#: 118698 S10/Paranormal Issues
    18-Jul-87  14:12:52
Sb: MUFON Conference (1/6)
Fm: Sysop Jim Speiser 72135,424
To: All

The MUFON Symposium in Washington was billed as "The Woodstock of Ufology,"
bringing together some of the biggest names in the field, and in that respect,
it didn't disappoint. In most other respects, however, it left a little to be
desired.

Some of the luminaries in attendance, which yours truly got to "Commune" with:
Whitley Strieber, Budd Hopkins, Bill Moore, Stanton T. Friedman, Jamie
Shandera, Gary Kinder, Peter Gersten, Charles Hickson (of Pascagoula fame),
Kathy Davis (of Intruders fame), Dr. Michael Swords, Dr. David Jacobs, Walt
Andrus, and organizer Dr. Bruce Maccabee (and oh, yes, this little bald-headed
fellow named Klass.) What made it more enjoyable was seeing some of my friends
there, such as Hal Starr and Marge Christenson of Arizona MUFON, Tracy Torme'
(who is making quite a name for himself in the abduction field, and is doing
some excellent work on the Travis Walton case), Tom Adams of Project Stigma,
and ParaNet users Dale B. Wedge, Rick Dell'Aquila, and Clark Matthews.

I spoke briefly with Whitley, asking him why, if he never had an interest in
UFOs prior to his experience, his cousin would send him a book called "Science
and the UFOs" just before his first remembered abduction. His answer was
basically, "I can't explain it, its just one of those things." I can't tell if
he's trying to look more honest by including information could lessen his case,
or if her just really IS that honest. But one thing has become quite clear,
thanks to an incident that occurred at the symposium: Whitley Strieber is
mentally unbalanced. During a panel discussion with other "abductees," Strieber
began reading from his polygraph transcript (which, it is a matter of record,
he passed.) In the middle of it he turned to Phil Klass, who was standing near
the stage, and began shouting the questions and answers at the top of his
lungs, looking for all the world like he was going to become unglued. It was a
very uncomfortable moment. 
Most people agree with me that Strieber is not firing on all thrusters,
including...well, I won't name names. But the question arises as to whether he
wrote "Communion" because he's bats, or he became bats because of what happened
to him. I think it was the latter. Studies show that if the abduction
phenomenon is real, it is happening to thousands of people (!). So far the case
for abductions has been hung on the victims being sane, sober individuals, but
the odds are that not ALL of them will be completely stable. It is possible
that Strieber was a man who was on the edge to begin with, and his present
quirkiness (there are MANY other incidents, which I am not at liberty to
divulge) is a consequence of having undergone a profoundly mind-shattering
experience. I've met other abductees, and I sometimes wonder how any of them
can deal with ordinary everyday reality, go on talk shows and speak calmly,
etc. I would be doing the paper dolls routine in a rubber room somewhere.
A couple of Klassy stories: After the first presentation (an overview of the
past 40 years by David Jacobs), I stepped outside for a cigarette and was
joined by the arch-debunker himself, who is nearly a chain-smoker. We started
talking about MJ-12, and he gave me his line about how people who distribute
phony documents should go to jail. I put him on the spot, asking him if that
meant that I should go to jail, having made the MJ-12 documents available to
more people than anyone (through ParaNet and CompuServe). Without directly
answering, he said that Moore and Shandera should stand trial if it can be
shown they had any way of knowing the documents were fake (assuming they ARE
fake, of course.) By this time, we were surrounded by 30 or so people, and a
man stepped forward and asked Klass of he had ever met Shandera. Klass said no,
he hadn't, whereupon the man stepped aside and there stood Jamie Shandera, arms
folded, ready to do battle. Klass ran and got his tape recorder and camera, and
proceeded to interview Jamie for about a half hour, during which time both men
became abusive -- "That's not a pertinent question! Why don't you ask me a
pertinent question?!" "I WILL ask a question if you'll shut your big fat
mouth!" When it was over, there were more people standing around the two men
than were inside listening to the speaker. Several people recorded the
conversation, and Hal Starr is currently running dupes of the tape in his
production studio for distribution to a couple of dozen people. It was a
classic, historic confrontation, which Bill Moore later dubbed "The Comic
Opera."    18-Jul-87  14:13:57
Sb: MUFON Conference (4/6)
Fm: Sysop Jim Speiser 72135,424
To: All

Another Klassic: At a panel discussion on government documents, the focus of
which was MJ-12, Moore related to an audience of about 200 that Jamie Shandera
(pronounced SHAN-derray) had interviewed Steven Spielberg, who told him a
fascinating story. Prior to the release of the move "E.T.," Ronald Reagan had
requested a private screening in the White House. When it was over, Reagan
walked over to Spielberg, clapped him on the shoulder and said, "My friend,
there aren't six people in this room who know how true that movie is." From the
back of the MUFON audience, a semi-audible voice said, "Carter was President."
Shandera, who was sitting behind me, turned around and said, "What was that?
Speak up!" Klass stood up dramatically, poised to strike a death blow, and
said, "In 1978, Jimmy Carter was President of the...." Moore cut him off with
"E.T. was released in 1982, Mr. Klass. You stand corrected....AGAIN!" The
audience exploded with applause, and Klass sank slowly back to his seat, a
defeated man -- for the moment, anyway.
[Continued]





#: 118702 S10/Paranormal Issues
    18-Jul-87  14:14:27
Sb: MUFON Conference (5/6)
Fm: Sysop Jim Speiser 72135,424
To: All

As I said, the event was an overall disappointment in terms of actual
information content. Most of the speakers were from the far corners of the
earth, and spoke with heavy accents about sightings in their respective
countries. We've had forty years of sightings, and most Ufologists are
realizing that the data-gathering stage is practically over, at least as far as
disks and lights in the sky are concerned. Its time to get on to the questions
of who and why, and who else knows about it. That's why the panels on documents
and abductions were so popular. There are movements afoot on several fronts to
get the abduction ball really rolling. For instance, Peter Gersten has formed a
group called Contact, with which he hopes to raise money to do in-depth
investigations into abduction cases -with the ultimate goal of making actual,
overt contact with the aliens. I had hoped to sit in on one of their meetings,
but unfortunately, Gersten left the conference early and no meeting was held.
And it was reported that Whitley Strieber has put up seed money to form another
group with the same goal. Both gentlemen are very concerned with the fact that
Budd Hopkins is absolutely swamped with letters from people around the world,
desperately seeking hypnotic catharsis for their abduction experiences -- over
700 letters at last count! The frustration lies in the fact that one of them
just might hold the key that unlocks the whole mystery, but there are maybe a
dozen people in the entire world that have the expertise to bring it out. I
foresee abduction regression clinics springing up around the country, with
quack operator getting into it for a fast buck. (Can you see some Beverly Hills
type..."Let's see, I have a 10:00 appointment at the hairdresser, at two I see
my therapist, at four my abduction regressionist, then I get rolfed....")
[Continued]





#: 118703 S10/Paranormal Issues
    18-Jul-87  14:14:47
Sb: MUFON Conference (6/6)
Fm: Sysop Jim Speiser 72135,424
To: All

The one thing that impressed me most of all about the symposium, and about the
resurgence of Ufology's popularity in general, is the number of quite
intelligent, articulate, and down-to-earth people who are starting to become
interested. There are actually others like myself who are skeptics and
disbelievers in other fields, but who recognize that this is a whole different
ball game from spoon-bending and Creationism. A glance at the MUFON Board of
Advisors shows that that body has more holders of Doctorates, percentage-wise,
than CSICOP! True, there is still no shortage of kooks, cranks, quacks, and
crooks, but the ratio is shifting noticeably. I think it is the most heartening
sign of this whole, crazy summer.

And what a crazy summer it is! Unlike its namesake, the Woodstock of Ufology
promises to be only the beginning of a series of revelations, accusations, and
perturbations, the end result of which is ANYONE's guess. There's only one
thing we need right now, to really put the icing on the cake: a good,
old-fashioned, jaw-dropping, jet-scrambling FLAP!

Keep your eyes on the skies......

Jim