Rev. Barry Downing - "UFOs and the Strange Business of Believing"

An extended excerpt from the lecture "UFOs and the Strange Business of Believing" by Rev. Barry Downing, author of The Bible and Flying Saucers, at the 2001 MUFON Symposium. I was there filming part of the documentary Stanton T. Friedman is Real, and we recorded many of the lectures. I found Barry's to be the most interesting, and thought-provoking.

The Guardian: "Human memory may be unreliable after just a few seconds, scientists find"

From squabbling over who booked a disaster holiday to differing recollections of a glorious wedding, events from deep in the past can end up being misremembered. But now researchers say even recent memories may contain errors.

Scientists exploring our ability to recall shapes say people can make mistakes after just a few seconds – a phenomenon the team have called short-term memory illusions.

“Even at the shortest term, our memory might not be fully reliable,” said Dr Marte Otten, the first author of the research from the University of Amsterdam. “Particularly when we have strong expectations about how the world should be, when our memory starts fading a little bit – even after one and a half seconds, two seconds, three seconds – then we start filling in based on our expectations.”

If true, this raises interesting questions about eyewitness testimony, including of alleged paranormal events. 

Full article here. 

See also "Your Brain Can Create a False Memory Quicker Than You Think".

Stanton Friedman discusses the Wilbert Smith memo

A clip from the 18 hours of interviews I conducted with Stan while filming Stanton T. Friedman is Real back in 2001. In this one, he discusses Wilbert Smith and Smith's famous (or infamous, depending upon who you ask) memo about UFOs and what the American government allegedly knew.

Happy Easter

 

Ghost hunting in Bear River

No bears in Bear River, Nova Scotia (at least that I’ve ever seen)… but lots of ghosts. We’ve investigated there a couple of time now. Something always happens.

Ghosts are great… but I’m always a bit disappointed that I don’t see a bear.

Amy Murphy and yours truly filming Haunted in Bear River.

Stan

Sure, he was a world-famous UFO researcher, but to me, he was always just Uncle Stan, cool dude who was great to talk to about baseball.

And yes, UFOs too.

Stan at a Kimball family reunion in the late 1970s.

Greg Bishop - Roswell at 70 (2017)

"Roswell and Ufology at 70" - a talk by radio host and author Greg Bishop (Weird California, Project Beta, Radio Misterioso) at the 2017 East Coast Paraconference.

Hosting Maritime Museums

Some photos from my three seasons of hosting Maritime Museums. It was great fun!

Stan at the Fredericton Region Museum

If you’re ever in Fredericton, New Brunswick, make sure you stop by the Fredericton Region Museum and have a look at the “Stanton Friedman Is Out Of This World” exhibit.

On Location - Home Sweet Home

Yours truly on location in March while directing Home Sweet Home, with host Amy Murphy.

Across the Universe

 

From 2021.

Karl Pflock at the Aztec UFO Conference

An excerpt from the meet-and-greet session of the Aztec UFO Conference in March, 2003, with my old friend, the late Karl Pflock, talking to some attendees at his table. I was there filming a documentary.

Karl was one of the most sensible ufologists I met in my foray into ufology. He was convinced that there was nothing strange about Roswell, and he debunked cattle mutilations, but he also believed that Earth had probably been visited by space aliens at some point in the 20th century, although he was of the opinion that they basically came, took a look around, and then left.

Fields of Addiction

Fields of Addiction.

20” x 30”

January 2022.

Currently…

My current gig is writing, producing and directing a show about restaurants and bakeries called Home Sweet Home, hosted by my dear friend Amy Murphy (who is also a member of the Haunted team). It’s lots and lots of very tasty fun!

Paul and Randy the Raccoon

My work in film and television hasn't been just ghosts and space aliens. I've done shows on blues music, classical music, stand-up comedy, craft breweries, restaurants and bakeries, art, hiking, dogs, citizenship and community service... and museums, which was a lot of fun, because for the three seasons that I wrote, directed and hosted "Maritime Museums" (after which I handed it off to others and remained only as producer), I got to focus on history, one of my lifelong passions. 

Occasionally, that included natural history, as seen in this promo clip from the third season a couple of years ago. As always, I took the material seriously, but not myself, and I had fun, especially with my co-host du jour, Randy the Raccoon.

Haunted - Cumberland County Museum excerpt

An excerpt from our investigation of the Cumberland County Museum & Archives in Amherst, Nova Scotia, in 2021, which aired as part of the seventh season of Haunted.

Holly and I had been to the museum before, in 2018, as part of the third season, and I may have (inadvertently, of course) done a few things that angered whatever spirits might be there. 

I wanted to return to see if we (meaning "I") could make amends. I asked my colleague and friend Amy Murphy to try some mirror gazing / scrying, which is something that works for her (and Holly). 

It quickly went a bit sideways.

The Haunted team

It’s a lot of fun working with these folks.

 

Is there value in studying old UFO cases?

Rich Reynolds, at his UFO Conjectures blog, has been opining recently about how it’s a waste of time and effort to continue focusing on old UFO cases (I paraphrase).

As an historian, and as someone who once made some documentaries about old UFO cases, I thought I would weigh in.

Is Reynolds right, or wrong?

The answer is: he’s both (but mostly, for the purpose of his general argument, he’s right).

He’s wrong in the sense that studying history is never a bad thing. Indeed, I wish more people were a bit more acquainted with our past, as it would prevent them from making the same mistakes over and over again. Particularly when it comes to studying the sociology of ufology, and the people involved, there is something of merit, and something to learn. That’s always the case with human behaviour. It’s why the good natured work of my friend Aaron Gulyas and his podcast The Saucer Life is useful, because he’s telling us the stories of the people within ufology, not the putative space aliens in which they believed.

But to the broader point made by Reynolds, that UFO “researchers” are stuck in the past, endlessly combing over details of cases from decades ago, hoping to find “the answer” to the UFO enigma, well… he’s pretty much spot on.

Those old and dusty reports are the very definition of cold cases. They have been picked over, again and again and again. There are no answers to be found in further study of those few which remain unsolved. 

Witnesses are either dead, or their memories of what happened many years ago are unreliable. The shoddy work of earlier generations on UFO buffs, almost all of them untrained in proper research and investigative methodology, and in many cases driven by belief rather than a healthy skepticism, have tainted the stories, to the point that it’s impossible to know the difference between what actually happened, and what people think or believe happened.

It’s no different than the hymns from that old time religion, or the stories told at the bar by Bruce Springsteen’s ex-jocks in the song “Glory Days”. It’s familiar, and there’s definitely a comfort to it, but other than for the study of the people who were interested in UFOs, which as noted offers some insight into the culture of their day, it’s an intellectual dead end.

Happiness is Easy

From a couple of months ago. I cribbed the title from one of my favourite Mark Hollis songs, “Happiness is Easy”.

Haunted - Season 8 / 9 opening title sequence

 

We have changed the opening title sequence more than a few times in ten seasons. I really like this one from seasons 8 and 9.

Ghost summoning… Portal opening…

Yours truly while filming the ninth season of Haunted.

If you’re going to summon ghosts, or open a portal to another dimension, do it with some style!

Our Space Alien Saviours?

A pandemic still simmering, with millions dead.

A brutal war raging in Ukraine.

Mass shootings in the United States on what seems like a daily basis.

Hunger and poverty around the world. 

Hatred and authoritarianism on the rise again.

Climate disaster growing ever closer.

And that’s just a Tuesday.

You can believe that space aliens are coming to Earth if you want, but if you think it’s because they’re here to help us, you’re loopy.

They’ve had at least seven decades to “help”. None has been forthcoming. 

If they are here (and I don’t think they are, but I’ll roll with the assumption for the sake of argument), it isn’t to save us.

Thanks for nothing, Semjase!

Night in the City

I took up painting again during the pandemic (I used to paint as a kid, many, many years ago). I may post a few here, from time to time.

This is “Night in the City”. My friend, the folk impressionist Ed “Tripp” Parmiter, liked it and asked me if he could have it, and I was happy to give it to him. 

He’s a Mothertucker, but $$$$$

Tucker Carlson is a malign influence on American politics, a proven liar, and a fascist wannabe.

And yet, for some people, the publicity he can give them trumps all decency, so they appear on his show, and debase themselves in the process. They might as well get on their knees during the interview.

Folks get the ufology they deserve.

2017 East Coast Paraconference - Remote Viewing Panel

Back in 2017 I spoke at the 3rd annual East Coast Paraconference in Liverpool, Nova Scotia. Because one of the presenters, who was due to talk about remote viewing, couldn't make it at the last minute, Greg Bishop, Micah Hanks, and yours truly volunteered to discuss the subject as a panel.

During the panel we covered the nature of remote viewing, how it might tie in to other aspects of the paranormal, Project Stargate and other government programs, our own efforts in different ways and contexts to experiment with remote viewing, and the possible ongoing interest in the subject by intelligence agencies, perhaps in black projects that are not officially acknowledged.

It was all very improvisational and on-the-fly, but it was also a lot of fun.

When You Can't Remember The Opening Theme Music...

 A short outtake from the seventh season of Haunted, where Holly Stevens and I have a spot of trouble remembering how the opening theme music for the show goes.

Books I Like - “It Defies Language” by Greg Bishop

 

Well worth the read. You can find a copy here.

Stanton T. Friedman is Real

The first documentary I directed, way back in 2001 about my uncle Stan Friedman, remains my favourite.

Haunted 7.13

The season finale of the seventh season of Haunted.