Enter into the UFO BLUR ZONE! From all aspects of the UFO culture with writer/filmmaker Jerry Williams! Tips about UFO's monsters, conspiracy happenings, comments, or any weirdness email me at goatboyfilms@yahoo.com
Everyone has dabbled with the magic 8 ball at least once. A crystal ball novelty toy with a free floating die in a blue dissolved fluid with 20 possible answers from 'yes' to 'reply hazy'. What is less known is that this novelty toy has roots in automatic writing and spiritualism. Albert C. Carter, son of a medium from Cincinnati, created the prototype for the magic 8 ball or as it was known The Syco-Seer, and was based on his mother's automatic writings devices.
Syco seer variation called the Syco-slate late 40's
Carter approached storekeeper Max Levinson, and together they created the novelty devices for his shop and acquired the patent for the syco seer. Levinson and his brother in law modified the original patent into something Though the original syco seer didn't grab the national attention, the revamped product caught the attention of Chicago's Brunswick Billiards, and in 1950 they commissioned a version in the form of a traditional black and white 8-ball.
Like automatic writing, the magic 8 ball is novelty device that will give an answer to someone's question. They concentrate on the question, shake the ball, and a random answer will foretell the future. The magic eight ball also has some ties to the ancient fortune telling method of tossing coins called, I ching. Now, a part of popular culture, Carter's device has achieved a fame even he could not see with his pocket fortune teller.
President Nixon who believed in psychic Jeane Dixon
In this post 9/11 world, many don't realize that most of the nation's infrastructure to antiterrorism had its origin with President Nixon and the soothsayer, celebrity psychic Jeane Dixon. At that point in her career, Dixon had made several psychic claims that had come to pass (notably the assassination of President Kennedy). Dixon was well known, and was a consultant to several presidents.
astrologer and psychic Jeane Dixon
In 1949, she predicted Nixon would become president, most scoffed at the idea, but it came to pass that Nixon had indeed become the president of the United States. Some of her predictions did not pan out, but some of them actually came true to her predictions. It was this sometimes positive result, that some in power secretly consulted her. Dixon was a cause of chagrin to the Reagan administration since Nancy Reagan would openly consult Dixon about the travel plans for President Reagan. Some allege the famous nuclear treaty with Russia was signed on a day that Dixon said would work for President Reagan.
President Reagan and first lady Nancy Reagan
Recent information has come out that then president Nixon actually took her vision of a terrorism attack seriously, and from her prediction Nixon established the first nation anti terrorism committee. Nixon had a comfortable relationship with Dixon, and he nicknamed her the soothsayer and would listen to her input on a number of the events of the day.
After the murder of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich olympic games, she had predicted a terrorist attack would happen in the united states, and Nixon over the protests of Henry Kissinger created the first 'counterterrorism committee'. The attack never happened, but the first meetings of how to deal with such an event first happened in the white house under President Nixon.
It a strange fact, that the counter terrorism efforts of the United States would be created in response to a prophetic dream vision of washington seer Jeane Dixon.
When you think of men in black, you automatically think of Will Smith and others fighting alien hordes in a broad comedy. Most reports of the real men in black are anything but comedic or pleasant, and usually involve weird men in black flashing nebulous government ids and driving brand new model cars completely in black to put pressure on any UFO witnesses. There are numerous examples of men in black intimidation, but I'll focus on one incident involving the infamous mothman sightings of point pleasant.
sketch of the mothman
In the mid to late sixities in the sleepy town of point pleasant, sightings of an enormous creature with piercing red eyes were coming in at a frantic rate, the press dubbed the creature 'the mothman'. Quickly adding to the hysteria were the arrival of the mysterious men in black. Mary Hyre, reporter for the nearby The Athens Messenger had done several stories about the mysterious mothman and its connection with old abandoned TNT munitions plant outside of point pleasant.
Soon she reported she was followed by dark automobiles, and was paid a visit by mysterious men in black who pressured her to drop her work with the mothman. Mary refused to be intimitaded by her visitors and they left. Soon after, Mary had passed away of a heart ailment, even though she had no history of heart problems.
Was Mary silenced by the men in black? Mary's close friend, paranormal writer John Keel, hinted that Mary had hit upon some fantastic connection with the mothman, and was silenced by the sinister men in black. Adding fuel to the mystery was complete disappearance of the mothman creature from point pleasant. Just what was the supposed creature is now guesswork of history, and Mary's 'explosive' story was snuffed out just like the woman who perhaps got too close to the truth.
Belief in human's potential to interact with the higher or spiritual realm sometimes focuses upon the concept of the third eye. The idea is someplace in the space on your forehead is a sleeping eye awaiting to open to a newer and deeper reality. Sometimes known as the third chakra in Indian religions, the third eye also has a signifigance to bring a person closer to another plane of existence. There is belief that the third eye can let the person see auras, or give them the ability to read minds.
In some UFO circles, there is conjecture that this third eye is also a connection with other dimensional creatures that may be the 'aliens' of the flying saucers and UFOs. It is true after the first modern sightings of UFO in the 1940's, there was an explosion of 'contact' stories of aliens, usually Nordic looking creatures who would contact people about the connection with aliens. The people with elaborate contact stories were usually to a person, occultists who dabbled in channelling and the idea of the third eye took on a ways and means of contacting the creatures from beyond. The blurring between the UFO and some proto new age thought had already taken root in some parts of popular culture.
It's easy to be amused by these claims, until you realize that the father of the Saturn V and most modern rocket engine designs from combat to science, Wernher Von Braun, always claimed that when they were working on the V-2 rockets for Nazi germany, that the scientists used channeling as a ways and means to gather knowledge from the others from the unknown beyond. With this secret knowledge, designs from the V2 rocket were perfected until the Saturn V would take men to the moon years later.
Apollo rocket scientist and channeler Wernher Von Braun
Perhaps 'the others' helped rocket design plans via the third eye.
Few scientists ever had as much controversy as Wilhelm Reich. Once a promising disciple of Freud, Reich branched into his theories about the unconscious, sexuality, and new sciences, he eventually got in trouble with FDA, who promptly ordered his machines and written works to be burned in bonfires. To some, his death was not 'natural causes' since he was due to be released within weeks of his imprisionment, but rather a coordinated efforted to keep 'the Cloud buster' quiet.
Reich's main work before Orgone was the seminal book, 'The Mass psychology of Facism', which explored the effect Hitler had on the german population. He was well respected by academia, and had a promising career in analysis like Freud, and Jung. At this juncture, Reich established his own theory of the unconscious called Orgone, which in a nutshell said the libido wasn't a state of mind but a cosmic energy of blue that came from all people. Just how this quasi proto star wars 'force' idea came from the analysis is an interesting progression.
It started off with his theory of orgone, which essentially is the life force of all creatures (which started off a lot like the 'id' of Freud, but with Reich was the reason of all diseases and neurotic problems, orgone needed complete sexual release from people or they would armor themselves with neurotic to eventual physical problems). To that end, Reich started experimenting with strange devices to harvest and collect orgone. Driven from most countries, he eventually did work in America. Reich, was his own worst enemy, with his paranoid theories about 'communists in America's elite' bent on discrediting him and his work. He started more elaborate an exotic machines to harvest the 'good' Orgone and the evil 'T-bacilli'...his theories took on possible engines with orgone.
He could claim he could create rain with his futuristic looking orgone transmitters, and allegedly provided dought relief to farmers. Other devices could be space weapons with orgone, and he also believed collectors that could allegedly slow down the progress of cancer in some patients. A reporter for The New Republic, Mildred Bradley. did a piece on him, saying that machines could cure cancer (Reich didn't claim that), and played up the idea of a scientist who was measuring couples having sex for some kind of perverted science. Some believe this was a smear piece to exaggerate the findings of Orgone and cast Reich as a pervert scientist who claimed he could cure cancer with Orgone.
the article that brought down the cloud buster
It was that claim, that Reich finally got afoul of the U.S. government, and with a quick show trial, the cloud buster was jailed. His work and machines mostly destroyed, and despite the claims his mail was opened and he feared for his life, most ignored Reich. Was the cloud buster silenced for his work?
Oddly enough the story of Wilhelm Reich was told loosely in a Kate Bush music video 'Cloudbusting' with actor Donald Sutherland as 'Reich'.
Recently, there has been a rediscovering of his work. Reich was years before the idea of wholistic healing and the idea of the mind, life force, or orgone is only now being considered by science. It is a tragedy that most of his work on an alleged new science that had lofty goals for the advancement of humanity was consumed by government book burnings.
When you think of inventor Thomas Edison, you think of the light bulb, the phonograph, and any one of his amazing inventions which are still a part of modern society. It was no wonder that he acquired the title 'the wizard of menlo park' with his invention of the electric light. What people don't realize is that Edison also took to finding a way to contact the dead with a device full footed in science.
Thomas Edison working on an invention
Spiritualism was the craze then, and it usually centered on a 'sensitive' who could bridge our world and the other world of ghosts. The problem was, and still is, that the evidence is completely subjective on who the sensitive is, and to enter the realm of respected science it had to pass the idea of 'repeatable experiments' in a lab, and under laboratory conditions. The field of spiritualism became a field of fakers, hustlers, and con artists who would use crude 'proof' such as ectoplasm photographs and the like to bilk people hoping to contact the dead. This led a backlash to the spiritualism movement, where popular magician Houdini would devote a segment of his show to showcasing the fraud in most mediums.
one of the early photo fakes which was passed off as legit contact
Enter Thomas Edison. He believed if there was a way to confirm the world of ghosts, it could be done with science and technology. He announced with great fan fare of his intention to make a device to contact the dead. Edison worked on the concept and device with his usual intense drive, but with no results he reluctantly said he could not create the device(although some believe it was a strange combination of radio/electric phonograph). There the story ended, right?
Not quite. Although Edison himself never completed the device, some say he did and was 'dissuaded' by some in power to suppress his work. Like the electric light, Edison's efforts are still in the field of parapsychology with the idea of EVP...Electronic voice phenomenon. Originally the idea was to place a radio reciever in a section of 'white noise' and with electronic recordings you could pick the voices of places and things from other places, other times. This idea moved into recording sessions where an interviewer would ask to the spirits in haunted locations and with special playback, you could confirm that there was a reply from otherworldy sources. While still not embraced by the scientific community, EVP is a step in the right direction of gathering evidence of the beyond, and perhaps with new technology and more methods to ferret out fraud, perhaps we can discover the answer the timeless question, what is the next world?
A news segment about EVP
Edison Death Machine
I would be remiss if I didn't mention the Edison Death Machine by ZP films. I mentioned the Edison device to filmmaker George Bonilla, I was pushing a story called spooky action...that never got anywhere, but George really liked the idea of Edison's machine and came up with the script for Edison Death Machine. I got to help out as the assistant director on the film, and it was a fun experience working on the film. It's available at various stores right now, and worth a look.
When you see a star wars movie, the image of a brave and noble jedi knight who uses the power of his mind along his/her skills with a light saber to save the day. The mind powers sometimes manifest itself in controlling or influencing 'weaker' minds. In a weird way, the Jedi are connected to alien hypnosis therapy of unlocking hidden or tramautic memories with hypnotism.
jedi knights
When hypnosis first made the rounds, it was known as mesmerism after Franz Mesmer who believed his cures were the result of animal magnetism. It was all the rage of France until it reached a blacklash from the science establishment which then decried mesmerism a fraud and a pseudo science with Mesmer and other practioners of mesmerism banished to fringe edge of science. Only years later was the science of mesmerism given proper research under respected Scottish doctor James Braid and the practice and science of hypnosis was born. Braid dealt more with the effects of suggestion on the human mind, and disposed of the carny aspects of mesmerism.
Franz Mesmer, first Jedi knight
Hypnosis is a means where a person could be placed into a trance, and the subconcious mind could be influenced by commands. Seemingly miracles could be performed by people under the hypnotic state. People could remember previous lives to minute details, perform feats of strength, and recall things with fantastic detail. There was also some research that people could influence others without commands being spoken (my emphasis), only by suggestion in their own mind. This aspect would be explored later with mind control and power experiments in the cold war era via government research during the cold war era. Most notably the 'stargate' program to develop remote spy viewing from the CIA research labs.
Hypnosis is used sometimes with alien abductees to retrieve 'lost' or hidden information from their experience. The idea is that when they are taken about a UFO, and the aliens have somehow wiped their memories of the experience and only with hypnosis can the truth of what happened be revealed. The evidence is subjective both on the subject and the qualifications of the hypnosist (one of the main criticisms of this evidence is the witness could be 'led' to construct the situation by the therapist). As it stands, we are only beginning to understand the human mind and some of the processes of hypnosis is still a mystery to this day. The process of hypnosis was critical to the first modern alien abduction case of Betty and Barney Hill. This case has more evidence to back the claims of the Hills, and the hypnosis therapy session is extremely disturbing (the therapist would not play these tapes to the Hills until after several months...one listen and you can see why).
