Open-Mindedness? Pshaw!

This is a few years old, but I found it recently via a friend. It's a brief 'educational' video more correctly explaining what 'open-mindedness' really means, as opposed to the typical definition as perceived by those who like to lob around accusations of close-mindedness when someone is skeptical of paranormal or religious claims.

It's well written, explained, and animated (1960's-esque cartoon/comic book art, a la 'The Sub Mariner' and 'The Hulk').

Conversations with Dr. John Mack

Interesting article over at The UFO Iconoclast(s) by Anthony Bragalia, regarding interviews and discussions he had with John Mack in the early 90s:

The Fabrication of Alien Abduction: My Conversations with Dr. John Mack

Bruce Priddy - New BOA Columnist

Binall of America has a new writer: Bruce Priddy who introduces himself in his column The Paranormal Apostate.

Bruce writes:

"My name is Bruce and I'm an skeptic. Debunker. Nasty Noisy Negativist. Along with any other four-letter-word used in the paranormal community to describe people like me. Though often employed as pejoratives to dismiss without thought those who challenge claims of the paranormal, I wear them as a brand of pride. That is what I am, a skeptic, a critical-thinker (by definition, a skeptic is a critical-thinker; that isn't to say a believer is not a critical-thinker, far from it. But that is a subject for another column), and I see no shame in it."

It's lovely to see more skeptical, critical thinkers attempting (and I hope not futilely) to show that skepticism isn't the terrible, horrible abomination many within the paranormal believe.

Keep and eye out for his column!


*Thanks to The Debris Field for the link.

Sometimes It's Just a Giant Sumerian Phallus

It's July 19th, and while I'm unhappy that we're officially in the Summer-zone, I'm glad May and June are over. Not that May was a bad month. In fact, it was one of the better months I've had in many years.

A lot of change has happened (and still continues to happen), that really began to show form in early May and carried on through until the end of last month. As anyone who has gone through significant life changes can attest to, it can be positively exhausting! I've not written much anywhere in the last few weeks -- been too busy fighting through the cloudiness and disorientation that often travels with discovering new perspectives... but I hope to be coming out of that haze sooner rather than later.

I've been thinking a lot about my voice (however small it is) in UFOlogy, and it's been occurring to me that I pick on so many topics, that some of you might think I don't believe in anything. I even began to wonder if I was looking like a debunker more than someone actually interested in sorting out the un-sortable mysteries of the world.

Read more »

Not Everything Goes Well With Cheez Whiz

I was going to write something about the Larry King Live alien debate that aired on Friday. This show came about due to the overwhelming response Stephen Hawking's 'alien statement' received. That statement was lifted from the first episode of his new series called Into the Universe on the Discovery channel, and appeared in the last 3 minutes of that program.

Having finally had a chance to watch the actual episode with the 42 other minutes no one bothered to mention, I am even more baffled by the amount of anger it has been met with.

Anyway, I realized that I really had nothing important to add regarding King's latest round-table, and so I've decided not to bang on that drum.

Nah, I'm just screwing with ya.

Seriously, what the fuck was that?

Read more »

Speculative Realms

Just wanted to give a quick plug for Speculative Realms. Gary Haden has been blogging about the Emma Woods and David Jacobs chaos for a few of weeks now. I find myself very much enjoying his writing and his perspective.

He has a fairly recent article that takes a break from that whole affair, called The Argument from Ignorance and Skeptical Omniscience. In a nut shell, it breaks down the various kinds of arguments that you run up against when debating paranormal topics with those who have not had experiences themselves.

Anyway, check his site out!

Ritzmann and the Sane Person's Guide to UFOs

If you don't know Jeff Ritzmann, you may be on the other side of "Ufology" -- the side that believes the "aliens" are all terribly friendly beings who can't wait to help humanity pull it's head out of its ass. Or maybe you don't support that particular idea, but are apt to believe in a number of cases of questionable credibility (though you may be unaware). Or maybe he isn't as notable as I assume he is, which could very well be the case. However, in my opinion, Jeff is a breath of fresh air in a field that is caked with so much bullshit and ridiculous claims, it makes the whole WMD thing look like a friendly game of Clue.

There is a growing number of individuals within the UFO "community" that harbor what I call a "healthy skepticism". Somewhere along the way skepticism became synonymous with debunking, and that is quite unfortunate. Why anyone would approach any area of study or research without an objective eye and a moderately skeptical mind, is beyond me. But, as many of you probably know, there is a majority of people who so want to believe, that they either forget that an investigation requires a scientific approach, or tune that out because they have based their life or ideals on a certain belief, and wouldn't know what to do if that were suddenly taken away.

And really, there are many different reasons why people tend to take someone's words at face-value without checking out the case history and observations of everyone involved, including those in opposition. Just because you don't like what someone may have to say does not mean it isn't true, nor does it mean that they are trying to debunk the entire subject of UFOs. You simply have to weigh in all possibilities before you can make as close to an accurate assumption as possible.

Read more »