Moderators: Elvis, DrVolin, Jeff
BTW, POI was written before my sojourn into trad. metaphysics and discovery of Upton, so I doubt you'll find what you're dreading there.
identity » Thu May 17, 2018 8:00 pm wrote:^
your acquaintance with practitioners of MMI is limited mainly to those emerging from (UK-based?) Crowleyesque/Thelemite/Chaos Magic milieus, whose goals often do seemingly tend to center around becoming more affluent and getting laid (or at least gaining access to better drugs...), rather than those unassuming, non-publicity-seeking individuals who utilize the principles of MMI to effect healing cures of one kind or another, typically for free or by donation..
Some of you may be aware that I will be giving a presentation at this year’s Contact in the Desert on the subject of the conspiracy theories swirling around the group founded by Tom DeLonge: the To The Stars Academy (TTSA).
The members of TTSA and its associated consultants and colleagues have been very reserved when it comes to responding to some of the critiques aimed at them from the UFO “community” and I have followed their lead so far.
But as someone who was involved with this project since the very beginning – from about November of 2014 – I have been amused at times (and frustrated at others) at the misinformation and disinformation spread by its self-proclaimed opponents.
When you were there, and a witness to the events in question, and then have to listen to people who were not there insisting on their version of the “truth”, it gets pretty surreal. One would think that Ufologists in particular would be sensitive when it comes to attacking people on the basis of what they feel is a competing belief system, but I guess irony is not their strong suit.
My interest, though, is less in the actual falsehoods themselves (and the individuals who disseminate them) than it is in the phenomenon of the UFO conspiracy theory subculture, and the fact that Ufology feels threatened by the acceptance of the reality of UFOs now going mainstream, and by the support given to this effort by scientists, engineers, and military and intelligence professionals.
(Okay, now that I think about it, that does sound a little too reasonable and measured…)
So, actually, what I am going to do is tell it like it is. You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free … bitches!
In addition to my presentation on TTSA, I will be giving a workshop on “alien communication” from the point of view of the authors of the medieval grimoires. If you’ve ever wondered why L. Ron Hubbard started talking about space aliens even though he started his cultish career as a ceremonial magician, this is the workshop for you. (If you ever wondered why Joseph Smith, Jr. did the same thing a century earlier, come on down!)
You want to be prepared when the new Jack Parsons television series drops this June, don’t you? Unlike those who provide all sorts of strategies for sitting out in the desert and waiting for aliens to show up, I will be explaining how other cultures handled the same situation in a more proactive way.
In related news, my novel Dunwich has been published. It is the sequel to The Lovecraft Code, and it goes in a new direction. It amplifies the themes of the first novel, but takes them into some dangerous areas. Alien abduction and hybrids; genetic modification; pagan pedophilia; piracy on the high seas; the rather bizarre evocation of a goddess; and a human trafficking ring involving the use of children for ritual magic on a military base. All that, and the Necronomicon, too. What’s not to like? It’s a novel replete with easter eggs and sly allusions, and anyone who has followed this field for any length of time will be amused, intrigued, and ultimately informed. Pizzagate? Seriously? Learn something about real occultism and how it works, and then tell me your pizza theories. Dunwich is all about this subject. Think Dennis Wheately meets Donald Keyhoe in an underground brothel in Cambodia during Tet … and their bicycles broke.
In addition, the second volume of Sekret Machines (subtitled Man) has been completed and is being fact-checked by some experts before we send it off to the printers. A.J. Hartley’s fiction sequel will be available this Fall; my own Sekret Machines: Man shortly thereafter.
So if you were wondering where I was and why I have been silent, now you know.
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php? ... 2276609499
So, actually, what I am going to do is tell it like it is. You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free … bitches!
Nonetheless, the psychic plane is not exclusively demonic, otherwise we could not receive divine guidance in dreams, nor could physical miracles occur, since every influence from the spiritual realm must pass through the psychic realm before it can come into material reality. But because this is so, it is very difficult to tell whether a psychic or anomalous physical manifestation originates on the psychic or the spiritual plane. Nonetheless there is a profound difference in level between an act of magic (whether for the purpose of healing or harming) which emanates from the psychic plane, and a miracle originating on the Spiritual plane. Psychic or magical or shamanic practices are “technologies,” instances of willful intervention by human beings or psychic entities. Miracles are manifestations of the Spirit, the eternal truth and love of God, on the psychic and material levels.
Jeremy Corbell’s upcoming film based on George Knapp’s groundbreaking book of the same name was the subject of our interview for this edition of Radio Misterioso. The film has generated a great deal of buzz because of the controversial subject.
We went into depth about the history of the property known as “Skinwalker Ranch” and the various owners, incidents, research and high strangeness that have been swirling around the location since the early 1990s. The takeaway from the years of research conducted at the site seems to indicate that there is no one theory or mechanism that can account for all the strange activity observed. From cattle mutilations, eerie lights, shadowy figures, and paraphysical animals, to events and activities that seemed to trigger the phenomena, Corbell and Knapp report that no data-driven report or columns of numbers could solve the puzzle.
My guests also took time to answer some of the rumors that they say have gotten out of hand, such as stories of human experimentation and the idea that anything physical was ever found that could be examined in a laboratory. We discussed the little-known debate between the scientists who were originally assigned to do the first systematic research at the property, and their regrets about roads not taken. We also spoke about the history of government-sponsored research in the area, as well as the new owner of the property and his efforts to continue the work started by former owner Robert Bigelow.
I believe that you will hear things in this interview that have not been discussed elsewhere or previously.
Interstellar object may have been alien probe, Harvard paper argues, but experts are skeptical
By Steve George and Ashley Strickland, CNN
Updated 1:43 PM ET, Tue November 6, 2018
(CNN) A mysterious cigar-shaped object spotted tumbling through our solar system last year may have been an alien spacecraft sent to investigate Earth, astronomers from Harvard University have suggested.
The object, nicknamed 'Oumuamua, meaning "a messenger that reaches out from the distant past" in Hawaiian, was discovered in October 2017 by the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawaii.
Since its discovery, scientists have been at odds to explain its unusual features and precise origins, with researchers first calling it a comet and then an asteroid before finally deeming it the first of its kind: a new class of "interstellar objects."
A new paper by researchers at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics raises the possibility that the elongated dark-red object, which is 10 times as long as it is wide and traveling at speeds of 196,000 mph, might have an "artificial origin."
"'Oumuamua may be a fully operational probe sent intentionally to Earth vicinity by an alien civilization," they wrote in the paper, which has been submitted to the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The theory is based on the object's "excess acceleration," or its unexpected boost in speed as it traveled through and ultimately out of our solar system in January.
"Considering an artificial origin, one possibility is that 'Oumuamua is a light sail, floating in interstellar space as a debris from an advanced technological equipment," wrote the paper's authors, suggesting that the object could be propelled by solar radiation.
The paper was written by Abraham Loeb, professor and chair of astronomy, and Shmuel Bialy, a postdoctoral scholar, at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Loeb has published four books and more than 700 papers on topics like black holes, the future of the universe, the search for extraterrestrial life and the first stars.
The paper points out that comparable light-sails exist on Earth.
"Light-sails with similar dimensions have been designed and constructed by our own civilization, including the IKAROS project and the Starshot Initiative. The light-sail technology might be abundantly used for transportation of cargos between planets or between stars."
In the paper, the pair theorize that the object's high speed and its unusual trajectory could be the result of it no longer being operational.
Meet 'Oumuamua, the first observed interstellar visitor to our solar system
"This would account for the various anomalies of 'Oumuamua, such as the unusual geometry inferred from its light-curve, its low thermal emission, suggesting high reflectivity, and its deviation from a Keplerian orbit without any sign of a cometary tail or spin-up torques."
'Oumuamua is the first object ever seen in our solar system that is known to have originated elsewhere.
At first, astronomers thought the rapidly moving faint light was a regular comet or an asteroid that had originated in our solar system.
Comets, in particular, are known to speed up due to "outgassing," a process in which the sun heats the surface of the icy comet, releasing melted gas. But 'Oumuamua didn't have a "coma," the atmosphere and dust that surrounds comets as they melt.
Multiple telescopes focused on the object for three nights to determine what it was before it moved out of sight.
Going forward, the researchers believe we should search for other interstellar objects in our sky.
"It is exciting to live at a time when we have the scientific technology to search for evidence of alien civilizations," Loeb wrote in an email. "The evidence about `Oumuamua is not conclusive but interesting. I will be truly excited once we have conclusive evidence."
Is this just fantasy?
Other mysteries in space have previously been thought of as signs of extraterrestrial life: a mysterious radio signal, repeating fast radio bursts and even a strangely flickering star, known as Tabby's Star.
The mysterious radio signal was later determined to be coming from Earth, the repeating fast radio bursts are still being investigated, and new research suggests that Tabby's Star is flickering because of dust -- rather than being an alien megastructure.
So what does that mean for 'Oumuamua?
"I am distinctly unconvinced and honestly think the study is rather flawed," Alan Jackson, fellow at the Centre for Planetary Sciences at the University of Toronto Scarborough, wrote in an email. "Carl Sagan once said, 'extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence' and this paper is distinctly lacking in evidence nevermind extraordinary evidence."
Jackson published a paper in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society in March that suggests that 'Oumuamua came from a binary star system, or a system with two stars.
Jackson said the spectral data from 'Oumuamua looks like an asteroid or a comet, while that of a solar sail would look very different. The new paper proposes that the sail has been coated in interstellar dust, which obscures its true spectral signature.
"Any functional spacecraft would almost certainly retract its solar sail once in interstellar space to prevent damage," Jackson said. "The sail is useless once away from a star so there would be no reason to leave it deployed. If it was then deployed again on entering the solar system it would be pristine. Even if it was left deployed the dust accumulation would be primarily on the leading side like bugs on a windshield."
'Oumuamua also travels in a complex tumbling spin, but a functioning solar sail would have a much smoother path and obvious radiation-driven acceleration, Jackson said. Even the spinning motion of a damaged solar sail would be far more strongly influenced by the radiation forces than seen, he explained.
The solar sail would also be thinner than the authors of the new paper describe, he said.
"The sail on IKAROS is 7.5 micrometres thick with a mass of only 0.001g/cm^2, 100 times lower than their estimate," Jackson said. "While a combined spacecraft and sail could have a higher net mass the sail itself needs to be extremely light. That would also significantly change their estimate for how far it could travel before falling apart -- though as I said, I doubt any functional craft would leave its sail deployed in interstellar space."
Solar sails also can't change course after being launched, so if 'Oumuamua was truly a solar sail, it would be traceable back to its origin. So far, there is no obvious origin for 'Oumuamua.
"Beyond that, it becomes difficult to trace because of the motion of the stars and any hypothetical alien civilisation would face the same issue in charting a course that long in the first place (aside from arguments about whether they would want to launch a craft they knew would not reach its destination for many millions of years)," Jackson said.
Concerning 'Oumuamua, there is little evidence because astronomers weren't able to observe it for long, which opens it up to speculation in the name of science.
"The thing you have to understand is: scientists are perfectly happy to publish an outlandish idea if it has even the tiniest 'sliver' of a chance of not being wrong," astrophysicist and cosmologist Katherine Mack tweeted. "But until every other possibility has been exhausted dozen times over, even the authors probably don't believe it."Katie Mack
@AstroKatie
The thing you have to understand is: scientists are perfectly happy to publish an outlandish idea if it has even the tiniest *sliver* of a chance of not being wrong. But until every other possibility has been exhausted dozen times over, even the authors probably don’t believe it.
6:45 PM - Nov 5, 2018
1,092
284 people are talking about this
But it's important to distinguish that the researchers who wrote the new paper have expertise in solar sails, so they're suggesting that 'Oumuamua could be like a solar sail, said Coryn Bailer-Jones of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy. Bailer-Jones' paper on possible origin sites for 'Oumuamua was accepted by the Astrophysical Journal in September.
"Aliens would only come into all of this if you accept their assumption (and that's what it is; it doesn't come from the data) that 'Oumuamua is sail-like, and also assume nothing like that can be natural," Bailer-Jones wrote in an email. "In fact, they only mention the word 'alien' once, when they mention in passing that 'Oumuamua might have been targeted to intercept the solar system.
"I have no problem with this kind of speculative study," Bailer-Jones added. "It's fun and thought-provoking, and the issue of whether there is alien life out there is really important. But the paper doesn't give any evidence for aliens (and the authors don't claim that, I should note.)"
https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/06/health/o ... index.html
Elvis » Tue Nov 06, 2018 5:28 pm wrote:Here's the actual scientific paper, read it if you can: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1810.11490.pdf
CNN uses less math; video & links there:Interstellar object may have been alien probe, Harvard paper argues, but experts are skeptical
By Steve George and Ashley Strickland, CNN
Updated 1:43 PM ET, Tue November 6, 2018
(CNN) A mysterious cigar-shaped object spotted tumbling through our solar system last year may have been an alien spacecraft sent to investigate Earth, astronomers from Harvard University have suggested.
The object, nicknamed 'Oumuamua, meaning "a messenger that reaches out from the distant past" in Hawaiian, was discovered in October 2017 by the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawaii.
Since its discovery, scientists have been at odds to explain its unusual features and precise origins, with researchers first calling it a comet and then an asteroid before finally deeming it the first of its kind: a new class of "interstellar objects."
A new paper by researchers at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics raises the possibility that the elongated dark-red object, which is 10 times as long as it is wide and traveling at speeds of 196,000 mph, might have an "artificial origin."
"'Oumuamua may be a fully operational probe sent intentionally to Earth vicinity by an alien civilization," they wrote in the paper, which has been submitted to the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The theory is based on the object's "excess acceleration," or its unexpected boost in speed as it traveled through and ultimately out of our solar system in January.
"Considering an artificial origin, one possibility is that 'Oumuamua is a light sail, floating in interstellar space as a debris from an advanced technological equipment," wrote the paper's authors, suggesting that the object could be propelled by solar radiation.
The paper was written by Abraham Loeb, professor and chair of astronomy, and Shmuel Bialy, a postdoctoral scholar, at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Loeb has published four books and more than 700 papers on topics like black holes, the future of the universe, the search for extraterrestrial life and the first stars.
The paper points out that comparable light-sails exist on Earth.
"Light-sails with similar dimensions have been designed and constructed by our own civilization, including the IKAROS project and the Starshot Initiative. The light-sail technology might be abundantly used for transportation of cargos between planets or between stars."
In the paper, the pair theorize that the object's high speed and its unusual trajectory could be the result of it no longer being operational.
Meet 'Oumuamua, the first observed interstellar visitor to our solar system
"This would account for the various anomalies of 'Oumuamua, such as the unusual geometry inferred from its light-curve, its low thermal emission, suggesting high reflectivity, and its deviation from a Keplerian orbit without any sign of a cometary tail or spin-up torques."
'Oumuamua is the first object ever seen in our solar system that is known to have originated elsewhere.
At first, astronomers thought the rapidly moving faint light was a regular comet or an asteroid that had originated in our solar system.
Comets, in particular, are known to speed up due to "outgassing," a process in which the sun heats the surface of the icy comet, releasing melted gas. But 'Oumuamua didn't have a "coma," the atmosphere and dust that surrounds comets as they melt.
Multiple telescopes focused on the object for three nights to determine what it was before it moved out of sight.
Going forward, the researchers believe we should search for other interstellar objects in our sky.
"It is exciting to live at a time when we have the scientific technology to search for evidence of alien civilizations," Loeb wrote in an email. "The evidence about `Oumuamua is not conclusive but interesting. I will be truly excited once we have conclusive evidence."
Is this just fantasy?
Other mysteries in space have previously been thought of as signs of extraterrestrial life: a mysterious radio signal, repeating fast radio bursts and even a strangely flickering star, known as Tabby's Star.
The mysterious radio signal was later determined to be coming from Earth, the repeating fast radio bursts are still being investigated, and new research suggests that Tabby's Star is flickering because of dust -- rather than being an alien megastructure.
So what does that mean for 'Oumuamua?
"I am distinctly unconvinced and honestly think the study is rather flawed," Alan Jackson, fellow at the Centre for Planetary Sciences at the University of Toronto Scarborough, wrote in an email. "Carl Sagan once said, 'extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence' and this paper is distinctly lacking in evidence nevermind extraordinary evidence."
Jackson published a paper in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society in March that suggests that 'Oumuamua came from a binary star system, or a system with two stars.
Jackson said the spectral data from 'Oumuamua looks like an asteroid or a comet, while that of a solar sail would look very different. The new paper proposes that the sail has been coated in interstellar dust, which obscures its true spectral signature.
"Any functional spacecraft would almost certainly retract its solar sail once in interstellar space to prevent damage," Jackson said. "The sail is useless once away from a star so there would be no reason to leave it deployed. If it was then deployed again on entering the solar system it would be pristine. Even if it was left deployed the dust accumulation would be primarily on the leading side like bugs on a windshield."
'Oumuamua also travels in a complex tumbling spin, but a functioning solar sail would have a much smoother path and obvious radiation-driven acceleration, Jackson said. Even the spinning motion of a damaged solar sail would be far more strongly influenced by the radiation forces than seen, he explained.
The solar sail would also be thinner than the authors of the new paper describe, he said.
"The sail on IKAROS is 7.5 micrometres thick with a mass of only 0.001g/cm^2, 100 times lower than their estimate," Jackson said. "While a combined spacecraft and sail could have a higher net mass the sail itself needs to be extremely light. That would also significantly change their estimate for how far it could travel before falling apart -- though as I said, I doubt any functional craft would leave its sail deployed in interstellar space."
Solar sails also can't change course after being launched, so if 'Oumuamua was truly a solar sail, it would be traceable back to its origin. So far, there is no obvious origin for 'Oumuamua.
"Beyond that, it becomes difficult to trace because of the motion of the stars and any hypothetical alien civilisation would face the same issue in charting a course that long in the first place (aside from arguments about whether they would want to launch a craft they knew would not reach its destination for many millions of years)," Jackson said.
Concerning 'Oumuamua, there is little evidence because astronomers weren't able to observe it for long, which opens it up to speculation in the name of science.
"The thing you have to understand is: scientists are perfectly happy to publish an outlandish idea if it has even the tiniest 'sliver' of a chance of not being wrong," astrophysicist and cosmologist Katherine Mack tweeted. "But until every other possibility has been exhausted dozen times over, even the authors probably don't believe it."Katie Mack
@AstroKatie
The thing you have to understand is: scientists are perfectly happy to publish an outlandish idea if it has even the tiniest *sliver* of a chance of not being wrong. But until every other possibility has been exhausted dozen times over, even the authors probably don’t believe it.
6:45 PM - Nov 5, 2018
1,092
284 people are talking about this
But it's important to distinguish that the researchers who wrote the new paper have expertise in solar sails, so they're suggesting that 'Oumuamua could be like a solar sail, said Coryn Bailer-Jones of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy. Bailer-Jones' paper on possible origin sites for 'Oumuamua was accepted by the Astrophysical Journal in September.
"Aliens would only come into all of this if you accept their assumption (and that's what it is; it doesn't come from the data) that 'Oumuamua is sail-like, and also assume nothing like that can be natural," Bailer-Jones wrote in an email. "In fact, they only mention the word 'alien' once, when they mention in passing that 'Oumuamua might have been targeted to intercept the solar system.
"I have no problem with this kind of speculative study," Bailer-Jones added. "It's fun and thought-provoking, and the issue of whether there is alien life out there is really important. But the paper doesn't give any evidence for aliens (and the authors don't claim that, I should note.)"
https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/06/health/o ... index.html
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