcB/s1600/snowden333%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GB3KmpPqJc4/V9djK3T7thI/AAAAAAAAAKY/gqRn1-vDnZ0olsDuODrDIH40xJP9epM3wCLcB/s320/snowden333%255B1%255D.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Lastly, organizations are using secrets as a way to get
people motivated to keep secrets! It is essentially done by getting more secrets
over time, and moving one closer to the inner circle. Cults are classic
examples of it, but organized crime is the same. Intelligence agencies provide
high clearances as people get promoted to upper ranks. Yet, this does
not always work. For instance, Oleg Gordievsky, the Soviet resident in London, which
was a pretty high position in the KGB, defected to the West when he could. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vdSAvMlTZMI/V9dkdEoFYjI/AAAAAAAAAKg/KEx7xH1aam0OP4oG9QkyBCTgCopZ47Y0QCEw/s1600/gordievsky-kgb-id%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vdSAvMlTZMI/V9dkdEoFYjI/AAAAAAAAAKg/KEx7xH1aam0OP4oG9QkyBCTgCopZ47Y0QCEw/s1600/gordievsky-kgb-id%255B1%255D.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
Ultimately, the morality or immorality of a secret is often
a defining characteristic as to whether a secret can last for long, assuming
that people in are essentially normal people. A secret that supports a cause
that is construed as noble and moral will last long. The exception are immoral secrets
that are kept by profoundly depraved people, like in the case of pedophile
rings. Such secrets tend to be held closely because of the serious consequences
for those in if the secret is revealed. But it also imposes a limitation on the
size of the secret group, as when the circle enlarges too much, sooner or later
someone will have problems with his/her conscience. Many modern-day terrorist plots
were stopped in this manner, as the circle becomes larger. <br />
<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5khuTuz_MS0/V9dlJgp_YoI/AAAAAAAAAKk/Cnri8xTh31UYXFHWKZlOweHya-ES5SGywCLcB/s1600/toronto_18graphic%255B1%255D.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="276" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5khuTuz_MS0/V9dlJgp_YoI/AAAAAAAAAKk/Cnri8xTh31UYXFHWKZlOweHya-ES5SGywCLcB/s320/toronto_18graphic%255B1%255D.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
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In light of those sociological characteristics linked to
secrets and conspiracies, how well the UFO secrets and conspiracy fare?<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Uc34ECE5ono/V9dlXY9yNfI/AAAAAAAAAKo/AcKDGyAj-HoZEQHBXtThqCt98vqDUlaEACLcB/s1600/Roswell-UFO-264508%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Uc34ECE5ono/V9dlXY9yNfI/AAAAAAAAAKo/AcKDGyAj-HoZEQHBXtThqCt98vqDUlaEACLcB/s320/Roswell-UFO-264508%255B1%255D.jpg" width="293" /></a></div>
Eric Ouellethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02630372990055395413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911986427253894754.post-6686362600298697782016-04-19T16:16:00.001-04:002016-04-19T16:17:20.212-04:00Interview with Barbara Adams on Radio Amerika Now<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-3949" src="http://radioamerikanow.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/AMERIKANOWBannerOFFICIAL20123-480x189.jpg" height="161" width="400" /></div>
<br />
<a href="http://radioamerikanow.com/?p=10240">http://radioamerikanow.com/?p=10240</a><br />
<br />Eric Ouellethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11290961231297852128noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911986427253894754.post-12051754194302363232016-04-09T08:38:00.000-04:002016-04-09T08:39:04.976-04:00New Interview with Seriah Azkath on Where Did the Road Go?<br />
<br />
<img alt="WDTRG2015" src="http://www.wheredidtheroadgo.com/images/Images/WDTRG2015.jpg" height="171" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.wheredidtheroadgo.com/show-archive/2016/item/274-eric-ouellet-on-illuminations-the-ufo-experience-as-a-parapsychological-event-april-2-2016">http://www.wheredidtheroadgo.com/show-archive/2016/item/274-eric-ouellet-on-illuminations-the-ufo-experience-as-a-parapsychological-event-april-2-2016</a>Eric Ouellethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02630372990055395413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911986427253894754.post-56398496083243787842016-02-12T18:39:00.002-05:002016-02-15T09:33:04.285-05:00Interview with Paraversal Universe<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7i5tSEo1o3U/Vr5szHHtvMI/AAAAAAAAAJU/eUWOIsMPbag/s1600/12647528_448106342061662_8014948167128982955_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7i5tSEo1o3U/Vr5szHHtvMI/AAAAAAAAAJU/eUWOIsMPbag/s320/12647528_448106342061662_8014948167128982955_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div class="_d97">
<span class="_5yl5"><span><a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fmixlr.com%2Fparanormal-king%2Fshowreel%2Fparaversal-universe-wparasociologist-eric-ouellet%2F&h=lAQHeZ3GRAQEQmHxnid632fDUwoF5xpggAb8uR8ZzKItQjQ" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://mixlr.com/paranormal-king/showreel/paraversal-universe-wparasociologist-eric-ouellet/</a></span></span></div>
</div>
Eric Ouellethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02630372990055395413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911986427253894754.post-3990707940787864552016-02-07T10:39:00.001-05:002016-02-07T10:42:06.845-05:00Interview with ParacastDear all,<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DEVfOer6sbg/Vrdk91_61HI/AAAAAAAAAJE/hNiFpDhS6Kc/s1600/paralogo200animation5.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DEVfOer6sbg/Vrdk91_61HI/AAAAAAAAAJE/hNiFpDhS6Kc/s1600/paralogo200animation5.gif" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
I gave another interview, this time with The Paracast. It is available at:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.theparacast.com/podcast/now-playing-february-7-2016-eric-ouelett/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc;">http://www.theparacast.com/<wbr></wbr></span>podcast/now-playing-february-<wbr></wbr>7-2016-eric-ouelett/</a><br />
<br />
<br />
And more to come soon. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Eric Ouellethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02630372990055395413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911986427253894754.post-80581797711365400432016-02-02T16:27:00.000-05:002016-02-02T16:27:15.514-05:00Could UFO sightings be considered as apparitions?
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Students of the paranormal have spent a lot of energy since
the 19<sup>th</sup> century trying to understand a phenomenon that came to be
known as “apparitions”. This words usually evokes images of the Spiritism séances
operating in semi-darkness led by a mysterious medium showing ectoplasmic
material moving on its own. A classic book on the topic, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Phenomena of Materialization</i>, by the Baron Von Schrenck Notzing published
in its English version in 1923, is still reprinted today. Similarly, the
various research conducted by the Society for Psychical Research on ghosts and
haunting were essentially focussed on apparitions. Once again, we can cite the
famous study <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Phantasms of the Living</i> by
Edmund Gurney, Frederic Myers, and Frank Podmore, published in 1886. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WgzfCiPxdKo/VrEcpbLZU2I/AAAAAAAAAIU/IcWy-XwgU9M/s1600/phantasmsoflivin00gurniala.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WgzfCiPxdKo/VrEcpbLZU2I/AAAAAAAAAIU/IcWy-XwgU9M/s1600/phantasmsoflivin00gurniala.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Of course, a number of observers have made a connection
between <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">some</i> of the UFO experience
and the literature on apparitions. Jacques Vallée in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Passport to Magonia</i>, published in 1969, established a number of
similarities between folkloric apparitions and UFO occupant reports. We can
also note that the so-called encounters of the fourth kind (alien abductions)
have also a lot in common with more classic apparitional experiences. The
famous parapsychologist Scott Rogo wrote <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">UFO
Abductions</i> in 1980, concluding along those lines. Taking an even wider
perspective, Hilary Evans published in 1984 <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vision,
Apparitions, Alien Visitors: A contemporary study of the entity enigma</i>,
where he shows that UFO occupants, ghosts, religious visions, etc., have also a
lot in common once the experience is analyzed outside the beliefs system that
surrounds each of them. Finally, Jenny Randles, in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mind Monsters</i> (1990), looking at a variety of odd and
unclassifiable stories proposed conclusions quite similar to Evans.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The real question here is whether <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">most</i> UFO events are not in the end apparitional experiences? The
Hynek typology of 1<sup>st</sup> to 3<sup>rd</sup> kind encounter, which has
been quite central to ufology, and the so-called extra-terrestrial hypothesis
(ETH) have created a mental construct where the concept of apparition only
applies when one sees the UFO “driver”. But this need not to be.</div>
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<o:p></o:p> </div>
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The first mental hurdle to deal with is that one does not
need to have a non-human entity to see an apparition. Stories of ghost ships,
which are normally considered as apparitions, have been around for a long time,
and do not necessarily involve any ghost sailors. Ghost airships, and ghost
planes were often considered as apparitions, even if no “driver” was seen. More
recently, stories of ghost cars without a driver have been part of modern
folklore. In effect, an apparition is simply sensing something external that
has no known explanations to the witness; it is an anomaly.<o:p></o:p><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3fdMlL_mqO0/VrEdsuyWNVI/AAAAAAAAAIk/-G8OFJ8T2mY/s1600/Tall_Ship_VOC_Batavia_-_Ghost_Ship.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3fdMlL_mqO0/VrEdsuyWNVI/AAAAAAAAAIk/-G8OFJ8T2mY/s320/Tall_Ship_VOC_Batavia_-_Ghost_Ship.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The second mental hurdle is linked to the notion of
hallucination. If someone sees an apparition and there is no physical object
actually present, then one is considered as not mentally well, and hence the
experience is declared irrelevant. The fact that there would be no actual
physical object does not mean that the person is mentally ill. In fact, the vast
majority of apparitional reports (of all kinds) are coming from mentally fit
individuals. The lack of physical object does not preclude the possibility that
there might be an external input. An apparition might be considered
as information (oftentimes visual, but not always) acquired through non-normal
means, which is the actual definition of Extra-Sensory Perception (ESP). The
role of telepathic hallucinations in ghost and haunting experiences has been
suspected for a long time by those who seriously studied such phenomena. Logically,
there is no reason why UFO events would not be apparitions as well.<o:p></o:p></div>
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For instance, I was appraised of a very recent case in
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada where two groups of people in two separate
automobiles made separate UFO reports without being aware of what happen to the
other group. They were waiting for a light change at a busy intersection in
broad daylight and saw a strange object not far in the horizon, very visible.
We have multiple witnesses in two different and unconnected groups. Yet, in
spite of the fact that the object was perceived as being quite close, no one
else at that busy intersection saw it (otherwise it would have been in the news!).
This event has a lot in common with ghost and haunting experiences where not
all the witness saw something in spite of looking in the same direction. Like a
ghostly apparition it appeared and disappeared suddenly, it left no traces (no
reports of anomaly from the nearby international airport). And interestingly,
in the traditional ghost literature, road intersections were “hot spots” for
ghost sightings. Given the structural similarities of this UFO experience and
ghost haunting, there is no good reason not to consider it an apparition. In
other words, once one removes the ETH mental blinders, then a different picture
emerges.<o:p></o:p></div>
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So, it is possible to construe UFO events, without the presence
of non-human entities, as apparitional experiences. Whether the witnesses
shared telepathically an input coming from somewhere else is difficult to say. But
it is still an anomaly worth investigating, as long as one does not search in
vain for the “UFO drivers”. Another line of inquiry is that if the apparitional
information has been received through ESP, then it is likely to have a symbolic
content that might make sense, but only much later on. This indeed requires a
different approach to UFO investigation, as it is about what the witnesses
may have in common rather than focussing on an “object” that was likely not
there. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Eric Ouellethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02630372990055395413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911986427253894754.post-16859340154043087842016-01-06T10:37:00.000-05:002016-01-06T10:37:18.506-05:00The Physical Reality of UFOs: How to think about it differently
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Dear all,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">First, please let me
take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy and Prosperous New Year.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">It came to my
attention that Bill Chalker in his blog <a href="http://theozfiles.blogspot.com.au/2015/12/a-feast-of-ufo-books-for-serious.html" target="_blank">Theozfiles</a> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>proposed a short review of my book<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Illuminations</i>. In his review, he states
that “Dr. Ouellet argues there is no compelling physical evidence for UFOs”.</span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">It is actually
incorrect, but I also think this assessment is based mostly on a misunderstanding
about the physical reality of UFOs. So, I will address this issue more directly
here.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">In the book, I do a
tour of the knowledge that is available about the physical aspects of UFOs. The
key word here is “knowledge”; I am not proposing a tour of the physical “evidence”
considered as being linked to UFOs. This is an important distinction. I wanted
to get the readers up to speed with what we know (and I underlined that our
knowledge is still quite limited at this point in time). I was not proposing a
perspective based on where we are at with the speculations linked to the
physical reality of UFOs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yeTTcQQaYpk/Vo0zgCua13I/AAAAAAAAAHU/U0TG_6nFGz0/s1600/HardUFO.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yeTTcQQaYpk/Vo0zgCua13I/AAAAAAAAAHU/U0TG_6nFGz0/s320/HardUFO.jpg" width="320" /></a></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">That being said, if
there is some knowledge about the physical reality of UFOs, then by definition there
is a degree of physical reality to UFOs! As well, the book presents a number of
case studies where some physical evidence are presented, and accepted as
evidence. What more is needed to say that there are physical evidence linked to
UFOs? But maybe this was too implicit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">I realize that when
anyone is discussing UFOs, this very very word “UFO” implies dealing with a “foreign
object”. The “O” (for object) in UFO is definitely setting the tone, and this
is why some are preferring the wording “Unexplained Aerial Phenomena” (UAP), as
it is actually less “loaded” because it does not imply necessarily an object
being present. Then, of course, decades of ETH nuts-and-bolts ufology has not
only set the tone but created an unconscious association between “UFO” and “spaceship”
(a hard physical object). In other words, the concept of UFO comes with a lot
of cognitive baggage, which railroads the way we think about it. We seriously need
to break away from such cognitive mold, if we really want to enlarge our understanding
of UFOs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">To do so, we need to
use different mental categories. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Hynek proposed a
useful typology, when it was developed decades ago, covering “Night Lights”, “Day
Discs”, “Radar Tracking”, and the “Close Encounters” of the type 1, 2, and 3.
Implicit in his typology was, once again, “how close the witness was from the
object”. The nuts-and-bolts perspective is actually built-in the typology.
Although he added the issue of degree of “strangeness,” it appears to be in the
end only a measure of the witnesses’ degree of altered state of consciousness. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">So, what would look
like a different UFO typology consistent with the parapsychological hypothesis?
<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">First, what needs to
be measured from a parapsychological perspective is <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">not</b> how close you are, but <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">how
anomalistic</b> the event is. This, in turn, would provide a useful tool to
assess how rare and unique an event might be, and therefore helping to guide
the search for data (and that’s actually the purpose of any typology).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Based on what is
emerging from general research in parapsychology, it seems that the most common
form of psi events are synchronicities (meaningful coincidences), then comes
various forms of Extra Sensory Perceptions (ESP) (telepathy, premonition,
clairvoyance, etc.), and finally, more rare are various forms of Psychokinesis
(PK) (telekinesis, healings, teleportation, etc.). Hence, a sound typology
would be going from common synchronicity to ESP to PK events. So, here is what
I propose, and how the physical aspects of UFO events would fit in. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Synchronicity:<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">S1. UFO-related Synchronicity</span></b><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">. For example, a perfectly mundane airplane or
helicopter could be mistook for a UFO. Yet, two or more separated observers
made the same mistake, reporting a UFO with similar descriptions that would not
fit the actual “real” object in the sky. In this case, it seems that we would be
dealing with a case of synchronicity, misunderstood by both debunkers and
ETHers as a random coincidence, and an illusion, respectively. There might have
been an optical illusion involved, and yet there might have been a meaningful
coincidence involved too. In such a case, it is by interviewing the witnesses
about other things going in their life and surrounding (e.g. both witnesses
dreaming of UFOs beforehand, bumping by accident into the other witness, etc.)
that one can identify if there is indeed a synchronicity. It was what Jung had,
mostly, in mind when discussing UFOs in his famous book <em><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Flying
Saucers: A modern myth of things seen in the skies</span></em><em><span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">. </span></em><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DNbwmsdgvow/Vo00BlgTKfI/AAAAAAAAAHs/D2M9J76uMyc/s1600/Jung_Synchronicity.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DNbwmsdgvow/Vo00BlgTKfI/AAAAAAAAAHs/D2M9J76uMyc/s320/Jung_Synchronicity.jpg" width="277" /></a></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Extra Sensory Perception (ESP):<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">E2. Shared telepathic hallucination</span></b><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">, where there are no object per se in the sky,
but two or more witnesses see the same “hallucination”, implying some form of
telepathy involved. Berthold Schwartz in <em><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">UFO Dynamics: Psychiatric and
psychic aspects of the UFO syndrome</span></em> gave interesting examples of
such psi-induced shared hallucinations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">E3. Altered states of consciousness and
visionary experience</span></b><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">, possibly
in the context of a shared event with other people or involving some form of
ESP experience such as telepathy, premonition, clairvoyance, etc. In such
situation, there might be a mundane flying object that gets “mixed up” in the
witness’ consciousness. Jenny Randles’ concept of “Oz Factor” covers many of
such cases. Some abduction experiences might also be explained in such a way
(see Brian Thompson. (1994). “Telepathy: possible telepathic spread of UFO
abduction stories”. Paper presented at <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Alien
Discussions: Abduction Study Conference Held at M. I. T</i>. Harvard University).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jP923eYcAgo/Vo00Mb0urUI/AAAAAAAAAH0/XwKyKXXXM1A/s1600/telepathy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="286" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jP923eYcAgo/Vo00Mb0urUI/AAAAAAAAAH0/XwKyKXXXM1A/s320/telepathy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">E4. Altered states of consciousness and
visionary experience reinforced by a source of electromagnetism</span></b><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">, such as an earthlight or ball of plasma. In
such a case, there is something physical in the sky or nearby on the ground,
even if it is of a short-live duration, involving some form of ESP experience
such as telepathy, premonition, clairvoyance, etc. The Betty and Barney Hill
story may possibly be explained in part in that way, as noted in my book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Illuminations</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></div>
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Psychokinesis (PK):<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">P5. Witnessing an exotic natural phenomena
involving a possible psychokinetic event</span></b><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">. Paul Devereux’s personal “encounter” with an earthlight that seemed moving
as he was thinking about the object, may be a possible example of such a case,
as discussed in his book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Earthlights</i>.
Pierre Viéroudy’s experiment to create a UFO would be in the same category of
experience, as reported in his book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ces
OVNIs qui annoncent la venue du surhomme</i>. Similarly, the mysterious healing
of Dr. X. reported by Jacques Vallée, might be another example of psychokinetic
effect. In all those cases, the “physical object” was perceived as a ball of
light of some kind. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KgLFQMP4r_A/Vo00V4usF2I/AAAAAAAAAH8/nCtHgTiP1DI/s1600/Poltergeist-Therese_Selles.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KgLFQMP4r_A/Vo00V4usF2I/AAAAAAAAAH8/nCtHgTiP1DI/s320/Poltergeist-Therese_Selles.jpg" width="232" /></a></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">P6.</span></b><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"> A much less frequent anomaly would be one involving the psychokinetic
movement of an object, or even an <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">apport
or teleportation</b> of a physical object behaving like a UFO in the sky or on
the ground. These events are very much comparable to some of the most intense
poltergeists (or RSPKs), but occurring higher in the sky. Such object could be
some form of plasma, but it could be made of other things too. Scott Rogo in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Haunted Universe</i> reported a number
of UFO cases that seem to fit this category, including a bunch of planks and
other knick-knacks collated out of nowhere to take the shape of a UFO on the
ground (again, similar to a bunch of towels and bedsheets taking the shape of a
person during a poltergeist event). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">It is important to
note that these various elements of intensity are not mutually exclusive. For
instance, a visionary experience involving a source of electromagnetism could
also be involving psychokinetic healing, like in the story of Dr. X. As well,
there is no need for a “crescendo” of intensity. UFO experiences can start at
the rarest end P6 without “passing through” any other previous stages. And
again, this scale is mostly useful in evaluating what would be the rarest form
of psi involved in a particular UFO experience. The point here is that the social
and psychological intensity required to produce a synchronicity is considered
as being less than one causing a psychokinetic effect. Hence, in investigating
a case we have a predictive tool to look for data.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-km2otHLKIoA/Vo00jKVYLmI/AAAAAAAAAIE/ROEQeisrWtw/s1600/trace-3013_640.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-km2otHLKIoA/Vo00jKVYLmI/AAAAAAAAAIE/ROEQeisrWtw/s320/trace-3013_640.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">The issue of physical traces, such as burning on
the ground, matter brought from somewhere else, and radar tracking can be now be
put in their proper perspective. Burning on the ground are likely to be caused
by some form of plasma. Marks on the ground (as noted in some poltergeists
event) can be a matter of psychokinesis. Matter from somewhere else can be
either brought by a plasma ball or earthlight or a matter of psychokinesis.
Radar tracking can be a matter of psychokinesis interfering with electronic
equipment, some form of flying plasma, or psychokinesis of an object. Hence, I
do not say there is no compelling physical evidence. What I am saying is that
physical evidence are important (and do exist), but they are not of a primary importance;
they are side effects of more crucial social and psychological psi-related
dynamic</span></div>
</div>
Eric Ouellethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02630372990055395413noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911986427253894754.post-8342038558360551532015-12-03T19:05:00.000-05:002015-12-03T19:08:29.358-05:00What is wrong with the Psycho-Social Hypothesis in ufology? <br />
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">One of the schools of
thought in ufology is described as the so-called “psychosocial hypothesis”
(PSH). It is a loose group of writers, mostly centered on the <a href="http://pelicanist.blogspot.ca/" target="_blank">Magonia magazine</a>. Some of its authors are better known in
ufological circles, such as David Clark, Hilary Evans and Peter Rogerson.
Although there are some variations in their opinions, and their central point
of contention has evolved over time, they are today in agreement to say that
essentially <em><u>ALL</u></em> UFO events are of a mundane nature. Yet, contrary to their less
sophisticated debunking brethren, they also consider that psychological and
sociological factors are important in the understanding the overall UFO
phenomenon. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span><br />
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5GHcJnHun-E/UwAXf_yMCTI/AAAAAAAABSM/8rEewwOe_cY/s1600/flying_machines_exhibit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5GHcJnHun-E/UwAXf_yMCTI/AAAAAAAABSM/8rEewwOe_cY/s1600/flying_machines_exhibit.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
<br /></div>
<br />
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">The focus
of their writings is on UFOs, so they are to be considered as ufologists,
even if they do not see anything unusual in the phenomenon. To their merit,
they highlighted a number of important, yet very problematic, points regarding
UFOs. Some of their keys points can be summarized as follow:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">UFO events
are described by witnesses using descriptions that are “fashionable,” and such descriptions
will change as fashion changes. For instance, in the 1950s aliens were described
as coming from Venus or Mars. By the 1960s, we knew that Venus and Mars were
lifeless, and the UFO reports of aliens from Venus or Mars disappeared. The
grey aliens only became a common description after the story of Betty and
Barney Hill became famous, especially after the diffusion of a telefilm on the
topic in the early 1970s.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">UFO events
tend to describe machines that are meaningful to a specific era: airships in
early 20<sup>th</sup> century, ghost planes and rockets in mid-20<sup>th</sup>
century, triangles in the age of stealth bombers, etc.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">UFO
reports tend to follow ufological reporting frenzies created by ufologists in the mass
media. The wave of 1947 launched the ball for flying saucers reports until the
humanoids reporting wave started in the 1960s. Then, it became quieter until
the 1973 wave, followed by quiet times until the Roswell hysteria unfolded. The
abduction phenomenon started to peak after several key books on the topic were
published in the 1980s, etc. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">In a
number of well-known sightings events, further investigations have shown that a
common description of events emerged after the fact and “fitting” a more
socially conducive story line, either through the influence of a particular
witness (think here how Betty Hill had an influence over Barney in interpreting
their experience), or by the wishful thinking of a ufologist (think here of
Budd Hopkins and the story of the UN Secretary-General allegedly witnessing an
alien abduction). </span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://idata.over-blog.com/3/31/58/72//santa-ufo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://idata.over-blog.com/3/31/58/72//santa-ufo.jpg" height="320" width="229" /></a><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
</div>
<br />
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">These issues are
well-documented and they indeed point towards the UFO phenomenon in general being an expression of larger social phenomena. The ETH ufologists have not
provided any meaningful answers to these issues, and given their simplistic and
fundamentally materialist approach I doubt they will ever come up with
any substantive answers to the issues raised by the PSH.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">The real problem with
the PSH is not about the critique and questioning they have put
forward, it is about what they imply. Out of their critique of ETH ufology,
there is an implicit idea that if the UFO phenomenon is embedded in social
phenomena, then by definition there is nothing possibly anomalistic about UFOs.
This implicit idea is actually a logical fallacy, and it can only be held if
one does not understand key sociological phenomena. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">PSH writers rarely use proper sociological terminology, and if they do
they never fully embrace its implications. Many of their critiques are
pointing out what should have been described as the social
construction of reality, for which the key authors are <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/The-Social-Construction-Reality-Sociology/dp/0385058985" target="_blank">Berger and Luckmann</a>. This is a central concept in sociology that explains why any social structures
or dynamics are essentially based on an implicit socially shared consensus. This
is true for any social forms. For example, when people talk about “science”, it is a
social construct defining the reality of "science", about what constitutes “science”
and what it does not. In the Anglosphere, “science” means natural sciences and
engineering. Yet, in different cultures like in continental Europe (Germany,
France and Italy), “science” is defined as "organized knowledge" and covers both
natural and human sciences. The consensus will vary from one culture to the
next. Hence, what is science and what it is not is a social construction that determines where its reality starts and ends. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<a href="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/f5/61/09/f561093f3359ce4c70e18d88aeb82337.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="284" src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/f5/61/09/f561093f3359ce4c70e18d88aeb82337.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
<br />
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Does this mean that
because something is socially constructed then there is nothing to it? No, of
course not. It only means that how something is defined is based on social
conventions. So, no one should be surprised if the notion of UFO is defined based on
social conventions too, like anything else. To that effect, American ufologists
tend to describe UFOs in very reductive ETH terms, whereas their European
counterparts tend to describe UFOs with much more open terminology. Hence, UFO
sightings tend to be described according to prevalent conventions, which will change
over time, but it is actually quite normal. People use words that are available to
them at a specific time. So, yes, UFOs are socially constructed; and that's no big deal!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">The second problem
with the PSH’s lack of sociological terminology is that they refer essentially
only to what sociologists called “dominant narrative”, also known as “meta-narrative”
or “grand narrative”. There are many key authors in sociology studying this
phenomenon, but they tend to owe a lot to the ideas of the Germany philosopher
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Theory-Communicative-Action-Volume-Rationalization/dp/0807015075" target="_blank">Jurgen Habermas</a>.</span></div>
<br />
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">A dominant narrative
is essentially a particular way of looking at reality which becomes the
dominant view, even if facts are not always matching. More importantly, such
dominant views are maintained and reinforced by those who benefit the most from
such perspective. A classic dominant narrative is in the realm of medicine
where only members of the medical profession (namely Medical Doctors) can speak
about health issues. Over the years, abuses by medical doctors, narrow-mindedness in refusing to consider innovative treatments, refusal to accept the
effectiveness of alternate medicine, and refusal to acknowledge patients’
rights in selecting their own treatment have all contributed to erode the
dominant narrative that “doctors know best”. But in the end, it still remains
the dominant narrative. Members of the medical profession have resisted and
protected this narrative because, obviously, their social power and monopoly
over health treatments depend on it. Dominant narratives exists in all spheres
of life, be it about science, religion, politics and governance, in defining
terrorism, etc.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://richardnilsendotcom1.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/cartoon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="321" src="https://richardnilsendotcom1.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/cartoon.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
<br />
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Are there dominant narratives
in ufology? Of course there are, like any in other sphere of life! The main dominant
narrative is essentially the one maintained by ETH ufologists, who have a
vested interest in making sure that it is the only one perceived as valid, because
their social reputation, and sometimes livelihood, depend on it. And yet, like
any dominant narrative, the facts do not fully match. If one takes the time to look
at actual UFO reports, the variety of experiences is quite astonishing, and
oftentimes do not match at all what ETH ufologists are portraying. Hence, the
PSH writers are correct in identifying “fashions” and “coloring” of UFO events
due to the actions of ufologists and the mass media. But they are only showing the
normal dynamics that dominant narratives create when one looks only at the mass
media representations of the UFO phenomenon. The “suppressed narratives”
(i.e. the reports that are not fitting the ETH, which rarely surfacing in the public realm) provide a much more complex and diversified perspective. Again, the existence
of a dominant narrative in ufology is in no way a proof that there is nothing anomalistic
to the overall phenomenon, because it is only about how things are represented
by a few influential voices. It is also interesting to note that many PSH writers put
the caveat that they are not interested in analyzing individual cases, but just
in the “big picture”. Now you know why. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">A third problem with
the PSH is the idea that particular images may shape actual sightings, for
those who venture in explaining individual cases. In such situation, one will typically
read from a PSH article that images from an obscure sci-fi magazine or B series
movie are the original images that was reported by the witnesses, speculating
that the witnesses must have seen such images before, yet without feeling the
need to prove such assertion. Here there is an implied notion that socially
shared images may have a specific psychological and cognitive effect on specific
UFO witnesses. Once again, key conceptual terminology is absent in their
analyses. In this case, however, it is much more problematic. The linkages
between sociological phenomena and psychological ones are yet to be done; establishing
a real bridge between sociology and psychology remains to this day an
incomplete task. How could the PSH proposes such explanations while the key
disciplines involved can’t! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Ti9vSHmiFHQ/hqdefault.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Ti9vSHmiFHQ/hqdefault.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
<br />
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Authors in cultural
studies, like the psychoanalyst <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Plague-Fantasies-Essential-Zizek/dp/1844673030/ref=sr_1_12?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1449176928&sr=1-12&keywords=slavoj+zizek" target="_blank">Slavoj Zizek</a>,
have proposed a number of ideas to bridge the two, but they all remain
speculative and unsatisfying. Before him, sociologists like <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Art-Being-Erich-Fromm-ebook/dp/B00BBPWAH4/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1449177146&sr=1-7&keywords=erich+fromm" target="_blank">Erich Fromm</a>
produced similar unsatisfying results. Social psychology has been very
effective in studying small group interactions, but very much unable to explain
in a detailed way how larger social dynamics connect with individual psyche.
Here is an <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/aug/27/study-delivers-bleak-verdict-on-validity-of-psychology-experiment-results" target="_blank">interesting article</a>
for non-specialist on this topic. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Binding_Annual_Review_of_Sociology.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Binding_Annual_Review_of_Sociology.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
<br />
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">In my opinion, there
might be one school of thought that can provide some ways to establish a partial
bridge between the two disciplines, it is <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Social-Representations-Essays-Psychology/dp/0814756301/ref=sr_1_21?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1449177652&sr=1-21&keywords=serge+moscovici" target="_blank">Serge Moscovici’s</a> “theory of social
representation”.
Moscovici, and those who followed his lead, studied how ideas and images become
prevalent in the popular culture of a society. His first research was on how
ideas and notions from psychoanalysis became part of the popular culture in France and
used by ordinary people. Notions such as Freudian slip of the tongue,
projection, neurotic behavior, Oedipus complex, etc., are part of the specialized
terminology of psychoanalysis which eventually became part of the common
language, oftentimes with a meaning significantly distinct from its original
psychoanalytic roots. What is key in his research is that for something to become
part of popular culture and where individuals start using such ideas or images,
there is a need for key people to actively promote such ideas and images, i.e., what
Moscovici calls the agents (usually through the mass media). As well, there is
a two-step process where such ideas and images are at first anchored in the
collective psyche and then objectified (or institutionalized). This is not a
random process. The presence of the very widespread images related to flying saucers and gray aliens can
definitely be explained through the theory of social representations. But when
it comes to pick arbitrarily an image from an obscure sci-fi comic book to
explain a particular UFO sighting, there is nothing in psychology, social
psychology or sociology to support that. In the end, the PSH is doing exactly what it accuses everybody else of doing about UFOs: explaining a
mystery by another mystery.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
Eric Ouellethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02630372990055395413noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911986427253894754.post-91143914542312713432015-11-22T14:19:00.000-05:002015-11-23T17:55:39.442-05:00Elusive nature of paranormal phenomena - Follow up with interview at BoA<br />
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">During the interview I
gave to Tim Binnall on <a href="http://www.binnallofamerica.com/" target="_blank">Binnall of America</a>, an
important question emerged, but we did not have enough time to explore it in
full. It is the notion that the more there are control measures to observe
possible psi effects, the less likely it is to be observed. This may appear as
a paradox at first, and a convenient excuse from the sceptic point of view.
However, there are good reasons for it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-s2pWUKEJD54/VlIRZufJmSI/AAAAAAAAAOI/-rONMAWwfiA/s1600/Blurry.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-s2pWUKEJD54/VlIRZufJmSI/AAAAAAAAAOI/-rONMAWwfiA/s1600/Blurry.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">This notion is not
just a philosophical point. It is rooted in empirical observations of
spontaneous anomalies. For instance, anyone familiar with “ghost hunting” has
experienced or heard about a strange phenomenon occurring only when the equipment
has been packed up, or when the camera is not working, or the battery is dead,
or it is at the wrong angle, etc. Similarly, camera dysfunctions have plagued
the “UFO hunting” history, and even if it works it produces only vague lights, quite
different from what people saw. The Belgian UFO wave discussed in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Illuminations</i> provides specific examples
of this. Jet fighter radars oftentimes loose the “object” as soon as it can do
a lock-on. Both the Belgian and Washington D.C. UFO waves, also discussed in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Illuminations</i>, provide well-documented
examples of this “elusiveness”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Most parapsychologists
who studied psi in a laboratory setting came to similar conclusions about
micro-psi effects. In fact, this notion of evasiveness is one of the key
characteristics of psi, supported by a wide consensus among parapsychologists. Already
in the early 20th century, the philosopher and psychologist William James was
also baffled by the elusiveness of psi. He wrote in 1909: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">“For twenty-five years
I have been in touch with the literature on psychical research, and have had
acquaintance with numerous “researchers.” I have also spent a good many hours
in witnessing . . . phenomena. Yet I am theoretically no “further” than I was
at the beginning; and I . . . have been tempted to believe that the Creator has
eternally intended this department to remain baffling, to prompt our hopes and
suspicions all in equal measure, so that, although ghosts and clairvoyances,
and raps and messages from spirits, are always seeming to exist and can never be
fully explained away, they also can never be susceptible to full
corroboration.” (James, 1960, p. 310). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UxsQ0EfPH0I/VlIRmUySpvI/AAAAAAAAAOM/giBEi3v8p-Y/s1600/William_James_b1842c%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UxsQ0EfPH0I/VlIRmUySpvI/AAAAAAAAAOM/giBEi3v8p-Y/s320/William_James_b1842c%255B1%255D.jpg" width="247" /></a></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Since then, many others
added their voice to such observation about psi phenomena. Prominent
papapsychologists already noted on this blog like Batcheldor, Beloff, Braud,
Eisenbud, Hansen, von Lucadou, and White came over the years to very similar
conclusions (Kennedy, 2003, 54). The key question is why it is so. There are no
definite answer, but there are a few key hypotheses.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">The first to
propose a hypothesis, without a surprise, was the founder of scientific
parapsychology, Joseph Banks Rhine. He noted in 1946 that psi phenomena seem to
be caused by mental processes that are deeply hidden in the unconscious part of
the human mind (Rhine, 1946). The unconscious mind is not only very hard to
access (hence the challenges of clinical psychology in helping people), but it
is also something in a constant state of flux with feelings, symbolisms and
ideas brewing. Most parapsychologists today would agree that the unconscious
part of the mind plays a central role in psi phenomena, but Rhine’s explanation
about the elusiveness, in the end, is not helping much. A number of other
parapsychologists tried to find other psychological variables to explain why
psi is so elusive. Among other variables proposed to explain the situation
are: the fear of psi (only happening when the conscious mind is not in charge),
losing feelings of spontaneity during lab testing (and thus showing up again
only when spontaneity is back), and the loss of confidence and /or belief in
producing psi when there are “pressures” to perform (and thus only happening
when pressure is off). These various psychological variables are certainly
playing a role in one way or another, but it seems that they play only a
partial role.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4OZC66f1QUs/VlIRyBEZmGI/AAAAAAAAAOU/s945BSDCAxs/s1600/Rhine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4OZC66f1QUs/VlIRyBEZmGI/AAAAAAAAAOU/s945BSDCAxs/s1600/Rhine.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Other
parapsychologists like George Hansen considers that psi is something dynamic
and it is the resultant of a combination of pressures, where psi will only be
observable if people find themselves in an “in-between” zone, what he called
“liminality”. Psi seems to be stuck between pressures to be used as normal
human expression and the immense pressures against any form of psi, coming from
our socialization about what is normal and society in general, but also from representatives
of established religions and various economic and political institutions, and
of course by the “police of thought and speech” found in the pseudo-sceptics and
debunkers of various kinds. In a way, it is as if there are also powerful
anti-psi fields around us, and it is only in rare occasions where the pro-psi field
energy is strong enough to be observable, and only for a short time. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">In this vein, Kennedy
notes that “Bierman (2001) suggested that the number of people becoming aware
of and potentially influencing psi experiments increases as experiments are
repeated. Presumably, the background opposition to psi has an increasing role
with replication, while the motivation and novelty for the experimenters may
decline. The evidence that psi effects abruptly drop after meta-analyses
(Houtkooper, 1994, 2002) is particularly relevant” and that “If these ideas are
correct, the optimum conditions for psi results would be for one person or a
few people with psi ability to carry out self-tests with the firm constraint
that no one else will ever learn of any positive outcomes. This is consistent
with the strategy “go and tell no one” recommended by some proponents of psi
(e.g., Sinetar, 2000)” (2003, 66).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SMId3J_T7b8/VlIR6ByamlI/AAAAAAAAAOY/fJkWFkFxE7k/s1600/Trickster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SMId3J_T7b8/VlIR6ByamlI/AAAAAAAAAOY/fJkWFkFxE7k/s320/Trickster.jpg" width="208" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Finally, and as
discussed in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Illuminations</i>, others
like von Lucadou proposed that psi is something akin to quantum fields, where
the very fact that human consciousness is assessing if something exists in a
field makes it definite (there are no more in a state of statistical flux). It
is known as collapsing a quantum field by measurement. Psi is something that
can only happen if the various systems at play, especially the mind of the
people involved, are in a state of non-determinacy. As soon as they look carefully
for psi, their quantum-like psi field collapses, and there are no more effect
possible. For an accessible and detailed discussion of this idea, I suggest
Chris Carter’s recent book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Science and
Psychic Phenomena</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1CgQQ44-bro/VlISArsynsI/AAAAAAAAAOc/yH5Jr98bpzk/s1600/quantum.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1CgQQ44-bro/VlISArsynsI/AAAAAAAAAOc/yH5Jr98bpzk/s200/quantum.png" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">These various
explanations are in many ways complementary to each other. The flux of the unconscious
mind, the omnipresent anti-psi pressures, and the collapse of quantum-like fields
can accommodate each other into a wider explanation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">When one think of the UFO
phenomenon, having in view the general elusiveness of the phenomenon, the OZ
factor (common altered state of consciousness among experiencers), the active
but unconscious role of the ETH ufologists in keeping the topic firmly within
the realm of the ridicule and in a near hysterical conspiratorial neurosis, and
the unavailability of producing convincing physical evidence, in spite of
having very credible experiencers, the parallel with the challenges regarding the
elusiveness of psi in parapsychology is striking. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">References<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">James, W. (1960). The
final impressions of a psychical researcher. In G. Murphy & R. D. Ballou
(Eds.), William James on psychical research (pp. 309–325). New York: Viking.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Kennedy,
J.E.</span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"> (2003). “The capricious,
actively evasive, unsustainable nature of psi: A summary and hypotheses”. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Journal of Parapsychology</i> 67: 53–74. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Rhine, J. B. (1946).
The source of difficulties in parapsychology. <i>Journal of Parapsychology</i> <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">10</span>: 162–168.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Eric Ouellethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11290961231297852128noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911986427253894754.post-476013271115496792015-10-27T22:00:00.000-04:002015-10-27T22:06:00.814-04:00Illuminations: Book “reviews”<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">There are, so far, two published
“reviews” on my book Illuminations, one in the <em>Magonia</em> blog by Peter Rogerson,
and another one in the <em>Fortean Times</em> by Jerome Clark. I put the word “review”
in quotation marks because they are not really book reviews. They are rather
what I would consider “denunciations” of someone thinking differently than
them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">The key argument of my
book is about presenting a hypothesis, based on parapsychology, to propose an
explanation about some, but not necessarily all, UFO events. As well, faithful
to the notion of hypothesis I do not claim having the “Truth”. It seems pretty clear
that the notion of “hypothesis” has escaped these two reviewers, because in the
end their “reviews” were simply promoting their <u>beliefs</u> that either the
psycho-social hypothesis (PSH) can explain (implicitly ALL) UFO sightings,
or the extra-terrestrial hypothesis (ETH) is (also implicitly) the only valid
explanation for ALL truly unexplained UFO sightings. In the end, they
are both proving by their very own writing what I wrote in my Introduction: when
it comes to UFOs people are stuck between the “nil hypothesis” (in its more
sophisticated version through the PSH) and the ETH. This doctrinarian situation
is at the very core of the UFO studies problem. The letter “H” for “Hypothesis”
in “PSH” and in “ETH” is absolutely not deserved. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">It is fascinating to
read people making grandiloquent claims about the superior scientific value of
the PSH, while none of their writings quote the sociological literature or used
accepted operational models from sociology and psychology. For instance, highly
relevant approaches like Berger and Luckmann’s social construction of reality, Serge
Moscovici’s social psychology of social representation, or Maurice Halbwachs’ notions
of collective memory, or even Durkheim’s concepts of collective consciousness,
are not even mentioned in their “analysis”, let alone actually used in a
scientific way. Why? Because sociologists know the limits of their science, and
therefore the PSHers would have to admit the same…a believer can’t admit having
his “truth” limited.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">For the ETH, and the
focus on the physical traces (CE-2) mentioned many times by Clark, I can only
say that the greatest expert of CE-2, Ted Philips, is now agreeing that the UFO
phenomenon is at its core a paranormal event. What more could one say about
analyzing CE-2 evidence?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Finally, both Rogerson
and Clark wrote about my approach being a rehashing of the 1970s. First, I have
been clear in my book that I picked up where it was left off, because not much
of worth has been produced (with the exception of people like Vallée, Randles
and a few others who persevered) since the collective delirium caused by the
Roswell / Majestic-12 non sense. Indeed, that period was a lot ado about
nothing. I integrate a number of new ideas and concepts that did not exist in
the 1970s. Science is not about fashion, it is about research and incremental
improvement. The PSH and especially the ETH have been going nowhere for a long
time now, so it is time to resume doing serious research, based on hypotheses. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Eric Ouellethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11290961231297852128noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911986427253894754.post-58357428385532280932015-09-28T11:06:00.000-04:002015-09-28T11:06:31.523-04:00Interview on Coast to Coast with George KnappI did another interview about the book, this time on <a href="http://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2015/09/27" target="_blank">Coast to Coast</a> with George Knapp, in the early hours of today. I also answered a few questions from listeners calling in. I hope you will find the podcast interesting, if you missed it on live radio.<br />
<br />
Eric Ouellethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02630372990055395413noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911986427253894754.post-46847236797579925392015-09-12T09:49:00.002-04:002015-09-12T09:51:02.840-04:00Interview at Binnal of America<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Dear all,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">I gave recently an
interview about the book to Tim Binnal, who has a very interesting website on the paranormal called <a href="http://www.binnallofamerica.com/2015/09/11/eric-ouellet-boaaudio/" target="_blank">Binnal of America</a>, where one can find many podcasts with various authors and
researchers, as well as links with forward thinking writers on the topic. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">The interview can be listened as podcast and it gives more details about ideas that are built-in the book. I hope you will find
it interesting and enjoyable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Best,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Eric<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Eric Ouellethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11290961231297852128noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911986427253894754.post-48899693426799218832015-08-23T13:19:00.001-04:002015-08-25T07:59:37.211-04:00FINALLY...the book is now availableDeal all,<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Thank you for your great patience. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
My book is now available and it can be ordered from <a href="http://astore.amazon.com/theparapsasso-20/detail/193839853X" target="_blank">Amazon USA</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/ILLUMINATIONS-UFO-Experience-Parapsychological-Event/dp/193839853X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1440349725&sr=8-1&keywords=ouellet+ufo" target="_blank">Amazon UK</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Illuminations-UFO-Experience-Parapsychological-Event/dp/193839853X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1440432219&sr=8-2&keywords=ouellet+ufo" target="_blank">Amazon Canada</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.fr/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?__mk_fr_FR=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&url=search-alias%3Denglish-books&field-keywords=ouellet+illuminations">Amazon France</a>, <a href="https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/books/detail/-/art/eric-ouellet-illuminations/hnum/8313619">JPC in Germany</a> and directly from <a href="http://www.anomalistbooks.com/book.cfm?id=82" target="_blank">Anomalist Books</a>.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
I hope you will enjoy the reading, and please feel free to provide me with your comments and thoughts.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Best Regards,<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Eric<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RcmcPnQlA-w/VdoAnWZiKHI/AAAAAAAAANE/VkjqvaVxAMk/s1600/cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="305" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RcmcPnQlA-w/VdoAnWZiKHI/AAAAAAAAANE/VkjqvaVxAMk/s400/cover.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />Eric Ouellethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11290961231297852128noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911986427253894754.post-48760490229260477382015-01-05T14:56:00.002-05:002015-01-05T14:56:38.515-05:00Upcoming Book - UpdateDear all,<br />
<br />
I signed a contract with Anomalist Books for a book entitled: <br />
<br />
<strong><em>Illuminations</em></strong>: <strong><em>The UFO Experience as a Parapsychological Event </em></strong><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.anomalistbooks.com/comingsoon.cfm">http://www.anomalistbooks.com/comingsoon.cfm</a><br />
<br />
<br />
It will be available in a few months.<br />
<br />
More to follow...<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-13qAkSsMbM4/VKrsVMz2jAI/AAAAAAAAAKQ/9P55J_KfE-s/s1600/ink-295318_1280.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-13qAkSsMbM4/VKrsVMz2jAI/AAAAAAAAAKQ/9P55J_KfE-s/s1600/ink-295318_1280.png" height="258" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Eric Ouellethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11290961231297852128noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911986427253894754.post-49844205746072025342014-10-21T09:21:00.002-04:002014-10-21T09:23:48.470-04:00Upcoming BookDear All,<br />
<br />
The blog has been quiet for a while, but not because I was idle.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8AW2Bt0XCPQ/VEZdAZg9tMI/AAAAAAAAAJw/Z2BxKjP9Suc/s1600/open-163975_1280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8AW2Bt0XCPQ/VEZdAZg9tMI/AAAAAAAAAJw/Z2BxKjP9Suc/s1600/open-163975_1280.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></a></div>
<div align="center">
</div>
<br />
<br />
I have been working on putting a book together, and I have now found an interested publisher.<br />
<br />
The book is focussing mostly on the UFO phenomenon, using approaches discussed in the blog. My ideas have been put together in a much more consistent and organized series of chapters, with several cases studies, also reworked to be easier to read than the blog. There is also new material, not published anywhere else. As well, I included some material I wrote in other publications that I was authorized to reproduce in the book. The book, overall, proposes an alternative and fresh look at the UFO phenomenon. I hope to have the book out in early 2015.<br />
<br />
When I have more details, I will keep you posted.<br />
<br />Eric Ouellethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11290961231297852128noreply@blogger.com3