A Cosmic Thread Through the Microcosm and the Macrocosm

There's another cosmic idea that philosophers and scientists ponder alike.  I've heard it in various different ways, but it reflects the ancient Hermetic principle of "As above, so below." There is a cosmic thread flowing through the infinite levels of the microcosm and the infinite levels of the macrocosm.  In other words, the structure of the solar system is similar to that of an atom, according to certain theories.  I'm not saying they're identical, but each structure reflects this familiar model.  The atom’s nucleus is composed of protons and neutrons, and then the electrons circle this point, and scientists usually refer to a cloud of electrons, perhaps because they move so fast, all we see is a cloud.  If we sped up time as we observe the solar system, let's say observing it in a million year stretch but contained within a few seconds, the planets would be moving so fast that we would see clouds of dust and vapor, or some kind of mysterious haze circling the sun.  But then since planetary orbits may change somewhat -- not every single orbit repeating itself exactly, because there would be varying shifts, perhaps from small to greater degrees throughout countless orbits  -- then perhaps we will see  wide bands of clouds around the sun. But then would these bands be along a similar plane, or would they go quite far beyond this common plane, as the solar system moves through the whole galaxy?  You have to stretch your imagination to envision images like this.  I could be way off, of course, but I'm just speculating.

Anyway, what I'm trying to get at is, that solar systems are very much like atoms, and when you observe billions upon billions of these solar system/atoms, they will eventually form a large object, a galaxy/cell.  Perhaps, if you were to observe far enough out, you would see a millions upon billions of these galaxy/cells, and the question is, what would it form?  Would we see the structure of some kind cosmic organism in a larger reality, a greater macrocosm?  If this is the case, would we be observing the very body of God?  And is God a being that lives in a world of billions of other beings, which exists in a very different solar system, existing in a very different galaxy, in a very different universe, and the process continually unfolds outward, larger and larger and larger unto infinity. “As above, so below.”

How about your own body, which consists of billions and billions of cells, each cell consisting of billions of atoms, and you can keep going down further, infinitely.  So your body is a whole universe, and you are the god of that universe. Perhaps you are an intelligent designer in your own right, because through free will you design your own destiny.

These may be profound, thought-provoking speculations, but as far as we know, they are just ideas to ponder, not solid beliefs you want to accept right away.  Although they could be right, it’s very possibly they could also be quite incorrect. We really don't know.  And just because you believe in something very strongly, doesn't mean it's true. People believe things all the time that aren't true. For instance, superstitious beliefs.  The truth is that the truth is the truth, and if we believe in something else strongly, that's not going to change the truth. Whatever the truth is concerning the nature of the universe, and the nature of God in the universe or as the universe, whatever we think or believe or do about it, won't change that fact; it will still be the truth, whatever that is.

Remember what Pontius Pilate asked Jesus, "What is truth?" Perhaps this is one of the greatest questions of all time.  If we answer it, perhaps we shall know all things.

          Our regularly scheduled program has been irreparably hijacked due to a more pertinent subject matter that has just reared its ugly head to get my absolute attention.  So we'll continue with "Intelligent Design of the Cosmos" next time.

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          I was simply minding my own business one day, when I picked up the local rag and my eyes just happened to stumble upon something shocking.  I was flabbergasted, unfounded, and outraged!  Yeah, it was a subject I knew too well, but now the heretical idea has become official news.  But this diabolical conspiracy has been on the rise for nearly 2000 years now, an ecclesiastical conspiracy of judgmental proportions.  The newbie pope had the gal to stick his foot in his mouth and say perhaps the stupidest thing in history. For your pleasure, or total disgruntlement, here's the article in full:

Pope: Roman Catholic is only true Church

Protestants question plea for Christian unity

LORENZAGO DI CADORE, Italy (AP) Pope Benedict XVI reasserted the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church, including a document released Tuesday that says other Christian communities are either defective or not true churches and Catholicism provides the only true path of salvation.

The statement brought swift criticism from Protestant the leaders.  “It makes us question whether we are indeed praying together for Christian unity,” said the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, a fellowship of 75 million Protestants in more than 100 countries. “It makes us question the seriousness with which the Roman Catholic Church takes its dialogue with the reformed family and other families of the church,” the group said in a letter charging that the document took ecumenical dialogue back to the era before the Second Vatican Council.

It was the second time in a week that Benedict has corrected what he says are erroneous interpretations of the Second Vatican Council, the 1962-1965 meetings that modernized the church.  On Saturday, Benedict revived the old Latin Mass -- a move cheered by Catholic traditionalists but criticized by more liberal ones as a step backward from Vatican II.

Benedict, who attended Vatican II as a young theologian, has long complained about what he considers erroneous misinterpretation by liberals, saying it was not a break from the past but rather a renewal of tradition.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, which Benedict headed before becoming pope, said it was issuing the new document Tuesday because some contemporary theological interpretations of the Vatican II's technical intent have been “erroneous and ambiguous” and had prompted confusion in doubt.  The new document -- formulated as five questions and answers -- restates key sections of a 2000 text the pope wrote when he was prefect of the congregation, “Dominus Iesus,” which riled Protestant and other Christian denominations because it said they were not true churches but merely ecclesial communities and therefore did not have the “means of salvation.”

The commentary repeated church teaching that says the Catholic Church “has of the fullness of the means of salvation.”

“Christ ‘established here on earth’ only one church,” said the document released while the pope vacations at a villa in Lorenzago di Cadore in Italy’s Dolomite Mountains.

The other communities “cannot be called ‘churches’ in the proper sense” because they do not have apostolic succession -- the ability to trace their bishops back to Christ's original apostles -- and therefore their priestly ordinations are not valid, it said.

--Argus Leader, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Wednesday, July 11, 2007 page 7A

Alright folks!  Has the world been turned upside down again?  Are the rest of us, that aren't baptized members of the Roman Catholic Church, going straight to hell?  Even those who devoted their lives to Jesus Christ but just happened to be in the “wrong” church?

Evidently the previous pope, John Paul II, was a little too progressive, and obviously he embraced the idea of Christian unity and bringing the churches together.  He never declared anything as boneheaded as this, a cut-your-own-throat decision that just might split the church in half.  At least there’s going to be a few upsets Catholics who tend to be more progressive and truly embrace the idea of Christian unity between the churches.

How can the Roman Catholic Church be the one true church?  This is the church that justified the horrifying acts of the Inquisition throughout the Dark Ages when heretics were tortured and burned at the stake.  This is the church that hornswoggled Catholic club-members to believe that they could pay their way into heaven through “indulgences.”  I suppose if your sins are too horrible, God will look the other way and take your bribe and let you through the pearly gates. This is the church that suppressed women throughout Christendom, stemming from the idea that women were unclean and devious because Eve instigated the original sin.  This is the church that gave Nazi war criminals sanctuary after World War II, and some theorists claim the RCC supported the whole Nazi effort.  This is the church that tried to suppress the horrifying scandal of the countless pedophile priests in their ranks!  This, then, is the one true church?  A church that has been committing grave sins since the beginning of its inception?  The first of which might as well be St. Peter denying Christ thrice -- and he’s the greenhorn who became the first pope, according to Roman Catholic doctrine.  So this kind of church that committed such atrocities and heinous acts is the only one accepted by Jesus Christ and God Almighty?  This is indeed scary!  If it were true.  But I say blatantly that it's NOT!

Alright, it’s definitely one truly corrupt church, I'll give it that.

The Roman Catholic Church may claim to be the original church, therefore the one true church, but  I say that's far from the truth.  The RCC has metamorphosized over the centuries into something far from what Jesus Christ intended.  If you ever played the telephone game with a group of people, that's what happened in this case. Just to refresh your memory, you have a long line of people, and the first person whispers a phrase into the ear of the second person, and that person whispers the same phrase into the ear of the third person, and so on and so forth.  The last person has to voice out loud the phrase that he heard, and in most cases it is very different from the original phrase. The original words spoken were gradually changed and so they morphed into something else.  Get my meaning?

The real soul of Christianity has been buried beneath many layers of mankind's dogmas and misconceptions, and countless denominations that have become mockeries or mere echoes of the original thrust and intent of Jesus Christ.  And what did Jesus Christ originally intend?  That's a very big question, but I'm only going to sum it up briefly here.  The problem with most churches is they are founded on dogma, which is essentially people’s religious opinions and beliefs of a particular church, and it is only a shallow echo of the truth itself.  I believe original Christianity was founded in the mysticism of Christ, or rather the individual having a mystical experience of Jesus Christ and intimacy with God.  Saul of Tarsus, who became Paul the Apostle, on the road to Damascus had such an experience when Jesus Christ came directly to him.  He was surrounded by the light of Christ and his direction in life from that point on had been radically altered.  That's the result and power of a mystical experience.  It's definitely important to have faith in God, but blind belief is a hindrance, and this is what many people are doing in the churches today.  They are brainwashed into believing these human-created dogmas by their parents, Sunday school teachers, ministers, priests, etc.

So they wind up preferring mankind’s convoluted doctrines instead of God's simple truth.

Jesus did relay hidden mysteries to his closest disciples, and to the multitudes he gave parables, because they couldn't handle the raw truth.  I think Jesus wanted us to experience God for ourselves.  He did say, "I and the Father are one." But this is designed to be our path as well that he leads us into.  But perhaps first we should develop a relationship with Jesus Christ because he is the Way-Shower, the one who is showing us the way to know and experience God.  That is the essence of Christian Mysticism. 

Naturally, if you're a Buddhist, a Hindu, a Jew, a Moslem, etc. these religions use different methods in order to find the heart of Divinity that is to be found within ourselves.  The idea that there exists only “one true church” is absurdly erroneous.  That would make God pretty small and petty.  The idea that there are many paths that lead to God is the more godly attribute.

Maybe I'm ruffling a lot of feathers, burning a lot of people’s toast, getting their chakras spinning a little too fast, but it seems obvious to me that this ecclesiastical conspiracy has gone too far.

How far back do we have to go to find out when the newly organized Christian Church began seeing itself as the one true church? According to Elaine Pagels, author of The Gnostic Gospels, by 200 AD, Christianity became a three-rank hierarchal institution of bishops, priests, and deacons they considered themselves to be the guardians of the only "true faith."  This organization rejected all other viewpoints as heresy, and concerning this she says, "Deploring the diversity of the earlier movement, Bishop Irenaus and his followers insisted that there could be only one church, and outside of that church, he declared, "there is no salvation.  Members of this church alone are orthodox (literally, "straight thinking") Christians.  And, he claimed, this church must be catholic -- that is, Universal. Whoever challenged that consensus, arguing instead for other forms of Christian teachings, was declared to be heretics, and expelled."  Apparently the members of the new church were jealous and paranoid.  But it's this kind of fear-based thinking that led to the Inquisition, with the purpose of eradicating all heretics.  I find it interesting that around the same time, the early Gnostics viewed the new organized church as an "imitation church," because “in their blind arrogance, they claim exclusive legitimacy," writes Elaine Pagels. In fact, these Gnostics said that baptism alone did not make a Christian, because some may not be changed by it; however a true Christian required evidence of spiritual maturity.  I think it boils down to Jesus’ saying, "by their fruits ye shall know them."  If the actions of a particular church are erroneous and atrocious, how could it be the one true church? If the fruits from this tree are rotten, perhaps the tree is sick.  The idea that “many paths lead to God” is a far more mature way to see it. A truly spiritually immature person is not going to jealously and arrogantly spout that his church is the correct church and only means to salvation, and that all others are going to hell.  This sounds more like the ravings of a conceited child.

But, if this arrogant church wants to suffer the mad delusion that it is the only one that passes out tickets to heaven, so be it.  The rest of us will shake our heads, and then hopefully walk away and find something better to do, like find our own ways to heaven.

The Philosophy of Grand Cosmic Cycles

Alright folks, let's continue with further mindless drivel of a demented mind, that being mine. But let's take a more serious direction now.

So, let's talk about the origin of the universe, using the Big Bang for an example.  I had an astonishing revelation once.  I read a science-fiction story once which gave hints to a different kind of universe.  It was the seed of an idea that blossomed into something bigger.  It was a story of a time traveler who was stuck in a groove of perpetually forward moving time when he was trying to go back to his own time where his loving wife remained, but his machine would not allow it.  So he had no choice but to go forward, although he wanted to go backwards.  So he traveled to the edge of the universe, or perhaps the edge of time itself, to that mysterious place of entropy where the universe literally peters out.  Then he discovered that after the entropy phase, another Big Bang incident occurred, and the universe preceded to expand and re-created itself.  He had the hopeful notion that the exact time he was familiar with would repeat itself.  Sure enough, he traveled billions of years ahead, and found that world history unfolded exactly as he predicted it would. And so he returned to his own time and to his loving wife once again.  And they lived happily ever after.  The end. 

Such is the stuff that time travel romances are made of, for isn’t it true that love forces you to continue on a quest until you fulfill it, or find what you're looking for? Anyway, I suppose astronomers are on a similar quest, searching for the origins of the universe, but is it possible they may find this at the end of time itself, at the very end of the universe?  This is what I began to think after reading that charming story, realizing that the universe that we are familiar with is only the product of one cycle amidst countless cycles, a series of ebbs and flows. Perhaps you could call it a reincarnating universe.  There is an apparent void, then a big bang explosion, an expanding universe, then it contracts into itself or implodes, and then it explodes and expands again, a cosmic ebb and flow, over and over and over again, like some cosmic organism exhaling and inhaling, exhaling and inhaling.

I began naïvely wondering if anyone else had thought of this idea other than my vain self.  Then I was glad to have discovered that some scientists actually do ponder such an idea, particularly the late Carl Sagan, author of Cosmos.   He calls it the "oscillating universe," which originated as an ancient Hindu idea. Yikes! They were certainly progressive in their thinking! We know there are many different cycles in nature, and even in our own solar system, and the galaxy as well, and we can dare say that the universe is part of a greater cycle also.  So the universe wasn’t born to live and die someday, possibly countless billions of years from now, and then absolutely nothing beyond this point.  So the idea of final entropy and then total nothingness is absurd.  Let me quote Carl Sagan, "The Hindu religion is the only one of the world great faiths dedicated to the idea that the Cosmos itself undergoes an immense, indeed an infinite, number of deaths and rebirths."  A little later he continues, "If we live in such an oscillating universe, then the Big Bang is not the creation of the Cosmos but merely the end of the previous cycle, the destruction of the last information of the Cosmos . . . . In the oscillating universe, the Cosmos has no beginning and no end, and we are in the midst of an infinite cycle of cosmic deaths and rebirths with no information trickling through the cusps of oscillation.  Nothing of the galaxies, stars, planets, life forms or civilizations evolved in the previous incarnation of the universe oozes into the cusp, flutter passed the Big Bang, to be known in our present universe." In other words, does the universe reflect the human cycles of reincarnation, (also a Hindu idea) to wear each person has no memory of the previous incarnation?  Of course, there are reports that some advanced individuals have.  So we have a reincarnating Cosmos which acts a lot like reincarnating people! Actually, it’s probably the other way around, our puny lifecycles reflect the much larger cosmic cycles.  "As above, so below," says the ancient Hermeticists.

At any rate, Carl Sagan offers two theories, the first one suggesting a continually expanding universe, perhaps forever, and the second one suggesting that the universe exists through an infinite series of cycles. But the idea of entropy doesn't fit into the first idea, because that would end the universe and then there would be nothing after that.  So the second theory makes a lot of sense to me.  But if you go back to that science-fiction story, it suggested the idea that time repeats itself like a Möbius loop, a concept that I doubt very highly.  Each universe within its cycle, I believe, has very different patterns of evolution and unfoldment, very much like each person's life cycle; in other words, each time he incarnates into the earth plane, he has very different experiences and events taking place, although there may be certain things that carry over, perhaps lessons he must learn until he reaches some type of perfection.  Is this the process of the infinite cycles of the universe?  Is the universe a cosmic living organism that is reaching perfection?  And will it some great cosmic day reach that place and then stop reincarnating?  Will it ascend to a much higher level beyond our comprehension? We can say this about the human soul which eventually reaches some form of perfection and then steps off the wheel of reincarnation, and then enter a higher level of life experience beyond the earth plane.  So, does the Cosmos reflect this idea as well?

I'll leave you with these profound questions, and perhaps you will come up with your own profound ideas, if not profound answers.

The Questionable yet Obvious Possibility of Life Beyond the Earth

Alright folks.  There are rather radical arguments concerning whether or not life exists beyond our Earth, such as, for instance, on other planets.  I've heard a few schools of thoughts on this, from atheists and theologians alike, and strangely some of them coincide. Oddly, some groups of evolutionary atheists and fundamentalist Christians agree that there could be life on other worlds, but each with very different premises.  But there are other groups that are diametrically opposed to life out there, whether they be atheists or fundamentalists.

            Evidently, some fundamentalist churches believe there CAN’T possibly be life out there, because it's something only found on Earth. Seriously! I reckon God rested on the seventh day after he fixed Earth up with that precious commodity called life, then, due to exhaustion, He took a long nap for several millions of years -- or 6000, take your pick.  Which means the rest of the planets in the universe were forgotten.

Anyway, I talked to one particular fundamentalist Christian who says there simply can’t be life out there because Jesus can only save people here on Earth. . . . Yeah right. Okay, so I guess that means all those innocent aliens are going to hell in a flying saucer.  Sorry, we ran out of hand-baskets.  That's too bad that the Messiah isn't allowed to convert aliens to Christianity.  Strange rules!  But then, maybe those aliens have their own religions, but since the fundamentalists say there's only "one true church" that doesn't extend beyond the Earth. I suppose that puts these poor aliens in a pretty bad place – particularly, the fiery lakes of hell, which is probably somewhere far beneath the Earth’s surface, I imagine. So they can’t very easily go to heaven, which is some ambiguous place beyond the Earth, which is ironically where the aliens came from in the first place! Hey, something’s not consistent here!

            Hey, here's a thought.  We’re having all those UFO sightings and alien encounters because these aliens want to be converted to Christianity!  But what if Islam turns out to be the one true religion and they convert to this?  I guess we’d have a lot of alien terrorists running around. Oh well….

There are certain evolutionary atheists that do not believe in life beyond the Earth, simply because life was an accident, contained here on Earth. I reckon if life thrived on most of the planets, then it would be too coincidental to think that life was that big an accident. Does that mean there are only small accidents and not big ones?  But what about the Big Bang?  That was a pretty big accident, wasn't it?  Amidst all those billions and billions of planets and stars, and galaxies let's not forget, this bizarre strange phenomenon called life, that gooey sticky watery thing that often has sentience, just happened to magically appear only on Earth.  What a miracle! Except my understanding is that evolutionary theories don't include miracles.  Well, there's another hole in the theory.  As soon as it appears to be a miracle, it's immediately translated as an accident.  Go figure. Actually, all they do is change the word from miracle to fluke, and that covers it.

There’s obviously some overly zealous Christians that not only believe life exists on other planets, but they desperately want to convert all those heathen worlds so their inhabitants don't go to hell.  That would be quite a stupendous missionary operation for Christianity!  The problem is, our space program is too primitive to get us out there, plus it'd be far too expensive, so I guess all those poor aliens are going to hell -- and it's our fault! 

I've heard some new radical theories of progressive atheistic thought (they’re finally thinking again!  And a little bit outside the box this time!) that has to do with the intricacies and intelligent design behind some little thing called DNA, which can be called the blueprint of life, or the building blocks of living organisms, and even the storage facility for genetic information about life, and others such quaint descriptive ideas.  Anyway, this one harebrained atheistic theory reluctantly grumbles that there's probably life out there after all. So, that just goes to show us that there were a lot more accidents happening in the universe then people originally thought.  But it suggests that DNA was planted, like seeds, I suppose, on the Earth by intelligent aliens. But I'm wondering did these smart E.T.s spring into being seconds after humans discovered DNA, so that these atheist theorists could begin to come up with such a radical theory?  Or were they there all along, hiding somewhere in the deep recesses of dark matter?  I'm going to assume they were already somewhere around universe, probably for millions of years.

Anyway, obviously there was no intelligent life down here on Earth (which begs for one of the visiting aliens to cry, “Beam me up, Scotty!") So, some clever alien, a Johnny Appleseed type, came along and planted DNA seeds all over the place; maybe he stuck them in bubbling pools of amino acids, or perhaps he's the one who put the amino acids here in the first place.  Whichever, the point is, life was supposedly put here on Earth by intelligent aliens (instead of a bunch of ignorant Neanderthal types), because DNA is too intelligent of an idea to have been a fluke, these overly  Freethinking theorists are saying. But they deny that a godlike intelligent designer was the mastermind here.  For some reason, the idea of a cosmic deity, a pretty intelligent one in fact, was too absurd for them to consider.  So obviously intelligent extraterrestrial creatures planted life here, that being the Johnny Appleseed type characters from the Andromeda Galaxy probably, or even from the far side of the universe. Perhaps they traveled to a lot of other planets and did the same thing, populating the whole universe! 

Fine and dandy.  Swell and good.  There's only one problem; just a little hole in the theory. Where the freaking heck did these freaking aliens come from in the first?!  They are intelligent life forms, right?  Were they a fluke of evolution too?  Did they come into existence by some accident?  And don't they have some kind of DNA that acted as the intelligent blueprint that formed them? Why do we keep running into some kind of intelligence, no matter how remote it is, if intelligence didn't cause existence to come into being? Do we need to come up with yet another theory here to fix the previous one? How far back should we go, and how many holes do we have to fill up in order to make this theory a sound one?

When it comes to scientific theories or conspiracy theories, with its creationist fundamentalists or evolutionary atheists, and nut-jobs in general, matters can only get more complicated.  There is a principal I like to stick with, which is called Occam's Razor, and it's essentially this: Keep it simple, stupid!

And there's no bones about it!

Introduction

This is a series of related articles of cosmic portent, sugar-coated with colorful arguments and demented debates of debunker, all of which involves a speculative portrait of the Cosmos, which unambiguously suggests an unseen intelligent design that was preplanned and caused by an intelligent designer.  We begin with controversial philosophical ideas involving our own world, the Earth, and then we will proceed beyond this point, going on a quest in search of answers, because as the old saying goes from the last century, “the truth is out there.”  Actually, because I tend to wax a bit philosophical, if not mystical, I say the truth is right inside us.  But it's up to us to find it. Before we ask what it is, shouldn't we ask where it is?

Part 1:

Conspiracy Theories Concerning Evolution vs. Creation,

or

No Bones About It!

What's all this ruckus about dinosaur bones?  And what's a ruckus anyway? Well, my Thesaurus says brouhaha, hullabaloo, and  rumpus.  Does that help any?  It certainly helps my confusion.  Hang on, it also says commotion, so that's good enough for me.

So there's this hullabaloo about dinosaur bones, it's one of those conspiracy theory brouhahas. (Might as well use all those goofy words) You’ll hear about them from fundamentalist Christians, radical skeptics, and even wildly freethinking atheists, because together they will create quite a controversial commotion, if not an outright rip-roaring rumpus.  One school of thought says that God put dinosaur bones here to test us.  Another lamebrained academy of thinking says the devil put them here to confuse us. Alright folks, both of these ideas are idiotic, because I think the dinosaurs themselves put their own bones here just for the heck of it! Or maybe they just inadvertently died and left them there for us to stumble upon.

I

Whatever the neurotic theory, it's all a bunch of crapola.  (Was that in the Thesaurus under ruckus?) I think the fundamentalists see a problem with the existence of dinosaurs, because it wacks out their Creationist theory.  Especially since you can't put a bunch of dinosaurs and all the other animals on Noah’s Ark at the same time -- the dinosaurs alone would make the boat sink, not to mention, where the heck would you put them anyway?  In the pantry, or maybe the rec room?  I dunno. And if you go back a little further in time, there was no mention of those giant monsters traipsing around the Garden of Eden, stomping down trees, eating helpless creatures, including a few scrawny humans, of which there were very few back then, and in fact only two to begin with. Or were these huge creatures herbivores, which means they would eat up all the plant life pretty fast into this mythical garden, I would think, but eventually they would chase out Adam and Eve from that scary Jurassic Park type joint. Perhaps it wasn't a snake that caused all that hoopla after all that cast Adam and Eve out of the garden, but the dinosaurs!

The other problem concerns exactly how old the Earth is.  Most scientists agree that it's 4.5 billion years old, but Christian Creationists pontificate that it's only 6000 years old, a rather naïve assumption. I say this because it seems pretty ludicrous to think that the dinosaurs themselves were around about 230 million years ago, as some experts claim, while the Earth was just an infant world, or six millennia old.  So there's only one way around this prickly conundrum, and that's that the dinosaurs were floating around out in deep dark cold space waiting for the Earth to be created, and when it was finally formed, having cooled down after a few million years (although the Earth was only 6000 years old -- hey, the math doesn't add up here!), then they floated down for a smooth landing upon the surface, tired of holding their breath for so long.  But then they frolicked for several million years, then suddenly they got slammed out of existence by a meteor or comet or something big that fell from the sky. What can I say, crappy stuff happens.  Even to those big boned brutes.  Their sudden demise occurred 65 million years ago -- but that's bad math to, because that large number can't possibly fit into 6000 years -- unless there's some kind of new math going on here that I don't know about. Maybe hypercalculus or quadranometry or something beyond my comprehension.

There might be a type of cosmic math, because Old Testament scripture says one of God's days is a thousand years to us.  So when I talk about the six days of creation, that could have been 6000 years of evolution.  So I simply suggest that evolution and creation are two sides of the same coin, a cosmic coin actually. But then, this is just another harebrained theory.

Are we going to be able to solve the riddle of the cosmic commotion? Is there anyway to settle this matter?  Probably not.  But my proposal is to use the Stupidometer.  Simply asked the question: does that idiotic theory sound absolutely stupid? If your answer is yes, well, then that was pretty easy to figure out, wasn't it? If you got a better method, let's hear it!

But for now, I'm sticking to my own theory. And there's no bones about it!

          Are intersex fish transferable to humans?

This story may be a little bit stale by now, because I heard about it last year sometime.  But one thing's for certain, this story is definitely very fishy.  More than that, it's like a dead fish that smells really bad. 

The scary case of the intersex fish should be scaring humans of every ilk, but those very same humans are unknowingly drinking water from the very same rivers (okay, very indirectly) that ordinary fish became intersex fish in. How disgusting is that? Does that mean the entirety of the world's water supply is one big toilet? I hope not! 

But it goes to show you just how stupid humans really are (not to insult their intelligence), not to mention their inexcusable acts of dumping harmful chemicals into any old river that will by some weird freak of nature transform a normal ordinary household fish into a bizarre freakish monstrosity of a creature with dual sex organs, which means such a fish cannot only dish it out but it can also take it in. Do we now have Trans-gender fish? Do they have a gender crisis?  Or just an identity crisis?  Are these poor fish just as confused as we are, or do they accept the dire consequences of their eerie fate? Perhaps they don't know any better -- but then neither do we. 

The more serious problem lies in the fact that these stupid humans (us?) continue to dump chemicals in those very same rivers and then they drink its waters, whereby they risk the possibility of becoming intersex  humans. Imagine: a typical human casually drinks water from some river, comes home as a man, but when he leaves to party that night, he is in full drag attire.  What does that tell you?

Hopefully nothing, cuz I’m stretching it here.  Just remember that old saying, accept it no longer applies south of the border: "Don't drink the water!"

            We hope your imagination doesn’t run too wild here. Because I know mine sure did!

            Beware of the demented radical mind of  R. R. Stark!

Authors note: The source for this story unfortunately got lost sometime last year, probably because of my feeble and cluttered memory.  So this is just one more fishy thing I got to deal with.

May 26, 2007

For some strange reason, probably in some vain attempt to salvage the imagined relationship I imagined we had, I wanted to psychically pursue that past-life regression meditation Robyn and I had conducted previously, when we thought we had stumbled upon a past-life connection.  So I got myself centered, and put my mind back in that place we both had focused on psychically, tapping into that astral place we had gone, which seemed kind of unclear and fuzzy at the time.  Nevertheless, I remained focused on that particular ethereal spot, probing and pursuing psychically that past time and place when we had known each other before, in some ambiguous past life.  What happened next was as if the bus had suddenly stopped and I was shoved out the door. In other words, it was an abrupt feeling of "Eureka!  I found it!"

 I sensed that I was somewhere in the Medieval Ages, and I was a monk in a monastery, sensing that this was somewhere in Europe.  I don't recall any details except that Robyn (whatever her name was back then) was either a nun or some kind of student that hung around the monastery, and obviously, we grew fond of each other. Evidently we grew closer and closer, and I got one particular impression of “rolling in the hay” together in some stable somewhere in the monastery premises. I'll spare you the syrupy details, as usual.  Actually, I don't recall any, that part was blurry.  What I do recall is that we were caught in the act.  Someone had walked into the stables and saw us together.  Realize that monks usually had vows of celibacy, and women (especially if they were probationers or nuns) took vows of chastity.  Celibacy, chastity, closing and locking the gate, it all amounted to the same thing. Thou shall not have sex! Incidentally, chastity belts were a big thing back then, kind of like ironclad underwear. Yikes!

 Well, like hormone-poisoned fornicators, we had broken our sacred vows. We had committed a grave ecclesiastical crime, although the fire of our passion didn't feel like it at the time. At the moment it seemed like great fun, but when you're caught red-handed in the act, all the fun just seems to suddenly disappear.  We had to face the Father Superior of the monastery, whom I seem to recall was a very fear-inspiring personage (almost like the old Patriarch), the representative of God on Earth as far as we simpleton monks were concerned. His word, whatever he would speak, became law.  And he spoke the final edict that we would be exiled to be separated completely, to never see each other again.  Evidently, she was sent away, far far away.  But during this meditative regression session, I felt a burst of immense emotion, that of total despair, as if the Father Superior had ripped my heart out of my chest and smashed it in his fingers.  It was definitely an intense feeling, far more out-weighing any visual images perceived in this meditation. Emotions can speak louder than images. And that's the thing that really convinced me that this was real, and not just my imagination.  Although the visual images were fuzzy and dreamlike, the circumstances were clear and obvious, and the emotional impact of the feeling of despair was very real, not just something you can casually create.

I came out of the trance totally blown away, with that feeling of anguish and hopelessness, because somebody with power and authority head created a “psychic contract,” as some spiritual schools of thought will call it.  Such a psychic contract can thrive throughout several lifetimes, unless you become aware of it, trace it back to its origin, and then vanquish it. But it would take the two of us to do that. But obviously this psychic contract intervened and broke us up once again.  It was like some kind of psychic law of keeping us part, forced upon us by a person of power and authority, such as the Father Superior.  And how many lifetimes this happened, I have no idea. I decided I had to tell Robyn this experiential impression I had received that directly involved her.  Perhaps we could break this contract together, once and for all. I tried calling her, but her female roommate would not let me talk to her or would say she was out somewhere. Yes, Robyn had one of those annoying roommates too.  

In retrospect, perhaps I was using this bizarre experience as a way to get back with our, and it seemed like a pretty darn good reason too.  If I could just explain it to her, she might be willing to pursue this past-life thing further.  But my efforts were futile.  She didn't want to see me again, period.

I should have burned all those idiotic poems I wrote for her, because she would never see them.  But I stupidly kept them, but to this day I haven't looked at them in a long time, because I don't want to dredge up those despairing emotions, especially the ones based on that past-life regression I had summoned up.  In fact, I can’t even remember exactly what she looked like, her face is fuzzy in my mind’s eye now, even as a think about it.  A couple of months ago I told a good friend about this whole episode in my life, and he was so intrigued that he urged me to write about it, and that's exactly what I did.  And you just read it.  For whatever it's worth.

You may be asking yourself, what’s up with all this crap about past-life regressions, psychic contracts, déjà vu, and such metaphysical hoopla? Unless this kind of meta-psychobabble is right up your cosmic alley. If you ask me if I'm for real -- the answer is, yes.  I'm not making this stuff up. I have an average imagination, in my opinion, and I can recognize certain things that are flat out beyond my imagination. This is a true life story, my story, and like many real stories, you seek closure, and often closure is not there.  If I were making this story up, I'd resolve everything and tie it all up in a neat little package. I would have Robyn and me meet somewhere so that I could explained to her my psychic regression experience, she'd be ecstatic, then together we would pursue a further psychic investigation into that particular dreaded past-life, I would show exactly what had happened to us, and then together we would break that horrible psychic contract all to pieces and spit it back into the Father Superior’s face, and finally we would return to the normal mundane earth plane, then as soulmates we would live happily ever after! Oooh, aaah!

But no such luck.  Sometimes you just have to forget the past and move on. With that in mind, the next strange report will involve: the bizarre case of  -- yes, you guessed it  -- intersex fish!

May 16, 2007

Alright.  Back in Part Two, what exactly did you think I was talking about?  Sex or something? Tsk tsk tsk . . . Ha! Had you going there, didn't I?  We did have a lot of emotional fun, that's true, plus some intellectual stimulation, a little ontological hypothesizing, and a lot of therapeutic psychobabble took place as well.  In fact, on that very last night of our lives together, this lifetime around, anyway, we did that thing that most people refer to as an icebreaker, a hurtle-jumper, a milestone event for new relationships blooming -- or totally wilting, depending on how badly you screwed it up. Yep, after several spectacular get-togethers, we finally kissed passionately. I'll spare you the syrupy details. But when she left that night, in my mind, I thought we had just begun, because I found myself writing reams of wildly passionate poems about Robyn and I, me and Robin, she and me, so and so forth.  But little did I know, that in her mind it was just the beginning of the end. 

Right when my heart had opened wide for her, she just as suddenly closed hers to me. But I didn't blatantly know it -- although I did suspect something fishy -- until the next class, because she acted very distant, giving me the cold shoulder. Imagine a person with a thick layer of glistening frigid ice covering their shoulder and then sticking that in your face. Yep, I definitely sensed her putting up a wall against me, and it doesn't take a psychic to notice that. After class I asked her what the heck was going on, and she just said that there was nothing going on, at least not between us.  So we left separately that night, and I felt as if she had ripped my heart out of my chest, threw it on the ground, and stomped on it.  I had tried to call her by phone a few times, but couldn't reach her. Coincidentally, I stopped attending the classes, not because of her, but because I didn't like the direction the old Patriarch was taking, getting kind of strangely weird -- pretty much like my experience with Robyn was getting.

I had thought that one of the main goals of this class was to search for and discovers the proverbial Philosopher Stone, that mysterious alchemical phenomenon that many mystics seek.  It has nothing to do with transmuting lead into gold, that literally-taken concept was just a ruse, in my humble opinion.  The Philosopher's Stone actually involves the mystical process of transmuting the human being into a divine being.  Perhaps someday I’ll discuss this intriguing idea in a future entry. For now let's get back to the thickening plot-riddled story, a true-to-life-story, if you recall.

I wasn't really sure why she decided to dump me, before we even got a chance to start something.  She just wouldn't say.  I reflected.  Maybe my chakras were spinning in the wrong direction.  Or my aura was out of alignment, or even off-center.  Or possibly my kundalini was clogged, or shooting blanks or something. Perhaps my astral body was on backwards, or inside-out, or upside-down.  A psychic healer once told me this kind of thing is possible.  But looking back now, that sounds like crap. Imagine you're walking in one direction in your physical body,, or your astral body wants to go on the other direction; a bizarre psychic tug-of-war with hilariously ensue.  I imagine observers would see you stumbling forward, then stumbling backwards, repeatedly, so on and so forth.  They wouldn't know if you were coming or going.

Anyway, why Robyn left me in a lurch, I just couldn't figure it out.  Certainly it wasn't my kissing strategy, I thought I did pretty good.  But then I'm a dumb nerdy guy around women -- what do I know?  But it wasn't before long that this whole scenario became more para-psychic than paranormal – or is there any difference?

We'll find out soon enough as the rest of the story continues . . . .

May 2, 2007

Robyn and I hit it off really swell-like, goggling and googling at each other like a couple of goofy teenagers, even though we were in our thirty-somethingish age slot.  But the mutual feeling was similar to that of old friends that hadn't seen each other in many many years -- like a couple hundred years in our case -- and not just ordinary old friends, but passionate old lovers.  Not old like octogenarian old, but like a couple of old souls that probably had gone through and run ragged a few thousand mortal coils by now -- that's a lot of wear and tear on the old soul, let me tell you! But we didn't just become class-members together that hung out in the old Patriarch’s strange apartment-turned-temple-of-highfalutin-wisdom, but she ended up coming over to my humble abode several times, where I lived with two annoying roommates, a couple of nerdy college geeks.  Of course, I was attending college myself, because I was forced to -- that's the only way I was able to rent a room at this pretty fancy house in an upperclass neighborhood. Being an older guy going to college was not rare, although most of the students were much younger than me, being in their twenty-somethingish age slot.

 Anyway, usually Robyn and I would just sit and talk about anything and everything under the sun, within the sun, around the sun, and even beyond the sun, but particularly we discussed deep esoteric stuff.  One evening, the arrogant redheaded roommate (whose name I have now conveniently forgotten) had the audacity to impose upon Robyn and I while we sat in front of the warm, crackling fireplace, endeavoring to be obviously romantic together. Blind to that fact, the grinning jerk tried to steal the conversation and offer her a piece of rum candy, trying to “come on” to her obviously.  I wanted to belt him a good one, into the next millennium in fact, but eventually he left us alone. Evidently he realized that Robyn and I were in that long and arduous process of eventually becoming a couple, so we weren't quite single anymore, not exactly anyway. But having roommates intrude upon my personal space like that?!  This was just one of many factors that made me decide never to have roommates ever again!

            Anyway, we wanted to follow up in the déjà vu feeling we both had when we first met, so we did a kind of past-life regression meditation romp, and although the results were kind of cloudy, we both received a distinct impression that we had been together in past lifetimes, perhaps several -- or so we creatively imagined.  It was a kind of psychic connection we felt, and potential soulmate-wannabes often feel this kind of blissful connection, whether or not they are actually connected, which many of them probably aren't.  But we felt such a blissed-out connection, nevertheless.  So this made things easy for us to get along, as if we were continuing where we left off in some vague past lifetime -- whenever or wherever that took place, we weren't sure exactly.  Or were we just imagining things all along?  Were we trying to make something out of nothing just to justify our being together? Which is stupid, because two people falling in love don't have to justify being together for any logical reason whatsoever; they don't need to find idiotic excuses to complicate matters further.  They just have to keep it simple and be together. Period. But, no way -- we had to complicate things with metaphysical hoopla. So more than ever now, I felt she was "The One" for me, my soulmate found at last, so I was doing more than simply romancing my newfound Philosopher’s Stone, incarnate in female flesh, but I wanted to absorb the rest of my life with her! For she was my Holy Grail, my Elixir of Life, my Paradise Found!

Boy, was I naïve!

One supposedly pleasant evening when Robyn visited me, she actually confessed that she felt attracted to me. If you don't feel sizzling hot warm-fuzzies all over your body when a beautiful female says that to you, then you’re probably dead inside. I found out that day I was pretty much alive. I had goosebumps all over my flesh, kundalini-fire running up my spine, my chakras were spinning full-tilt boogie, my aura was glowing brilliantly for miles around in kaleidoscopic rainbow colors, and all that other New Age esoteric crapola. Incidentally, I had bailed out of a disastrous marriage a few years before this, so I was elated to put it mildly, just to be getting back in the game again. So, once we decided we were mesmerically attracted to each other, things really got hot and heavy.  We got more esoteric than ever now. Robyn and I delved into various Eastern Yogic practices that were perhaps thousands of years old.  We explored various meditative exotic positions, like the spine-to-spine kundalini tingle-zapper maneuver, and the eye-to-eye/soul-to-soul psycho-etheric posture, and even the splendoriferous chakra-caressing ritual.  I was hoping for a little psycho-chakra spooning, but she wasn't ready for that yet.  But we did do the mesmeric Reiki-induced astral body massage, complete with fancy aromatic oils and exotic incenses.  This kind of experimenting of our psychic inner selves was rather intriguing, on the nights she came over, and I felt I knew her much better now, considering our souls were becoming intertwined upon a celestial path of romantic bliss.  However, before we got a chance to perform the hyper-tantic merging rite, something went disastrously wrong!

My Paranormal Romantic Thriller

April 18, 2007

This is a true-to-life story, but it has been psychoneurotically-enhanced for your reading pleasure. In other words, it all basically really happened.

When Robyn and I met, it was déjà vu at first sight.  We knew that we knew each other.  It was psychoactive, psychosensitive, it was superpsychonatural, and psychotically paranormal!

          It was around 1990, right at the cusp between decades, the 80s when old age was new, and the 90s when the New Age was old (that's probably too esoteric to explain -- besides, it went right over my head too).  Somewhere in Silicon Valley, there was a quaint little city called San Jose, where you'll find a lot of New Age nut-cases running around, the kind of fruitcakes that create their own religions and set themselves up as their own messiahs, so they can save themselves and as an afterthought everyone else around them.  I had been attending the classes of one such demented nutjob.  I'll change his name to protect the guilt-ridden innocent, so let's call him -- including all his pomp and circumstantial titles -- The Grand Patriarchal Poobah Most Supremely Right Reverend Magnus Morpheus the Resplendent. And he was the head honcho of this group which I'll have to change the name of also, called the Imperial Order of the Cosmic Consciousness of God Almighty, or some bodacious slop like that.  His International Grand Temple Universal was located in his little apartment in some nondescript complex along some residential street I forgot the name of. This was one of those New Age metaphysical groups that teach really cool stuff like the Kabbalah, Hermeticism, Gnosticism, Far Easternism, Near Westernism, the Elixir of Life, and even the Philosopher's Stone, which was like the Holy Grail of Esoterica.  It's rather esoteric, and it would require another several-part treatise to explain.  Another time perhaps.

Anyway, Grand Patriarch Magnus Morpheus the Resplendent (for short) had this little group of esoteric-crap loving seekers that heeded his slick and syrupy words as if they were sweet honey dripping from his lips – yuck. But they believed every word that spewed forth from his conniving lips.  I wasn't there for the usual BSoterica, as you might think -- I was there for the women.  Okay, I admit, some of this New Age sludge was somewhat appealing.  But after several classes, there was a newcomer, and this person wore a skirt and luscious curly golden-brown hair and hypnotic swimming pool blue eyes.  But, to be honest with you, it was not her physical beauty that sucked me into her mesmeric web -- okay, yes it was!  -- but rather, something more sensuously psychic, something neurotically and psychotically seductive, some kind of surreal sexual attraction that snatched me up and delivered me to Nirvana.  As she entered the door and I greeted her, my eyes drilled into hers like hot red lasers, and she returned the inviting favor.  And then, by some strange paranormal unexplainable explanation, we immediately knew that we knew each other, because of something on the lines of some past lifetime crap that you hear about in these kinds of New Age circles. It's what they call déjà vu, as some so-called experts interpret as meaning, "Hey!  I remember you from my previous life!"  Actually it means, already been seen before -- or as modern folks say "Been there, done that."  However some people have another term, Vu’je da, which I think means, never been seen before.  My brother told me that one.  It's blatant deniability, where you can go around saying, "I never saw it, officer, so it probably didn't happen."

Her name was Robyn, a name that reminded me of those cute little red-breasted birdies that sing in trees and fly around.  She was my cute little red-breasted birdie, my little Robyn. Yeah, sounds a little too sickly syrupy, enough to get stuck in your throat and make you cough up slimy chunks.

I Anyway, since I became so hypnotically infatuated with her, she became my Philosopher Stone, because I felt compelled to romance the hell out of her.  Hence the title.  With this sumptuous beauty, whom I knew that I knew in that déjà vu way, I knew I would be getting pretty romantically esoteric with her.

But little did I know, that the plot would indeed thicken.

-- R. R. Stark

March 31, 2007

Why are people still superstitious?  Are we still living in the Dark Ages?  Do we retain old habits and old fears for some unknown reason?

I think one of the problems is that throughout the generations people ignorantly pass on their superstitions, from one generation to another, from parents to children, and so people adhere to these idiotic myths, old wives’ tales, and superstitions that go back several hundred years if not a few thousand or so.

There is no evil power or bad luck in the number 13, for instance, except what you put into it.  If you believe something strong enough, you make a truth for yourself.  Just start believing in something real, not something false.  The number 13 in the Tarot cards means transition and change, which people in the Medieval Ages were afraid of. If a black cat crosses your path, if you break a mirror, if a lady walks between two gentlemen, if you throw a coin in the wishing well, if you make a wish and blow out your birthday candles, or wish upon a falling star, well, sorry folks, but nothing will happen.  There is no power in any of these things -- unless you exert a lot of mental power and cause them to happen.  Of course, sometimes we draw things to us if we conjure up enough worry or fear or ignorance and so on.  But if you continue a normal healthy attitude, then you are in control of your circumstances, not circumstances being in control of you, especially superstitious ones.

 The Roman Catholic Church especially upheld the ridiculous idea that change was bad and that things must remain the same.  When Galileo and Copernicus and other new scientists discovered that the Earth was not the sender of the universe, that the sun was, plus all the other fascinating discoveries, these people were accused of heresy.  The church declared that the Earth was the center of the universe and that's all there was too it. It didn't matter whether or not it was a blatantly false assumption, because it was part of church dogma, and no one defied that.  You would be burned at the state for defying the church and its silly dogma.  Some heretics recanted, and others held fast, hence facing their inevitable death. 

Well, centuries later, when modern technology came around the corner, the church had no choice but to give in. Humans may believe that they are the center of their little universe, a false assumption, just as they once believed the Earth was the center of it all, or that it was flat at one time, but it just goes to show you that we have been wrong many times.  What else are we wrong about that we so stubbornly hang on to?  Well, getting back to the original theme, we tend to hang onto superstitions, as if they were a set of dogmas all their own.

Even when we declare we aren’t superstitious, we may still find hidden little cubby holes of superstition.  For example, what I'm watching television and change the volume up or down, putting it on number 13, this tiny superstition imp snickers in my ear, "Get off of that number! It's bad luck!" So I just stubbornly keep it there, despite the little idiotic imp. The only bad luck that exists is when you believe bad luck.  But in reality there is no good luck or bad luck, or things happening by chance, and fate does not roll the dice in your life. You decide what you're going to do in your life.  Don't be a victim on a storm tossed sea of confusion.  Be the mighty eagle that doesn't hide from nor fight the furious storm, but he rises above the clouds, soaring freely through the peaceful skies.

Another example of superstition is OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) – which could translates to obsessively superstitious syndrome, or defectively-mentally-compulsively-challenged. These phobically-laden individuals are miss-wired or re-wired to perceive their world in a totally different manner, based on various impulses and fears and bizarre beliefs, which they seem to superstitiously adhere to.  They can't allow themselves to see things any other way.  For example, germaphobe s will compulsively clean things, hoping it will get rid of those pesky annoying germs.  I know, I'm one of them!  Not to the extreme degree, of course. On the other hand, I don't hold to the three-second rule.  I have the split-second rule.  I don't think it takes three-seconds (which is probably three days in their life span) for germs to jump on your slice of scrumptious pizza when it hits the floor -- they jump on that tasty scrap right away!

Or there's the guy that must compulsively touch every parking meter on the street as he walks by, or fence posts or whatever.  My question is, what will happen to him if he stops touching them?  Will his head explode? Hmmm.  What will be the consequences when an OCD-practitioner stops doing what he does so well?  The same question applies to the irreparably superstitious folk, doesn't it?  Watch the Monk TV show for a crash course in OCD behavior.  But don't become compulsively obsessive to the show!

 Although superstitions are totally erroneous, it is paradoxically true that you can use the power of your mind (religion might call this prayer) to make things happen in your life, so make sure they are positive things and not negative things, especially those stupid superstitions which have no basis whatsoever in reality.  You may create your own reality, but it's just an illusion.

Now where's my remote?  I'm gonna do something bold and keep the TV on Channel 13 all day long!

--R. R. Stark

March 3, 2007

Do you ever notice how I talk about conspiracy theorists as if I'm not one of them? It dawned on me one day that they’re not "out there" but they’re "in here." Right inside my own head!  My God!  I'm one of them!  Here I was ridiculing them, conspiring against them, slinging mud at those pathetic losers, and it turns out I'm one of those bloody wretched leeches! Okay, I never actually joined the club, but evidently I inadvertently weaseled myself through the door. Alright, I'm not the overly anally-retentive cynical kind, but I'm the more sphincterly-relaxed, ambiguously open-minded type.  Whatever that means.

Anyway, I have a conspiracy theory about conspiracy theorists. They're all phonies! For the most part I don't think they believe their own pathetic conspiracies -- unless they’re dementedly crazy.  And I completely stand behind my own theoretical conspiracy!  They just like to put random words together, imagining they’re great masters of wordsmithery, and verbacious verbalators of vivacious verbiage.  They like to babble and hear themselves run off at the mouth,  spewing mindless nonsense all over the place, literally regurgitating everything that's off the top of their head as if they were precious gems of wisdom.  Holy crap!  That sounds like me!

Okay, time to correct that bodacious blunder.  Actually, I like to think of myself as a self-styled conspiracy analysts, which means I don't so much as create my own wild and crazy theories about potential conspiracies, but I carefully analyze existing ones -- and based on these statistics, then I form my own articulated conspiracies -- which may sound wild and crazy sometimes.  Like the one mentioned above about conspiracy theorists mindlessly babbling incessantly without believing in anything in particular.

Actually, I suspect what is happening is that these conniving covert reporters are being paid to write and report they’re freaking conspiracy theories to the masses, because they want the money and they don't care what they say to get it, so being biased in any particular issues would be their downfall.  They can't be partial or averse to favoritism or they won't get paid.  They have to be prepared to write against the war in Iraq one day, and write for it the next.  They have to be mindless robots without their own opinions clogging up the works. They have to be unprincipled, immoral, deceitful, diabolical inferior scum-suckers of the Earth.  They have to have absolutely no conscience, no predisposition, no predilections to a specific cause, and no personal crap. You just gotta blindly write what the Man says. If you can figure who that is. . . .

But these journalistic cutthroats have to be cunningly clever, because they can sound very enthusiastic and convincing about one particular side of the argument, while actually being lethargically detached, because their motivation is payment in full. Plus there's an extra incentive -- these conniving clowns just love to play mind games with people, so they annoyingly continue babbling devious drivel to get everyone outrageously paranoid to where they think the world is coming to an end, or that aliens are going to invade the planet, or that some hidden government is pulling the strings so they can take over the world and make us virtual slaves, and all the other crap you hear from them. Most of this putrid sludge you’ll find in the tabloids, if not an occasional blog here and there.  Yep, it's all for the glory of playing mind games with the gullible humanity at large, because these slithering snakes-in-the-grass thrive on the feeling of having control of people’s lives.  But like any intelligent conspirator, they want to get paid for their effort. But . . . I suspect these conspiracy nuts just may know something we don't. Hmmmm… what could it be?

So my question is, who's paying them?  Is it those suicidal End-Timers that want to drag all of humanity down the drain with them? Is it the invading aliens from Mars? Is it the hidden government that’s taking over the world? Or do the conspiracy theorists themselves have a secret cabal where they meet monthly and discuss all these insane agendas, or at least make the unsuspecting naïve public think that everything on the planet is going wrong simultaneously, while they sit back and laugh at us for being so stupidly gullible? All they need to do is feed us heaping helpings of fear and paranoia!That's it! These clever contrivers and mind-manipulators are the real masterminds running the world!

Yep, quite a wicked conspiracy web I'm weaving here, isn't it? Pretty outrageous! Plenty of fear and paranoia to go around for everyone. But -- what if it's all true!

It may be outrageous, it may be preposterous, it may be full of total crap -- but that's my conspiracy theory and I'm sticking to it!

That's enough for now. Time for me get back to the arcane meeting room and discuss more radical anarchical conspiracy theories with the rest of my fellow co-conspirators!

--R. R. Stark

February 24, 2007

Have the real Men in Black finally been revealed?

There is a man who believes he has actually uncovered exactly who these mysterious MIBs are, at least the faction that is in the United States. Bill Moore is a UFO researcher who claims that he has somehow penetrated the Pentagon and other sources as well, plus he has searched through evidence that has been disclosed by the USA's Freedom of Information Act, although I'm sure the highest levels of information were not disclosed.  The government would never cut its own throat like that.

Nevertheless, he believes that the government took on the elaborate guise of the Men in Black in order to proceed with their nefarious actions.  He uncovered that there existed a covert unit that continually covered its tracks by changing its name and often locations, at least since the early 1950s.  On the surface, what may appear to be several different branches of the government that had been created and then discontinued, may have actually been only one group that persevered through several incarnations, a covert group which was quite possibly what we call Men in Black.  According to Bill Moore, its first incarnation begin around 1950 or so, first called the 1006th Intelligence Squadron.  In 1959  it used the cover name of 1127^th Field Activities Group.  Then in the latter half of the 1970s it went through another transformation and became the 7602 Air Intelligence Group. Finally in 1983 it was known as the AFSAC, or Air Force Special Activities Center.  Currently, it is still functioning and under the command of Air Force Intelligence faction at Kelly Air Force Base in Texas.

Bill Moore reports that this group essentially collects or confiscates intelligence and evidence from obvious witnesses of UFO and related phenomena, usually by coercion, hence via covert means, as opposed to more mainstream methods such as by electronic sources or research from hardcopy material. Evidently, agents from the AFSAC, or its other names it has used over the years, disguise themselves as ominous men to harass these witnesses into turning over any evidence and then by threatening them, they keep silent. Certain evidence states that agents travel in threes, which corroborates with similar reports.

The eccentric and awkward nature of these mysterious Silencers, perhaps something out of comic books or science-fiction movies, was obviously intentional, so that if witnesses ever spoke about them, others would perceive them is sheer crackpots, hence debunking their claims as witnesses of any UFO phenomena. And that's another ingenious factor of the whole government’s UFO cover-up.  This makes sense because Bill Moore also purports that the AFSAC commonly recruited unusual people, anywhere from burglars to ex-cons, and masters of disguise, and all sorts of odd characters from all over the country, then trained to do the dirty work of this covert agency.

            But what I find interesting is, as Bill Moore says, that the AFSAC had been inspired by strange reports of mysterious men wearing black, particularly in the days following the 1947 Roswell incident, especially into the 1950s.  He also says that the AFSAC had nothing to do with these earlier incidences, but that they were merely using these accounts as ideas for their own agenda to send men out in strange disguises to harass people. So if the AFSAC, and its other incarnations and counterpart agencies in other countries, such as Great Britain, was essentially a second generation Men in Black, or merely copycats, then exactly who were these earlier original dark-suited intruders that government men later merely imitated? So we still have a big mystery here, and it keeps evading us.  These original Men in Black couldn't have been hallucinations if numerous witnesses were approached by them; they couldn't have been mere fabrications if what the witnesses reported were clear consistencies: dark suited men with dark glasses usually, often wearing outdated clothing, driving up in black sedans, coming in teams of three, with unusual mannerisms and awkward ways of speaking, and so on. 

Another interesting fact is that both Great Britain and the USA, and even Australia, have similar government units that may be cover operations for Men in Black.  While Great Britain has such outfits as DSTI (Directorate of Scientific and Technical Intelligence, as Jenny Randles suggests), and DI 55 (a defense intelligence department), the USA has the AFSAC.  Also, these secret facilities are clearly where high-level files are concealed by top security management so that the public cannot access them.  Only low-level information over the years has been released, and this is usually items that we hear from witnesses anyway.  So in my opinion, these agencies aren't giving us any new data.

I would like to know if anyone has ever had the guts to fight back at these mysterious intruders or to capture one or more of them.  And have there been any defectors of this covert government operation, if that's what it is?  That is, covert agents or recruitees who began to realize that what they were doing to innocent people was totally inappropriate and unconstitutional, and then decided to quit this covert operation, to either go public with the classified information, or to totally disappear for safety sake, lest his fellow agents try to stop him. I haven't heard anything like this personally, but that doesn't mean it hasn't happened, because perhaps these Silencers will even silence their own if they get out of hand or try to disclose top-secret information to the public.

However, with this very subject in mind, I have submit such a tale that I've written in the Stories section of this web site, called " Renegade from the Shadows.”

So, have we really learned anything new here?  Or are we left with the same old questions as before, or are there any new questions?  I would sure like to hear some new answers for a change.  The way I see it, the more I research the Men in Black mythology, it seems there are always far more questions than there are answers.  Isn't that the typical pattern with all conspiracies and cover-ups?

With all the research and information I have gathered in this blog, these strange reports from Zones Unknown, there's definitely a lot to think about.

R. R. Stark

 Reference:

 The Truth Behind Man in Black, by Janie Randles

Men in Black in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men_in_Black

             February 18, 2007

            There is one idea that the whole MIB myth was created by the government, so that people would speak of these mysterious intimidators and their bizarre activities, their strange luck and weird and mannerisms, just so that the these people would appear quite ridiculous.  This is very possible, and as good a theory as any other.

            Although these government masqueraders may be out to perpetrate this bizarre delusion, they are simultaneously succeeding at silencing most of the victims.  But when they do speak out, they quite often appear as overly imaginative crackpots, which the government depends on.

Threats and Harassment

            Mostly common ordinary people who have witnessed UFO sightings or encounters have been pursued by the dark intruders. But even UFO investigators have been approached by MIBs and silence; the dark intruders have threatened the researchers to seize their studies and investigations of the UFO phenomena.  Clearly, the MIBs are suppressing these UFO investigators just in case they might uncover something -- but what?

Just what kind of threats have the MIBs imposed on people?  And were they intentional or just empty threats? One report stated that the MIBs threatened a witness that he would be sent to prison for treason if he didn't comply. Sometimes it they would act overly aggressive, but often they would just give ambiguous threats.  However quite often, by their power and authority that they exuded, this seemed to be enough to scare the people to keep silent, and this may have been due to the MIBs hypnotic abilities.  Sometimes they would bark some empty "or else!" threat and that would be enough to silence them. Although there were numerous such empty threats, more than likely it was the hypnotic spell they cast on the people that subdued them into a state of fright and succeeded in silencing them. For quite often they would never hear from these mysterious intruders again, but since it took several years for many of these victims to finally speak out, perhaps it took the mesmeric spell this long to finally fade.

            Government Secrets

Actually, and it's not so hard to believe government involved with bizarre covert operations. In the mid-50s government experiments were conducted where minimal levels of radiation were released upon unsuspecting US citizens, supposedly for the benefit of medical knowledge, but clever cover-ups were formed, to hide the horrifying facts of these inhumane endeavors.  Plus there have been the testing of nuclear weapons in supposedly remote locations where wandering people have been exposed.  Not to mention that government has assisted foreign factions that ended up becoming terrorists. So it's not really hard to believe the government could send mysterious agents to harass and silence witnesses of various forms of UFO related phenomena. But why all silencing and the cover-ups? Although I address this to some degree in earlier segments, particularly the Roswell incident, you may never have a complete answer, only vague ideas and cloudy speculations.  But it makes you think that something pretty big is being concealed by various governments, US and Great Britain in particular, if they have to go to extreme measures to silence witnesses.  But then what information that is allowed to be released, through controlled disclosures, is conducted very carefully.  When you realize how ridiculous some of the information is we hear, intends to make people skeptical: little green men, invaders from Mars, a freaky looking alien shaking the hand of the president, women becoming pregnant after alien abductions, even ominous Men in Black coming to your door to scare you to death and shut you up, and other bizarre stories, that we could toss in the category of UFO urban legends, which ends up in the tabloids. The government depends on these fabricated ridiculous ideas which causes skepticism to flourish.  I wonder, how many of these crazy ideas were concocted by the government?

 You might remember the quote from. The Day After Roswell,  “The cover-up is the disclosure and the disclosure is the cover-up.” In order to create an elaborate cover-up, let some of the information leak out to the public and allow it to be exaggerated to the point of becoming ridiculous, because the public, with it wild imagination, is very good at that.  Especially considering Hollywood and the wild science-fiction movies and television shows it has created over the years to feed our imaginations even further. Then we say, “None of this is real, it's just fantasy.” But, isn't there a grain of truth somewhere amidst all the fantasy?  If we can just strip away the wild imagination we have, will we see the bare naked truth?

–R. R. Stark

_______________________________________________

Reference:

The Truth Behind Man in Black, by Janie Randles

Men in Black in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men_in_Black

February 11, 2007

I wonder, how do they know when you've had a sighting or an encounter or an abduction? Yes, sometimes these witnesses blab to others, but there are many that keep quiet, that don't attract attention to themselves. The UFO investigators have a hard enough time finding these people, so it makes you wonder how quickly the MIBs locate these individuals, likewise knowing all about their specific cases and details of their personal lives in advance.

 Are they psychic or telepathic? Or do they have some kind of advance spy technology that allows them to keep an eye on anyone and everyone that happens to have one of these extracurricular events?  Furthermore, if these are simply government agents, is it plausible that they wield such psychic abilities enabling them to zero in on witnesses of these sightings or victims of alien abductions?  It just doesn't add up.  Clearly, extraterrestrials would possess these advanced abilities.  Let's not discount the human equation in psychic abilities, because I emphatically believe that all humans have psychic potential, but most of us just don't use them as we should.  So how could we expect government agents to be psychic?  Or as I suggested, they could have advanced spy technology.  There have also been reports that these MIBs have hypnotic abilities, subduing their witness into a tranquil state and convincing them to tell them everything about their incident.  And then afterwards, when the witnesses snapped out of it, they couldn't figure out why they were so receptive to these ominous strangers.

            There is also the possibility that the extraterrestrials have recruited (if not abducted) human beings, trained them in psychic abilities and other areas of expertise (such as cruel harassment), then administer them back in our midst to do their masters’ dirty work.  Quite possibly, if they were trained in psychic abilities and taught how to use alien technology.

The other possibility is that these ominous Dark Intruders are alien/human hybrids -- which I disbelieve.  But let's speculate, and entertain this radical notion.  A typical Man in Black has the both of both world, Earth  and Whateverworld (a  good enough name since we don't know where they come from), so they can act and look and talk human but internally be totally alien. Hmmm.  Sounds like science fiction.

Witnesses have relayed their descriptions of these mysterious intimidators, many of which are very similar, although there are some inconsistencies. What they have in common are the black suits, black automobiles, arriving in threes, their aggressiveness and coercive nature.  Some of the inconsistencies are that some witnesses claim they have racial appearances, such as East Indian or Oriental; some say they speak with foreign accents, and others say their English is plain yet awkward ; others report that they appear to have brown or tanned skin, yet others say they have pasty white skin. So, what is really going on here, considering all these little discrepancies?  This could either mean the witnesses are saying what they want to see, or fabricating what they see, are entirely making their stories up.  Or it could mean these Men in Black come from different backgrounds and appear differently to different people. Either way, I believe it's all part of the government cover-up.

Also some people have suggested that the MIBs could be "paraphysical" or "interdimensional" beings.  Someone's been watching the Sci-Fi Channel a little too much!

Alright, here are some theories on who the MIBs might be:

1. Pretenders or practical jokers masquerading as the so-called MIBs, whether supported by the government or just independent parties

2. Actual covert government agents, or the military

            3. Alien/human hybrids

            4. Humans recruited by aliens to do their dirty work, which means they may have been brainwashed

            5. Beings from another dimension

So what's with the black suits and the black hats and the dark shades and the black sedans and the strange mannerisms? Are these half human half alien beings?  Or are they government agents masquerading as strange mysterious characters in order to fool us, and even purposely creating the whole MIB myth?

--R. R. Stark

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Reference:

The Truth Behind Man in Black, by Janie Randles

Men in Black in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men_in_Black

January 4, 2007

Alright, in that last entry I was simply waxing a tad facetious, or perhaps even ludicrous, with all that mindless drivel. The truth is, I have done some serious research on the subject, although not quite as exhaustive as I would like.  Of all the recorded accounts concerning UFOs and Men in Black, I'm sure many of them are either hoaxes or products of the imagination, but I do believe some of them may be genuine.  I have been reading a book called, The Truth Behind Men in Black, by Jenny Randles, who has been investigating these strange phenomena for many years.  She has talked with countless individuals who have had UFO sightings and related phenomena, which opened them up for MIB encounters.  Most of these victims kept quiet for years before they reluctantly revealed their stories, because the frightening dark suited men scared them just enough to shut them up.  This MIB phenomenon has taken place not only in the United States, but over in Great Britain as well, where Jenny Randles lives.  So it’s absurd to think that this whole MIB phenomenon is simply an American hoax, since it is occurring elsewhere, and there are countless cases of it throughout Great Britain. Likewise, she claims there is a global spread of this phenomenon.

Conspiracy theorists have claimed that the MIB could be anything from covert government agents to alien/human hybrids.  I disagree with the latter, sounds too much like science-fiction crapola.  But Jenny Randles says that the MIB could be “the product of a covert operation on the fringes of government study into UFOs.” But she also states that this theory even poses big questions.  She goes on to say, "Why would any government act in this way, particularly given the bizarre nature of many of the MIB stories? Where do these visitors come from, given that the official line of all major powers is that they categorically do not send investigators to frighten witnesses?  What is the purpose of the MIB activities -- from simple threats to impersonation and even theft of evidence such as films and tapes?”

            Point taken.  It would make sense, even to a typical skeptic, that if there were any truth to the MIB activities, it would most likely be government agents silencing people, because the US and British governments are still trying to cover up the whole UFO phenomenon. But even if this were true, why would these government agents literally harass people and threatened them, scaring them into submission, to where these innocents literally remain quiet for many years? It doesn’t make sense, unless these governments are corrupt themselves. But wouldn’t it be treasonous for me to accuse our government of being corrupt? Except that we have the freedom and the right to speak our minds in this great country of ours -- or so we assume, or is that right being violated? 

So if the government and the MIB are one and the same, or if it is a covert operation sanctioned by the government, then they are legally harassing, threatening, and silencing witnesses of UFO phenomenon, and violating our rights.

Here's another angle which may explain things.  If the MIB are a covert operation, not connected to our regular known government, could they be part of an invisible secret government?  Is the known government an exterior prop or figurehead? And are our government leaders just puppets, and if so, who is really pulling the strings? (I plan to touch on this invisible government issue in a later segment)

So these insidious Silencers couldn't possibly be part of some legitimate government I don't think, or is it naïve to think our government wouldn't stoop that low and be this corrupt?

And yet I disbelieve the MIBs are alien/human hybrids, or even aliens in disguise posing as dark suited humans.  Although many cases claim these Men in Black appeared very awkward in speech and mannerisms, and they even looked peculiar, not quite human. Quite often these MIBs would confiscate film footage, photographs, or videotapes that the witnesses had possession of, or any kind of evidence whatsoever.  If you ever watched The X-Files, you will recall the government was always several steps ahead of Special Agent Fox Mulder; he would get so close that they would always make sure the evidence had disappeared, quite often right at his feet, so he could report nothing to his superiors.  He was always made to look like a ridiculous, fanatical crackpot.  And this pretty much typifies what happens to UFO investigators and UFO witnesses alike. It's all part of the great cover-up.

--R. R. Stark

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Reference:

The Truth Behind Man in Black, by Janie Randles

Men in Black in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men_in_Black

February 2, 2007

Shadow Men, Dark Ones, Dark Strangers, Sinister Intruders, Silencers -- and yes! Men in Black! Call them what you will! Forget about Agents J and K in that radical Men in Black movie and its silly sequel; these flicks were sheer fantasy, if not insults upon the genuine MIB mythology. In fact, those two movies were probably part of yet another grand cover-up, creating misdirection and misinformation for misguided gullible people like us, so that we will believe these strange dark men are actually heroic figures, saving us from evil aliens and invaders, but this kind of hoopla is merely something out of science-fiction and not even remotely real.  Remember, the government covers up the cover-up, and then all that is covered up again, so that we don't know what is really being covered up anymore! It's all swept under the carpet!  Which should make us kind of suspicious about that odd lumpy carpet. Eh?

So the real question is: Who are they? What are they doing here? Where do they come from? Another world? Another time? Another dimension? Are these mysterious men in black products of science-fiction or science fact? Or do they fall somewhere in between?  Slipping through the cracks and crevices, down to some dismal abyss out of sight and out of mind. And if there are Men in Black, are they're also Men in White? Of course there are!  And they’re coming to take me away-ha-ha!

And, above all: are there Women in Black?  If it's true that women will always continue to be a mystery to men, obviously women in black are a hundred times worse! Bottom line: Men in Black do exist, at least that's my gullible contention.  They=re out there! And so is the truth! It's out there! And they’re hiding it from us! Trust no one! Not them! Not you! Not even me! Because I probably don't know what I'm freaking talking about!

Ever since that harmless weather balloon (HA!) crashed near Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947, there was a gigantic explosion of UFO sightings all over the world! Everyone was seeing flying saucers everywhere and everyone was being abducted by aliens! (I'm just attempting some dramatic effect here) Then suddenly the mysterious Shadow Men were seen lurking around people=s doorsteps to shut them up, to silence them, threatening cruel punishment if they parted their tender lips to the Press, Police, FBI, NSA, CIA, IBM, KFC, anyone and everyone who would listen! The insidious Men in Black have been perpetrating a major conspiracy of epileptic proportions, initiating countless cover-ups to conceal their diabolical agenda! There's no room for theory here, just outright pulling the wool over innocent people=s eyes. Concealment of dark secrets, raw facts, and debilitating data, so people will remain in the dark. But why? What=s so frightening? What=s out there anyway? Monsters under the bed? The bogeyman? Santa Claus in the nude?  I dunno -- I=m still trying to figure that out myself. 

Hollywood has glorified these ominously sinister Dark Intruders -- but it=s a romantic ruse to deceive people from what goes on behind closed doors. Especially when it=s the bathroom door. The amusing Men in Black movies may hold minuscule grains of truth, but not much, because they’re filled with impossible outworldishly fantastic boat-loads of smelly crap. That's not to say I didn't enjoy them, because I did -- immensely!  But I had to just keep in mind that I was observing sheer fantasy, in contrast to the actual facts that I knew concerning the real Men in Black mythology -- or notions that are as close to actual factual facts as remotely ambiguously possible.

However, the extravagant sci-fi chiller thriller flick called The Shadow Men is closer to the mark – somewhat vaguely at any rate. At least it urges you to reluctantly ask hypothetical questions, such as: “Why are they just men, and wearing only black?  Are any of them cross-dressers wearing black dresses?” But more importantly you will ask, “Where's all the women in black?” I’d say, probably at funerals.  And you’ll probably ask, “Why do they wear those ominous dark shades? And what's behind them? Big black bug eyes? Normal eyes? Red eyes? Cat’s eyes? No eyes? What?!”  There are numerous conflicting reports on this (Even in my own personal notes) -- which means that nobody really knows anything. Here=s more quagmirical queries: Are they only night-dwellers? Are they sensitive to sunlight? Do these sinister creatures live in darkness? Are they afraid of the light? Are they satanic cultists? Who are they? What are they? Why are they? And when are they?

Yes, “when.”  Perhaps they are travelers from a far distant time, arriving here to radically change things around, erase history as we thought we knew it, for their own diabolical purposes, to gradually indoctrinate us into a totally different world to where we won't recognize it anymore, one where aliens abduct us as regularly as obese people eat out at fast food joints, where global warming will become planet on fire, where all your nefarious nightmares come to, and all that crap. 

This will all transpire very methodically and right under our bloody noses without us suspecting a thing. I have theoretically ascertained that it will speculatively be somewhat similar to the old scenario of plopping an unsuspecting frog in a saucepan of lukewarm water (not again!)  and letting it slowly, oh ever so slowly, boil! 

It will become a Slave New World! And those ominous, insidious Men in Black are behind it all! Yes, it=s just a theory so far, but I think I=m on to something here. I=m getting closer and closer, day by day, in my not so futile effort of unearthing the truth of what=s really happening out there. What that may be, I don=t know yet. But I=m definitely getting closer.

I don=t have a whole lot of answers. But mostly I have a million more questions. Such as, do they have some kind of cosmic suggestion box where I can drop all my millions of questions?

--R. R. Stark

Reference: my own delusional mind!

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>  >  >  >  >  >     January 26, 2007     <  <  <  <  <  <

Okay folks, it's time for me to get down and personal. However, considering the last entry, you might rank me along side those other two loonies I previously discussed, but it’s a risk I’m daring to take. But I bring this experience up to demonstrate that I am more than just an outside observer of these types of phenomenon. I'm sure everyone has had some kind of bizarre experience they just don't normally tell people.  I know I've had my share of them, but many of them are still secrets I've kept from the world at large. Many of them were mystical experiences of a very spiritual nature, to which I've shared with only a few others, but only certain individuals I could confide in. But the particular experience I'm about to relay is completely different and otherworldly then these others I've had.

First, let me say that there is a big difference between your imagination, which is internal, and something extra-phenomenal imposed upon you, or external.  The experience that I had could not have been my imagination; I think I know myself better than that. And I don't take hallucinogenic drugs or any other kind of wacked-out drugs, so you can discount that as a factor.  It was the distinct impression of something foreign, something outside of my own mind. In fact, it was more of an intrusion upon my personal space.

One ordinary day, sometime in the year 1982, I was reading a particular manuscript copy that a friend had loaned me, and this treatise was supposedly a genuine account, in the first-person form, about a man who had been contacted by extraterrestrials on the mental plane and then proceeded to receive telepathic communications from these benevolent beings, who had been warning him that mankind was on a path toward self-annihilation unless they did something to stop it.  Evidently, this man had been chosen as a messenger to warn others, to give forth this message. Sounds like a great idea for a science-fiction novel (one some author has most likely already written), but obviously it was a true message, because we are headed down a dark path of self-destruction due to greed and selfishness and fear and other idiotic emotions and negative traits that are just getting us into too much trouble. Who else but outsiders, like aliens, should come along and warn us?  Makes sense to me. Well, there are angels and other celestial beings that have been warning us, or kicking us in the butts, so let's not forget them.

  Anyway, the account was very intriguing and believable, although I was still skeptical about its authenticity.  I have a tendency to overanalyze things when I am researching or investigating such things. Or just leisurely reading something fascinating -- like this. Although it was a fascinating read, as far as I had gotten in it, I began wondering whether or not this was just fiction, however claiming to be the genuine article.  My doubts had been totally expunged when something quite eerie occurred.  You see, I was sitting in my chair, totally engrossed in absorbing this manuscript, not letting anything distract me, when I had the distinct feeling that someone was watching me, and I think many of you know that feeling.  I found myself looking up toward the ceiling, and a little bit too my left, and I beheld the most bizarre entity imaginable! But only for a few seconds, and then it vanished! It was one of those goosebumps and hairs prickling on the back of your neck sensations, or to put it more bluntly, being totally creeped-out! It's even difficult to describe exactly what this eerie being looked like, and reflecting back to when it happened, around 1982, I can't help but think I still witnessed something beyond my own imagination.  I would have to say that it was almost insect-like, with six or eight legs perhaps, with some kind of bulbous head, and I seem to remember its colors were red, blue, and purple.  As far as I can figure, I didn't think this was a physical manifestation. I believe it was somehow manifesting on the mental plane, or perhaps even on the psychic plane, but I'm really not sure; but I've speculated over this for many years, and I still doubt that it had appeared in the physical plane.  But perhaps it had projected a mental image of itself, or even a holographic image, into my consciousness.  Perhaps similar to how the man in the manuscript may have received them, since the whole communication was telepathic, and this can involve images as well.

I don't know what this creature was, whether it was extraterrestrial, extradimensional, or what.  I frankly don't know.  And why it appeared while I was reading this book about a man receiving telepathic communications from aliens, I don't know that either.  I have no answers and many questions.

At the time I decided that this was not one of those experiences you just tell anybody or everybody, but the kind you shut up about, just in case someone decides to lock you up at Bellevue.  However, several years later, I did tell someone that I thought was a friend who might understand.  She listened carefully, but she was laughing and taking it too lightly, pretty much humoring me.  After that, I went back to shutting up about it. Until recently when I told my best friend, Leroy, whom I've known since Fourth Grade, and thankfully, he seemed to be receptive and didn't think I was crazy, and after telling him, this is when I decided to relate the experience in this blog.  Now, I'm sure this little alien experience pales in comparison with the type that others have experienced, genuine close encounters of various kinds, but I hope I'm at least in the same ballpark with them, even if that means I'm in the distant outfield. But then, if you’re too far out field, the men in the white coats come and take you a way! Or if they don't, the aliens will!

Now, think what you will, because I've laid my cards out on the table now.  This is my Truth or Dare -- but I dared to tell the truth at all costs.  Believe it or not.

R. R. Stark

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          >  >  >  >  >  >    January 24, 2007   <  <  <  <  <  <

Alright, folks.  Let's get back to the really strange and bizarre stuff!

I have met two most peculiar individuals that truly believed in various conspiracy theories, or UFOs, aliens, alien abductions, and all the rest.  Their names will remain anonymous to protect their innocence, but I don't think they’re really guilty of anything.  However, I highly suspect they were delusional if not schizophrenic. But then that's just the skeptic in me saying that.  I could be wrong; perhaps they were the real McCoys. Quite possibly they truly encountered something strange and paranormal.  Who am I to judge?

The one fellow claimed the CIA and the government in general were after him because he had some important secrets that they were trying to apprehend from him, but I don't think he ever told me what they were -- unless he was referring to his weird delusional episodes that he disclosed to me, which would make a psychiatrist's eyes roll up in his head. Incidentally, he had been seeing one for while.  Due to the confidentiality clause (although I'm not a licensed psychiatrist, but I honor it anyway) I feel I can’t in good conscience discuss any details regarding his strange delusions.

Okay, just one item. But that's all.  He believed that he could “psychically” impregnate any and all women he wanted to, especially famous actresses! Yikes! Are your eyes rolling up inside your head yet? So, you have this psychic harem of beautiful buxom nubile babes, all impregnated via some bizarre psychic fertility connection, I imagine. I'm not sure what the science would be that could explain this bizarre possibility.  Laugh if you will -- maybe he knows something we don't.  After all, in the tabloids you can read about all these actresses getting pregnant and having babies all over the place.  Coincidence? You decide.

I knew this other fellow from the church we both attended, and he always talked to me about aliens being in our midst and that the government was after him for some reason or other.  He believed “They” were tapping his phone line, as if he knew something that “They” wanted to find out. (Sound familiar? Yep, same delusional pattern.) 

One time he entertained a group of our church people with a documentary film about UFO sightings and aliens, but he claimed that this particular video had been doctored, because he said that he had seen it once before. Either he had rented it from a video store or checked it out from the local library, I'm not sure which.  Anyway, he said that “They” had confiscated the video in order to cut out particular scenes of real live aliens and such, then put it back on the shelf where he got it. Really?  Well, why didn't Joe Gov -- or whoever "They" were -- just take the whole freaking video and keep it, plus the other thousands of copies of it? Wouldn't that be a more intelligent cover-up operation? (Incidentally, this definitely remind me of another confiscated video fiasco I was involved with once -- but let's save that for a future segment!  Suspense anyone?)

Let me add that I knew this guy right around the time “The X-Files” TV series came out, around 1993 I think.  Could he have been influenced and inspired by this popular paranormal TV show?  And was he able to discern fantasy from reality?  Did he confuse himself with Special Agent Fox Mulder who was always on a wild goose chase after aliens and UFOs? I've always wondered.

Alright, folks, this is the really strange part.  One cold, dark night he came to my humble abode in an old apartment building in the historic district of town.  He  told me "They" were after him again and that he needed a place to stay for a while, a place to hide out so “They” wouldn't find him. Knowing he was delusional, but not verbally accusing him of such, I had to refuse him, as politely as I could.  For one thing, he was married and could not or was not allowed to drive, because his wife had to drive him around town on his strange fool's errands, here and there and everywhere.  In fact, she was out in the car waiting for him at that very moment! Yikes! 

I doubt very much that she was caught up in his aberrant delusions; perhaps she just humored him all along. Quite possibly his wife had quite enough of his weird crap and she was helping him to find a place to stay -- to get him out of her frazzled hair. Just a theory, of course.  At any rate, he reluctantly left, getting in the car with his wife, and they drove off.  But after that strange meeting, I didn't see him again at church, or anywhere. In fact, I had never seen him again.   Not ever! It was as if he had dropped off the face of the Earth!  So I wonder, did "They" finally get him?

-- Let's hear The Twilight Zone theme song, everybody! --

--R. R. Stark

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January 21, 2007

Alright, folks, let's wrap this thing up.

The skeptical experts who either disbelieve that the Earth is in crisis or don't care about it have proclaimed their own views, for they are totally disconnected to the critical problem at hand, which involves the human-caused rising temperatures across the planet.  Although some scientists uphold these contrary theories, a larger percentage of scientists still believe the problem is human in origin. Actually, some causes are natural, as suggested by the fluctuating climate cycles, but the majority of the problem is definitely caused by mankind’s negligence.

Nevertheless, certain experts say that if there are explainable causes of global warming, they purport that the majority of the problem is by natural means and not necessarily due to mankind's activities, or at least to some small degree, that they claim is of no significance.  As I've mentioned before, they say the Earth has been gradually leaving the Little Ice Age, which fell between the 16th and 19th centuries, primarily focusing on the northern hemisphere, so this was a climate cycles of 400 years (although some experts say this occurred between the 13th and 17th centuries.  Can't they get their facts straight?) The question is, is this due to a natural change in temperatures, or is there definitely a connection between rising temperatures and the rise of the Industrial Revolution? Also they say that temperatures could be rising due to variances in solar irradiance due to the modulation of cloud cover. Other natural causes are said to be from volcanoes that have erupted over time.

Other experts refer to something called the “urban heat island effect,” which means that the temperatures of all large cities across the globe are higher than their surrounding areas. Although some advocates claim that this effect is one of the causes of global warming, other experts say this effects the global temperature very minimally and is virtually insignificant.  If anything it’s just another diversion to keep us from focusing on  The growing CO² levels.  

Some people believe, or just hope, that the various toxins that we spew into the atmosphere aren't that big a deal and that they will eventually just go away, as if by magic.  Yeah right.

There are other lame excuses like this, but I don't think they deserve credence or our undivided attention.  Therefore, according to these ne’er-do-wells, we can’t do anything about it.  So let's get back to focusing on the economy, folks! Let's forget about the environment and just make money! Let's get back to driving our cars and running our factories, spewing poisons into the air, burning our major forests down, releasing megatons of CO² into the atmosphere!  Let's all have fun now, and let our children suffer later! We can all live now, that others will die later! Let's have that “So freaking what?” attitude and forget about the critical state of our planet!

Or, we can get real, we can get serious, and we can get active, and together, we can do something about it! But we have to join together to do it!

On this grave issue, I welcome any and all comments.

--R. R. Stark

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 References:

Wikipeia on Ice Age: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_age

Wikipedia on Little Ice Age: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Ice_Age

An Inconvenient Truth, with Al Gore, a documentary (DVD)

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January 20, 2007

This subject is too important, so please bear with me. Then we'll get back to the fun stuff.

Alternate Means of Travel

 If you are a truly concerned citizen of the world, do you think it's wiser to drive your car every single place you want or need to go, or to use your bicycle more frequently?  You could conceivably commute seventy miles to work on your bicycle if you had to, but I think many of us don't have to travel that far.  I used to travel about five miles to work everyday and five miles back on my bicycle.  If you pedal fast you can make it in 15 to 20 minutes. Also, I used to pile all my plastic bags of groceries on my two handlebars, balancing them out. So there are ways to make this work if you wanted to drive your car less, or not at all, even if you have to gradually wean yourself off of it. It would be part of the Auto-addicts Anonymous agenda.  They should have a 12 Step Program tailored for their particular use. I mean – us. I keep forgetting that I also drive a car.  But I also have a bicycle -- broken from overuse. Time to get it fixed, now that I'm guilting myself into it. What am I, a hypocrite? 

Anyway, that's the first rule of our new AA 12 Step Program, to admit that we're avid users and drivers of automobiles. But if one of us is a reckless driver, endangering other’s lives (especially due to drinking), then he might be thrown into a whole other category -- called jail!  So don't let it get that far!

  However, if automobile manufacturers will get on the ball and switch from fossil fuels to other kind of fuel sources, that will be a major improvement.  They are already working on hybrid cars.  There are alternate fuel sources such as electrical, solar, alcohol, and hydrogen. I've even heard of manure-fueled vehicles that farmers use -- if you’ve got plenty of farm animals that produce this kind of stinky fuel, go for it! 

We can also do a few other things.  We can properly dispose of hazardous chemicals around the house or garage (instead of dumping them anywhere), preferably by depositing them at your local Hazardous Waste Facility. Also, drive less and bicycle, recycle, and plant trees. To name just a few items to be a good participant of the environment and friend of Ma Nature. So let's get moving!

            As for me, I’m a fanatical recycler -- but I'm getting my bike fixed!

So as you can see, there are many ways to be a constructive law-abiding participant, if not an orating activist on a lecture circuit, like Al Gore the Environmentalist.  But don't become a radical vigilante and run around trying to close down all the oil refineries and factories to show you're a good environmentalist.  We write to our congressmen for that.

A Minority of Skeptics

Skeptics have been trying to turn the global warming issue into a mere theory instead of a state of fact.  Fortunately, skeptics are in the minority, but they are trying everything they can to propagate false ideas that global warming is a fluke, in hopes that people will buy this, so that their numbers will increase. (But if skeptics increase like CO² levels have been, we're done for!) Then once they become a majority, and everyone becomes uncaring and complacent, the skeptics will have their way, but then we will all eventually die off, along with all other living things -- that is if things do get out of hand.  But so far the moral Environment Majority are going to be working their butts off trying to crank the heat down.  But the skeptics are causing a lot of ridicule and persecution upon the hard-working scientists, and some reports say that certain scientists have lost their jobs, because they chose to do the hard work to save the environment instead of sticking their collective heads in a hole in the ground -- which is what the skeptics do.

            The Greedy Shall Not Inherit the Earth!

Looking the other way is what wealthy business owners and economists and certain jaded politicians want us to do.  Such people would rather make more money than care about the critical condition of the Earth.  These greedy SOBs have chosen a rise in economy and a lowering of environmental standards, which will only create a rise in global temperature.  The economy is viewed as more important than the safety of our environment.  The economists’ greed could lead to our self-annihilation. So you see, there are those skeptics that don't believe in global warming, then there are the greedy rich who flat-out don't care; perhaps the latter is the more dangerous of the two groups.  In their eyes the protection of the environment is detrimental to the economy, especially if it means they have to stop manufacturing automobiles, or close down any facilities that causes pollution and global warming in general. And let's not forget those pesky slash-and burn-farmers -- they should be slashed and then burned at the steak!

The fact is we the people have the basic knowledge that will solve this global warming problem.  The real problem is getting enough people to act on it, to do something about it.

--R. R. Stark

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Reference:

Global Warming from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming

An Inconvenient Truth, with Al Gore, a documentary (DVD)

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January 19, 2007

I want to share a story with you. Because, it could happen to you!

The Hypocrite

One early Spring morning, the tulips were in bloom, and all the bees were out buzzing around, and the birds were singing in the lush green trees, all of which I totally disregarded because I was running late for work.  I revved my engine, letting the ugly brown exhaust spew out the tailpipe, then I hurriedly backed out of my driveway, but I braked suddenly to let a bicyclist trundle by behind me as he hollered, "Hypocrite!"

I was shocked and appalled at this accusation, but I proceeded pulling out and then tore down the street.  As I absentmindedly zipped through a stop sign, I wondered, why the bicyclist call me that?  I had stopped for him, being a courteous driver and all that crap.  Oh well. . .

I glanced at the fuel gauge --  almost empty. I had many miles to drive, as I did every morning five days a week.  I commuted to work, seventy miles there and seventy miles back, but thankfully it was mostly freeway travel.  I had no choice but to drive this insane distance to work.  My uncle was my boss and he'd give me the job at the Carlisle Oil Company, which resided way out in the boonies where nobody lived, or wanted to live, for that matter. Who wanted to have a view of an array of massive oil tanks across the street?

Before I hit the freeway, I pulled into Freddy’s Fast-Gas Station.  As I proceeded to stick the nozzle into the gas tank, I pondered over that bicyclist’s accusation, still puzzled as to why he called me a hypocrite.  Then it hit me as I glanced down at that idiotic bumper sticker I had just slapped onto my rear bumper last week:

"HELP SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT!"

*      *      *      *      *      *

Gas Guzzlers Beware!  

Yes it's true! Fuel emissions are on the rise!  If the world's population is approximately 6.4 billion or higher (because it's still growing!), does that mean there are approximately six-billion gas-spewing vehicles on this planet as well?  Alright, there are a few backward countries where the people either don't have automobiles or they’re to poor to own them, which means they probably use their feet or pedal bicycles to get around, so even if we guesstimated approximately five-billion automobiles and various vehicles to be in use on the planet, we're talking about a massive amount of polluted air. Plus if you throw in some miscellaneous factories   that chug out smoke as well.  Yes, we can see dark brown clouds over large cities, but a lot of this dirty air, due to continual winds, spreads this gunk throughout our atmosphere. And these blowing winds are not going to solve the problem, as if making the pollution magically disappear; they're just redistributing pollutants further into the atmosphere. 

One report states that the net carbon-emission rate of the planet will have to be decreased by roughly 60%, and on the outside by 80%.  Yikes!  That sounds like a tall order!  Not only that,  we would have to accomplish this by the year 2050, to even begin to reach a place where we are marginally close to almost being safe.  Does that mean all of us have to stop driving cars, and close down our oil refineries and factories, or even stop smoking?  Now, how many billions of people are laughing about how absurd this sounds?  Go ahead and have your laugh.  Alright, if we sit back and idly do nothing about it, except die off, how absurd does that sound?

 How many billions of people really care about our precious planet?  In today's modern society we have become vehicularly-dependent, hence we are auto-addicts. Perhaps there needs to be a new AA therapy program for these miserable people -- all six-billion of them! I mean – us!  Yeah, I admit it, I'm one too.  Perhaps we should start Auto-addicts Anonymous!

The Boiling Frog Syndrome

Too many people are non-responsive because the global warming problem appears to be too gradual. It seems there's nothing to really notice, that is, if you're not paying attention, or put your head in a hole in the ground.  You could say it's an illusion that the climate crisis seems to be occurring slowly, but it's actually happening much faster than you think.  Within the last couple decades there have been radical changes come to pass, as we have discussed already.

The problem is we have the Boiling Frog Syndrome.  You've probably heard it by other names.  We all know that if you try to put a frog in a saucepan of boiling water, it will immediately jump away. So you have to trick the little critter.  If you put the frog in a pan of cool or even lukewarm water, it will just sit there.  If you turn the burner on, and let it very gradually warm up, keeping the burner on low of course, this particular frog, not being very bright, will just sit there and eventually be boiled to death, or so the theory goes.  Personally, and not to poke holes in this clever theory, if I were the frog, and if the water was starting to get too hot, I would be urged to jump out.

Unfortunately, there are too many frogs in the world that just don't care, and they’re letting themselves be boiled to death.  We need to have a lot of smart frogs that are willing to jump out of the water before it boils.  Then they have to jump down and turn the burner off, and let the water cool back down to normal, which might take awhile. These are frogs that are paying attention and care about their environment.  You'll noticed that I've stretched this analogy out further than normal. In other words, we the people have to become vigilant participants and activists and crank the heat down.  Which means to do whatever it takes. Hell or high water!  

Sit -- or get off the pot!

--R. R. Stark

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Reference:

Global Warming from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming

An Inconvenient Truth, with Al Gore, a documentary (DVD)

January 18, 2007

The Evils of Burning Down our Forests

Another report states that 30% of CO² levels rising higher each year is due to deforestation, particularly due to slash-and-burn operations, perpetrated by greedy, selfish cultivators, who are ruthlessly raping our rainforests, such as in South America and Africa. However, the brutality of deforestation has been conducted in Brazil, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and even the United States. In fact, slash-and-burn methods are conducted by more than 200 million people across the planet, particularly in these nations listed. Not only does the burning of these forests create pollution and higher CO² levels, but the lack of these forest lands robs the planet of the necessary oxygen-producing trees that we need for life-support.

One report states that a large portion of rainforest in South America, particularly Brazil, had been burned down and replaced by soybean farms.  Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, the soybean crops failed.  Why?  Because the soil was naturally geared toward growing rainforests, not soybeans.  And if those rainforests have been there for thousands of years, do you think you can easily grow soybeans overnight? Obviously, you need a certain kind of soil for soybeans, and then a certain kind of soil for rainforests.  Ma Nature seems to know how to do this because she’s the Master Gardener.  Perhaps we can learn from her.  And some really intelligent environmentalist once said that the rainforests are the lungs of the world, as if our precious planet is a huge organism.  Stop and think about that for several moments. Or even meditate on it for several minutes.

If most of or all of our rainforests are destroyed, particularly in South America and Africa, you have an organism that can’t breathe very easily, and there will be extreme oxygen depletion in our atmosphere.  That is probably far more scarier than you can imagine.  But the soybean farmers would rather have money in their pockets from selling soybeans than having good old-fashioned air to breathe. I hate to bring up this next analogy, because there's a lot of smokers out there.  You could likened the burning of rainforests to the burning up lungs of a severe smoker, because it's much harder for a smoker to breathe then a non-smoker, and I have been around a lot of smokers with breathing problems and chronic coughing.  Incidentally, I'm an ex-smoker now; in my youth I used to smoke, so I know what  I'm talking about. I started at the innocent age of 14, but several years later I had to stop, it was causing me problems. Duh!  You could say my interior rainforests were being burned up -- until I put a stop to it.

Another fact is that forests remove carbon dioxide and pollutants from the atmosphere, and emits large quantities of oxygen back into it, which helps stabilize life on the planet. It's also a fact that all plants, especially trees, deliver the appropriate amount of revitalized oxygen in order to support life on our planet. And yet another fact is that the rainforests produce about 40% of all the oxygen on the Earth.

 Deforestation, particularly by slash-and-burning, wildfires, and other methods as well, leads to higher carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, so this heinous activity must be stopped, because our precious plant-life is extremely important, especially our major forests.  So, we need our forests, every single one of them. If all of them were ruthlessly destroyed, there would be nearly 40% less oxygen on the planet, which means the CO² levels would increase much higher, so this would inevitably annihilate us. With CO² levels increasing and oxygen decreasing, that equals death to life on Earth.  Eventually.

Another report states that between 1960 and 1990 1/5 of the planet’s rainforests were destroyed. If these kinds of deforesting procedures continue, it is estimated that all tropical forests could disappear by the year 2090.  That would definitely devastate the whole planet and its inhabitants -- to put it mildly. Although reforestation is practiced in some areas, that is, the replanting of new trees, I don't think it's being done fast enough to replace all of our vital forests we have already lost.

More Bad News We Just Don’t Want To Hear

Another side effect of global warming has been “bad weather” anomalies, which means there will be increased intensity and frequency of various weather patterns involving hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and even droughts, and there will be major heat waves as well.  There are also reports that say there could be the extinction of certain species. In fact, I recently heard in the news that several species of birds are already dying off and possibly becoming endangered.  Another report states that there will be an increase of diseases.  In fact, thirty new diseases have arrived on the scene, just in the last quarter-century.  Naturally, the experts will deny this particular connection to the climate problem, saying environmentalists are just trying to throw anything and everything into the global warming stewpot. You have to realize that on this planet everything is connected. Everything!  This one big living organism, our beloved Emerald Planet needs our help.  I don't think Ma Nature can do it alone.  We've got to stop fighting her and start working with her. Or we could be heading toward mass-annihilation.  Who wants that on their conscience?

You may have heard the theory that there once was life on Mars, perhaps thousands of years ago, of which there is some evidence.  Did the Martians destroy themselves -- just like we are about to do?

--R. R. Stark

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References:

Global Warming from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming

Deforestation from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deforestation

An Inconvenient Truth, with Al Gore, a documentary (DVD)

Coast-To-Coast A.M. on WNAX Radio 7.50 AM, subject matter: “Extreme Climate          Changes,” with Whitley Strieber, January 4, 2007

January 17, 2007

            Exactly how serious is Global Warming?  Is it just a mild problem?  On the other hand, is the whole thing just a hoax? Actually, I should be insulted by that last question, so I'll make an effort not to get my dander up about it.

Climate Cycles:

However, there are a few experts, especially certain politicians and scientists, who claim that Global Warming is a silly hoax perpetrated by the environmentalists and their supporters, but I say it's these pseudo-experts who have their heads up their freaking a-holes. Oops! My dander just got up.   These colorblind experts say what has been occurring all along with the Earth is simply due to extensive climate cycles, which means throughout time there has been many temperature fluctuations; some may last several hundred years, others several thousand years or so. They claim that these high and low fluctuations are the primary reasons that may account for what we call Global Warming, and although there is truth to this reasoning, this is not the only factor.

However, let's take a look at these crazy climate cycles. Experts say there have been four major ice ages on the Earth.  The last one begin 40 million years ago and ended 10,000 years ago, but since then there have been fluctuations in glaciation, which means sometimes glaciers and ice caps advanced and sometimes they retreated. Also the planet experienced the Medieval Warm Period between the 10th century to the 14th century, approximately. Then it shivered through the Little Ice Age between the 16th and 19th centuries. These are rough approximations of course, because some experts may add or subtract a century here or there.  These are approximately 400 year cycles each.  But the so-called Little Ice Age was a general cooling of the Northern Hemisphere, but there was some glacial expansion and in many parts of the world severe winters.

However, as this tapered off, temperatures have begun to rise ever since, especially when the Industrial Revolution impacted parts of the globe.  This is when things began to heat up very nicely. In fact, it is estimated that during a general two-thousand year period before 1850, it is believed that the planet’s temperature levels have been basically stable, although there have been limited fluctuations.  Let's put two and two together: around 1850 we can see the rise of the Second Industrial Revolution, where we see the beginnings of our emitting toxins into the atmosphere. At this time the railway systems were underway, plus the chemical industry was increasing, and the refining and distributing of petroleum. When the automobile industry began and skyrocketed in the 20th century, fossil fuels initiated a major rise in CO² emissions into the atmosphere.

Vanishing Islands:

In spite of these types of global cycles, there are still obvious signs that something is going wrong on this planet.

For instance, I was listening to the news segment of Coast-to-Coast-am sometime in the last week of December and heard a story that approximately forty low-lying islands and atolls have been swallowed up by the Pacific Ocean in the last few years, and that on other vanishing islands about ten-thousand people had to evacuate, particularly the atoll nation of Tuvalu. It was predicted that more islands will be submerged over time. Isn’t this highly abnormal?  What will those psuedo experts say about this occurrence? Coincidence? 

Okay, I double-checked this with other reports, and some say this is clear evidence of global warming, whereas others say the islands were submerged due too typical storm surges.  But wouldn't that mean waters would eventually level out and those islands would return to normal? Evidently that's not happening.  Some anti-global-warming experts even declared there have been no rise in sea levels while these islands were vanishing, whereas our global warming experts claimed there have been continual rises in sea levels, and that the sea levels continue to rise.  So, who are we going to believe? Which of these expert experts should we listened to?  If you've ever watched CSI, they say, "Follow the evidence." And I believe we're seeing a lot of evidence to global warming.

Glacial Meltdown:

It seems obvious to me that when glaciers and ice caps start melting, water levels of the oceans rise, hence islands are swallowed up.  And when we start seeing water creeping up along our coastlines, I think we're really going to start getting concerned, because then we would be approaching Water World status! Okay, maybe that's exaggerating.

Here are some facts.  The snows of Mt. Kilimanjaro have been disappearing year by year. Glaciers are literally shrinking.  The Arctic ice cap has decreased in size by 40% in approximately forty years. Reports project that in fifty to seventy years it will shrink down to nothing.  The ice sheets in Antarctica are also breaking up and the ice cap is shrinking back.  If all the ice in Antarctica vanishes, sea levels across the world will rise twenty feet, reports say.  And if the ice vanishes in Greenland, there goes another twenty feet.  And then if the Arctic ice cap completely melts on top of that -- I think we'll have a serious case of Water World! Oh, did I already suggest that? I must have a severe case of redundancy!  Either that or people really need to hear this! Anyway, continents will begin to shrink and islands will literally disappear.  Obviously, mapmakers will have to redraw the maps of the Earth. Actually, we would have a semi-waterworld syndrome, because there's not enough water in the whole world to cover every bit of land. Darn! I really enjoyed that movie!

Carbon Dioxide on the Rise:

            So what is causing all this Earth-heating? Why is our atmosphere rising in temperature toward boiling point? (Or is that an exaggeration?  Actually, the whole matter makes my blood boil!) For one thing, CO² levels keep rising on the Earth, and a study for this began in the mid-50s.  The studies have shown that the CO² levels are not going down. But they are steadily going upward and soon they may shoot off the charts.

            The extensive climate cycles are not the only causes of global warming, although they do have a significant impact to our climate changes.  Global warming is significantly a factor of human-caused events more than anything else. In fact, reports state that CO² levels were much lower in Medieval and even Ancient times, and we can go back several thousands of years further, compared to what they are now.  Scientific experts have ascertained this information through ice core samples from frigid regions like Antarctica. This gives us clues into our distant past, via trapped air bubbles which have been there for several thousands of years.

When there is more carbon dioxide dumped into the air, temperatures rise higher, because it traps more of the sun's heat inside the atmosphere.  Unfortunately, the CO² levels are predicted to rise much higher in the future, as long as we keep dumping crap into the air.  Skeptics, certain politicians and scientists, think all this is no big deal. It's the "So what?"  attitude. They either don't care or don't believe there will be any severe effects.  These people have become lethargic, complacent, and uncaring.  They would rather fatten their pocketbooks than care about our environment.

A large percent of Global Warming over the last half-century is due to increased greenhouse gases, and the largest source of this is from fossil fuels. Essentially, we’re talking about our creation of petroleum products.  We're talking about we the people driving our automobiles. And of course there are numerous factories and oil refineries spewing crap into the atmosphere.  It's not pleasant to look at this ugly brown debris in the air we call pollution, but it's also not pleasant to realize all this atmospheric waste causes global warming.

Are we going to do something about it? 

Reference

 Global Warming from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming

The Little Ice Age from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_age

An Inconvenient Truth, with Al Gore, a documentary (DVD)

Coast-To-Coast A.M. on WNAX Radio 7.50 AM, News segment, December 2006

January 16, 2007

Don't let that title fool you. I'm just talking about the future of Zones Unknown.

Since I've been exhibiting "controlled disclosure" lately (just like Joe Guv has been doing with John Q. Public), that is, regarding information pertaining to future topics, I decided to take this opportune time to release "control" in order to "disclose" to everyone a list of the fascinating topics I will be covering.  This way you'll know what you're in for, hell or high water. These aren't necessarily in order of appearance, in fact they're not in any kind of order;  I'm rather disorderly if you were to see my three haphazardly clustered desks --  one with a big T-Rex dinosaur computer on it surrounded with dusty papers and other crap, the other with my new Dell, and another desk with piles of boxes on top of and beneath it, filled with old writings and manuscripts and miscellaneous crap that goes back thirty or so years, back to the Jurassic era probably. Yep. Time to sort and trash! 

These articles reflect today's world of increasing madness involving the onslaught of crazy conspiracies and paranormal phenomena, just in case you were wondering. 

Alright, here's the Zones Unknown List:

Global Warming

Men in Black

Secret Societies

Hidden Government

Cattle Mutilation

Time Travel, Theories and Reality

Alien Abductions

Revisiting the Gulf War Syndrome Conspiracy

Aliens Among Us

Strange Reincarnations, Interplanetary and Future

Speculating the Hereafter

Tesla's Death Ray

The Fraudulent Moon Landing Conspiracy

The Hollow Earth

Crop Circles

Remote Viewing

First Contact

The Nature of Auras, The Personal Atmosphere

Parallel Universes (and probably some chaotic universes too)

My Alien Encounter

Walk-ins (Who are they?  Where they come from?)

Giant Rock Airport, a hang out for UFOs

Out of Body Experiences

Elementals: Fairies, Elves, Pixies, etc.

Medical Conspiracies

The Psychology of Dreams

The Psychology of Superstitions

Everything Angles

Esoterica versus Exoterica

Psychic Abilities and Intuition

Umbilical Cord Strangulation Syndrome

Oops! Disregard that last one, I just made it up -- or did I?  But, I have heard of pre-born infants with their umbilical chords wrapped around their necks while inside the womb, cutting off blood supply to the brain, hence, when they were born, they became -- let's see, what's the politically correct term nowadays -- mentally-challenged.  We're not supposed to call people mentally retarded anymore, last I heard.  But I do here people accusing others of being total idiots.  That's acceptable then? What's this world coming to anyway? Total idiotic anarchy?  Now, there's a good idea for another article.  

At any rate, I hope these topics will keep you folks busy for a decade or two -- if I live that long, unless I get abducted by aliens first. But the list will grow as time marches on.  And if you have suggestions or ideas for other exciting topics, please leave your comments, and questions are welcomed too.

Incidentally, I had planned on posting several fun and exciting articles, but I will have to hold them off, just for a little while, for an important message.  So next time we will be discussing global warming, because our lives depend on it. Seriously.

--R. R. Stark

January 14, 2007

G. Dubya seems to nonchalantly admit mistakes and blandly takes responsibility, with no real heartfelt contrition. His act is all an act, a class act in fact, but it’s a bad act.

One major problem is that sending more troops will cost more billions of dollars, but the US government has already spent several billions on this war with little results.  Because if we had positive results this whole problem would have been sold and the war would have been over by now. 

By sending more troops over there, old G. Dubya is trying to shock the enemy, whether they be Iranians, Al-Qaeda, Iraqi insurgents, and terrorists in general, etc. I think the old Texas cowboy imagines that he can herd them into a corral and dazzle them with his usual bullcrap, since he doesn't have much brilliance -- so in the end he will be the one being baffled.

This has been a costly military endeavor, and it has lost support from the public and even in Congress.  Reports stated that 6 out of every 10 Americans are against sending more troops to the war effort, and 7 out of every 10 Americans disapprove of the Prez's management of Iraq.  3000 Americans and tens of thousands of Iraqis have died already in this war.  Do we need more to die?  Will putting 21,500 more lives at stake be worth it?  Or is it just an attempt for Bush to rescue his own ego in this last-resort effort to place himself in the history books as one of the great presidents? Actually, the next president is going to have to clean up G. Dubya's big mess.

Intelligent politicians are saying we need a political solution, not a military one.  This is the proclamation of Senator Sam Brownback, a potential 2008 presidential candidate.  If he makes it to the White House, he needs a big broom and dustpan!) Personally, I say we need a moral solution, and so far no one has exhibited that.  Some reports say the Prez is too naïvely optimistic in his half-baked plan, that wanting it to work is one thing, but making it work is another.  Due to a violently stubborn enemy, it's going to be rather difficult for the US to force its mighty will on them, especially since only 30% of the US citizens are backing the president, and last I heard the minority doesn't rule.  A mighty will? Sounds like a lot of mighty hot air blowing around. Perhaps G. Dubya and his small band of Rough Riders are being vainly optimistic -- as if   his ego-based plan is too easy to accomplish.

G. Dubya’s  "new way forward" seems more like an old way backwards, and a desperate attempt to further bully the terrorists to surrender. If the old wild and woolly wrangler imagines he can beat them into submission, he's as naïve as a frog sitting in a saucepan.  You know where that will lead him.

Yes, it's true that terrorists have no ethics, etiquette, or rules, so anything goes in wartime!  We Americans fight wars in a more civilized manner, or so I’m told. We get right out there in wide open spaces and fight, usually where the hiding enemy can see us.  Hmmm. Maybe that's not a very good tactic after all.  But we don't go around strapping bombs on our bodies and blowing up everyone around us, particularly infidels, of which we don't have in our country.  And we don't go hijacking airliners and crashing them into tall buildings with a single bound. And we don't disappear for periods of time and hide like lilylivered, yellowbellied cowards, then suddenly jump out like jacks in the boxes, wearing strap-on-bombs, and blowing people up. Oh, am I being redundant again? I hope so.  Likewise, we don't turn ourselves into masochistic martyrs so we can spend eternity with a harem of 72 young unpenetrated virgins. Yikes!  Although that is a wildly tempting notion, it sounds rather promiscuous and devilishly irresponsible.  Maybe that's what happens in hell. Those virgins are probably sadistic dominatrices who will end up torturing those poor fools for eternity!

So! Do we stay in, and add more madness into the mix so we look like tough bullies, and make G. Dubya look good, while risking more thousands of lives -- or do we pull out and save lives?  Can't the new Iraqi government take care of themselves?  Let alone defend themselves? Why do we have to still hold their hands?  Is Iraq a Daycare and are we its babysitters?  I think they would be offended if that's how we saw it.

Afterthought:

 Okay.  I admit that there could be problems if we pull out too soon, because this would send a message to terrorists to jump in and wreak more unequivocal havoc, cause more unmitigated terror.  So it's not an easy solution. I still say -- as opposed to a political or military solution -- we also need a moral solution. But there is a right time to pull out and a wrong time.  Let's hurry up and get the Iraqi government back on track, make sure they're strong so they can defend themselves against terrorists, and then get out. If we make our stay too long, we will soon be unwelcome there.  Actually, I think we passed that point.

In the meantime, it seems that we are still between Iraq and a hard place. But does good old G. Dubya realize that?

R. R. Stark

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References: USA Today, Jan. 11, 2007:

“Accepts responsibility for ‘mistakes’” by David Jackson

“A ‘make-it-or-break-it’ moment on Iraq” by Susan Page

“Democrats reject Bush's ‘we forward’” by Kathy Kiely and Bill Nichols

The pot has been boiling far too long now, and those poor frogs are boiling to death! So far we're not going to save the ones not dead yet, but were sending more frogs into the boiling pot! Is that really a smart move?

That's the Iraq War in a saucepan, and there's no nutshell about it. G. Dubya plans to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq in order to stop the violence. What?! So he tries to stop the violence by creating more violence with more troops?  That's fighting fire with more fire which spreads into wildfire that usually turns into a major out-of-control forest fire.  Whatever happened to fighting fire with water? That's what firemen do when they're fighting fire. Did you ever see a fireman throw fire at fire to put it out?  That's simply absurd beyond absurd!  And that's what G. Dubya wants to do.

G. Dubya (sometimes known as the Prez of our great nation) also thinks that if we increase military support over there, this will  quicken the time  all our troops can return home.  Huh?! Does that compute?  It seems to me this will only escalate matters further and ensure a much longer war. We're talking WILDFIRE!

Reports state that 60 to 70% of the American people say we should get out of there fast.  The rest say we will look like cowards if we do. Is this a battle of egos then? Or more specifically, is G. Dubya defending his own ego? Is preventing embarrassment worth the cost of thousands of lives?  Would we be invoking another Vietnam War pullout? And furthermore, is the USA really the world's greatest superpower?  Or the world's biggest bloated ego?

Alright.  We won the squabble in Afghanistan.  Osama bin Laden disappeared (coward!) or has been inadvertently killed (too bad!), so he has become irrelevant. We found no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Saddam Hussein was captured in December of 2003.  In June of 2004 the United States turned power over to an interim Iraqi government, setting them on a path to lead their own country. Then on April 26, 2006 Nouri al-Maliki  became the prime minister of Iraq .  Saddam Hussein was executed on December 30 of 2006, hanged by the neck.  So why are we still there?

To save face and maintain a pretense of looking good is a really a bad reason.  If G. Dubya believes in this bloody war, why is he sitting cozily back home where Homeland Security will protect him? Or so he imagines.  Why don't we put a gun in his hands and make him fight in Iraq too? That might boost the troops’ morale! Or is G. Dubya too chicken to face his own bloody mess?

I’d say good old G. Dubya's between Iraq and a hard place!

--R. R. Stark

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References: USA Today, Jan. 11, 2007:

“Accepts responsibility for ‘mistakes’” by David Jackson

“A ‘make-it-or-break-it’ moment on Iraq” by Susan Page

“Democrats reject Bush's ‘we forward’” by Kathy Kiely and Bill Nichols

January 11, 2007

If there ever was an Area 51, that the government has denied, is it possible that it really doesn't exist? Is it possible that it merely serves as a diversion to conceal a deeper secret? Perhaps something like an Area 52?

            If it's true that Area 51 has been defunct and declassified or canceled, or whatever the going term is, either those top-secret projects have been moved to some other secret location, or we are told these notions for misdirection purposes. Which means, perhaps those projects still continue at Area 51.  Or do they? Obviously, the government wants to get that monkey off their backs, we the public, because we just

flat-out want to know what the hell is going on, so all they can do is create more and more cover-ups, playing the proverbial shell game.  So where are those pesky top-secret projects now? Beneath shell 50, or perhaps shell 51, or even shell 52? Perhaps we will never know.

            There was a man named Bob Lazar, who is either a whistleblower or a fraudulent pride in conspiracy propagator, who claimed to be a legitimate scientist who had examined and worked on extraterrestrial spacecrafts at Papoose Lake, just south of Area 51.  This took place in 1989, and if he accomplished anything, it was popularizing all these grand conspiracy theories connected to Area 51.  He himself claims to have participated in the reverse-engineering of alien flying saucers in order to advance our own military aircrafts. I mentioned such scientists in the last segment.  Many experts claim he is merely disseminating big lies. They say he lied about being a real scientist or having attended any universities whatsoever. Plus he claimed his birth certificate and Ph.D. diploma had disappeared. Hmmm.  I have myself read various reports about Bob Lazar, which quite easily reveals holes in many of his statements, which sound quite convincing, but then it's their job to be convincing.  So either they are telling the truth that he is lying, or they are lying about his telling the truth.

There is yet another report that declares Area 51 may have an illegal dump site on its premises for extremely toxic substances and that several people who once worked in the facility at Area 51 filed lawsuits against the US government concerning certain injuries and even deaths due to hazardous materials.  Unfortunately, the government is legally protected from such lawsuits; besides, it also continues the denial of the existence of any facility or place known as Area 51, says the report.  Therefore, if this place does not exist, no such workers could have been working there to even be exposed to such hazardous chemicals, right? Clearly these harmful chemicals don't exist in a place that likewise does not exist. Either that or the government is very clever with all its cover-ups.  I suppose the government is above the law if it can’t be properly sued even when it is obviously in the wrong. A similar denial and cover-up scheme took place involving the Gulf War Syndrome, but that's a story I'll saved for another time.

All I can say is, the whole Area 51 fiasco is just one example of countless cover-ups and conspiracies that our own government is obviously getting away with. There are probably thousands of dominoes, if you remember that analogy, and even if we knock down ten or twenty of them, or even fifty (let's be bold!) the Master Cover-up Artists will be hundreds of steps ahead of us, setting up more dominoes. And let's not forget that long, long trail of breadcrumbs, which probably will eventually lead us nowhere, except on another wild goose chase.

Incidentally, I just officially designated my home as Area 53! Someday, some conspiracy theorists will wonder what deep dark secrets lurk here!

R. R. Stark

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Reference all Parts: Area 51 from Wikipedia

January 10, 2007

Remember in an earlier segment I said that military and government intelligence operations are set up so that the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing; one department is working on one aspect of a large confidential project, and another department is working on yet another. Usually a specialized scientist was brought into one of these top-secret projects, Area 51 for instance, and he was told to analyze an advanced Soviet aircraft they found, but they couldn't tell him where they got it or they would have to kill him -- or something to scare him. Incidentally, this was back when we had a Soviet Union.  But the scientist was perplexed about the seemingly alien nature of such a craft, or involved technology beyond his understanding.  So after his assignment was concluded, and being told to keep silent about this whole episode, he was sent back into the “real world” where the public is told that UFOs are only hoaxes -- and being no dummy -- he decided to become a whistleblower and expose the whole thing, because he was the man who knew too much.  And of course the government will deny his validity, making him sound like just another crackpot -- and believe me, there are many of them!

Conspiracy theorists have associated various highly classified endeavors to Area 51, not only for the study of and reverse-engineering of extraterrestrial spacecrafts, but the examination of captured aliens (dead or alive!), time travel research, the development of advanced weapons, a place for secret members to discuss agendas of a hidden worldwide government, and other fascinating possibilities. How much of this is true is uncertain. I believe dark secrets about Area 51 will always exist, even if this place doesn't.

Some reports say these top-secret projects had been moved elsewhere, possibly after 1997, which would account for the declassification of the existence of Area 51, which theoretically means no classified agendas exist there any longer.  Perhaps the heart and soul has been ripped out of the legendary Area 51, leaving it empty now. So where are these highly classified projects taking place now?  Some new facility whose location remains secret?

My question is, if there ever was an official Area 51, although the government has denied it, is it possible that it really doesn't exist? Is it possible that it merely serves as a diversion to conceal a deeper secret: Area 52?

            --R. R. Stark

January 8, 2007

The government has denied the existence of Area 51, which many conspiracy theorists have translated as meaning that it does in fact exist.  But the government has officially “declassified” the existence of Area 51, but this was declared in 1997.  Does this mean it existed before this date, and it doesn't now? Wait a minute!  “Declassified” means to remove official security classification. If that's the case, that must mean Area 51 did NOT exist before 1997 -- and so now it DOES exist, because it doesn't withhold secrets any longer. Or perhaps it means its existence has become totally obsolete, so it might as well not exist anyway. Or perhaps we’re led to believe that all classified projects there have ceased  -- which really means they actually continue regardless of such official statements.  Or are such ideas just the ramifications of another cover-up? Perhaps "declassified" really means “still classified!” This can all get pretty confusing.  I know I'm confused.

I think the reason Area 51’s existence has been denied by the government and military alike is because there have been numerous reports of top-secret research projects going on there, so to deny their existence, it follows the government has to deny the very location where they take place. However, the fact is, the US Air Force owns this nonexistent area where top-secret projects thrive that also don't exist. Don't be surprised, because this area also does not appear on any current public United States government maps -- because, it does not exist!  However, it is a fact that the designation labeled as "Area 51" has been seen in much older maps.  Yikes! Someone should have burned all those maps!

To be specific, I'm referring to maps of the Nevada Test Site, which evidently change their colors, so to speak, when classified operations suddenly pop up, hence, certain "areas" seem to magically disappear from newer NTS maps. Sounds suspicious.

The reason for the number “51” is because this secret place is in grid number 51 of the Nevada Test Site that is found at the Nellis Air Force Range. In fact there is an Area 19 and an Area 20. And of course there are other areas we don't know anything about -- or that possibly don't really exist.  In 1958, the Nevada Test Site was divided into several numbered areas, one of which was officially designated as Area 51, which became famous over the years, due to Hollywood and numerous conspiracy theorists and various strange reports that may or may not be true.  However, the “Area 51” designation was canceled sometime in the 1970s, reports ambiguously declare. Wait a minute! I thought they declassified it in 1997?  How is that different from the designation being canceled? This is very suspicious and confusing, if not inconsistent.  Nevertheless, the name stuck regardless -- although the government has officially denied it. 

I suppose there's a small grain of truth in the government stating that Area 51 doesn't exist, if they officially dropped that special moniker.  But something still exists in that location no matter what it’s called, and likewise highly top-secret projects have existed there, and possibly still do.

If you sneak down to the southern end of Nevada to a large section of land right next to a dry salt flat known as Groom Lake, you’ll discover the nonexistent Area 51, where you'll find  warning signs against trespassers declaring threats, such as, “Use of deadly force is authorized.” And you'll also be greeted by friendly uniformed security guards with M16s, because they are authorized to execute deadly force upon any intruders. So I would suggest that you don't actually go down there, or you'll get into hot water. But the very fact that security personnel will stop you with force makes me think they are definitely hiding something.

That legendary place we all know as Area 51 is presently called the Air Force Flight Test Center, Detachment 3, and it's off-limits to civilians and even certain military pilots, or virtually anyone snooping around. Within this area is an airfield that some reports say is for highly classified research and development and testing of advanced or experimental military aircraft. If you connect the dots, some of these aircrafts are possibly products of reverse-engineered alien technology via alien spacecrafts. Some reports say that such extraterrestrial crafts are stored at Area 51. This must mean that the military has confiscated these crafts, perhaps after they were shot down, and were still salvageable in order to research their advanced technology, then used to develop our own upgraded aircrafts.  In fact there is one rumor that a few Soviet aircrafts are stored there (and it's classified how the military retrieved them), or is this just another cover story to disavow whistleblowers who tell the public that there are actually extraterrestrial crafts stored there? 

More next time….

--R. R. Stark

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Reference for all Parts: Area 51 from Wikipedia

January 6, 2007

If you recall, I told you I would get back to this particular subject.

Let me tell you a story.  Once upon a time there was a mild-mannered military officer named Lt. Col. Philip Corso, who was given a very special assignment, little did he know at the time, and this was during his stay at the Pentagon in the early 1960s.  His new assignment took place at the Foreign Technology desk of the Army's Research and Development Division.  Although the term "foreign" was appropriate, the Foreign Technology desk was a perfect cover to include a small faction that involved research on alien technology. You could call this extremely  foreign.

Col. Corso’s superior, General Trudeau, gave him a mysterious file cabinet to work on, the contents of which was the most unusual apparatus he had ever laid his eyes on. He would have to assemble a team for this special project, which would involve analyzing the bizarre merchandise, revealing their function, and preparing them for reverse-engineering. This was not foreign paraphernalia found in some experimental Soviet aircraft that crashed, but weird forms of alien technology found in the Roswell crash in 1947. Realize there were other items found in the crash that had already been researched and developed, and evidently the rest had been sent to the Pentagon in the Army's  R & D Division.

Col. Corso found the strangest artifacts in this file cabinet.  Such as unusual intertwinings of glass cables, some kind of weird metallic cloth, peculiar goggles, several layers of odd electronic wafers, and there was a manuscript describing a laser penlight device, and many more eerie items. 

To make a long story short, through defense contractors and Bell Laboratories, the mysterious artifacts were reverse-engineered, and some of the items of new technology were found in the marketplace, however, much of it was used by the military and even police departments.  But the items’ true origin was kept hush-hush from the public.  The cover story simply explained that these items were developed and invented at Bell laboratories, plain and simple.  Realize that much of the extraterrestrial apparatus was still being researched and developed between 1947 and the early 1960s.  We now have infrared visors for night vision, fiber optics, bulletproof vests made from Kevlar, laser technology, integrated circuitry, the common transistor (originally called “transfer-resistors”), and other advanced items.  In fact reports say because of this reverse-engineered technology, the warehouse-sized computers were made obsolete by the now commonplace personal computers. Large hardware has miniaturized into much smaller hardware now.

Also, a quite small, portable transistor radio replaced those big bulky radios, and teenagers bought these like hot cakes in the 1950s and 60s. Personally, I remember them from the very early 60s when Rock & Roll was the hottest music around. In fact, soon after 1947, the transistor was used in solid-state electronics, which created a boom in the electronics industry at the time.  The transistor and integrated circuitry became an important factor in the microcomputer industry.  The fact is, this little item called the transistor did not exist before 1947.

Is all this truly the product of reverse-engineered alien technology? Of course there are too many skeptics that think all this is just a bunch of malarkey.  But like I said, certain items of this new technology, which created a radical change in the electronics industry, burst upon the scene soon after 1947.  Coincidence?  I don't think so.

To conclude, Col. Philip Corso became a primary whistleblower when he wrote his book, The Day after Roswell.

The question is, as incredible a story as this is, is it the whole truth and nothing but the truth?  Or has some of it or a lot of it been fabricated? Is his book an attempt to expose the long-standing UFO cover-ups, or is it possible, that this is the work of yet another elaborate cover-up to misdirect the public? 

Cover-ups within cover-ups within cover-ups . . . What do you think?

--R. R. Stark

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Reference for All Parts: The Day After Roswell. by Col. Philip J. Corso

January 5, 2007

What do the extraterrestrials really want with us anyway? And is our government doing something about it?

As I said before, I think they're just highly curious about life on Earth and especially those dangerous humans that are set on self- annihilation. Certain humans are suicidal by nature anyway.  Does this reflect all of mankind on a subconscious level? I hope not.  I think there's just a few bad nuts in the bag. But will those curious aliens lift a spindly finger to sabotage our self-destruct mechanism, or will they idly watch us flush ourselves down the toilet? Obviously they think there’s no intelligent life down on this third boulder from the Sun. And they’re probably right.  Furthermore, what's our government doing about all this?  I think they're doing want they do best -- or is it worst? -- which is to gather information, then perhaps just sit back and try to put all the puzzle piece together. I think they’re still working on assembling the big picture though. But they still know more than the public, I believe.

 The deepest secrets are allegedly still held by the government and military, so we may know the gist of the whole picture. Although a lot of information has been circulated over the decades, how much do we really know?  How many of the secrets have been revealed, and how many are still concealed? And how much of this information has been muddled up with lies and deception?

At one time, the reality of reverse-engineering alien technology had a big lid clamped down on it.  Now this information is circulating into the public.  However, reporters were given certain bits of UFO information, but a lot of this ended up in the tabloids, and although many people believe this crap, a lot of them are still skeptics.  Believe me, I'm one of the biggest skeptics of the tabloid magazines!  I think it's 99% crap! On the other hand, perhaps this is the perfect place for the truth to be trickled out into the masses, because the government depends on skeptics, while the believers are considered to be crackpots. 

But then there are degrees of skepticism. I believe I am right in the middle of the severe skeptic and the blindly open-minded.  For instance, I believe there are countless UFO hoaxes, and perhaps a smaller percentage were actual UFOs. I totally disbelieve that President Clinton ever shook the hand of one of those bulb-headed grey aliens as the tabloids once suggested. I completely reject the idea that Men in Black are alien/human hybrids; I think they’re just government agents attempting to silence witnesses of sightings and encounters.  Also, I emphatically reject the conspiracy theory that the US moon landings of the Apollo missions were totally falsified, which would mean the history books are blatantly lying if mankind never set foot on the moon (one small miss-step for man, one giant fallback for mankind!); however, there may have been some staged dramatizations created for our benefit, since some of the footage was highly questionable as to their authenticity (this would be a great subject down the road).  I most certainly believe that certain astronauts did in fact  witness sightings during their missions to which the government tried to silence them, allowing none of this information into the public. Plus I've heard that many NASA photos and footage are not being allowed for public viewing either.  What are they hiding?  And I highly doubt that the Rapture will involve Jesus coming down in a flying saucer and rescuing us. Personally I believe the so-called Rapture is not literal, but is more internal and metaphysical.

I can go on and on, but I won't bore you further. I consider myself a healthy skeptic and likewise a rationally open-minded person. I feel that I maintain a healthy balance.  But if you still think I'm a crackpot, you have a right to your opinion.

To conclude, I believe the old saying is true, "Fact is stranger than fiction."  But here is a new one: "Facts are often concealed within fiction."

Stay tuned for those wild and crazy alien artifacts!  Next time on Zones Unknown!

--R. R. Stark

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Reference for All Parts: The Day After Roswell. by Col. Philip J. Corso

January 4, 2007

I asked last time, as much as the government might know, are the extraterrestrials keeping them in the dark about further information?

Perhaps the government is slow in releasing information to we the public because they don't have all the facts either.  But they obviously have more than us. So either way, they are several steps ahead of us.  Don't forget our little dominoes theory.

            Our government is supposed to be brimming with Intelligence, but lately I've been doubting that.  Perhaps they fear that the extraterrestrials are hostile, and they are trying to protect us. But it might be possible these extraterrestrials aren’t really hostile, but they're just overly curious about we human beings, and life on Earth in general, so we perceive them as being intruders, especially when you consider alien abductions and cattle mutilations and so forth.

In spite of this, I still believe we are ready, and if we ever do experience what science fiction writers call "First Contact," we have at least fifty years preparation behind us. Let's just hope the hostile alien invasion scenario remains with science fiction, because I'd rather we have friendly contact.  But if you remember the “V” miniseries, mankind experienced first contact in a very friendly way, but it turned out to be a deception, for the aliens actually had evil ulterior motives.  Besides, they were creepy reptilian creatures wearing human skin suits! Then there's the old Twilight Zone episode “To Serve Man,” and once again we have friendly aliens offering us world peace and other wondrous things, but when people filed onto the alien ships to visit the “friendly world,” in effect they were actually being taken to an alien restaurant to be eaten.  You see, the aliens had a cryptic book called “How To Serve Man,” that  cryptologists were trying to decipher.  As you might guess, at the end of the episode, they discovered it was a cookbook. Yeah… ha ha …

So, what do those pesky aliens really want with us anyway? And is our government doing something about it?

More on Controlled Disclosures next time.

January 3, 2007 -- Wednesday

Normally this would be “Part Five,” but I decided to project the illusion of a completely different subject.  Failing that, let's just move on here.

 Regarding the whole UFO/alien phenomena, exactly how much is the public allowed to know?

Usually, government and military intelligence operations are set up so the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing.  One department is working on one aspect of a large confidential project, and another department is working on yet another, and it’s so top-secret, no one knows the bigger picture -- except perhaps a few highfalutin bigwigs on top.  Although I have heard that even the president may not be privy to certain top priority intelligence.  So who really knows what is going on, or who is pulling the strings? Reports say there is a competition between Army Intelligence and the CIA and other intelligence branches as well.  They all want the same thing, but only certain departments possess certain bits of information or artifacts, such as alien technology.   So each group has a separate puzzle piece and no one seems to be cooperating to put the whole picture together. Or is that just another cover-up to throw us off?

Here's another tidbit.  The nature of conspiracies and cover-ups is like dominoes. When we the public have knocked down one domino, we discover there is another, and that is knocked down next.  The government and of the military has created countless dominoes, and every time we try to knock one down, there is another, and the government keeps way ahead of us, or so we are told.  Not just one or two steps ahead of us, but perhaps hundreds.  So, little by little, tiny breadcrumbs are allowed into the public, but these are just to keep us busy and satisfied while the government works with the deeper secrets.  So as much as we think we know now, there's still countless secrets we just don't know.  “The cover-up is the disclosure and the disclosure is the cover-up,”  to take a quote from, The Day After Roswell.

 Are we being led on a trail of breadcrumbs -- which amounts to a wild goose chase?

So part of the cover-up process is allowing tiny bits of information into the public, although fabrications are mixed with some truth so that we the public still doesn't exactly know what is going on.  In this way we are gradually desensitized, and allowed to adjust, partly so that there won't be a repeat of the panic created by the "War All the Worlds" radio broadcast back in 1938, which the government fears and wants to prevent again. They probably fear that the extraterrestrials or hostile. If the alien abductions and cattle mutilations are real events, I would think so too.  

On the other hand, does the government and military know exactly what is going on?  As much they might know, or seem to know, are the extraterrestrials keeping them in the dark about further information? What other deep dark secrets lurk out there?

 R. R. Stark

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Reference for All Parts: The Day After Roswell. by Col. Philip J. Corso

December 31, 2006

December 30, 2006

Alright.  Let's me explain what I mean by a counter-cover-up.

Remember the question I asked: Was it just what people think it was, the government trying to cover up the crashed UFO near Roswell, New Mexico, rather than a weather balloon?  Or was the crashed UFO story a cover-up in itself?

Perhaps an alien spacecraft did crash in the Roswell area, but it’s possible that something far more secret was found there as well, or something that had to do with the crash. Conceivably the government used the basic story, a portion of the whole story, to cover up something more specific, something more secret, hence creating a diversion.  Use part of the truth to cover a greater truth.  What an ingenious concept for building a cover-up over a cover-up!

Okay, here's the progression.  The first thing that got out was that a UFO crashed near Roswell, New Mexico.  Then immediately a cover story circulated that it was merely a fallen weather balloon, and not a UFO crash. But eventually, people latched onto the UFO crash story, and that became the popular story, while most people disbelieved the weather balloon scenario.  So now the popular story of the crashed UFO is in the mainstream.  If that's what really happened, and that's what people now believe, then there's no cover-up. Right? Possibly the whole cover-up idea is a big farce. But then, that idea could be yet another cover-up in itself.  Cover up a cover-up by saying there is no cover-up, that it's only a hoax being perpetrated. I say, believe what you want.

Here's another theory.  Perhaps that Unidentified Flying Object was shot down by the military.  Just maybe it was actually a terrestrial craft, an experimental Russian aircraft that we were not even supposed to know about, that illegally entered our airspace.  If this is the case, then we had to deny that we shot down a top-secret Russian aircraft, that technically didn't exist,  that the Russians did not want us to know about, yet we almost exposed its existence by shooting it down, and such exposure could have created very bad relations between Russia and the USA, if not another war. But all this secrecy would still be a part of the Cold War, back in 1947, so no one was supposed to know anything, so something had to be covered up.  So the best solution was to create a diversion, create a cover story, so that no one really knows the truth. The weather balloon story was one diversion, and the UFO crash another. Layer upon layer of lies.

The idea that an extraterrestrial spacecraft, from beyond our planet, had crashed here is fabulous if not genius, something people would WANT to believe, since a fallen weather balloon is just too boring. This way the fact that an experimental Russian aircraft had been shot down in our airspace would be swept under the rug, saving us from dire consequences between the USA and Russia. Because our government could then deny knowing anything about Russia's top-secret experimental aircraft if they ever asked us if it had accidentally entered our airspace, but then they couldn't do that, they would be breaching their own protocol, revealing to us that they even had such a craft.  Hence, no one could say anything about it. 

But then this hypothesis may have a few holes in it too.  Either Russia would have had to acknowledge that their top-secret special craft had gone missing, and entered enemy hands, or they would have tracked it into our airspace, hence, detecting or witnessing the US military shooting it down; therefore, major headaches would ensue. Russia would know what happened immediately and the US creating cover-ups would be redundant.  Another hole in this theory is that if any foreign aircraft enters our airspace illegally, our military has every legal right to shoot down such violators, and Russia or any other nation would have to acknowledge that without retaliation -- we hope.  These ramifications would have to be understood by all foreign nations -- or would they? Also, why would Russia allow such an experimental aircraft to enter foreign airspace in the first place, risking being shot down?  Russia's land expanse is vast; they would not need to go elsewhere to test-fly their craft -- unless such an experimental craft went awry, developing technical difficulties which sent it off its main course.

At any rate, with or without holes, this whole story, the Russian Angle I call it, could be yet another cover-up to cover-up another cover-up.  So on and so forth. So was the craft that crashed near Roswell extraterrestrial or terrestrial?  Or was it just a boring weather balloon?

-- R. R. Stark

             December 29, 2006

The Roswell UFO crash was perhaps the largest UFO conspiracy, but what was the government really trying to cover up?

In 1947 the government told us that the Roswell incident only amounted to a fallen weather balloon, while denying the crash of an alien spacecraft. The silencing began immediately. Mac Brazel, a rancher in the Roswell area, had reported finding debris from a flying saucer, but in a few days he denied it.  He had been paid off by the government to change his story.  Likewise, Maj. Jesse Marcel had also reported the UFO incident, but his superior ordered him to recant, to change his story to that of a fallen weather balloon.

            However, for several decades now the government has apparently given up and allowed the public to believe the crashed UFO scenario, but is this simply because they realized they cannot suppress it any longer, or is it a counter-cover-up?  In other words, is it possible, that the government knew all along that the majority of the public would believe the crashed UFO theory, therefore allowing this to cover up something far more secret? 

The government has neither denied nor proclaimed this, but remains silent, leaving us to decide for ourselves.  They know that people will believe what they will, while not being able to actually do anything about it either way.

So was it just what people think it was, the government trying to cover up the crashed UFO near Roswell, New Mexico, rather than a weather balloon?  Or was the crashed UFO story a cover-up in itself? I am suggesting this because, usually the government allows us to be distracted by a particular popular story so that we the public will be refocused away from what’s really going on.  The popular story is, obviously, that a UFO crashed near Roswell, and the weather balloon story has gone to the wayside.  So what is being covered up?

What the government has initiated is cover-up upon cover-up upon cover-up, or story upon story upon story, leading us along a trail of breadcrumbs that takes us nowhere.  Perhaps the government has created an elaborate labyrinth, and we are rats in a maze running into dead-ends every which way.  Will we ever find the truth?  And just how many lies are there that are keeping us from it?

--R. R. Stark

If you didn't know it before, you'll probably know it now -- or be totally confused by it, if not shocked and appalled. It could submerge you into soundless sleep, or it could blow you away completely. You might think it's too crazy to believe, and you might just walk away from it – or it might make you think twice, or even three times, and it might change you for the rest of your life. What the heck is it?

. . . We call it the strange reports from Zones Unknown . . .

The truth is out there, but shrouded in deception.

There are countless conspiracies and paranormal phenomena that certain groups have attempted to suppress, including the government, who would have you think these things are simply senseless material for the tabloids.  Why are we the people being lied to?

We will discuss these issues and many more, with your participation, in Zones Unknown.

--R. R. Stark