Tag: paranormal
Guardians of The Rabbit Hole: Considering Skeptical Thinking and Enquiry
Towards the end of last year I had a number of experiences which lead me to believe that taking a step back from the UFO subject was probably a healthy thing to do. I needed time to process them. I have no doubt in my mind that my experiences were results of genuine phenomena, but what the phenomena actually were and what they tell us about ourselves and the universe is open to question and debate. I’ve been convinced for some time that dissembling is often present within UFO and paranormal phenomena, so the idea of taking the experiences at face value or taking the empirical evidence literally seems foolish.
The one thing that can be said with certainty is that the UFO subject – real or not – has shaped our modern culture. It is one of the most searched terms on the internet, it dominates movies and television, and it even plays a role in shaping our beliefs. Our culture, almost without question, links the UFO subject with extra-terrestrial visitation.
But what if that isn’t the case? Or – more likely, in my opinion – what if the phenomenon is multi-faceted and no single explanation accounts for all genuine UFO sightings? What if the answer to many of these unexplained experiences was something far more esoteric than ET visitation? Maybe something we haven’t even considered yet?
To me, it seems awfully arrogant to believe that unexplainable things can’t and don’t happen. We live in a vast universe and know very little about how it all works, how our brains work, what a soul is, what consciousness really is and how it connects us to one another, or even how we got here. And even with all our current technology, there are still unexplored corners of Earth. We are constantly discovering new things, having to adapt our science and ways of thinking to compensate for the latest findings. If we took a step back in time even a decade, we could barely comprehend the computer processing power we have today.
But does that mean that UFOs exist? That Bigfoot exists? That ghosts exist?
Not necessarily. But I’ve seen UFOs, I’ve had some pretty crazy experiences and I’ve had unexplainable things happen to me. That’s why I am doing what I am doing. You may be skeptical because you haven’t had these experiences. I can’t fault anyone for that. I doubt I would believe any of it if I hadn’t experienced it myself either, so I welcome skeptical viewpoints and debate in all aspects of paranormal research. A good skeptical argument may just be the one thing that stops us from falling down the rabbit hole – or at least guides us gently down it.
People who spend any time considering the UFO phenomena seem to fall into roughly three groups: the definitive believers (or “paranormalists”, to use the more recent term), the skeptics, and the debunkers.
Skeptics and debunkers would probably label me a paranormalist/believer, but that isn’t necessarily how I see myself. Just because I believe that unexplainable things happen doesn’t mean I blindly believe in ALL alleged paranormal phenomena and that ALL UFO cases are real. I try to approach each case with an open mind and judge it on its own merits: the evidence, the eye-witness testimonies, the conditions in which the event allegedly occurred. In my own experiences, I am even more careful to avoid jumping to any conclusions.
Can anyone say with 100% certainty that an event occurred in the way that it was reported? No, never. Can I say that an experience I had happened exactly as I recall it? No, never. I rarely draw a definite conclusion that a case is real, and it is actually easier for me to draw a conclusion that something is probably bogus or simply misidentified and may be conventional in nature, but I try not to be dismissive.
I have to admit that previously, reading reports of love-and-light beings from the Pleiades, cat beings from Sirius, the Council of 9, malevolent and vampyric beings who bring couples together to feed on their sexual and emotional energy, reptilian aggressors that rape victims (after shape-shifting from Queen Elizabeth II and family, of course) and the endless steam of grainy videos on YouTube depicting nondescript and distinctly non-impressive lights in the sky – such things tended to make me feel that I was more aligned to a skeptical point of view than that of a conventional believer in some instances.
I believe that it is absolutely essential to the credibility of paranormal research to have skeptical lines of enquiry. It keeps the subject honest and can lead to further debate in what is a vastly complex array of experiences. However, if you are coming to the subject from the outset to try and disprove that anything unusual has ever happened, then you are not a skeptic, you are a debunker. And therein lies a huge difference.
Skepticism is healthy and encourages rigorous questions and investigation. Debunking is destructive by definition and involves an agenda with predetermined conclusions; it is blind denial, making it just as foolish and pointless as blind belief. Unfortunately, there are a lot of debunkers out there who are claiming to be skeptics.
It’s important to remember that just because we can’t prove something happened or find any evidence of the event, that doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen – unless you are a debunker.
Debunking, rather than skepticism, has been the mainstream media’s viewpoint for much of the past 50 years. This combination of dismissal and ridicule has largely been successful in keeping serious research away from the UFO and paranormal subjects, with the notable exception of the military-industrial complex and the odd, renegade, academic paranormalists – often coming to the field as a result of their own experiences.
Even more frustrating are the dogmatic statements asked over and over by members of the media, which both spring from and encourage a debunking stance:
‘Where’s the evidence?’ (There’s actually rather a lot).
‘He must be crazy.’ (Where’s the evidence for that?)
‘It’s all in the mind.’ (Where’s the evidence for that?)
‘That little green men nonsense again.’ (Mostly grey and blue… but, OK, occasionally green.)
This kind of coverage of the subject ignores the millions of people who claim to have witnessed these phenomena, the multiple-witness events, and the most convincing evidence. YES, contrary to popular belief , there is plenty of evidence. J Allen Hynek, godfather of modern ufology and scientific consultant to Projects Sign, Grudge and Blue Book (the official USAF projects that studied the UFO phenomenon between 1947 and 1969), was once asked: “Where is the evidence?” He amusingly replied; “Where do you want the truck to stop?”
The internet and alternative media have brought a revolution in freedom of information never before seen in modern times. The huge interest in these subjects will possibly lead to many more recorded experiences and sightings, as the phenomena interact with the consciousness of freshly open minds. As this flood of new data streams in, it is up to us all (skeptic and paranormalist alike) to examine the cases and evidence with a healthy balance of skepticism and open-mindedness, yet with the respect they deserve. There is no room for blind faith on the part of the paranormalist, nor debunkery on the part of the skeptic, if we are ever going to reach a greater understanding of the universe we live in.
Lorin Cutts
An Introduction To The Resistance
An Introduction To The Resistance – by Lorin Cutts
Sometime around the middle of 2012 I began to notice that a colleague of mine at the Global Radio Alliance, Chase Kloetzke, was leaving remarks on Facebook about being fed up with how the mainstream media mishandles serious paranormal and UFO research. Chase’s comments were notable given her impressive credentials in this subject: 20 years with the Department of Defense, and then serving as the manager of the MUFON Star Team during a difficult transitional period for the organization.
I wondered what had happened to Chase to make her so critical of the media. The UFO subject has definitely had an uncomfortable relationship with the mainstream media; more often than not it is seen as entertainment rather than serious news worthy of the investigative coverage afforded to other subjects. Chase’s views struck a chord with me, since I have had several negative experiences with media coverage of this subject. In 1996 a case I was investigating had been sold to the general public by the mainstream press as nothing more than the planet Venus, and a multiple radar return was explained away as a cathedral spire. There are obviously thousands of tales just like this and it begs two questions: is this part of a cohesive cover up of unexplainable event data and, if so, how is this being executed on such a large scale?
With all of this in mind, I approached Chase in October and suggested we form an official campaign … and The Resistance was born. We launched a Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/kloetzkecutts) right before I went on a trip abroad for a few weeks. The timing was awkward, but offered a twist of fate as one of the people I would be staying with in London is an executive at the BBC… “sleeping with the enemy” as my friend Race Hobbs put it.
After talking to Chase about the experiences that formed her views I learned that, that among many other things, Chase was approached about a year ago regarding the filming of a pilot for a TV show– as then untitled.
“They sent me over the script and I was like – you have to be kidding me. They wanted me in a tank top and waist level in a river – pretending there were snakes in there to add drama as we went about our UFO investigation.” Chase Kloetzke
Chase Kloetzke – “They sent me over the script and I was like – you have to be kidding me. They wanted me in a tank top and waist level in a river – pretending there were snakes in there to add drama as we went about our UFO investigation.”
A suspiciously similar TV show was aired in the summer of 2012 – possibly one of the least credible and most over the top UFO shows ever created by the mainstream media – Chasing UFOs. Is this really the kind of garbage that we have to endure over such a potentially significant subject?
Chasing UFOs – Is this really the kind of garbage that we have to endure over such a potentially significant subject?
In May of this year, Renegade Productions, a production company working under contract to the BBC received a lot of attention after most of the 12 participants and film crew were detained facedown at gunpoint at a security gate within the Area 51 facility in Nevada. They had all ignored the “use of deadly force authorized” signs and were within the base perimeter. This event and the documentary “UFO Conspiracy Road Trip” received some attention in the national press in the UK and in the UFO research community and I asked my executive friend from the BBC (who prefers not to be named) about this sorry episode.
“What everyone has to realize is that any documentary that is being made for BBC3 isn’t going to be a serious documentary. The demographic for this channel is early 20’s up to 35 and a documentary about UFOs on BBC3 was never going to be a serious documentary – it is going to be purely for entertainment”.
The presenter of the documentary, comedian Andrew Maxwell, seemed to believe that this was more than just entertainment. “Luckily, when the sheriffs turned up this deputy had a sense of humour. It had been rung through to him that I was an Irish comedian leading these UFO nutjobs, that I didn’t believe any of it and was there to DEBUNK it for the BBC.” (reference: http://silverscreensaucers.blogspot.fi/2012/10/presenter-of-truthseeking-bbc-ufo-show.html)
This just adds insult to injury: putting the lives of UFO experiencers and researchers at risk under the pretext of entertainment, which is then used to attempt debunk the subject? It’s not hard to see why getting involved in such projects is potentially very damaging for the seriousness and credibility of this subject.
Richard Dolan did an excellent expose of this whole affair on his KGRA show. His interview with Franky Ma, the only participant who did not get detained at Area 51, is available on KGRA’s archives at http://kgraradio.com/portfolio-view/richard-dolan-show/.
Franky Ma – Expose On Truth Out Radio
At the opposite end of the scale was the well-made and sadly missed “UFO Hunters”. One of the stars of this show, Pat Uskert, was one of the first people to join our campaign. Pat has said that the finished version of the show was vastly different from his original demo called “UFO Road Trip”. (This is available to view on YouTube and it’s interesting to make a comparison between the two shows.) Pat was critical of his experience of being put through the TV Machine:
“What is happening on TV is designed entirely around ratings. It is sensationalism to attract bigger audiences for more advertising. You won’t find truth there.” Pat Uskert
UFO Hunters – Pat Uskert to the left. “What is happening on TV is designed entirely around ratings. It is sensationalism to attract bigger audiences for more advertising. You won’t find truth there.”
Peter Robbins has also done some sterling work regarding the historical aspect of UFOs and their treatment in the mainstream media. He has lectured extensively on this subject and his data indicates that there does appear to be a very clear campaign to disniform the public via the mainstream media from the very birth of the modern UFO era.
“But what they are is another question. A question, it seems, which is never accorded the courtesy of an honest answer. And so the shell game has continued down through the decades.” Peter Robbins
Peter Robbins
“But what they are is another question. A question, it seems, which is never accorded the courtesy of an honest answer. And so the shell game has continued down through the decades.”
We need to change this. We aren’t calling for a boycott of mainstream media participation, but we can all exercise judgment when approached to appear on TV, documentaries, and other media projects. If you feel passionately about this subject and want to see it presented in a serious and respectful way, then don’t participate in shows that are going to bring the subject into disrepute. Let’s all be mindful and not contribute – as much as feasibly possible – to anything that could potentially be a hatchet job or sensationalistic reality TV made strictly for entertainment. They do nothing to advance the credibility of this subject, and provide ammunition for people who want to ridicule it.
Don’t become complicit in the cover up. Utilize alternative media sources as much as possible. We all have a responsibility to take this subject out of the tabloid hit pieces and find other ways to get it into the homes of everyday people so it is shown in a respectful and serious light. We know there is an enormous interest in this subject: Google currently returns over 248 million hits on the search term “UFO”. It’s time to wake up and get serious about the media’s mishandling of what is potentially the biggest story of our time.
Chase Kloetzke
Lorin Cutts
Lorin Cutts – “We need to change this.”
High Strangeness 8 – The Very Essence Of High Strangeness : Margie Kay & Jari Mikkola
High Strangeness 8 – The Very Essence Of High Strangeness: Lorin Cutts with Margie Kay & Jari Mikkola
Lorin Cutts talks with renowned psychic, remote viewer, UFO/alien experiencer/researcher and fellow Global Radio Alliance host and partner, Margie Kay. Margie has done psychic work for the Kansas City PD, solved missing persons cases, done many years of front line paranormal research and had some highly unusual experiences along the way.
Margie Kay
Jari Mikkola is the brains behind the International Spirits, Shadows and Secrets Symposium in Edinburgh, Scotland in 2013 – and explains his background in paranormal research. He also explains how the conference appears to be being helped from forces from elsewhere resulting in some rather interesting EVPs (electronic voice phenomena).
Jari Mikolla
Both perhaps represent a different way in trying to view and correlate UFO and alien experiences alongside other paranormal subjects – and perhaps see it as part of a bigger whole. An approach that can possibly ask broader questions of these subjects, our universe and the world we live in.
Aired: 8pm EST, Sunday 16th September 2012. Archive here: http://www.kgraradio.com/free-archives
Links:
http://www.spiritsandshadows.com
Biography
MUSIC
LORIN CUTTS
A misspent youth as a singer/bass player in various punk bands from the age of 14 brought cider-fuelled dreams of rock n roll stardom. That was until an opportunity came along to move to the big smoke and work as a tape-operator and later as an engineer in a London recording studio. It was in this studio that Lorin fell in love with the developing music technology of the day. The studio had been set up in a Camden attic by The Eurythmics to record their ‘Sweet Dreams’ LP, and it was here that he learned how to mix in the dead of night by sneakily digging out master tapes and making his own mixes of tracks.
The studio was also host to a couple of very early drum machines/toys built by legendary Kraftwerk producer Conny Plank. Lorin says, ‘it seems almost dreamlike that my first exposure to electronic music making was in these amazing circumstances. I never truly appreciated how lucky I was at the time. I don’t have many regrets, but if I had one it would be turning down the chance to buy Dave Stewart’s ‘typewriter’ drum machine (the one that appears in the ‘Sweet Dreams’ video) for 50 quid. I simply didn’t have the money’. During this time Lorin worked as tape-operator/apprentice and learned how many records were made. He even appeared on a few and is particularly proud of making crowd noises in a supposed strip club alongside Johnny Thunders on his ‘Copy Cats’ LP.
Stints as engineer, studio manager and vocalist in various indie bands followed until in 1991 when a reluctant visit to Trade club in London showed Lorin how the other side of the music obsessed public lived. This music was just as dark, dirty and rebellious as punk, but without all the hideous hours spent hung over in the back of a transit van on a tour of the East Midlands.
Trade became a weekly scheduled stop and using skills learned during his grueling studio experience, he was soon making tracks for legendary Trade DJs Tony de Vit and Tall Paul as well as those at brand new club-on-the-block DTPM. The following year saw the debut releases of original tracks and remixes on fledgling labels Hooj Choons, Positiva, and Jumpin’ and Pumpin’, and of course numerous obligatory white labels.
A seven year publishing deal was signed in 1994 with Polygram / London Records, but by 1996 he’d become tired of the vacuous place that the music industry and club scene can become. Disillusioned and exhausted, Lorin moved once more and became a West Country recluse, listening to Strange Cargo albums with his sheep dogs in Somerset.
By 2004 Lorin had once again became excited by new developments in music technology, and a growing love of the breaks scene in the UK tempted him out of exile. DJ dates followed in places as far afield as Russia, Europe, and the USA. Exposure to a barrage of amazing new music prompted the launch of music label and multi-media company – mmrmmr. Now based in Portland, Oregon, Lorin spends his time between writing, producing and remixing music, researching UFO’s and frequency healing, and working as a freelance writer.
Lorin is currently working with frequency healing / response and incorporating this technology into his music production.
Lorin is also co-founder and executive partner of KGRA and presents Saturday Night Sounds and High Strangeness radio shows there.
TV credits include: Top Gear, Inbetweeners, Eddie Izzard, Royal Variety Performance, MTV, BBC, ITV, Channel 4. Publishers include: Polygram, Warner Chappell, BMG, Audio Network and BBC Worldwide.
All things Lorin Cutts on mmrmmr.com: here
Radio Host, Journalist, UFO Investigator, Experiencer
British UFO researcher/experiencer Lorin Cutts became fascinated with the subject after his first encounter in Portugal in 1993. After returning to the UK he began to accumulate as many books on the subject as he could, and spent days photocopying every back issue of “Flying Saucer Review” at the Imperial College Library in London. On the advice of FSR editor, Gordon Creighton, Lorin began investigating some of the UK’s most intriguing multiple witness sightings.In 1996 Lorin was lucky enough to arrive at the Julia Set crop formation opposite Stonehenge within hours of its creation. This was to have a lasting and profound effect on Lorin and he moved to that area of England the following year, where many more interesting UFO experiences ensued.
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Lorin’s first major investigation was the Wash Incident that occurred in October 1996. In the early hours of the 5th of October a rotating UFO was seen over The Wash (a large body of water in Eastern England) by multiple witnesses. This case also included multiple military and police witnesses, radar returns, and coastguard and civilian flight witnesses. Lorin was able to obtain witness statements from the police and radio transcripts before the inevitable information embargo was enacted. By the time the visual sightings were being explained away by the authorities (a radar echo of St Botolph’s Church, Boston… simple celestial objects) Lorin was already faxing his findings off to UFO magazines.
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Ten years later he moved to another UFO hotspot, Sonora, California, and once again he was back in the thick of the action. This provided the catalyst to spearhead him into serious UFO research and writing on the subject. In 2006 Lorin also developed tinnitus. Western medicine couldn’t provide any relief for his condition, so he turned to frequency healing as both a personal interest and as a way of alleviating the ringing in his ears. Having trained as a sound engineer this path seemed the perfect way of blending his interest in sound with his love of more esoteric subjects.
Today, Lorin splits his time between music production, writing, researching UFOs and frequency healing. He has spent the last few years specializing in high strangeness UFO related reports and, more recently, lifetime “alien” abduction/experiencer cases.
Lorin is co-founder and executive partner of KGRA and hosts his shows “High Strangeness” about UFOs and the paranormal… and music talk show, “Saturday Night Sounds”. He also runs The Resistance campaign (alongside Chase Kloetzke) that aims to draw attention to the often unfair treatment the UFO and paranormal subjects receive in the mainstream media – and sometimes appears along side Chase on “Project White Paper” as special correspondent.
Find Lorin Cutts’s writing in UFO magazines and websites including: UFO Matrix Magazine, Phenomena Magazine, UN-X News Magazine, UFO Reality Magazine, unknowncountry.com, Concious Life News and many more.
High Strangeness Radio
I host my ‘High Strangeness’ show at the Global Radio Alliance.
I aim to open up and invigorate the debate within ufology regarding what exactly these objects are and examine the true nature of experiences that people appear to have around them. Through my own research I’ve come to the conclusion that by ignoring high strangeness events that occur to ufo and close encounter witnesses, we could well be missing a vital part of the puzzle.
So let’s not just talk about ET’s and aliens – but also the synchronicities, symbology, dreams, psychic, paranormal, spiritual and other para-psychological phenomena that appear to relate to the ufo subject.
Lorin Cutts
