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From: Mark Pilkington <m.pilkington@virgin.net>
Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 18:32:07 +0100
Fwd Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 15:13:32 -0400
Subject: MAGONIA Monthly Supplement No. 16 June 1999


MAGONIA Monthly Supplement (formerly ETH Bulletin)
Interpreting contemporary vision and belief

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Editor: JOHN HARNEY       
No. 16 June 1999
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EDITORIAL

In last month's editorial I expressed puzzlement at the apparent
logical inconsistency of apparently taking seriously stories of
aliens gliding through walls as well as aliens securely locked
up at US Air Force bases. Even a fantasy world must have some
kind of internal logic, if the reader is to attain the desired
suspension of disbelief while reading about it. My difficulty is
not with the serious study of alleged alien abductions and UFO
crashes, but with the fact that so many well-educated and highly
intelligent folk treat these stories as if they represented a
physical reality - the activities of extraterrestrial beings -
rather than just a social reality.

I also have difficulty, along with a number of other British and
French ufologists, of trying to understand how so many
researchers favour the ETH as the explanation for puzzling UFO
reports, which inevitably leads to distortion of the evidence
and testimony, rather than engaging on unbiased investigations
on a case-by-case basis. This approach has certainly paid
dividends for some British and French investigators.
________________________________________________________________

PREDICTIONS AND CRASHES

Nigel Watson

If anyone predicts anything about UFOs it is almost certain to
be proven wrong. Most predictions about imminent mass landings
and revelations are made by cultists or contactees, but more
often sober groups expect "something to happen" very soon. A
case in point was given by an unnamed spokesman for the British
UFO Society (BUFOS):

"During 1979 there will be a major breakthrough . . . " which
"will make it necessary for us to take the most searching look
inwards so we can reach up to higher wisdom. If UFOs are
extraterrestrial we have to be mentally alert to finding ways
and means of having open traffic."

As far as I know, there was no reaching in, looking up or open
traffic with UFOs in 1979; then again my Ford Capri could well
have taken me on a one-way road to spiritual ignorance and
oblivion.

From the same newspaper source (1) we are told:

"A recent visitor to San Francisco told the Evening Express that
daily papers were carrying stories about an incident which the
MoD and RAF had investigated. This, according to reports,
involved a crash by some vehicle, in the wreckage of which there
were two badly burned corpses, each about 4 feet tall."

BUFOS were asked about this case but they could only refer to
"an incident in Norway in the 1960s" which they thought was an
early space mission with apes, that had gone wrong.

Does anyone know anything else about the corpses found by the
RAF twenty years ago? It did strike me that it could have been a
confabulation of the Berwyn Mountain crash case of January 1974,
but I don't think there was that much interest in the case, in
terms of a crashed spaceship, until the 1990s.

Could this be another smoking gun, or just another garbled
rumour?

Reference
1. Power, Tim. "Watch out for a UFO breakthrough", Evening Express
(Aberdeen), 9 March 1979

LITERARY CRITICISM

Jonathan Downes and Nigel Wright. The Rising of the Moon: The
Devonshire UFO Triangle, Domra Publications, 1999. No price
given

This is an unusual UFO book by any standards. It begins with
Jonathan Downes drowning his sorrows in  whisky and pills, and
ends with him going into psychotherapy. In between there is a
heady brew of Fort, Keel, Holiday, Crowley and Lovecraft mixed
with the authors' own research into unexplained events in
Devonshire.

They show that the outside world can be as wild and insane as
our own minds; UFOs, mystery animals, MIB, poltergeists,
monsters, merfolk and pixies have pranced and paraded all over
Devonshire for many a long year. Wright and Downes's
investigations and research are candid and amusing. In 1997 they
attended the BBC Radio Devon stand at the Devon County Show and,
amongst Spice Girls impersonators and prize bulls, they talked
about UFOs and a friend marched around as a grey alien. Another
friend, Richard Freeman, claims that his worship of a spider-god
caused a plague of these creatures in Yorkshire. And there is
plenty more weird stuff to please a saucer full of hippies.

Given the sensational nature of such topics, and the
circumstances of their research, lots of useful, intriguing and
detailed local reports are compared and contrasted with theories
and cases beyond Devonshire. There are a few odd holes in their
research, though. For example, they refer to the British 1909
airship scare as being "not satisfactorily dealt with
elsewhere". There are quite a few useful articles on this
subject, but this only highlights the fact that ufological work
has to be continually rediscovered, due to a lack of
bibliographic and archive resources. Despite this, the authors
put the phantom airship cases they do find into their proper
social context and highlight the fact that such phenomena are
not seen in isolation.

It is also a surprise to find them demolishing several of the
cases they present earlier in the book, and they certainly have
no love for the circus surrounding Roswell or the ETH. They do
not dismiss the ETH entirely, but they postulate that UFOs and
other Fortean phenomena are caused by energy forms that feed off
human emotions. They call this Odylic Lifeforce Energy which
comes from the Wilhelm Reich school of mystical ufology. Whether
such energy vampires exist is an entertaining idea but the
authors rightly and artfully cop out by saying their book is
"based on personal experience rather than a scientific
treatise". A good read anyway.

Nigel Watson

Sarah Moran. Alien Art: Extraterrestrial Expressions on Earth,
Bramley Books, 1998. =9C12.99

Like one of his beloved sky gods, Erich von Daniken and his
ancient astronaut theories have reappeared on our planet. As
proof, this is a picture book of his greatest hits. We get
glossy pictures of the Nazca Lines, Japanese figurines, Mayan
pyramids, Costa Rica balls and all the usual suspects.

What puzzles me is if half of these sculptures, carvings,
monuments and structures are true remains of alien, or
alien-inspired, work, why didn't they leave something a bit more
convincing than a bunch of rocks pointing at a star, or carvings
of people in funny hats? Sure enough, the construction of many
of these artifacts is often remarkable and impressive but not
beyond the efforts of humanity. Even a dedicated believer
doesn't have to look far to find alternative and more mundane
explanations for these objects.

At first appearances this book is a pleasant and uncritical look
at ancient astronautics. What is more worrying is Moran's
scepticism of Darwinian evolution; the last words of her book
are: "Is it so much harder to contemplate that we may have been
influenced by visitors from the skies, than that we somehow
evolved from an elusive missing link with monkeys? An open mind
is all we need." With open minds like that we could all fall
into a bottomless pit of gullibility. At least monkeys exist in
reality; the space gods or aliens are just a fancy concept.

I don't think science is omnipotent, and there are flaws in
Darwinian theory, and it is refreshing that "establishment
science" is not slavishly venerated and respected. Charles Fort
certainly made it his life's work poking holes and fun at
pompous scientists and their precious dogmas. The only problem
now is that anyone can kick a stone or read a book, and before
you can say "George Adamski" they become an expert who knows
better than qualified scientists. Then again, some qualified
scientists have weirder ideas than a room full of drunken
rabbits. So the point of this argument is that this book is just
an excuse for pretty pictures and vacuous questions that pander
to brainless dolts.

To summarise: A nice picture book for believers who pray on
their knees to von Daniken and swallow his extraterrestrial
ejaculations.

Nigel Watson

________________________________________________________________

LETTERS

Martin Kottmeyer's "Betty Hill's Medical Nightmare" (MMS, No.
12, February 1999) is an absurd bit of speculative overreaching
totally unworthy of him. Unlike many of my colleagues on the
"pro-UFO" side of the fence, I happen to think Marty has given
us some important insights that ufologists would be foolish to
ignore. These are best summed up as, "Be very, very careful in
teasing out and evaluating the testimony of UFO percipients or
alleged percipients. If their experiences were real, never
forget that what witnesses think they see during startling and
strange experiences is "framed" by their life experiences, and
among the most important influences are popular culture and
high-profile current events. Maybe what they saw wasn't quite
like they remember it. Further, if the witnesses weren't
witnesses at all, but hoaxers or dupes instead, then clues to
what inspired the hoax and/or its content are likely to be found
in popular culture, etc." Sound advice.

Taking one of Kottmeyer's most famous suggestions as an example,
suppose Barney Hill did see an alien being with compelling eyes
staring down at him on the night of 19 September 1961 (I happen
to think he did). However, suppose he also saw that Outer Limits
episode featuring "the eyes that speak" just a few days before
Dr Simon hypnotically probed his CE-III experience. Barney's
recollections that day may well have been importantly influenced
by what he'd seen on TV. Thus, if we can't prove beyond a
reasonable doubt that Barney didn't see "The Bellero Shield",
we're left with having to suspend judgement on the accuracy of
Barney's description of the "captain", though not necessarily
the experience itself.

Regrettably, Kottmeyer almost invariably does himself and the
value of his thinking a disservice by trying to make his
approach do too much, as in "Medical Nightmare". Without any
evidence - none! - he assumes Betty was consumed by fears of
radioactive bomb-test fallout, inspired by the not so Lucky
Dragon incident, etc., etc., even stating without qualification
that she had an "understandable [radiation] anxiety". (Where did
you come up with this intelligence, Marty? Pray, do tell us.)
Without a shred of supporting evidence or testimony, he links
this presumed anxiety with Betty's compass-needle test of the
car and the mysterious spots (not actually suggested by a
physicist, by the way), Betty's and the "leader"'s discussion of
earthly foods, the nature of the physical exams and biological
sample collection to which she and Barney were subjected, and so
on. Even more tenuously, he suggests the false-teeth episode was
born of bits of nearly 12-year-old wire-service stories of dead
saucer pilots with perfect teeth tucked away in Betty's
subconscious. (At least the Outer Limits episode was broadcast
only days before Barney's recall of the compelling, wrap-around
eyes!) And so on, and on, and on.

In a letter earlier this year, Kottmeyer told me his "interest
in ufology is mainly in the nature of a mental hobby akin to
solving crossword puzzles". While the products of such mental
gymnastics can be useful when applied to real-world data whose
relevancy is solidly established, they are worse than useless
when wielded without such a connection. Marty, with respect, if
you can't plausibly marry up theories and facts, stick to
crosswords.

Karl T. Pflock,
Placitas, New Mexico


Dear Karl:

Your challenge to me to come up with evidence that Betty was
consumed by fears of radioactive bomb-test fallout associated
with Project Bravo is misguided. I did not say she feared
fallout from any test. I said she feared she had been exposed to
radiation during the UFO encounter. The quote, "She almost
panicked . . . " and the claim that she was haunted by the
thought she had been exposed to radioactivity appear on pp. 39
and 40 of The Interrupted Journey and I consider that synonymous
with anxiety.

I have never denied Barney had an experience. You have termed
the claim of influence by "The Bellero Shield" a "mere nit"
elsewhere. Donald Keyhoe singled out the sinister look of the
eyes as something that needed to be fully explained and
doubtless would praise you for correcting his misimpression of
its import. Still, it is not the effects on the assessment of
the Hill case that made the finding interesting to me, it was
the fact that many post-Hill cases also claimed that aliens had
wraparound eyes. Your faith that Barney saw eyes that were
"compelling" is puzzling. When I laid out the paper trail for
Bullard, he agreed that this particular description does not
appear ("The Eyes Still Speak", REALL News, June/July 1998,
available on the REALL website).

That the connection of the false teeth episode in the Hill case
to the Koehler yarn is tenuous is true, but quite beside the
point. The whole exercise was an attempt to show an alternative
explanation is possible, not that it was certain. Mack was
implying that alternative interpretations of alien medical
procedures were not even conceivable. I showed it was not as
difficult as he thought. Let me interject that if we accept
certain claims that abductions have been happening since before
the turn of the century and in massive numbers, the surprise
shown over the dentures is a bit odd. Sixty-plus years and they
haven't seen dentures before?

In saying stick to crosswords, you presume I do crosswords in
the present tense. I have not done any in probably 15 or 20
years. I used to like them, but interests change.

Martin S. Kottmeyer,
Carlyle, Illinois

First, with respect to your declaration that, to your knowledge,
there are no cases with multiple independent witnesses "which
cannot be explained with reference to sightings of aircraft or
natural phenomena", I find it hard to believe you are not aware
of many such cases. So I suspect this was a ploy to draw out
ETHers, case lists in hand.

Of course, such sightings are numerous, many of them very
significant in terms of the ETH or, at least, encounters with
non-human technology. I'll cite just three of my favourites: (1)
12 August 1953, Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, multiple
ground and airborne visual and radar, with apparent UFO reaction
to witness actions (see Ruppelt, The Report on Unidentified
Flying Objects, pp. 232-235 in Doubleday hardcover, pp. 304-308
in Ace paperback); (2) 30 June 1950, near Kingman, Kansas,
multiple ground visual CE-I/II, with apparent UFO reaction to
witness actions (see Gross, UFOs: A History - April-July 1950,
pp. 66-70); (3) 17 July 1957, over Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas
and Oklahoma, multiple airborne and ground radar visual, with
radar-emitting UFO and apparent UFO reactions to witness
activity (see Brad Sparks, "RB-47 Radar Visual Case", in Clark,
The UFO Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition, pp. 761-790).

Second, "Betty Hill's Medical Nightmare" redux, reply to Martin
Kottmeyer's rejoinder:

I didn't suggest Kottmeyer claimed Betty "feared fallout from
any test" but rather that his suggestion that Betty was primed
to fear exposure to radiation by the fallout paranoia of the
time - the inescapable meaning of what you wrote, Marty - is
offered without a single fact to back it up.

As for the compelling eyes, I misspoke, or "mistyped". What I
should have written was that, from the beginning of the
investigation in 1961, it was clear Barney Hill was deeply
affected emotionally by what seemed to him the intense focus of
the UFO "captain". Quoting from Walter Webb's 26 October 1961
report on the case, recounting his interview with the Hills on
19 October: "The "leader" at the window held a special
attraction for the witness and frightened him terribly. The
witness said he could almost feel this figure's intense
concentration to do something, to carry out a plan. Mr Hill
believed he was going to be captured "like a bug in a net.""

Whether the leader had compelling eyes or not, it's clear from
the outset, well before the "Bellero Shield" and hypnosis,
Barney Hill found the figure he saw frighteningly compelling. As
I noted in my previous letter to MMS, we are indebted to Marty
Kottmeyer for pointing out the "Bellero Shield" problem and thus
the need to suspend judgement or at least be very cautious about
the eyes that spoke, but only the eyes. I don't recall referring
to the possible influence of this Outer Limits episode as a
"mere nit", but if I did (sounds like me), I was wrong.

Kottmeyer's point about claims of alien abduction subsequent to
the Hill case reflecting key features of that case as it has
been recounted is well taken and now well recognised in ufology,
in no small degree thanks to Marty. Equally well taken is his
case against John Mack's sweeping assertion about alien medical
procedures. However, I stand by my criticism of his article with
respect to the Hill case. While I am pleased to have Marty's
clarification of his intent, the fact remains that, without this
clarification, we can only read what he did say, not what he
meant to say.

Karl T. Pflock

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Mark Pilkington

"A heathen perhaps, but not, I hope, an unenlightened one."
Lord Summerisle
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