On Alien Intentions

First and foremost, the Kickstarter has been fully funded!

I'd like to thank everyone who backed it, shared it, or even just took the time to read it! From the bottom of my heart, thank you! I know it wasn't a lot to ask for, but it means the world to me to know that people out there believe in what we're doing and what we're making. This whole project has been a lifelong dream of mine, and I can't believe that I'm getting to do this!

Because of all of you, our ability to film is increasing four-fold — this money is funding the purchase of a set of stationary cameras (not unlike the “x-cams” that Zak Bagans is so fond of). You'll see them for the first time in the final episode of Signal & Noise. If anything happens during the filming of that, you better believe we'll catch it! Their use is going to go well beyond this episode. They’ll be part of a command center set-up that’ll be taken on every investigation that follows. If all goes well, our first field test with them should be sometime in early June.

I also need to give you guys a bit of a heads up. I’m in the middle of moving right now and I just can’t seem to find the time to sit down and work on anything for too long because of that. What this is mainly affecting is the video that I normally put out at the end of the month. There’s a good possibility it’ll be a couple days late and I just wanna apologize about that. I know my schedule is all sorts of messed up recently (at least when it comes to adding stuff to the website) but it won’t be this way for much longer. After we get settled in to the new place stuff should calm down and smooth out for a while.

That’s just a part of the gig, though, I think. What I mean is that, sure, I’ve got the team. I’ve got other investigators. I’ve got substitute investigators. I’ve got marketing. Outside of that, when it comes to content creation, client outreach, research, planning, editing, and everything else, this is very much a one man operation (I hope it doesn’t look like that, but it is). That might change someday, I just think that someday might be pretty far off at this point.

I mentioned the other day that GHPR is very heavily involved in a new case right now.

This one, a house-call, really just fell into our laps. The owner of the residence found us on Facebook, I believe, while looking for a professional team in the vicinity. I’ve mentioned before that I thought that we were the only team in the area — as it turns out, we actually are. Not sure if I’ve shared this yet, but after poking around for a year or so, I can definitively say that we are indeed the only professional team operating in Huntsville.

Anyways, this new case in very much so in our wheelhouse. I mentioned to Robbie yesterday, after meeting the client in person and visiting the house for the first time, that it seems like a specialization of sorts is forming for us. We’re a group of paranormal investigators, right? We’ll investigate just about anything, though. UFOs, cryptids, ghosts — you name it, we’re interested. I think, though, that those cases that blur the lines a bit… those are the ones that we seem to really have knack for (especially if it leans towards a little more UT than most).

In the one we’re working right now, we’re finding some really serious religious undertones. To the point where it seems these undertones are going to end up affecting our approach. Again, this client has asked for anonymity (at least for the time being) so I can’t speak too much about it all (no matter how much I might want to). When it comes to our other recent cases, there are some certain similarities. During an Estes session, the book of Deuteronomy has been brought up for the second time (1), phrases referencing Sirius were brought up again (2), and, like the Sam & Greg’s case, we couldn’t help but notice biblically-adjacent wording throughout.

I’m frequently reminded, since we started digging into the encounter that started the whole Signal & Noise thing, of the “Space Brothers” and similar alien visitors from the early days of Contactee history. Frequently, in those early contactee cases, experiencers were told (by the likes of Indrid Cold and others) that their people were just like humanity. They claimed they looked alike, sounded alike, spoke English, lived in a similar (albeit, more advanced) society, and worshipped the same (Christian) god. In many instances, these aliens spoke about praying, quoted the bible, and would claim that Jesus was one of their own. These “Space Brothers” came, most often, to warn us of the impending destruction of our planet. They asked that their human contacts share these apocalyptic visions (and the news of their existence) with the rest of humanity. This led to that boom in this era in which every contactee, it seemed, wrote a book or a brochure about their encounter.

A pair of pamphlets written by some of these extraterrestrial-ly inspired prophets

These writings really did capture the imagination of the population at large, at the time. The flying saucer phenomenon, from it’s early days up through the ‘60s, really had a hold on people. Now, these publications weren’t by any means making their authors rich or famous (they normally did quite the opposite, attracting ridicule more than anything). You could definitely argue, though, that they’d done exactly what their alien visitors had asked of them. They’d done it well.

At a certain point in history, alien encounters changed. They shift, very quickly, from human-like creatures sharing messages of love, to intense, unwanted medical examinations conducted by miniature, monstrous grey creatures. From time to time you see apocalyptic messaging make an appearance (and these abductors occasionally tell their abductees that they’re special and need to help the rest of humanity), but they’ve definitely lost that good-natured, occasionally goofy aspect, that they once had.

Why this happened, exactly, is hard to answer. Being someone who believes that some or all of most paranormal encounters take place in the mindscape (3), I’d argue that this shift has to do with shifting perspectives on America’s place in the world (as most of the more well-known cases are those concerning Americans). In the 40s and early 50s, as UFO and alien encounters first really kick-off and enter the public’s awareness, the average American had a much more positive view on things. The second world war had just ended, America was a superpower, technology was developing at breakneck speeds, and the world was our oyster. Before we knew it, everyone claimed, we’d be going to the moon and beyond. A galactic human empire and a utopian, worldwide society was within grasp. Thus, our alien encounters were with friends. They were people just like us seeking to aid us as we matured.

Time wore on, though, and society had to come to terms with our naivety. The cold war begins in earnest and with it came threats of mutually assured destruction; nuclear war that was sure to take place at any possible second. These fears and anxieties, I think, are what fuels that shift to the darker side of UFO lore. This trend continues today as threats of terroristic, political, and racially motivated violence pervades every aspect of modern life. Unless a major societal shift were to happen, I doubt we’ll ever see a full return of those good-intentioned, occasionally ridiculous, alien encounters.

And it’s a real shame, too.

Stay weird!

-Scott

(1) The first time was at Sam & Greg’s back in March. Robbie, at the time, mentioned that Deuteronomy was his favorite book of the Bible for a time. If you didn’t know, although he’s currently our resident occultist, he was at one point in the seminary. This time, our client, upon hearing the word “Deuteronomy” brought up, immediately pulled up verse 4:19 ( “And when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the stars—all the heavenly array—do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things the Lord your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven”). The verse had been shared with them that very morning by someone who’s experiencing something similar. The verse is remarkably apt for the case in question.

(2) I frequently note ongoing appearances of blue stars, blue lights, and other related ephemera since our encounter with that orb last summer. On this case, during an Estes Session held 5/22, the words “starsign” and “dogsign” were used a handful of times each. There was no explanation given when asked, but I think we can safely say that it’s telling us that we’re on the same path that we’ve been on this whole time. Even if it feels unrelated, we’re still headed down the road to meet whatever’s waiting for us at the end of the month and in early July.

(3) As many have said (myself included): just because something happens in your mind, that doesn’t make it any less real. Every part of our existence, to us, occurs in our mind. The world is the way it is, and we experience the things we do and how we do, because that’s how our minds interpret it. Like that one thought experiment says, for all we know we’re just a brain in jar. All we know is that we are. Everything else is a lot less concrete than we’d like to think.