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

Ufology... Unplugged - Pilot Episode

Feature films are my thing now, and I really enjoy it (my two latest films just screened at the Atlantic Film Festival last month to a great reaction and after a couple minor tweaks we'll have done by early November they'll be headed out to the broader festival circuit), but a small part of me remains fascinated by the subculture of Ufology. Fortunately, I've got hundreds of hours of interview footage that I accumulated over my years making documentaries, and I have some free time, so... behold - Ufology... Unplugged! A project I've been meaning to get to for some time. 

In the pilot episode I pull excerpts from two separate interviews with Stan Friedman. The first was in September, 2001 - Stan discusses his thoughts on Steven Greer and the Disclosure Project, which was the "big thing" in ufology at the time (and one could argue that it still is). In the second, which was conducted in 2003, Stan talks about his relationship with his former research partner William Moore.

Lots of interesting nuggets in here, but there are three that stand out for me. The first is Stan's line in the Greer interview that "I think that there should be plenty of secrets in the world," which might come as a surprise to some (particularly the forcefulness with which he delivers it here),. Second are his remarks about his disagreements with Moore about UFO Cover-Up Live and the failure of Moore to honour his commitments to people who ordered things from him via mail. Both point to Moore's intrinsic dishonesty (as does Stan's admission that Moore could be "tricky"), and yet he continues to maintain, in the face of everything we know about Moore and Doty, that the MJ-12 documents are bona fide because Moore could not have faked them. Finally, Stan offers a firm denial of the charge leveled against him over the years by Karl Pflock, Kevin Randle, and Brad Sparks, that Stan had discussed the prospect of faking documents with Moore and Shandera.

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

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

The Mount Rushmore of Ufology

At the UFO Updates Facebook page, Alex Sarmiento posed the following question yesterday:

"The Mount Rushmore of ufology would consist of...?"

I suppose it depends on how you view "ufology." Should it be the most popular figures in the history of ufology? The most significant in terms of actual research? The craziest? A combination of all three?

I guess we should look at the real Mount Rushmore. Sculptor Gutzon Borglum chose Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt largely for their role in preserving the United States and expanding its territory. If we were to apply that rationale to ufology, then I think the choices become obvious, at least to me.

1. Donald E. Keyhoe - The man who more or less started it all.

2. George Adamski - The most recognizable of the Contactees; the undercurrents of his influence can still be felt.

3. Stanton Friedman - The most prolific UFO showman ever, and the man who brought the Roswell incident to the fore and then became its public face.

4. Steven Greer - His Disclosure Project and subsequent Exopolitics movement have changed the subculture of ufology.

One can trace a direct line in terms of development between the conspiracy-minded Keyhoe to the even more conspiracy-minded Greer, and include Adamski and Friedman along the way.

That would be my Mount Rushmore of ufology, for good and ill. What about yours?

Paul Kimball

Karl Pflock - Inconvenient Facts and the Will to Believe (Part II)

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Part two of my interview with Karl Pflock from September, 2001, wherein we discuss ufology, Steven Greer's "disclosure project", and then Karl's views on the Roswell incident, in particular the GAO and USAF explanations for what happened. At the end, Karl offers his view of why he was convinced that extraterrtestrials had visited Earth, despite the fact that he was equally convinced there was a terrestrial explanation for Roswell.

Karl was one of those rare people who take a public interest in the UFO phenomenon and have the intellect, real-world accomplishment, and commitment to the truth to make a positive contribution. Amidst all of the noise, he was a signal.

Paul Kimball

Kevin Randle - Improving Ufology

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In this excerpt from an interview I conducted with Kevin Randle on 9 September, 2001, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for the documentary Stanton T. Friedman is Real, Kevin discusses frauds within ufology, Steven Greer (whose “disclosure movement” was still relatively new at the time), relations with the media, and whether or not UFO researchers will ever be able to find common cause with each other and present a unified front.

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