23 - The Fringe

1. 23 - The Fringe

2. On May 5, 1999, I received a pair of emails indicating that alien UFOs would attack the Earth on October 3 of that year. Obviously that didn’t happen, and the emails themselves contain many elements of a hoax. You may read them yourself here and here. Is there really something to all this UFO/alien business? How can one tell?

3. Eyewitness Accounts & Memory What we “see” is often not really there (Lowell’s “canals”) People can be convinced during questioning to “remember” things that did not happen (many recent sexual abuse allegations) People lie People like to play tricks People tend to “want to believe” People don’t like to change their minds People don’t like to admit when they are wrong People make up things when they do not understand* PEOPLE ARE HUMAN

4. Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) Most people equate UFO with alien craft The term “unidentified” actually means unidentified Reports of UFOs go back centuries Prior to invention of airplanes, UFOs tended to look like zeppelins “Flying Disks” reported by Kenneth Arnold in 1945 while flying airplane near Mt. Rainier - this is where the “modern era” began - aliens now operate flying saucers, not flying cigars! What aliens “looked like” also varies from culture to culture and one era to another. Global mass communication has changed this…. The “Greys” (Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind)

5. Project Blue Book - 1965 Because some UFOs might actually be aircraft belonging to hostile countries (read: USSR), the US Air Force launched a study to try to identify all such sightings as best as they could.The breakdown: Identification Number of Sightings Percentage of Total Astronomical events 245 26.7% Aircraft 210 23.7% Satellites 152 17.1% Hoaxes, Imagination, etc. 126 14.2% Insufficient Data 85 9.6% Weather Balloons 36 4.1% (still being processed) 17 1.9% UNIDENTIFIED 16 1.8% The 16 unidentified cases are just that - unidentified

6. Gulf Breeze • Ed Walter, a native of Gulf Breeze, Florida, presents Polaroid photographs of UFOs/saucers to the people and press the town. He also reports: • being frozen by a beam of blue light from the craft while taking the pictures • he was mysteriously lifted off the ground by a strange force during the event • received telepathic messages from the aliens • faced an alien eye-to-eye (this one was widely publicizes on TV at the time) The Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), a pro-UFO group, investigates & suspects fraud June 1990 - Pensacola News Journal: Person who bought Ed Walter's home discovered a model "saucer" in the garage attic, Youth in the town admitted that he and a friend helped Ed Walter fake the pictures.

7. Alien Abductions The book that started the modern “craze” Some individuals estimate that 10% of the population has been abducted Given a population of ~ 2 million (greater Cinti) and average lifetime of 80 yrs  5-10/night! Q: Why do we not witness 5-10 people being taken away every night? A: “They have mastered the art of becoming invisible” Q: Why then do we “see” their “spacecraft” if they can become invisible? A:

8. Roswell Object crashes in June 1947 on Brazel’s ranch Debris collected & brought to nearby Army Air Corps Base Base press officer releases report of “crashed discs” Legend grows of alien bodies set to Wright Field in Dayton Recently, at the request of Congressman H. Shiff (R-NM), the US General Accounting Office released all records relating to Roswell. They indicate: • no evidence for a cover-up • no evidence for a UFO • no evidence for alien bodies Crash debris identified by Columbia & NYU as theirs - part of Project Mogul (now declassified) - balloon-borne microphones to listen for Soviet nuclear tests.

9. The Alien Autopsy Film First aired by Fox as a true documentary in 1995. But: Autopsy not carried out using methods of the profession Examiner does not handle instruments properly Anticontamination suits are bogus Injuries inconsistent with crash Warning signs used did not exist until 20 years later (OSHA) Organs have no connective tissue!! Etc. Kent Jeffrey, co-founder of the International Roswell Initiative, along with many other UFO supporters, claim that the film is a hoax. 1998 - Fox “reveals” the film as a hoax in subsequent airing!

10. Taken from a “Pro-UFO” Site “Click On Me!” “August 6, 1997, Mexico. Much controversy has followed this almost unbelievable film of a UFO taken downtown Mexico City in broad daylight. Shown on countless television stations, and still-framed in many magazines and books, it is alleged that over 100 people watched this event as it was filmed. The film did stand up to analysis for quite some time. It is now considered by most to be an ingenious hoax.”

11. Ancient Astronauts 1960s-1970’s, Erik von Dainiken publishes “Chariots of the Gods” books (the first one while serving time in a Swiss prison for fraud, supposedly) Claim: Many ancient cultures similarly helped by ETs (Example: Egyptians could not have built pyramids without help from them) TODAY: Many examples of people showing how it could be done King Pacal of Palenque: Ancient Astronaut? Most experts on Mayan culture suggest this Depicts Pacal’s journy to the underworld (Xibalba) at the time of his death

12. Some claim to see UFOs in artwork Flying Saucer or a common motif ??

13. Aliens in Spacecraft? Actually depict the Sun & Moon Want to learn more?

14. Lenticular clouds

15. Crop Circles • These patterns of crushed grass began to appear in England in the 1980's. Since then, they have been seen on other places, and the patterns have become more complex. Explanations given: • Alien landing sites - it was 'impossible" for any human to do this • Wind vortices (totally absurd for the complex patterns seen) • Hoaxes • In 1991 David Bower and Dave Chorley claimed responsibility for starting the crop circle craze. They demonstrated live on BBC TV exactly how they did it. Since then, others have been caught in the act. Apparently aliens have force fields & invisibility (i.e. the motion picture Signs), travel interstellar distances and/or cross “dimensions” but have to navigate by making drawings in corn fields??

16. Crop circles have become a form of art… See http://www.circlemakers.org/

17. The “Face” on Mars Richard C. Hoagland The monuments of Mars: A City on the Edge of Forever (1987) claims the feature is artificial Viking vs. MGS “Happy Face” on Mars!

18. So what? Does believing in this stuff harm anyone?

19. 1997 - 39 Members of Heaven’s Gate Cult Commit Mass Suicide over a Simple Camera Artifact! “Saturn-Like Object” - a UFO that would take HG members to heaven after death? Actually just the star SAO 141894

20. Art Bell (radio host who has a lot of such stuff on this show) & Whitley Streiber (“Communion”) post FAKED image of UFO following Hale-Bopp. For a more complete description go here and here . Original photo by Dave Tholen, U Hawaii Doctored photo spread by Bell & Streiber

21. In April 2006, a number of web sites world-wide carried the prediction by Eric Julien that fragments of Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 would strike the Earth on May 25 of that year. Apparently from a psychic dream, he interpreted the “Missing Earth” crop circle as a sign from aliens that parts of SW3 would hit the earth. He “proved it” using NASA software. It didn’t happen. Because web pages are ephemeral, I list them in PDF to be preserved for posterity. Enjoy. US Newswire Web Page: pdf Julien’s Web Page: (as of today): pdf Disclaimer: pdf

22. Summary - My Own Assessment Bring me a living alien, or a piece of his spacecraft. Is that too much to ask? Earth vs. the Flying Saucers - (1956) Mars Attacks! (1996)