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Welcome to the latest round up of news and views on UFOs, alien abductions, crop circles, ghosts, the paranormal, the unexplained, the weird and the wonderful.
The Fourth Kind
The Hollywood movie The Fourth Kind, starring Milla Jovovich, is released in the UK on 6th November. It's filmed in a 'Blair Witch' style and is about alien abductions. Despite this being a movie, thousands of people claim to have such experiences in real life and even sceptical psychologists say something is going on, though they blame conditions such as sleep paralysis and false memory syndrome, as opposed to extraterrestrials. There's controversy about the film's "based on real events" tag, which it's suggested has more to do with a clever marketing campaign than reality, in relation to the mysterious disappearances featured in the film. Having investigated abduction cases while at the MoD and written a book on the subject, I'm looking forward to the movie and expecting to do a few media interviews to tie in with the film's release.
The Men Who Stare At Goats
Also released on 6th November is the film The Men Who Stare at Goats, based on Jon Ronson's eponymous book. This is a comedy, loosely based on real events - most notably the US military and intelligence agencies use of psychics. This sort of thing came up from time to time in the margins of the UFO project and MoD released a formerly classified study into so-called remote viewing a couple of years ago. I've discussed remote viewing on Newsnight and written a feature article on it for the Daily Express, so as with The Fourth Kind, I'm anticipating doing a few media interviews to tie in with the release of the film.
NASA Bombed The Moon
On 9th October NASA's LCROSS mission saw a spacecraft slam into the moon, throwing up debris that was visible with telescopes from Earth. The mission was a scientific one, aimed at analysing the content of the plume. However, various interesting conspiracy theories have resulted from this mission. Some people are convinced this was a pre-emptive strike on an alien moonbase, while others believe it was an attempt to destroy evidence of a secret space programme, before other nations (e.g. India) photograph it from their probes. There are protest groups on Facebook, songs have been written and a demonstration was held on 4th October, the date of the last full moon prior to the impact! Putting "bomb the moon" into Google produces over a million hits. I commentate in the media on space issues and on conspiracy theories and commented on this bizarre controversy for an ITN feature.
Mac Tonnies 1975 - 2009
Sadly, the dates aren't a misprint. One of the most interesting and innovative thinkers in the field of Forteana has passed away at the tragically young age of 34. Mac Tonnies was a published author and serial blogger who wrote on a diverse range of subjects including UFOs, cryptozoology and fringe science. His first book, Beyond The Martian Apocalypse, was an overview of the so-called Face on Mars controversy, while his second was entitled Cryptoterrestrials and was due to be published next year. Mac was perhaps best known for his cryptoterrestrial hypothesis - a theory that some UFO sightings and alien encounters might be attributable to another more advanced humanoid civilisation that has developed on Earth. The theory was related to - but separate from - John Keel's concept of ultraterrestrials.
What On Earth?
An interesting new documentary on crop circles is about to be released. Entitled What on Earth? Inside the Crop Circle Mystery, this new film has been made by Suzanne Taylor. Packed with interviews and stunning imagery of the crop circle formations themselves, this new film is a welcome addition to the body of material on the crop circle mystery. Go to www.whatonearththemovie.com/flash/ for more information about the documentary and to buy the DVD.
I Know What I Saw
Film maker James Fox has already produced one of the best-regarded UFO documentaries ever made. The critically acclaimed Out of the Blue was, for many years, regarded as pretty much the best of the bunch by the big names in ufology. Here for once, they argued, was a film maker who genuinely understood the subject and had a passion for it. For some time now, James has been working on a follow-up documentary. The provisional title was Beyond The Blue, but this has been ditched and replaced by I Know What I Saw - a phrase used by numerous UFO witnesses. A large part of the new film ties in with the press conference held at the National Press Club in Washington DC in November 2007, which James organised in conjunction with investigative journalist Leslie Kean, at the Coalition for Freedom of Information. The idea was to bring together people with verifiable backgrounds in government, the military and the aviation community, who have either seen a UFO or conducted official investigations into the phenomenon. Consequently, the film is full of politicians, retired generals, pilots, air traffic controllers, military radar operators, police officers and government officials. The programme received its premiere on the History Channel (US) on 4th October and was repeated on 19th October but is bound to be repeated again and is probably already posted onto YouTube, Google Video and various UFO-related websites. Go to iknowwhatisawthemovie.com for more details and a chance to watch the trailer. And don't forget to look out for and order the DVD, firstly to support James Fox but secondly because it will be packed with all sorts of fascinating extras that didn't make it into the version shown on TV.
UFO Case Files of Scotland
Look out for a new book from veteran UFO/paranormal investigator Malcolm Robinson. Entitled UFO Case Files of Scotland (Amazing Real Life Alien Encounters) this book concentrates on UFO sightings and abduction reports from Scotland, which has long been something of a hotspot for such strange events. The full story regarding the wave of UFO sightings over the town of Bonnybridge is given here, as is the full story of Scotland’s first reported UFO abduction. Other UFO sighting and close encounter cases are also looked at in great detail. Check out the publishers at www.healingsofatlantis.com for details of this new book and other titles of interest. Alternatively, to buy it directly, click www.healingsofatlantis.com for details.
UFO Info Weekend - Date Change
The UFO Info Weekend, previously scheduled to take place near the Kennedy Space Center on 12th - 15th November, has been postponed until next July. They still hope to have over 1500 attendees and the event (being held at a beachside Florida hotel) is still being planned to coincide with a space shuttle launch. I'll be speaking, along with many big names from the world of ufology. Check out www.ufoinfoweekend.com for further details of what promises to be a great conference. Biography:
Author, journalist and TV personality Nick Pope used to run the British Government's UFO Project and is now recognised as one of the world's leading experts on UFOs, the unexplained and conspiracy theories.
Check out www.nickpope.net for more information about Nick. |
