Misinformation: The “Bad” Ideas That Shape Our Beliefs

While the debate over the existence of UFOs rages on, there is an underlying factor that is less widely discussed, which has little concern for whether a case “for” or “against” UFOs can be made. This is because it deals with the fact that both of these positions have been actively promoted by official agencies over the years, whenever circumstances arose in which one or the other became particularly advantageous in the name of government secrecy.

Because of this, over time I have begun to gravitate more toward what I perceive as being the likelihood that, while certainly not all UFO sightings and reports can be easily explained, a distinct majority of the more well-documented UFO cases over the years involve some element of misdirection, typically presented to one or more individuals that are in some way involved with UFO research. This is typically for the purpose of steering their attitudes on the subject, perhaps in an effort to distract them from coming to more logical conclusions (as we will examine in a moment with the story of Paul Bennewitz), although there are also instances where the broader objectives appear to be aimed at merely gauging the reactions of the targeted individuals.

The story of Paul Bennewitz is, arguably, among the most widely-recognized instances where a person interested in UFOs was deliberately given bad information about the subject by a government agency. Here, the reason for this had been aimed at misdirecting his attention from what were, at the time, secret NSA coded microburst tests that were being carried out at Kirkland Air Force Base (and, as I have noted on many occasions before, my friend Greg Bishop’s book Project Beta is the best source of information on the Bennewitz affair; I also reference Bishop’s research in an article here at MU, which suggests that astronomer and UFO advocate J. Allen Hynek may even have played a roll in the operation). Bennewitz was given equipment that helped him decode what he thought were “alien” messages, and furthermore, was encouraged to continue this UFOlogical research by Air Force authorities that included AFOSI Special Agent Richard Doty.

Influenced by Bishop’s work, London-based researcher and musician Mark Pilkington’s book Mirage Men (upon which a documentary film of the same name was based) delves into numerous other famous UFO cases from the last several decades, in which similar operations could  have been underway. These range from the possible manipulation of some of the key players in the famous Maury Island UFO incident, (which included pilot Kenneth Arnold), and the strange role of one man, Fred Crisman, whose role in the affair seems to strongly suggest government involvement; as noted by Pilkington, and cited earlier by researchers Peter Levenda and Nick Redfern, Crisman would go on to be associated with numerous circumstances which makes his appearance all-the-more questionable.

Fred Crisman

No less among these had been the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, as Crisman was later subpoenaed to appear before the Warren court regarding the case against Clay Shaw, the only man prosecuted — and acquitted within one hour of appearing before a jury — in the investigation of the assassination of JFK.

There is also the bizarre kidnapping and sexual escapades of Brazilian farmer Antonio Villa-Boas in the 1950s (an early “UFO abduction” so lacking in sophistication by its players that it can hardly be disputed that the “craft” which kidnapped him had been a helicopter… though his forced sexual encounter with a beautiful blonde “alien” while on board isn’t the worst thing he might have been subjected to). Such staged UFO sightings and phony “alien” encounters were carried out in this way, with the apparent intention of inspiring belief in extraterrestrials among the more imaginative members of the general public… but to what end?

Meanwhile, official disclosures made by government groups and scientific organizations such as the 1968 Rand Corporation study, as well as the University of Colorado UFO Project headed by Edward Condon, presented “objective” opinions on the matter which underscored the need for “badly needed objective data”, paired rather paradoxically with the notion that no further scientific benefit could be derived from the study of UFOs. Of course, we can’t prove precisely who, or what agencies were likely behind incidents like the Villa-Boas “abduction”, or countless other stories involving UFOs; careful review of the evidence, however, suggests that there was hardly anything “alien” about such cases, with the data favoring psychological manipulation and misdirection instead.

Even more recently, the degree to which detailed data has appeared in conjunction with UFO hoaxes has been impressive; consider the famous case of the CARET drones (more about which can be read here). With the plentiful appearance of digital imagery that had been *almost* convincing, paired with shadowy, official-looking documentation, supplemented by further commentary by an individual calling himself “Issac”, the entire affair brought an air of realism to it that was almost on-par with the famous MJ-12 documents… another classic example of bad information that has made its hands into otherwise good researchers, with the net result of dividing opinions, and feeding the polarization of people’s attitudes.

Today, that polarization continues, of course. But as we stop to consider the way our beliefs are so often affected by what information appears before us, we must remind ourselves that there are deeper questions that we must ask from time to time… questions with implications beyond simple “do you” or “don’t you” positions. Between the realms of doubt and belief, one can find that dogmatic attitudes about UFOs, and perhaps countless other subjects, have slowly formed — or have perhaps even been shaped — over time, with the help of those who have pushed either ideology for purpose of gain in other areas.

 TAGS: abduction, misdirection, Psy-Op, ufo

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What Do Ancient Texts Tell Us About Cataclysms in Human Prehistory?

From the the intricate monuments and cities that once covered the ancient Indus Valley, to the weathered steppes of Central Asia; and much further beyond, the ruined, vine-decorated temples of South America, such remnants of the ancient world have long remained among our most fascinating treasures.

The ancient past has long kept many mysteries, some of which we possess at least a degree of knowledge here in modern times. Among these are the notions of ancient cataclysms of truly epic proportion, which seem to suggest that there was more great change on our planet in ancient times than history has managed to yet account for.

Some of the most famous examples of epic, earth-shaking mysteries from times long past come to us in the retellings found in documents from antiquity. For instance, Plato’s dialogue Critias, a text for which only incomplete portions exist today, is famous among both historians and alternative scholars alike, for its description of the fabled island kingdom of Atlantis.

Critias divulges the following about the mythic Atlantean kingdom, and its war with those further inland:

“Let me begin by observing first of all, that nine thousand was the sum of years which had elapsed since the war which was said to have taken place between those who dwelt outside the Pillars of Heracles and all who dwelt within them; this war I am going to describe. Of the combatants on the one side, the city of Athens was reported to have been the leader and to have fought out the war; the combatants on the other side were commanded by the kings of Atlantis, which, as was saying, was an island greater in extent than Libya and Asia, and when afterwards sunk by an earthquake, became an impassable barrier of mud to voyagers sailing from hence to any part of the ocean.”

The passage is indeed a curious one, likened by many to an actual retelling of events, while others maintain that its origins had been a mere thought experiment, never with intention that its contents should be taken literally. Whatever the truth may be, this odd bit of information from the halls of antiquity has spun innumerable legends about the true nature of the lost kingdom of Atlantis, as well as speculation about its origins and possible existence.

Perhaps of equal interest, however, is Plato’s reference to a war that had transpired nine thousand years prior to his own retelling of the events. This, again, might only be a brief, but novel aside in the broader legend; however, its similarity to stories that appear elsewhere — namely those within ancient Hindu epics like the Mahabharataand the Bhagavad-Gita — also seem to describe ancient battles that were fought not only on an epic scale, but with weapons possessing tremendous destructive potential.

The Mahabharata speaks, for instance, of an “unknown weapon” that destroyed an entire race, which is described thusly:

“…. a blazing shaft possessed of the effulgence of a smokeless fire (was) let off… That was how this weapon was perceived. The consequences of its use also evoke involuntary associations. ‘… This makes the bodies of the dead unidentifiable… The survivors lose their nails and hair, and their food becomes unfit for eating. For several subsequent years the Sun, the stars and the sky remain shrouded with clouds and bad weather’.

The weapon, sometimes called either the “Weapon of Brahma,” “Flame of Indra,” was described in the Hindu epics in such a way that, to the modern mind, many of its characteristics resemble our conception of modern nuclear weapons, the likes of which were developed and first used during the Second World War:

“(It was) a single projectile charged with all the power of the Universe. An incandescent column of smoke and flame as bright as the thousand suns rose in all its splendor… it was an unknown weapon, an iron thunderbolt, a gigantic messenger of death, which reduced to ashes the entire race of the Vrishnis and the Andhakas.”

It would be difficult build a case around the existence of actual weapons of mass destruction that were utilized in the ancient world. Nonetheless, such descriptions have provided fodder for the speculations of “ancient alien theorists”, as well as the research of alternative historians like Graham Hancock, which suggests the existence of an ancient super-civilization. With little doubt, there are likely to have been many formations of civilization that have come and gone, and of which we may possess little knowledge today. Could they have utilized technologies similar to those in use in the modern world, and perhaps those with equal destructive potential?

A more plausible scenario would hold that the evidences of epic cataclysms found in texts from antiquity likely represent catastrophic changes occurring on Earth long ago, possibly stemming from any number of different natural sources that range from asteroid impact, to supernovae, or even cosmic ray jets, as suggested by researchers William Topping and Richard B. Firestone, in their 2001 article, “Terrestrial Evidence of a Nuclear Catastrophy in Paleoindian Times”, in which the authors related that, “The entire Great Lakes region (and beyond) was subjected to particle bombardment and a catastrophic nuclear irradiation that produced secondary thermal neutrons from cosmic ray interactions.”

Perhaps this can account for the evidence of mass-destruction in the ancient world, the likes of which many have compared with the effects of modern warfare though, in likelihood, such ancient occurrences were of natural origin. And yes, there is scientific data that helps substantiate such ideas, based on geological and other data spanning the last several hundred thousands of years, showing the degree to which wild changes have occurred on our ancient planet.

Still, no complete picture seems to have emerged. In truth, we may never fully reveal the epic levels of destruction that occurred on this planet since ancient times, though perhaps the persisting question is whether the holy epics and dialogues of antiquity, opposed to being merely folk tales, are actually based on factual occurrences that detail multiple levels of devastation that occurred — perhaps on a global scale — in our ancient world.

Don’t Hold Your Breath: Alien Contact is 1,500 Years Away

Where are they?

Damn you, Fermi! In yet another attempt to determine why we haven’t yet been contacted in some way by extraterrestrials (for those who don’t believe it’s already happened), astronomers at Cornell University say Fermi’s paradox may be resolved and Earth will hear from aliens … but not for 1,500 years.

It’s strictly mathematical, according to Cornell student Evan Solomonides, co-author ofA Probabilistic Analysis of the Fermi Paradox, a paper prepared for the American Astronomical Society’s current meeting.

We haven’t heard from aliens yet, as space is a big place – but that doesn’t mean no one is out there.

Solomonides estimates that Earth has been sending out electronic signals – radio and television – for about 80 years. The good news is, this means they’ve reached around 8,500 stars and 3,500 planets within 80 lights years from us. The bad news is, according to Solomonides, there’s still 200 billion stars left to contact in the Milky Way alone. Then there’s the challenge of deciphering our signals, translating our languages and sending a message back that we can possibly understand.

What about the stars that have heard our signals so far? Isn’t it possible one of them is working on breaking our code and responding in 80 years? Based on the Mediocrity Principle, which basically states that we humans aren’t that special, and the Drake Equation, which estimates the number of possible communicative extraterrestrial civilizations in the galaxy, that’s a definite possibility. However, Solominides’s calculations would seem to tell Fermi that the clock only started 80 years ago and we need to give it more time.

It’s possible to hear any time at all, but it becomes likely we will have heard around 1,500 years from now. Until then, it is possible that we appear to be alone – even if we are not. But if we stop listening or looking, we may miss the signals. So we should keep looking.

Take that, Fermi!

 TAGS: alien, aliens, Astronomy, Drake Equation, extraterrestrial, Extraterrestrial life, Fermi Paradox,Mediocrity Principle, Milky Way, milky way galaxy, natural world, Science, space, technology

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Is This the TR-3B? New Footage Of Alleged “Triangle UFO” Surfaces

The latest in a series of videos appearing online that purportedly show a strange, unidentified triangle-shaped aircraft, has come to the attention of UFO researchers following a submission to the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON).

The video, which the Express featured on its site recently, shows an odd, slow moving object in the distance, which appears on camera for several minutes. The object appears to have a red, green, and white light, each marking one of the three corners of the object (see below).

The video, which was obtained by MUFON, can be seen here.

The object in the recent MUFON video appears to have some resemblance to another aircraft, which was filmed over Longview, Texas one year ago. At that time, the observers labeled it the “Texas (Belgium) Triangle”, due to it’s similarity to an object that appeared throughout a famous wave of sightings over Belgium in the early 1990s.

MUFON has been collecting a number of similar reports over the last several weeks. As reported by Roger Marsh at MUFON’s website, in one recent observation the witness described seeing a large, dark triangle aircraft as it passed at an altitude of just 500 feet as it moved over Shelby County, Ohio. Initially, the witness believed the object had been “a motorized glider.”

Additional reports came from areas that include the town of Indian Land, South Carolina, where a witness reported that on May 26, 2016, the craft was observed as it quickly moved through the sky outside their residence:

“I see a white light with red and blue lights blinking on it flying by. I thought it was just a plane, but what really caught my attention and made me get up and run to the window was how fast the object was moving. I have never seen a plane or anything for that matter move that fast before.”

Additional reports have been made as far away as Britain, where one witness observing the sky in the early evening managed to capture a photograph of an odd, triangular object at it hovered in the sky at some distance.

According to the witness report:

“There was a black triangle hovering in the sky,” the witness stated.“We didn’t take our eyes off it. Very slowly it moved to the north. After approximately 10minutes and to the left of it a black orb appeared. There was another object just below and to the right of the orb that looked like a line and seemed to follow the orb.”

The reports of the alleged triangle “UFOs” appear within weeks of one particularly interesting video, filmed by a motorist in Florida back in May, which appeared to show what some hold to be the best recent footage of one of the unidentified “triangles”, as seen below:

Speculation about the origins of these aircraft have included the theory that many sightings have been of a secret military aircraft. A study carried out by the National Institute of Discovery Science in 2004 noted that, “The United States is currently experiencing a wave of Flying Triangle sightings that may have intensified in the 1990s, especially towards the latter part of the 1990s. The wave continues. The Flying Triangles are being openly deployed over and near population centers, including in the vicinity of major Interstate Highways.”

Space.com similarly reported on NIDS and its findings, which suggested a link to known flight corridors used by the US Air Force. Their conclusion at the time had been that the aircraft are, in likelihood, a variety of stealth blimp being operated by the Department of Defense.

To date, no explanation that offers a conclusive determination on these aircraft has been offered. Hence, the debate as to their origins, and ultimate purpose, remains very much alive; and in likelihood, it is a conspiratorial debate which will continue for some time.

 TAGS: Florida, TR-3B, Triangle UFO, ufo

The UFO Underground: Breakaway Civilizations and Inner Earth Mysteries

Many decades ago, when the construction of the library facilities at Western Carolina University near Cullowhee, North Carolina, had been underway, a local story tells of the discovery of an underground chamber, in which the bodies of what appeared to be a number of Native Americans were found. As the story goes, the construction proceeded as planned at the time, and the chamber was sealed shortly after a small group of archaeologists were allowed to examine the remains, along with a number of items that also filled the ancient underground chamber.

Whether the story above, related to me by a member of the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching, is based on fact, or merely legend, is a worthwhile question. However, there are similar stories that surface from time to time in other parts of the United States as well. The March 12 & April 5, 1909 issues of the Arizona Gazette purportedly carried a story about a similar underground discovery, this time an entire “city”, which was found near the Grand Canyon. One account of the narrative (which can be found here), borrows the very familiar trope of involvement by the Smithsonian Institute in relation to the alleged discovery:

“Smithsonian archaeologists S. A. Jordan and associates also explored the man-made cavern with hundreds of rooms, enough to hold over 50 thousand people. The underground city is about 42 miles up river from El Tovar Crystal Canyon and Crystal Creek, and about 2000 feet above the river bed on the east wall. John Rhodes after 3 years of field research reportedly discovered the Grand Canyon city, which is now being used as a museum for elitist groups and has lower levels that are being used by “super secret black book operatives”, which can only be entered via a stainless steel door at the bottom of a stairwell deep within the “city” that is “guarded by a very lonely soldier staring into the darkness… dressed in a white jumpsuit and armed only with an M16 assault rifle to ward off his imagination.”

The story above is indeed tantalizing, though it should be noted that it contains some conflicting information; namely, the fact that the excerpt discusses a “lonely soldier” armed with an M16 which, despite the story’s attribution to the year 1909, didn’t come into use until after World War II (it is unclear, based on the source, whether the anecdote about the lonely guard was added later).

Similar stories do emerge from time to time that stem from more reliable sources. Researcher Chris O’Brien, author of books like The Mysterious Valley trilogy and co-host of The Paracast, recently told a story related to him by an individual he describes as a “very reliable source”, who had been involved with expansions of the lab facilities at Los Alamos a number of years ago. The individual in question had been an underground demolitions expert, and described “an ancient, antediluvian tunnel system” that he and his team discovered during the underground expansion operation, which he and several others followed for some distance. “They literally went as far as they could before they had to turn around so they could get back by the end of their shift,” O’Brien recalled, with his contact having estimated the tunnels to be at least several thousands of years old.

Another story involving odd underground happenings was featured on the same podcast, as O’Brien and host Gene Steinberg interviewed a friend of mine, Walter Bosley, who discussed his new book Origin: The Nineteenth Century Emergence of the 20th Century Breakaway Civilizations. The book focuses primarily on the 19th Century airship mysteries (as outlined in Bosley’s earlier book, Empire of the Wheel II: Friends from Sonora), although at one point in the interview, Walter begins to discuss an unusual story his father had shared with him decades ago, which seems to offer a radically different interpretation of the famous alleged crash of a mysterious aircraft at Roswell, New Mexico, in the summer of 1947.

Bosley’s father had been a member of the U.S. Air Force throughout the 1950s, in what would have been the early years of Project Mercury, the first human spaceflight program which lasted from 1958 to 1963. The senior Bosley’s unit was involved in testing for pressurized spacesuits, and possessed a high security clearance.

At one point, Bosley’s father was stationed further East at Gunter Air Force Base (now called Gunter Annex) near Montgomery, Alabama, when he and a number of others from his unit were ordered to travel to a USAF base in Texas for what was described as a “briefing issue” at the time. As the aircraft carrying the unit passed above Louisiana, its direction changed to a northerly course, and the men in Bosley’s father’s unit were told they were being taken to Wright Patterson in Ohio. Upon arriving, the group was debriefed about what is known today as the Roswell incident.

“From there,” Bosley recalls of his father’s story, “He and the two guys from his unit were then sent out to Arizona, to a specific location — all I know is that it was in the vicinity of Winslow — an underground location where they were a part of the retrieval of the pilots, crew, or whatever of another crash.” Bosley’s father explained that the aircraft, rather than being of “alien” origin, had belonged to “a hidden civilization here on Earth, in the underground, and that’s what Roswell had been.” In other words, the aircraft recovered during these alleged crashes, as well as the bodies (one of which Bosley’s father said he had been shown while visiting Wright Patterson Air Force Base), had belonged to hidden civilization that exists below ground.

“For what it’s worth, he was very sincere telling this story,” Bosley notes, who says the story was told to him years prior to the initial book on the Roswell incident, authored by Bill Moore and Charles Berlitz. “Over the years, he would tell me a little more about it,” Bosley explained. “But I learned the most about it after I was working for the government myself.” (Walter served with the U.S. Air Force for a number of years).

Walter’s story is similar to one told by another colleague of mine, Nick Redfern, in which Redfern recounted an incident involving “mysterious people” that were found in the southwestern desert (admittedly, I don’t recall right off-hand if this was information that appeared in one of Nick’s articles here at Mysterious Universe, or if it was told to me during one of our many personal conversations on subjects like this). Nonetheless, it was implied in Nick’s story that these “people” may have also had some kind of subterranean origin.

Of his father’s strange story, Walter explains that, “Of course, people ask me, do you believe that? Do you think that?” He also notes that he plans to write a forthcoming book which looks more deeply at his father’s claims… stories which, coming from a man who had been involved with the early innovations in manned spaceflight, are indeed rather interesting.

It is worth noting that a lot of insinuations have been made over the years that, in similar fashion, look at the “underground” angle as it relates to UFOs and similar odd happenings. Many of these theories seem to draw influence from earlier narratives and, specifically, the popular “Shaver Mystery” tales that appeared in Ray Palmer’sAmazing Stories magazine back in the 1940s. But whether or not the answers to things like UFO sightings can literally be attributed to legions of lost inner-earth dwellers, it seems an almost inescapable reality that much of the strange phenomena that has been recounted over the years probably have origins of the terrestrial kind… despite having the appearance, at times, of being quite “unearthly”.

 TAGS: hollow earth, Roswell, Walter Bosley

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Return to Friendship Island: A South American Conspiracy, Revisited

In the summer of 1985, a strange light was observed by thousands of onlookers as it passed through the skies over Santiago, Chile. Among the observers present, a number of them believed they knew the origins of this seemingly “alien” craft, thanks to a story that had risen to popularity after appearing on the Chilean television program Ovni,which dealt with a mysterious island off the Southwest coast of Chile.

This object, they believed, belonged to the strange inhabitants of a place called Friendship Island.

Researcher Diego Zúñiga summarized the incident in an article for the Chilean magazine La Nave de los Locos, which also appeared later at the Magonia blog. In it,  Zúñiga notes that the incident became so sensational that, “the news department of Television Nacional de Chile, channel 7, used a special camera to record the object on videotape.” The object, however, was later revealed to have had earthly origins, and nothing having to do with the supposed “Friendship”: it was merely a weather balloon, released as part of a French stratospheric research project one month earlier.

“Too many people refused to accept the sad reality,” Zúñiga wrote, “and today they still insist that it was, in fact, a ship manned by inhabitants of Friendship Island.”

Indeed, the majority of the sources of information available on the web that discuss the sordid details of the Friendship Island affair still attribute the entire things to “alien beings” who, rather strangely, were said to resemble humans of Nordic appearance. Based on this description, a variety of alternative theories have emerged as well that suggest everything from a secret base where escaped Nazis were keeping various technologies hidden, to more fanciful ideas about a joint-project between these Germans and American intelligence agencies, collaborating on a South American equivalent to Nevada’s most infamous USAF installation, Area 51.

Area 51, viewed distantly from Tikaboo Peak.

Apart from all the speculation, it is hard to know what to make of the Friendship Island stories. Back in the summer of 2012, I wrote a short piece on it here at Mysterious Universe, which despite only recounting a few of the most basic details of the case, went on to become one the of more popular English-language articles on the subject; in truth, this says much less about the depth of the article in question, but rather, it shows us just how little is known of the Friendship case outside the Spanish-speaking world.

In that original article, I detailed the essentials on how the story of the Friendship Island affair began, which presents most of the story’s key players:

It was 1984, someplace near the Southern coast of Chile, and a mysterious distress signal had just buzzed across the receiver of ham radio operator Octavio Ortiz. A business agent who operated a small 27-megacycle CB station in his pastime, Ortiz, who went by the ham operator’s handle Lucero or “bright star,” was mystified by what he was hearing, as it seemed to have to do with a bright celestial object of an entirely different kind.

The captain of a ship called the Mitilus II had been sending these strange messages Ortiz had intercepted, which pertained to an object in the sky it had been following… or perhaps, had been followed by. The Mitilius II was tasked under the Department of Oceanography for the nearby University of Chile, and had been in an approach for the Mitague lighthouse when a strange, bright object had appeared in the sky, then slowly began to descend. By the time Ortiz had come across the messages from Alberto, this strange object was now hovering directly over the distressed captain’s ship.

Shortly after Alberto’s distress messages were received by Ortiz, the light over his ship had apparently already gone. However, Alberto and Ortiz remained in communication after the incident, via their CB radios, and it was eventually related by Alberto that he had been hired by a group of foreigners for various smuggling jobs off the southwestern coast of Chiloe Island. These men, Alberto claimed, had taken him to a strange island where an underground facility existed, and after fitting his ship with various odd electronic equipment, tasked him with various jobs for them. Alberto had been introduced to these “gringos”, he said, by a man named Ernesto de la Fuente, a central character within the broader “Friendship” narrative, as he had not only claimed to have met the Friendship on many occasions, but had also been taken to their island and, incredibly, cured of cancer by the technologies they possessed.

Ernesto de la Fuente had risen to fame in Chile after he appeared on the Ovni episode detailing the weird story of the Friendship, although he had made earlier television appearances as well: one Chilean program from the mid-1990s depicted de la Fuente as an experiencer of various paranormal or “ghostly” phenomenon. For some, it had been de la Fuente’s ongoing experiences with the unexplained that seemed to diminish his credibility, although shortly after publication of my MU article, my colleague and fellow blogger Miguel Romero (also known as Red Pill Junkie) and I shared a brief exchange with de la Fuente’s nephew, Francisco Ilabaca, who now resides in the United States. Ilabaca was able to confirm, based on family information, certain details about the case:

“Ernesto De La Fuente is my great uncle. I’ve been trying to contact him but I now live in the US. According to my mother, the cancer was real. After the chilean tv show OVNI aired their story, he received countless phone calls and was constantly harassed for information by people wanting to get cured. Eventually he moved to the north of chile to a secluded town in the interior of the country, and converted to Mormonism. I haven’t talked to him or my aunt in years. He was also involved in a famous ghost apparition case in Chile that aired on TV. His first wife shot herself in their home and would appear from time to time. I spent many weekends of my childhood playing in that house, and only remember one weird incident.”

The stories about Friendship Island would continue, however, even beyond the involvement of Ernesto de la Fuente and the other initial players. Researchers Scott Corrales of the Hispanic Institute for Ufology, as well as researcher Raul Nunez, have continued to collect reports that appear to be somewhat related to the case (a number of these can be read here, and admittedly, some of the stories are quite fascinating).

My personal research into this case, while leading me to believe it has very little (if anything) to do with UFOs, has nonetheless left an impression there is still something to the entire affair. Little-known as it is in the United States, it was suggested to me by researcher Peter Levenda during an email exchange, and a subsequent Skype conversation, that the case does appear to bear some similarities to Levenda’s own experiences in Chile decades ago, when he visited a secretive — and infamous — commune in the Maule region of central Chile known as Colonia Dignidad.

Villa Baviera, as it appears today.

Today, the location in question is called Villa Baviera, although at the time Levenda went there in the late 1970s, it was a hideout for former Nazis that included Paul Schäfer, an accused child molester who had served as the colony’s leader and central figure. Levenda believes he was mistaken for being an Israeli Mossad agent, which led to him being detained briefly upon arriving, and thereafter ordered to leave the country.

Although little is said of Friendship Island in the English speaking world (Levenda, at the time he contacted me, had apparently not heard of it either), there are still occasional threads that turn up elsewhere. For instance, I managed to find a very peculiar English-language advertisement that appeared in 2009 in a newspaper called El Llanquihue, published in the community of Puerto Montt, Chile (near the alleged location of Friendship Island. Below is an image of the advertisement, which apparently ran for close to three weeks:

This is indeed a rather tantalizing clue to emerge, in the midst of an already odd case that, to the most skeptical among us, represents little more than another phony story around which a hopeful “UFO religion” has been slowly built in South America. Who knows, perhaps there is more to it after all… although as I stated previously, my feeling is that this case, and the grains of truth it represents, have much less to do with UFOs, aliens, angels, or miraculous healings, and instead probably represents another piece of the bigger puzzle that comprises secret, Cold War-era operations that were taking place in South America… some of which probably did, in fact, have something to do with the German presence there after World War II.

As always, I invite anyone who may have their own ideas on any of this to contact me about it via email, or you may, of course, use the comments section below this post just as well.

 TAGS: Colonia Dignidad, Friendship Island, Ovni, Peter Levenda, ufo

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The UFO Phenomenon: Science, or Conspiracy?

In the modern lexicon used by most non-fringe writers today, the subject of UFOs would generally be referred to as a “conspiracy theory”. The general attitude behind this presumption holds that UFOs, if they exist, are something most “believers” presume to be extraterrestrial visitors; an unlikely possibility that, in order to remain unsubstantiated, would almost have to rely on world governments maintaining a degree of secrecy on the matter.

Thus, to believe in UFOs almost requires one to find acceptance with other fringe areas of thought just as well; such things as a “shadow government”, and equally-shadowy scenarios where the “real truth” about our universe is kept from the general public by those in authority. In other words, there would seem to be hardly any way the subject of UFOs can be discussed in a modern context, without an air of conspiracy eventually entering the discussion.

Interestingly, most writers and researchers within the UFO field have been accepting of the idea of a conspiratorial angle relating to UFO studies. Arguably though, these individuals would dismiss the notion (and perhaps rightly so) that the insinuation of a “conspiracy” is necessarily something that reduces the credibility of a pro-UFO argument. As historian Richard Dolan has noted, the usage of the term conspiracy theory actually has a history in the intelligence community; more specifically, the term began to see popular use in the years following the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, which became useful in marginalizing theories about the incident that fell outside the findings of the Warren Commission and its official report.

Decades ago, for the subject of UFOs to be referred to as a “conspiracy theory” might have seemed strange. However, in modern usage it is all too common to find articles in which terms like “UFO conspiracy theorists” are thrown about (in fact, I can think of one notable instance where Mysterious Universe was actually referred to as a “conspiracy theory website”, as stated by a writer for Snopes.com. Although some conspiracy theories are discussed here, I would also argue that a broad range of non-conspiratorial subjects are addressed here too).

In Michael Barkun’s book, A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America (University of California Press), the author makes many examples of conspiratorial thought within UFO studies and belief. In the excerpt below, one of the most convoluted and polarizing situations in UFO history, which involved the controversial MJ-12 papers, are discussed, in relation to how the debate over their legitimacy has helped foment further advocacy for a conspiratorial nature to the broader UFO phenomenon:

In the years since the MJ-12 papers became widely known, they have taken on a life of their own. Additional, related documents periodically appear, some as recently as 1998. Just as with the Kennedy assassination, MJ-12 has generated a cottage industry of commentators, authenticators, and critics. More broadly, MJ-12 laid the foundation for elaborate conspiracy theories by suggesting that UFOs were of extraterrestrial origin, that the federal government was aware of them as early as the late 1940s, and that a secret bureaucracy had been created to study and control the situation. These claims allowed some ufologists to shift from observation of flying saucers to attempts to unravel alleged government machinations. The proliferation of MJ-12 documents and theories not only identified the enemy as a segment of the government, but— inasmuch as this “secret government” was supposed to have hidden all relevant information— allowed great latitude in what might be “revealed.” It mattered little whether publicly available evidence confirmed a claim; its author could always respond, “The government knows it, but won’t tell you.”

Perhaps it could be argued, without sensationalism, or even the insinuation of “fringe” ideas, that publicly available evidence does exist which seems to confirm — if not that UFOs as an extraterrestrial or other exotic technology do exist — that government agencies have at very least maintained an interest in the subject.

In many cases, this interest likely has had more to do with how belief in the subject might be controlled or influenced. For instance, if we accept the most widely-agreed upon explanation for the aforementioned MJ-12 affair — one in which the papers were determined to be forgeries aimed at misleading elements within the UFO community — it would certainly seem that we do not, therefore, acknowledge that the majority of the ideas expressed within the documents were legitimate. Nonetheless, if we recognize the broader context in which the alleged “leak” of those papers occurred, involving numerous similar UFO misinformation campaigns directed at notable researchers within the community, we do begin to see that government agencies played a clear role in the affair. More specifically, Richard Doty, who had been an AFOSI Special Agent at the time, had worked to assist with the careful presentation of information pertaining to UFOs to researchers that included Paul Bennewitz and a number of others, aimed at misleading and, thus, discrediting them.

Former AFOSI Special Agent Richard Doty

What I’ve presented here might be viewed as a justification, by some, for belief in conspiracies among the UFO community. To the contrary, this argument merely illustrates the way the “conspiracy theory” terminology and its related stereotypes have helped marginalize the UFO advocacy groups over time, despite the fact that historical precedent exists for actual “UFO conspiracies”, and even some degree of government involvement in them. However, it could be further argued that in a broader assessment of UFOs, a general belief in conspiracies among its proponents does not render any significant benefits.

Because of this, I have long argued the necessity for a more scientific and, when warranted, skeptical outlook on the phenomenon, applied by independent researchers and investigative organizations alike. In my recent essay, “Toward a Better UFOlogy: Applying Science to the Study of UAP“, I presented a number of reasons why the research community might benefit from less focus or adherence to the idea (or politcal movement, essentially) of UFO disclosure; in equal measure, I present a newly updated system of classifications for various UFO types, and finally, a set of “filters” for helping identify various unidentified flying objects, with the aim of being able to help observers make reasonable identifications of various conventional aircraft, objects, and natural phenomena that often lead to UFO reports. In my view, the proper ability to assess information in the truly “unidentified” UFO reports would help reduce our data set to a much smaller number of reports; the very best of these may then begin to represent a much clearer picture of what some UFO technologies (if they are indeed technological) actually are. 

In the end, if we are to ask whether UFOs are a matter of science, or one of pure conspiracy, there may not be any pure distinction. The UFO subject is inevitably linked to conspiracies, both of the real kind, and of the variety implied through popular terminology. However, despite the persistence of conspiracies in relation to all this, in order to reliably move forward in our understanding of this subject is to attempt to apply science to it; while UFOs may never fully escape the stigmas of fringe belief, they nonetheless represent a subject that could benefit from, and perhaps even be beneficial to, science.

Watch Out For The Women In Black

Right now, I have a new book out titled Women in Black: The Creepy Companions of the Mysterious M.I.B. It’s a book which, as the title suggests, tells a very strange and at times even disturbing story. It is a story that has pretty much consistently stayed under the radar of the UFO research community. This is hardly surprising, however, taking into consideration the fact that reports of the WIB are so often overlooked, or deliberately ignored, by saucer-sleuths. There is a very good reason why such a situation has occurred. For many people within Ufology, if it’s not good old “nuts and bolts” Ufology – of the kind that got Donald Keyhoe so excited decades ago – they don’t want to know about it. Much like those many dedicated Bigfoot-seekers who have no time for the weirder side of Sasquatch.

The Women in Black are clearly not a part of that aforementioned “nuts and bolts” domain. They’re much weirder – even though there is an undeniable connection to the UFO puzzle. Which, of course, raises big questions about the true nature of the UFO phenomenon. Just like their male, black-clad counterparts, the WIB are not the employees – or the “secret agents” – of any arm of government, of the military, or of the intelligence community. Indeed, just about all of the presently available data suggests they aren’t even human.

As I note in my book, none other than the recently departed Albert Bender – who, in near single-handed fashion brought the Men in Black mystery to life in the early 1950s – was exposed to the Women in Black enigma roughly a decade and a half before he had his own chilling encounters with the MIB. As I also note in the book, there’s no doubt that the Woman in Black and the MIB of the Bender family were connected. The link practically jumps out. The WIB connection to the so-called “Contactee” movement of the 1950s also comes to light – providing that one knows where to look for it.

In the 1960s, John Keel – of The Mothman Prophecies fame – came to realize that the Men in Black had their female equivalents, and he even incurred their ominous wrath. And their unsettling manipulation, too. By the 1970s, things got decidedly weird. Black-wig-wearing, pale-faced women were knocking on doors and terrifying those they visited, silencing UFO witnesses, and asking crazy questions.

And, as with the MIB, the Women in Black are always looking to spread their wings. We’re talking about WIBs silencing seekers of cryptozoological creatures, threatening those that delve into the world of the occult, and monitoring those investigating so-called “animal mutilations.” Then, there’s what is quite possibly the most alarming part of all. We’re talking about people quickly falling sick after encountering the Women in Black. No, I don’t mean the likes of panic-attacks or sleepless nights.

Rather, I mean serious physical illnesses – as if the WIB have the ability to somehow supernaturally “infect” us. Controversial? Of course! But, everything about the Women in Black is controversial – such as their sometimes-reported plastic-like skin, their uncanny knack of seemingly controlling the minds of the poor souls they target, and their “here one second and gone the next second” abilities.

Should you ever receive a late-night, slow knock on the front-door, be careful. Verycareful. Inviting one of the Women in Black into your home may not be a wise move. In fact, it may be just about the biggest mistake possible.

 TAGS: bigfoot, Men in Black, Women in Black

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