“It’s always a pleasure to return to Austin, which in some weird way was definitely the epicenter of my literary career, such as it’s been.”
On Thursday, September 6th, I had the pleasure of finally seeing William Gibson in-the-flesh. Despite his being sick with a cold (he offered to infect any attendees with it who might’ve had such a Cronenbergian desire) Gibson read an interesting piece from his new book, Distrust That Particular Flavor, and regaled the audience with his observations on a few subjects including fashion.
It’s weird, really weird reading any of this stuff because I never read any of it before. I never read it to an audience. These were written for magazine publication. The weirdest of these, I think, the one that is most mysterious to me is an essay called Dead Man Sings that I wrote in 1998 for ASAP, which is a Forbes magazine giveaway or something. … they got in touch with me and said ‘we’d like you to write something’ and I said ‘what’ and they said ‘it doesn’t matter … [write] what you feel like.’ I’d never really gotten that before … so I really took it to heart and I sat down and sort of channeled this thing I’m about to read you and with no idea where it was coming from or really what it was about. I realized, when I was going through all these pieces, this is the one I’ve gone back to more in my writing and as sometimes happens, I think that this thing which I wrote without understanding – I wrote it in a weird kind of trance – because it didn’t matter and it had given me permission to say whatever I wanted to say, which I had never had before in non-fiction. … So this thing just came out, what I’m about to read to you, and its probably the one thing in this book that I discovered more in, over the years, since I wrote it, I suspect in some way its been the program for a lot of the fiction I’ve written since.
The essay Dead Man Sings (published as “Dead Man Speaks“ apparently) that Gibson read for us that evening is certainly evocative of much of what makes Gibson’s writings so telling and important. They grapple with the effects of technology on our culture and our experiencing of memory and history. It reminded me of a video I’d recently seen of him (filmed many years ago inside a moving car) in which he reflects on one of the details he mentioned in the essay, that is the invention of the sound recording and that period of time when there were still humans (backwoods Appalachian Americans in his example) who were being recorded for the first time and the fundamental difference (to his hears) of those recordings to everything since.
We live in, have lived through, a strange time. I know this because when I was a child the flow of forgetting was relatively unimpeded. I know this because the dead were less of a constant presence, then. Because there was once no rewind button. Because the soldiers dying in the Somme were black and white, and did not run as the living run. Because the world’s attic was still untidy. Because there were old men in the mountain valleys of my Virginia childhood who remembered a time before recorded music.
After the reading (and towards the end of his face-time with us and before beginning the autographing line) there was an opening for me to ask him a question that had been on my mind for a while… But before I asked the question I wanted to show my sincere feelings for the words he’d written a couple of years ago when he posted the following to his twitter feed:
“Very sad to learn of the death of @mactonnies. Whip-smart young Fortean surrealist dudes are too thin on the ground to begin with.” twitter.com/GreatDismal/status/5096995349
As I began expressing my thanks the look on his face gave me the impression that he hadn’t understood what I was saying – perhaps it was just the idea of someone thanking him for a “tweet” (let alone one from three years ago) that struck him as odd. Once I’d shifted my comment to a question he gave a not surprising to me reply which I’m happy to add to the public record:
SMiles Lewis: I’d like to thank you for your 2009 tweet which consisted of kind words on the passing of Mac Tonnies. There’s things in your book Pattern Recognition and other books that make me ask this question: Are you now or have you ever been a Fortean?
William Gibson: Oh, I’m totally a Fortean! I’ve been a Fortean since I was… actually I’d have to find out. I’ve been a Fortean ever since Ace Books republished Charles Fort’s three great weird philosophical books about strange shit that he’d found in old old newspapers. And I continue to be … That’s Charles Fort for those of you who don’t know him. If you wanna have a really strange experience go find The Book of the Damned by Charles Fort which was published in the 1920s and has two sequels. It’s kind of the mother of all X-Files stuff.
Anomaly Archives Monthly Meetup – SUNDAY, September 23rd, 2012
Greetings fellow Anomalists!
The Anomaly Archives holds monthly meetings (usually) on the Fourth Saturday of each month. However, this month’s meeting has been moved to the fourth Sunday of this month, September 23rd.
The meetings are FREE and held from 1-5pm at the INACS / Anomaly Archives headquarters located in North West Austin, just past the intersections of Research and Technology Boulevards (see bottom of email for detailed directions):
12593 Research Blvd., Suite 302, Austin, Texas 78759
Please make plans to attend this month’s Anomaly Archives Meeting at the SAI – Anomaly Archives / INACS “Mind Quarters” … we look forward to meeting and talking with all of you!
And don’t forget! Saturday, September 29th the Anomaly Archives Presents:
It’s a little tricky to find the first time, so here are the directions:
If you’re heading northwest on Research/183 from I-35, Mopac or 360, exit 183 at the Oak Knoll exit, pass through the light at Oak Knoll, and stay on the access road heading north. The next side street off the 183 access road will be Technology Blvd; do not turn on Technology. Immediately after you pass Technology, there will be a driveway on your right (the only one in that area) — Exit into that driveway. There will be a sign overhead for “Forest Plaza.” After you pull in, you’ll have no choice but to go to the left into Forest Plaza. Our building is the back left building within the complex — Suite 302. If you’re heading south on Research/183, you also exit at Oak Knoll, but take the u-turn just before you get to Oak Knoll, get over the right on the northbound access road, and prepare to make the right immediately after Technology Blvd. as in the directions above. Anomaly Archives On-Line
We are indebted to INACS (Institute for Neuroscience And Consciousness Study) for allowing the Anomaly Archives lending library to reside within their office space. Each month they hold public meetings of their Board of Directors, and their Education & Research Committees. Therefore, there may be occasional months where we must shift / reschedule our monthly meetings to accommodate their priority use of the space.
Next Anomaly Archives Monthly Meetup is SUNDAY, September 23rd
Greetings fellow Anomalists!
The Anomaly Archives holds monthly meetings (usually) on the Fourth Saturday of each month. However, this month’s meeting has been moved to the fourth Sunday of this month, September 23rd due to conflicts in scheduling.
The meetings are FREE and held from 1-5pm at the INACS / Anomaly Archives headquarters located in North West Austin, just past the intersections of Research and Technology Boulevards (see end of page for detailed directions):
12593 Research Blvd., Suite 302, Austin, Texas 78759
Please make plans to attend this month’s Anomaly Archives Meeting at the SAI – Anomaly Archives / INACS “Mind Quarters” … we look forward to meeting and talking with all of you!
Nick Redfern’s The Pyramids and the Pentagon clearly and provocatively demonstrates that deep and dark conspiracies exist within the shadowy world of officialdom–conspiracies that have the ability to rock the foundations of civilization, religion, and history to their very core. The strange and amazing secrets of the past are just a heavily guarded government vault away.
Folks interested in staying in the loop on all things related to the Anomaly Archives can subscribe to this newsletter in several ways:
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On Sunday, August 26th a dozen Anomalists met at the INACS-HQ within the main room which houses the over three thousand books that make up the Anomaly Archives lending library. We had several good discussions on a wide variety of topics:
INACS Honored with Warcollier Prize
About the Anomaly Archives and SAI’s Mission
Passing of Neil Armstrong, Moon Conspiracies and More
Nick Redfern’s “Blue Beam” Article (which doesn’t reference Blue Beam)
Big News from Mufon and Steven Greer
Mufon Conference video from Open Minds TV
Copycat’s, Aurora shooting, Sihk temple and Greer
Rupert Sheldrake video
MK-Ultra, Terrible Mistake, UFOs (Kelly Hopkinsville, Hickson & Parker and PSI in Austin)
George Romney film clip mentioning his brainwashing upon return to the United States
William Henry revelation Randy Powell Undiscovered Country
Iron Sky intro – campy Nazi-Saucers conspiracy movie
John Keel on Letterman circa 1982
INACS Honored with Warcollier Prize
First, Anomaly Archives President Miles Lewis introduced INACS Founder and Anomaly Archives board member Jim King. INACS recently received the Annual Warcollier Prize at this year’s conference of the IRVA (International Remote Viewing Association):
The International Remote Viewing Association, in collaboration with IRIS-Psi & Applications (IRIS-PA), is pleased to announce the competition for an international research award in order to encourage original research on all aspects of remote viewing, and to uphold distinguished examples of fresh research with a view to engaging intellectual attention on the future role of remote viewing. The Warcollier Prize is a financial prize jointly created by the IRVA and IRIS-PA, to be presented to the winner of a judged competition for the best research proposal investigating some aspect of remote viewing.
The Warcollier Prize has been endowed in honor of René Warcollier, the French chemical engineer and parapsychologist (April 1881 – May 1962). Warcollier devised and conducted a series of experiments in telepathic communication. The participants sought to transmit drawings, at varying distances and using only the power of the mind, to subjects who would record their impressions on paper.
For more information on participating in this research project or to find out about INACS’s Remote Viewing Special Interest Group please contact project coordinator Jim King.
About the Anomaly Archives and SAI’s Mission
Miles briefly described the history of the 501c3 Scientific Anomaly Institute and its Anomaly Archives lending library. He founded the Anomaly Archives in 2003 with the help of fellow INACS board members and meeting attendees Jim King and Don Switlick. We also briefly reviewed the purpose of SAI and the Archives:
The Anomaly Archives is the lending library of the Scientific Anomaly Institute, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that seeks:
Preservation and dissemination of scientific research into anomalous phenomena
Research and analysis of accumulated collections
Education of the public regarding scientific investigations into these phenomena
Purposes of the Institute:
Managing and developing an archive and library for documents and literature with regards to a multi-disciplinary approach to anomalous phenomena,
Supporting, promoting and pursuing research to obtain increased knowledge about anomalous phenomena, and
Pursuing and stimulating a critical, scientific discussion of anomalous phenomena, and providing a forum for information, support, and sharing among researchers while,
Functioning as the archives and library for like-minded organizations, and other groups in the community that have similar interests.
Passing of Neil Armstrong, Moon Conspiracies and More
With recent news of Neil Armstrong’s passing meeting attendees discussed the wide variety of moon and space conspiracy theories ranging from the “we never went to the moon” meme, Stanley Kubrick staging the moon landing, and popular ideas about secret space programs.
Nick Redfern’s “Blue Beam” Article (which doesn’t reference Blue Beam)
One of Nick Redfern’s many recent articles (linked to in this month’s newsletter) that we discussed at the meeting is titled “Faking the Second Coming.” Here Nick is writing about the oft-cited plan by American military intelligence spooks to use various technologies and techniques to fake a “Second Coming of Jesus Christ” calling for the overthrow of Fidel Castro. This and other similar use of folk beliefs to manipulate populations for parapolitical ends are believed by some to bear a direct relevance to UFOs and related phenomena. Another similar alleged military-intel plan often referenced within the conspiracy community is “Project Blue Beam.” We reviewed the history of the blue beam story and other recent news stories which seem vaguely related. We discussed the long history of conspiracy theories touting the probability of the creation of a War of the Worlds scenario utilizing a fake alien threat to unite humanity against a common foe, including Carol Rosin claim to have heard of just such a plan from none other than Wernher Von Braun.
At the July meeting we had briefly mentioned the rumors of “Big News” supposedly on the horizon from both Mufon and Steven Greer’s Disclosure Project. As it turns out, Mufon’s big news was announced at their annual symposium: they have secured the research collection of Dr. Leonard Stringfield. We watched a video from the Open Minds TV channel which covered the 2012 Mufon Symposium.
Dr. Steven Greer’s big news involves claims of a possible alien specimen for which his Disclosure Project is seeking donations to study, including DNA testing. Greer’s efforts to produce his latest documentary SIRIUS may or may not be setback due to the strange coincidence of the producer’s father being one of the victims at the recent Sikh Temple shooting in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. www.Sirius.NeverendingLight.com
BREAKING NEWS: URGENT – Sirius Filmmaker Arm Kaleka’s Father Killed at Sikh Temple http://drgreersblog.disclosureproject.org/?p=198 There is a chance that we may be able to include in the film “Sirius” the scientific testing of a possible Extraterrestrial Biological Entity (EBE) that has been recovered and is deceased. This EBE is in the possession of a cooperative institute desiring further scientific evaluation of the possible ET. We cannot reveal at this time the location of this being or the name of the person or persons who possess it.
Father of Director of New Greer Disclosure Documentary Slain in Sikh Temple Shooting.
Copycat’s, Aurora shooting, Sihk temple and Greer
Mention of the Sikh Temple shooting restarted discussions we had at the July meeting regarding the Copycat Effect and murder/suicide, rampage shooting events. The many apparent and alleged anomalies surrounding the Aurora, Colorado theater shooting continue to lead many of our attendees to suspect that the event was staged and/or that James Holmes was mind-controlled. Below is a short video of Holmes presentingan overview of his research area of focus: Temporal Illusions.
We watched a brief video of “maverick biologist” Rupert Sheldrake outlining the “Ten Dogmas Holding Science Back” from his new book soon-to-be-released book Science Set Free (already available in the UK as The Science Delusion):
1. That nature is mechanical.
2. That matter is unconscious.
3. The laws of nature are fixed.
4. The totally amount of matter and energy are always the same.
5. That nature is purposeless.
6. Biological inheritance is material.
7. That memories are stored as material traces.
8. The mind is in the brain.
9. Telepathy and other psychic phenomena are illusory.
10. Mechanistic medicine is the only kind that really works.
Frequent, vitriolic attacks are not directed just at Sheldrake’s work either; in 2008, he was stabbed in the leg by a Japanese madman who had followed him to the USA, believing that Sheldrake was using mind-control techniques on him (FT236:5).
MK-Ultra, Terrible Mistake, UFOs (Kelly Hopkinsville, Hickson & Parker and PSI in Austin)
Several times during the meeting the subject of the CIA’s MK-Ultra mind control experiments on unwitting victims was raised. Miles described several of the many extraordinary pieces of information uncovered in the voluminous mk-ultra expose by Hank Albarelli Jr. titled A TERRIBLE MISTAKE: The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA’s Secret Cold War Experiments. MKultra project leader Sidney Gottlieb had the famous stage magician John Mulholland investigate Andrija Puharich (who brought psychic Uri Geller to the United States) as well as several famous UFO cases including the famous Kelly–Hopkinsville Goblins encounter. Another case mentioned in A TERRIBLE MISTAKE (because of its alleged proximity to another MKultra connected biological research facility) is the 1973 Pascagoula, Mississippi Abduction of Charles Hickson and Calbin Parker.
A TERRIBLE MISTAKE: The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA’s Secret Cold War Experiments
An account of the deliberate LSD poisoning of the French village of Pont St. Esprit carried out by the CIA during the late Fifties and early Sixties. Complete coverage is in the new book A Terrible Mistake, The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA’s Secret Cold War Experiments, by H.P. Albarelli, Jr.
Below are some links to past news articles by or about Hank Albarelli’s book, including Miles’ interviews of him, plus a link to his new book on the JFK assassination.
Chemical Concussions and Secret LSD: Pentagon Details Cold War Mind-Control Tests wired.com
Experimentation Programs conducted by the Department of Defense That Had CIA Sponsorship or Participation and That Involved the Administration to Human Subjects of Drugs Intended for Mind-Control or Behavior-Modification Purposes dod.mil/pubs/foi/02-A-0846RELEASE.pdf
Flashback: Greg Bishop’s article “Ethnic Weapons for Ethnic Cleansing” which was a Project Censored award-winner as “Human Genome Project Opens the Door to Ethnically Specific Bioweapons” – 2001
“Psychic-Sensitive Ufo-Researcher Contactee-Artist Ray Stanford.”
Mention of Andrija Puharich, Uri Geller and Charles Hickson prompted one of our meeting attendees, who lived through much of the early UFO contactee period in American Ufological history, to tell of several different incidents involving Austin’s past scientific UFO researcher Ray Stanford.
For those not familiar with psychic UFO-hunter (now fossil-finder) Ray Stanford and his previous Austin based UFO research group PSI (Project Starlight International), you should read these links:
NASA Discovers A Dinosaur Footprint … But Not On Mars – The Atlantic theatlantic.com
Several Air Force Project Blue Book files document sightings throughout the State, including one in Austin at Mansfield Dam on June 24th, 1967 (the twentieth anniversary of the Kenneth Arnold sighting and the birth of the “Modern UFO Era”). The witness was none other than psychic-sensitive ufo-researcher contactee-artist Ray Stanford.
Ray Stanford pioneered one of the world’s most interesting and instrumented approaches to civilian UFO research ever with his historic Project Starlight International. Armed with radar, cameras, magnetometers, lasers, computers and other equipment, Ray and company documented several interesting sightings just outside of Austin. In one incident an orange ball of light appeared while they had a very special terrestrial visitor on the property; Charles Hickson of the Hickson/Parker Pascagoula Mississippi Abduction. Ray Stanford has since disbanded this research lab and now uses his psychic intuition to find a wealth of rare dinosaur fossils up in the North East United States.
Many more topics were discussed at the August meeting but we’ve got to wrap-up this writeup for now.
Here are some more links to a few of the other videos we watched and the topics we talked about:
George Romney film clip mentioning his brainwashing upon return to the United States www.youtube.com
Church hearings on CIA manipulation of media www.youtube.com
Fourth annual Exeter UFO Festival
When: Saturday, Sept. 1
Where: Downtown Exeter, Town Hall. Children’s activities at Founder’s Park – Chestnut Street (near the Exeter Public Library) www.exeterufofestival.com
MODERN MONSTERS
Gregory L. Reece. Creatures of the Night: In Search of Ghosts, Vampires, Werewolves and Demons. I. B. Tauris, 2012.
Alasdair Wickham (i.e. James Buxton). The Black Book of Modern Myths: True Stories of the Unexplained. Arrow Books, 2012. http://pelicanist.blogspot.com/2012/08/modern-monsters.html
Nick Redfern’s The Pyramids and the Pentagon clearly and provocatively demonstrates that deep and dark conspiracies exist within the shadowy world of officialdom–conspiracies that have the ability to rock the foundations of civilization, religion, and history to their very core. The strange and amazing secrets of the past are just a heavily guarded government vault away.
Cryptopalooza has been a long time in the making, but it’s finally a reality. Over the years friends Michael Esordi, founder of Believe It Tour, and Craig Woolheater, founder of Cryptomundo, have tossed around ideas about the conference experience and how to make it even better for people. Out of those discussions the idea began to form of starting something new and unique. Michael hit on the name Cryptopalooza and things started to pick up steam when the city of Jefferson, Texas contacted Craig about doing an event in their city.
We need your help! The Anomaly Archives is always looking for new membership and needs your support both financially and as volunteers at the lending library and educational outreach events.
It’s a little tricky to find the first time, so here are the directions:
If you’re heading northwest on Research/183 from I-35, Mopac or 360, exit 183 at the Oak Knoll exit, pass through the light at Oak Knoll, and stay on the access road heading north. The next side street off the 183 access road will be Technology Blvd; do not turn on Technology. Immediately after you pass Technology, there will be a driveway on your right (the only one in that area) — Exit into that driveway. There will be a sign overhead for “Forest Plaza.” After you pull in, you’ll have no choice but to go to the left into Forest Plaza. Our building is the back left building within the complex — Suite 302. If you’re heading south on Research/183, you also exit at Oak Knoll, but take the u-turn just before you get to Oak Knoll, get over the right on the northbound access road, and prepare to make the right immediately after Technology Blvd. as in the directions above. Anomaly Archives On-Line
We are indebted to INACS (Institute for Neuroscience And Consciousness Study) for allowing the Anomaly Archives lending library to reside within their office space. Each month they hold public meetings of their Board of Directors, and their Education & Research Committees. Therefore, there may be occasional months where we must shift / reschedule our monthly meetings to accommodate their priority use of the space.
They grapple with the effects of technology on our culture and our experiencing of memory and history. It reminded me of a video I’d recently seen of him (filmed many years ago inside a moving car) in which he reflects on one of the details he mentioned in the essay, that is the invention of the sound recording and that period of time when there were still humans (backwoods Appalachian Americans in his example) who were being recorded for the first time and the fundamental difference (to his hears) of those recordings to everything since.
Subscribe to Blog via Email – Towards the top of the left-hand sidebar of the website is a place where you can input your email address and be subscribed to the website and get updates via email. You will get a confirmation email in which there will be a link for you to affirm that you want to subscribe.
The International Remote Viewing Association, in collaboration with IRIS-Psi & Applications (IRIS-PA), is pleased to announce the competition for an international research award in order to encourage original research on all aspects of remote viewing, and to uphold distinguished examples of fresh research with a view to engaging intellectual attention on the future role of remote viewing. The Warcollier Prize is a financial prize jointly created by the IRVA and IRIS-PA, to be presented to the winner of a judged competition for the best research proposal investigating some aspect of remote viewing.
Passing of Neil Armstrong, Moon Conspiracies and More
One of Nick Redfern’s many recent articles (linked to in this month’s newsletter) that we discussed at the meeting is titled “Faking the Second Coming.” Here Nick is writing about the oft-cited plan by American military intelligence spooks to use various technologies and techniques to fake a “Second Coming of Jesus Christ” calling for the overthrow of Fidel Castro. This and other similar use of folk beliefs to manipulate populations for parapolitical ends are believed by some to bear a direct relevance to UFOs and related phenomena. Another similar alleged military-intel plan often referenced within the conspiracy community is “Project Blue Beam.” We reviewed the history of the blue beam story and other recent news stories which seem vaguely related. We discussed the long history of conspiracy theories touting the probability of the creation of a War of the Worlds scenario utilizing a fake alien threat to unite humanity against a common foe, including Carol Rosin claim to have heard of just such a plan from none other than Wernher Von Braun.
Mufon Acquires Leonard Stringfield Collection.
Father of Director of New Greer Disclosure Documentary Slain in Sikh Temple Shooting.
We watched a brief video of “maverick biologist” Rupert Sheldrake outlining the “Ten Dogmas Holding Science Back” from his new book soon-to-be-released book Science Set Free (already available in the UK as The Science Delusion):
Several Air Force Project Blue Book files document sightings throughout the State, including one in Austin at Mansfield Dam on June 24th, 1967 (the twentieth anniversary of the Kenneth Arnold sighting and the birth of the “Modern UFO Era”). The witness was none other than psychic-sensitive ufo-researcher contactee-artist Ray Stanford.
