When I heard about this book I was immediately interested. I thought it would fill a gap in UFO research – namely, that it would be a book about ancient Native American lore about encounters with flying saucers and their occupants. I’m part Native American (not sure of the percentage), so this sort of thing is an interest. The book is anything but what I thought. Instead of ancient texts or traditions, this is nothing more than anecdotes from Native Americans about stuff they saw or heard (sometimes second, third, and fourth hand). It contributes nothing to serious UFO research, as it confirms something I don’t think anyone doubted in the first place: Native Americans see unidentified objects, too. (Was that a controversy?)

The book is not merely a disappointment for what it doesn’t cover, but also for how it covers what it does cover. Unless the back cover had told me the author was a (retired) professor at a university of note (Montana State) I never would have guessed. There is virtually no critical thinking in the book. Whatever someone says is taken at face value. Familiar historical cases that have been roundly criticized by serious UFO researchers are taken as the gospel truth. For example, it’s as though the author is completely unaware of the problems with the Hill case (like Betty’s “star map” astronomy, or how Barney initially said the “aliens” looked like Germans in Nazi garb). None of the people interviewed by the author are ever challenged or asked for evidence. (And several of the reports contained clear items or elements that could be falsified or supported with data – but doing that might have shown they were fantasies).

In a nutshell, the book is the paperback equivalent of a polite nod when someone you don’t want to offend says something nutty.

To be fair, the author does say she seeks only to report. That’s nice. If anyone had seen a leprechaun or a pterodactyl during their experience that would have made it in, too. It’s fine if you want to report something, but that has little value in furthering research. My advice is to buy and read something more serious in terms of analysis or building a case for why people ought to care about the UFO issue (like Leslie Kean’s book). This book just doesn’t accomplish anything that will matter for the field.

Technorati Tags: aliens, american, clarke, encounters, native, review, sightings, sixkiller, star people, UFOs

The story once again has both Dr. Nolan and Dr. Ralph Lachman, a specialist in dwarfism affirming that the specimen is human. What’s different this time is that Lachman offers some hypotheses for the size and apparent age incongruence. For me the take-away portion is as follows:

Lachman subsequently investigated several similar cases of dwarfism throughout history and found several, including a 19th century “circus freak” named Tom Thumb and an Italian woman who was six inches when she was born and 19 inches when she died at age eight or nine.

According to Lachman, another possible explanation for the skeleton’s small size and advanced calcification is natural mummification, a process that would have made the skeleton appear older than it is.

I’ve been saying this since the beginning — that mummification might be throwing the results in terms of the “age discrepancy.” Given the Chilean context and the fact that this area in Chile has yielded mummies in the past, I thought it reasonable to presume that mummification might be a useful trajectory. As time goes on (presuming scientists don’t lose interest), I’m hoping this suggestion, now made by Dr. Lachman, will yield a concrete answer.

But as far as what is concrete (the DNA) the news is the same: it’s human. And an anomalous human specimen is still human. So, to this point, the scientists who have examined the specimen most closely, using the tools of modern science,  don’t have it as alien or an alien-human hybrid. I don’t know how much clearer they can be.

Technorati Tags: alien, atacama, DNA, human, humanoid, Lachman, mummification, Nolan, specimen

“The Divine Council, Giants, and a Return of the Nephilim?” (please note the question mark)

“Paleobabble! The Role of Pseudo-Science and Bad Theology in Today’s Popularized Alien Mythos”

I’ll also be participating in a lengthy symposium and Q & A sessions on Sunday, Oct 6. I’ll come up with abstracts a little later and post those. Here’s the schedule as it stands now.

I’m not promising anything, but I’ve alerted the organizer, Guy Malone, that at my present writing rate, the first full draft of The Portent, the sequel to my paranormal / theological thriller, The Facade, should be in the can by the end of summer. That means it’ll be in the editorial stage at the time of this event. That in turn would mean (again, this is all guesswork) that the sequel would be ready for Christmas. If things follow this scenario, I’m considering the idea of taking pre-orders at this event for signed copies of The Portent. (I haven’t talked to the publisher about that yet, but it’s on my radar). This is the only event I have scheduled for the fall, so if such a pre-order offering emerges, Ancient of Days 2013 is the only place it’s going to happen.

Stay tuned.

Technorati Tags: aliens, ancient of days, Christianity, extraterrestrials, Facade, Heiser, portent, UFOs

• John Marks and ‘The Search for the Manchurian Candidate’
• The CIA and the Search for the Manchurian Candidate, Part One of Two

Jack has now posted Part 2 of the CIA and the Manchurian candidate scenario:

The UFO Trail: The CIA and the Search for the Manchurian Candidate, Part Two of Two

Technorati Tags: abduction, alien, CIA, mind control, MKULTRA

• John Marks and ‘The Search for the Manchurian Candidate’
  
• The CIA and the Search for the Manchurian Candidate, Part One of Two

As Facade readers know, mind control was one of the sub-threads in the novel. The UFO research community has known for some time that CIA mind control and LSD experimentation had some sort of intersection with the “alien contactee” movement in the United States. The same is likely also true of the alien abduction phenomenon. The latter connection received a bit of attention in Jack’s posts about Leah Haley’s story (which of course included some of Leah’s own commentary about her experiences).  The second post above (“Part One”) overviews some of these intersections. Jack does a nice job of cross-referencing the connections to specific MK-ULTRA / CIA documentary evidence.

Have a look!

Technorati Tags: abduction, aliens, CIA, contact, contactee, mind control, MKULTRA, UFOs

As many of you know, I have three blogs. As far as a five-year track record for this blog, here are some stats:

Number of Posts: 367

Word Count: 136,916

More analysis should get to the bottom (presuming anyone in the real science community will care enough to spend the time and money on this boondoggle).

Some excerpts from the article (emphasis mine):

“While the jury is out regarding the mutations that cause the deformity, and there is a real discrepancy in how we account for the apparent age of the bones … every nucleotide I’ve been able to look at is human,” researcher Garry Nolan, professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford School of Medicine, told LiveScience. “I’ve only scratched the surface in the analysis. But there is nothing that jumps out so far as to scream ‘nonhuman.’”

Nolan and his colleagues analyzed the specimen in the fall of 2012 with high-resolution photography, X-rays and computed tomography scans, as well as DNA sequencing. The researchers wanted to find out whether some rare disorder could explain the anomalous skeleton — for instance it had just 10 ribs as opposed to 12 in a healthy human — the age the organism died, as its size suggested a preterm fetus, stillborn or a deformed child, and whether it was human or perhaps a South American nonhuman primate.

Technorati Tags: alien, atacama, corpse, DNA, extraterrestrial, fetus, Greer, testing

This is what happens when you promote the work of a charlatan.

Cris Putnam has posted a list of the Top Ten Comments posted online about Steven Greer’s Sirius film. It’s worth a read, unless you’ve worshipped at Greer’s altar for his version of UFO Religion. You might have your faith damaged.

My favorite is actually #10, as it echoes what I’ve been posting here (and I’m no prophet – so how did I figure this out?):

10) Lee Speigel of The Huffington Post wrote, “In early publicity, filmmakers claimed the documentary would reveal that the DNA of the creature with an oversized alien-looking head couldn’t be medically classified. In fact, the film, which premiered Monday in Hollywood, features a scientist who concluded the little humanoid was human.”

Oh yeah.

Well, I’m sure Steven will make sure to spend all the money he makes on this fraud on his super-important free energy project . . . in Tahiti . . . or maybe Rio. He thanks you all.

Technorati Tags: alien, Atacam, fetus, fraud, Greer, hoax, human, Sirius

It’s amazingly incoherent that Greer claims to be in contact with the ETs but at the same time the problem with the world is that government is hiding the ET technology…. If he’s telling the truth ET should just give it to him.

Uh . . . yeah. But that’s Greer. Tell everyone you’re an MD till many are convinced that makes you an authority on issues outside of medicine, make lots of noise on the web, then produce content that’s about as logical as a square bowling ball.

Thanks to Cris for the review!

Technorati Tags: alien, atacama, body, fetus, Greer, Sirius

Technorati Tags: Aquinas, Calvin, Genesis 6, Luther, nephilim, sons of God