Ok...in general, ufology these days is an f..ing fiasco. I’m quite sad Vallee fell down this rabbit hole. I’ve read all his books except this one and held him in high regard. I’m wondering if he felt the need to jump in with the....ah...hem....renewed UAP interest (and get on Rogan’s radar unfortunately). It feels like he’s saying “Hey!!! I did all this research in the past and wrote books about it!!! Hey!!! It’s me!!!!”
Billy, I feel like I'm waiting for an overdue bus to arrive - NASA UFOs on Wednesday, next Gov report, Avi detecting God knows what soon as his gear is now switched on (he seems like a naughty child with a dastardly secret), an actual Gov statement? The suspense is killing me, really.
Thanks for the kind words, Billy! An update: Just a few days ago I uncovered a real "smoking gun" on this hoax, so today I published yet another article about it--take a look see, folks.
What's next Vallee's "control system"? On a boat trip to a Greek Island yesterday and it was packed. Couldn't see anything controlling us, just everyone out for a good time in the sun. People are controlling themselves - which cafe, hotel, doing the photos, the evening out, the personally made up fun of it all. Couldn't see any wise old French guy in the background whispering, "Eh bien, en fait ...
I'm glad Douglas hasn't had a go at the Skinwalker Pentagon book. It's one of my UFO "rocks", for God's sake! Even though non-sensical (meant in praise of the book BTW).
Honestly thought it interesting you managed to deconstruct the story so fast through your investigations yet nobody has even attempted for the SW at the Pentagon book (Greenstreet not a serious attempt of course - he's done a full 180 on all UAPs even though he had his own triangle sighting - love to know his real motives).
And that's Greenstreet as the raccoon, comparing with his Twitter page!
I didn't buy the Vallee book because I thought it was bullshit. I saw some podcast with his co-author and thought she was a light-weight. It's too bad this is kicking his legacy in the groin. Why did he team up with her? Not a good move. Jacque! I do agree with Vallee that there's a helluva lot more to what's happening here than just ET stopping by to kill cows and snatch people from their beds. I still find the whole experiencer issue hard to accept but high strangeness is all part of the mystery. Excellent article Billy.
Thank you Billy for this excellent article. I briefly mentioned the following to Johnson on a twitter comment: I met with Reme Baca circa 2011 or 2012 after Paola suggested I visit him at his home to learn about his story. She and I were speaking at a conference near McMinnville, OR. I did visit him. It was not long in our discussion that I began to have doubts about his story, including the one about Governor Dixie Lee Ray. Then he showed me the piece of hardware he supposedly retrieved from the 'ship.' Having worked in aircraft structures for FAA, it appeared to me that what he showed me was nothing more than a typical metal casting of the kind I had seen many times before. There was nothing unusual about it. After my wife and I left, I told her I thought it was a phoney story and never followed up on it. I also told Paola about my opinion, soon after.
I kept hoping your testimony to AARO would make it into Sean Kirkpatrick's presentation on Capitol Hill last month. I guess your story's still too hot.
I also gave up reading Passport to Magonia and I've always found Vallee's approach frustrating. Having said that, I think it was an interview relating to the Trinity story where Vallee appeared emotionally moved by the accounts, so perhaps he was a little bit too emotionally invested in this one. Plus, his diaries (of which I've only read excerpts) are a trove of inside information relating to other researchers in the field. He's personally investigated many UFO cases around the world, providing a broader perspective and a rational voice to the cause that's recognised globally. And I can't believe he's 83.
Whatever underpins the stranger side of UFOs/UAP, is something that (on occasion) seems capable of interacting with consciousness directly. I'd suggest that we're on a path to finding out what makes us human, rather than simply biological machines. I love the idea of ET and effective FTL travel, but that's just one likely facet of a much broader range of interrelated phenomena.
My brain must be going... just take the 'also' out of the sentence. I either read or heard Vallee talking about someone who gave him advice to never believe you have found the answer (poor paraphrasing by me). Sitting on the fence can seem like gravitas, the same as proposing prosaic (if illogical) causes for everything gives a false impression of gravitas.
Occam's razor might suggest that all strange UFO/UAP are the same phenomenon, but the evidence would seem to imply otherwise. There is a very strong argument that some UFO cases likely represent ET technology, but there's also evidence for cases that seem affect specific individuals.
May 19, 2023·edited May 19, 2023Liked by Billy Cox
The government learned a lot from Abogard about how to treat witnesses of events they have no handle on. As has been suggested here, maybe nobody has. That, to me, has always been the source of uneasiness when dealing with UFOs.
I had already lost a lot of faith in Vallee prior to the Trinity book. When I first heard the story, I didn't believe it and when I saw that he had written it with Harris, I knew that he was not dotting his I's and crossing his t's. It's strange how this subject changes people.
Nobody likes to remember Muhammad Ali/Trevor Berbick. I hope this Trinity thing will be a faint asterisk against the body of Vallee's work. He doesn't need to climb into the ring again.
Italian Peak, claimed location of the "Marconi tower" was formerly Dago Peak, renamed in 1965 when a USGS committee rehabilitated the place name. This 1986 BLM map shows the old name, and also shows Diamond A ranch, near the supposed crash site.
So far I'm unable to confirm a tower ever existed on Italian Peak. Tragically, a B-17 crashed into nearby North Baldy peak on 15 October 1942. If Jose heard about the crash as a child, did it later become the kernel of truth in a conflated UFO crash story?
The more we know, the more we realize we just don't know. And in many cases, can't know. It may be beyond the ability of anyone's mental hardware--and possibly beyond the collective mind of quantum computers.
Paola Harris! What a naive choice for a co-researcher/writer! Jacques Vallee is brilliant but he may be losing critical capacity when it comes to sussing out who is legit, who has something to gain by lying, and who is simply a useful idiot for an ongoing cover-up.
I imagine the DOD will choose this as a stand alone historical case to research diligently, in order to reveal it as a hoax. The effect on the general population will be obvious. The official cover-up will continue with Jacque Vallee's unwitting seal of approval.
I remember Terry Hansen's book and have recently re-read "The Missing Times" concerning the mainstream media ignoring and or colluding with the military on the topic.... both in WW2 and the incidents out in the western states in the mid 1970's
I've likely mentioned this already here. Can't remember. Terry was my husband. He passed away close to 9 years ago now. Billy gave him the best eulogy in the Sarasota Times (I think that was the name of the paper) Robert Hastings, too, wrote great things about Terry.
I am so happy to hear that you appreciated his book enough to read it again. If he had written a follow up book, it likely would have been about how, (in its own way, and more confined to the purely political sphere,) alternative media has become highly problematic.
It's also very vulnerable to covert propaganda, coming from, corporations for example, (think Jordan Peterson and how aligned he is with big oil and the wealthy elite) I could go on and on, but I hope you get my drift (not grift--LOL)
"Because I was a lot smarter about this stuff decades ago than I am today, I knew UFOs were from other planets." ...nice. Of course, some probably are.
I would say that while a hoax looks likely, sometimes the reality falls between "hoax" and "fact".
It'd be naive to exclude any possibilities, especially extraterrestrial. In fact, that may be the easiest one to understand. We simply might not have the capacity to process many of the others.
There hasn't been any activity from the writer of the "UFO Hall of Shame" in several years, perhaps due to threats of litigation from those who he rightly called out as charlatans.
He does give credit to those who have been trying to "figure this stuff out", but his list of the "shamers" is absolutely correct... and have brought discredit to the topic.
Ok...in general, ufology these days is an f..ing fiasco. I’m quite sad Vallee fell down this rabbit hole. I’ve read all his books except this one and held him in high regard. I’m wondering if he felt the need to jump in with the....ah...hem....renewed UAP interest (and get on Rogan’s radar unfortunately). It feels like he’s saying “Hey!!! I did all this research in the past and wrote books about it!!! Hey!!! It’s me!!!!”
Billy, I feel like I'm waiting for an overdue bus to arrive - NASA UFOs on Wednesday, next Gov report, Avi detecting God knows what soon as his gear is now switched on (he seems like a naughty child with a dastardly secret), an actual Gov statement? The suspense is killing me, really.
I know you're being melodramatic. Otherwise, rigor mortis wouldn't allow you to post feedback.
Ha! "Every day above ground is a good day!" - Lue Elizondo.
Wasn't Paola Harris somehow involved with the Col. Corso and Stan Romanek fiascos?
She wrote favorable books on both.
Thanks for the kind words, Billy! An update: Just a few days ago I uncovered a real "smoking gun" on this hoax, so today I published yet another article about it--take a look see, folks.
https://douglasjohnson.ghost.io/crash-story-file-the-reme-baca-smoking-gun-interview/
For anyone still defending Trinity, don't click this link -- it just gets worse and worse. Still, awesome research, Doug.
What's next Vallee's "control system"? On a boat trip to a Greek Island yesterday and it was packed. Couldn't see anything controlling us, just everyone out for a good time in the sun. People are controlling themselves - which cafe, hotel, doing the photos, the evening out, the personally made up fun of it all. Couldn't see any wise old French guy in the background whispering, "Eh bien, en fait ...
I'm glad Douglas hasn't had a go at the Skinwalker Pentagon book. It's one of my UFO "rocks", for God's sake! Even though non-sensical (meant in praise of the book BTW).
I am not getting near that Skinwalker Ranch place. No sir. From what I hear, the place is overrun with paranormal raccoons.
Wait! Isn't that what Kary Mullis saw? I remember from his book Dancing Naked in the Mind Field. I think it spoke to him.
Mr. Johnson is... taking a little nap. Did you have a question?
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eYvZlOtiaLKV3s-tSwPuMNe-aSEiDYRw/view?usp=share_link
Honestly thought it interesting you managed to deconstruct the story so fast through your investigations yet nobody has even attempted for the SW at the Pentagon book (Greenstreet not a serious attempt of course - he's done a full 180 on all UAPs even though he had his own triangle sighting - love to know his real motives).
And that's Greenstreet as the raccoon, comparing with his Twitter page!
I didn't buy the Vallee book because I thought it was bullshit. I saw some podcast with his co-author and thought she was a light-weight. It's too bad this is kicking his legacy in the groin. Why did he team up with her? Not a good move. Jacque! I do agree with Vallee that there's a helluva lot more to what's happening here than just ET stopping by to kill cows and snatch people from their beds. I still find the whole experiencer issue hard to accept but high strangeness is all part of the mystery. Excellent article Billy.
Thank you Billy for this excellent article. I briefly mentioned the following to Johnson on a twitter comment: I met with Reme Baca circa 2011 or 2012 after Paola suggested I visit him at his home to learn about his story. She and I were speaking at a conference near McMinnville, OR. I did visit him. It was not long in our discussion that I began to have doubts about his story, including the one about Governor Dixie Lee Ray. Then he showed me the piece of hardware he supposedly retrieved from the 'ship.' Having worked in aircraft structures for FAA, it appeared to me that what he showed me was nothing more than a typical metal casting of the kind I had seen many times before. There was nothing unusual about it. After my wife and I left, I told her I thought it was a phoney story and never followed up on it. I also told Paola about my opinion, soon after.
I kept hoping your testimony to AARO would make it into Sean Kirkpatrick's presentation on Capitol Hill last month. I guess your story's still too hot.
I also gave up reading Passport to Magonia and I've always found Vallee's approach frustrating. Having said that, I think it was an interview relating to the Trinity story where Vallee appeared emotionally moved by the accounts, so perhaps he was a little bit too emotionally invested in this one. Plus, his diaries (of which I've only read excerpts) are a trove of inside information relating to other researchers in the field. He's personally investigated many UFO cases around the world, providing a broader perspective and a rational voice to the cause that's recognised globally. And I can't believe he's 83.
Whatever underpins the stranger side of UFOs/UAP, is something that (on occasion) seems capable of interacting with consciousness directly. I'd suggest that we're on a path to finding out what makes us human, rather than simply biological machines. I love the idea of ET and effective FTL travel, but that's just one likely facet of a much broader range of interrelated phenomena.
The book in your first sentence ...?
My brain must be going... just take the 'also' out of the sentence. I either read or heard Vallee talking about someone who gave him advice to never believe you have found the answer (poor paraphrasing by me). Sitting on the fence can seem like gravitas, the same as proposing prosaic (if illogical) causes for everything gives a false impression of gravitas.
Occam's razor might suggest that all strange UFO/UAP are the same phenomenon, but the evidence would seem to imply otherwise. There is a very strong argument that some UFO cases likely represent ET technology, but there's also evidence for cases that seem affect specific individuals.
The government learned a lot from Abogard about how to treat witnesses of events they have no handle on. As has been suggested here, maybe nobody has. That, to me, has always been the source of uneasiness when dealing with UFOs.
I had already lost a lot of faith in Vallee prior to the Trinity book. When I first heard the story, I didn't believe it and when I saw that he had written it with Harris, I knew that he was not dotting his I's and crossing his t's. It's strange how this subject changes people.
Nobody likes to remember Muhammad Ali/Trevor Berbick. I hope this Trinity thing will be a faint asterisk against the body of Vallee's work. He doesn't need to climb into the ring again.
Italian Peak, claimed location of the "Marconi tower" was formerly Dago Peak, renamed in 1965 when a USGS committee rehabilitated the place name. This 1986 BLM map shows the old name, and also shows Diamond A ranch, near the supposed crash site.
https://www.google.com/books/edition/New_Mexico_wilderness_studies/CGN_GyIFhYUC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22dago+peak%22+new+mexico&pg=PA36&printsec=frontcover
So far I'm unable to confirm a tower ever existed on Italian Peak. Tragically, a B-17 crashed into nearby North Baldy peak on 15 October 1942. If Jose heard about the crash as a child, did it later become the kernel of truth in a conflated UFO crash story?
https://socorro-history.org/HISTORY/PH_History/200701_b17.pdf
The more we know, the more we realize we just don't know. And in many cases, can't know. It may be beyond the ability of anyone's mental hardware--and possibly beyond the collective mind of quantum computers.
Paola Harris! What a naive choice for a co-researcher/writer! Jacques Vallee is brilliant but he may be losing critical capacity when it comes to sussing out who is legit, who has something to gain by lying, and who is simply a useful idiot for an ongoing cover-up.
I imagine the DOD will choose this as a stand alone historical case to research diligently, in order to reveal it as a hoax. The effect on the general population will be obvious. The official cover-up will continue with Jacque Vallee's unwitting seal of approval.
I remember Terry Hansen's book and have recently re-read "The Missing Times" concerning the mainstream media ignoring and or colluding with the military on the topic.... both in WW2 and the incidents out in the western states in the mid 1970's
I've likely mentioned this already here. Can't remember. Terry was my husband. He passed away close to 9 years ago now. Billy gave him the best eulogy in the Sarasota Times (I think that was the name of the paper) Robert Hastings, too, wrote great things about Terry.
I am so happy to hear that you appreciated his book enough to read it again. If he had written a follow up book, it likely would have been about how, (in its own way, and more confined to the purely political sphere,) alternative media has become highly problematic.
It's also very vulnerable to covert propaganda, coming from, corporations for example, (think Jordan Peterson and how aligned he is with big oil and the wealthy elite) I could go on and on, but I hope you get my drift (not grift--LOL)
Wow, OK, Jess, good to know the connection now. Terry was gone way too soon. I wish he could've been around for this debate.
"Because I was a lot smarter about this stuff decades ago than I am today, I knew UFOs were from other planets." ...nice. Of course, some probably are.
I would say that while a hoax looks likely, sometimes the reality falls between "hoax" and "fact".
It'd be naive to exclude any possibilities, especially extraterrestrial. In fact, that may be the easiest one to understand. We simply might not have the capacity to process many of the others.
There hasn't been any activity from the writer of the "UFO Hall of Shame" in several years, perhaps due to threats of litigation from those who he rightly called out as charlatans.
He does give credit to those who have been trying to "figure this stuff out", but his list of the "shamers" is absolutely correct... and have brought discredit to the topic.
Great review of the situation! Excellent writing.