August, 4 2010: UFO Roundtable

“I’ve been coming here for six years,” said a woman sitting near the front, “I haven’t seen any aliens, but I’m still looking.”

The guy next to hear, an older gentleman named Norman, winked at her. He leaned in, a trickster’s smirk on his face. “Maybe,” he whispered, “ You never know who might be one.”

It was Wednesday, August 4th. My girlfriend and I found ourselves sitting in a crowded room near the back of the Yonkers public library. We were at the UFO Roundtable, a monthly gathering co-hosted by artist Paul Greco and spiritual healer Francine Vale.  We were deep into the Reality Safari, the ongoing quest to chart the high strangeness hidden right in front of us.

We only knew two people in the room, our new loveable oddball friends Tomas and Renee. Renee, who wore streaks of blue makeup on her face, explained that she was dressed as one of the Navi, the shamanistic aliens from the movie Avatar.

Paul Greco and Francine Vale

Paul and Francine have an ethereal quality about them. Their demeanor is welcoming and friendly; they radiate curiosity and acceptance. Before we went through introductions, “We’re not going to change the world or anything,” said Paul as he introduced the group, “but we can try.”

The meeting began with introductions. Of the 20 – 30 people assembled, two or three reported having paranormal experiences. Many of the others said that they were still waiting to have one.

Norman, one of the regulars, immediately set off my weirdness radar.  He had a large, colorful personality, and a lot of strong opinions he didn’t hesitate to express, especially in this amicable company. During his introduction, he talked about how he eagerly awaits the discovery of other life, not just in space, but on this planet, and in other dimensions. “There’s intelligence we still have to discover in the ocean, under our microscopes, and in giant fungi,” he stated. He went on to explain that our televisions are portals to other dimensions, because they send information from a remote location. As Norman’s diatribe picked up speed, Paul gently cut him off, making room for others’ introductions.

A few members mentioned how this group is the only place where they feel like they can talk to people. The roundtable isn’t just a place to bring up weird current events, it’s also serves certain support functions.

Most of the people at the meeting were in their 40s or older. I’d say it was 70% male, 30% female. There was a small cabal of college kids there too, some of which said they were just there for the adventure of it. One kid said, “I’m here because I like listening to the stories. I remain skeptical about a lot of this stuff.”

Paul responded, “It’s healthy to be a little skeptical. But you don’t want to become irrationally skeptical. You’ve gotta go with what you believe. If it feels right, you can’t ignore it.” Everybody nodded. Like many subcultures, they’ve developed their own terminology, reference points which others can relate to. Here, they’re using a localized definition of skeptical: “dismissive”, as opposed to “open minded”. Amongst conspiracy theory circles and other similar fringes, there is often a resistance to “debunkers”, people who aim to shoot down ideas rather than examine them. This makes good sense – any sustainable social network has to build up some antibodies to external forces which question their legitimacy.

I am interested in how groups like this collectively make sense of paranormal accounts. Everybody agrees that there are a lot of hoaxes and misinformation out there. A guy named Danny shared a story about a UFO experience he had in Cape Cod. He reports that a UFO stopped and hovered about 30 feet above his head. There were bright lights and the metallic surface shifted colors. Danny told some people about it in a local bar, and later, his home was visited by CIA agents. They showed him their credentials and advised him to keep his story to himself.

The group’s reaction was very interesting. Their questions seemed like they were trying to classify his story according to their own personal paranormal narratives – “Was this a religious experience?”, “Do you think it was an alien, or a government experiment?”, “How did the CIA agents find out who you were?”, “How do you know they were really CIA agents?” Nobody seemed ready to blindly accept the account, nor was anybody outwardly dismissive. Danny stuck to talking directly about what he perceived and avoided trying to explain his experience.

In many circles, the presence of “debunkers” is seen as confirmation of one’s position. After all, if something’s worth attacking, it must have some value, right? Renee, for example, shared that her paranormal research group, KEPRI, experiences a lot of resistance from other paranormal interest groups. “They’re just jealous,” said Paul, “because you’re on the right track.” Renee nodded. Personally, I can’t wait to see one of the stone chambers which her group studies. Paul says they are filled with energy and that they might be portals that beings come in and out of. This is the explanation for how chambers in Putnam County, New York were built by Celts in ancient times.

After the introductions, we spent the rest of the meeting on crop circles. We watched about a hundred pictures of crop circles downloaded from CropCircleConnector.com. Paul mentioned that the website notes circles which have been identified as hoaxes. But he adds that you can’t be too sure – “A lot of times something is called a hoax and it actually isn’t.”

“Is there a meaning to the crop circles?” somebody asked. Francine replied “I think we’re just supposed to meditate on them and feel whatever we feel.” I really liked this interpretation. No explanation necessary – we should just focus on how to relate to it.

The group attributes the circles to alien intelligence in part because they don’t think humans are ingenuous enough to create such works. Though many may be hoaxes, some insist that certain crop circles are too perfect to be man-made. The techniques used to create crop circles would leave more evidence than has been found at certain sites. And how to account for the radiation and discoloration that sometimes lingers for years afterwards? And how to account for the strange lights that can sometimes be seen swirling around the fields the evening before the circles are discovered?

“If these were made by humans,” asked Paul, “where are the mistakes? where are the practice crop circles?”

The logic is similar to an earlier discussion about a swiss UFO contactee named Billy Meier, who has numerous photographs of UFOs. “He only has one arm,” explained Paul, “I just don’t know how a guy with one arm could pull off such a huge hoax.” Later, Francine referenced a book which chronicles somebody’s alien contact experiences. She wondered if it was “too creative” for a human to have invented. Perhaps alien intelligence is more plausible than human ingenuity. I think humans are capable of some surprisingly innovative things, so for me, the jury is out.

I lingered after the meeting to get some more face time with Norman. It would be an understatement to say that he is a “character”.

“I’m retired now,” he said, “I’m really pro-Israel. That’s what I spend my time on.” Norman is spearheading a singlehanded effort to help save the Israeli people. Known as Captain Israel, he wanders from synagogue to synagogue, conducting dialogues with rabbis about the dangers faced by the modern Israelites. Not everybody is interested in listening. He has been thrown out of numerous temples, and believes he may have accidentally slain a rabbi using his psychic powers.

“As he threw me into the street, I told him that he wasn’t going to be a rabbi forever. And you know what?” Norman leaned in, his voice barely a whisper. “Three years later, he died.” During a storm, lightning struck the rabbi’s house, it caught fire, and he burned to death in his sleep. Norman suspects that his interaction with the rabbi may have resulted in his demise.

Norman abandoned a plan to build a giant golden statue of moses for the Israeli people, and is now content with his life’s work – creating a flags for Israeli villages. “It’s my destiny,” he explained, “A goal that I chose before I was even born.”

This is why I’m on the Great Reality Safari. These are not opinions or personalities I’d normally encounter in my day to day life.

We tend to select our social groups, our professional interests, and our entire lifestyles from familiar things. Because we are surrounded by things which reflect ourselves, we develop blindspots to things outside of our reality tunnel. To me, it’s refreshing to get out into the great weird open. It forces you to acknowledge that what you think is normal is only a tiny fraction of the world.

If you ever find yourself growing bored, jaded, or cynical, take heart. The world you know lies on the beach of the ocean you have yet to discover.