Steve Hudgeons of MUFON on the "Roswell Slides"

Steve Hudgeons is the Director of Investigations for the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), an organization that is not exactly a paragon of skeptical thinking, as can be seen by the fact that it employs the likes of John Ventre and Roger Marsh in leadership positions (where they serve as de facto public spokespersons), and by the organization's involvement in the ridiculous television series Hangar 1. In short, MUFON is an organization that buys into the extraterrestrial hypothesis hook, line and sinker, no matter how much they might claim to pursue a scientific and objective stance when it comes to looking into UFOs. So while Hudegons might be a more reasonable sort than Ventre or Marsh, it's important to remember that in MUFON reasonableness is a sliding scale... it's like marking on the curve. The point is that Hudgeons is a key leader of an organization that is intellectually and institutionally committed to the notion that space aliens have visited Earth, and that a spaceship crashed near Roswell in 1947. He himself adheres to these beliefs. In short, he is part of the key foundational target market for the purveyors of the Roswell "slides".

Which makes what he wrote about the Roswell "slides" in a series of recent posts on the MUFON Facebook page most interesting:

two items red flag me……one it is “blurred" and...it is looking at the camera........
- not the eyes….the head…face....is pointed toward the camera.....that alone is a dead give away that it is fake to me
- you dont TOUCH an alien body…….unless you are well covered
- you dont pose an alien body for a camera……..to photo what you have…as it is....you want a different pose...you move the camera
- humans are not….special………a dead alien is.......you dont move them around
- a dead alien body will be frozen away out of any sunlight
- if you are of the opinion that this is real…..great…tell me why you think so
- if this is real…..great......
- also of note………look at the mouth…….this mouth is open.........all witnesses of Greys say the mouth is a small slit
- can you show me ONE witness that says the Alien they saw was ready to eat a foot long hotdog?
- Im not saying Aliens in general are non existant …I am saying that IMO this photo is fake  

[editor's note - all typos are from the original text]

It is important to note that Hudgeons doesn't say that the slides couldn't represent aliens because there is no evidence that aliens have never visited Earth (which is what a hard-core skeptic might lead off with) - indeed, as is clear from the exchange, he not only believes that aliens have visited Earth, but that they have crashed here, that the government has retrieved their bodies, and that there are procedures and protocols in place for handling those bodies.

In short, here you have a guy who is absolutely committed to the belief that the government is hiding alien bodies from the crash of a spaceship in 1947... and even he doesn't buy the Roswell "slides" story!

For anyone still wondering why the Dream Team hooked up with Jaime Maussan and is taking their dog-and-pony show to Mexico City in May, here is your answer in a nutshell - because they are so far out of the mainstream within pro-ETH, pro-Roswell American ufology that even someone like Steve Hudgeons can see that it's all bogus.

As Bart Simpson would say: "Ay caramba!"

Paul Kimball

Ufology Unplugged - Steven Greer: Disclosure

The second episode of "Ufology Unplugged" consists of a 2001 interview I conducted with Steven Greer, the controversial founder of the Disclosure Project, intermixed with a clip of Greer speaking at the 2001 MUFON Symposium press conference. Greer talks about the disclosure of what he claims is the cover-up of the reality of ET visiting Earth and reverse-engineered free energy that is being withheld from the human race by a secret cabal of government and corporate insiders. 

Paul Kimball

Dr. John Mack - Alien Reality and Humanity

From my video vault - John Mack speaking at the 2001 MUFON Symposium press conference about the media and UFOs, and anthropocentric humanism and how an alien reality would change the way we view ourselves, and the society that we have created. Stan Friedman makes a cameo appearance at the end. 

 Paul Kimball

2001 - Breaking Ufology

The 2001 MUFON Symposium press conference was one of the most surreal things I've seen in the 15 years I've been studying the subculture of ufology. Coming just two months after the Disclosure press conference in Washington of Steven Greer, the press conference at the MUFON Symposium (indeed, the entire symposium), revealed the growing fracture within ufology.

On one side, you had the "old guard" - people like Stanton Friedman, Robert Wood, Barry Downing, Ann Druffel, and Budd Hopkins - who had been researching and talking about UFOs for decades. 

On the other side you had the brash new "revolutionaries," epitomized here by Greer and his cohort Daniel Sheehan. Overtly political, they were willing to go far beyond the simple old flying saucer gospel of the Old Guard by tying the belief that the UFO phenomenon represented extraterrestrial visitation (which is what the Old Guard had been pushing for years) to a determined activist agenda that dealt with a wide range of topics that they saw as related to ET visitation. 

Towards the end of the 2001 MUFON press conference, those tensions / fault lines boiled over, as can be seen in this exchange about the Strategic Defence Initiative between Greer and Sheehan on one side, and an ineffective Druffel on the other. At the end, Hopkins stands up and takes a clear shot at Greer and Sheehan and others like them, to the approval at the end of Friedman (whose body language throughout tells you what he was really thinking about Greer and Sheehan). 

What the Old Guard failed to understand, however, was that the political activism and rampant conspiracism that was being put forward by Greer et al was a natural extension of the things the Old Guard had been talking about for years. In that sense, Greer et al were not a radical departure from traditional ufology, as Hopkins implies - rather, they were the logical result of a world-view that believed (a) aliens were visiting Earth and abducting humans, and (b) that the government was covering it all up. It is why I have called Friedman the Godfather of Exopolitics when I wrote:

Friedman is the de facto Godfather of Exopolitics - in large part, he created the "family" that is modern pro-ET, "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, who have been inspired by him, recognize the logical and inevitable implications of what Friedman has been saying all of these years, and are prepared to act on it, no matter how much he protests.

But while I singled out Stan, it implies to the others as well - Hopkins with his abductions, Wood with his MJ-12 documents, and so forth. If Stan was the Godfather, these other figures were his capos.

For anyone interested in the history of Ufology as a social movement of American society, the 20 minutes in this video are a fascinating look at the year where everything really changed (the 9/11 attacks accelerated the move two months later by fostering even more paranoia and conspiracism), and Disclosure and Exopolitics began their move to become the dominant theme within the subculture.

Paul Kimball

Steven Greer - The Disclosure Project (2001 interview)

My interview of Steven Greer at the 2001 MUFON Symposium in Irvine, California. He discusses the Disclosure Project, government secrecy, abductions, and other topics. I always edit an interview to delete my questions, but I left them in this time because I think watching Greer fidget when someone else is talking is instructive.

On the particular false claim by Greer of his "briefing" of former CIA Director James Woolsey, see Woolsey vs. Greer, which I wrote back in 2005. 

Paul Kimball

UFOs - Skepticism vs. Belief

In 2001 I interviewed skeptic Vaughn Rees from the Center for Inquiry - West for the documentary Stanton T. Friedman is Real. In this clip that didn't make the film, Rees discusses what differentiates skepticism and skeptics from belief and believers, and why some people believe that UFOs are extraterrestrial visitors.

Paul Kimball

2001 MUFON Symposium Press Conference - Excerpt

An excerpt from the press conference for the 2001 MUFON Symposium in Irvine, California that I shot while filming the documentary Stanton T. Friedman is Real. Appearing in the clip are John Schuessler, Rev. Barry Downing, Dr. Robert Wood, Daniel Sheehan, Stan Friedman, the late Budd Hopkins, the late Bob Pratt, Ann Druffel, and the late Dr. Roger Leir. Unfortunately, our camera was not able to pick up the three other people on the panel - Ryan Wood, Joe McMoneagle, and the late Dr. John Mack.

Paul Kimball

Steven Greer on the origins of the Disclosure Movement (2001)

Here is an excerpt from Steven Greer's lecture at the 2001 MUFON Symposium, wherein he talks about how the "Disclosure movement" got started. Recorded while filming my documentary Stanton T. Friedman is Real.

Paul Kimball

Rev. Barry Downing - Religion, Science and UFOs

Rev. Barry Downing, author of The Bible and Flying Saucers, discusses the difference between scientific and religious perspectives towards the UFO phenomenon in this excerpt from his lecture at the 2001 MUFON Symposium in Irvine, California, that I filmed while shooting the documentary Stanton T. Friedman is Real. 

 Paul Kimball

Rev. Barry Downing - UFOs: Angelic or Demonic?

A brief excerpt from the Q & A session of Rev. Barry Downing's 2001 lecture at the MUFON Symposium in Irvine, California (I was there shooting Stanton T. Friedman is Real), wherein he talks about the nature of the UFO phenomenon, and whether it is good or evil... angelic or demonic... or something else entirely.

Paul Kimball

James Carrion - A High Tolerance For Ambiguity

James Carrion is the former International Director of the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON). He left that position in 2010 amidst a swirl of controversy revolving around the organization's relationship with Robert Bigelow, a deal that Carrion was instrumental in setting up.

In this episode of The Other Side of Truth podcast, Carrion joins me to discuss his background, his work with MUFON, the Bigelow brouhaha, what he discovered about the famous Skinwalker Ranch case, and what he believes is the key relationship between UFO groups and the various intelligence agencies.

Paul Kimball

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James Carrion coming to The Other Side of Truth

A programming note: I'll be interviewing James Carrion, the former International Director of MUFON, for The Other Side of Truth podcast on February 15th, to be aired on the 16th. We'll be talking about the current brouhaha at MUFON, of course, but we'll be concentrating on something of far more interest and importance, namely the relationship between the various intelligence agencies and the civilian groups and Internet forums devoted to the UFO subject. For some background information, check out James' most recent blog post, How To Take Down a UFO Organization 101.

If you have any questions you want me to ask James, feel free to leave them as a comment. No promises, but I'll see what I can do.

Paul Kimball

Vaughn Rees - The Skeptic Strikes Back

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This is a sequence of excerpts from an interview I conducted with skeptic Vaughn Rees of the Center for Inquiry - West in 2001 at the MUFON Symposium in Irvine, California, for the documentary Stanton T. Friedman is Real. While I wanted to talk to Vaughn about Stan in particular, we also touched upon a wide range of subjects, including Steven Greer and his Disclosure Movement, the Billy Meier hoax (Rees had a long-running battle with the Meier-ites and Michael Horn in the early 2000s), the nature of skepticism and science, the problems with UFO research, and why people still believe in the paranormal. Unlike past episodes in this series from the 2001 interviews for Stanton T. Friedman is Real, there are no contemporary introductory comments by me - instead, I’ve left some of my questions recorded nine years ago during the interview in the episode.

Paul Kimball