Mac Tonnies Tribute Night!

Nick Redfern, Greg Bishop, Patrick Huyghe and yours truly will be on The Paracast this evening from 10 pm to Midnight AST, remembering our friend Mac Tonnies with hosts Gene Steinberg and David Biedny. After the show is over, head on over to Radio Misterioso, where Greg, Nick and I will be continuing the discussion, and where you'll be able to call in and share your own remembrances of Mac.

Paul Kimball

Celebrating Mac Tonnies

This week on the Paracast, Nick Redfern, Greg Bishop, Patrick Huyghe and I join hosts Gene Steinberg and David Biedny to celebrate the life and work of our good friend, Mac Tonnies, who passed away last week. Don't miss it!

Paul Kimball

Ghost Cases - Episode II

So that folks outside of eastern Canada - where the show airs on Eastlink TV - can see what Ghost Cases is about, I've posted the most recent episode, which premiered on Sunday, October 25th, on YouTube.

In this episode, we worked with a psychic, so there isn't a lot of the "tech" stuff. Other episodes are more "tech" oriented. Our approach was to be willing to try anything, because frankly there is no real science to "ghost investigation" and we shouldn't automatically close the door on the possibility that more esoteric methods might provide some insight.

Paul Kimball

Paul Kimball on Atlantic Filmmakers - Part II

Paul Kimball on Atlantic Filmmakers, Part I

Part I of my appearance on Atlantic Filmmakers on October 25, 2009 on Eastlink TV. I discuss our television series Ghost Cases, my feature film Eternal Kiss, the paranormal, the Atlantic Film Festival, and all sorts of other stuff with host Scott Squires.

Mac Tonnies: The Ancients Are Watching

Kudos to Greg Taylor of the Daily Grail for posting this article by Mac Tonnies, one of his last.

The Ancients Are Watching.

Paul Kimball

Mac Tonnies Remembered

Remembering Mac Tonnies, Vol. II

Greg Bishop, Mac and I at our best, from May 21, 2006.

Radio Misterioso.

An excerpt:



Paul Kimball

Remembering Mac Tonnies, Vol. I

I wanted to end Best Evidence with a statement from someone who represented the future of UFO research and thinking. There was no one more appropriate than Mac, who was the best of the new generation of forteans.

Paul Kimball

Mac Tonnies passes away...

My dear friend, Mac Tonnies, has passed away.

There is so much I could say. There is so much I will say in the days to come. But for the moment, all I can say is that one of the many, many things Mac and I shared in common - and something which our mutual pal Nick Redfern, from whom I heard this terrible news, always teased us about - was our devotion to the Smiths. The following was a favourite for both Mac and I...



The last time Mac was in Halifax, shooting some interview segments for a documentary produced by another company here, he and I went out one night for a short drive that turned into a three hour marathon drive to nowhere, as we listened to the Smiths and talked about life, and the universe, and UFOs, and all the others things that you talk about with best friends. About thirty kilometres outside of Halifax, I noticed that the light on the gas gauge had gone on, meaning I was running low. Out in the rural area where we were, at that time of night, there were no service stations open. I told Mac I thought we had enough to get back to town, but then I added, mischievously, that I wasn't sure, and we might have to hoof it, in November. He just looked at me, said "figures that the first time I ever 'ran out of gas' with someone it would be with you on a dark, lonely road in Nova Scotia." We both had a good laugh!


In the days and weeks to come, those are the good memories that I will cherish, and share here.

Mac's light, which burned brightly, but for far too short a time, will never go out.

R.I.P. Mac.

Paul Kimball

Book of Thoth podcast interview

	Jeremy Vaeni - Book Of Thoth Ep. 2- Paul Kimball
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

An interview I did a couple of years ago for the Book of Thoth podcast.

Paul Kimball

Ghost Cases - episode 1 excerpt

This is an excerpt from the first episode of Ghost Cases, aired on Eastlink TV in Canada on 18 October, 2009. In this episode, hosts Paul Kimball and Holly Stevens investigate stories of hauntings in the old court house and jail in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada.

Paul Kimball

Department 47 reviews Ghost Cases

A review of Ghost Cases, from an advance screener I sent to Joe Harvat at Department 47.

Paul was good enough to forward me an advance copy of Episode Two of Ghost Cases. I had the chance to watch it Friday night and I have to tell you I really enjoyed it.

Ghost Cases takes a little different approach from what you might be used to on Ghost Hunters. In this particular episode, Paul and Holly visited a rural farm house in which seemingly paranormal activity was making life pretty uncomfortable for its living occupants. I felt Paul and Holly took the time to tell you a little more about what these people were experiencing and how it affected their lives. Like in most UFO cases, the only concrete thing we usually have is the witnesses, and understanding them may give us our best clue to understanding the phenomenon. You also get to know a bit more about the hunters too. You understand that Paul and Holly are just normal people with normal fears and foibles who just happened to be engaged in an unusual activity.

Ghost Cases is not so technology-centric as Ghost Hunters. For example, they are assisted by a psychic in this case - something I believe that Ghost Hunters used to do but abandoned for a more science-based approach. I would certainly like to see a follow-up to the case to see whether the psychic's efforts had any real or lasting effect on the manifestations there.

As a former TV guy, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that the production values and videography were quite good - at some points rather artistic. They kept a few miscues in it (people sometimes at a momentary loss for words and such). I liked that. It gave it more of a sense of reality - in stressful situations, sometimes you do struggle for words.

I hope they pick up the show down here. I think it would be a thoughtful counter-point to some of the overwrought shows we get in the States.

Thanks Joe - glad you like it!

Paul Kimball

Ghost Cases - commercial teaser #1

The first commercial teaser for Ghost Cases, which premieres on Eastlink TV on October 18th, 8 pm.

Paul Kimball

Ghost Cases - opening title sequence

Tune into Eastlink TV on October 18, 2009, at 8 pm to see the premiere episode!

Paul Kimball

Eternal Kiss previewed on Eastlink TV

What have I been up to besides Ghost Cases?

The Coolest ghost hunters!

There's simply no question - Holly and I are the coolest ghost investigators out there.

Paul Kimball

Ghost Cases at the 2009 Atlantic Film Festival

Holly Stevens and I interviewed last night, on the red carpet at the 2009 Atlantic Film Festival opening gala at the Halifax Metro Centre, about our upcoming television series Ghost Cases, which will begin airing on October 18, 2009 on Eastlink TV in Canada, and which has international distribution through Breakthrough Entertainment.

The clip from Ghost Cases that they aired was from a rough cut of the first episode, as the series is still in post-production.

Paul Kimball

The perils posed by consipracists

There is an excellent op-ed piece in this week's Economist about the perils of believing in conspiracies under every rock.

An excerpt:

Belief in conspiracy theories can be comforting. If everything that goes wrong is the fault of a secret cabal, that relieves you of the tedious necessity of trying to understand how a complex world really works. And you can feel smug that you are smart enough to “see through” the official version of events.

You can read the entire article here.

Of course there are actual conspiracies, and always have been, but the Economist is quite correct when it warns that conspiratorial fantasy can have dangerous real-world consequences, from Timothy McVeigh to Adolf Hitler (and, I might add, some well known UFO cults too).

Those who believe in a particular conspiracy have the burden of proof of showing that their belief is backed up by the facts. In some cases, usually tied to more mundane matters of the real world, that is not only possible, but has been done. Accordingly, one can't just casually dismiss all claims of conspiracy, particularly in the private sector where oversight is less stringent, and where the profit motive can be a powerful motivator for greedy people to cross the boundaries of ethical behaviour, and then hide their malfeasance.

But those people who believe in vast, government-sponsored conspiracies, whether it's the Cosmic Watergate, or 9/11 "truthers", or anti-Obama "birthers", represent a different type altogether - they are predisposed to believe in almost any and all conspiracies, and should be viewed with extreme caution. People like this should be challenged at every turn to prove that what they say is true beyond any reasonable doubt.

In my experience, they usually don't even come close.

Paul Kimball

Best Evidence - The Rendlesham UFO case

Here is the segment from my film, Best Evidence: Top 10 UFO Sightings, which profiles the 1980 Rendlesham UFO case.



What happened at Rendlesham almost three decades ago? Some people are convinced that it was an encounter with aliens from outer space. Others maintain that it was a psychological warfare exercise. And a few, against all evidence to the contrary, still argue that nothing much happened at all, except for some over-excited American military personnel letting their imaginations run wild.

I don't know what the answer is - I just know that, for me at least, the explanation has nothing to do with misidentified lighthouses and excessive partying, or a practical joke. People took it seriously back then, and the case should continue to be taken seriously now, as one of the best, and still unexplained, UFO encounters in human history. That doesn't mean that Colonel Halt and his men met aliens from Zeta Reticuli, or anywhere else, but I think it's pretty clear that something out of the oridinary happened to them, and that there has been no definitive answer offered for what it was that fits all of the facts of the case.

That kind of stance angers alien believers and disbelievers alike - which is usually a pretty good sign that it's the proper way to look at things.

Paul Kimball

Ghosts on the X-Zone

I'll be on the X-Zone radio show with Rob McConnell this evening, 1 to 2 am AST (Midnight to 1 am EST). We'll be talking about ghosts, and the upcoming series Ghost Cases, which Holly Stevens and I just finished shooting, as well as UFOs I'm sure.

Paul Kimball

Dick Hall passes away...

This is a sad day for me. Earlier, I received news that my good friend, Dick Hall, had passed away from cancer. Dick was a man whom I greatly respected, both as a person and as a serious UFO researcher. Indeed, when I was interviewed by Stuart Miller for UFO Review #17 a couple of years ago, Stuart, tongue firmly planted in cheek, chose as the title for the story: "I Like Dick".

Dick was an icon of serious UFO research, from his days with NICAP to his seminal works, The UFO Evidence, Vols. I and II. He was a rare voice of reason in a field full of charlatans, huxters, and died-in-the-wool true believers.

Dick had grown increasingly disenchanted with the UFO research community in recent years, and I don't blame him. In his heyday, he knew men like J. Allen Hynek, and James McDonald - now UFO research is the domain primarily of people like Steven Greer, and Steven Bassett. The likes of Dick Hall are few and far between these days, and UFO research is worse off because of it.

Dick hated UFO documentaries, and usually refused requests to be interviewed, so I was honoured when he agreed to be interviewed for my last UFO film, Best Evidence: Top 10 UFO Sightings. One or two of his clips made it into the film, but the rest remains in my tape archives - one of these days I'll make the time to edit it together and put it up on YouTube, so people can see and hear a real UFO researcher. Here is an outtake from Best Evidence that includes a clip of Dick talking about the Malmstrom missile base case:



The last few years were not kind to Dick, who was a victim of the financial disasters wrought by the Bush administration. Driven into poverty, he was forced to sell many of his prized UFO-related possessions. I was shocked when I went to interview him in Washington, D.C., to see the conditions in which he lived. I never pay interviewees, but I made sure Dick was an exception (we called it a "consulting fee").

Dick Hall was a giant in the world of serious UFO reseach, but more important than that, he was an honourable and decent person in a world with far too few such people. He will be sorely missed, even as his work lives on, and continues to inspire those of us who think there is something interesting about the UFO enigma, and that it's worth studying seriously.

Rest in peace, Dick.

Paul Kimball

The Paranormal Rat Pack

A couple of years ago I developed a paranormal talk show for television. I shelved it when other projects took off, but I never forgot about it. A little while ago, I dusted it off, and it will be headed into production in November. Joining me on the panel for all thirteen episodes will be my good friends, all card-carrying members of the paranormal Rat Pack, Mac Tonnies, Greg Bishop and Nick Redfern. We'll be discussing a wide range of paranormal topics, from UFOs to bigfoot, ghosts to remote viewing, and so forth. Each episode will be one hour in length.

Redstar is co-producing the series with my friend Chuck Calder and 45 North here in Halifax. More details will be available as the summer and fall progress, but here's another one I can provide now: the title.

The Other Side of Truth.

Naturally!

Paul Kimball

Play Ball!

It's esoteric all-star time over at Binnall of America, as Tim hits the field with his annual baseball extravaganza. This year Greg Bishop, Loren Coleman, Rich Dolan, Adam Gorightly and yours truly join Tim in a 3 hour discussion about the greatest of all sports, baseball. Each segment offers something different - in mine, I discuss a "new world order" for professional baseball. You can catch all the action here. Play ball !!

For the record, I have the Cubs taking the World Series in six over the White Sox.

Paul Kimball

The Myth of the ETH as ETFact

The last column I wrote for Alien Worlds before it folded.

Paul Kimball

Above and Beyond
The Myth of the ETH as ETFact

Of all the non-terrestrial theories that have been offered to explain the UFO phenomenon, the extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH) has always seemed the most plausible one to me. I don't think it's been proved, but I think it's a better bet than the others on offer when one looks at the evidence, and the science.

The evidence seems to indicate that at least some UFO cases represent a non-human intelligence at work. The science now tells us that there are almost certainly other intelligent beings in the galaxy, and if they are more advanced than us, there's a reasonably good chance that they could make their way here.

However, it’s critical to remember that the key letter in ETH is the "H" - it's still just a hypothesis, and anyone who tells you that they can prove that aliens have visited Earth beyond a reasonable doubt, or even on the balance of probabilities, is putting the cart well before the horse.

Beyond that, however, I think the biggest problem with the ETH supporters within ufology is that they're so... "limited" in their outlook. They are convinced that aliens have visited Earth, and in many cases they are convinced that they are still visiting Earth, and interacting with humans in all sorts of ways, some good and some bad. They are of the "nuts and bolts" school of thought, i.e. Joe Alien made his way to Earth in a flying saucer, in much the same way that Captain Kirk and all of our other science fiction icons make their way about the galaxy.

This is what I call "Keyhoe-ian" ufology, because it is based directly on the way of thinking that Major Donald Keyhoe first put forward in the 1950s. It is out-of-date, and badly out-of-touch with modern science. It presumes that aliens are only a few decades, or maybe one or two hundred years or so more advanced than us, which is highly unlikely. It presumes that the aliens are preoccupied with us, and that we are somehow important to them, which is also highly unlikely. In short, it is a point of view that is based on what people who grew up in the pioneering days of sci-fi and the space race expect of their aliens, and not the point-of-view that modern physicists and astrobiologists take.

The pro-ETH as ETFact stance of people like Keyhoe and his successors, the most prominent of which has been the flying saucer physicist, Stanton Friedman, is a relic of a different time and place, which is ironic when one considers that these people often criticize scientists for not being open-minded about the UFO phenomenon, and for being stuck in the past.

If aliens are here, it is probable that they are far more advanced than we are, by an order of thousands of years, not hundreds. We would be to them as ants are to us - beneath their notice. This might well explain the inherent weirdness of many UFO sightings - things that appear to us almost as magic, or something that in a different era would have been framed in religious terms. As physicist Michio Kaku has noted, there may well be a galactic conversation going on, but in a "language" that we are thousands of years from being able to truly comprehend.

Of course, ETFact ufologists would quickly point out that there are at least a few humans who do indeed study ants - entomologists, which is true enough. But for them I have the following question: How many entomologists spend 60 years - or longer, if you are a proponent of the notion that ET has been coming here for centuries - studying the exact same ant hill?

That idea strikes me as ridiculous. It's a desperate attempt to force fit our own way of thinking onto potential life forms that would be far more advanced than we are - and they would have to be much more advanced in order to get here from there (ignore someone like Friedman, who will try to tell you about how it's actually relatively easy to get to our local galactic neighbours, if only we would try harder, and spend more money).

Again, I'm not saying that the ETH isn't a good hypothesis... indeed, as I noted before, I think it's the most plausible one amongst the various paranormal hypotheses on offer. It's the claim by nuts-and-bolts ufologists like Friedman and Keyhoe - and hucksters like Billy Meier - that ET is making his way here aboard flying saucers and acting like we do that I take issue with, because that contention is far more science fiction than science fact.

ETFacters Friedman and Keyhoe who try to convince you that aliens are basically just like us are no different from religious fundamentalists who portray God as a kindly, white-haired anglo saxon. Such portrayals tell you a great deal about the people who put those images and beliefs forward, but absolutely nothing about the possible entity or entities under discussion. The ETFacters are flying saucer fundamentalists, and in their own way they have done as much damage to the serious scientific study of the UFO phenomenon as people like Dr. Edward Condon, Dr. Donald Menzel, or Philip J. Klass.

By focusing on the idea that little green / grey men have been coming here in nuts and bolts spaceships, ETFacters have done a grave disservice to the search for truth about the UFO phenomenon, and its possible alien origins, in the same way that thousands of years of religious leaders have undermined the search for the true nature of God by force-fitting it into a limited paradigm that simply served to reinforce their own worldview. They have not sought wisdom, nor understanding - they have simply proclaimed an "answer" which has been no answer at all.

The reductionist approach that has been adopted by the ETFacters, which seeks to make potential alien life over unto our own image, lacks vision. It is more concerned with what they see as the destination, and their need to get there now, when what we should really be focusing on is the journey, and the wonders we may discover along the way. That's the real signal in all of this. Everything else is just noise.

The worst thing about all of this, however, is the hypocrisy that you find with many of the supposedly more serious members of the “ETFact group”. They are convinced that aliens are here, and interacting with humanity, but they are vocal critics of “exopolitics”, which simply takes the ETFact position to its logical conclusion.
Exopolitics, according to Dr. Michael Salla, one of its best known proponents, is:
“is the study of the key individuals, political institutions and processes associated with extraterrestrial life... exopolitics focus[es] on the political implications of an extraterrestrial presence known to clandestine quasi-governmental entities that keep knowledge of this presence secret from the general public, elected political officials & even senior military officials. The supporting evidence is overwhelming in scope and shows that decision making is restricted on a strict 'need to know' basis.”

Take the word "exopolitics" out of the equation, and that sounds like something Friedman would say. Indeed, if you've heard Friedman speak as many times as I have, you'll note the similarity in the main themes - aliens are here, government is covering up the knowledge of that fact, and we the people have a right to know the truth. At Salla's website for his "exopols courses", he even uses the motto "preparing for our cosmic graduation", which directly echoes Friedman's decades-old mantra that perhaps someday we will be ready to qualify for the cosmic kindergarten.

Friedman's biggest issue with exopolitics, at least in public, seems to be the fact that they are not terribly fussy about vetting their so-called witnesses and whistleblowers. In that respect, he's quite right. However, as more than one exopol has pointed out to me, Friedman has a history of touting his own very flawed witnesses (Gerald Anderson pops to mind right off the bat, followed closely by Glenn Dennis), and cases (Aztec, Flatwoods, flying saucer air wars in the 1950s, perhaps even Roswell).

Frankly, while I disagree with the very premise that underlies the exopolitical belief system (that at least some UFOs have been proved to be alien spacecraft), the more I think about it, the more I find the exopols to be more intellectually honest than people like Friedman, who agree with them on the big picture, but have done little or nothing to try and effect actual political change. The exopols have it right - if you believe aliens are here, and the government is covering it up, then that is a political issue of the highest order, and no longer a scientific one.

Friedman is the de facto Godfathers of Exopolitics - in large part, he created the "family" that is modern ETFact, "Cosmic Watergate" ufology, but like Vito Corleone, he is incapable of taking what he has created and moving it into its next logical phase. Indeed, like the Don, it is a phase that he wants nothing to do with, even as others around him, whom he has inspired, recognize the logical and inevitable implications of what he has been saying all of these years, and are prepared to act on it, no matter how much he protests.

The real scandal, however, is that Friedman, like other serious ETFacters, employs a double standard with absolutely no sense of irony when they run into people who question their position. Anyone they favour who is subjected to critical examination is a victim of “character assassination”, while people the ETFacters don't like, or whom they don't support, like Bob Lazar, or Philip Corso, or even Dr. J. Allen Hynek, are fair game (in Friedman’s universe, Hynek is "an apologist ufologist"). When you mention Dr. Jacques Vallee to them, they become even more desperate in their attacks. Anything that threatens to undermine the belief system they have constructed results in the ufological equivalent of the Spanish Inquisition.

People looking for the real scientific approach to the UFO phenomenon, the kind that was championed over the years by Hynek, Vallee, and Dr. James McDonald, should look elsewhere. Why? Because Hynek, McDonald and Vallee left us with myriad case investigations, new theories and ways of looking at the UFO phenomenon, sighting classification systems, and other important legacies. Even people like Friedman’s old classmate, Dr. Carl Sagan, left us with a sense of wonder about the prospect of ET life, even though he was no proponent of the ETH. On the other side, the ETFacters have left us with Roswell, MJ-12, Aztec, tales of massive flying saucer wars between the USAF and UFOs, and other stories that belong in a science fiction anthology, not a serious discussion of what the UFO phenomenon might or might not represent.

The shame is that someone like Friedman could have done so much more – if only he, like his ETFact fellow travelers, had not let their will to believe overwhelm their critical faculties. Those people who want the old time flying saucer / conspiracy gospel will feel right at home with them, because what they offer is comfortable, and provides a sense of continuity and familiarity, and even fraternity. What it does not offer, however, is an honest search for the truth about the UFO phenomenon.

It never did.