Conclusion to SMiles Lewis’ essay in UFOs: Reframing the Debate . . .
UFOs: Reframing the Debate – Edited by Robbie Graham
Available in Paperback & eBook Formats from White Crow Books
TrUFO vs UFaux: Planetary Poltergeists & Weapons of Mass Enchantment
. . .
Whether the UFO phenomenon is considered simply as the result of human misperception of mundane stimulus or something more exotic such as a transpersonal virtual reality communications mechanism, or planetary poltergeist (with or without its own consciousness or self-directing autonomy), human belief in alien Others create cults, religions, and social movements of significance. Even in the absence of specific documentation declaring and funding UFO deception programs, it is clear that a wide variety of human agencies have manipulated the superstitions and myths surrounding stories of contact with non-human entities; folklore has been weaponized as a means to various ends.
We know that despite there being “no evidence of a direct threat to national security” the infamous CIA sponsored Scientific Advisory Panel on UFOs (the Robertson panel) formally suggested debunking the phenomenon to “reduce the current gullibility of the public and consequently their susceptibility to clever hostile propaganda,” going so far as to suggest the Disney corporation be involved in such public re-education – which is intriguing considering Disney animator Ward Kimball worked with Von Braun, was an original founding board member of the Fund for UFO Research, and claimed that the Air Force approached Disney to produce alien acclimatization films. And what about Walt Disney Studios Director of Educational Research, Robert S. Carr, whom Vallee claims worked for Disney on classified projects and later became a regional director for NICAP?
One of the other outcomes of the Robertson Panel was the CIA memo from H. Marshall Chadwell to the Director of Central Intelligence urging “the psychological strategy board immediately investigate possible offensive or defensive utilization of the phenomena for psychological warfare purposes both for and against the United States.”
Certainly we have evidence of several human agencies attempting such manipulation through popular culture as reported in Robbie Graham and Dr. Matthew Alford’s A History of Government Management of UFO Perceptions through Film and Television, wherein they document the Robertson Panel’s debunking influence more than a dozen years later on the CBS TV broadcast of UFOs: Friend, Foe, or Fantasy? (1966 – narrated by Walter Cronkite) and Pentagon employee Chief Master Sgt. Mike Gasparetto’s recognition of the 2007 Spielberg production of Transformers, as “a great recruiting tool.” They also documented the history of US government and military bait and switch operations in which filmmakers are offered tantalizing evidence of UFOs and alien reality as part of apparent acclimatization efforts, only to renege at the last moment.
More recently we have pop-punk singer turned UFO disclosure spokesperson Tom DeLonge claiming contact with military sources feeding him information verifying a wide variety of UFO myths. However, thanks to the WikiLeaks release of John Podesta’s emails, we have record of DeLonge perhaps giving us a truer hint at what his military mentors are really after. DeLonge says in an email to Podesta, “This project is about changing the cynical views of youth towards government.”
We have over 15 years of evidence of elaborate campaigns conducted by both corporate and non-governmental organizations utilizing people’s interest in UFOs, the paranormal, and conspiracies for viral / stealth marketing and alternate reality gaming; from the Majestic ARG in 2001 to the Fourth Kind movie (resulting in Universal Pictures paying out $22,500 to the Alaska Press Club and Calista Scholarship Fund for its use of ‘fake news’ and websites promoting the false storyline) to the MacMillan Space Centre’s viral marketing UFO drone hoax in 2013 and the faked green fireball video and crashed alien-craft sight for a FutureLife smart-drink ad campaign in South Africa in December 2015.
Tension surrounding any subject can lead to very negative behavior and outcomes. Within the UFO literature there are obvious tensions surrounding the issues of race, ridicule, and sovereignty of nation states and individuals; not to mention the potential domination and subjugation resulting from encountering a technologically superior species. The manipulation of such tensions is the domain of public relations both commercial and political.
Researchers Wendt and Duvall point out in their 2008 paper, “Sovereignty and the UFO,” that state institutions are inherently threatened by the very possibility of such potential otherworldly political actors due to the anthropocentric structure of modern rule. Such alien interlopers violate our airspace and populations at will and call into question the relevance of individual state sovereignty in favor of potential global governance in the face of potential off-world visitors. Thus the governing structures have had to ignore the phenomena and enforce the “UFO taboo.”
In the face of such empires of ignorance, Wendt and Duvall rightly advocate for (while acknowledging the dangers of) a militant agnostic resistance to the UFO taboo:
“… resistance must also be militant, by which we mean public and strategic, or else it will indeed be futile. … Modern rule and its metaphysics are extraordinarily resilient, so the difficulties of such resistance cannot be overstated. Those who attempt it will have difficulty funding and publishing their work, and their reputations will suffer. UFO resistance might not be futile but it is certainly dangerous, because it is resistance to modern sovereignty itself. In this respect militant UFO agnosticism is akin to other forms of resistance to governmentality”
So in our attempts at understanding UFOs and possible contact with Alien Others, let us recognize the challenge of resisting and overcoming such taboos so that we may be free of both the cultural overlays imposed by our faulty perceptions and the perception management programs being waged against us, whether in furtherance of global governance or nationalistic independence and xenophobic tribalism. We as stewards of spaceship earth must no longer be ruled by false fears of counterfeit foes nor the manufactured machinations and stratagems of empires that seek to undermine our ability to truly see and understand whatever lies behind the UFO phenomenon.
CITATIONS:
- “Robertson Panel.” Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robertson_Panel
- Cameron, Grant. “Disney, UFOs, and Disclosure” The Presidents UFO Web Site.
http://www.presidentialufo.com/old_site/ufo_films.htm
- Vallee, Jacques. (1991). Revelations: Alien Contact and Human Deception. pp. 22.
- Graham, Robbie, and Alford, Matthew. (2011 Spring). “A History of Government Management of UFO Perceptions through Film and Television.” 49th Parallel Journal: An interdisciplinary journal of North American Studies. Issue 25.
- DeLonge, Thomas. (2016, February). “Fwd: Interesting news.” WikiLeaks – The Podesta Emails.
https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/33552
- Lewis, SMiles. (2001, Spring). “Majestic Art of Mind Kontrol Majestic Art of Electronic Disinformation.” ELFIS Journal of Possible Paradigms.
http://www.elfis.net/mkc/mkcx/majesticarts.htm
- Medred, Craig. (2009, November 11). “’The Fourth Kind’ pays for telling a big fib.” Alaska Dispatch News.
https://www.adn.com/features/article/fourth-kind-pays-telling-big-fib/2009/11/12/
- (2013, September 10). “PRESS RELEASE: H.R. MacMillan Space Centre reveals starring role in UFO hoax.” H.R. MacMillan Space Centre.
http://www.spacecentre.ca/images/spacecentre-drone-creates-buzz-091013.pdf
- Herman, Paul. (2015, December 1). “New UFO sighting in Sandton a fake.” News24.
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/new-ufo-sighting-in-sandton-a-fake-20151201
- Duvall, Raymond D., and Wendt, Alexander. (2008). “Sovereignty and the UFO.” Political Theory. Volume 36 Number 4. pp. 607-633
http://minotb52ufo.com/pdf/Wendt-Duvall-Sovereignty-and-the-UFO.pdf
- Duvall, Raymond D., and Wendt, Alexander. (2010). “Militant Agnosticism and the UFO Taboo: A call for reason and responsible action.” Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter. UFOs: A call for reason and responsible action. Kean, Leslie. (Editor). pp. 269-281.
- Wellen, Russ. (2011, October 24). “To the U.S. Government, UFOs Are a Threat to Its Sovereign Rule. Few Americans actually fear UFOs, but the U.S. government treats them like an existential threat.” Foreign Policy In Focus.
http://fpif.org/to_the_us_government_ufos_are_a_threat_to_its_sovereign_rule/
UFOs: Reframing the Debate – Edited by Robbie Graham
Available in Paperback & eBook Formats from White Crow Books
Featuring Over a Dozen Contributors including…
- Foreword by Diana Walsh Pasulka, Professor and Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religion, University of North Carolina & author of Heaven Can Wait from Oxford University Press
- Edited by Robbie Graham author of Silver Screen Saucers: Sorting Fact from Fantasy in Hollywood’s UFO Movies
- MJ Banias, Greg Bishop, Robert Brandstetter, Jack Brewer, Mike Clelland, Curt Collins, Joshua Cutchin, Lorin Cutts, Susan Demeter-St. Clair, Micah Hanks, Red Pill Junkie, Chris Rutkowski, Ryan Sprague, and…
- Planetary Poltergeists & Weapons of Mass Enchantment by SMiles Lewis
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