Pat Welsh's UFO Links #7
From: Pat Welsh <pwelsh@nwu.edu>
Date: Thu, 31 Jul 1997 20:21:42 -0800
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TOTAL-7.UFO
Book Review
Prof. Charles F. Emmons
At the Threshold: UFOs, Science and the New Age
$18.95 + shipping
Blue Water Publishing, Inc.
POB 190, Mill Spring, NC 28756
(800) 366-0264; (704) 894-8444
URL <http://www.bluewaterp.com/~bcrissey>
In 1988, I researched how the media treated UFO phenomena for my Mass Media
and Society term paper; this research led to my current passion to
understand the phenomena. Were I invited to appear on Ted Koppel's
Nightline, I would use Prof. Charles F. Emmons' excellent book, At the
Threshold: UFOs, Science and the New Age, to prepare for rebuttal. Though
weighty in its coverage of the subject, At the Threshold is suitable for
the layman: since it details The Background of the Debate.
I don't know if the government has crashed saucers or alien bodies, or if
it has secret agreements with ETs, or if it hires ufologists to create
false UFO data. However, I think that it is very likely that some of the
endless black-marked lines of text released under the Freedom of
Information Act to ufologists like Stanton Friedman contain important
information on government involvement in UFO matters. I also tend to
believe some of the insiders who have told me of their own observations of
UFOs and of UFO data when they were associated with the military. [Chapter
11]
I suspect that the UFO phenomenon is complex rather than a single mystery
capable of solution...I suspect that the origins and purposes of the
Visitors are many. [Chapter 11]
To examine the complexity of the subject, Prof. Emmons covers the
implications of New Physics (wormholes; 10-dimensional reality; holographic
universe), the history of ufology (significant cases; governmental and
scientific studies; current funding for UFO research), paranormal aspects
of UFO incidents (telepathy; apparitions; out-of-body travel), related
phenomena (crop circles; cattle mutilations; the Face on Mars), media
coverage (sensationalism; witness ridicule), and personality types
(encounter-prone personality; hypnogogic and hypnopompic hallucinations).
As a professor of sociology, he writes:
UFOs seem to pull us into a "Larger Reality," a place that operates on
more than the standard physical principles we understand scientifically.
[Chapter 11]
What fascinates me is the fervor with which limiting assumptions are
sometimes embraced, and the implication that we can be so sure about them
that anybody who goes beyond them to look for contrary data must be either
stupid or crazy...I suspect that my anthropocentric perspective is
incapable of seeing other possibilities. [Chapter 11]
Prof. Emmons talks about "the sociology of knowledge" and "relative
certainty."
Dr. Beverly Rubic, a biophysicist, states for example that "Over a hundred
years ago, one of the deans of Harvard University said our science is
nearly complete. He went so far as to discourage students from going into
science as he felt there was nothing more to do." [Chapter 6]
Part of the problem involves our very concepts of truth and reality.
[Chapter 9]
He explains how ufology got relegated to "deviant" rather than "legitimate"
science:
Since the Enlightenment, science has emphasized a mechanical explanation
of how reality can be analyzed and manipulated, in opposition to religious
or mystical views that see reality in a larger, spiritual context. By this
view, religion and mystical philosophies tend to be holistic, seeing the
interconnectedness of all things; science tends to be reductionist,
breaking down all that is physically evident into comprehensible component
parts. Science, having successfully marginalized other ways of knowing,
states that anything that cannot be analyzed this way simply doesn't exist
(or that we "can't know about it"). [Chapter 7]
In 1975, ufologist James M. McCampbell outlined six categories of UFO
effects that might involve electromagnetic (E-M) radiation: performance of
the craft (levitation, extreme acceleration and deceleration, etc.),
atmospheric effects (e.g., colored halos that change with acceleration),
landing sites (baked earth, charred plants, etc.), electrical interference
(on internal combustion engines, radio and TV, power transmission),
physiological responses (paralysis, sunburn, etc.), and animal reactions
(like fear). It is worth noting that such a scheme provides a grand
theoretical framework for comprehending UFO technology even though details
are not yet understood. Contrast this patterned approach with the
debunking perspective that any one case might be explained in some other
way and that, therefore, the whole UFO concept is not worth pursuing.
[Chapter 8]
It has been my deep pleasure to read this tightly-edited, comprehensive
book. The logic is clean, and Prof. Emmons makes good use of transitional
phrases/anticipatory questions. I was provided so many nice surprises:
sources which I'd not seen collected elsewhere (i.e., Robert Anton Wilson;
Dr. Samuel Faile; Alice Bryant & Linda Seebach; Holy Blood, Holy Grail).
There's a "good looking" bibliography (full of good sources from recent
years), glossary, index, and Appendix of
Ufologist Biographies. Prof. Emmons not only combines current and
historical works, but conducts original research (interviews) for his book.
I've recommended At the Threshold to a fellow author, as a kind of style
guide, for approaching this complex and confusing subject.
Prof. Emmons has really "done his homework"!
--S. Patricia Welsh
editor of newsletter Life Is Flux (Evolution & Dross)
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UFO QUOTES
"One bizarre detail: to Britons, Greys smell of cinnamon or rotting
leaves; in America, the scent is of ammonia, sulphur, lemons and almonds."
-- June 5th issue of United Kingdom UFO Network
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UFO-SPECIFIC SITES
UFOs: A Closer Look...
http://www.tcet.unt.edu/~chrisl/ufos.htm
The Photographs and Films of Paul Bennewitz
http://www.tcet.unt.edu/~chrisl/bennewi2.htm
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OTHER UFO RECOMMENDATIONS
If you're following the controversy regarding Steven Greer and his
distribution of the "Best Evidence" Document, you can use the following
links to read up on Federal Copyright Statutes 17 U.S.C. #101 et seq and 17
U.S.C. #405(a), as well as the Federal Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. #1125(a):
Subject Matter and Scope of Copyright (17 USC Sec. 101)
Copyright Notice, Deposit, and Registration: Omission of Notice
on Certain Copies and Phonorecords (17 USC Sec. 405)
http://law.house.gov/uscsrch.htm
False Designations of Origin, False Descriptions, and Dilution
Forbidden: Civil Action
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/15/1125.html
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-end-
Index: Major Web Archives
Index: Charles Emmons
Created: Jul 31, 1997
