“My Dream is a Code Waiting to Be Broken. Break the Code, Solve the Crime.” - FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper

In the small idyllic border town of Twin Peaks, Washington, tucked away in the forested mountains, a murder mystery unfolds involving the killing of the local high school prom queen, Laura Palmer. When a second high schooler, and potential victim of the same killer, crosses the State’s border, the FBI sends Special Agent Dale Cooper to investigate what we later find out, in the prequel, is one of FBI Bureau Chief Gordon Cole’s (played by David Lynch) “Blue Rose Cases.” And so begins the strange tale of mysterious communications and fantastic encounters that engulfs the town of Twin Peaks and the lives of all its quirky inhabitants, including its newest arrival, Special Agent Cooper.

The initial storyline would seem to be far removed from the world of UFOlogical secrets, but for the occasional paranormal manifestations, mysterious visions, and precognitive dreams of Cooper and certain townsfolk. In fact the acronym U.F.O. is only uttered once in the series and not at all in its subsequent prequel, Fire Walk With Me. It’s only in the second season, upon the return of Major Garland Briggs (after his abduction by a mysterious anomalous light accompanied by owls and a cloaked figure) and his mentioning of the Air Force’s Project Blue Book, that Dale Cooper says the words, “Unidentified Flying Objects.” (And also when Sheriff Truman asks in a subsequent episode, “What was Wyndham Earle doing investigating UFOs?”) But besides these two overt references to UFOs there are many subtle, covert themes threaded into the fabric of the Twin Peaks story that can be used to inform the more casual viewer about the truly strange nature of UFOs and related paranormal (and even parapolitical) phenomena. It is these covert references and allusions upon which we will focus our explication of the series and its prequel in upcoming installments of this column. While an average TV watcher viewing Twin Peaks might be aware of the classic modern UFO myths of military retrieval of crashed flying saucers, governmental cover-up of recovered aliens and supposed underground bases, bedroom visitation abductions, and the human / alien hybridization stories, they are not likely to be aware of the deeper connections in the Twin Peaks milieu which speak to the nature of the UFO’s darker CryptoUfological reality; the secret coded side of UFOs and the paranormal.

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Researcher Roundtable: Whose Weirdness Is It, Anyway?

By Greg Bishop

One of the first lessons of Buddhism, certain kinds of physics, and the courtroom is that people will see what they expect to see. Robert Anton Wilson gives the example of a university law or psych class (I can’t recall which) where someone runs in unexpectedly during the lecture and tries to stab one of the students. A great majority of the witnesses will swear that the criminal used a knife until the professor brings him back with a banana held in an upraised hand. This error in perception more or less applies as well to things that we haven’t seen or experienced yet.

Not to labor the point too much, but Wilson also recalled in an interview that there was a UFO case he had heard of in which one of the witnesses recalled a longish-shaped UFO landing, while the other said it was nothing but a school-bus going by. Although some may argue about “abduction screen memories” and the like, it is more likely that these people saw some “whatsit,” some “x,” and filled in the details later. Jenny Randles introduced the term “Oz Factor” many years ago to describe the indescribable events and atmosphere that surround a UFO or Fortean event. Part of this phenomenon is the inability of the participants to recall any details or just as likely, the entire episode. The reasons may lie with the cause of the event, be it intelligent or not, but the fault may also lie within ourselves. (more…)

Researcher Roundtable: The Shape Shifters

by Jim Keith

Perception of UFOs and whatever-they-are that inhabits them has morphed numerous times this century due to the influence of the various forms of media, so that one might well wonder if we are not dealing with shape-shifters here, rather than a concrete phenomenon. Depictions of alien craft for the first half of this century–in magazines like Thrilling Wonder and Amazing–were primarily rockets, until the famous flying saucer coinage that came about after the Kenneth Arnold sighting. Similarly, the prototypical “grey alien” image did not really appear on the scene, in the public consciousness, until after the release of the movies Invaders From Mars (in which the big headed alien had tentacles, as I recall), and Invasion of the Saucer Men in the early 1950s.

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March on Austin is Saturday, April 5 at 12:15 p.m. with line up by 11:45 a.m. The rally is from 1-4 p.m. Staging area for the march are parking lots at the corner of Hwy. 343/Ceasar Chavez/Red River streets, one block west of I-35. Speakers include Rep. Ron Paul, Va. Rep. Virgil Goode, Ohio Rep. Marcy Kaptur, Okla. Sen. Randy Brodon and many Texas state legislators who are fighting against the Trans-Texas Corridor and tollways.

Last year I marched in the Don’t Tag Texas / Anti Toll Road Rally rally here in Austin, Texas. I posted a Gallery of my protest pics from the event that happened Independence Day of last year. Click the Pic below for a link to my gallery. For more information about tomorrow’s march follow this link to Sal Costello’s Anti-Toll Road blog.

Researcher Roundtable: The UFO is a Psychic Bomb

by SMiles Lewis

So, “are we being prepared?” Hell yes! The entirety of the human collective is preparing itself for the inevitable: overt contact with the probable multitudes of non-human intelligences / consciousnesses extant within the Universe. It is the urge-to-destiny of every lifeform to go beyond the confines of its original evolutionary environs and become a part of the galactic evolutionary process. It is this inevitability for which the human collective unconscious (and its governing hierarchies of morphic consciousnesses: local, national, global) is preparing itself. It does this through our imaginal experiencing of the alien other, and all aspects of our confrontations with the unknown.

The ufo phenomenon exists in a synergistic cybernetic interface with humanity. Whatever the true nature of UFOs, they interact with us within several different milieus, all of which are influenced by the media and culture. This media and culture in turn feeds back into the phenomena in a continuous cycle.

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ANOMALY magazine is proud to present the resurrection of The Elfis Network’s Researcher Dialogue project. Years ago the ELFIS Portal to Possible Paradigms launched a short lived section to its online E.L.F. Infested Spaces journal called Researcher Dialogue. Within that section of the online zine was to be a regular Question and Answer session for every issue, wherein a question on anomalous phenomena would be posed to the panelists composed of invited Kooks, each a noted Author and Researcher in some field of Anomaly Studies.

Among the first round of Invited Panelists was ParaPolitical Researcher Jim Keith, Paranormal Publisher and Author Greg Bishop, then Elfis Editor Mr. Baggins, Elfis Founder SMiles Lewis, Crackpot Historian Adam Gorightly, Hauntings Investigator Dennis Hauck, Local Investigator I.M. Aliensun, Devil’s Advocate Tim Brigham, Mysterious Investigator Eugenia Macer-Story, CyberFortean NeuroAnthropologist Steve Mizrach, Excluded Middlers Robert Larson and Peter Stenshoel, and Veteran Pagan Peacenik Thom Laaki.

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PUNCHING YOUR HAND THROUGH A WALL FROM A CERTAIN POINT-OF-VIEW or Why Darth Vader Is Not Luke Skywalker’s Father

by Stephen Romano

Working as a screenwriter in the business of motion picture production, I have had the opportunity to study a strange and disparate species known as The Film Director. More specifically, I have encountered, worked with and endured the myriad insecurities, eccentricities and outright childish regressions of the Film WRITER-Director in his natural element. I have studied the beast close-up. I know where he nests and breathes. And I know how fearsomely he (or, in those rare cases, SHE) protects his (or her) babies from the cold, cruel world out there. I have seen these people rage out of control. I have seen them shield themselves behind walls of arrogance and self-delusion. I have seen them manufacture alternate realities and stand up to claim the fruits of other people’s hard labors. I have also seen them regress into chasms of self-hatred and wallow in the shallows of creative burnout. I have watched helplessly as beautiful dreams and best-laid plans were shot to hell in front of horrified eyes. I’ve even stood right next to a few of these bizarre creatures as they were calling “cut” on a scene, their faces twisted into desperate grimaces, signifying that they had no idea in hell how any of this shit was gonna cut together later. In one specific case, which I will never in a million years forget, a film writer-director turned to me after a particular performance in a scene did not please him … and slammed his fist through the nearest wall, breaking three of his fingers. I’m pretty sure he hoped I would forget about that a few days later. In fact, most people in Hollywood COUNT ON you to forget stuff like that a few days later. But, see … that’s just it, people. I’m a writer and it’s my job to remember stuff. (That’s usually so I can steal it for a story later.) I don’t forget it when something weird goes down—particularly when it has to do with one of my heroes on a movie set. It’s all burned forever in my brain … along with the many formative memories from childhood that made me wanna do this shit for a living in the first place.

Like … oh, let’s see, maybe seeing STAR WARS for the first time? (more…)

Now, this is a great resource tool: namely, all of the back-issues (from the late 1960s to the present day) of the Mutual UFO Network’s monthly magazine posted online at John Greenewald’s Black Vault in handy, PDF format for download.

Hat tip to Nick Redfern at UFOmystic.com

For anyone interested in all things parapsychological, check out former military psychic remote viewer Paul Smith’s upcoming “Dowsing For Your Dead” presentation for the Austin Genealogical Society.

Paul says, “It is an introduction and overview of how dowsing could be used to help search for ancestors’ final resting places.”

Paul is the author of Reading the Enemies Mind and wrote the Army’s manual for training people in the art of Remote Viewing.

Here are the details:

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Program: Dowsing For Your Dead

Presented by: Paul H. Smith

Where: Highland Park Baptist Church

5208 Balcones Drive, Austin, Texas

When: 6:30 P.M. Doors Open; 7:00 P.M. Meeting & Program Begin

Paul H. Smith - www.rviewer.com