20 April 2009

At the X-Conference 2009

04-16-2009 06:00 PM:
At the X-Conference

I am now at the X-Conference in Gaithersburg, Maryland, or at least I've checked into the hotel. Registration is supposed to commence at 7 pm, and the conference sessions begin tomorrow morning. I have not seen any of the speakers yet, but I will go wandering around soon.

Unfortunately I do not have a camera, but I may go over to the local CVS drugstore and pick up a cheapie.

I'll try to post more as time allows.

04-16-2009 08:20 PM:

I have obtained a cheapo camera from CVS, and coffee from Starbucks, and walking back through the parking lot I passed Nick Pope. He didn't say anything, but the attractive young lady he was with smiled and said, "Hi!"

Just now in the lobby I saw Paola Harris pass through, and met a couple of guys who remarked on my Martin guitar cap. We chatted for quite a while about guitar picking, guitar pickers, and guitars. Not so bad, so far.

04-17-2009 06:27 PM:

So far today I have sat through terrific presentations by:

Richard Dolan, who has just completed Volume 2 of UFOs and the National Security State, covering the years 1973-91, which should be out in a couple of months. (I plan to get it.) He has a great deal of exhaustively researched information on the role of the non-governmental rulers of the modern world, and their interaction with and attempts to manage the UFO phenomenon. For one thing, he said that the Bilderbergers "made" the Presidents Ford through Bush I (at least), and almost casually suggested that they tried to kill Reagan. Hmm.

Colin Andrews, who gave a great and heartfelt lecture on both the UK government's role regarding the crop circle phenomenon--in which he had to refute a lot of the quasi-official things written by Nick Pope, who was in the audience and whom he said he continues to regard as a friend--and what he called "conscious" circles. Crop circles have emerged just because someone (among the researchers) mentioned the sort of formation they would like to see in conversation; and even Doug and Dave admitted that they didn't know exactly what drove them to make circles. This leads one to the notion that the crop circles are all consciously designed--no matter whether human actors are making them, or someone else is.

Alfred Webre, who looked at the coming of 2012 and our galactic alignment (which we are actually already in) through the lens of exopolitics. He is one who seems hopeful about what 2012 and the years following may bring, no matter how dire the events that may transpire then and after. One interesting thing he suggested was that money may come to be seen as a public utility like water and gas, and not a privately held commodity--held that is, he said, by the Rothschilds, who control the banks that make up the Federal Reserve.

Dr. Roger Leir, who presented a new case for the first time, in which the RF-emitting thingie that came out of a guy's toe came apart during the operation, but within two days, the fragments being stored in a vial of the man's blood serum were trying to reassemble themselves. The material was also analyzed and found to be made of meteoric iron, containing trace elements that are exceedingly rare on earth (including U238 but no other uranium isotopes) and may even be unlikely to come from this solar system.

That's it for now. I'm taking a few minutes to decompress from information overload and get ready for the cocktail party this evening.

Posted by Swerdloc on 04-17-2009 09:37 PM:

Back from the cocktail party, where they served up Chinese stir-fry, sort of, and had options for those of us who preferred tofu to beef, but had no Irish whiskey. There is an interesting mix of people, and I'm not really sure how to characterize them--or if one should, or can. Except that they all seem quite nice; it's a welcoming atmosphere. Where one can sort of relax, knowing that everyone around you doesn't think you're a nutjob for taking these matters seriously.

I'd like to get the chance to talk to Graham Hancock and Richard Dolan, at least, before this is over. I may not be able to supply pictures because the designated opportunity for a group speakers shot was orchestrated at the cocktail party, when I had left my cheapie camera in my room. There's always tomorrow and Sunday.

04-18-2009 02:28 PM:
Just a brief note between sessions

Graham Hancock was excellent this morning, as was Art Campbell with Bill Kirklin, and Nick Pope with Maj. Milton Torres. I got to chat briefly with Graham and with Richard Dolan. Next up this afternoon: Michael Salla, and the current host of weekday C2C.

Just trying to report what I'm seeing and get the message out, as Steve Bassett encourages.

Graham Hancock gave a great presentation largely culled from his 2005 book, Supernatural. I think I am definitely going to have to get it out and read it, even though it's rather weighty (i.e., a largish tome). He told me it's available in paperback, although for the paperback edition he edited down eight chapters on cave art to one (probably because of size and cost for reproductions); yet it's the cave art from thousands of years ago that really grabbed my attention in his lecture. He said he's just finished his first novel this week, which should be interesting.

Art Campbell and Bill Kirklin did a very interesting presentation on the incident at Holloman AFB in New Mexico, in February 1955, in which it appeared that President Eisenhower landed and then went into a flying disc that landed right by Air Force One, for a 40-minute meeting of some sort with whoever was in the flying disc. Another flying disc hovered nearby. They admitted that this was "hearsay" information, although Kirklin was at the base at the time and noted some odd occurrences relating to the visit of the President's plane which he was only able to put together 40 years later. Both of them seem quite credible.

Then Nick Pope gave a rundown of current UFO cases in the UK (within the last two years), and talked at some length about the UK's ongoing disclosure of UFO information. He also presented Maj. Milton Torres, ret., of the USAF, who also has a doctorate in mechanical engineering. Maj. Torres gave a very emotional account of being a fighter pilot stationed at Manston AFB, north of Dover on the Thames estuary in England, in 1957, when he was ordered into the air to chase and fire upon a UFO hovering over Ipswich, near Norwich. The UFO took off at something like Mach 10 when he locked onto it, and he did not fire. On returning to base, he was debriefed and told never to tell anyone, a condition that was only recently lifted by action of the UK.

Michael Salla presented a fascinating look at the possible prospects for disclosure--or at least something approaching UFO honesty--under the Obama administration, with a lot of detail on John Podesta's involvement with both the Clinton administration and his influence on the current White House. It's rather stunning to hear, over and over, about how Presidents have been determined not to have a "need to know" about UFO secrets, which begs the question: who determines this? Increasingly, it sounds like "black" nongovernmental, corporate, transnational entities that really run things in this world. The US Constitution becomes an irrelevancy.

The last speaker of the day was George Noory. Although I do have notes, I'll hold off on describing this presentation until I see a show of hands. Want to hear about it, folks?

04-18-2009 11:59 PM:

I have just come back from the banquet, which went on for a very long time, and I think I am going to have to save my observations for a slightly later time, because I need to get some rest. With one exception: one of the awards given out at the banquet was the annual Paradigm Research Group award for political courage, and it was given--in absentia--to John Podesta. Even though Podesta declined to show up to get the award, Steve Bassett wants everyone to know he won it.

Having heard only one objection (and you can ignore this or cover your ears or eyes if you wish), I’m going to report on George Noory’s “special presentation” at the X-Conference from roughly 4-6 pm on Saturday 18 April.  The talks given by Roger Leir, Graham Hancock, Edgar Mitchell, and John Alexander with Steve Bassett were also billed as “special presentations,” though none of them lasted two hours.

The presentation started late, as all of them did; the closest the conference came to being on schedule was 15 minutes behind.  Nevertheless, we had to wait a bit for Noory’s appearance, since Cheryll Jones, the host, and Bassett gave the introduction and left the stage, then nothing happened for a bit as we all looked around for Noory.  (All the other speakers just sat somewhere, generally near the podium, and came up when introduced.)  The C2C theme music came up, and then Noory finally came out from a side entrance and bounded up to the stage.  He’s a little dumpy-looking but not bad, of middling height, and he’s updated his hairstyle with a left-side part and a dye job the color of black shoe polish.  No kidding.  The moustache matches.

He greeted everybody, and talked for a while about the show, which he said is now up to 521 stations.  He said later, in response to a question, that they are going to work on the local affiliate, WMAL, which drops the last two hours in favor of a truckers’ show on weekdays; they broadcast the previous night’s program from the WMAL studios.

He had some kind of lame jokes but seemed genial enough, and quite sincere in his longstanding interest in and devotion to the “paranormal” and related subjects.  He played about ten clips from the show, including about five from interviews with presenters at the X-Conference, including Edgar Mitchell, Roger Leir (who he got up on stage to introduce his own clip), Nick Pope, Jeff Peckman, and Paola Harris.  Nothing too astounding there.

Then he took questions from a generally very friendly audience, which was probably the most entertaining part of the show.  He got one from “Jan from Brooklyn,” a very curious-looking little woman who carried some sort of red light in her hand.  Noory got her up on stage briefly.  She claimed the red light had various sorts of salutary effects on health and nutrition.  This is the same lady, who, in an earlier Q&A session with Graham Hancock, had said she underwent a serious negative experience after a shamanic ritual session six months before, which had left her saddled with a host of entities; but she said she had a machine at home that got rid of entities, though it took a month in this case.

Helping with the questions was Producer Tom (Danheiser), a rather hefty (some might say portly) youngish man with a recently-grown goatee about which Noory chided him.  Tom ran around with the microphone through the audience.

There was also a question from Nancy Burson, an interesting-looking woman who dressed in outfits in combinations of black and white that looked like they might be self-designed, and she asked Noory if he was familiar with the “extra-celestials,” a group with which she is in contact.  She said that they have altered her DNA, or given theirs to her, and she now produces or materializes golden pellets.  And crystals.  Noory offered to marry her if she really laid golden eggs, but she said they are actually quite small.

Then they set up a line for folks to meet Noory and have him sign things, he sitting behind a table on stage.  I left at that point, as did many others, although many also got right in line.

One of the presentations that made the biggest impression on me, or at least caused me to take a lot of notes, was that by Dr. Edgar Mitchell, on Sunday morning 19 April 2009.  He had  comparatively little in the way of prepared remarks, and spent most of his time in Q&A.  There were a LOT of Qs and As, but as a result, there is not a consistent organizing principle to his remarks—just lots of thoughts:

--“In the 21st Century, we will become part of the community of planets with intelligent life…” 

--He regards energy and matter as dyads, with matter being another expression of them same thing that energy is.

--To develop the technology to get humankind off the planet, outside the solar system—which we must do ultimately to survive as a species—he thinks we can do that by the end of this century, but we have first to bridge the gap between quantum mechanics and general relativity, and it’s not clear how we are going to do that.  He does not believe that string theory and similar approaches ultimately hold water.  (He doesn’t seem to be a fan of Michio Kaku’s ideas.)

--He once wrote a 100-page manuscript on the weaponization of space, but couldn’t find a publisher for it, and it still sits in his files.  Someone suggested he publish it on the internet, and he indicated he might do something like that.

--The questioners for Mitchell included Steve Bassett, Dr. Roger Leir, and Dr. Michael Salla, who all presented at the conference.

--He said, in response to a question, that he was not aware of any parallel astronaut corps or space program, though he thinks that NASA currently is pretty ineffectual.  The questioner suggested going to www.smdc.army.mil, which he said is the website of a military space defense command.

--He said he believes absolutely that there is nonhuman intelligence interacting with humankind and flying UFOs, though he stated that he did not see ET evidences on the moon, and was never briefed on UFOs while in the Apollo program.

--He stated that John F. Kennedy “pulled a decade out of the 21st century) into the 20th to win the space race.


A Few Final Observations

There were only two more presentations I saw through before leaving at about 3.15 pm on Sunday.

[b]Paola Harris[/b] gave a very entertaining and nicely illustrated, but not too thoroughly organized, presentation on Hollywood’s role in the UFO phenomenon and disclosure.  She focused a great deal, as might be expected, on Steven Spielberg—from “Close Encounters” to “E.T.” to “A.I.” to “Minority Report” to “Taken” and beyond.  She also evoked Geo. Lucas and Shirley Maclaine, but also brought in some earlier stuff like the original “Day the Earth Stood Still,” though she seems quite taken with Keanu Reeves too.  And she made serious mention of the works of both Jacques Vallee and Philip K. Dick.

Paola then spent a fair amount of time dwelling on the work of James Cameron, specifically “The Abyss,” and showed an extensive clip from toward the end of the film, in which the aquanaut played by Ed Harris encounters the powerful aliens at their far-undersea base, where they seem to have resided for quite some time.  Looks like it’s worth another viewing.

The last presentation I attended was a debate/dialogue between [b]Col. John Alexander[/b], a slightly sympathetic skeptic who has “engaged” the UFO issue, and [b]Stephen Bassett[/b] of PRG; “engaged” is Bassett’s term.  There was a significant difference in perspective between the two, starting with the fact that Alexander had brought slides (some of which he got shown) and Bassett had not.  They both came out dressed in black, wearing sunglasses, and sat down in easy chairs facing each other across a coffee table.

Alexander is a very bright and perspicacious man, retired USAF, who has worked at the highest levels of classification in the military and the Pentagon.  While he is not unsympathetic to the UFO issue—and believes it’s probably ETs—he buys, ultimately, the notion that the government is telling the truth.  He said that he has talked to all the “Theys” in the government and military, and while many or most of them have either had their own sightings or otherwise believe the phenomenon is real, everyone—every agency—assumed [i]someone else[/i] was dealing with it.  (Reminds me of the “someone-else’s-problem” field described in Douglas Adams’s books.  It’s different to an invisibility field, because while someone can see the “cloaked” object, you just think it’s “someone else’s problem” and ignore it.)

Steve Bassett kept trying to get Alexander to acknowledge, in some way, that no matter what the ultimate provenance(s) of the UFOs, it was in some major respect a political issue.  On this Alexander did not, would not, maybe could not budge.  He showed statistics indicating that, while the public generally believe UFOs are real, it is not a “voting issue.”  Steve kept pressing on WHY it is not, if in fact it is not.  Is it because the government, for whatever reason, has systematically, over many years and in many ways including misinformation, disinformation, and the encouragement of derision, persuaded the public that this is not a big deal?

Beyond that, what of the role of entities in authority outside of the government—the Bilderbergers, the Trilateral Commission, the CFR, the freakin’ Rothschilds and Rockefellers (!?!), who seem to not only exist but to control vast piles of money, taken largely or wholly from taxpayer dollars, who can determine if Presidents or anybody else has a “need to know” but who answer to no one but themselves?  (Or do they?  Where did those Annunaki go, anyway?)

Anyhow, that was it.  They ended on a kind of gag, in which they called up a slide of “Men in Black,” both Steve and Alexander put on their sunglasses, and Alexander pointed a wand with a red light at the end at the audience.

After that I packed up to go, since I was exhausted, but not before stopping at the PRG desk to ask Steve about volunteering as staff for next year’s X-Conference.  He said to send him an e-mail, and I will.

By the way, the attractive young lady with Nick Pope was Franky Ma, a reporter/presenter for Sky Channel 200 and apparently Nick’s main squeeze.  Way to go, Nick.