In Show Biz and perhaps in Ufology, “There is no such thing as Bad Publicity.”
Joseph Burkes MD 2020, edited 2023
Political journalist Tom Rogan has been seen on the Tucker Carlson TV show acknowledging the reality and importance of the UFO phenomenon. In this article published in 2020, appearing at the conservative news website, “The Washington Examiner” linked below, he focused on Dr. Steven Greer’s CSETI “Ambassadors” trainings and asks, “Did Steven Greer Fake a UFO with flares?”
Rogan describes the controversial Jan 27, 2015, CSETI outing in which two brilliant lights were video recorded off the coast of Florida. Critics claim that these video images are nothing more than flares dropped from a plane flying over the water. Tom Rogan investigating the incident discovered information suggesting that this may indeed have been the case.
Reportedly using FlightAware flight tracking data, Rogan discovered that there was a private plane over the water in the exact location where the lights were observed to be. In addition, the craft was reportedly moving at the low speed of 85 miles per hour. This presumably could allow its crew to deploy parachuted flares.
On the AATIP Facebook page, where I found this Washington Examiner link, in the comment section Steven Greer was accused of running a cult as well as being a hoaxer.
Here is my response:I was a member of this Board of Directors for five years, 1992-1997, a coordinator for the LA CE-5 contact team and a spokesperson for his Center. I left in 1998 for personal and political reasons, but I must affirm that he functioned during the early days like a human UFO magnet. Multiply witnessed bona fide UFO sightings did occur on many of his outings, but curiously only during the initial Gulf Breeze encounter in 1992 did he ever get quality video.
Steven Macon Greer is not the only person that functions like a “UFO magnet.” I worked with several others. I call these very unusual people, “Prime Contactees” and they all follow a similar pattern to Greer. Frequent UFO sightings as youths, advanced meditation practice typically with no adult supervision or encouragement, and the ability to attract the phenomenon to them with others present to verify their special relationship with the intelligence behind the phenomenon.
For these and other reasons, Mr. John Petersen of the Arlington Institute and friend of James Woolsey (CIA head under Clinton), set up meeting for Greer with Woolsey in 1993. The Pentagon also had liaison with the CSETI Director by permitting Commander Will Miller of Navy Intelligence to be his “advisor.” This part of history is outlined in Grant Cameron’s book “Managing Magic.” Grant Cameron in my judgment effectively demonstrates how the Executive Branch intelligence services employ controversial individuals like author Bill Moore, Dr. Steven Greer and currently Tom Delonge as part of a gradual “acclimatization” program.
Based on reports from people working with the CSETI Director since I resigned in 1998, it appears as if his ability to attract the phenomenon has waned somewhat from the early years. The same thing reportedly happened to another “Prime Contactee” from Peru, Sixto Paz Wells.
This said, is it possible for Greer to have hoaxed that video? Sure, it is. Is it likely? Probably not. I believe this is so because, among other reasons, his operation is a small (albeit financially successful) family business. In my opinion, he wouldn’t want to spend the money to fake such an event. If the plane that flew slowly in the area where the lights were seen as Tom Rogan asserts, actually dropped flares, my guess is that the CSETI Director was possibly set up to make him appear foolish.
Despite the negative publicity surrounding this event, Steven Greer MD continues to have a large following on social media. His YouTube presentation have hundreds of thousands of viewers and his documentaries have appeared on popular platforms like Amazon Prime Video.
I suppose one way to settle this controversy might be to entice someone like former Navy optical physicist Bruce Maccabee to take a look at the spectroscopy of flares and compare that pattern with the alleged UFOs that Steve Macon Greer claimed were flying saucers.
I was one of the early activists of the Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence. I was a working group coordinator of the CE-5 Initiative from 1992 to 1997. In 1998 I resigned from CSETI and have not spoken to Steven Greer MD since. If I had to choose one word to sum up my view of the CSETI Director, it would be “disappointment.” As a former peace and justice activist from the 1960s to the 1980s, when I joined CSETI I had high hopes for the contact network operating under Dr. Greer’s banner. I imagined that it could turn into a peace movement with broad social support. Instead, we were locked into an organizational model that was and continues to be a small family business. He still raises consciousness on important issues concerning contact with UAP intelligences, but the baggage he carries with that effort is discouraging to witness.
Nevertheless, the CSETI Director is a champion for what I call Human Initiated Contact Events (HICE). Although the disturbing aspects of his persona might discourage people from engaging in his particular brand of outreach to UFO intelligences, I believe that in the long run, some considerable good has accrued from his efforts.
THIS IS THE LINK TO TOM ROGAN’S 2020 WASHINGTON EXAMINER ARTICLE:
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/did-steven-greer-fake-a-ufo-with-flares
The UK web site “The Phrase Finder offers a brief history of the proverb, “There is no such thing as bad publicity.”
The phrase is described as “the notion that all mentions in the media aid a person’s cause”
It harkens back to a statement made by the great 19th century playwright Oscar Wilde,
“The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.”
Contact Underground 