Oregon L.O.W.F.I

Archive for the ‘UFO Conferences’ Category

Oregon Sasquatch Symposium
Saturday, June 19 at 9:00 am
Sunday, June 20 at 5:00 pm
Eugene, Oregon –  Lane Community College Campus

Autumn Williams will be the keynote speaker. See here for Autumn’s excellent blog post about the symposium, her thoughts on witnesses and BF and her new book… (in fact, her whole site is the best in the field, I think, for it contains data, research, as well as an open minded approach to various Bigfoot theories…)

Toby Johnson is the one behind all this, and it seems like he’s doing a fantastic job!

Visit the Symposium site for more info.

See you there!

I was surprised to find that the skeptibunkies at the JREF have created a thread devoted to the McMinnville UFO Fest.

Among the expected and usual, is this comment from “kittynh” (who likes to play UFO researcher; explore the history, if you have the inclination) on Travis Walton:

TRAVIS WALTON is still raking in money on the UFO thing?

Yeah, he and all other UFO researchers and witnesses are rolling in the dough, as we all know. That’s how we can afford our secret underground tin foil encased villa in the Mediterranean.

“Gord in Toronto” reassures fellow skeptics that:

The UFO folks are “Mostly harmless”* and it’s not likely that you’ll be inducted into any cult.

Of course there were a few members who posted this infamous link to the Trent UFO sighting (of which the McMinnville UFO conference/fest is in homage to) that rabid skeptoid Robert Sheaffer “debunks” the Trent case. Sheaffer is not only among the most loathsome of skeptics, he’s a raging misogynist.

As I posted on UFOMystic a week or so ago, (A Ha! I Knew It; Skeptics Infiltrate McMinnville UFO Fest) the skeptics do intentionally infiltrate the McMinnville UFO conference, as no doubt they do all over the country at various UFO conferences. I hadn’t heard any skeptic questions asked during the Q&A this time, but I did leave while they were still taking questions at all three presentations. So it’s possible I missed something skeptoid wise. I know in years past they asked ponderous, pedantic and generally stupid questions, though entertaining.

Besides the skeptics not being overt this year, I also missed the religious zealots who like to sing and shout at UFO conference attendees. Maybe they were there and I missed them or maybe they decided to cool it this year; don’t know.

Related stuff:
McMinnville, Oregon UFO: Festivals and Hoaxes

Cross-posted at my blog <a href=”http://www.theskeptoidzone.com/”>Snarly Skepticism and Unofficial JREF Watch</a>

A couple of items on McMinnville’s UFO conference: here’s something by Deirdre at Interstellar Housewife, and my item at UFOMystic. More to come, including something on the amazing Colin Andrews. So much to process on that!

This weekend is the McMinnville UFO Fest, which honors the 1950 Trent UFO sighting. This year’s speakers include Colin Andrews and Travis Walton.

In June, there will be the first annual Bigfoot conference in these parts in Eugene; the Annual Oregon Sasquatch Symposium. A great line-up of speakers; Autumn Williams, Sali Shepherd Wolford, and many more. Find out more here.

I’ll be attending both of course!

Getting ready for the McMinnville, Oregon UFO Fest this weekend. I hope to do my first podcast from there — prerecorded, not live, but a podcast nonetheless — with guests Erik Stitt and Deirdre O’Leavery of Instellar Housewife. Both are writers for UFO Magazine’s blog, as well as having their own sites.

Here’s a PDF of a collection of McMinnville related pieces I’ve written, including on one McMinnville Festival I attended where Richard Dolan was the presenter.

McMinnville, Oregon UFO: Festivals and Hoaxes

McMinnville, Oregon’s annual UFO Fest in May has speakers Travis Walton and Colin Andrews among the presenters:

McMINNVILLE, Ore.—Tuesday, March 2, 2010—The buzz is building as we get closer to the 11th Annual UFO Festival on May 14 and 15, 2010, hosted by McMenamins Hotel Oregon (3130 NE Evans St., [503] 472-8427 or [888] 472-8427). The festival, set in a small town in the middle of Oregon wine country, explores and celebrates the possibilities of life beyond Earth. We will welcome keynote speaker and author James Clarkson, a well-known UFO investigator; U.K. crop circle expert Colin Andrews; and UFO witness and abductee Travis Walton, on whom the book and Hollywood film “Fire in the Sky” was based. Passes are $10 per event, $15 for two events or $25 for all three events; UFO passes are available beginning March 15 at ufofest.com.

We’re already booked! See you there…

(Also at my blog UFO Proletariat)

At the McMinnville UFO Festival in Oregon last spring, the Bales brothers gave a simple, yet on the edge of your seat presentation about their giant triangle sighting in Idaho. During the Q & A one man chided the brothers for not being more involved in UFO research. He expected them to be sudden experts, with a mission and message of spiritual alien based insight. An astoundingly arrogant and condescending comment to make. After a slight pause, one of the brothers, who looked a bit confused at the comment, simply said “We’re here, aren’t we?”

Peter Davenport, who provides us with a much needed database of UFO reports, is perennially irritated at people who won’t “take ten minutes” to write a UFO report in “black ink on white paper.” His frustration is understandable, but not everyone feels comfortable putting such experiences down on paper. Treating UFO witnesses like stupid school children discourages people from making UFO reports.

I’ve been involved in a few local UFO minded groups through the years. The seeds of such gatherings are simple: people getting together to talk about UFOs. The purpose of these groups is to have people with experiences to share with others, but I’ve found there isn’t much honesty happening in these groups. Because as soon as you have the “leaders” of such groups state what will, and what will not, be accepted, you are being dishonest. Telling witnesses to keep things positive — in other words, don’t talk about the scary, negative parts of your experience — is a type of control. Creating a forum of only what you want to hear, in the form you want to hear it, is being dishonest. It sets up false forums of data; if you are continuously rejecting accounts you don’t like based on your biases, you’re not after genuine UFO experiences.

None of these methods consider the individual’s experience. We listen and decide they’re too negative, or not spiritual enough, or not literate enough, or are too lazy because they won’t write something down, or . . .

And maybe they are some of those things, sometimes. Maybe some witnesses are too lazy or incompetent to write a report. Maybe the witness is still experiencing trauma from their encounter and are stuck, for the time being, in a dark place. Maybe their paranoia and fears, their nervousness and confusion, is part of the process and where they need to be for awhile. Making witnesses feel bad, lazy or stupid — or crazy because they’re depressed or anxious — pushes them away.

All we can expect from people who have decided to come forward in whatever small way with their UFO experience is honesty. Negative, positive, spiritual, literate, sloppy, bad spellers, — doesn’t much matter, if they are being honest.

Notes

BOA interview: Tim Binnall interviews Peter Davenport
http://www.binnallofamerica.com/boaa12.9.9.html

Peter Davenport: National UFO Reporting Center
http://www.nuforc.org

McMinnville, Oregon’s UFO Fest.com: annual UFO Festival in May
http://www.ufofest.com/ufofest07/

The 10th annual UFO Festival in McMinnville, Oregon is coming! It happens in May, and I’ll write more about this as we get closer to the date. Meanwhile, check out the official UFO McMinnville website.

I’ve attended the last two years, and it was great fun both times. Last year I had the honor and pleasure to spend a long lunch with Richard and Karyn Dolan (Richard was the keynote speaker at the Festival.)

You can download my McMinnville, Oregon UFO: Festivals and Hoaxes at Lulu.com.