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January 31, 2016 — Alejandro Rojas


Gene Steinberg

Forum Super Hero
Staff member
As always, Alejandro Rojas, of OpenMinds, is smart, engaged and always interesting.

On this episode we talked about the 2016 International UFO Congress near Phoenix, where such luminaries as Dr. Jacque Vallee are slated to appear.

We also discussed the state of the UFO field — and what Alejandro might do in the unlikely event he became director of MUFON.

We have more to talk about during this week's episode of After The Paracast, an exclusive feature of The Paracast +: Introducing The Paracast+ | The Paracast — The Gold Standard of Paranormal Radio
 
I agree with Alejandro regarding the basic competence and reliability of the American press, especially TV reporters. We need to get past the conspiracy theories. The idea that the mainstream media is "manipulated" in any way or "guided" by a hidden hand is just silly.

 
Alejandro is fast becoming a legend of the field. Love his integrity and dedication. I wish I lived closer to where the next convention is so I could attend.

Any plans to arrange any conferences in the UK Alejandro?
 
In the Feb 21 After The Paracast Chris talked some about being at the UFO Congress. After spending the day there Saturday, I thought I’d tell a bit of what it was like. In past years, living in Phoenix, I would drop in for a few sessions, then have to rush off for something. This time I had a chance to spend a full relaxed day there.

The conference is held in a very attractive resort in the desert hills outside Phoenix. While there someone mentioned to me that the conference had sold out the hotel and attendees were being shuttled in from other hotels. This led to some speculation that the conference might be moved to a larger hotel in the future.

The weather was great. It was kind of a trip sitting outside, having lunch, enjoying the weather and seeing Jacques Vallee, Douglas Trumbell, Lee Speigel and Marc D’Antonio at the table next to you. All of the speakers are accessible, particularly in the vendor room. After walking to the vendor room and passing Nick Pope and David Jacobs in the hall, it was interesting to walk in and see situated around the room Stanton Friedman, Kathleen Marden, Jacques Vallee, Lee Speigel, Ben Hanson, Alejandro Rojas, David Hatcher Childress, Chris O’Brien, Travis Walton, Randall Nickerson, Luigi Vendittelli and Emily Trim (one of the Ariel School student witnesses), all available to chat with. Of the five lectures presented on Saturday, the two that stood out to me personally were Lee Speigel’s interview of Dr Jacques Vallee and a presentation on the Zimbabwe Ariel School encounter featuring witness Emily Trim.

The Vallee session began with a discussion of the work Speigel and Vallee did to bring the topic of UFOs before the United Nations in 1978. Vallee then went on to discuss his recent research into UFO reports prior to the late 19th century. Vallee emphasized that he was not looking at legends but at contemporaneously recorded reports where witnesses, dates, times and locations are identified, such as in ship’s logs. The 76 year old Vallee then described the UFO sighting, of an inverted metalic-looking spoon-shaped object, that he and his mother had when he was 15 in France. The interview concluded with Speigel pressing Vallee to say what he thinks is actually going on in the UFO phenomenon mystery. Vallee said that as a scientist he would prefer to just stick with the examination of the data. But if he is to speculate he is currently of the view that we are dealing with a much higher consciousness that is capable of taking control of the space and time surrounding the witness and presenting the witness with the experience. He believes strongly that we should look not only at the specifics of the UFO encounter but also at what has gone on in the life of the witness prior to the sighting, and what happens in the witnesses’ s life after it.

As a personal note, my more intense interest in UFOs began when, as a kid, I came across a copy of Jacques Vallee’s Anatomy of a Phenomenon in my Dad’s library. Seeing Vallee speak live after all these years was quite an experience.

The Ariel School lecture turned out to be quite an emotional presentation. It featured Luigi Vendittelli, Randall Nickerson (who is making the Ariel School documentary) and Emily Trim who was one of the children who witnessed the events at Ariel School in September 1994. Luigi came out first and spoke about the impact that some of these events can have on a person on an emotional and personal level. He also presented some of Emily’s drawings and paintings inspired by her experience. Emily then came out and read a statement she had written about the school and about what happened that day. She was clearly very nervous, and acknowledged it. It was at the moment she turned from talking about the school to talking about the event that the emotion welled up and she began to cry. She regained her composure somewhat but struggled to fight back tears through to the end of her emotional talk. It was my impression that it was not that she was recalling something horrible, but that it was the magnitude of the experience, combined with the images that went through her mind as it happened. On the morning it happened her class was on recess. The school was surrounded by a perimeter of logs to keep the children from going off into terrain where there were snakes and other dangers. Emily said that the children used to play a game of leaping from one log to another. It was this game that Emily and her friend were playing when the sighting began. As they played on the logs their attention was seized by a high frequency piercing sound. There was a bright flash in the sky and they saw a shiny object in the sky. The ship came down. Time seemed to slow down. Out of the ship came two beings who approached Emily and her friend without touching the ground, halting about 5 feet away from them. Large heads, black eyes, their “skin” reflective in appearance as though the color changed as the light reflected off of them. They were about 3.5-4 feet tall, about the same height as Emily at the time. Although she finds it difficult to put into words, she then began to receive a rapid “download" of images, which seemed to come from their eyes through her eyes. She cannot recall all of the images, but does remember the last one was of an explosion. The recess bell then sounded and the beings were gone in an instant. As she walked away she was feeling a rush of emotions, of both sadness and hope. After some description of the media attention the school received after the incident, she closed with a touching poem she had written on the departure of the butterflies who tell her they can no longer live in this place that we are creating. For people familiar with the case, the poem’s inspiration could be seen in the images that ran through her mind during the encounter. She received quite an ovation from the audience as she walked from the podium.

Randal Nickerson then came on to talk about the Ariel film he is making. He said he is targeting September for the release date. Later in the day I had a nice talk with Randall and Luigi. From some things that Nickerson said, I’m not sure I would count on that September release date. He did say that in addition to the four better known cases (Ariel, Westall, Crestview Florida, and Broad Haven Wales) he has received reports of other schoolyard mass sighting cases. He has done some research and shot some video of one that occurred in Chile.

Alejandro and the Open Minds people certainly did put on a very enjoyable day at the conference.
 
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Anyone happen to attend Barbara Lamb's & the alleged 6 hybrids at the conference? I would love to hear attendees opinions about it.

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No one who visits these forums saw Barbara Lamb's presentation to comment on it? I want the dirt people. Let me live vicariously through your time at the conference.

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Alejandro is always a fantastic guest on The Paracast. I really look forward to his visits. I appreciate his informed, insightful, articulate and rational opinions regarding UFO phenomena.
 
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