Report on the SSE Conference in Las Vegas [Rumors & Innuendo]

From: campbell@ufomind.com (Glenn Campbell, Las Vegas)
Date: Thu, 12 Jun 1997 08:37:07 -0800
Subject: Report on the SSE Conference in Las Vegas [Rumors & Innuendo]


I was on vacation last week, so I did not go to the Society for
Scientific Exploration conference in Las Vegas, June 5-7, but it
looks like I didn't miss much.  Two attendees briefed me.

One journalist said there were a lot of bright, high-powered
scientists there, but she decribed their lectures as
"sophomoric," not the sort you would expect at a professional
conference. Jacques Vallee's lecture was "Flying Saucers 101,"
she said. This journalist, working for a national magazine, had
trouble getting people to talk to her.  Vallee would not.
(Evidently, Vallee is withdrawn from the field for all practical
purposes.)  All the people associated with the Bigelow organization
also seemed hard-to-get.  (Bigelow is very secretive and requires
no-disclosure agreements from fundees and employees -- which
all contributes to the Great Bigelowian Conspiracy now
circulating on the net.)

The semi-mysterious John Alexander spoke at the conference. My
first source described him as "creepy," but my other source
thought his lecture was the best of those given. Alexander talked
about the Bigelow organization. He described their game plan and
seemed to directly address the conspiracy rumors on the net.
Alexander emphasized that "no tea money" was used in the
organization. (Robert Bigelow is not the same as Bigelow Tea, as
alleged on the net.) The National Institute of Discovery Science
(NIDS) apparently has two scientists on staff. (As I recall,
there is a biologist working on cattle mutilations and a
physicist working on propulsion systems. One is a former NASA
scientist.) My second source thought the NIDS plan sounded
respectable, at least as described by Alexander.

(Fortunately, Alexander's talk probably won't be heard beyond
those directly attending the conference, and the NIDS web site
gives little info. This is good, because the Great Bigelowian
Conspiracy is getting to be a lot of fun on the net, and it would
be sad to see it brought down to earth.)

See NIDS at: http://www.accessnv.com/nids/
Alexander: www.ufomind.com/ufo/people/a/alexander/
Bigelow: www.ufomind.com/ufo/people/b/bigelow/

A humorous tidbit:  The Bigelow people are now referring to
themselves as the "Aviary", no doubt inspired by the fine work
of Dr. Boylan.  (Reality immitates conspiracy.)

[I want a bird name!  I want, I want, I want!]

My other source found the conference mildly worthwhile, if only
because it "scratched an itch," but he wouldn't go again.  He
said there appeared to be a lot of "networking" going on in the
background which he was not privy to, and he thought that this
was the main value of the conference for most attendees.  There
were a lot of cocktail conversations about statistical variations
and other technical topics.  Physicist/remote viewing researcher
Hal Puthoff was seen heavily networking, and he was also the
"M.C." for one of the conference days.

See our Puthoff Page at www.ufomind.com/ufo/people/p/puthoff/

Local conference sponsor Dean Radin, a parapsychology researcher
at UNLV, was described by my first source as "a little gnome" and
by the second as small fellow "wound up just a wee bit too tight."

See our Radin Page at www.ufomind.com/ufo/people/r/radin/

A pre-conference story appears in the June 2 Las Vegas Sun:
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/archives/1997/jun/02/505955628.html

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REVIEW OF MARRS BOOK

In other Rumors & Innuendo, a colleague has just reviewed Jim
Marrs new "Alien Agenda" book.  He regards it as rubbish, so
riddled with factual errors that he doesn't know where to start.

I encourage anyone else who has read the book to post a report
here. (It is on-topic, since the book apparently includes an Area
51 section.)

Jim Marrs: http://www.ufomind.com/ufo/people/m/marrs/

+---------------------------------------------------------+
|    GLENN CAMPBELL - Government Disinformation Agent     |
|             "Who does he really work for?"              |
|                                                         |
| Area 51 Research Center            campbell@ufomind.com |
| Las Vegas Annex                  http://www.ufomind.com |
+---------------------------------------------------------+