UFOs in the Desert, Part 5 (final)

Sunday was the fifth and final day of the 2013 International UFO Congress in Fountain Hills, Arizona, the largest UFO conference in the world. My previous Blog posting covers the fourth day. Here is a link back to the first posting about the conference.   And it looks like I did write a long, five-part report on this Congress, which I earlier said I didn't want to!

Paul Stonehill

Sunday began with Paul Stonehill, who was born in the Soviet Union, speaking on "UFOs of Russia and USSR."He explained that there were all kinds of UFOs in the Russian territories, ancient and modern. UFOs are depicted in ancient rock carvings, and there are "out of place" artifacts in ancient rock strata. The KGB was very interested in UFOs and paranormal phenomena, but Stalin had the records destroyed. Later there was an official Soviet military program for recording and studying UFO reports. In 1982, a UFO almost started World War III by initiating a nuclear missile's launch sequence for 15 minutes. Unlike UFOs in the U.S., which are reported to be peaceful and try to interfere with nuclear-tipped ICBMs, in the USSR UFOs apparently are warlike, and try to launch such missiles.

Stonehill also talked quite a bit about USOs - Unidentified Submersible Objects. Soviet divers have found themselves next to underwater humanoids working on recovering something, wearing no breathing apparatus.

John Greenwald, Jr.

The final speaker was John Greenwald, Jr., who spoke about "A Common Sense Reality Check on the UFO Phenomenon." A television producer and director, Greenwald has filed over 3,000 Freedom of Information requests on the UFO subject. He talked about mostly well-known cases, like Roswell, the 1952 Washington, DC sightings, and the 1976 air and ground sighting in Iran. He spoke about the 1985 Bob White encounter in western Colorado (he said, near Las Vegas). White supposedly recovered a piece that fell from the UFO, and kept it in the trunk of his car for many years. Eventually it was analyzed, and supposedly found to consist of completely unknown material. Greenwald forgot to mention that, according to a 2011 article in Skeptic Magazine, a professional in the steel industry states,

 The object in question is made of accreted grinding residue. It forms in a manner similar to a common stalagmite when metal castings are “cleaned” on large stationary grinders.

But I suppose letting in a few relevant facts might spoil Greenwald's talk.

Karyn Dolan getting ready to play UFO Jeopardy

Immediately after the Greenwald talk, it was time to help test out a new game, UFO Jeopardy. Its rules are exactly the same as regular Jeopardy, but all categories are about UFOs or related subjects. The plan is to have the game ready to be played in public at the next Congress, or elsewhere. Micah Hanks was supposed to play in this round, but was unable to do so because he ended up on a panel at the same time. I was talking with him when that transpired, so he suggested that I take his place. The other two contestants were Greenwald, and Karyn Dolan, the wife of Richard Dolan. I actually ended up winning that round, although all three scores were quite close. I left someone take my place for the next round, and went back to see what was left of the final event on the program, the panel.

UFO Jeopardy with John Greenwald, Jr. (wearing tie) and Karyn Dolan. 

 On the final panel on Sunday Afternoon, "UFOlogy in the 21st Century" were Stanton Friedman, Richard Dolan, and Micah Hanks. Hanks sounded somewhat reasonable when he and I were talking not long before this, but in front of the audience he denounced "skeptibunkers," who propose outrageous explanations for credible UFO cases. Stanton Friedman admonished people not to be afraid to speak out, people will listen to your message. And Dolan worried whether UFO groups are doing enough to reach out to women and minority communities (echoing some of the same concerns certain skeptics have been saying!).

At this point, I packed up and headed off to Tucson, where I stayed a few days as the guest of James McGaha, where we did some astronomy and watched science fiction movies. Then I headed off to Old Tucson Studios, where I was in a group participating in a SteamPunk event, and then finally, home.

But now, a few photos from the UFO Congress, in no particular order:

James from the Future

This man is a time traveler, James from the Future. He says he does not know what year he has come back from, but it is after the New Age or whatever you call it has already occurred, that great Transformation in Consciousness that will be happening any day now. (Many people expected it to occur in 2012, but were disappointed.) James says he does not know why he was sent back, but he thinks it is to act as a historian to make better records about what was happening before the Transformation.

Leda, the "Glamour Queen" of the UFO Conference

This is Leda Beluche, the unofficial "Glamour Queen" and "Social Director" of the UFO Congress. I first met her here the previous year. She makes a lot of friends, and also tries, when possible, to smooth over perceived conflicts and disagreements. Leda realizes, as many others do not, that people can disagree about things but still be friends.

Her claim that she received several cell phone calls from her alien hybrid children, after last year's conference but before this one, attracted a lot of attention, and even some envy, from "experiencers" whose hybrid offspring are apparently less communicative. I'm sure Leda is sincere about this, but I told her somebody must have been playing a joke on her. How could they break into my cell phone calls? Not knowing the circumstances of the calls, I could not say.

Leda was examined for signs of alien activity by Steve Colbern of Alien & Scalpel Research, as she was last year. A photo of the 'open' part of that exam is in Part 3 of this report, in the middle. I am told that the people with Alien & Scalpel were very nervous when they saw me taking pictures. Here is my photo showing the A&S tool box, and examination room.

Alien & Scalpel's tool box, and examination room

Leda says that four "implants" were discovered that were transmitting. Presumably there might have been more that were temporarily switched off. Then she was 'scanned' using some ultra-violet device, and was told she had the most "dye" in her body of anyone at the Congress. I did not know that Aliens were injecting dye into peoples' bodies. Since Colbern sometimes reads this Blog and comments on it, I invite him to explain to us exactly how these discoveries were made.

Leda was quite worried about this "dye" when she related it to me afterward. I told her this was silly, and not to worry about it, as did James McGaha who was also there. She had been told that there was also an 'ancient symbol' on her thigh, and markings that seemed to show the imprint of presumably alien hands around her neck and wrist. She was told to come back for a follow-up examination the first thing next morning. She did, and was told that the "dye" had, thank goodness, disappeared, as had the 'ancient symbol.'  She said that A&S had promised her drawings and photos illustrating their findings, but when I spoke to her on March 18 they still had not yet arrived.

Ben Hansen

Ben Hansen of the SyFy channel's "Fact or Fake" show. He is working with Night Optics USA, a Bushnell company, to promote its night vision devices. He is a very friendly fellow. The night vision skywatch at the conference was free for attendees, but on other occasions Hansen participates in sponsored skywatches that are paid events for the participants.

The author with Dr. Lynne

I also met Dr. Lynne Kitei, the indefatigable crusader for the Phoenix Lights. (If you Google "Phoenix Lights," her website is listed first. It is a cornucopia of questionable UFO claims.). At the Congress she was certainly a force to contend with in her leather outfit and stiletto heels. She came up to me to say hello, asking, "Do you know who I am?" "Certainly, Lynne, I was just looking at your website a little while back." Dr. Lynne, as she is fondly called, is friendly and personable, and certainly fully sincere. When I referred to the "first part" and "second part" of the Phoenix Lights sighting, she corrected me: there was no "first part" or "second part," it was just all UFOs, all night long. Even at sunrise, crews coming into work at Sky Harbor Airport saw a giant UFO a mile in diameter hovering above the airport, but unfortunately no photos were taken, and it didn't turn up on radar. I'm very glad that no aircraft collided with it! Dr. Lynne somehow manages to see more UFOs than just about anyone, in Phoenix or anywhere else, and she does it with panache.