Searcher08 wrote:Miles, what were the people you worked with there interested in? - in the sense of the aspects covered by DrVolin such as channelled Space Brothers / abduction research / Vallee type psych - 4D / MIC-driven / exopolitics - did the proportions of those change over the years that yuo were involved?
Hola Searcher... I'd characterize the original Austin Mufon folks as mostly true-believers in the standard UFO myths: the phenom mostly represents an ET presence, alien abductions being the focus of most of the group members interest then, with a heavy belief in these facts being covered up by govt, including the standard crashed saucers and pickled aliens mythos.
We had a handful of skeptics, a handful of folks who believed themselves to be abducteees and a handful of those more interested in channelling and contactee type tales.
Some of the regulars had formed the local mufon chapter after Ray Stanford's PSI / AUM groups folded. Ray (and twin brother Rex) is a fascinating ufological character and worthy of his own thread. His PSI (Project Starlight International) group was the most scientifically based civilian UFO research group ever (I think) second only to Project Hesdalen in Norway. But his AUM (Association for the Understanding of Man) group was a channelling / spiritualist org.
Our most grounded and rational skeptic was Ron (Jerrold) Johnson who worked with Hal Puthoff and was allegedly next in line to be head of Mufon before his sudden (and some believe mysterious) death at the annual conference of the Society for Scientific Exploration. The one time Vallee responded to a letter of mine he mentioned how he, Hal and Ron had had a fantastic conversation the night before Ron's death.
After being a regular attendee and helping out with audio and video for the Austin conferences I stopped going to the monthly meetings as I truly felt it was mostly a waste of my time. I felt I was the most informed person there and was tired of the run of the mill discussions that usually transpired.
I also began leading the local support group for experiencers after that group's founder asked me to before she left town. At its height we were having 2 meetings each month. Eventually interest and attendee numbers waned and when the founder returned I handed the reigns back to her and she closed the group for lack of interest. That group was HUGE at its height.
Years later I'd be asked to head the local Mufon chapter which I did for a brief time.
Thanks to DrVolin for that excellent overview btw ...