On UFO Education

[CapnG]

All I'm trying to do here is explore ways to get beyond a Cerificate of Galactic Ambassadorship to something that at least has a chance of some lasting value.

No, no no! What you're suggesting is a legitimate study program. Way beyond what these farcical (and let's be straightforward about it, fraudulent) faux certificates from the University of Nowhere pretend to offer. Don't even mention them in the same sentence, you're sullying your own concept with this dreck.

I guess my next question is how do you frame this course? Technically it's a real-world study with potential real-world applications but since aliens are unlikely to show up in the lecture hall for an "Inside the actors Studio" type sit down, wouldn't it be rendered a purely academic course?

Plus there's the question of how to grade it. Most courses produce experts on what is known about that subject (an authority on Shakespeare, for example). Since the UFO issue is one of many questions and few answers, wouldn't this course produce experts on what is not known? That would be interesting...

 

[Schuyler]

Oh, and the one glaring omission is a course on optical physics, analog and digital image and video analysis. I'll be happy to toss my hat into the ring as the lecturer, and I even have extensive college level teaching experience.

Thank you, David. For the record, I can't imagine taking a course like this from anyone other than you and/or Jeff. There are simply no other people in the known universe who are qualified to teach it. And I'd love to take this course and pay for it. That would be very cool.

 

[Schuyler]

Well, I think the next step may be to crrate an example syllabus for one of the courses. I will do that and see what you guys think. maybe it can turn into a self-study guide or something. I realize there is a certain amount of fantasy here, but I think it worth the exercise. Besides, I'm bored and need a project.

 

[Drew UK]

This is good, amazingly good.
And we should not loose heart nor confidence -

I do not think, just because something borders on the unfathomable that it should not be explored. The whole point of study and reason is to define and resolve through theory and ideas possible explanations - This is the major theme in every school, college and university - to answer the question - I don't know?.

If it is in the realm of science, of modern physics - who knows whether the universal theory is going to be reached through string theory, quantum theory or an advancement of something else which we haven't discovered yet - [ I'll open to the Particle Physicist here, since I have lost the momentum of this subject over the years ]

But also of the realm of economics - and money - is there anyone who really understands it -

Is oil price going to accelerate in value?

- Yes, If I think that undersurface oil will appreciate in value and that oil that surfaces soon depreciates?

No, If I think that global recession will cause a levelling off of demand against supply.

Who add's to this - the leverage caused by specualative prices or then again, the price against the reserve currency? What determines the strength of the reserve currency - the net feedback from export vs import - the interest rates - the current account deficit?

+ also, the political factors - the oil states run by despotic crazy foreign policy - Venezuela, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Russia, the UK, the USA perhaps???

Shake the dice, and spin the wheel...

What I am trying to get at is, who understands Money? Who knows where it will go next - will inflation errode it or will other factors support it -

I think Money is a paranormal phenomenon in itself, it engages politics, history, art, science, finance, religion all wrapped up in worthless tokens of metal or paper - which somehow or not we all mindlessly believe in - A miracle!! -In god we trust, E pluribus unum.

If this can be studied- Harvard School of Economics, London School of Economics and Political Science, European School of Economics..etc why cannot the unknown aerial unfathomable be given the credential it deserves.....?

 

[Gene Steinberg]

Dude, that's awesome. I like the multi-disciplinary approach. More and better "modes of inquiry" are needed to subdue this wooly slippery beast.

So where I do register? Is there a work-study option?

This means, of course, that 99% of the UFO researchers out there would flunk out.

 

[Drew UK]

The credential that it deserves ....

Which is perturbed, by the cultural understanding of ignorance or fear and arrogance.

If exopolitics was introduced we need to examine biology first - that of living organisms.

Movement
Respiration
Sensitivity
Nutrition
Excretion
Reproduction
Growth

Now given that we all obey these rules to be a living conscious entity then although alluded to, in my previous posts "assymetry" can be dissolved to reach the first step to understanding.

dB talks alot about ants - so I am going to continue.
I hope he talked about the visitors being ants and not us - for we are merely a species that can be treaded upon whenever and wherever the ants want to do so.

I studied ants in my innocent years but here we go -
I came to respect them, I respected there organisation, I respected there ability to get things done - there strength, there teamwork - they probably embodied the notion - e pluribus unum - our current finance system.

They knew the importance of networking between themselves, by chemical trails and signals - long before human communications ever got going.

They had captured the essence of farming - plotting fields of aphids to produce the milk that keeps the nation running - while man was still stuck in his nomadic hunter - gatherer cavesuit clobber each over the head approach.

But over the years we have caught up, Borax - the toxin that can deliver peristoika into the queens quarters - I coated this with sugar to see how they reacted.

Her majesty died, Her fellow advisers and most closest friends fled to better environments. The princesses with wings were flown out to establish colonies of there own. The politicians, that courted her hearing of this dreadful news also tried to make out of the nation - but the workers were afraid, and disoriented and seeing the politicians run away tried to recapture them and bring them back home to try to restablish order.

Although, Human and Ant maybe completely unrelated and assymetrically attached -

Movement
Respiration
Sensitivity
Nutrition
Excretion
Reproduction
Growth

Our politics are quite remarkably similar.

 

[Rocketsauce]

interesting discussion.

I think the best value of my liberal arts degree was learning how to write better, think more analytically, and research. Kind of intangible stuff, but not as overtly technical or marketable as my wife's accounting degree

I play in a band with 2 guys who never went to college and there is a giant gap between the way we think and approach things. Not to say college is vital to being able to think, question, write on a higher level, but it certainly doesn't hurt!

If you can be a religion major in college (as I was, although I'm now in advertising/sales/marketing) certainly you should be able to learn about the various aspects of the UFO world. Unlike most of the ancient events that people base their entire world view around, UFO stuff is happening....... now! So it should be extremely relevant in a more intelligent open minded world.


Personally, I would try and stick to the more credible stuff and while studying the amount of bullshit (cults, mythology)is important within a cultural/sociological context of studying this stuff, I think half the battle is showing that indeed this is a legit phenomena which has a curriculum that deserves to be studied in all it's forms or else you risk preaching to the choir, which isn't that bad either. In other words, the curriculum itself would be more effective IMO if it catered to the mainstream person who doesn't know anything about this stuff but is a little bit curious and therefore is willing to give one class a shot. If there is a huge focus on the cult like/mythology aspect, that might turn people off right out of the box, but you'd have to conduct some focus groups/research to really have any idea on how to engage the mainstream!

How cool would it be to get people who were totally unaware about how deep this stuff is and get them to take a few classes and then blow their world view up to pieces, little tiny pieces once they realize this shit is going on and people are reacting or not reacting to it in totally messed up ways.

On a side note, it's strange the amount of people I've met who have seen a UFO who don't even really care or bother to follow any of this stuff, and who actually don't really believe it. I'm like, "Dude, your telling me you saw a 2,000 foot craft going 50mph over your parents house when you were a kid and it made you cry and freak out yet you have no interest or belief in this stuff? WTF?"

 

[0uterj0in]

Now if we could figure how to get the Circus to subsidize the College.

I'm fantasizing about an outer layer of profit-driven spectacle -- all the UFO kooks and their bogus videos/seminars/etc -- that serves as the public face for consumption by joe sixpack and Larry King. The outer layer could provide a revenue stream for the inner core of serious study carried out in private.

In order to join the invisible college you would first to need to register your "circus identity" -- some contrived quirk that gives Bill Nye a reason to dismiss you. In this manner, the fruitless pursuit of mainstream credibility is dropped altogether in favor of establishing credibility with each other.

 

[Cosmic Ejaculator 1814]

Oh, and the one glaring omission is a course on optical physics, analog and digital image and video analysis. I'll be happy to toss my hat into the ring as the lecturer, and I even have extensive college level teaching experience.

dB

Here's a "crazy" idea;

It may not give you the prestige of teaching at an Ivy League University,but,how about doing something along these lines on a public forum like "Google Video" or "Youtube"?

You could start by giving a lecture on the "Billy Meier Contacts" - and really piss Michael Horn off!

 

[Kieran]

UFO education is it expensive We dont even have the right knowledge In our own history books never mind books that could be based on ufology!

I dont know if the thread is about ufo education in general? I go around in circles sometimes, sorry

 

[Schuyler]

UFO education is it expensive We dont even have the right knowledge In our own history books never mind books that could be based on ufology!

The literature on UFOs is vast. Just one bibliography I have has over 15,000 entries, mostly for monograps, and this is 20 years old. The problem in designing courses to cover this literature would be to find the gems of the bunch and make sure you pointed people toward good stuff rather than trash. And we needn't restrict to books. There are some Paracast shows that ought to be on he 'miust hear' list as well. The idea would be to get the 'ten best' in every section so that you covered the field sufficiently well.

The goal would be to get students to the point that when someone said "Cash-Landrum" the student would say, "Oh, yeah. I know about that." And the knowledge would be a basic understanding of what happened, the theories around it, the aftermath, how it relates to other cases, and any controversies surrounding it. Further, the student would know exactly where to go to get more information on the subject. You don't really have to memorize each detail, just know where you can find each detail.

The same is true for the BS. If you haven't seen the Billy Meier Ray Gun and know the exact same thing was found on eBay as a toy plastic pistol, then I maintain you have not truly lived! (ofr laughed as hard) If you have a well-rounded background in the subject, I think it is easier to spot the BS as soon as it starts.

Anyway: Basic idea. Too many books; too little time.

 

[Kieran]

The literature on UFOs is vast. Just one bibliography I have has over 15,000 entries, mostly for monograps, and this is 20 years old. The problem in designing courses to cover this literature would be to find the gems of the bunch and make sure you pointed people toward good stuff rather than trash. And we needn't restrict to books. There are some Paracast shows that ought to be on he 'miust hear' list as well. The idea would be to get the 'ten best' in every section so that you covered the field sufficiently well.

The goal would be to get students to the point that when someone said "Cash-Landrum" the student would say, "Oh, yeah. I know about that." And the knowledge would be a basic understanding of what happened, the theories around it, the aftermath, how it relates to other cases, and any controversies surrounding it. Further, the student would know exactly where to go to get more information on the subject. You don't really have to memorize each detail, just know where you can find each detail.

The same is true for the BS. If you haven't seen the Billy Meier Ray Gun and know the exact same thing was found on eBay as a toy plastic pistol, then I maintain you have not truly lived! (ofr laughed as hard) If you have a well-rounded background in the subject, I think it is easier to spot the BS as soon as it starts.

Anyway: Basic idea. Too many books; too little time.

Ufology by human hands need i say anymore! The real schooling is somewhere out there. They are just unwilling to show themselves to us openly at this time... What is the problem my "ALIEN" Friends lol