Magonia Reviews Contactees

Over at the Magonia blog, Peter Rogerson reviews my Contactees book and says, in part:

"Reading these tales, there are a number of reasonable possibilities. They are all clearly the work of the human imagination (or perhaps lack of same), and the only question that remains is whether they came from the spontaneous imagination of dreams, hypnogogic and other visionary experiences; or from the crafted imagination, and in the latter case whether the contactees wanted a powerful imperative for their own religious and political views, or were in it mainly for the money. Redfern does note these possibilities, but prefers to invoke all sorts of complicated, baroque explanations, ranging from mind control experiments by secret government agencies, Mac Tonnies' 'crypto-terrestrials' (ie up-market Deros) or intelligent plasmas."

And here's the full review.

Space-Brothers at Zany Mystic

I'll be speaking about my Contactees book tomorrow night, on the A Fireside Chat With Zany Mystic show - at 9.00PM Central. Here's the link to learn more about the show and tomorrow night's episode. See you there!

Contactees & Religion

A couple of days ago, I gave a lecture to a class of sociology students at Baylor University, Waco, Texas on the parallels between the Contactee movement and religion. The presentation was well-received, generated a number of questions, and kicked off a good debate about the phenomenon. And, I'm amazed how, 60 years on, the original Contactees continue to provoke so much interest - even to the extent of becoming relevant to the world of mainstream, college education!

Kithra, Contactees and the Name Game

Kithra reviews my Contactees book and, in part, says:

"As I read on I found myself thinking about the Name Game, so here are the things that stood out for me in that regard:

- Mr. Janus and Prince Philip’s equerry – it suddenly occurred to me that Janus was also the name of a god in Roman mythology. He was the god of entrances and beginnings and endings. Normally he was shown as having two faces, or heads, facing in opposite directions.
- The story of the Maier sisters reminded me of Billy Meier; spelt differently but perhaps pronounced the same.
- How many of those early Contactees had the same Christian name of George: Adamski and Hunt Williamson, Van Tassel, and Geroge King."

And here's the rest of Kithra's review.

Radio Mysterioso - Tonight

Good friend Greg Bishop will be interviewing me on his Radio Mysterioso show tonight (8PM - 10PM Pacific Time) about my Contactees book. For all the info on the show, click here.

Contactees And Shirley Maclaine

Last week, I was interviewed by actress Shirley Maclaine - on the subject of my Contactees book - for her Independent Expression Radio show. She had a lot of interesting ideas and thoughts about the UFO controversy, and a lot of ground was covered; including the cases of George Van Tassel, George Adamski and Truman Bethurum. Here's the link for those who may want to listen in to the episode, which is now online.

Contactees on Paratopia

A few days ago I was interviewed by the guys over at Paratopia - Jeff Ritzmann and Jeremy Vaeni - about my Contactees book. We delved into a lot of areas: the cases, the people, the theories, the history and much, much more of a definitively space-brother nature.

The interview is now available on-line and can be found right here.

A Contactee Anniversary

I can't let it go by unnoticed that it was 100 years ago today that legendary Contactee, George Van Tassel (of Giant Rock and Integratron fame) was born!

And click here too for more on the man himself.

The Cryptoterrestrials: A Review

You can find my review of Mac Tonnies' new - and final - book, The Cryptoterrestrials, at my "Reviews" blog. Click on this link and it will take you there. As I noted in the post below, Mac's theories concerning cryptoterrestrials - rather than extraterrestrials - had a major bearing upon the Space-Brother/Contactee controversy.

The Cryptoterrestrials: Available!

If you have read my book, Contactees, you'll recall that one of the people I interviewed for the book was the late Mac Tonnies, who tragically died last year at the age of only 34.

The reason why I interviewed Mac was simple: at the time, he was working on a manuscript to be titled The Cryptoterrestrials, and which was focused upon the possibility that at least some UFO encounters might not be due to the presence of extraterrestrials from far-off worlds, but might represent the last vestiges of a very ancient, terrestrial race of beings - closely related to the Human Race - that use the alien motif as a brilliant piece of camouflage to move amongst us.

And Mac also applied this theory to the very human-looking Space-Brothers who are so prevalent within the Contactee arena. Mac told me:

"If we're experiencing a staged reality, some of the beings encountered by the Contactees might have been real; and the common messages of universal brotherhood could have been a sincere attempt to curb our destructive tendencies. The extraterrestrial guise would have served as a prudent disguise, neatly misdirecting our attention and leading us to ask the wrong questions; which we're still asking with no substantial results."

And, if that has caught your attention, you'll be pleased to know that Mac's book is now finally available to one and all, thanks to Anomalist Books who have just published it.

Here's the link to the Anomalist Books website where you can find out more about the book, and where to purchase your very own copies.

Shirley Maclaine on Contactees

I'll be speaking about my Contactees book on Shirley Maclaine's radio show this coming Sunday.

Here's the link:

http://www.shirleymaclaine.com/ieradio/about/next

Over The Threshold

Good news! Tim Beckley's Global Communications (who do an excellent job of reprinting old and rare books on the Contactee issue) have just released a new edition of Dana Howard's book, Over The Threshold.

I'll be reviewing the book right here as soon as I have read it; but in the meantime, here's what Global Communications have to say about this definitive blast-from-the-past:

"The author befriended the beautiful life form from another world, but was she a spirit or a space being? Dana Howard has been a sensitive since childhood. While still a youngster, she was stricken with tuberculosis and sentenced to an untimely death. Guided by a power higher than infantile reasoning, the young girl went on a hunger fast. It was then that her strange nocturnal travels out-of-body to more serene and beautiful worlds began. The child claims she even made friends in this 'fantasy' realm. Later, when the urge to 'fly' returned, it was than that the author met the beautiful Venusian messenger who called herself Diane. They visited together in the picturesque Mojave Desert which Dana Howard became aware was actually a portal between worlds, a locale which had inspired many stories of UFO landings and meetings with flying saucer occupants. The desert itself, it seems, was "alive" with spiritualized energy, seemingly acting as a magnet, pulling the space woman from the ether onto the desert floor. Far fetched as her experiences may seem, to add weight to her fantastic encounters, the author's inter dimensional friend appeared not only to her, but also to an amazed group of people who had gather with the author in a small white church in Los Angeles for the purpose of conducting a seance during which Diana the space being started to form out of a single thread of ectoplasm. This volume reproduces numerous photos of genuine spirits caught with the eye of the camera in amazing, controversial feats of cosmic photography."

Brown Mountain: Last Night

As I mentioned (below) a few days ago, the National Geographic Channel's new series, Paranatural, recently filmed an episode on mysterious "Ghost Lights" seen across the United States; but with a heavy emphasis on the activity that has been reported on Brown Mountain, North Carolina. As you may know, my Contactees book describes a particularly notable encounter of the Space-Brother variety that occurred on the mountain - and that had a direct connection to the lights - back in the 1960s.

Well, the show aired last night; but if you missed it (as I did, as I don't have a subscription to the channel), click on this link, where you can find an overview, photos and a clip from the show.