Leslie Kean's book UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go on the Record is now a best seller. Various retired military men have gone public with their reports of UFOs disabling nuclear missiles . A growing list of countries are releasing documents confirming that alien objects are real. All in all, it seems to be pretty earth shaking stuff.
So naturally the national press is more focused on Lindsay Lohan's most recent arrest. After all, everyone is bound to be shock that she might be doing drugs.
So basically, aliens could launch a full scale attack, blow up half the cities on Earth, and generally wreak the kind of havoc seen mostly in Michael Bay's films and nobody will report it. Well, maybe a small report at the end of the news hour (mostly using another pointless interview with some debunker who will balance the story with another round of "it was only the planet Venus" jibber jabber).
I mean heck, most of Kean's book is packed with material that has actually been available for a few years, is pretty well documented (mostly by the U.S. military itself) and is widely known within UFO circles. But to the public at large, it is new and mysterious.
The attraction that UFOs have for nuclear missiles (both ours and the old Soviets) is also well known and documented (by both us and the Russians). Nothing exactly new. It is a topic that might be considered of some deep concern (at least if you are kind of concerned about global security and stuff), but it isn't actually new. Of course, a lot of the media isn't exactly paying attention because...well, just because.... Heck, this story is only going to get attention if you can someone factor in a drunk and drugged Lindsay Lohan (maybe doing wheelies around the silo while aliens shoot heat beams at her or something like that).
Heck, I just watched a news story on CNN about a farmer in Georgia trying to catch the mystery intruders who have killed and mutilated 20 of his cows over the past year. It is a classic "mute" case and it is also quite obvious that the reporters covering the story haven't a clue as to what they are chasing.
Despite ample evidence that these cases represent something extremely unusual (and there has been lots of evidence gathered over the years, mostly by honest-to-god police investigators - the FBI have even posted online the material), the cattle mutilations are still blown off as freak acts committed by elusive lone nutcases (I think they are second cousins to the equally odd lone gunmen types). Very little investigation has gone into these cases (and they don't even have to involve the UFO theory - in fact I have often leaned toward the "black op" notion). But the evidence strongly suggests something extremely serious is going on and it most likely involves something that just might be darn serious to public health and safety.
So obviously it is doomed to a small piece on the back page, surrounded by uninformed quotes from whatever dingbat the reporter can find on his speed dial.
After all, they have to save the front page for ol' Lindsay. She is about due for court again.
Friday, October 01, 2010
Saturday, May 22, 2010
What If...
Let's say you are the president of the United States and you are having a pretty lazy afternoon, just hanging around the Oval Office catching up on your soaps or whatever. Suddenly, all the phones start ringing as everybody from the State Department to the Joint Chiefs and even the D.C. police are calling about a large saucer shaped craft that just landed on the National Mall. What are you going to do?
OK, after you have taken that stiff drink, what do you do next? It's a good question that doesn't seem to have an actual straight forward answer. Most likely, there is some form of protocol in place. Experience suggests that it will go something along the same lines as what happened in similar situations.
When NASA was about to present the possibility that they had found fossils in a Martian rock, the results were first taken to then President Bill Clinton in order to prepare him to prepare the nation for the shocking discovery of...well, of like maybe dead Martians (by the way, so far the world has pretty much been capable of dealing with this discovery - much more so than some geologists). Naturally, Pres. Clinton admittedly told the news to his main spin doctor, Dick Morris. In turn, Morris made a quick retreat to a hotel room and blabbed the whole story out to a call girl. OK, this isn't exactly much of a protocol. According to most reports, the call girl wasn't even all that impressed by the story. Guess she wasn't into geology.
In 2004, an asteroid appeared to have been heading toward the earth. President George W. Bush was immediately alerted and for the next nine hours the White House held phone briefings with various other foreign heads of state in order to prepare them for an impact. Oddly enough, while all of this chatting was going on, nothing was actually done that might have suggested any kind of attempt at the most basic level of public preparedness. The debate was kept secret and, I suspect, was mostly about who got to race for the bunker first. Screw the public.
So the known track record for certain types of events isn't exactly fantastic. One would hope that the current administration might do a better job. The current farce with the Gulf oil spill suggests otherwise. President Obama might be tempted to simply form a committee and then move on to something else.
Which is too bad. Alien contact is not such a strange possibility. It is even possible that it has already happen, the so-called Wow signal being just one of several distinct moments. Unfortunately, the known details of such events suggest that if it were left strictly to the scientific community, they would simply dick around with the issue for a few decades and then, maybe, publish a paper.
At the political level, the only known decision concerning aliens appears to be the infamous order by Harry S. Truman to shoot them down. Who knows, maybe the aliens need to be taught a lesson or two. But an itchy trigger finger doesn't exactly set the stage for a very productive greeting.
It also doesn't help that no real public effort has been made to prepare the world for this highly plausible moment. Sure, a long history of Hollywood movies and TV shows have sort of prepared the general public for alien contact. But the effort has been, at best, a little half baked and poorly defined. The main upside is that most of the general public is half-equipped to deal with the concept, contrary to the panic-inducing notions of the old Brookings Institute report.
Ironically, the general public may now be in better mental condition to deal with alien contact than most of the so-called intellectual class. For the past fifty years, the subject of aliens has been successfully treated with scorn and ridicule. A sizable amount of the intellectual class (academics, scientists, etc.) have largely treated the subject as a goofy idea and are extremely ignorant of the current situation. In turn, they are the people most invested in an intellectual understanding of reality that will be at best sorely tested (if not torn asunder) by the process of alien contact. They have the most to loose. In all likelihood, they will be the ones who will be least capable of grasping the issues if, and when, events unfold. In many respects, first contact will be the end of the world as they know it. Likewise, the higher the intellect, the greater the fall. Many of them will never recover from the blow and I suspect that an entire generation will go missing from the shock. The average person will most likely do OK, but the tenured faculty folks can simply cash it in the minute the first craft publicly lands.
Which is too bad. They are also the same people whose help in understanding the situation will be critically needed. But they are unprepared for this event. They have had a lifetime of denial and denial is a hard habit to easily break.
OK, after you have taken that stiff drink, what do you do next? It's a good question that doesn't seem to have an actual straight forward answer. Most likely, there is some form of protocol in place. Experience suggests that it will go something along the same lines as what happened in similar situations.
When NASA was about to present the possibility that they had found fossils in a Martian rock, the results were first taken to then President Bill Clinton in order to prepare him to prepare the nation for the shocking discovery of...well, of like maybe dead Martians (by the way, so far the world has pretty much been capable of dealing with this discovery - much more so than some geologists). Naturally, Pres. Clinton admittedly told the news to his main spin doctor, Dick Morris. In turn, Morris made a quick retreat to a hotel room and blabbed the whole story out to a call girl. OK, this isn't exactly much of a protocol. According to most reports, the call girl wasn't even all that impressed by the story. Guess she wasn't into geology.
In 2004, an asteroid appeared to have been heading toward the earth. President George W. Bush was immediately alerted and for the next nine hours the White House held phone briefings with various other foreign heads of state in order to prepare them for an impact. Oddly enough, while all of this chatting was going on, nothing was actually done that might have suggested any kind of attempt at the most basic level of public preparedness. The debate was kept secret and, I suspect, was mostly about who got to race for the bunker first. Screw the public.
So the known track record for certain types of events isn't exactly fantastic. One would hope that the current administration might do a better job. The current farce with the Gulf oil spill suggests otherwise. President Obama might be tempted to simply form a committee and then move on to something else.
Which is too bad. Alien contact is not such a strange possibility. It is even possible that it has already happen, the so-called Wow signal being just one of several distinct moments. Unfortunately, the known details of such events suggest that if it were left strictly to the scientific community, they would simply dick around with the issue for a few decades and then, maybe, publish a paper.
At the political level, the only known decision concerning aliens appears to be the infamous order by Harry S. Truman to shoot them down. Who knows, maybe the aliens need to be taught a lesson or two. But an itchy trigger finger doesn't exactly set the stage for a very productive greeting.
It also doesn't help that no real public effort has been made to prepare the world for this highly plausible moment. Sure, a long history of Hollywood movies and TV shows have sort of prepared the general public for alien contact. But the effort has been, at best, a little half baked and poorly defined. The main upside is that most of the general public is half-equipped to deal with the concept, contrary to the panic-inducing notions of the old Brookings Institute report.
Ironically, the general public may now be in better mental condition to deal with alien contact than most of the so-called intellectual class. For the past fifty years, the subject of aliens has been successfully treated with scorn and ridicule. A sizable amount of the intellectual class (academics, scientists, etc.) have largely treated the subject as a goofy idea and are extremely ignorant of the current situation. In turn, they are the people most invested in an intellectual understanding of reality that will be at best sorely tested (if not torn asunder) by the process of alien contact. They have the most to loose. In all likelihood, they will be the ones who will be least capable of grasping the issues if, and when, events unfold. In many respects, first contact will be the end of the world as they know it. Likewise, the higher the intellect, the greater the fall. Many of them will never recover from the blow and I suspect that an entire generation will go missing from the shock. The average person will most likely do OK, but the tenured faculty folks can simply cash it in the minute the first craft publicly lands.
Which is too bad. They are also the same people whose help in understanding the situation will be critically needed. But they are unprepared for this event. They have had a lifetime of denial and denial is a hard habit to easily break.
Thursday, May 06, 2010
Take Me to Your Leaders
At the opening of the 1951 film The Day the Earth Stood Stilll, the alien had the common decency to plop right down on the Capital Mall and make himself known. OK, he got shot for his effort, but it was a nice enough of a straight forward gesture.
But in reality, these critters from so far away just don't seem very interested in making such a grandstanding stunt. Not once have they popped up at noon in front of the White House demanding a photo op with any of our elected officials. Heck, the only world leader known to have even gotten close to an alien was Richard Nixon (or at least according to the Jackie Gleeson story)and that was only a dead one. Otherwise, our outlandish visitors seem quite disinterested in dealing with representatives of our ruling class.
Of course the history of many modern presidents has been laced with UFOs. Harry S. Truman ordered them to be shot down. Jimmy Carter spotted one. Ronald Reagan chased them. But only Tricky Dicky had hands-on experience.
Or at least until now. In a recent BBC news report, the president of Russia has been asked to personally investigate the claim by a regional president that he has been in contact with aliens. This claim by Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the leader of the southern region of Kalmykia, was made during a TV interview and has provoked concern about both his sanity and, just on the off chance that this is real, what exactly is the government protocol for dealing with it.
OK, by all account Ilyumzhinov is a tad eccentric. He appears to have an interest in being a Buddhist styled dictator who believes that he is able to influence people through ESP and has a couple of aides who were convicted of murdering one of his political opponents (not that he knew anything about it - guess the ESP was off that night). So his bio is just weird enough to suggest that alien contact is pretty normal for this guy.
But the totally weird thing is that he is not the only one. In some strange way, the world of alien encounter is creeping into the mainstream political culture and it is a global event. Not that long ago Miyuki Hatoyama, the wife of the current prime minister of Japan confided to the press about her ride to Venus with her alien friends. Though her story sounds like a retread of George Adamski, she is quite serious and her husband seems to support her belief.
Then there is Fife Symington, the former governor of Arizona. During the Phoenix Lights sightings in 1997, Symington staged a press conference primarily to make fun of the numerous UFO sightings. Ten years later, he came public with his own sightings at the time and become quite upfront that there was something from another planet whizzing over Arizona that night. Of course, with Arizona's current laws, I doubt if they will ever want to try landing.
The list goes on. It is almost like a fad. It is also extremely interesting. It doesn't matter if the various stories are either real or phony, the concept of alien encounter is making a slow but steady creep into high office. It is almost as if we have gone beyond disclosure without any disclosing along the way. It is simply becoming a given.
So it may be fair to ask: When Obama talks about illegal aliens, which kind is he talking about?
But in reality, these critters from so far away just don't seem very interested in making such a grandstanding stunt. Not once have they popped up at noon in front of the White House demanding a photo op with any of our elected officials. Heck, the only world leader known to have even gotten close to an alien was Richard Nixon (or at least according to the Jackie Gleeson story)and that was only a dead one. Otherwise, our outlandish visitors seem quite disinterested in dealing with representatives of our ruling class.
Of course the history of many modern presidents has been laced with UFOs. Harry S. Truman ordered them to be shot down. Jimmy Carter spotted one. Ronald Reagan chased them. But only Tricky Dicky had hands-on experience.
Or at least until now. In a recent BBC news report, the president of Russia has been asked to personally investigate the claim by a regional president that he has been in contact with aliens. This claim by Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the leader of the southern region of Kalmykia, was made during a TV interview and has provoked concern about both his sanity and, just on the off chance that this is real, what exactly is the government protocol for dealing with it.
OK, by all account Ilyumzhinov is a tad eccentric. He appears to have an interest in being a Buddhist styled dictator who believes that he is able to influence people through ESP and has a couple of aides who were convicted of murdering one of his political opponents (not that he knew anything about it - guess the ESP was off that night). So his bio is just weird enough to suggest that alien contact is pretty normal for this guy.
But the totally weird thing is that he is not the only one. In some strange way, the world of alien encounter is creeping into the mainstream political culture and it is a global event. Not that long ago Miyuki Hatoyama, the wife of the current prime minister of Japan confided to the press about her ride to Venus with her alien friends. Though her story sounds like a retread of George Adamski, she is quite serious and her husband seems to support her belief.
Then there is Fife Symington, the former governor of Arizona. During the Phoenix Lights sightings in 1997, Symington staged a press conference primarily to make fun of the numerous UFO sightings. Ten years later, he came public with his own sightings at the time and become quite upfront that there was something from another planet whizzing over Arizona that night. Of course, with Arizona's current laws, I doubt if they will ever want to try landing.
The list goes on. It is almost like a fad. It is also extremely interesting. It doesn't matter if the various stories are either real or phony, the concept of alien encounter is making a slow but steady creep into high office. It is almost as if we have gone beyond disclosure without any disclosing along the way. It is simply becoming a given.
So it may be fair to ask: When Obama talks about illegal aliens, which kind is he talking about?
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Katie Bar the Door
Stephen Hawking has just done the world a great favor. With his comments published today in the London Times the so-called smartest man on earth has just made it so of official that aliens exist and are lurking somewhere nearby. OK, he claims this on the basis of math and probability, but this is his area and he seems quite confident in his statement.
Which means we can now get down to the real issue: Do we greet them as space brothers or Help! Murder! Police! and Katie bar the door and tell grandpa to get out the shotgun!!!!!
These have always been the two main schools of thought on the matter. Kind of limited and certainly very simplistic, but this is about the best anyone has ever come up with concerning the issue. Each view is driven by obvious human needs. The aliens must be feared school is obviously rooted in human fear of the unknown. Well that, and our own long history of treating other cultures in various nasty and brutal manners. Gee whiz, why wouldn't an alien race do to us what we did to the American Indians (and the Africans and the Asians and on and on).
Likewise, the Space Brothers school is a strong extension of the I-Love-You-And-You-Love-Me childlike need for "adult" approval. We want them to be space brothers because we need their acceptance in order to bolster our own sense of low self-esteem.
Either way, we are hopelessly focused upon our own nightmares and dreams and want to project that upon the alien "other." Too bad. Since they are aliens, they may not be all that incline toward either enslaving us or patting our heads. Most likely, they will be rooted in their own psychology and social values and we can only hope to figure out what any of that means. They will operate according to their own needs, social values, and cultural traditions. It may or may not be good from our viewpoint. It will be up to us, as humans, to try and figure that out as fast as possible.
We will have no reasons to believe that any alien visitors love us. Nor do we have any reasons to believe that they are here to enslave us. The truth will be somewhere in the murky middle. It will be up to us to establish the means of handling contact and analyzing the intent of any such visitors. Each case will be different and every instance must be approached in a manner that is neither friendly nor hostile.
Hawking seems to suggest that we should turn off the lights, bolt the door, and not answer the phone. Tempting thought. Too bad this is a completely pointless notion. They already know that we are here and if any body out there is interested, they will find us quite quickly. So we need to be dealing with the best ways to prepare for global contact. The hiding option is no good.
And by the way, so is the hostile option. It's a safe bet that any alien race that is capable of getting here (and undoubtedly, there are some) will also be advance enough to blow our butts off if they are so inclined. No matter how advance some of our weapons may be, we will still end up looking like a pack of cave dwelling nitwits waving some sticks in their face (if they have one).
So what we need is less hardware and more rational, clear-headed thinking. I suspect we need to do this now. Actually, we should have been doing this many years ago.
Which means we can now get down to the real issue: Do we greet them as space brothers or Help! Murder! Police! and Katie bar the door and tell grandpa to get out the shotgun!!!!!
These have always been the two main schools of thought on the matter. Kind of limited and certainly very simplistic, but this is about the best anyone has ever come up with concerning the issue. Each view is driven by obvious human needs. The aliens must be feared school is obviously rooted in human fear of the unknown. Well that, and our own long history of treating other cultures in various nasty and brutal manners. Gee whiz, why wouldn't an alien race do to us what we did to the American Indians (and the Africans and the Asians and on and on).
Likewise, the Space Brothers school is a strong extension of the I-Love-You-And-You-Love-Me childlike need for "adult" approval. We want them to be space brothers because we need their acceptance in order to bolster our own sense of low self-esteem.
Either way, we are hopelessly focused upon our own nightmares and dreams and want to project that upon the alien "other." Too bad. Since they are aliens, they may not be all that incline toward either enslaving us or patting our heads. Most likely, they will be rooted in their own psychology and social values and we can only hope to figure out what any of that means. They will operate according to their own needs, social values, and cultural traditions. It may or may not be good from our viewpoint. It will be up to us, as humans, to try and figure that out as fast as possible.
We will have no reasons to believe that any alien visitors love us. Nor do we have any reasons to believe that they are here to enslave us. The truth will be somewhere in the murky middle. It will be up to us to establish the means of handling contact and analyzing the intent of any such visitors. Each case will be different and every instance must be approached in a manner that is neither friendly nor hostile.
Hawking seems to suggest that we should turn off the lights, bolt the door, and not answer the phone. Tempting thought. Too bad this is a completely pointless notion. They already know that we are here and if any body out there is interested, they will find us quite quickly. So we need to be dealing with the best ways to prepare for global contact. The hiding option is no good.
And by the way, so is the hostile option. It's a safe bet that any alien race that is capable of getting here (and undoubtedly, there are some) will also be advance enough to blow our butts off if they are so inclined. No matter how advance some of our weapons may be, we will still end up looking like a pack of cave dwelling nitwits waving some sticks in their face (if they have one).
So what we need is less hardware and more rational, clear-headed thinking. I suspect we need to do this now. Actually, we should have been doing this many years ago.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Strange Days Indeed
Once, when I was working on an article about UFOs, I sent a letter to Jacques Vallee regarding any comments he wished to make concerning his current thoughts on the subject. A few weeks later, I received a photocopy of a newspaper article entitled "Kooks, Nuts and Weirdos" with a handwritten note that this is what he thought.
Maybe I was missing something, but I kind of got the impression that he didn't feel like talking about it. I have long admired much of his writing (and still highly recommend most of his books as essential reading), but there was definitely an attitude. At the time, I figured he was looking to drop the whole subject.
Then again, maybe not. Over at the BoingBoing.net web site, Vallee has posted several interesting pieces on the subject of crop circles. They are both a quick read but very concise and sort of thought provoking. Kind of. Actually, the theory that crop circles might be the result of some super secret microwave weapon has been kicked around over the years. Not a bad theory. So far, impossible to prove in any way. Doesn't help that the only obvious use (thus far) of such a mysterious weapon is to spend every summer zapping the English countryside just to jack up the locals. By the way, the complex and extremely well developed artistic quality of many of these circles seem beyond the skills of the U.S. Army. So it must be a Navy project.
But what is most interesting about Vallee's work is the reactions he is getting in the comments posted at BoingBoing. Basically, many of the comments seem confused by most of the statements Vallee makes concerning the known qualities of non-man made crop circles. A lot of people have very strong opinions about the subject backed up by no information what so ever. So it would seem that many of the known facts listed in the piece by Vallee is a major surprise to a lot of readers.
So maybe Vallee has actually done a public service. He quickly lays out the main proven facts before moving into his theory. It has been known for quite a few years that at least some amount of crop circles are produced by some type of high energy process and, most likely, does not have a human origin. Sure, there are also a lot of them that are produced by people who have embraced the concept as an art form. Some of them even do some mighty pretty work. But some are simply not handmade, if you know what I mean.
Where I do split from Vallee is with the secret microwave weapon theory. OK, granted that the U.S. military has some really weird project going on and, most likely, got some weapons stashed away that are pretty far out (e.g. the laser cannon). But blasting at farm fields for no rational reason just doesn't seem to make any sense. Besides, we have lots of secret bases and test zones all over the globe just for that purpose.
I am also curious as to why Vallee seems to ignore the research that has been done in attempting to decode crop circles. No, I don't mean the New Age trace induced stuff. I'm talking about the work that was being pursued by Gerald Hawkins before his death a few years ago. Best known for his decoding of Stonehenge back in 1963, Hawkins became increasingly convinced that some of the crop circles were a form of code closely related to both math and music.
Maybe he was on to something, or maybe not. He died before he completed the work. But his theories were extremely interesting and his approach would seemingly be of interest to someone like Vallee. Then again, maybe not.
Seems that Vallee is more focused on a bunch of G.I. Joes whizzing around in their saucer-shaped jets blasting microwaves at the cows.
Maybe I was missing something, but I kind of got the impression that he didn't feel like talking about it. I have long admired much of his writing (and still highly recommend most of his books as essential reading), but there was definitely an attitude. At the time, I figured he was looking to drop the whole subject.
Then again, maybe not. Over at the BoingBoing.net web site, Vallee has posted several interesting pieces on the subject of crop circles. They are both a quick read but very concise and sort of thought provoking. Kind of. Actually, the theory that crop circles might be the result of some super secret microwave weapon has been kicked around over the years. Not a bad theory. So far, impossible to prove in any way. Doesn't help that the only obvious use (thus far) of such a mysterious weapon is to spend every summer zapping the English countryside just to jack up the locals. By the way, the complex and extremely well developed artistic quality of many of these circles seem beyond the skills of the U.S. Army. So it must be a Navy project.
But what is most interesting about Vallee's work is the reactions he is getting in the comments posted at BoingBoing. Basically, many of the comments seem confused by most of the statements Vallee makes concerning the known qualities of non-man made crop circles. A lot of people have very strong opinions about the subject backed up by no information what so ever. So it would seem that many of the known facts listed in the piece by Vallee is a major surprise to a lot of readers.
So maybe Vallee has actually done a public service. He quickly lays out the main proven facts before moving into his theory. It has been known for quite a few years that at least some amount of crop circles are produced by some type of high energy process and, most likely, does not have a human origin. Sure, there are also a lot of them that are produced by people who have embraced the concept as an art form. Some of them even do some mighty pretty work. But some are simply not handmade, if you know what I mean.
Where I do split from Vallee is with the secret microwave weapon theory. OK, granted that the U.S. military has some really weird project going on and, most likely, got some weapons stashed away that are pretty far out (e.g. the laser cannon). But blasting at farm fields for no rational reason just doesn't seem to make any sense. Besides, we have lots of secret bases and test zones all over the globe just for that purpose.
I am also curious as to why Vallee seems to ignore the research that has been done in attempting to decode crop circles. No, I don't mean the New Age trace induced stuff. I'm talking about the work that was being pursued by Gerald Hawkins before his death a few years ago. Best known for his decoding of Stonehenge back in 1963, Hawkins became increasingly convinced that some of the crop circles were a form of code closely related to both math and music.
Maybe he was on to something, or maybe not. He died before he completed the work. But his theories were extremely interesting and his approach would seemingly be of interest to someone like Vallee. Then again, maybe not.
Seems that Vallee is more focused on a bunch of G.I. Joes whizzing around in their saucer-shaped jets blasting microwaves at the cows.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Never Give a Sucker an Even Break
There are some extremely intelligent people to be found in the field of UFO and paranormal research. There are many very sincere and honest folks searching for aliens, bigfoot critters, and assorted other things that go bump in the night.
Then there are people like Sean David Morton. OK, I don't normally like to kick a guy while he is down, but the fraud charges brought against him by the Security Exchange Commission comes as no surprise to anyone who has been aware of his very curious career. For the past several decades, Morton has repeatedly made claims that were, at best, wild exaggerations and, in some cases, out right falsehoods. In the past, he has always operated within the context of UFOs and the paranormal and managed to stay within a weird zone in which facts were hard to find and cross referencing is often unheard of and rarely pursued.
For example, he used to claim that he had discovered a mountain peak near Area 51 from which you could see the world's most famous top secret base. OK, actually it was well known already to the locals and he simply heard about it from someone. Likewise, he insisted that the people living near the mountain had named it after him. Nobody had named anything after him and this story was just part of the come on for his guided tour of "Morton Peak." All you had to pay him was $99.99. The only mystery to this racket was the $99.99. Why not just charge a $100. Better still, just pack a lunch and go on your own.
As stupid and expensive as it was, Morton did get the occasional customer. It was about this time that he started calling himself the world's foremost UFO authority. That was how I first heard about him.
As previously related, I had been approached by the original PR person for a company that was looking to release a videotape of an alien under interrogation at Area 51 . Though the provider of the tape was a man who stayed nameless (for fear of presumed government killers - or maybe just the IRS), there was a strange ensemble of characters involved behind the scene in peddling this tape. Aside from Art Bell (who in those days popped up behind every stunt since the Piltdown Man), one of the characters was (to me) an unknown chap with a set of claims about his personal reputation that seemed odd. I had never heard of this "foremost authority" and I figured I better check him out.
That took longer than I had expected. His name was largely unknown in virtually every rational list I could find on UFOs. As I moved deeper into the New Age zone, he was still a pretty unknown figure. Finally, I arrived at the Nevada researchers backstabbing, infighting zone. There, I found his name. A lot of the folks who were involved in "work" near Area 51 (OK, a lot of it consisted of standing around in the dark waiting for lights to buzz overhead) had pretty bad things to say about Morton. In turn, he had bad things to say about them. There was no love being lost in the dry desert air.
But all this told me was that he had a strong ego, a high opinion about himself, and pretty poor skills at public relations. Then I heard back from the PR person. The "boys" (Bell, Morton etc.) were busy trying to sell release rights to the video to several companies at once without telling any of the bidding companies that another company was already involved. Likewise, they were undercutting the PR by selling the rights to a rival British magazine without telling anyone. By the way, they were selling all of these rights without establishing any sign of ownership. The whole thing quickly took a nose dive into business oblivion while the boys were mostly interested in getting lots of people to pay cash up front.
The video, by the way, was undoubtedly bogus. Which is OK. If it were real, then the high handed (and largely dubious) antics from the boys would be appalling. As it was, it merely rounded off the freak show feel to the whole scam.
At the time, I was largely interested in the strange questions concerning Art Bell and his possible connection with the Defense Intelligence Agency (well, his phone system and computer server were obviously hooked up to the DoD system). Morton just appeared to have been a minor grifter with an ego problem. He hadn't yet discovered his psychic skills in investment opportunities. But I am not really surprised by the charges now leveled against him by the S.E.C. These guys have a habit of over reaching.
But at least he made Inside Edition. Finally, he is world famous for something.
Then there are people like Sean David Morton. OK, I don't normally like to kick a guy while he is down, but the fraud charges brought against him by the Security Exchange Commission comes as no surprise to anyone who has been aware of his very curious career. For the past several decades, Morton has repeatedly made claims that were, at best, wild exaggerations and, in some cases, out right falsehoods. In the past, he has always operated within the context of UFOs and the paranormal and managed to stay within a weird zone in which facts were hard to find and cross referencing is often unheard of and rarely pursued.
For example, he used to claim that he had discovered a mountain peak near Area 51 from which you could see the world's most famous top secret base. OK, actually it was well known already to the locals and he simply heard about it from someone. Likewise, he insisted that the people living near the mountain had named it after him. Nobody had named anything after him and this story was just part of the come on for his guided tour of "Morton Peak." All you had to pay him was $99.99. The only mystery to this racket was the $99.99. Why not just charge a $100. Better still, just pack a lunch and go on your own.
As stupid and expensive as it was, Morton did get the occasional customer. It was about this time that he started calling himself the world's foremost UFO authority. That was how I first heard about him.
As previously related, I had been approached by the original PR person for a company that was looking to release a videotape of an alien under interrogation at Area 51 . Though the provider of the tape was a man who stayed nameless (for fear of presumed government killers - or maybe just the IRS), there was a strange ensemble of characters involved behind the scene in peddling this tape. Aside from Art Bell (who in those days popped up behind every stunt since the Piltdown Man), one of the characters was (to me) an unknown chap with a set of claims about his personal reputation that seemed odd. I had never heard of this "foremost authority" and I figured I better check him out.
That took longer than I had expected. His name was largely unknown in virtually every rational list I could find on UFOs. As I moved deeper into the New Age zone, he was still a pretty unknown figure. Finally, I arrived at the Nevada researchers backstabbing, infighting zone. There, I found his name. A lot of the folks who were involved in "work" near Area 51 (OK, a lot of it consisted of standing around in the dark waiting for lights to buzz overhead) had pretty bad things to say about Morton. In turn, he had bad things to say about them. There was no love being lost in the dry desert air.
But all this told me was that he had a strong ego, a high opinion about himself, and pretty poor skills at public relations. Then I heard back from the PR person. The "boys" (Bell, Morton etc.) were busy trying to sell release rights to the video to several companies at once without telling any of the bidding companies that another company was already involved. Likewise, they were undercutting the PR by selling the rights to a rival British magazine without telling anyone. By the way, they were selling all of these rights without establishing any sign of ownership. The whole thing quickly took a nose dive into business oblivion while the boys were mostly interested in getting lots of people to pay cash up front.
The video, by the way, was undoubtedly bogus. Which is OK. If it were real, then the high handed (and largely dubious) antics from the boys would be appalling. As it was, it merely rounded off the freak show feel to the whole scam.
At the time, I was largely interested in the strange questions concerning Art Bell and his possible connection with the Defense Intelligence Agency (well, his phone system and computer server were obviously hooked up to the DoD system). Morton just appeared to have been a minor grifter with an ego problem. He hadn't yet discovered his psychic skills in investment opportunities. But I am not really surprised by the charges now leveled against him by the S.E.C. These guys have a habit of over reaching.
But at least he made Inside Edition. Finally, he is world famous for something.
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