Thursday, May 16, 2019

X-Zone Broadcast Network - Jerry Clark


This week I discussed the UFO Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition, with the author, Jerome (Jerry) Clark. Before we began our discussion, I mentioned that it was the 50th anniversary of my destroying a UH-1H helicopter by triggering a land mine in South Vietnam. Knowing full well that there are many people who claim Vietnam service who were never there, and knowing some might be not believe the story, you can read it in the unit history of the 187th Assault Helicopter Company here:


Just scroll down to May 16, and you’ll find it… and yes, this has nothing to do with UFOs and I mentioned it only because it was fifty years ago today that it happened.

But on to the UFO stuff and Jerry Clark.

Naturally, given the timing of the show, we had to mention the passing of Stan Friedman a few days earlier. I thought it important to acknowledge his passing and
Jerry Clark
we devoted the first segment of the show to that.

We did get around to talking about his UFO Encyclopedia, which is a massive resource, that is a must for anyone who is serious about UFO research. To me, one of the most important aspects of the Encyclopedia, is the list of sources at the end of each of the articles. That allows the reader to find additional information, some of it providing an opposing view or giving an alternative solution. You can listen to the show here:


https://www.spreaker.com/episode/17940170

Although I wanted to cover the questions that readers had sent, we did run out of time. I tried to ask at least one question from each of those who supplied them. One of them concerned the airship wave of 1897. I had thought that Jerry believed there was a core of good reports that began in late 1896, but that many of the sightings in 1897 were, shall we say, imaginative. Jerry quickly corrected me.

I did go back and look at the entry from the 2nd Edition of his Encyclopedia so that I could compare it with the latest version. The entry had evolved, and covered sightings that began in other parts of the world some fifty years earlier. It seems that the sightings involve some sort real experiences but when we reach April, 1897, it is clear that the majority of those reports are faked. I asked specifically about the Aurora, Texas, crash, which, given what we know today, is laughable, when you read the original report. I am astonished that there are those who still believe this was a real event. You can find more information about it, and the Alexander Hamilton calf-napping here:



Jerry tells me, "The point I was trying to make about airship reports was that they were real experiences, not "real events" as you have it.  I try to make clear that radars/visuals and CE2s exemplify event anomaliess, i.e., strange things that occur within the boundaries of consensus reality, and high-strange phenomena exemplify experience anomalies, which take place in liminal space between the real and the imagined, with characteristics of each mixed together."

We also talked, briefly about contactees and abductions. Time prevented us from going into depth about these topics. I think you get a feel for where Jerry is on the topics and I do mention that George Adamski’s tales of Venus failed to account for the surface temperature that is hot enough to melt lead… not the tropic environment that so many envisioned in the 1950s.

Next up is Dr. Dan Farcas and his theory about Hyper-civilization. It is an interesting take on a number of questions about UFOs and other topics. For those who have questions, as always, append them here in the comments section and I’ll try to get them asked.

6 comments:

vonmazur said...

50 years ago, I was attending MOI at Ft Rucker...After my first tour in Nam.

Paul Young said...

Very enjoyable interview Kevin that, as usual, I wish could have lasted another hour.
Plenty to discuss but I'm slightly confused with Clark's take on the extra-terrestrial and inter-dimensional explanation for this whole UFO business.
On one side he dismisses John A Keel as a crackpot for advocating a demonic view, yet in the last segment Clark, himself, seems to believe the phenomenon is an inter-dimensional driven thing. (at least, I think that's his view because from about 50:25 he didn't half ramble on with himself)

So here's maybe a question... Wouldn't the biblical style "demon" or the Irish "folk fairy" not drop into the same category as "inter-dimensional" being?

Personally, I'm still uncomfortable with the IDH. How can we ever come to a conclusion to the UFO problem if the answer is that it's something that exists...a real entity...but doesn't exist physically?

KRandle said...

Jerry asked me to post this:

I'm surprised to see the phrase "inter-dimensional" here. It is not a concept in my head or in my vocabulary. In my mind it's a meaningless word, little more than rhetorical carbon dioxide. Likewise, "demons." If I wasn't clear on that, my apologies.

I was talking about anomalous experiences, not anomalous entities. The former exist in abundance, the latter only in description and supposition. I write about this matter in the "Experience Anomalies" entry in UFOE3 and also in various issues of Fortean Times (most recently, "Mr. Wilson and the Aeronauts of 1897," January 2018 issue).

If the ETH is a valid explanation for radar/visuals, CE2s, and the like, it will be up to scientists in the relevant disciplines to establish as much. Meantime, my position is that, contrary to what some want us to believe, the notion of visitation from extra-solar planets is not inherently implausible or scientifically impossible, an argument made compellingly in non-ufologist Edward Ashpole's 2013 book Signatures of Life: Science Searches the Universe. Right or wrong, the ETH works best when applied to reports suggesting the event-level presence of an apparently un-earthly technology.

purrlgurrl said...

I found the interview on You Tube. The Spreaker audio appears to be missing.

KRandle said...

Don't know about YouTube... try the link provided above. I haven't heard any complaints about that.

purrlgurrl said...

Yep. Rob McConnell has posted many of your podcasts on You Tube. Spreaker suddenly has gone dead for me though I subscribe. Shrug.

BTW - I really enjoy Clark's iconoclastic approach to Ufology. Wish we heard more from him than the encyclopedia revisions. Darn him anyway for having a rich, full life outside of UFOs.