More High Strangeness
“I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness”.
- Max Planck, The Observer, London, January 25, 1931
By now we’ve all heard stories and testimony about “UAP’s” (unidentified aerial phenomenon), possible non-human technology (and maybe bodies!), with many wondering if it’s just another intelligence agency psy-op (see The Emperor Has No Clothes), actual aliens from another planet or dimension, a combination of both, or perhaps some combination of this, and something much weirder.
I’ve always had an interest in the unexplained, and after recently listening to several interviews below with key figures in recent quasi-military/civilian/intelligence investigation, I continue to lean towards a “something weirder” hypothesis. If you’re on a long commute or walk, maybe check some of the videos out and decide for yourself how credible any of this is.
Now before you say “Rudy is nuts” - as is your right - keep in mind that everyone - other than atheists (i.e., most of the world’s population) - already at least claims to believe in non-human intelligence. [Edit: My wording here is awkward - I meant to say most of the world is not atheist.]
I’m not providing answers, just food for thought. Like any uncomfortable subject, many may prefer just to not look into it at all, and that’s OK too.
Don’t worry, I’ll get back to less weird stuff shortly.
"One can't learn much and also be comfortable."
Charles Fort, "Wild Talents"
Robert Bigelow
The National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS) was created in 1995, in part because of Bigelow’s frustration with a lack of definitive results from the investigators who had accepted his financial support. NIDS had two primary focal points—UFOs and consciousness studies, more specifically whether human consciousness survives death.
[Harry] Reid’s most notable contribution to the investigation of UFOs started in 2007. Businessman Robert Bigelow called Reid from Las Vegas and told the senator about a letter Bigelow had received from James Lacatski, a rocket scientist who worked for the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s version of the CIA. The letter he sent to Bigelow in June 2007 sought permission to visit a ranch property Bigelow owned near Fort Duchesne, Utah.
“I presently work in the Defense Warning Office of the DIA,” Lacatski wrote. “The purpose of my visit would be to assist me in developing a strategy on how my office can characterize the potential threat aspects of the phenomena encountered in your research efforts.”
The letter went on to say the visit to the ranch might allow Lacatski to understand the lay of the land in evaluating possible threats. “In my division’s threat publications, it is not necessary for the reader to understand the complete nature and motivation of the threat sources, only the specifics of the threat itself . . . this allows for publication at lower classification levels and therefore to a wider audience. In the case of your ranch, potential threat characteristics should be able to eventually be described . . . though the source of those potential threats remains unknown.”
Lacatski’s carefully worded message suggested to Bigelow that the DIA man was more than familiar with the strange phenomena that had been reported in the Uintah Basin for generations.
At the end of the entrance to the ranch was a small, picturesque dwelling which had been named Homestead 1. It housed Jean and Richard Dietz, a husband-wife team who had diligently managed the ranch property on Bigelow’s behalf since 1999. Bigelow introduced Lacatski to the managers in the dining room/kitchen of their house, which they had lovingly upgraded into a comfortable two-person home.
Abruptly, Lacatski was transfixed by something behind where Bigelow and the couple were chatting: an unearthly technological device had suddenly and silently appeared out of nowhere in the adjacent kitchen. It looked to be a complex semi-opaque, yellowish, tubular structure. Lacatski said nothing but stared at the object, which was hovering silently. He looked away, looked back, and there it still was. It remained visible to Lacatski for no more than 30 seconds before vanishing on the spot.
About two hours after they had arrived on the property, Lacatski and Bigelow were driving back to Vernal Airport. Although conversing normally with Bigelow, Lacatski‘s mind was racing. Here he was, a ballistic missile physicist, a senior analyst at the DIA without any history of encountering anomalies, and he had just seen a vision unlike anything he had ever witnessed in his life. Lacatski confessed later that prior to that stunning vision he had never seen anything unusual in his life. Yet within a mere 60 minutes of being on the Skinwalker property, he had seen clearly, in broad daylight, a technological device in the adjacent room within a few feet of where he stood. This was no blurry photo of a distant saucer in the sky, this was an in-your-face, up-close and personal apparition of some kind of technology. The fact that he, and he alone, of the four people in the room had seen it, was also not lost on Lacatski.
I was convinced Dr. Lacatski was on to something. Recalling the 1996 NIDS conference and my conversations with American hero John Glenn, I believed the time to focus on UAPs and related phenomena in the context of science was now.
As the United States Senate Majority Leader, I decided to meet in a classified location in the United States Capitol with two key members of the appropriations process. The two members of the Appropriations Committee who controlled the dark money, the non-public money, were Republican Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska and Democratic Senator Dan Inouye of Hawaii.
After explaining what I wanted, Senator Stevens recounted a story from when he was a pilot during World War II. He told us that during one flight, he had seen something off his wing that he could not identify; it moved in ways he did not think were possible. He was low on fuel, and upon landing he asked the crew on the ground what that was up there with him. They looked at him askance and told him they had seen nothing up there except his airplane. At the time, he let the matter drop because he didn’t want to be pegged as seeing things. But the experience always nagged at him. Because of his prior experience, he told Senator Inouye and me that he was happy to secure funding to study UAPs and related phenomena.
Thus, the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP) was conceived. Senators Stevens, Inouye, and I decided to allocate $22 million to get the program started. A government request for proposal was put out, and Bob Bigelow’s company secured the bid.
- Senator Harry Reid, in the introduction to Skinwalkers at the Pentagon
For many, those talking about UAP’s are ridiculous enough, but getting into New Age things like consciousness studies? Poltergeists??
But what if the people experiencing these things are sometimes highly trained scientists?
Here’s a typical hit piece (this one from Reason) on The Military-UFO Complex, going after Bigelow and others. e.g.,
Government contracts were given to investigate a supposedly supernatural ranch. Government scientists have investigated poltergeists. People who think "nonhuman intelligence" is playing games with us have been briefing politicians. These quirky pursuits are no longer limited to little pork programs like AAWSAP: A creeping weirdness is growing at the Pentagon. Those pushing in this direction may well believe in their mission, but surely we're better off when government action is based on real scientific evidence.
Fair enough, but finally more scientists are trying to find real scientific evidence to explain strange things which have been experienced by humans since the very beginning. One of the reasons we don’t have a lot of scientific evidence is because most mainstream scientists want to stay in safe, lucrative lanes, and venturing into weird things invites ridicule at best, along with ostracism and unemployment.
Learn from science that you must doubt the experts. As a matter of fact, I can also define science another way: Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.
When someone says science teaches such and such, he is using the word incorrectly. Science doesn’t teach it; experience teaches it. If they say to you science has shown such and such, you might ask, “How does science show it–how did the scientists find out–how, what, where?” Not science has shown, but this experiment, this effect, has shown. And you have as much right as anyone else, upon hearing about the experiments (but we must listen to all the evidence), to judge whether a reusable conclusion has been arrived at.
"Garry Nolan’s talk at SALT last week was blunt. It is “100% certain” that we are not alone and that this “other” has likely been with us since the beginning of time."
Colm Kelleher
Gain of Function, 1957
This, then, is how I think the prion catastrophe occurred in the United States. It likely began with the routine importation of dozens of kuru brains from New Guinea by Carleton Gajdusek and Joseph Smadel beginning in 1957. Subsequently, there were large-scale inoculations of that kuru material into dozens of species of animals in the middle of a wildlife refuge at Patuxent, Maryland, from 1963 until 1970. “They even inoculated alligators” is a phrase that sums up their indiscriminate approach. The importation of dozens of kuru-loaded brains from the wilds of New Guinea into Maryland may have been the first step in the spread of infectious prions into the wildlife population in the United States.
- Colm Kelleher, Brain Trust
Naturally…
“The fact is, you are never going to solve this mystery without including the weird stuff.”
- Colm Kelleher
"We uncovered a number of significant incidents which had seemed totally unrelated to UFOs...odd noises around their little ranchhouse...Kitchen cabinet doors slammed in the middle of the night...sounds "like a baby crying""
- John Keel, Strange Creatures
Jay Stratton
Within a few months of his return from Skinwalker Ranch, every member of his family had experienced orbs in their home, seen dark humanoid creatures in their bedrooms, and heard multiple sounds of footsteps around the house at night. The uncanny temporal crossover between the “normal” common events on Skinwalker Ranch and the literal explosion of bizarre anomalies at their home two thousand miles east in suburban Virginia led Jonathan to the inescapable possibility that something had attached itself to him while he was on the ranch, and that he had brought that something home with him. Either this was a complete coincidence, or he, Jonathan Axelrod, was responsible for the creepy, disturbing unfolding of bizarre activity that was slowly overtaking his home.
The “Jonathan Axelrod” pseudonym in the book is Jay Stratton. Here’s his official biography.
John B. Alexander
A very interesting guy.
For the six years, I was associated with NIDS, I had an opportunity to engage in some of the most fascinating studies I ever imagined. Of course, one stands out beyond all others; the exploits at what became known as Skinwalker Ranch…
There were several attempts made to capture data on these phenomena. All of them were evaded, as if some intelligence was determining what would be presented. I had previously given a name to these phenomena; I call it Precognitive Sentient Phenomena (PSP). PSP is not limited to Skinwalker Ranch, but it certainly played out there. The wording is precise. Precognitive means that the controlling factor knows before the event takes place exactly how the observers will respond. If there will be research done on solid evidence, it can predict what will be done and interject aspects that defy logic. Sentient means that whatever is controlling the interaction is intelligent. Also, that intelligence is firmly in charge of both how the event is observed, and what the response will be. Phenomena means that the event generally will be inexplicable.
The subject of the Trickster is well established in paranormal research. Whatever is generating these incidents does so in a manner that does not remain consistent over time. From a scientific perspective, that makes studying any aspect of it almost impossible. In vain we make attempts to isolate characteristics of the phenomena in order to research them effectively. But what happens is that these phenomena constantly morph over time.
- John Alexander, Reality Denied
This interview is from 2017.
“The big issue is the UFO community - I’m still seeing this stuff on “disclosure, disclosure, disclosure” - they refuse to take ‘yes’ for an answer.”
Keep in mind that he’s 85-years old in this presentation below…
Brandon Fugal
"If we're dealing with something that has command over space-time, over consciousness....we're not in control.
I have to tell you that's probably the most terrifying thing - I think the people that are probably the most terrified are the people within our national security apparatus. A lot of people are like, 'well why aren't they bringing this to the public, why aren't there Congressional hearings?' Well I don't think they know. And you think about that, if there are are objects, if there are entities that are able to enter our airspace, violate our airspace indiscriminately and are able to manipulate consciousness and are so advanced, I mean all bets are off - there is no security. I mean it's all an illusion"
Brandon Fugal, latest owner of “Skinwalker Ranch”
The above comments reminded me of Art Bell and John Keel in January 2002:
Art Bell: "You have to be absolutely convinced, John...that our government is really well aware that these things are going on..."
John Keel: "Yeah, I think that's been the case for a very long time, and I would suspect that they're as baffled as we are."
I joined the U.S. Navy in 2009 and underwent years of rigorous training as a pilot. Specifically, we are trained to be expert observers in identifying aircraft with our sensors and our own eyes. It’s our job to know what’s in our operating area. That’s why, in 2014, after upgrades were made to our radar system, our squadron made a startling discovery: There were unknown objects in our airspace.
Initially, the objects were showing up on our newly upgraded radars and we assumed they were “ghosts in the machine,” or software glitches. But then we began to correlate the radar tracks with multiple surveillance systems, including infrared sensors that detected heat signatures. Then came the hair-raising near misses that required us to take evasive action.
These were no mere balloons. The unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) accelerated at speeds up to Mach 1, the speed of sound. They could hold their position, appearing motionless, despite Category 4 hurricane-force winds of 120 knots. They did not have any visible means of lift, control surfaces or propulsion — in other words nothing that resembled normal aircraft with wings, flaps or engines. And they outlasted our fighter jets, operating continuously throughout the day. I am a formally trained engineer, but the technology they demonstrated defied my understanding.
After that near-miss, we had no choice but to submit a safety report, hoping that something could be done before it was too late. But there was no official acknowledgement of what we experienced and no further mechanism to report the sightings — even as other aircrew flying along the East coast quietly began sharing similar experiences. Our only option was to cancel or move our training, as the UAP continued to maneuver in our vicinity unchecked.
Nearly a decade later we still don't know what they were.
This Fugal interview is about 4 hours long. I listened at 1.4x speed and - other than the annoying commercials - the time seemed to fly by.
”They have hidden behind the extraterrestrial myth. Forget the flying saucer propaganda.
We are dealing with something very close to home.”
- attributed to John Keel, in a letter to Anders Liljegren, August 10, 1982
John Keel
In 1966, 1 was a lifelong atheist raised in the hard school of objective journalism, skeptical but hopeful that I could somehow validate the enthusiasts’ speculations about extraterrestrial visitants. The extraterrestrial hypothesis then seemed to me to be the only acceptable explanation. But my experiences over the past few years have changed both me and my outlook, just as similar experiences have changed so many others.
I have stood on many a windy hilltop staring in amazement at the multicolored objects cavorting about the night skies. I have dealt with thousands of honest, sincere witnesses by mail, phone, and in person.
My skepticism has melted away, and I have turned from science to philosophy in my search for the elusive truth. The late Wilbert Smith, the Canadian scientist who chased UFOs in the 1950s, apparently followed a similar course. “The inevitable conclusion was that it was all real enough,” Smith said in 1958, “but that the alien science was definitely alien—and possibly even beyond our comprehension. So another approach was tried—the philosophical—and here the answer was found in all its grandeur…
- John Keel, Operation Trojan Horse
"The real truth is that the UFO cultists have been played for suckers for years, not by the government, but by the phenomenon." - John Keel
“However they arrived at their 1953 decision, the CIA/air force plan to debunk, downgrade, and ridicule flying saucers was, in retrospect, the most responsible course the government could take. But they underestimated the scope of the phenomenon and its ability to manipulate humans and generate propaganda.”
- John Keel, The Mothman Prophecies
It seems to me that - putting aside intelligence disinformation and psy-op stuff, which certainly exists, and has a long history particularly with UFO’s - that there is non-human intelligence out there that we cannot control, and don’t understand the motives of. I don’t think any of this is new.
Today we call “alien” what our ancestors might have called a fairy. The phenomenon seems to appear in different ways to different people. A lot of what you will think the phenomenon is will depend on your own belief system. Many will simply disbelieve any of it. It’s all hoax, imagination, psy-op. Others will try to deal with it as humans always have. I just like odd stuff.
“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience;
we are spiritual beings having a human experience.”
Attributed to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
A corollary to Teilhard de Chardin's comment is that we are not bodies which have souls, we are souls which animate bodies. Which is how it comes to be that some have out of body experiences and others have near death experiences.
There is a consciousness in control of the universe. It is God the Father Almighty creator of heaven and earth. If you want to understand many of these phenomena, read the Bible. It explains much.
Jesus encounters demons in many passages in the Bible. If you follow Him, you have power over them. He gave power to us to cast out demons. Which is as simple as saying, "In the name of Jesus Christ I command all demons to go from this place forever." And they go.
I know. I have done it.
I, too, have been a life-long student of the odd and the inexplicable. It began out of necessity, in my case, as I thought I might be approaching madness. These brushes with the ether began when I was very young; as a young Baptist kid raised quite literally "in the brush", I have experienced things in the sky, near the ground, on the ground, and in buildings. I have witnessed things that Cannot Be, yet they were...fortunately in some instances I was not alone.
Dad's sage advice, after an incident that he and another adult were also witness to, was to keep it to myself..."They will think you a liar or touched."
Since those early days I have been trained as a soldier, a scientist, and now a grizzled old incredulous guy that is certain a) we're being psyoped by supernatural powers, b) some of what we've seen are "biological", and c) some are quite simply Signs and Wonders. I have so many remarkable experiences I would share, but I shan't hijack your Note, and after all, I would likely sound like a "nut."...and I think that's part of their plan.