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.

Space Brother Synchronicity

Do you ever get the feeling that reality isn't what you think it is? Of course you do! And so do I. And here's one example of why I know all is not as it seems, and it has a direct bearing upon the Contactee/Space-Brother controversy...

Dr. Esoterica and Contactees

The slightly mysterious "Dr. Esoterica" reviews my Contactees book and says:

"Nick Redfern’s Contactees: A History of Alien-Human Interaction is both profoundly enlightening and entertaining. It is also an indispensable historical study based on previously unavailable primary source documentation. The author is to be commended and we recommend the present title without reservation."

Here's the link to the Doc's full review...

Desmond Leslie: A New Book

For anyone interested in the Contactee movement in general, and the saga of George Adamski in particular, there's a new book that you'll definitely want to get hold of. The author is Robert O'Byrne, and its title is Desmond Leslie 1921 -2001: The Biography of an Irish Gentleman.

Leslie was, of course, the co-author with George Adamski on his famous (or perhaps infamous!) book, Flying Saucers Have Landed.

Here's the blurb for the book, which looks to be massively entertaining and informative:

"When a guidebook to Ireland described his family as being 'mildly eccentric', Desmond Leslie took offence and wrote to the publishers informing them that, on the contrary, the Leslies were very eccentric. Throughout his life, he maintained a reputation for unconventionality - hardly surprising when one of his godparents was a noted Satanist who kept a pet parrot in his trousers.

"Desmond Leslie more than matched this behaviour: one of the most popular items on YouTube is a BBC broadcast showing him punching the critic Bernard Levin on live television more than forty years ago. Thanks to his 1953 bestseller "The Flying Saucers Have Landed", co-written with George Adamski, Desmond Leslie remains a cult figure among UFOlogists.

"After serving as a Spitfire pilot during the Second World War, he settled in London and embarked on a career as a writer, producing a string of innovative and critically acclaimed novels, one of which anticipated George Orwell's 1984 by a year.

"At the same time, he worked as a film producer and screenwriter and composed music for film and television in the second half of the 1950s. In 1963 he returned to Ireland to live at Castle Leslie in County Monaghan, and for the rest of his life devoted himself to protecting the family estate, today one of Ireland's finest country-house hotels.

"Son of writer Sir Shane Leslie and brother of historian Anita Leslie, Desmond Leslie has never before been the subject of a biography, which includes personal recollections by family members and by the well-known writer Herbie Brennan. In portraying the Anglo-Irish during the second half of the twentieth century, as they struggled to find a new role in a rapidly changing world, Robert O'Byrne offers a wholly engaging case study of his propulsive and charismatic subject.

"Robert O'Byrne, journalist and art historian, is author of The Irish Georgian Society: A Celebration (2008), Dublin's Gaiety Theatre (2007), Mind Your Manners (2004), Living in Dublin (2003) and Hugh Lane 1875-1915 (2000)."

Angelucci & LSD

Over at his blog, Mark Pilkington - author of the book Mirage Men - discusses the strange case of friend to the Space-Brothers, Orfeo Angelucci (whose story is told in my Contactees book).

As Mark notes, Angelucci recorded in his 1959 book Son of the Sun a weird experience that occurred in 1954, when he may have been the unwitting player in some bizarre MKUltra-type experiment - one that had everything to do with clandestine psy-ops, concerns about Communism, and nothing to do with literal aliens.

As Mark says: "So how’s this for a temporary working hypothesis? Adamski and others were claiming alien contacts and espousing anti-American beliefs. Meanwhile Orfeo Angelucci and fellow contactee George Van Tassel, both employed at one of the US’s most advanced aircraft development plants, also claimed contacts with space beings. Angelucci, as it happens, had previously sparked a police hunt after launching balloons containing the aspergillus clavatus mould, a fact sure to have drawn the FBI’s attentions. Were Angelucci and Van Tassel given some kind of hallucinogen, deployed as a ‘truth drug’ to quiz them about possible Communist or Soviet sympathies and, perhaps to pump them full of extraterrestrial anti-Commie rhetoric for good measure?"

And here's Mark's full post, which I strongly urge you to read!

Raven Reviews Contactees

My good friend, Raven Meindel, of Raven's Crypto Haven and the Exploring All Realms radio-show that we co-host reviews my Contactees book and says:

"If you're wanting to know the "who's who" of the contactees, this book includes the best of the best and the most famous of the contactee stories. You'll read about cases like the one of George Hunt Williamson, who made claims that he--like others before and after him, such as George Adamski--had captured the attention of the "Space-Brothers", an alien race that seemed eerie, but very concerned for the human race and our warring ways. You'll also learn about Truman Bethurum who had a romantic liaison with the lovely female alien 'Captain Rhanes' ( One of my personal favorite accounts in this book).

"Redfern also covers several of the bizarre yet intriguing theories that have surrounded Alien related cases over the years, such as mind-control experiments instrumented by our Government, and whether the UFO agenda may be tied to an ancient, Earth-based society that secretly live and move among us under false pretenses even today.

"Nick Redfern has a delightful way of making all his books pop to life, so you feel like you are part of every account he's detailing. This book is a 'must have' to ad to your collection !"

George Adamski: A New, FREE Book!

Yep, that's right! I did indeed say free! Titled George Adamski: The Toughest Job In The World, the book in question is a new one from Auckland-based writer Tony Brunt and is available from Scribd at this link.

I have already started reading the book and can say with certainty that it's a great addition to the body of data that we have on the "Professor." And I'd urge one and all to download and read the book.

After all, it's not every day you get a book that is both very good and free!!

Lecturing on the Space-Brothers

On Saturday afternoon, I drove down to Austin, Texas, where I was due to speak that evening on the subject of my Contactees book, at the Austin Center for Spiritual Living. The gig had been arranged by SMiles Lewis, and a good time was had by all! There was a decent-sized turn-out of about 50 people (including good friends Ken Gerhard - my co-author on Monsters of Texas - and Richie and Naomi West of the Center for Fortean Zoology).

And: in the two-hour-long lecture, I got a lot of very thought-provoking questions about the near-legendary, long-haired Space-Brothers (and Space-Sisters too, of course!), demonstrating that although the Contactee phenomenon may have been at its height in the 1950s, it's a subject that still continues to fascinate and intrigue.

PsiOp Radio & Contactees

This coming Sunday night, I'll be speaking about my Contactees book on S. Miles Lewis' program, PSiOp Radio. This will be a long interview, and we should cover a lot of good ground, cases and personalities: Adamski, Van Tassel, Bethurum, Angelucci, etc., as well as the various theories that have been put forward to explain what may lie at the heart of the Contactee puzzle. Hope to see you there!

Here's the link to the show.

Contactees in Austin

If you're in the Austin, Texas area on the evening of Saturday August 21, you may like to know I'll be speaking about my Contactees book at the Austin Center for Spiritual Living.

The address is 4804 Grover Ave Austin, TX 78756 and the lecture begins at 7PM.

Here's the official link to the lecture/organizer of the event, S. Miles Lewis of the Anomaly Archives, where you can find out more.

Shadowcass & Space-Brothers

Shadowcass has a new post over at her blog that will be of interest to those fascinated by the world of the Space-Brothers. Check it out!

So That's Paranormal?

I'll be on the So That's Paranormal? show tonight, discussing all things of a Space-Brotherly and Contactee nature - here's the link!

Contactees & Crop Circles

This coming weekend - June 24-25 - I'll be speaking at the annual Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) conference on my own, personal investigations of the Crop Circle mystery. And, one of the things I'll be addressing is the chapter in my Contactees book that focuses on the little-known cases of Space-Brother encounters in Crop Circles.

If you can make the gig, say hello!

Nick Redfern: Contactee?

Yes, it's official! I have now met an alien! Yep, a close-encounter, finally! Well...kind of. Unfortunately, this is just an on-screen alien, specifically a Dalek from the BBC TV show Dr. Who. I ran into this metal chap a couple of weeks ago, but he hardly seemed excited by the experience. In fact, he just stood there, cold and unsmiling. Then again, that's what Dalek's are like, so I should have expected nothing less.