UFOs/Paranormal/Religion - Hoaxers and Liars

As I said in the OP, these fields are full of pretenders simply because it's good money. That doesn't mean that everyone who talks about such things are telling lies, it's just that the truthful ones are hard to find as they rarely write books.

I'm a believer in UFO's and have had a couple of experiences myself, but unfortunately those who are creating these myths are doing a lot to help rubbish the whole field of UFOlogy.

MelT

 

I agree However, another option is to simply go directly to the texts and ideas that he spoke about and interpret them for ourselves. Some texts are written in a purposely vague way so that nobody can understand them before they're ready to, but on the whole anyone could learn the real thing in not that long a time.

That too is a bit of blow to both McKenna and Watt's images. As these concepts are easy to learn if you go about it the right way, why didn't they? They were allegedly massively well-read, well-aquainted with a number of people from whom they could learn the actual facts behind the pop-spirituality they talked about - but they didn't. The most basic aspects of Buddhism in all its forms is 'sunyata'. Neither writer understood it, even though anyone could learn what it means in about five minutes. Both continually describe it wrongly. As supposed commentators on spirituality, what does that say about them both?

I do understand that people are drawn to them for a quick way into understanding eastern traditions, but sadly they don't know as much about these traditions as they pretend.

MelT

 

Lazar was doing well with a good story until he got too ambitious with it.

"...Incredible claims have been made about Bob Lazar for years. He supposedly is a physicist with an MS in Physics from MIT and an MS in Electronics from the California Institute of Technology. He was a "Scientist” for Los Alamos National Laboratory, and obtained a job back-engineering UFOs at a very secret site at Area 51 in Nevada through Dr. Edward Teller.

Supposedly he figured out how saucers work using Element 115 - matter/anti-matter, etc. He was able to steal a small quantity of 115 from the 500 pounds available, but this was stolen back. He came forward with his story despite death threats because he thought the public has a right to know. Videotapes are available with his claims.

It is all BUNK.

Not one shred of evidence has been put forth to support this story: No diplomas, no resumes, no transcripts, no memberships in professional organizations, no papers, no pages from MIT or Caltech yearbooks. He also mentioned, in a conversation with me, California State University at Northridge and Pierce Junior College - also in the San Fernando Valley, California. I checked all four schools. Pierce said he had taken electronics courses in the late 1970s. The other three schools never heard of him.

The page from the Los Alamos Nat'l Lab phone book with Lazar's name on it clearly states that it includes employees of the DOE and outside contractor, Kirk Meyer. “K/M” follows Lazar's name. This proves he worked for K/M, not LANL.

I checked with LANL's personnel department for Lazar's name and that of an old colleague. They found my guy, but not Lazar.

He was publicly asked when he got his MS from MIT. He said “Let me see now, I think it was probably 1982.” Nobody getting an MS from MIT would not know the year immediately. He was asked to name some of his profs, He said: “Let's see now, Bill Duxler will remember me from Caltech.” I located Duxler. He's a Pierce physics prof, and never taught at Caltech. Lazar was registered in one of his courses at the same time Lazar was supposedly at MIT! Nobody who can go to MIT goes to Pierce JC, not to mention the rather long commute between LA and Cambridge, Mass.

I checked his High School. He graduated in August, not with his class. The only science course he took was chemistry. He ranked 261 out of 369, which is in the bottom third. There is no way he would have been admitted by MIT or Caltech. An MS in Physics from MIT requires a thesis. No such thesis exists at MIT, and he is not on a commencement list.

The notion that the government wiped his CIVILIAN records clean is absurd.

When he declared bankruptcy in the mid 1980s for almost $300,000.00 he listed his occupation as a self-employed film processor. With MS degrees from MIT and Caltech? Caltech would not have accepted him for an MS program if he already had one from MIT.

There is no evidence that any 115 has been created anywhere. Based on what we know about all other elements over #100, it would certainly have been radioactive with a short half life, and 500 pounds could not have been accumulated. His scheme sounds good, but makes no real sense especially in view of how difficult it would be to add protons to #115.

He could not have gotten a Compartmentalized Security clearance having operated a brothel. His W-2 form from the Department of Naval Intelligence totals under $1000.00, at most a week's pay for a scientist. You can't get a security clearance in a week.

Scientists leave trails. Lazar is NOT a scientist. He couldn't even answer scientific questions put to him. An excellent review of Bob's “Physics” can be seen at Lazar Critique

 

It depends on what fields you're talking about TBH - what areas are you interested in?

MelT

Edit: This is from a good UFO resource: http://www.hyper.net/ufo/hoaxes.html

Probable or confirmed fakes / hoaxes / myths / misconceptions which gained wide publicity

Quick list of highly probable or confirmed UFO hoaxes and myths: Ray Santilli "Roswell alien autopsy" film (1995), Bob Lazar (supposedly worked on UFO back-engineering project at "S4" Area 51 in Nevada USA, bogus UFO propulsion physics involving Element-115 aka Ununpentium), John Searl (claims to have flown what he called an IGV -Inverse Gravity Vehicle- in England during the 1960s), TNT's "KGB UFO Files" alien autopsy video and film of half-buried discoid UFO which supposedly crashed in 1968 in Sverdlovsk (Berezovsky) Russia, Project SERPO (alleged top-secret exchange program between the US government and an alien planet called Serpo), Project Bluebeam (conspiracy theory aimed at Christian fundamentalists since the 1990s), UMMO (hoax spread mostly in Spain & France in the 1960s and 1970s, decades-long claims that aliens from the planet Ummo were communicating with persons on Earth), Pleiadians (one-armed Swiss farmer Billy Meier), Nazi flying saucers (Nick Cook), Space-Nazis, Youtube videos of UFO over Haiti and Dominican Republic, WTC helicopter UFO video (SciFi channel promo), California / Raji drones (May/Jun-2007) and followup Isaac's CARET Program and Extra-Terrestrial Technology (Jun-2007), "Men in Black" mythology by Gray Barker (USA 1950s and 1960s), Shaver mystery (underground civilizations, USA 1950s), alleged TR3B "black-project" craft to explain the silent massive "black triangles" seen all over the world, Russian "Cosmospheres" to explain spherical UFOs, Jonathan Bradley Rutter a.k.a "Dr" Jonathan Reed ("Alien in forest encounter in Oct-1996" - story about encountering reptilian alien in the woods of the Cascade Mountains, alien attacked his dog, he killed the alien and put it in freezer), "Australian UFO wave" hoax of 2006 (by Chris Kenworthy). Project Blue Beam (3-dimensional holographic projection of 'Jesus' in the sky). Photography issues: "orbs" (backscatter orbs) and "rods".

Only a tiny minority (<5% per the Colorado University 1969 study of the USAF Project Blue Book files a.k.a. "Condon Report") of UFO reports turn out to be deliberate hoaxes (a great deal more are honest misidentifications of mundane objects or phenomena). Yet widely publicized hoaxes challenge the credibility of all sightings. They can also call into question the diligence of UFO organizations. At the height of the "UFO fever" of the 1950s, hoaxes were perpetrated mostly by teenage boys with a camera and a good throwing arm. These might more properly be termed pranks. In 2006 and 2007, several computer-generated images and videos have surfaced; such UFO-art includes the "Australian UFO wave 2006" series of 31 videos by Chris Kenworthy funded by Australian Film Commission, the "Chad drones" a/k/a "California drones" and close-up videos of supposed UFOs over Haiti and Dominican Republic, featured on Youtube's front-page and attracting millions of viewers and raving reviews (4.5 of 5 stars).

However, a more sinister kind of hoaxing has taken hold in America, which seems to involve the intelligence establishment of the United States (e.g. a serious semi-officially acknowledged elaborate hoax, on-going over years, was played on Dr.Paul Bennewitz, an engineer-businessman and UFO researcher in Albuquerque NM). The shameless disinformation fed to the general public via the mainstream media (even those popularly considered credible, e.g. the PBS-TV NOVA "UFOs: Are we alone?" in 1982, the "BBC Inside Out" promoting the Conde police car practical joke, in an attempt to discredit the Rendlesham forest UFO incident of 1980, or the recent National Geographic Channel "Is it real?" series of mockumentaries on UFOs/Aliens, crop-circles, Chupacabras etc, which quite frankly were the most egregious pieces of disinfo I've seen produced in this decade sofar and sent chills up my spine wondering how much BS we're being fed in subjects where one isn't knowledgeable and/or alert to catch it as such) also continues unabated.

But even those who aren't gulllible enough to buy this anti-UFO propaganda, are swamped by tons of garbage, searching for a tiny speck of real info. Moore and Shandera chillingly describe the neutralizing effects of the anti-UFOlogy disinformation:

 

I think it's a good hope and not negative in any way

It depends who you mean and when. The moon buildings were mainly Hoagland's invention. I have no doubt that high ranking officials have seen things that they can't identify that seem strange, but in that mix are people who haven't seen anything too. I don't know of anyone claiming to have seen beings in an un-debunked story. I really doubt that we have any alien bodies anywhere - which is only my opinion, I understand.

I think the main thing that I've learned is that in all these years of UFOlogy we're no closer to knowing who or what they are than we were 70 years ago.

Not sure about that, but thank you I read a lot, but now it's mainly about the subjects that UFO's tend to be mixed with, such as early civilisations and religions. I'm also very interested in the psychology of the UFO or paranormal scam, why one works and why another doesn't. It's an eye-opener to watch when something does take off, against all rational sense.

MelT

 

But nobody is denying anything, there's no cover up now. You don't need a delegation to help you speak out about the existence of UFO's nowadays. Mexican TV shows (supposedly) them as reality every week. How many US/UK shows on TV promote them as real? UFO's and people who think they've seen them aren't penalised or disbelieved, UNLESS they begin to make claims beyond what is right and reasonable in the face of evidence to the contrary.

People quietly report UFO's all the time here and, depending on who you speak to at your local police station, you might get an interested, "Wow"' or a 'Bugger off, I'm eating my sandwiches," depending on who answered the phone. Run of the mill, normal people reporting lights in the sky are one thing, the Lazars of this world are another

Countries all over the world accept their existence, though slightly tentatively, whatever they might be. They're 'somethings' that's all, that's as far as we ever get. We're not hiding ships or bodies anywhere and there's no reptilian NWO on the way. People in government have seen things themselves and some are believers, here in the UK and over there. Some people believe, some don't, there's no common view or policy within government as a whole to favour them or repress information on them. There has been in the past, yes, particularly during wartime, but it's not like that any more. What can any government say when a delegation presents evidence of UFO's? 'Thanks, we'll look into it when we get time and money'. It's not a primary concern.

The woo-woo faction of UFOlogy plays up the idea that our government is hiding information because it gives them a reason not to have to come up with any kind of proof.

MelT