|
|
Post by swamprat on Oct 27, 2018 23:44:34 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by swamprat on Oct 27, 2018 23:46:35 GMT
And here is DeVoid's reaction to the Rojas-Knapp interview:
Thanks for nothing, Satan
By Billy Cox Thursday, Oct 25, 2018 10:59 AM
If you’re just now crawling out of your Y2K Armageddon-survival hole and you’re coming into this TTSA/AATIP/AWSAP/NIDS/BAASS thing late, the transcript of a conversation between Open Minds podcast host Alejandro Rojas and KLAS-TV investigative reporter George Knapp will catch you up. But while the caravan moves on – To The Stars Academy’s financial statements are sparking legitimate debate over the organization’s viability and ethics – I’m still staring at another gorilla in the room that’s kinda making my skin crawl.
Since cranking up in 2007, De Void has attempted to adhere narrowly to UFO matters, and to frame those developments within the context of media, politics, and popular culture. By narrowly, I mean I’ve tried to steer clear of the more subjective twists, abductions, animal mutilations, reptoids and Sirians, the stuff that seemed at best tangential and, at worst, counterproductive for drawing more mainstream curiosity into the mystery. Clearly, something weird is happening in our skies, and at times those displays of apparent hyper-advanced technology have been downright garish. So yeah, the fewer Twilight Zone distractions, the better.
But if Knapp’s information is accurate – and he’s got a pretty good track record for sourcing – what initially moved the Defense Intelligence Agency to take an official look at the phenomenon weren’t the uninvited intruders overhead. The origin of the DIA’s headlines-making Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program is an “X-Files”-style orgy of weirdness on the ground — at a remote, 480-acre tract in northeast Utah known now as Skinwalker Ranch.
The story broke big in 2005 with the publication of Hunt for the Skinwalker, which Knapp co-authored with researcher Colm Kelleher. The narrative got another spur to the flanks with the late-summer release of Jeremy Corbell’s two-hour documentary by the same name. And now, well, dude, my cup runneth over, because UFOs aren’t the half of it. Start with Native American lore on shapeshifters, throw in some poltergeist mischief, add bullet-proof dire wolves, and look over yonder in the trees, there’s something up there using “Predator”-like camouflage. Oh, and down at the bottom of a ridge, there’s a mid-air portal opening with some big humanoid extracting itself from another dimension. And there are cattle mutilations, Bigfoot (of course), and next thing you know, circa 2007, you’ve got a DIA operator snooping around the property. Like, right out of a Chris Carter script. A “very serious, rock solid, brilliant guy,” adds Knapp, who continues to withhold the agent’s identity.
So it’s this DIA guy who contacts then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who in turn meets with DIA officials, who in turn ask for federal funds to check this stuff out. And 10 years later, you’ve got the NY Times with a front-page splash on AATIP and F-18 footage of UFOs. Only, there’s no mention of this Skinwalker business. Days later, the since-retired Reid tells Knapp on camera AATIP was killed in part because of “the religious views of people” at the top of the intelligence community.
Knapp is less euphemistic. He tells Rojas the official inquiry was terminated on account of “fundamentalist Christians who think that anything involving UFOs and the paranormal is satanic, that by studying it we invite Satan into this world.”
And this is where De Void turns a whiter shade of pale. Many who’ve investigated the Skinwalker scenario describe it as a sentient, manipulative and fully conscious “trickster,” a label that leads us not into the development of novel hardware to pursue new physics, but which instead drags us back into the primordial swamps of religion. Have you been paying attention to this?
A week after the Times broke the AATIP story, one of its columnists – Ross Douthat, whose politics are largely informed by his Catholic faith – took note and blew it off. “(A)lien encounters, whether real or imaginary [are] the same kind of thing as the fairy encounters of the human past.” However … the guy was a little concerned about what all this publicity might portend, like what happens if sustained interest in UFOs begets a new religion. Without referring to the trickster phenomenon that hooked the DIA, and maybe without even being aware that Skinwalker theatrics were what initially prompted the Agency to check it out, Douthat wrote that God emerges “honestly, straightforwardly, in a vulnerable and fully human form – and exposes himself publicly, whether in a crowded stable or on an execution hill.” In other words, he concluded, God “does not play tricks.”
OK. So we know Skinwalker Ranch has nothing to do with God. But just how high up the Defense Department chain does this fixation go? And how pervasive is it at the Pentagon? The Good v. Evil scenario is ancient, but given the publicity generated by the AATIP revelations over the past year, it’d be a mistake to underestimate institutional resistance to a wide open, unbiased discussion.
In 2015, Christian scholar and best-selling author Timothy Dailey published a sprawling body of thought called The Paranormal Conspiracy: The Truth About Ghosts, Aliens, and Mysterious Beings. In July, American Family Radio host Janet Mefferd had Dailey on her show and asked, “What could possibly be the reason the devil might be motivated to make an appearance, even if it’s a UFO or an alien that somebody sees, why would the devil do this?”
“It’s part of the devil’s modus operandi,” Dailey responded without hesitation. “He has always used this kind of phenomenon to, once again, destabilize, to engender fear and open us up to the possibilities of other realities and other beings, and then we begin getting involved with demonic spirits.
“So yeah, all through history there have been many, many different varieties of beings that are primarily spiritual beings that have terrorized civilizations and peoples, and non-Christian cultures are very aware of this.”
In January, just weeks after the Times story, Creationism evangelist Gary Bates, author of Alien Intrusion: UFOs and The Evolution Connection, released a film called “Alien Intrusion: Unmasking a Deception.” I’ve seen only the trailer, but I personally know one of its subjects, who insists UFO abductions can be foiled if the victims are smart enough to appeal to Jesus for help. Clearly, you wouldn’t need Jesus’ help if aliens wore white hats.
In March, on a Creation Magazine Live! vlog sponsored by Christian Ministries International, the hosts discount the possibility of extraterrestrial intelligence altogether because, as Richard Fangrad says, “Christ is not going to be a polygamist with many brides from other planets.” Adds cohort Matt Bondy, “It’s understanding the big picture message of the Bible and the gospel message that enables us to conclude why the Bible doesn’t mention extraterrestrials – and, uh, it’s because there aren’t any.”
Which means whatever’s behind those UFOs, or Skinwalker Ranch, or Bigfoot, can only be … well … uh …
Again, variations of this controversy are as old as language. The difference now, if we believe the hearsay, is that important members of the intelligence community have defunded research into UFOs because of their religious convictions. And Skinwalker Ranch, with its shapeshifters and exsanguinated bovine cadavers, sure as hell isn’t making things easier.
Worse, I can’t shake this image of a polygamist with many brides from other planets, like something out of the bar-scene freak show on Tatooine. I mean, it’s flat-out lodged in my brain.
devoid.blogs.heraldtribune.com/author/cox/
|
|
