With a vast and involved history having to do with research of the unexplained, we are fortunate to also receive some clarification from the retired Colonel regarding allegations made in The Men Who Stare At Goats, many of which he says were outright fabricated to fit a Hollywood screenplay.

Referring to the book the film was based on, Alexander states “While listed as nonfiction, the facts were extrapolated almost beyond recognition.” He tells in a review of the film appearing at the Films in Review website that, “With support of senior leadership, we were consciously pushing the envelope. It should be noted that all of the explorations undertaken were done based on solid rationale.” There were, however, a few allegations made in the film which don’t appear to have met this “solid rationale” that Alexander mandates, to which he emphatically states there was no participation, or even basis of reality to confirm these activities. Chief among these, regarding the use of LSD in government mind-science programs that involved remote-viewing and the like, he says “not only NO, BUT HELL NO.”

Among the projects for which he says there is a fact basis are hamster and goat-staring, “Jedi” projects, spoon bending (Alexander says this was taught to hundreds), cloud busting, computer crashing, fire walking, and many other activities. Strangely (or not), the practice of running into walls–perhaps one of the more mundane activities portrayed in the film–was never attempted.

News broke in May of last year that Funes was apologetic for the Catholic Church’s previous treatment of historic astronomers, namely Galileo. “Mistakes were made, but it is time to turn the page and look towards the future.” Galileo was condemned four centuries ago by the Church for his interest in worlds that may exist beyond our star system, as well as for his suggestion that the Earth may not be the center of the universe. Galileo wasn’t the only man persecuted by the Church of Rome for speculating about life elsewhere, however. Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake as a heretic in 1600 for holding similar views.

But, as Funes emphatically states, the Church’s views have changed since those times. “If biology is not unique to the Earth, or life elsewhere differs bio-chemically from our version, or we ever make contact with an intelligent species in the vastness of space, the implications for our self-image will be profound,” Funes says, begging questions such as whether or not man–made in God’s image–made aliens in his image also.

But what of other biblical stories that might involve strange inhabitants of other galaxies? After all, Fox News reported yesterday that “Scientists have discovered hundreds of planets outside our solar system — including 32 new ones announced recently by the European Space Agency.” How might the potential for extraterrestrial life in this way lend itself to Ezekiel’s famous encounter with a “wheel in the sky” from which “angels” emerged? Even the story of Noah’s ark, a vessel that saved the lives of male and female specimens of all animal life on Earth from a great flood, might be interpreted far differently if aliens were figured into the question. As one Catholic Priest told our Dutch Gralien Report correspondent Robert Vandenburg while visiting Switzerland, “there may have been many Noahs throughout the universe, and many arks. Who is to say that Noah’s ark wasn’t a spaceship itself?”

Indeed, the Church’s move towards embracing the notion of life in distant parts of the galazy is a step in the right direction; especially for a religious system which continues to receive pressure and criticism from more progressive groups for their stances on women entering ministry, birth control, celibacy of Priests, and a variety of other traditions the church maintains.

With the film’s release this weekend, the hubbub has yet to die down, and no doubt, it will be a good while before it does. One thing has changed, however; people are seeing the film, reviews are pouring in, and criticism of the film’s content, as well as its viral marketing campaign, are becoming prolific.

Prior to the film’s release, many avid web searchers (this one included) managed to find various websites that housed information about an Alaskan psychiatrist, Dr. Abigail Tyler, who is represented by Jovovich  (above, photo by Rita Molnár) in the film. At the time, I didn’t bother to look into how long the site had existed, or who the registrant information might point to, since doing Google searches for Abigail Tyler, as well as the so-called “Alaska Psychiatry Journal” led to very few results. Granted, much like the film Cloverfield, it seems that a majority of the movie-going blogging community enjoys solving the riddles presented by such obvious viral marketing campaigns, and a handful of them will continue investigating until they reach a dead end… which is exactly where the aforementioned website, as well as some other promotional information about the film, has gone.

“They are now gone,” reports Popular Mechanics writer Erik Sofge, who tells us they were “pulled offline when users posted publicly available registration records showing the sites launched in August of 2009. Those records don’t identify Universal (which released the movie) as the site’s owners, but for multiple sites to show up in the same month, just as promotion for the movie was getting started, is as circumstantial as it is damning.” Popular Mechanics famously “debunked” the 911 conspiracies (at very least to their own liking), and since then has tended to take a skeptical look at a variety of ambiguous claims that have appeared in years since. So far as Universal’s response, “The studio has stayed silent on the movie and its factual claims. And while the director, Olatunde Osunsanmi, is vested enough in this case to have personally interviewed Tyler, with clips of their conversation showing up throughout the movie, he hasn’t talked to anyone about the movie. No one is admitting anything, but all signs point to a hoax that backfired.” Read the entire Popular Mechanics article by clicking here.

Maybe the fact that film was an obvious hoax has less to do with the effect–desired or unintentional–that The Fourth Kind will have on its audiences. Mark Easter, International Director of Public Relations for MUFON, was interviewed by PM for their article, who said, “Even though this movie is written in Hollywood, and it’s sketchy, and has fake websites to promote it, people want to know about the phenomenon. MUFON sees it not as a half-empty cup. We look at it as half-full, and full to the point of overflowing. All we want is people to come out of the movie, and instead of looking at the sidewalk, and worrying about how their mortgage is going to get paid, they’re looking up at the sky. If we can get more people looking up at the sky, hopefully something will be seen, and they can get it into our database and let MUFON do our job.”

Is this really, by definition, a “hoax”, or is it merely Hollywood doing what Hollywood does: creating ambiguous hype for the ultimate purpose of entertainment? Looking at this from another perspective, do hoaxes actually help some UFO investigations? My fellow L.E.M.U.R. researcher Joshua P. Warren seems to feel that studying hoaxes may be a viable way to learn how to rule out fakes, which prompted him to establish a “hoax research” branch of L.E.M.U.R.’s ongoing investigations. To learn more about the Hoax Research Center, click here. Also, here is a link to the UFO Congress page detailing Joshua’s hoax research at this past year’s convention:

Joshua P. Warren Presents Physically Faking UFOs

A strange venticular or polar stratospheric cloud? Or, as one YouTube user suggests, is it “another silver iodide experiment from the Russian government to kill the clouds?” Strange indeed, and it looks more like a scene from a science fiction film than natural phenomenon, whatever it may actually be.

The data gained from the satellite, which NASA plans to use to help determine if there is water on the moon, will not be immediately available for review by scientists. Nonetheless, Anthony Colaprete, principal investigator for the LCROSS (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite) mission, told news sources today that “We have the data we need to actually address the questions we set out to address.”

Elsewhere, stranger questions are erupting with regard to a video depicting a recent controversial Iranian missile launch. According to sources, the video seems to have captured other, more inexplicable items of controversy. Having initially aired on Fox News, the clip is now being touted by UK tabloid The Sun as evidence of UFO craft in the vicinity, as evidenced by the strange severing of a cloud bank adjacent to the missile’s flight path (see video below):

British ufologist Nick Pope was interviewed for the Sun article, who suggested an alternative. “One theory is that it’s a secret American drone. At any time there are prototype aircraft and drones being operated that won’t be shown in public for years. Stealth aircraft flew for many years before their existence was acknowledged, but the speed and acceleration seems phenomenal. I’m not convinced we’ve got anything capable of such manoeuvres.”

Though Pope suggests the object filmed over Iranian airspace may have been man-made, a famous incident in 1976 involved a radar and visual sighting of a UFO over Tehran, the capital of Iran, during the early morning hours of September 19. Several electromagnetic interference anomalies were observed on aircraft in close proximity to the object, with one suffering temporary weapons systems failure while preparing to open fire. The incident is well-documented in an U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency report submitted to the White House, Secretary of State, Joint Chiefs of Staff, National Security Agency, and CIA. In the years since the incident, a number of high-ranking Iranian military officers directly involved with the incident have also gone on public record stating their belief that the object was not terrestrial in origin.

Reports of UFOs intercepting missiles, as well as circumventing tests with nuclear weapons, are prolific, having even been reported by legendary news commentator Walter Cronkite. In his book UFOs and Nukes, author Robert Hastings has detailed a number of these incidents as verified by US intelligence officials. Having happened once before over Tehran, could the recent Iranian incident mark the appearance of yet another UFO craft prepared to “strike” if necessary?

On the other hand, if it were a US military drone, it may be in keeping with a variety of other operations taking place abroad. For instance, last month US President Barack Obama’s administration presented a plan to replace an older plan backed by his predecessor, George W. Bush, that would have placed missile defence facilities in eastern Europe. The news prompted outcry from Russian Foreign Minister Sergie Lavrov, who stated “We would like to receive full clarification” regarding the plan.

One recent US report suggested that the United States might include Ukraine in its missile defense plan also. Defense News reported Thursday that Washington may possibly consider Ukraine as part of its new anti-missile program, adding the ex-Soviet country to its list of potential early warning sites. Lavrov called this move “rather unexpected.” Does activity throughout parts of eastern Europe lend to the possibility that US forces are monitoring missile activity in Iran also? Or, is the strange movement seen in the clouds in the video above evidence some kind of extraterrestrial craft?

The report reads as follows:

On 8-15-2009 at 2:45am I was buzzed for about 5 seconds by a 4 foot round luminescent orb on the roof of the building that I work in, in Philadelphia . It materialized about a foot away from me, blocking my way and making a buzzing sound, it then took off and dematerialized in approximately a 6 feet distance. At this time I decided to turn around and leave the roof. I found a photo of the object here.

“About an hour later at 3:45am I was walking through a machine room on the roof, near the same location of the orb, when I encountered a 3 foot tall triped creature. It was standing by an electrical transformer looking up at the conduits. I observed it for about 30 seconds from a distance of four feet before it turned around and noticed me. I was looking down at it! It had a beautiful baby blue eye which was moving rapidly, just one, a long eye lid and rubbery looking legs with bulbous feet.

“I could see it was starting to panic because it started stomping his feet like a mad skunk or jumping up and down and making a high pitch squeaking sound almost like a cats toy. I was blocking it’s way to the open roll up door leading to the roof behind me. I put up an open hand in a gesture to let it know that I wouldn’t hurt it and backed up towards a different part of the machine room, away from it’s path to the door, but kept my eye on the creature. I watched it walking down the isle slowly when it started to move. It stopped where I had turned to get out of its way, it then turned and looked me over for a couple of seconds. I couldn’t help myself and started to laugh at it. I felt like a child who saw a monkey for the first time or something! I got the impression that it was thanking me but I think I also offended it because it started to leer at me and it’s eye changed to a lighter color. I could be wrong, it may have took a bow! The triped then took off running in the direction of the door disappearing behind machinery in the area. I didn’t feel threatened in any way by this creature but I was quite sure that cornering it was a bad idea! In hindsight of this encounter I’m left with a feeling a of wonder. The buildings electrical generator was permanently shut down about a year ago.

“On this same morning I’m doing my paper work in the control booth, and a larger than man sized Praying Mantis comes up to the window and just stairs at me for about a minute. I did not feel comfortable with this encounter considering the nature of this kind of insect. I sat there and didn’t move a muscle until it left. I have also heard screeching sounds in the roof machine room, in the direction of the roll up door which made my hair stand up on the back of my neck around the same time for 2 nights.”

Indeed, “fractal mantises” are common, strangely, in both UFO abductee accounts, as well as descriptions of “alien” beings encountered by users of the powerful drug dimethyltryptamine (DMT). My friend Emperor over at the Cabinet of Wonders site gives us a little background on this: “While there have been reports of mantis-like entities before, like the Mantis Man of London, the mention of the mantis rang a bell (with me), as encounters with praying mantis-like insects are common in DMT trips, as described by Clifford Pickover. Endogenous DMT has been suggested as a cause for a range of strange experiences and it may be the mantis is pointing this out to us.”

What Emps means when he describes “Endogenous DMT” has to do with the strange fact that the stuff, while known to man as one of the strongest hallucinogens on the planet, is actually produced in our bodies, most likely in the pineal gland. This theory, proposed by pioneering psychedelics researcher Dr. Rick Strassman M.D., might explain a variety of strange things that correlate with the appearance of mantises, as well as spindly “stick figures” like the Pennsylvania witnesses’ “tripod”.

For instance, the research of Dr. Michael Persinger resulted in the theory that electrical stimulus to the human brain can (and often does) cause hallucinations that present the sensation of a “presence”. Conducted in sound proof rooms where test subjects wore helmets that induced strong electric fields, many nonetheless described hearing noises and sensing a presence in the room with them. Persinger found that his subjects also experienced noticeable drops in production of Melatonin, a tryptamine produced in the brain that regulates sleep and sex drive. This research got me thinking along the lines that electrical phenomenon might indeed be the key to triggering that “endogenous” pineal release of DMT (which I must also add, to my knowledge, was first proposed by Strassman also in his book DMT: The Spirit Molecule). This would explain bizarre instances where people suffering from conditions like Electrical Hypersensitivity and Multiple Allergy (EHMA) seem to have trippy encounters with “aliens” while working near strong electric fields: they literally may be “tripping” on small amounts of DMT released into the bloodstream as a result of drastic changes in electric fields in their environment. But how exactly could an EM field cause such a thing to occur?

Strassman pointed out to me several months ago that (in theory) we might assume that since EM fields cause a temporary shutdown of Melatonin production, “latent metabolic pathways” might in turn be opened, allowing a substance like DMT an un-hindered path into cerebro-spinal fluids. It’s also worth discussing here that Melatonin and DMT are chemically very similar. If we already know Melatonin is produced in the brain, it stands to reason that DMT is also, and such theories (though merely theories, at present) are correct.

That being said, let’s take a closer look at one or two of the points the Pennsylvanian makes in his report:

“About an hour later at 3:45am I was walking through a machine room on the roof, near the same location of the orb, when I encountered a 3 foot tall triped creature. It was standing by an electrical transformer looking up at the conduits. I observed it for about 30 seconds from a distance of four feet before it turned around and noticed me.”

It could be assumed by his distance from the tripod creature (four feet) that he was also close to the electrical field being emitted by the transformer, which the creature was standing next to. Again, electric fields may play into the appearance of the Mantis, having occurred the same morning:

“On this same morning I’m doing my paper work in the control booth, and a larger than man sized Praying Mantis comes up to the window and just stairs at me for about a minute. I did not feel comfortable with this encounter considering the nature of this kind of insect. I sat there and didn’t move a muscle until it left.”

If indeed the witness were to suffer from the effects of EHMA or a similar condition, and as illustrated in the theories outlined above, this might allow EM fields to trigger an endogenous release of DMT, it’s no surprise our contactee witnessed something so similar to entities reported by DMT users. It is also noteworthy that “spindly stick-people” were also common during Strassman’s DEA-approved clinical studies with patients to whom he administered large doses of DMT in the early 1990s. Might the “tripod” seen earlier the same day qualify as a “spindly stick-person?” One final point:

“I have also heard screeching sounds in the roof machine room, in the direction of the roll up door which made my hair stand up on the back of my neck around the same time for 2 nights.”

Strange noises were commonly reported in Persinger’s studies also. Joshua Warren and I have discussed on a few occasions the notion that roll-up doors and other spinning objects made of plastic or similar materials might be capable of producing strong static charges, capable of emitting a powerful static electric field that might cause nausea, disorientation, or presumably, the same sorts of effects described in the Strassman and Persinger studies. Along these lines, Emperor also notes that “The mention of the buzzing sphere in proximity to electrical equipment, reminds me of the numerous cases we have looked at involving electrical UFOs or plasma spheres. The appearance of the triped could be the result of the sphere’s impact on the brain.” For more of his fine commentary on this subject, visit his original post by clicking here.

I’ll end this with a couple of quotes from two of my favorite researchers in this field of study; in his book Sex, Drugs, Einstein, and Elves, Clifford Pickover ponders the same: “Why do so many people using DMT see insects? The DMT insect race comprises ‘larval beings,’ ‘alien space insects,’ praying-mantis entities and so forth. Why so many visions of insects?” Daniel Pinchbeck describes a similar experience a friend of his related to him after a powerful DMT trip:

A being had shown him its whirring praying mantis legs, he said. He saw a female entity sitting at something that looked like a computer. He told us how he had set free a praying mantis when he was five. The praying mantis had turned to look back at him before it hopped away, and at that moment he knew, with complete and utter certainty.

He knew that the mantis knew him.

“Lyubov Tetueva, an IT professional, was walking her dogs at 11pm on September 17, along with two other female acquaintances. She noticed a ‘very visible, dull, grey sphere’ moving in the sky above them as they walked past the city library. The sphere appeared to the witnesses to be about half a metre in diameter. The UFO looked as if it was surveying local buildings, moving from one to another, slowing down and speeding up at times. When the UFO came close to a building it would emit a strong beam of light towards its subject that would completely illuminate a large section and then go right through its walls.”

Regarding the assertion that the UFO was “friendly”, Red Pill Junkie commented earlier this morning at The Daily Grail that since it was a UFO emitting its light beam at Russian women, then “flashing babes is cool, as long as you come from another planet, huh?” Even I couldn’t have come up with that one so early in the morning (Cheers Miguel!)… Often, I’m quite thankful for the brilliant humor expressed by our good friends over at the Grail.

Elsewhere, when it comes to things like “flashing babes” intergalactic-like, the act of “ogling” has also been in the news a bit lately. Yesterday Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, who was recently approached with the prospect of judging California’s Miss America contest, announced on his program “I saw this story, it’s a study, actually, by German scientists, I’m not making this up here. It’s another thing to consider if I do judge the Miss America contest, I won’t have to exercise that week.” He proceeded to read the following:

“A study by German scientists showed that 10 minutes a day of ogling women’s breasts by men was as good at warding off heart disease, high blood pressure and stress as 30 minutes of aerobic exercise. The five-year study conducted by Dr. Karen Weatherby, followed 200 men. Those who partook in boob ogling for just 10 minutes a day enjoyed benefits equal to those of 30 minutes of grunting, groaning, sweating and doing push-ups at the gym. Weatherby found that a mere 10-minutes of staring at well-endowed females is roughly the equivalent of a 30-minute aerobics workout, because sexual excitement gets the heart pumping and improves circulation.”

Hmm… so ogling improves health. Maybe aliens get the same kicks out of flashing their beams at Earth gals.

Though Google has recently been on a tangent of replacing their popular logo with images involving saucers and alien craft, the imagery depicted in today’s Wells tribute actually shows us something else. Indeed, along with the flying saucer hovering in the foreground of the image, two other craft visible to the sides of the image display long, spindly legs, representing the “tripod” land craft used by Martian invaders in Wells’ 1898 book War of the Worlds.

With its unique journalistic prose style, War of the Worlds lent itself well to the use of another Wells; on October 30th 1938, Orson Wells directed and narrated a live radio broadcast of the “invasion”. Famously (or infamously, to be politically correct here) panic ensued during and after the broadcast, as many listeners had heard only a portion of the broadcast, causing an outbreak of people fleeing their homes in terror. Many even claimed they had smelled poison gas or “could see flashes of lightning in the distance” as they evacuated, fearing an actual Martian invasion.

Though records of the affected members of the audience are still a point of speculation, it has been suggested that some six million heard the CBS broadcast, 1.7 million believed it to be true, and 1.2 million were ‘genuinely frightened’ “. In decades following the infamous event, conspiracy theorists have suggested that the true intent of the broadcast was to use people’s reactions to gauge behavior in the instance of an actual attack.

H.G. Wells was a prolific writer in many genres, including contemporary novels, history, and social commentary. By later life, he had adopted sentiments that were very socialist and a pacifist, and many of his later works became similarly politically-driven. In 1933 he published a book titled The Shape of Things to Come in which he speculates on future events that lead up to visions of a fictional year 2106. Wells’s belief in an almighty “world state” as the solution to mankind’s problems is evident throughout. Thus, this notion that Orson Wells’ reading may have been intended as a sort of ritual “conditioning” by governing bodies who seek to control the masses is strangely in keeping with the ultimate desires and motives expressed in his writing.

Whatever the political undertones may have been in the case of War of the Worlds, it seems the longer-lasting appeal gained by any fictional elements in Wells’ work stems from the long-legged “tripods”, inspiring a variety of artistic renditions and re-inventions in print and film over the years (see image at right). Interesting that the tripods showed up today (in lieu of all the UFO sightings on Google’s homepage as of late) along with Google’s own flying saucer. A new mascot, perhaps? Or, is the real invasion taking place electronically? Perhaps one of the many UFOs appearing on Google Earth has finally infiltrated the company, intermittently taking over their logo imagery, thus arousing speculation as to what their real intent is. A conspiracy indeed…

The Black Brant XII was launched on Saturday evening, according to NASA officials. Around the same time of the launch, people in the Northeast portion of the state began calling local television stations to report seeing lights in the sky, although reports of the sightings range from places as far away as Boston.

LEADING A DOUBLE LIFE: Of course, around the time of the launch, I had taken enough time off from professional ufology to perform at the Bristol Rhythm and Roots Festival (indeed, I’ve been known to pick a mean flat-top guitar when Bluegrass is in season). It was lovely weather, and a lively crowd! Still, I would have loved to have seen NASA’s Black Brant light up the skies. Were any Gralien Report readers present in Northern Virginia at the time of the launch, and furthermore, I wonder if anyone witnessed the “strange lights” that caused speculation among so many?

The first major search item in the Google search is the Wikipedia entry for “Crop Circle” (although Josh Williams with the Washington UFO Examiner wrote late last night–9:57 PM on September 14th, to be exact–that some Pacific rim countries were the ones showing the new logo. This limited reporting of the appearance of the logo, of course, was likley due to information streaming in as Google was still in the process of erecting the image on all relevant servers in the correct countries… and since bloggers like Williams were posting the news as it happened). The Wikipedia entry on the subject includes the following interesting information:

“According to material published by Nancy Talbott’s “BLT Research Team”, anomalies found at some circle sites in England and the US are consistent with them having been created when localized columns of ionized air (dubbed plasma vortices/vortexes) form over standing crops. Talbott claims minuscule spheres of magnetic iron have also been found, distributed either around the perimeter of the circle or linearly, and that this suggests a very complex delivery system.”

The article goes on to say that “Claims of bent or extended nodes in the stems of cereal grasses have also been made, allegedly suggesting that the crop has been subjected to a very rapid electromagnetic burst, causing the moisture inside the stems to expand, stretching or bending the nodes to almost three times their length. Talbott claims holes have been found in the nodes, suggesting a rapid microwave burst, causing the moisture to turn into steam, which then forces its way out, leaving expulsion cavities.”

Is there a pattern to Google’s use of paranormalia in the images appearing on its homepage, or are they merely placing random images for the sake of piquing public interest? What do you think Google is up to? In the meantime, you might enjoy watching this video, which showcases all the crop circles appearing on Google Earth, set to the Foo Fighters’ “Learn to Fly: