Probably legit

I've stumbled upon what I consider to be a "real" medium who does not do cold readings: she's on he Global Radio Alliance as "Spirit Talk Live With Teresa." Her readings are what I consider to be representatives of legitimate spirit contact: She asks no leading questions, does not fish for information, and her information is detailed, accurate, quick, and spontaneous. I don't know much about her, except that I doubt that she's appeared on network television, and can't see that she's selling books on Amazon.com (not that there's anything wrong with that). I can't see that she's appeared on "Coast." She does give readings, but she's about half the price of Hans Christian King, who I consider to be fraudulent.

Phil Imbrogno

I was very surprised by an Amazon.com email today informing me of "Philip J. Imbrogno's new book: Haunted Files from the Edge: A Paranormal Investigator's Explorations into Infamous Legends & Extraordinary Manifestations." Already it's garnered a negative review on Amazon.com, even though it hasn't been published--warning potential buyers that Imbrogno has "embelleshed his credentials." Notably, it is being published by Llewellen, who indicates that Imbrogno "is a recognized authority in the field of UFO research.... He is a retired educator who spent thirty years teaching science."

It will be interesting to see if it sells. But mostly I'm surprised at Llewellen for publishing it, even though the editors are quite aware of Imbogno's "embellishment." Why are they publishing it? Fabricating your educational credential will (or should) disqualify you from publishing in any of the established arts and sciences fields. But not in the paranormal field--because there are no qualifications for being a paranormalist.

Skeptical

It's becoming increasingly difficult to suspend my disbelief as I read "Dawn Of A New Age." Phil Corso tends toward excessive self-aggrandizement, even more so than in "The Day After Roswell." But, to me, the greatest argument against the notion that Roswell crash debris seeded American technology is that Corso's Roswell saucer seemed composed of late-twentieth-century technology: fiber optics, integrated circuits, night-vision glass... all remarkable technologies, but not magical. (Unless, of course, the vehicle was from a "breakaway civilization" on Earth.)

On a side note, former C.I.A. operative Chase Brandon stated on the July 12th "Coast" that in his early days with the agency, he was poking around some filing cabinets when he stumbled upon a box labeled "Roswell." What did he find in it? Shiri Appleby pics? He wouldn't divulge, but what he saw convinced him beyond a doubt that a non-terrestrial vehicle crashed there. The only problem with Brandon's testimony (aside from its inadvertent corroboration of Corso) is that it was being given by a former C.I.A. covert operative trained in deception. We can't accept it at face value. Remarkable about that particular show was that no listener calls were taken (a plus, actually). I engaged in a remote viewing experiment by attempting to mentally beam a thought to stand-in host John Wells: "Ask Brandon about all those crashed drug-running planes traced to the C.I.A.!" but we apparently weren't on the same wavelength. Just as well. Brandon would've blamed Bill Clinton.

Dawn Of A New Age?

On of the neat things about Richard Dolan's podcast is that I learn about interesting sources of information that I otherwise would not have privy to--since I don't follow UFOlogy and, really, don't want to. But a caller at the end of one of Dolan's shows mentioned that Philip Corso's "memoirs" have been posted online for anyone to read: "Dawn Of A New Age."

I neither believe nor disbelieve Corso--I just think he's interesting. To me, he falls into the same "gray box" that, say, Bob Lazar falls in--probably not credible, but still interesting, for complex reasons. (White-and-black UFOlogists like Stanton Friedman discredit both Lazar and Corso, but Friedman also embraces the most-probably bogus MJ-12 documents.) I prefer to see UFOlogy as an arena where truth, even relative truth, will never be obtained... But some actors in the UFO drama just strike me as interesting, and Corso is one of them.

Now, is it likely, or even probable, that Corso kept alien artifacts in a file drawer and farmed them out to private industry for development? Possible, but not probable, and the best argument against this was given by Jacques Vallée, who said that if "alien" artifact were indeed recovered at Roswell, they would have been sequestered in the most secure environment, and the nation's top scientists would have been brought in to examine them. And some sources have basically argued that Corso is nothing more than a con man who had more than a few legal difficulties. Probably true. Still, I have to wonder what would motivate a moderately high Army officer, one who has no apparent psychopathology, to begin babbling about crashed saucers and alien agendas at the end of his life. And since "Dawn Of A New Age" is free to download, it's worth a perusal.

Chuck Bergman on Coast

I'm always in the market for a "real" medium... As I've written many times, I think mediumship is a valid process, but I'm very skeptical of public, televised mediums. Chuck Bergman came across as being sincere and honest. He bills himself as the "psychic cop." Now... I'm assuming that this is actually what he was. Robert--is this true? There's a photograph on the cover of his latest book that *seems* to depict someone looking remarkably like a youthful Bergman riding a police motorcycle... but as we know, amazing things can be done with photoshop nowadays.

Okay.... for the sake of argument, let's assume that Bergman was really a cop--a good one--and that he's really a psychic. The psychic experiences that he describes ring true. I've had them--often--and I wouldn't be here to blog this if I hadn't. "Something" has jumped into my time stream on at least one occasion, like with Bergman, to save my life.

Bergman did make one telling observation regarding a public "television" medium whose credibility I question: James Van Praagh. He mentioned it in passing, but I think it's significant. He describes being on stage with Van Praagh, who was doing his usual shtick--talking to dead people, for the benefit of his usual audience. But Bergman could not "see" any of the entities that Van Praagh "saw." As Van Praagh is walking up and down the stage, communicating with Aunt Whatsherface and Sally So-And-So, Bergman wonders, "Why can't I see any of the spirits that he's seeing?"

What does this tell you?

Mind-gaming "Disclosure"

A mind game: Let's assume that there is an intelligence associated with this planet--either from it, or outside of it--that is sufficiently technologically advanced as to be omnipresent, omniscient, and invisible; that this intelligence can enforce certain boundaries, physically and intellectually, so that those who step outside those boundaries--or even attempt to--are either threatened or discredited. In effect, such an intelligence could create a "prison planet," yet the imprisonment would be so artfully constructed that any attempt to see "outside" the enclosure would causes the experiencer to hallucinate easily-discredited phantoms, or to go mad. In this scenario, "disclosure" of such a presence would be impossible. However, there would, theoretically, come a time when the subject society would grow both spiritually and technologically to a point where confinement is neither possible nor necessary.

My experiences have taught me that our perceived reality, as objective as it seems, is actually constructed. While I, like almost everyone else, accept my experiences as "real," I also believe that there is an intelligence that participates in the construction of this reality, and our experiences have both meaning and a "higher" symbolism. So while we can scientifically explain much of our measurable reality, there will always be an element of our experience that cannot be physically resolved. It is this element that drives the species in its quest for meaning. In my worldview, everything that intrudes into this reality that resists an easy, physical explanation, automatically becomes questionable, and causes me to seek explanations "outside the box."  I think that the UFO phenomenon is such an intrusion.

Test post from the iCab mobile browser

While reading an article lauding Google's Chrome browser for iOS (a browser I've never liked), a number of commenters said, "Forget Chrome--iCab Mobile is the best browser for iOS." So I've downloaded it and am giving it my personal acid3 test: Will it post to Blogger via Blogger's clunky interface? Because every other mobile browser locks up at some point during the posting process. My first impressions are favorable. Firefox synch? No one else offers that--not even Firefox, which doesn't even have an iOS browser. (Yeah, they have something called "Firefox Home," which is not worth mentioning.) All my bookmarks are on Firefox Synch. My preferred browser is Firefox. Dropbox linking? Essential. This is a well-thought-out browser... Probably the best-kept secret in iOS. Now, let's see if it will publish...