A Radical Decision

I have come to what some might consider a radical decision! As you may know, I have so many blogs right now that it's sometimes hard to keep track of what's going on and where. So, I am bringing all my current blogs to a halt. I'm not deleting them. But, I am folding them as of today. In their place, I have set up a new blog titled Nick Redfern's Fortean World. Yeah, I know: it's hardly the most original or imaginative title, but it is accurate and to the point! So, from now on, while all my existing blogs will remain archived, here's the address for the new blog, Nick Redfern's Fortean World. As you'll see, the design and style has not been completed yet, and there's no content yet either. But, bear with me, and over the next few days you'll see it start to develop its life and character!

Mormonism and a Contactee

My latest post at Mysterious Universe: From Mormonism to UFOs, which also delves into the world of controversial Contactee, Truman Bethurum...

Channeling Edgar Cayce?

This is weird. No, in fact, it's really weird.

My wife, Dana, had to go to the dentist this morning, and so she was up earlier than normal, as she had to make a 40-mile drive to Dallas for her appointment at 8AM.

While Dana was showering, I was still in bed, and - for a few moments, at least - lapsed into a semi-awake/semi-asleep state of what I would call definitive hypnagogic proportions.

Very oddly, I have strange memories of my mouth jabbering and babbling on (in typically odd, chattering, channeling-style) about Edgar Cayce being something like "the exalted one," and the most important psychic messenger of our times.

Now, before people get all excited and start shouting that I am on the way to becoming a Contactee-style Channeler, there's something else to be aware of.

For the last few days, I have been working on the Bibliography for my book, The Pyramids and the Pentagon, which is due for publication in June 2012.

And not only does that book contain a great deal of data on Cayce, but yesterday - during the day - I spent an hour or so checking out the references on Cayce that I needed to include in the Bibliography.

So, in other words, there was indeed a very good and absolutely undeniable reason for Cayce to have been on my mind.

But, I have to say the whole experience was a very odd one. Not at all frightening, but not at all enlightening either. Just plain odd!

And, I have to admit, I got the distinct feeling - in my semi-awake, hypnagogic state - that the data on Cayce was being "downloaded" to me.

Even though - very frustratingly - I can only remember the absolute barest fragments of what I was saying (if indeed there was an audible aspect to this at all, or it was all mind-based). But, I do recall it was absolutely reeling out of my mouth at high speed.

I think - given that Cayce was a big focus of my attention yesterday in relation to the Bibliography issue mentioned above - it probably was some sort of odd hypnagogic experience.

But, given its very unusual nature, even I have to wonder...

And, no, this is not an early April Fool joke, or some book-promoting trip. This, for what it's worth, is how it happened. And I would be willing to swear to that.

Channeling? A hypnagogic experience? A strange combination of the two? Who knows? I'll keep you posted should more surface...

Space Brother HQ

While out in California a couple of weeks ago, me and Greg Bishop took a trip out to the Los Angeles office of the Aetherius Society, which - given my deep interest in the Contactee movement - was a real treat!

We were given an excellent tour of the place, provided with 20 or 30 minutes of very insightful chat about the society's founded (George King), and given permission to roam wherever we wanted and take photos of whatever caught our eyes - which is exactly what I did!

If you can't read it too well, the sign on the gate I'm leaning against reads thus:

"THIS GATE NOT TO BE USED UNLESS YOU HAVE PERMISSION OR BUSINESS IN SIR GEORGE'S BUNGALOW."

You have been duly warned!

And, finally, an interior shot...

Space Brothers & Secret Agents

If there's one thing we can say for certain about the early Contactees, it's that their stories of alien interaction were profoundly weird and controversial. Some might even say wholly unbelievable.

But, might there have been an underlying reason for the stories being so controversial? Could that reason have been to try and make the UFO issue look ridiculous in the eyes of the public and the media?

In other words, could it be the case that some of the Contactees were actually secret tools of the Government, working to an agenda to deflect people away from certain aspects of the UFO problem and swamp the "good" material with a wealth of hard-to-believe tales of trips to the Moon and Venus?

As my latest post at Mysterious Universe notes, such a possibility should not be ruled out...

Allingham & Kraspedon: Back In Print

Good news for fans of Contactee cases both old and massively controversial! Tim Beckley's Global Communications company has just released a new book. Titled From the Golden Age of Flying Saucers, it contains reprints of two absolute classic Contactee titles: Flying Saucer From Mars by Cedric Allingham, and Dino Kraspedon's My Contact With Flying Saucers.

As devotees of all-things long-haired and Space-Brotherly will know, both Allingham and Kraspedon were highly intriguing characters - for very different reasons!

But, if you're not aware of the reasons behind those controversies, well, you're in for a big treat because the book contains new Introductions to each title, that provide some highly entertaining and juicy nuggets of data on the pair!

Here's the link to the book, which is now available on Amazon.

And, since it has been years since I read these definitively odd classics (which Tim Beckley generously mailed to me), I'm going to re-read the whole thing, and will be doing a big online review when I have done so.

A Q&A on the Space-Brothers

The latest edition of UFO Magazine (Vol. 24, No. 2) includes an extensive Q&A with me on the subject of my book, Contactees.