A Reader Asks about Contactees and James Gilliland’s Ranch
July 27, 2009 - 9:05pm
From MB in Texas:
I wanted to congratulate you on a very nice website. I am very glad to see the UFO phenomenon Investigation to become a more open and so called respectable field. I always felt that MUFON was a great organization to have doing the research.
I do have a couple of questions I hope you will answer for me. I have never been to your grand state, I am from Texas. It seems the “climate” around this subject is viewed somewhat differently here. I am asking these questions because a little over a year ago I began to have multiple sightings and was excited to report them to MUFON. I was roundly dismissed as some kook. I was so dissappointed and I admit a bit perplexed. I thought they were the guys to go to. However I got over that and just began to observe, document, and learn what I could. I have come to realize this is a very real phenomenon and needs serious study.
Here are my questions for you. You have the ECETI ranch right there. MUFON needs to have a more open mind to the contact issue. Why are you not positioned to try and understand what is happening there all the time?
You think the number of so called abductees is large, the numbers in the contact underground are huge. They don’t even have the support of most Ufologist so they remain in the dark. James Gilliland is out in the open and willing to share. I ask why have you not formed an alliance so this aspect could be better understood?
Dear MB:
The questions you have posed are excellent. I will try and respond to them from my personal perspective on UFO’s and Contact; I can’t speak for MUFON. I am only the Chief Investigator in Washington, but I have been involved in this field for a long time, and in MUFON since 1986. I can’t possibly comment on your reports to MUFON because I don’t know what you reported.
I have not been to James Gilliland’s ranch. I do know there is a long history of mysterious lights at the ranch and in general, near Mount Adams, Yakima and other areas in the US. The lights have been seen repeatedly by reliable witnesses and they have been photographed. Here is an excellent website with multiple sources of information on what I believe has been correctly termed “Nocturnal Light Phenomena.” (http://www.vogelstudy.org/archives.htm )
Where the question arises is when we attempt to explain the origin of the lights. I will state as a general rule that witness observations of distant lights in the night sky are tricky: estimations of distance, size, shape and nature are problematic.
There is no way I can stop being an investigator; this means I keep questioning my assumptions about the perceived information. I can only answer your basic question with a question: how do we go from mysterious nocturnal lights to intelligently controlled craft proving the presence of non-human intelligence(s) in our world?
Everything I have learned about UFO’s indicates it is a world-wide phenomena. I have trouble with the idea that one man on a ranch in Trout Lake is the contact person for ET.
Mr. Gilliland and I do share one thing: we both hope mankind will be enlightened by our contact with higher, better beings from the rest of the Universe. I can sum up my hopes simply: if had to choose my all-time, bar none favorite movie, it would be Frank Capra’s 1937 Lost Horizon because it beautifully portrays human existence as it should be.
But I, like MUFON, have to function in the real world. The Corporate Media likes UFO’s as long as whatever is reported can be used as a cute filler story and the reporter can crack a few cliché jokes about “little green men” or people wearing “tin foil hats.” The UFO phenomenon is almost completely marginalized.
The reason we are so readily dismissed is caused by a long-term disinformation campaign; all the major intelligence organizations in the world consider disinformation to be a legitimate function of government; we need to be protected from what we might think if we really knew what was going on.
But we are also marginalized because of the claims made by contactees in the past. Because MUFON is a well-known organization we have to be careful what we endorse. Mr. Gilliland has made claims that will be very difficult for most people to accept without evidence. A film of a strange light in the night sky may be evidence of ET, or it may not.
Mr. Gilliland, apparently because he is a man of peace who advocates enlightenment has chosen to conclude the mysterious lights are definitely evidence of ET Contact. The evidence I have examined supports the reality of the phenomena, but not the explanation.
You mentioned that you took photographs that contained images of unexpected objects. As an investigator, these reports are very difficult to handle. I spent too many years in court rooms. In order to validate any photographic image the law requires that the photographer is able to swear the image is a true and accurate representation of what was observed at a particular location, date and time. I think you can see the problem; this becomes even more problematic with the advent of digital cameras and programs like Adobe Photoshop.
This may not be what you want to hear, but I have to keep it real. The risk is too great, and too many Contactees have made claims that no one else can verify. This may be because they are delusional; it may also be because there is a certain Trickster element inherent to our interaction with Non-Human Intelligence.
This may not be what you want to hear, and I stress this is not necessarily what MUFON would endorse, but you asked me to respond and I have.
James E Clarkson