[escepticos] IMPLANTES EXTRATERRENOS

[planetario@...>]

Una de las tonterias que se incluye en el folklore platillista (ufo-lore),
mas concretamente entre la Congregacion Abduccionista (supongo que talmente
un beapterio a lo Maria Egipciaca) es la existencia de personas con
implantes (si, aparte de la pobre Scully). Ademas de la popularizacion
conseguida con la serie Expedientes X, la marea va a subir unos cuantos
metros con el nuevo libro de Whitley Strieber: "Confirmation". Por si no os
suena este gordito escritor, cosa nada extranna, aunque vende chiquicientas
veces mas que JJ Pitagoras, se trata de un escritor que antes escribio
ficcion de terror (algun relato ciertamente notable, aunque un tanto de la
escuela de S. King para mi gusto) y que le dio por entrar de santon de las
abducciones con su libro "Communion", que aunque en Espanna apenas tuvo
relevancia fue todo un boom a finales de los 80 en EEUU, de manera que
siguio con el filon hallado. Se hizo hasta una pelicula, aunque en nuestro
pais no llego a salir a la pantalla, distribuyendose primero en video y
luego en las televisiones, o sea, como ese material de relleno que se compra
porque se desean peliculas mas famosas... Ni el hecho de que el relato del
primer libro se contradiga con el del segundo, ni la existencia de un libro
divertidisimo de ua persona (perdon porque olvide el nombre y la referencia,
como siempre) un periodista que le pillo en unas cuantas, pero sustanciales,
trampillas, ni su penosa novela "Majestic" que trataba de engancharse a otro
carro economicamente provechoso, esto es, el asunto Roswell, nada de ello
(nada nuevo, claro) ha disminuido un apice la admiracion del publico por
Strieber, con lo que cada vez que saca un libro, la monta parda... Puede ser
que al ser uno de los primeros humanos que reconocieron haber sido violados
analmente por los seres que le abdujeron haya calado en ciertos sectores de
la poblacion americana muy respetuosos con los acosos de tipo sexual, quien
sabe. Por cierto, que visto el titulo completo del libro, parece que
Strieber se ha decidido ya a afirmar que sus raptores eran
extraterrestres... en Communion la cosa quedaba mas light, sin afirmar
nada... Si es que en cuanto entra el tema del dinero, todo el mundo se
desmelena...
Bueno, vale de introduccion. He aqui la nota (en ingles, sorry) emitida por
el CSICOP sobre el tema.
(Nota: solo para amantes de la ufologia mas ufologa)

javier a.

> COUNCIL FOR MEDIA INTEGRITY ALERT
> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
> Contact Matt Nisbet 716-636-1425 ext 219
>  http://www.csicop.org
>
>
> ALIEN IMPLANTS?
>
> _CONFIRMATION: The Hard Evidence of Aliens Among Us_
> Whitley Streiber's Latest Book Offers Little of Substance
>
> UFO Cult Hero Produces More Science Fantasy
>
> AMHERST, N.Y.--  Feeding on the rampant popularity of alien implant lore,
>Whitley Streiber follows-up his alien abduction tale _Communion_ with
>_CONFIRMATION: The Hard Evidence of Aliens Among Us_(St. Martin's Press.)
>Alien implants have captured the public's fascination with televised
>dramatizations like the X-Files and pseudocumentaries like Psi Factor and
>Sightings.  Now enters Streiber with his latest attempt to sensationalize
and
>popularize UFO beliefs.
>
> According to a press release from St. Martin's, Streiber's argument for
alien
>implant evidence is featured in the May issue of LIFE magazine
(www.life.com)
>and will be the subject of a November NBC special co-hosted by the author.
>
> "The media frequently take science fiction and weave it into misleading
>science fact.  NBC is a leading source of information for the world public.
>If NBC plans a special on alien implants, it would be our hope that they
would
>include a healthy dose of science and skepticism" says Paul Kurtz, founder
of
>CSICOP and a member of the coordinating committee for the COUNCIL FOR MEDIA
>INTEGRITY. (If you would like to send comments to NBC Programming, go to
><A
HREF="http://www.nbc.com/email_original.html";>http://www.nbc.com/email_orig
>inal.html</A>  and click on the "Movies, Minis, and Specials" icon.)
>
> Attached is a critical review of the claims made in CONFIRMATION. It is
>written by CSICOP Senior Research Fellow Joe Nickell.  He is the author or
>editor of over 15 books on investigation and the paranormal including _UFO
>Invasion_, _Secrets of the Supernatural_, and _Entities_.
>http://www.prometheusbooks.com/
>
> --30--
> The Council for Media Integrity is a network of distinguished
international
>scientists and academics concerned with the balanced portrayal of science
in
>the media.  Members of the Council include E.O. Wilson, Stephen Jay Gould,
>Martin Gardner, Steve Allen and Sir John Maddox.  Co-chairs of the Council
are
>Nobel laureate Glenn T. Seaborg and author/entertainer Steve Allen.
>
> _____________________________________________________
> Alien Implants: The New "Hard Evidence"
> Joe Nickell
>
> Science fiction author Whitley Strieber continues to promote the notion of
>extraterrestrial visitations. His _Communion: A True Story_ (1987) told of
his
>own close encounter -- actually what psychologist Robert A. Baker has
>diagnosed as "a classic, textbook description of a hypnopompic
hallucination"
>(or "waking dream"). Now, several money-making books later, Strieber offers
>_Confirmation: The Hard Evidence of Aliens Among Us_. In addition to UFO
>sightings and close encounters, there is the hard evidence, quite
literally --
>alien implants!
>
> Implants are the latest rage in UFO circles, and Strieber marshals the
>diagnostic, radiographic, surgical, photographic, and analytic evidence
that
>supposedly indicates -- but admittedly does not prove -- extraterrestrials
are
>implanting devices in human beings.
>
> The concept of implants is an outgrowth of the modern UFO craze which
began
>in 1947. In the 1960s came reports of alien abductions, events now
understood
>to consist largely of waking dreams, hypnosis-induced fantasies, and
hoaxes.
>Implants seem to have begun with the alleged 1967 abduction of a
Massachusetts
>woman, Betty Andreasson, who described a tiny spiked ball that had supposed
ly
>been inserted up her nose.
>
> Soon such devices began to proliferate, one of which survived and was
>thoroughly investigated by the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) in the late
>1980s. Possessed by a self-claimed abductee, the object had supposedly been
>implanted by his extraterrestrial abductors, but was later dislodged when
he
>caught a cold and blew his nose. It proved to be a common ball bearing!
>
> Since 1994 alleged implants have been surgically recovered but they've
become
>remarkably diverse: one looks like a shard of glass, another a triangular
>piece of metal, still another a carbon fiber, and so on. None was located
in
>the brain or nasal cavity, instead being recovered from such extremities as
>toe, hand, shin, external ear, etc.; some were accompanied by scars while
>others were not.
>
> As physicians know, a foreign object can enter the body unnoticed, as
during
>a fall, or while running barefoot in sand or grass -- even as a splinter
from
>a larger impacting object. Such foreign objects may become surrounded by a
>membrane, like several of the recovered "implants."
>
> In _Confirmation_ Whitley Strieber describes several of the implants
>including one removed from his own external ear by a physician. It turned
out
>to be collagen, the substance from which cartilage is formed. Strieber
admits
>that the promised "hard evidence" provided by implants is not so hard after
>all: "I hope this book will not cause a rush to judgement," he writes,
"with
>skeptics trying to prove that evidence so far retrieved is worthless while
UFO
>believers conclude that it is proof. Both approaches are a waste of time,
>because the conclusive evidence has not yet been gathered."
>
> Of course, it is not skeptics but implant advocates who have the burden of
>proof -- a burden they have emphatically failed to meet. Indeed, the
implant
>concept -- like the larger alien abduction phenomenon itself -- lacks proof
>that it has an objective reality. Instead, the evidence indicates it is
simply
>part of an evolving UFO mythology. Its theme of entities exerting influence
>over humans is one seen in many variants, ranging from ancient mythical
lore
>to modern science fiction and persisting in some form in popular culture.
>There have always been individuals -- fantasizers as well as paranoid
>schizophrenics -- who have heard voices that directed or controlled them,
>voices that are expressions of hopes and fears. Therefore it seems safe to
>predict that, as the millennium draws near, there will be further claims of
>"hard evidence" of extraterrestrial visitation. We may also expect that
>misperceptions and exaggerations of natural phenomena, as well as hoaxes,
will
>abound.