Tag Archives: aliens

And Away It Goes

by AJ Gulyas Posted on July 24, 2012

At 90,003 words (not including notes or bibliography), the not-yet-formally-titled Space Brother book is off to the publisher. A month, I point out, ahead of schedule, as I needed to clear the decks for the upcoming fall semester and some other projects. It may be the first time I’ve submitted anything before the deadline.

So now, I’ve got some time while the thing makes its way through the publisher’s system and they find all the things I need to fix. Watch this space for updates.

During the next six weeks or so, the blog here will be more focused on History and Teaching rather than “the Strange” as that part of my annual work cycle is gearing up and I desperately try to make my classes more interesting and useful for all involved. It’s not a moratorium on flying saucers, but it’s close…

…At least for now.

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Hack and Slash

by AJ Gulyas Posted on July 12, 2012
271 Marked-up Pages

I’m about 2/3 of the way through the first major, full on edit of the Saucer Book Project and I’ve been pleasantly surprised so far.  More words stayed than I thought would and I’ve been able to add a few thousand here and there, making connections more explicit and strengthening the argument.

And, of course, adding in the section about Billy Meier, the Swiss Contactee whose story spans decades.  Whole lot of information to sort through there, but I think I have an approach that’s narrow enough that it doesn’t become the Billy Meier chapter (it’s in with the 1970s stuff).  One of the biggest issues with the Meier material is that the original translations of the 1970s notes are pretty heavily edited (editor Wendelle Stevens removed inflamatory statements about religion and politics.  I mean, what’s the point?  Oh, and I think I met Stevens once, back in ’96 at a UFO slideshow in a hotel conference room.  Not sure though…)  Still, I think it works for my over all approach and, besides, a book about Contactees without Billy Meier doesn’t really work…

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And that’s the First, Complete Draft Done

by AJ Gulyas Posted on July 7, 2012

[progpress title="Flying Saucers, Space Brothers, and Interplanetary Femme Fatales" goal="79586" current="79586"]

First Draft
That’s quite a stack of paper…

It came in a bit under 80,000 words, but that’s fine.  I still have some filling out to do, particularly in the 1970s and 1980s chapter and the conclusion is pretty under-developed. I strongly suspect that the final word total will be closer to 90,000 than 80,000 but I am happy to have some leeway for shaping the thing.  I know there are places that are kind of flabby that could use some tightening up.  I had a real fear that I’d get to, say, 45k and have absolutely nothing left to say.  This will not, apparently, be a problem.  Saying it well, however, is going to be the real challenge…

So now, I begin editing, with two more significant chunks of writing left.  Then polishing, finalizing, and shipping the blasted thing off so I don’t have to think about it for a while!

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Aetherius! George King, Writing, and Progress Report

by AJ Gulyas Posted on June 5, 2012

 

[progpress title="Space Brothers on Patrol" goal="85000" current="60175"]

I hit 60K words last week.  Hoping for as much production this week (shortened due to a trip out of town).  I’m still on pace to finish when I want/need to–sooner, if I can find a healthy way to do without sleep.

Today’s work will involve the Aetherius Society and Rev. George King–the Contactee who looked least like a Contactee.  British, dignified, master of Yoga (rather than master of the Royal Order of Tibet, which wasn’t even a thing, really), King founded the Aetherius Society, the first actual, registered non-profit flying saucer religion.  It’s still going strong and there’s a branch down the road in Royal Oak that I feel I should visit.

So, today’s goal is a couple thousand words.  Hit 3400 in one day last week–kind of a fluke, as I seemed to be in some manner of trance.  Perhaps, from the aether, Rev. King will send me some sort of yogic motivation.  that would be much appreciated, as I’m just about out of coffee.

 

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Redux: UFO mythologies vs. “UFO Mythology”

by AJ Gulyas Posted on June 30, 2010

INTANGIBLE MATERIALITY: Secret Decoder Rings

Human reaction to the UFO phenomenon has always perhaps taken place in the creation of mythologies from Dragons to Hybrids. Whether these have been suggested to us from without or within may be parsing this subject. When something exceptional, inexplicable occurs in our world that is in defiance of all the impetus that we utilize in our quest to fallibly survive, our own terms of reference are turned upon us. This is perhaps both in the sense of events in of themselves but more deeply, we upon our own aspirations to become a participant, perhaps in a form of reflected glory in a manner that betrays our own helplessness and fallibility. Editorials with titles such as “Hysteria Drives UFO Gatekeepers Debunking Exopolitics Pioneers” is one example out of hundreds that teletype our vulnerability to a universe that is highly indifferent to human posturing.

Bruce Duensing’s blog “Intangible Materiality” is becoming a must read for me. The post linked/quoted above is a prime example of why.  Like Mac Tonnies, Greg Bishop and others, Mr. Duensing is taking up the mantle of Keel and Vallee, observing the UFO phenomenon and the paranormal in ways that are rooted in the myths and archetypes of the human story (limited though that story might be).  At the same time–and this is what I really like–their discourse is largely divorced from the 1947-present UFO master narrative into which everyone from Stanton Friedman to the exopolitics crowd is locked.

Far too many researchers don’t actually research.  They embrace comfortable stories that others have shown to be disinformation (there are still people talking about the human vs. alien firefight in the Dulce underground base) or are simply adapting UFO iconography (abductions, grays) into pre-existing religious frameworks.  The newish trend for evangelical Christians such as LA Marzulli, Russ Dizdar and others to look at the UFO field and proclaim it to be a demonic infestation is, in my opinion, a derivative rehash of the “satanic cult” scares of the 1980s.  The work of such people does no favors for the UFO phenomenon or Christianity.  They seek, in Duensing’s words, “reflected glory” moving the focus away from Christ and putting it on their own alleged efforts to unmask the evil ones in our midst.

But these things are not new, not particularly noteworthy.  I simply wish there were more people who enjoyed the questions rather than obsessing over finding a correct answer.

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Redux: Do we Wanna Meet these Guys?

by AJ Gulyas Posted on June 30, 2010

Rescued from the old blog.  I think it has some good thoughts.  In the 10 months since I’ve written this, we’ve lost Mac Tonnies, which still stings. See Macbots for a great tribute blog to Mac.

First Anniversary of Declaration to end secret extraterrestrial agreements

Exactly one year ago a consortium of citizen organizations authorized a Declaration to end what were claimed to be secret official agreements concerning extraterrestrial life. Based on first hand testimonies by a number of whistleblowers and civilian contractors, the Galactic Freedom Day Declaration asserts that agreements concerning extraterrestrial life have been secretly entered into by a number of government authorized agencies, departments and corporations. In some cases, these agreements involve representatives of advanced extraterrestrial civilizations whose existence has not been disclosed to the general public. On 08/08/08 individuals and citizen organizations around the world collectively joined in events calling for exposing and ending such agreements. A consortium of citizen organizations from Hawaii, USA, Canada, Britain, Spain, South Africa, and Hong Kong formally sponsored the Declaration and launched an online petition which currently has over 2000 signatures.

What do we learn?

  • “Hawaii” and “USA” are apparently separate political entities
  • Online petitions still exist despite their uselessness
  • Some people don’t get it.

The key line for me comes in the second paragraph: “natural right of all citizens to have safe and open contact with extraterrestrial visitors, and to engage in non-official diplomacy.”  Is there such a thing as non-official diplomacy?  Dictionary.com defines the word as

1. the conduct by government officials of negotiations and other relations between nations.
2. the art or science of conducting such negotiations.
3. skill in managing negotiations, handling people, etc., so that there is little or no ill will; tact: Seating one’s dinner guests often calls for considerable diplomacy.

At most, I can see definition 3 fitting a “non-governmental” use of the term.  To use a terrestrial example, if I talk to someone from Russia, I’m talking to someone from Russia–I’m not engaging in any kind of diplomacy.  Of course the Exopol crowd would shift focus back onto the question of whether or not the public should be made aware of these alleged visitors.  That’s actually a really good question–but is it the best question?

One camp answers “yes!” mostly because “whistleblowers” have told them that the visitors are friendly, part of a galactic federation, here for our own good.  Others say “no!” because they fear the visitors are demons (or, as Russ Dizdar calls them, homo satanas.  As an aside, I have a feeling that his “black awakening” terminology contains elements of racism.  “Dark Awakening” or “Awakening of Evil” would have worked just as well) or, if not demons, then certainly evil entities very much akin to the Lear/Cooper/KRLL fantasies of the 80s and 90s.

Both of these answers assume that the visitors are aliens from another planet (or spiritual dimension in the case of the “Christian” interpretations of the phenomenon).  The idea that both “good” and “bad” entities might be:

It never occurs to either the exopolitics/spacebuddy crowd or the para-evangelical fringe (I don’t know if that’s actually a phrase or not) that they aren’t dealing with what they think they are.

In the end, as we look at the many, many facets of this phenomena and examine reports and findings from all sides, rather than simply those with which we happen to agree, we might find the question is not whether or not we should be allowed to talk to the visitors and engage in diplomacy with them.  The question is whether the concept of diplomacy makes sense in such a context.  It might be akin to opening discussions with a tornado or thunderstorm.  It might be as futile as politely asking the mosquitoes to stop biting us.

Whatever it is, it won’t be what anybody expects.  The phenomenon will make sure of that–whatever it or they may represent seem to take delight in confounding our expectations.

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