UFOs and egos
It's been a long time since I posted here. Too long. To cut to the chase, I went through a period of several months, where I decided I was utterly done with ufology. Although I'm sure I will always maintain an interest in the subject of UFOs, all the bitching, back-biting, name-calling, point-scoring and infighting in the UFO field simply gets on my nerves. I know I've been as guilty as the next person on occasions, but there comes a point when enough is enough, and egos need to be sacrificed for the sake of progress.
Like many others in the field who feel the urge to put a distance between them and ufology, I find it hard to stay away from the crux of the subject matter, the UFO experience, and would love to find a way of pursuing this interest without getting embroiled in ufological warfare. What is it about this subject that draws so many of us back to it, time and again, like moths to the proverbial candle flame, even when we have our wings singed by it?
Nowadays, with the advent of the Internet, and news-as-it-happens reporting, we often hear about major UFO sightings within hours of their occurrence. No longer do we have to wait weeks or months, until UFO publications hit the shelves, to hear the latest news. Two recent occurrences, the Stephenville UFOs and the Chicago O'Hare airport sighting, went viral on the Internet within hours of the events. With the best will in the world, it is hard to resist such persuasive reports, however much you may have sworn off ufology.
For those of us who feel disillusionment with the UFO field, instead of adding our voices to the acrimonious clamor, why not simply follow our own agendas? Someone I have ultimate respect for, is Ted Phillips, at the Center for Physical Trace Research. He simply gets on with his fieldwork, without engaging in the ufological pantomime.
It is work by individuals such as Phillips, that draws me back in to the fray, however disillusioned I feel with the field in general. Perhaps people like myself, the eternally disillusioned, simply need to ignore the noise, and keep the main goal, the signal, in sight. There is no doubt that UFOs exist. We simply have no conclusive proof of what they are, merely theories, though that's not necessarily a bad thing. Many an important discovery has started life as a theory.
Can anyone of us with more than a passing interest in the UFO subject, afford to get bogged down with internecine feuds? What if we miss something crucial because we're too busy mud-slinging? It's time we all leave our egos at the door, myself included, learn a bit of mutual respect, and get on with the arduous job of gathering data and evidence. Let's just face it – feuding and bitching is easy by comparison, which may explain why so many people prefer the easy route.
Siani Thomas
13 Comments
Reader Comments (13)
When in the pursuit of ufological life and liberty one is wrongfully associated with egregious crimes as foul and damaging as plagiarism and pederasty, "slander per se," and failing to clear the cash hurdle necessary to initiate righteous litigation, one might feel compelled to get the case tried in the court of community opinion to achieve _some_ small satisfaction.
Pursuit of this satisfaction might be justified were it demonstrated that there might be consequences for slander and libel so freely employed today, for others... precluding that employment of same, eh?
That said, one's perspective changes the first time one is regarded in a penetrating manner and asked why ones name keeps coming up with regard to "sex with children." Blood runs _cold_ then. Given a gross inability to access courts requiring money to operate, lesser men are homicidal.
The regard of UFOs should not have this kind of stuff attendant to it, true. Yet, these came as a result on ones regard of the UFO, so one can only offer an apology as an explanation if _not_ as a contrition.
There certainly seems to be a fair amount of slandering in the UFO community, unfortunately. Is it possible to study, research, etc, without getting drawn into the general melee of ufology? Or is it an inevitable part of the whole shebang?
Thanks Siani for an excellent and much needed plea for UFOlogical sanity! :o)
I cannot say that the "study" (if you can call it that) ever pushed me to disillusionment. But it certainly has pushed me to the point where I do not consider research, a supposedly "objective" pursuit of an elusive truth, to be a satisfactorily fruitful endeavor. There are several reasons for this but the primary one is that NONE of us can be truly objective. Objectivity is a popular Post Modern delusion. It does not exist because the only reality you can know is the one that flows like an experiential river, through your senses and between your ears.
Reality is subjective! There is no objective reality. Go ahead, try to experience reality without filtering it through your subjective consciousness. It cannot be done because reality IS consciousness: OUR CONSCIOUSNESS!
I wrote an article about this very subject last year and will submit it for my monthly column later this year. But here are some appropriate excerpts from it:
There are probably folks out there who wonder why I write a column for UFO Magazine, yet, write so little about UFO cases and such. I have had a deep, unflagging interest in this subject for nearly my whole life. But answers? They seem to have receded into the distance. It is not because I am jaded or even frustrated by the numerous conflicting ideas about the subject, although this alone should give us reason for pause concerning any supposed "truth" about UFOs.
UFOlogy is a wannabe study. It is a disorganized pile of subjective data, some probable, some bogus, that we UFO nuts utilize to flesh out our individual subjective prejudices. We each dip into this eclectic, discombobulated stew of collective consciousness to fill our mind bowls with whatever crap we think we can stomach. Then we go to the pages of this magazine, the cyberspace message boards or to cheesy UFO conferences and get into pugilistic fisticuffs about whose crap tastes better.
It is possible for you to take any one of three positions on each of those fiercely embattled self chosen positions: believe, disbelieve, or choose not to decide.
If you stand outside of the UFOlogical three ring circus for a moment, you will recognize that nobody making these claims has a monopoly on the truth. In fact, if you are looking for truth, you will find it as elusive as fairy dust. That is because truth is relative. You can only recognize "truth" through your personal consciousness. And you can mold your consciousness pretty much any way you like. We all do.
So, isn’t there an objective truth? Sure: Somebody really did kill John F. Kennedy. It wasn’t Lee Harvey Oswald. Only uncritical, brainwashed bubble heads believe that. But, at this point, we cannot directly witness that objective truth. We can only reconstruct an abstract substitute version of what we think the truth might be from this distant point in space and time, and more importantly, in our subjective consciousness. That means that that truth, objectively, is probably unknowable and whatever subjective "truth" we choose to believe is just that: a choice.
That is why truth is relative. And that is why choosing to believe or disbelieve anything pertaining to UFOs is a crapshoot. Even a direct experience is open to interpretation and subject to the vagaries of your conscious mindset. Do you think that if Phil Klass saw a UFO, he would define it as such? So, believing or disbelieving any of this stuff is taking potshots at a target skillfully placed on your own foot. It is a willful act of self-generated ignorance.
My point is this: the only intellectually tenable position to take is, choose not to decide. Once you get there, you are no longer a UFOlogist but a UFO philosopher.
So, my position on this whole thing is to invest my ego into it as little as possible. I would rather sit back from the sidelines and muse about it. Chances are, all of those people arguing about it are wrong anyway. So, what's the point?
Life is too short to spend it in an agitated frenzy about things which we do not know and, given the circumstances, perhaps CANNOT know. I would rather wonder, and leave the childish bickering to those who believe they get "something productive" from that activity. I know, for certain, that they are wrong about that.....
Seems inevitable to me on the business end, as in getting the business, of same, but worth the wade still to a degree.
On this path there is no road but that which would be legislated for the traveler by persons as ponderously clueless where that path lies as _any_ traveler. I'm pleased to pick my own path, make my periodic discoveries even as they have already been discovered, and regard the very real potential for no closure on the ufological at all for anyone.
There are the discoveries made and persons met, still, along the way. How does one _not_ consider the most interesting questions and people in the universe?
Ufology is social networking among a group of individuals with a similar interest (or hobby, as some claim). All social networks experience struggles for dominance and power. Why should Ufology be an exception? Like you, I’ve had a lifelong interest in the UFO phenomenon, but I've never become deeply involved because, frankly, I’m turned off by the behavior of others interested in the subject.
These days everybody needs to be a star, and the Web is an easy avenue to achieve a kind of dubious star status. If someone rants hard enough and frequently enough online with his or her name splashed boldly above or below the tirade, people might assume the blogger or poster actually knows what he or she is talking about and is a shining light in the field. Pretty soon these people start showing up in conference and meeting programs as “experts” (and maybe get a book deal).
Yet, I strongly believe there is a real phenomenon that is occurring and has been occurring throughout history. I think glimpses of it can be clearly be seen through the haze and fog of all that Ufological hyperbole, accidental and deliberate misidentification, infighting, obsessing over blind alleys (Roswell, MJ-12), and downright self promotion. It’s a continuing mystery.
Do any of these Ufological “stars” have a definitive answer? Hell, no! But, neither does hard science, which is prone to the same inter-clique infighting and power struggles.
You know, don't you, that life is really just high school played out over and over again.
Siani,
I totally agree about Ted Phillips. A while back I wrote a Grey Matters about the fact that people doing great work like Phillips are almost ignored in favor of talking about the controversial people.
I would guess that is because Ted doesn't involve himself in the UFO community as much as others. However, he is a person doing great ufology work.
I personally wish there were no feuds, but that will never happen. I don't think they necessarily harm ufology, but they certainly don't help. I do wonder about certain people that seem to do nothing other than that. They have blogs, sites and whatever, but they use them almost solely for the purpose of pointing out who and what is wrong, as though that is the most important aspect of ufology and not the people doing real work like Ted Phillips.
Well then here's a happy note that can bring us all together:
Ted Phillips is our guest on Paratopia tomorrow and we'll be holding a charity auction for him soon. All proceeds go to his research outfit so that he can get the proper internet setup in Marley Woods, whereby visitors to his website will be able to view the place all day via webcam.
Fantastic news, Jeremy - if anyone deserves a cash injection for his research, it's Ted Phillips. The Marley Woods case is fascinating, and unlike a lot of locations with anomalous activity, whatever's happening there doesn't appear to be camera-shy - so 24/7 online surveillance could be very interesting.
That is a good thing and I would be willing to help in anyway I can.
Well into _five_ figures accumulation anyway, this wonderful man has tabbed, indexed, and otherwise cataloged over 4000 of the most gut-wrenching, knee-walking, or brain and barrier dissolving physical evidences ever recorded!
Pointing to the existence of the "highest strange" and its tactile imposition into the alleged "consensus reality" of affronted Klasskurtxians, CSICOPians, and adjunct Cartesianistas, it is denied altogether by them, still, as if it did not exist at all!
Their plaintive wail or matter of fact pronouncement that "there is no physical evidence of... [UFOs]" is ludicrous where it is not malfeasant — disingenuous where it is not a _fulsome_ lie!
Science, Society, and Authority abdicate their responsibility to be leader, teacher, or "guiding light" as a result. The precipitant is that those presently serving must be, of needs, switched out for alternative persons who feel more responsibility to an _informed_ population, eh?
Too, those presently serving in government, institution, and agency _authority_ are where the truly truth-seeking might direct their industry, attention, and righteous anger. This is the message of Ted Phillips who clearly shows: this stuff is KNOWN!
This 'stuff' of the highly strange could be incredibly useful. Why is it so portentously denied, and _incompetently_ so, reader?
Why are we not informed by our authorities and how relevant are same as a consequence of their abject failure to provide for our _informed_ decisions?
"Science" and "society," betraying the trust, make _themselves_ bankrupt and irrelevant, increasingly so and at greater acceleration I feel. This is real tragedy where quality (read non-corporate) science and a trustworthy society are now so desperately needed.
I sure would like to know where the infamous 'Marley Woods' is located.
Cool that Ted Phillips will be on Paratopia! Hope the auction goes well for the 24/7 Cams. Jeremy you should auction off an afternoon tea with yourself - what a fascinating conversation with you - a man with loads of high strangeness who still maintains a sense of humor! ;^)
Ha! Yeah, tea with me. A bargain at twice the price. Any lucky bidders?
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