UFO Con #2

Second day of UFO CON Santa Clara.

First, a correction: Today I got a better look at the “aura” camera and talked to the owner a bit about how it worked. It’s called the AuraCam 600/Coggins Camera, (http://www.auraphoto.com/products/auracam.shtml?close) and it’s not based on Kirlian principles after all. It uses a conventional “instant” print analog camera, mounted inside a large box, and two, hand-sized boxes with electrodes on the top, to create a double exposure on the film. The first exposure is of the subject, then a mirror flips down over the camera lens that directs the camera’s gaze onto a white screen, inside the box. Then the electronics “paint” the aura on the screen with LEDs. The subject places her hands on the electrodes and the biofeedback is used to generate the auraic image. Exactly how that’s done is a secret, but I’m told that the image is calibrated to match what psychics see. Who knows what that actually means, but it’s not impossible that the image is related to the person’s physical and/or psychological state, and thus could be used as a quick, non-invasive, diagnostic or monitoring tool.

I signed up for this conference mostly to market myself to the “experiencer” (abductee, contactee) community, as a therapist, and what I found there surprised me. What I expected to see, was a few relatively serious researchers mixed with some spiritual people of different kinds, leavened with some wild-eyed fanatics with views too far out for me to entertain. (I guess everyone has their limits.) What I got was a large number of people asking questions. Isn’t that odd. It’s not what I was told to expect, by all the news casts, TV shows and movies the include UFO types, but there it is. Many, perhaps most, had interesting stories to tell, some of them very far out, but they almost always ended in questions: What really happened? Why did it happen? What does it mean? Why me? And in a surprising number of cases: How can I make it stop?! Interestingly, the speakers that acted like they had the answer or answers, were the ones that attracted the most, we’ll call it, skepticism. The U.S. political system could learn a lot from this group, where wildly different and contradictory points of view are politely tolerated, with none of the posturing and overheated rhetoric that seems to enter any public discussion these days.

What I saw was a group of disparate people, from all walks of life, from military contractors to Ph.D.s to house wives to spiritualists, all drawn together, or maybe pushed together, by common experiences and by a society that refuses to recognize their problems are real, and, effectively, spits on them for having them. A very common theme I heard was “I was as hard core an unbeliever as you can find, until…” And, you must realize that, this must be just the tip of the iceberg. For every person who speaks up, how many hundreds that keep quiet and say nothing. Like the LGBT community, not too long ago, where you absolutely had to keep quiet and pretend to be straight. (Under penalty of death, in some cases, even today) The UFO community faces enormous pressure from every direction to shut up and go away. I find it fascinating, and amusing, that it’s much more academically respectable to research demons and spirt possessions than UFOs. I can’t help but wonder if any of the hard-core disbelievers have questioned why it is so important to insist that everything related to UFOs must be complete crap. I can only infer that, like the preacher some years ago that predicted the downfall of western civilization if gay marriage was allowed, these people are certain of some horrible catastrophe, if any portion of the UFO phenomenon turns out to have any factual basis.

It seems to me that the UFO community is slowly grown and gaining political power. Sort of like the gay community, they are beginning to organize, flex their collective muscles and slowly, haltingly, starting to insist on recognition and acknowledgement of the blatant and unquestioned discrimination they receive from every quarter. The movement is still just starting to find it’s legs, but it is growing. And they have a real advantage over the LGBT community, because they don’t have to overcome the deep-seated, hatred and fear that weighs the LGBTs. So, the tipping point could come much faster than anyone expects as the UFO community sweeps up the vast numbers of people with beliefs or experiences that are marginalized by our society. Brace yourself, my friend, as every movie and every TV show that deals with UFO and paranormal themes makes it just a little more normal to have “experiences.” I hope to live for the day when UFO deniers are as ridiculed in the popular press as the climate-change deniers are today.

UFO Con #1

First day of UFO CON Santa Clara.

I met quite a few interesting people. Most of them have a view of the world that is definitely not to be found at your average party or church social. That isn’t necessarily bad, or even all that unusual, if you think about it: I’ve met any number of “Christians” with views that are at least of wacky and divorced from my version of reality as some of what I met there. Funny how you can walk around all day talking about angles and demons, or describing your conversations with dead people or non-material beings and nobody bats an eye, IF the name of that dead person is “Jesus,” or that being is “God.” Otherwise, you are ten different colors of crazy. That being said, some of the view I heard I have no trouble, if not dismissing completely, at least setting aside with a, “I can kind of see where this person is coming from, but they’ve taken this way too far for my taste.”

For example, there was one presenter who was very entertaining, but seemed to have no connection with any reality that I’m familiar with. I kept thinking that his stuff would make wonderful alternate-history fiction, but is way too paranoid for me to want to enter his world. Though there was a certain fascination with the way he wove his narrative, touching down, at times, on historical fact, but then soaring off into his own interpretations. I can see where he’s coming from, in a way, but I feel that he’s on a journey that doesn’t have much relevance for me.

I had my aura photographed. That was an interesting experience. It used a special camera that I have seen advertised in the internet, but it’s really expensive, and there doesn’t seem to be any details about how it works available. Judging from what I could see, it appears to be descended from Kirlian Photography. I was able to get a look at the auras of some other people, to compare with mine. Two people had auras that looked almost the same while others were very different. Mine was the only one that was markedly asymmetrical, which the operator told me had to do with the difference between the energy I was receiving and the energy I was putting out. Even though I told her almost nothing about myself, she said that the picture showed that I was taking in a tremendous amount, a good listener, and I was emitting almost pure healing energy. Nice to hear, anyway.

It is my feeling that all too many people there have “vision, through a glass, darkly.” There is a number that see things in a positive light, but I am saddened by all those who see nothing but a huge, dark, hopeless conspiracies in everything. I don’t agree with any of that, but this isn’t my first BBQ, so I see that these people draw some comfort from that, in their own way. I like to think I’m matured enough to not feel the need try and fix them and bring them around to a “saner” position. They will get what they need when the time comes. As I see it, might as well try and convince a Baptist that there is no such thing as Hell.

At one point during a presentation, I noticed the woman next to me making notes after certain comments by the speaking. Afterward, I offered her my card and told her what I did, and she said that she was looking for a hypnotherapist. We had a short, but interesting, conversation and she seemed interested enough that I expect to hear from her soon. I also spread my cards to anyone else that seemed involved with “experiencers,” as they are now called. That’s a new term for me, though it seems to have been in use for at least twenty years. Just another sign, I suppose, of just how little of what goes on in this community filters out into the rest of the world. You would think that an epidemic of people suffering debilitating trauma would produce some ripple in the media. Does it really matter if they believe the cause is “abduction,” or “contact,” rather than IUDs in Afganistain? Suffering is suffering, why should they be ignored?

A field around the body?

Had a strange meditation today. The whole time I had the feeling that things were happening that I wasn't able to catch, things were whooshing by and I would just catch a glimpse of them as they passed.

The first thing I noticed is that my "field," (I don't know what else to call it. Some people would call it an aura, but to me an aura is insubstantial, while the field is a significant energy field that surrounds the body) didn't cover my feet. It only reached to about the middle of my shins. I tried to stretch it to cover my toes, but that didn't work. I don't know what that's all about, perhaps I'll figure it out later. 

In a way, it's a bit odd that I would talk about a field around my body, because that wouldn't have occurred to me just two months ago. It's just that lately I've playing with ideas like out-of-body-experiences, seeing auras and picturing a field of some sort around my body. I don't know where I came up with the field, it was just something I thought to try. And when I did, the halo around my body made if feel very warm and comfortable. So it feels natural for me that if my feet are outside of the field, they would be cold. They have been unusually sensitive to cold for the past month or so. We took a trip last week and I couldn't believe how cold my feet were, no matter how warm the rest of the car was. 

Next, I kept seeing heads and faces. They were all different ages and different people, but they were all with pale skin and straight white-blond hair. One, young, one was me and the others seemed to be talking to me, or holding other conversations, but I can't make out what they are saying. I only have the idea that they just said something, but I wasn't paying attention. The heads and faces would just show up, say something, then zoom away. I have no idea what that was about.

And then, for about the last 20 minutes of the meditation, I got an uncomfortable feeling in my upper right arm, almost like a massage. Pressure in ripples, almost strong enough to be painful, that constantly moved throughout the muscles. This lasted for some time, then the feelings migrated down to my lower arm and stayed there until I was finished for the day. 

When I was finished, I noticed that I much more time had passed than I thought.

If anyone has any comments on this, I sure would like to hear them.