Q & A with the director of The Hidden Hand

trailer for The Hidden Hand

The Hidden Hand is a feature length documentary directed by James Carmen. The subject is the UFO phenomenon and all it’s complexities. A few years back I got to hang out with James in my old neighborhood in New York City. I’ve seen him a bunch more times at UFO conferences where he was hard at work on this documentary. It’ll be available on September 1st, and I’m super honored to sing it’s praises and also to help get the word out. 



Here's a short interview with James where I get to ask a few questions about the production.

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Mike C: I saw an earlier version of this movie while it was still in production. What I just watched was quite different than what I remember seeing a few years ago. What was the evolution process that lead to this finalized version?

James: First off, thanks for taking interest in my film. I started making The Hidden Hand with a documentary and a narrative structure to it. I wanted to make an "artsy" film. I was shooting with Al Bielek and Gloria Hawker, creating a narrative story around their own personal experiences. In a way, It's a great film in of itself, and I'd like to finish it, but I found that audiences were confused with the mix of storytelling and straight documentary, so I took all the narrative elements out and made the film as straight ahead as I could. I think the subject matter requires it.

What obstacles did you run into trying to tackle such a complex subject?

The film has been a real labor of love. It took me 8 years to make and a year and a half to get distributed. Since I have financed it myself, I always had to wait for until I earned more money so I could  go to the next step. Making any film nowadays is a very heady enterprise. Besides just making the film, one must attend to legal, distribution, promotion, archival and insurance aspects of the film so it can be seen. My lawyer wanted me to change some things so I wouldn't be sued.

I have to assume you have some great stuff that never made the final cut, what's happening with that stuff?

I would like to post all the interviews on my website. I have a real treasure trove of great information. I'm not sure when I will have the time to do it, but I've always had that thought in my head. I love to interview people.
It's an intimate and beautiful glimpse into their world. It's always a shame just to take a small sound bite to represent a concept or even a whole life, but that's the reality of film-making. I see people reading less and less, so we are processing information is a different way now.

Will there be DVD extras?

There are extras on the DVD.

I really commend you for the way you ended the film. It culminated with a chapter titled "Galactic Consciousness" and that was a big deal for me. I've seen a lot of UFO documentaries that never stray beyond the nuts and bolts mindset. What made you end it like this?

I really feel that we are reaching out into Galactic Consciousness. We are traveling out into interior and exterior space. How exciting is that! I almost want to volunteer to go to Mars as one of the first "official" colonists. How amazing!
I don't know if they'd take me. I was taking to Michio Kaku the other day and he envisions a future where humans and machines are totally blended. It could be a kind of Humanity 2.0 where we can program our genetics and  totally integrate into high levels of AI. We will create worlds and N-dimensional realities in our heads and invite our friends to come play with us.

My sense is that this is YOUR project. Obviously you had help, but it sure seems like this was your baby. Am I seeing it correctly?

Yes Mike, This was my project. I made it the way I wanted to. No cigar-smoking producer to answer to. I am somewhat of a perfectionist so perhaps the whole film took longer to make, but I sincerely made it as gift for those who would appreciate and learn from it. 

I hope it finds it's way out into the broader world.

Blessings to you,
James

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UFO Jounalist Roger Marsh ignores abduction reports

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FOLLOW UP REPORT:

I spoke directly with Roger Marsh on the phone. We talked today, and all is fine. There is no stress at all between myself and Roger. I can say that the overall weirdness just got even weirder! More soon, this story continues...

Mike C

Aug 30th / 9:05 Mountain Time 

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(initial posting Aug 28th 9:19 PM)

Roger Marsh has multiple titles as a UFO investigator and journalist. For MUFON, he’s noted as a field investigator, Director of Communications and editor of the MUFON Journal. He’s also a contributor for both the UFO Examiner and the Huffington Post.

Marsh was interviewed on a video podcast series called Topic UFO a little over a year ago. During that interview he shared a fascinating close up UFO sighting from his youth that obviously had a big impact on the direction of his life.

In the beginning of the interview, he made it quite clear that he was a seasoned reporter, "I'm qualified, I could write for the New York Times. I'm at that level as a writer."

Over the last few years I’ve read a few interesting reports penned by Marsh, but what struck me during the podcast was his curious dismissal of the abduction phenomenon.

At one point in the interview he stated:

They have their vehicles, they don't really care about us, you know, unless you want to go down the alien abduction route, that's another fair area to be in.   

Well, I for one have gone down the alien abduction route. He says that's fair, but at the same time he seems to want to ignore the implications. From my ongoing research, as well as my direct experience, I can say with some conviction that they are profoundly interested and deeply involved with us. Saying they don't really care about us requires dismissing one entire aspect of the phenomenon.

He was asked by the host: “If these UFOs are real... what do you thing they are trying to do here, or what do they want? What are your personal feelings?”

Okay, if it's my personal feelings, there may be one section of the listening audience that maybe follow alien abductions, I kind of have to push that aside. It doesn't appear to me that they are really that interested in humans. They seem to be just kind of doing their own thing... 

But of course if I said that they just sort of do their own thing and leave us alone then my next fifty emails are going to be from people who are very strong with the alien abduction and that's a whole other thing, and we could just talk for hours on that some night. I have my own opinion, and we could do a whole other show just on that...

Then he goes on to say that he spent some time with Dr. John Mack, and he mentions Budd Hopkins. it seems like he respected both of them as far as being dedicated folks, but he didn't say much.

But, a whole different world out there with that [alien abduction subject], you know, people think they are mining us for something, maybe they are creating another race or something.

Marsh spent part of this interview describing how some reporters will ignore or belittle the subject of UFOs. It seemed odd that he would then follow that up by belittling the subject of abductions.

I need to repeat one thing he said, he brings up abductions and then says: I kind of have to push that aside. So, this self proclaimed New York Times caliber reporter says he needs to push aside evidence that doesn't fit his personal feelings.

My sense is that we have come to a point where it is okay for a UFO organization like MUFON to talk publicly about lights in the sky, but it’s probably safer to just ignore all those people who tell of interaction with the UFO occupants. I wonder if Marsh would have gotten the position as Director of Communications at MUFON if, during his job interview, he said he was really eager to get the word out about the whole abduction thing.

I did a quick google search where I plugged in Roger Marsh and abduction; this yielded surprisingly few hits. When I read through the short list there are a few about peripheral abduction related items. Like an artist doing a comic book about the Herbert Schirmer case from 1967 and another about a stage play dramatizing a 1975 case where three women were abducted in Kentucky. He also wrote a 207 word article about the 1976 Allagash case. Not much, and all three cases are from over 35 years ago.

I also found about 20 or so reports by Marsh with the term missing time in the text. This seems surprisingly low given that he’s been posting a regular column about UFO reports for over four years now. Also, when a witness tells of missing time, this (to me) implies possible abduction, but there was no follow up information in these articles that asked any deeper questions about the missing time events.

Please know, I only did a cursory search of his on-line material, there may be examples detailing abduction reports that I could have easily missed.

Okay, here’s my beef... 
The abduction aspect is being marginalized within the UFO research community. This is an absolute truism, and both Roger Marsh and MUFON are towing that line. They seem to be wishing this aspect of the phenomenon would just go away. Wouldn’t it be so much better if it was all just lights in the sky?

Please know, I've connected with a lot of very real people with heart-wrenching stories of UFO abductions, I consider many of them to be among my dearest my friends. I don’t have any good answer to what is at the source of these sometimes deeply traumatizing experiences, but ignoring them, to me, is perfectly irresponsible.

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Vinny Eastwood talks about the UFO issues

one hour and 30 minutes

I was the guest on the Vinny Eastwood show, a video podcast series from New Zealand. We talked about some of my own experiences as well as about the overall UFO phenomenon and it's many challenges. This was a little bit of a tricky interview for me, because the host didn't really dig too deeply with his questions. He's sure a likable guy though.

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I finally pulled the owl card

the OWL card from an oracle deck

Two years ago I received an oracle deck of cards with a companion book as a gift. The set up is called Medicine Cards by Jamie Sams and David Carson. I am cautious to put a lot of credence into this kind of thing, but I gotta say, these cards have been weirdly accurate. And today, for whatever reason, I've finally pulled the owl card! Here's an excerpt from the book:

If you've pulled the owl card, you are being asked to use your keen, silent observation to intuit some life situation. Owl is befriending you and aiding you in seeing the total truth. Owl can bring you messages in the night through dreams and meditations. Pay attention to the signals and omens. The truth always brings further enlightenment.

This comes in the midst of a writing project where I am focusing on owls and the UFO phenomenon. My desk (and brain) is a cluttered jumble of owl reports, images and mythos. Also today, just a little while after pulling that card, I spoke with researcher Eve Lorgan (author of Alien Love Bite), I was asking her about owls. She suggested that I talk with David Carson. It took me a little bit to realize that he was one of the authors of this book. I had never heard his name out loud and the book was inches away from me when Eve mentioned it.

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what can it mean?

iconic couples from the 1960s

The animated series The Flintstones premiered September 30th 1960.

Betty and Barney Hill were abducted by aliens on September 20th 1961.

Betty and Barney 

is an anagram of 

Nabbed any? Try ET!

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Have you ever had an odd experience with owls?

Mythic messenger

This is a a call for owl stories. If you, or anyone you know, has had an unusual experience with an owl, I would be honored to hear about it. Please contact me at the link below.

I'm writing a book. Just a little over a month ago I posted a long format essay titled Owls and the UFO Abductee, and much of the initial feedback was, this needs be a book. That was exactly what I was feeling as I was writing it. That essay has been the foundation of the book project.

I have been receiving stories from readers where they share their owl experiences. There is an odd pattern to these reports, there is a consistency of mood. It's hard to go beyond that.

I've been collecting these stories, trying to write some of them up and working with the witnesses to make sure they are accurate. I am not concerned if these stories relate to the UFO phenomenon, this seems less important as I proceed forward. I foresee this eventual book project as a resource for exploring the elusive meaning of these experiences.

Contact me through this email address:

hiddenexperience (the at symbol) me (dot) com

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audio conversation with Suzanne Gordon, Ph.D.

I stumbled on Suzanne Gordon through an interview she did on Mysterious Universe. She spoke about her research into the Near Death Experience (NDE) something she had experienced herself.

During the interview she listed off some things reported as after effect of their NDE. Everything on this checklist closely matched what is being reported by people who claim UFO abductions, enough so that I realized I needed to talk with her. I listened a second time and made a list:

~ sense of renewed life purpose
~ changes in religious ideas
~ a sense of mission in life
~ life direction shifts, priority shifts
~ awareness of planetary issues
~ shift in attitudes and feeling accountable for the planet
~ psychic experiences
~ paranormal experiences
~ weird synchronicities
~ difficulties

She even described these folks as suffering from the trauma of enlightenment, that was something that really hit home for me.

 one-click audio download HERE 

[ two options for listening ]

The audio posted here wasn’t meant to be a public podcast, it was just our initial hello after exchanging a few emails. By the end of two hours we both realized that we had achieved something really powerful. I am amazed at how deep we managed to dig during our conversation and I am so glad I recorded it.

During our conversation she uses an acronym I had never heard before, but I like a lot. She referred to STEs (Spiritually Transformative Experiences).

Here’s a quote from Suzanne that sums up the tenor of our conversation:

My real interest is consciousness and culture, but what the hell is goin’ on here?

Suzanne's interview on Mysterious Universe linked HERE. And, another excellent interview on Skeptiko linked HERE.

Suzanne references a lot of articles and essays and they come rapid fire. Here are a few, but not all of ‘em. This link is to an article abstract on the Political Theory journal site titled Sovereignty and the UFO. Here's a Huffington Post article on UFO research.

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Bio for Suzanne Gordon, Ph.D.
Dr. Gordon's research is the first near-death-studies project to use the ethnographic method, and a health-education and culture-studies framework, to situate near-death experience (NDE) survivors as the insider-experts on the first-hand experience of dying. Her research was supported by research grants from the University of Maryland and the International Association of Near-Death Studies; and it was recognized with an international graduate research award for cross-cultural scholarship in death and dying by the Association for Death Education and Counseling. She is a founding member of the Board of Directors of the American Center for the Integration of Spiritually Transformative Experiences (ACISTE), and a founding member of the National Women's Studies Association's International Task Force on Women's Spiritualities.  She is a lecturer in the Departments of Communication and American Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park.

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Dr. John Mack talks about Transcending the Dualistic Mind

John Mack, M.D.
1929 - 2004

Harvard professor Dr. John Mack gave a two-hour long presentation at the International UFO Congress in 2003, the title of his talk was Transcending the Dualistic Mind. This is the audio lifted from a 12-part YouTube video of this presentation. Highly recommended. Two listening options below.

 one-click audio download HERE 

one hour / 58 minutes

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Joe Lewels talks about shamanism

one hour and 33 minutes

Joe Lewels wrote one of my favorite books on the UFO phenomenon, The God Hypothesis. I was excited to find his full presentation on-line.

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Dr. John Mack and Budd Hopkins in conversation

Dr. John Mack and Budd Hopkins in conversation

In loving memory of John E. Mack, M.D. (1929 - 2004) and Budd Hopkins (1931 - 2011), and their profound contribution to the research of one of the most challenging subjects known to mankind.

two options for listening

 One-click audio download HERE 

one hour audio podcast

Legendary Alien Abduction Researchers Budd Hopkins and John Mack, M.D. come together to discuss what they've learned from working with people who report the experience of being abducted by Aliens. Hopkins and Mack rarely appeared together in public forums, this is a rare and heart felt presentation. Originally taped in 1997.

This is an audio transfer from a you-tube video (below). The audio quality is pretty good considering the source, the actual content is excellent.

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Death and elusive messengers

A symbol of hidden truths

On the night of Thursday July 25th I was alone in my house. It was quiet and calm as I sat at my computer in the main room, then I heard a tiny noise from the kitchen. I turned my head and saw a full grown ferret sniffing around on the kitchen floor! It was shiny and cute and had it’s nose in a plastic tub that was setting on the linoleum.

My first reaction was to just shoo it off before it got any farther into the house. I stood up from my computer, walked into the kitchen and calmly stated, “Hey, you can’t be in here. You need to go.”

The ferret looked up at me and then turned and smoothly stepped out the kitchen door and onto the porch. There, it turned back to look at me once again and lemme tell you, this thing was cute. I took another step forward and it hopped off the porch and into the current bush next to the door. It was surprisingly loud as it moved through the dry grass and leaves at the base of the bush.

The look I got from the ferret after it stepped out onto my porch

I stood on the porch for a moment and listened in the dark, after a few seconds of rustling it was gone.

If you’ve never seen a ferret it would be hard to describe the life and vitality that these animals can project. They are closely related to a mink, so their fur is gloriously smooth and silky. Even though I only saw this little guy for a moment, maybe less than 20 seconds, it’s coat looked radiant and shiny under my kitchen lights.

I can’t say this strongly enough, seeing a wild ferret right in my house was highly unusual. It’s markings matched the Black Footed Ferret, one of the rarest mammals in North America. I saw it clearly, it was about 18 inches long, I was looking down at from probably less than four feet away.

During the warmest part of the summer my cabin gets hot by the end of the day. The temperature of the dry mountain air will drop dramatically just as the sun sets so in the evening I’ll open up both the kitchen and screen door and it doesn’t take long for the house to cool down. The kitchen door was fully open to the outside when that ferret walked into my home.

The sighting of the ferret in my kitchen happened at around 9:30 at night. I immediately posted a facebook note with a short explanation of what had just happened. It wasn’t too long after that I went to bed. I got up early the next morning (curiously, much earlier than usual) to find an email from my brother with the subject: Mom is in the hospital. He briefly explained that Mom had collapsed earlier that morning, and because of the time difference he was waiting to phone me.

I immediately called and heard the news that my mother had a hemorrhage in her brain, and it was extremely serious.

My mother has been suffering from Alzheimer's for over six years, and the severity of the disease has been increasing in just the last few weeks. I was following her decline by checking in with my sister over the phone.

My father, Alexander Clelland, died of a stroke just a little over a year ago, and my mother still thought he was alive. She did beautifully at his funeral, and in that moment she seemed to understand that he was gone. But after that it just felt cruel to ever bring it up. When she would ask, Where’s your father? We would just calmly tell her that he was out getting his hair cut. This last year of my mother’s life has been sad and isolated. She has been in a memory care facility at an assisted living community, and this place is about as nice as it can be, but her condition left her her confused and frightened.

Me and Mom playing with 'photo booth' in 2009

I flew to be with her (and my brother and sister) the next day. She never regained consciousness after her initial collapse. She died peacefully in the early morning on Wednesday July 31st. My sister and I were by her side when she passed over.

There was a very real sense of relief that her suffering was over. My brother, sister and I all spoke about how we were at peace with her passing.

That beautiful ferret came into my home the night before my mother had her brain aneurysm, the event that lead to her death a few days later.

I said to the ferret, “Hey, you can’t be in here. You need to go.”

That seems a message more to my mom.

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Yesterday I spoke to a woman who is an animal communicator. When I mentioned this ferret in my kitchen (and before I mentioned my mothers death) she listed off what a ferret represents as a spirit animal. She said it meant joy, playfulness and good news.

David Weatherly (a shaman and friend) wrote me this: in shamanic terms, the ferret is a symbol of the ability to see hidden truths. There is no more elusive truth to the living than what is on the other side of Death’s great door.

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Greta Clelland

1932 - 2013

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Suzanne Chancellor posts her audio interviews

Experiencer and blogger Suzanne Chancellor, has been posting audio interviews on her site. She has been seeking out contactees and researchers and doing podcasts. Many were done live on KGRA (the Global Radio Alliance) but these have been unavailable for over a year. Suzanne has been adding more and more of these interviews to her site in the last few weeks, and more should be archived soon.

There are two places to hear her interviews, on her blog (Random Alien Brain Droppings) and on an archiving site. I suspect they'll be available on iTunes at some point soon.

I know there are folks out there who are craving heartfelt audio shows with a focus on the UFO abduction phenomenon. Suzanne's shows are diamonds in a sea of mediocrity.

Interviews include:~ Judy Carroll
~ Ann Druffel
~ Debi Tripp
~ Betsy Lewis
~ Whitley Strieber
And a few where Suzanne gets interviewed by other podcast hosts. 

Link to Suzanne's interviews on her BLOG

Link to archived interviews HERE

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Owl essay breaks all popularity records!

As of last week sometime the long format essay Owls and the UFO Abductee became the most popular post in the four and a half year history of this blog. Now, this site doesn't really get all that many hits (compared to some other sites) so the fact that this one essay generated so much traffic in less than one month implies a lot.

The high number of hits came from the kindness of other sites that linked to the essay. Including The Daily Grail, The Grailian Report, the Anomalist and Reddit.

123 from this weeks blog stats 

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We accidentally filmed a UFO

Four artists are creating a film about synchronicity

A web site dedicated to syncrhonicity accidentally films a UFO? I can't speak to the authenticity of the video, but in the same paragraph of text, the film-makers talk about OWLS.

Linked HERE

Text added August 5th 2013: 

Follow-up post HERE. This adds to the overall the weirdness! Seems the film-makers were shooting footage of murals that featured gray aliens and owls in the moments before capturing that short clip of the UFO. The author of the post wrote me this:

Totally bizarre, I know! So many ways to explain it but we all seem to think it was the blurring of dimensions. That area is clearly a vortex of energy. Where in the world are there 100s and 100s of murals with aztec, day of the dead, DMT, alien, ayhuasca references. The artwork is insane. If you walk around there, you'll feel it.

Original footage, followed up by slowed footage, zoomed in and high contrast. 

Please note, this video is incorrectly dated 2012, the actual year was 2013.

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excerpt from the documentary, with owls!
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