From: C. Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy.area51 Subject: Close Encounters -- Date, please Date: 20 Jul 1995 Hi, I need to know what year "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" came out. Anybody here know offhand? Does anyone have a copy of a book called "Operation Trojan Horse" for sale or know the name of the author, publisher, and/or date? Can you provide a brief summary of the contents? This all came up in conversation with a friend of mine who I thought was interested in UFOs from a "sociological phenomenon" point of view -- and who surprised me by saying, with quite a bit of bitterness, that, years ago, upon having read the above mentioned book and having seen the above mentioned movie, he concluded that "talking about these things leads you down a seductive path that corrupts your logical thinking and results in trouble with friends and family." When I asked him what was so "seductive" about UFO fantasies (for I believed that he considered the movie a work of fiction), he said, "It's a closed subject. I had to stop thinking about it." When I asked him to describe the book, he said, "I can't explain it; it deals with tempting thoughts and their effects on people." I have seen the movie and I think I understand what he meant by "seductive thoughts" damaging family life (see the infamous mashed potato mountain scene), but I have never even heard of the book before and I am very curious about the movie's relationship to the book -- if there is one any place other than in my friend's mind. Any help would be appreciated. C. ------------ From: psychospy@aol.com (PsychoSpy) Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy.area51 Subject: Close Encounters -- Date, please Date: 20 Jul 1995 > Also does anyone have a copy of a book called "Operation Trojan > Horse" As always, with any UFO books, you can check with Bob Girard at Arcturus books to see if he has a new or used copy for sale. He is at 407-398-0796. Also ask for his catalog. One suspects that it was not the "seductive ideas" of UFOs that lead your subject to his problems but some more personal difficulty. Psychospy ------------ Date: Thu, Jul 20, 1995 From: C. To: PsychoSpy Thanks for the tip on the book. I will follow it up. You wrote: >One suspects that it was not the "seductive ideas" of UFOs that >lead your subject to his problems but some more personal >difficulty. Well, yeah, but that's how he phrased it ... and besides, I didn't want to offend any "true believers" in the newsgroup. Frankly, this fellow's mom was looney tunes in her later years and he himself has been diagnosed as "paranoid" by a psychologist who happens to be another old friend. Ya wanna know HOW paranoid he is? Dig this: We've been friends for years but rarely see each other anymore. We used to kid aroundabout about UFOs and contactees, just for yucks. He's a fan of yours (through articles he's seen on you) but he doesn't surf the net, so I have sent him print-outs of some of your Desert Rats and other stuff from a.c.a51, just to amuse him. And so it came to pass that I sent him a print-out of your "Paranoid News," which I had really enjoyed...and guess what? -- yep, he phoned me up right away, VERY hostile, and demanded to know, "What's the idea of sending me THAT, huh? Are you trying to TELL me something here? Why don't you just come right out and SAY it?" I was flabbergasted. That's when he told me that he had just been diagnosed as "paranoid" (I had no idea of this, of course) and thefriend was trying to get him into therapy. It was in a conversation pursuant to that one that he sprang the whole thing on me about how, when he saw "Close Encounters" and read that book, he suddenly knew that he'd have to keep his mouth shut about UFOs and "treat them as a sociological phenomenon" because "it's a slippery slope down that line of reasoning and once you start thinking too hard about aliens and the government, you might not be able to pull back, and you could lose your family and friends." I made this sound like a funny anecdote, but I am actually worried about him. Imagine how you'd feel if a good friend of yours like Agent X suddenly told you that he'd "cried after seeing 'Close Encounters' because it was a like a...a WARNING or something, like a signpost warning you of danger!" C. ---------------- Date: Fri, Jul 21, 1995 1:47 PM PDT From: PsychoSpy To: C. C. -- Ah, yes. A human problem. I think "Paranoid Personality Disorder" is quite intractable. Although some drugs can sometimes alleviate the symptoms, the subject won't consent to any medical treatment because he sees nothing wrong with himself, and the medical establishment appears to be part of the conspiracy. Unless the old friend is unusually successful--because he is a friend--expect a degenerative progression not unlike Alzheimer's, leading to total isolation. Unless the paranoia is the result of some other disorder that can be treated, like drug dependency or schitzophrenia, there's nothing much to be done. Watch what you say and be careful not to push him into a corner. When confronted with logic, a paranoiac is likely to blow up or seek revenge and can be very dangerous. Psychospy ----------------- Date: Fri, Jul 21, 1995 5:29 PM PDT From: C. To: PsychoSpy A bit more data: My friend wears one of your Dreamland/Area 51 patches on his jacket but he is not interested in military aeronautics. When asked if he believes in a UFO-government conspiracy that includes cattle mutilation and Men in Black and human abductions and sinister medical experiments, he becomes very cagey: "I'd rather not say WHAT I believe at this time. I'd rather you tell me what YOU believe." I know that the prognosis is bad. His mom ended up living alone in a house littered with papers she could not throw away -- leaving only little trails between the stacks to get from one room to another. Some rooms were so filled with paper they could no longer be entered. My friend used to laugh at her eccentricity and her isolation from society ("It all started when she began to save back issues of the Saturday Evening Post..."), but lately he has begun to compare himself to her ("I have to keep a lid on these..._impulses_ toward accumulation...") which is what first got me worried. He claims that his only problem is depression: "I'm not much fun to be around these days," he says, as if that explains everything. His friend the psychologist wants him to try Prozac for the depression, but so far he has refused (even breaking a doctor's appointment after he himself set it up), and he recently told me, "I have learned to keep my mouth shut around him; he is convinced that my problem is mental illness." C. ------------- Date: July 25, 1995 From: Psychospy To: C. The mother's case sounds like Alzheimer's. My grandmother went out in exactly the same way--surrounded by piles of newspapers she couldn't throw away. This wasn't paranoia; it was pure brain-rot. A CAT scan showed big portions eaten away. Alzheimer's might bring out certain personality characteristics that might otherwise be held in check. Paranoia might be a way of trying to regain control as you feel your brain slipping away, but Alzheimer's would probably have other obvious symptoms like memory loss and THE SAME OLD STORIES REPEATED OVER AND OVER AGAIN. [5868]