- Wendy Connors raises the contributory bar on her newest
compilation of Ufological history, AGAIN!
-
 "PROJECT MAGNET -- Wilbert Brockhouse Smith and
Canada's Search for Flying Saucers," is the latest contribution to
ufological history rescued, by Ms Connors, from the complacently ignored
and quickly disintegrating past. On this collection of vintage recordings
we explore the thinking by a hero of modern ufology that few have heard
of and many have forgotten. The irony is that he may be key to an understanding
of the... highly strange 'matters'... perceived all around us.
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- W.B. Smith -- Listen to him 'cold' and he was just another
dodgy bowl of strained ufological Fruit Loops. He even sounds a little
loopy. Indeed, he fairly snapped, crackled, and popped an oddly unsettling
litany of new sciences, encounters of seeming science fiction , and alien
philosophies... all in his eerily precise and pedantic monotone...
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- He will, at first blush, not insure the confidence of
the ardent skeptibunky or even the interested fence sitter, consequently.
His thinking on UFOs 'seems' to embrace the now much lampooned contactee,
the "benevolent", "all wise", and "all knowing"
aliens ~not~ of this Earth, plus a blood relation to them on top of all
that! There is even a tangential relationship to Billy Meier... (via the
philosophy of "Quadrature") Tough to swallow for the abused,
betrayed, and manipulated masses... But start swallowing, folks, or choke.
Verily.
-
- Consider, given how far Smith strays from the box of
'accepted' thinking, how it might still be possible that we, one, understand
the "doctrine of non-interference (The StarTrek Prime Directive)"
as it is understood in the archetypes of popular culture presently, two,
that we are familiar with the evolved ethics that would require its application
(and predict that behavior from sentient 'others'), and, three, that we
gain the insight inherited with the realization that current 21st Century
problems, presently endured, have their scurrilous roots in our failure
to employ the very precepts of same! W.B. Smith seems to have been ~first~
to reveal all those things to us, not Gene Roddenberry.
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-
-
- Fruit Loops? The cold listener, astonishingly enough,
would be the ~only~ one to think so...
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- Dr. J. Allen Hynek (a ufologist's dean), in his very
rational and thoughtful book, "The UFO Experience -- A Scientific
Inquiry," made an interesting analogy which can be brought to bear
on the credibility, personal character, and veracity of W.B. Smith despite
how far off the wall Smith seemed to ricochet! Hynek compared people to
calibrated scientific instruments in his very telling analogy and proved
his logic, handily, in this telling thought experiment... which makes perfect
sense on reflection.
-
- "In science," he wrote, "It is standard
practice to calibrate ones instruments. No astronomer, for instance, would
accept measures of the velocities of distant galaxies obtained by the means
of an un-calibrated spectrograph. However, if such an instrument had given
consistently good results in the past, had frequently been tested and had
not recently experienced any jarring shocks, the observer would usually
accept its results without any further checking..."
-
- Hynek continues, "...The parallel for us is, of
course, obvious: if our UFO reporter has, by his past actions and performance,
shown a high degree of reliability and responsibility and is known to be
stable and not 'out of adjustment,' then we have no a priori reason to
distrust his coherent report, particularly when it is given in concert
with several other 'human instruments,' also of acceptable reliability."
-
- ...Turns out? W.B. Smith was ~just~ such an instrument,
of ~just~ such a calibration, and of ~just~ such a reliability. He'd given
consistently good results in the past, had been frequently 'tested', and
seemed resistant enough to jarring shocks. Even if it is unwise to cease
further checking, it may be that his testimony has enough verity for follow-on
researchers to accept his observations... even if his conclusions ~are~
uncomfortable to the researcher. Smith was a GOOD instrument. His outré
assertions, therefore, are not so easily discarded!
-
- Sure, he might have gone 'crazy'. But that's too quick
a dodge back to the unsettled coward's complacent comfort zone, folks!
Besides, there was no one that thought so ~then~, and no one (with any
intellectual courage!) who thinks so ~now~. It ~remains~, sir and madam,
that he had it on ~excellent~ authority that:
- 1. ...UFOs exist!
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- 2. ...Their modus operandi is unknown, but concentrated
effort is being made by a small group headed by Dr. Vannevar Bush, (Of
'MJ12' fame)!
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- 3. ...The matter of UFOs was the most highly classified
subject in the US -- rating higher than the H-bomb!
-
- 4. ...The entire matter is considered by US authorities
to be of tremendous significance (All Points from a memo to Smith's chief
in November of 1950)!
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- Moreover, there are other quality persons (even if unwilling
to embrace ~all~ the implications and assertions of Mr. Smith), persons
abundantly convinced that there are films, notes, and hardware extant ~enough~
to justify a refined and concerted research into the areas that Smith testified
he'd been made aware of... by aliens from space... not to put too fine
a point on it. Listen to Connors' ~current~ forward thinking compilation
to get an intimation of what Smith may have been trying to tell us... and...
-
- ...Did Wilburt Brockhouse Smith, in 1952 'invent' the
"The Prime Directive" as it's presently understood, that ethical
non-interference code against meddling with an inferior or immature culture?
And if he did... how did he do it? He said he got it from the aliens...
As far as we're concerned (the proof is there) the concept is his and not
Gene Roddenberry's. Did Roddenberry ever hear Smith, or meet him? Nothing
against Gene... with regard to art, the 'good' borrow, and the 'great'
steal. [g]. But, he might owe Smith a credit, at least...
-
- Before this review gets too long I want to mention one
other notable segment on the MP3 disc otherwise PACKED with notable segments!
It is with regard to a Track #16, "The Great Debate: Major Donald
E. Keyhoe of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena,
debating Col. William T. Coleman (former Chief Air Force publicist), USAF
via CBC in 1975... on the existence of UFOs. One can easily predict who
argued which side.
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- Keyhoe, as measured by the attending audience, 'lost'
that debate. ...But ~did~ he!
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- Yes, Keyhoe 'loses' the *straight-up* debate, a skeptibunky
would strut and crow, ~even~ as a sizable majority of the studio audience
remains convinced that UFOs are real ~and~ extraterrestrial at the program's
denouement...
- ...But, a 'Win' or a 'Loss' in a formal debate makes
certain presumptions on the process of its exercise, reader! The presumption
is that both men are forthcoming, have no ulterior axes to grind and are
articulating the truth as they know it. The presumption is that both men
are brave and both are going where the data leads. The presumption is that
they both follow the same efficacious rules and not use technique and verbal
slight of hand to win an honorable contest. The presumption is that the
participants are not ~lying~, flatly, in so far as they know it, and are
not otherwise selling their points or basing their premises on untruth
and obfuscation! It's bona fide "debate"... or it's the United
States Congress. There is no middle ground. This is the presumption!
-
- Given what we now know decades into the future regarding
the verity of Colonel Coleman's support points and his baldly convenient
and institution-serving assessment of them, can those assumptions be made
about Major Keyhoe and his opponent, presently? Who ~really~ won that debate,
truth be known, and how much skeptibunky strutting and crowing is truly
justified? Precious ~little~ this reviewer suspects.
- Listen to the debate yourself contained in Connors' cunning
compilation, and with thirty-plus years of 20/20 hindsight see if ~you~
can determine who was being the most logical and forthcoming, and who employed
logical fallacy and duplicity -- lied (to cut to the chase) to make their
points. Come to your own conclusion.
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- Also on Connors' MP3 disc are companion tracks in support
of the concepts suggested to the rest of us by W. B. Smith. Included are
his son James on a recent interview via "Strange Days Indeed"
out of Toronto. RAdm. Herbert B. Knowles discusses the examination, by
Smith, of a piece of supposed alien hardware. Robert Beck provides testimony
on an ongoing "Project Magnet" (the Canadian saucer hunting effort)
long thought cancelled. Robert Groves discusses the strange theories of
"Quadrature," the new science revealed by Smith in a serious
interview by Earl J. Neff. Lastly, Dr. J. Allen Hynek talks openly during
his interview with a first officer of Canadian Pacific Airlines who describes
his encounter with a UFO. All the tracks have a tendency to raise neck
hair. These were smart and serious people... and THEY thought there was
something to it.
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- Six hours, plus, of very compelling discussion and testimony
await the listener on Connors' stunning compilation. She does not disappoint.
I've listened to a few of the Smith tracks ~more~ than a few times and
drawn something new away, every time. Fascinating stuff? Revealing stuff!
Convincing stuff? Inspiring stuff!
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- Find more information on Wendy Connors' compilations
of solid UFO history... at http://fadeddiscs.com/projmag.html !
-
- Read on!
-
- alienview@adelphia.net
- www.AlienView.net
- ...content to read, content to hear, content to see.....
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