After Disclosure A.D.

http://pelicanist.blogspot.com/2012/06/disclosure.html

Richard M. Dolan and Bryce Zabel. A.D. After Disclosure. New Page Books, 2012.

The authors make it plain that the nature of this book is speculative, but they assert that their speculations are informed by "solid research". They also state: "It is not hard to see why the world's top power brokers would want to conceal the reality of something as monumental as UFOs." They thus constantly emphasize the claim often made and stoutly defended by Stanton Friedman that it is perfectly possible for there to be a world-wide conspiracy of powerful people, which they refer to as "The Breakaway Group", who can keep the proof of UFO reality secret indefinitely. They even repeat the old argument that the development of the atomic bomb (the Manhattan Project) was successfully kept secret for as long as was necessary, but they of course fail to mention that those in charge had control of the project, whereas UFOs can appear anywhere, at any time, unpredictably.READ MORE

The "curse" of Philip Klass and my own perspective.

Before he died, the UFO skeptic Philip Klass actually included a “curse” in his Last Will and Testament that was related to the drive to solve the UFO mystery. In his Will drawn in 1983, Klass included a bequeathal to UFO researchers:

“No matter how long you live, you will never know any more about UFOs than you know today. You will never know any more about what UFOs really are, or where they come from. You will never know any more about what the U.S. Government really knows about UFOs than you know today. As you lie on your own death-bed you will be as mystified about UFOs as you are today. And you will remember this curse.”

Certainly this is not a denial of the UFO phenomenon but a recognition of its existence and insolubility.

It is perfectly possible that this insolubility of UFO phenomenon is not a temporary circumstance but the substantial meaning.

In his “curse” Klass however suggests that perhaps the government knows more than us about UFOs .

On the contrary, after 4 decades of personal research, I am convinced that this is not so. The real cover up is precisely this ignorance. Those in power want us to believe that they know something but that is not so.

Disclosure can be synthesized in three words: NOBODY KNOWS NOTHING. The alternative is the Psychosocial Hypothesis. We are the conscious and unconscious creators of the UFO phenomenon.  Our fear, our anxiety and our hopes are the UFO builders. 

The imaginary ufologist short story.

Please, imagine a young, well-informed and educated person which in some moment makes contact with the UFO subculture. He or she reads every book available, and becomes convinced that there is something here, something that deserves research.

After some time, this imaginary protagonist of our story finds also that he knows enough and also has some personal ideas on the subject and side issues such as the paranormal and alternative science.

He writes a book and the book sells, and some people come to his first lecture about UFOs, cover-up, shadow governments and conspiracies.

Without wasting time, she or he begins a new book and after some time our friend becomes a professional. The initial curiosity has become a more or less lucrative profession and indeed it is a business that demands time and effort. Of course there is competition and the market has its laws. The professional after some marketing, learns more about what sells and what doesn't.

She or he also learns the tricks of the trade. Conspiracy theory solves the lack of evidences and anonymous informants, imaginary insiders and mysterious sources will help a lot.

However, the protagonist of this sad story is a decent human being.

He is an ethical person so, sooner or later our professional ufologist must choose between what he or she believes is true, and what sells.

We are talking about an intelligent man here, so it’s possible that he will see that paranoid ideas about conspiracies, secrets, and non-human entities will reach the minds of some unstable “true-believers” and borderline personalities. This is not good of course.

 Meanwhile the rhetoric concerning UFOs, cover-up, shadow governments and conspiracies becomes nothing more and nothing less than a job.

Precisely at this time, our ufologist and conspiracy theorist will have some ethical problems and even will learn something about Cognitive Dissonance and some mild but persistent guilty feelings.

The solution of course exists, but only he or she can find it inside.

Cognitive Dissonance & Descent into Madness.

Is important to recognize the problem of cognitive dissonance in the UFO subculture, because in the ufological  and “paranormal industry”, we find intelligent individuals whose life becomes a permanent contradiction between their real convictions and public rhetoric.

Cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding two contradictory ideas simultaneously.

The "ideas" or "cognitions" in question may include attitudes and beliefs, and also the awareness of one's behavior. The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance by changing their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors, or by justifying or rationalizing their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.

Cognitive Dissonance usually manifests when a person perceives a logical and perhaps an ethical inconsistency among his or her cognitions.

Let’s imagine that someone is forced to do or say publicly something they privately really don't want to do, dissonance is created between their cognition (I didn't want to do this) and their behavior (I did it).  Forced compliance occurs when an individual performs an action that is inconsistent with his or her beliefs.

Now, this cognitive dissonance will have also a great impact on the social life of the individual affected.

Most probably she or he will became growingly isolated and loose self-esteem.

If the differences between real and proclaimed convictions grow, the situation will eventually become critical.

It is probable that individuals forced to remain in such a cognitive dissonance will “lose their minds.”

Even Insanity is possible for some border line personalities.

I think those cognitive dissonance crises are worse when the inconsistencies and contradictions include ethics.

In addition, cognitive dissonance is particularly critical when the affected individuals live in a familiar context that makes these contradictions more and more obvious.

We should not believe that Cognitive Dissonance is an uncommon phenomenon. On the contrary, the mass of information-disinformation and misinformation makes the C.D. inevitable in many cases.

What should we do about it? We should be aware of the works of our Mind.

A rational approach to the information we receive is a must for those who want to eliminate this uncomfortable feeling or prevent what some researchers call the descent into Madness.”

Obviously things go from bad to worst with professional ufologists. Publishers want books that sell, not books that are true. 

Also, sooner or later, UFO researchers understand that the UFO phenomenon is unsolvable and this make things worse.
The alternative is a secret skepticism, but this is no solution for the cognitive dissonance if the researcher is an ethical individual.  

Everything is possible in the UFO subculture.

One of the subcultures characteristics is its very limited space of influence. Subculture is defined as a cultural group within a larger culture, often having beliefs or interests at variance with those of the larger culture.

In the UFO subculture, these limitations are disguised by the leaders of the group and the UFO industry and the UFO paradigm is presented as a problem that attracts the attention of all the society, including the government.

The indifference of the media, the government and the scientific establishment is presented as a complex conspiracy of silence.

But since 95 % of all the UFO sightings are identified as natural phenomena and man-made artifacts; this statistic is taboo for the believers and for the self-proclaimed experts.

In the limited environment of the UFO subculture, anything can be proclaimed without recognizing the need of clear and reliable evidences.

Between professional ufologists and believers anything goes. Fantasies, misinformation, lies and fictions are the rule of the law inside the rarified atmosphere of the subculture and even the contradictions between different UFO-ET mythologies are not recognized as clear evidence of ignorance and personal fictions presented as facts.

A mythological ufologist can talk about thousands of UFO sightings as evidence, without mentioning that 95 % of these sightings are planets, balloons, meteorites, hoaxes and aircraft.

That’s why is possible in Richard Dolan’s mythology to imply that the so called Security State is a consequence of the UFO presence and the need of a giant cover-up  to keep the tremendous secret.

That’s why the invasion of Iraq was motivated by some Stargate (sic) in the southern part of that country.

That’s why Alfred Webre tells us that a council of Extraterrestrial civilizations keeps our Earth in quarantine, isolating us from the civilized galactic community, and Andy Basiago tells us about his time-jumps and his meeting in Mars with the man who is now president of the United States

Anything goes when the show must go on.