Nick Redfern, owls and an animated girl band

high art from NYC

Somehow my name gets mentioned by a pair of animated girls and Nick Redfern responds. It's all part of a quirky Halloween audio interview masterminded by Peter Bernard. The 35 minute long interview digs into the spooky stuff, and features both Nick and Tim Beckley. Peter and I have exchanged some emails over the years, mostly about cartooning and Greenwich Village, two things we both know well.

a short excerpt / 5 minutes & 55 seconds

To the young animated interviewer. My last name is pronounced CLELL-land, like HELL-land. Rhymes with fellon, except with "LAND" at the end, like Disneyland.

Nick pronounced my name correctly. He was born on the same island as Grandpa Clelland (though not in the same country) so that gave him a leg up. Here's a link to the entire Halloween interview with Those American Girls.
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blog statistics

Alone the right side-bar there is an gadget the shows the most popular posts of all time on this blog. I dug around this morning trying to makes some sense out of my stats.

On top of the list is an interview with Andy Colvin from 2010. According to the numbers, this is far and away the most popular thing I've ever done on this site. I'm not sure why, my only guess is that Andy has a big following. It's a pretty good interview, but I'm at a loss to know why it has so many hits. One thought is that it was linked to some other very popular site, and that influenced the traffic.

Number two is a post titled Tiny Dots on my Left Arm. I know exactly why this gets a lot of hits, it's because people are searching out exactly this information on-line. There is a way to check the search keywords folks are using on Google (or other engines). There is always some variation of this:

three dots + left + arm + unknown + scar + triangle + marks

I feel strongly that there are people all over the world that are using the internet to research their own odd scars. This implies that there are a lot of people with weird triangle marks on their body and they don't know how they got them. Looking at these numbers (and the long list of comments) I am forced to conclude that this is a very important clue in the overall mystery. I did a follow-up post on the unsettling fact that people are searching out this info about themselves.

Third on the list is a post that I'm really proud of, The Evolutionary Triad. This was strange one to write, things were emerging from the ether in a way that left me baffled. Nick Redfern left a comment that pretty much matches my experience when writing it:

Mike, this is a crazily, insanely, fascinating post - and I do mean that as a complement! Mind-screwing!!!

I also checked the hits on hosting site for the audio files. Looking at had a grand total for all downloads, I was shocked to see the number 2,259,016. This amazed me! The host site keeps numbers for each MP3 audio interview that gets down-loaded, and I'm pretty sure that the vast majority of these were from iTunes.

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Posthuman Blues now available as a book

cyber text in a paper format

Paul Kimball from Redstar Books has just announced the publication of the first volume of a series of books. It's a collection of Mac Tonnies' blog posts from his Post Human Blues blog. This thing is 382 pages long, and there is gunna be multiple volumes coming out in the near future.

I am going to lobby that a volume is dedicated to transcriptions from some of his audio interviews. I think Mac was at his best when he was just verbally riffing on the this weirdness.

Posthuman Blues by Mac Tonnies

volume one 2003 - 2004

available thru Redstar Books 

(or thru creepy the creepy corporate giant; amazon) 

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Last night I dreamed I was an android. Someone told me, very casually. I wasn't particularly surprised, but the revelation left me with a vague sense of existential unease. Speaking of dreams: that's one very good reason for creating a blog that I hadn't thought of moments before, when it just seemed like a Cool Thing To Do. A dynamic medium like this welcomes dreams...in 30 years, we'll be carrying around personal dream recorders and thrusting them into the faces of friends saying "Watch this!" But everyone will be too engaged in their own half-forgotten Technicolor reveries to pay much attention.

Mac Tonnies
from January 26, 2003 (the first week of his blog)

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Also: Paul Kimball talks about Mac, this book and lots more with Greg Bishop on a recent Radio Misterioso podcast (linked HERE).

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SYNC BOOK radio

me and the young hipsters

Yesterday I spoke for three hours with Alan Abbadessa-Green, Bill Klaus, and David Plate (MKUltrasound). This was on their SYNC BOOK radio show called Always Record. We gab about the relationship between synchronicities and UFO's, the paranormal and the mysterious lampshades.

In honor of Robert Anton Wilson, this conversation about synchronicities logs in as Episode 23! (linked HERE)

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sychronicity and the UFO abductee

Posted below is a 17-page essay on how synchronicity seems to invade the lives of the UFO abductee. This is something that I've seen in my ongoing journey as I talk with people with direct contact experience.

This essay will soon be a chapter in The Sync Book: Volume 2. This will be published thru Sync Book Press and edited by Alan Abbadessa Greene.

Now, that said...

One of my very favorite interviews on this site was the one I did last year with Alan Abbadessa Greene  (linked HERE), our conversation this took took place right after the publication of The Sync Book. I gotta say, this is singularly the most optimistic and transcendent thing I've ever done on this site. It was a total joy, and I recommend it with a grand enthusiasm.

Sychronicity and the UFO abductee(click HERE for reader)

easy document viewer
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As a follow up to this, read the sister essay:
Owls and the UFO Abductee

These two essays essentially tell the same story. The owls are playing a very similar role to the synchronicity, at least in the way they have directly influenced me and my journey.
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audio conversation with Chris Augustin

Chris Augustin presents at a UFO conference

This was just a static camera pointing at a guy at a podium, but I found his presentation incredibly engrossing. He covers a laundry list of strange experiences in a matter-of-fact way. I sought out Chris because of a youtube video (above). In this talk he states that he started researching the paranormal (including UFO abductions) when he was only 15 years old. I was impressed.

one-click audio download HERE

one hour and 50 minutes

Chris Augustin has a pragmatic and centered presence, and that's rare within this phenomenon. During this audio interview and we try to dig deep into his personal encounters with the unknown, and there is an obvious kinship with my own experiences.

He maintains a website called Aliens The Truth. This is a dense collection of reports, information and research on the UFO and other paranormal events.

I found Chris on facebook back on September 8th of this year. I was looking at some photos from a recent UFO conference in Maine. I saw his face on a few images, and I read the complimentary comments about his approach to the subject. So, I searched out his site, and found a link to this video. As I was watching the video I thought to myself, I need to friend this guy on facebook. Within minutes I checked my email to see that I had received a friend request from Chris himself! I feel like I can take synchronicities in stride, but this one was pretty cool.

Also, as noted in the audio: 
Chris mentions his hypnosis session with Maj. George Filer USAF. There is a recent youtube video where Filer shares his own UFO abduction experiences as a boy. The video is linked HERE.

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audio conversation with Grant Cameron

Grant Cameron is a Canadian researcher best known for his research into what the President of the United States may (or may not) know about UFOs. During the interview Grant explains how his previous "nuts and bolts" research led him to the almost mystical connection between consciousness and the UFO phenomena. He has gained a wealth of insights that serve him well in when trying to define the elusive consciousness aspect.

Plus, Grant shares his deeply personal involvement in a UFO flap from 1975. This took place along the USA and Canadian border in Alberta. Hearing him explain the profound amount of sightings (including his own) was absolutely riveting.

one-click download HERE

one hour / 36 minutes long

Here's a perfectly insightful quote from a listener who posted his review of this audio interview on the H-E facebook page:

OMG! Grant Cameron talks fast, but this was so awesome I cannot contain myself!

If you wanna get lost in a wealth of information and documentation, I suggest you dig into Grant's site, Presidential UFOs.

There is a highly recommended companion interview from a podcast series titled SKEPTIKO (linked HERE). This one hour conversation is well worth your time, the host (Alex Tsakiris) digs deep.

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The Stranger Within

Barbara Eden has an unusual pregnancy 

Foreshadowing, unexplainable pregnancies,
hybrid children and the creative process

In an easily down-loadable PDF (linked below), you'll find an essay that explores a haunting movie from my childhood. This was bottomless pit of synchro-weirdness and the whole thing leave me absolutely mystified. Thing were getting to the point where I needed to create a hand-lettered TIMELINE just to keep my fragile mind screwed on a little tighter.

The Stranger Within Essay

Click on the button on the far right to view in FULL-SCREEN mode.

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There was a made-for-TV movies from 1974 titled The Stranger Within. It stars Barbara Eden (form I Dream Of Jeanne) in a dramatic role. She plays a suburban housewife who is mysteriously pregnant with an alien hybrid. The movie was based on a 1953 short story by Richard Matheson titled Mother by Protest. Matheson himself adapted it for the small screen. The short story is essentially the same as the movie, including some word-for-word dialog.

What is positively bizarre is that a story from 1953 could so accurately predict a long list of details that have only recently emerged in the UFO abduction meme. There are presently books filled with accounts of mysteriously pregnant woman and alien hybrid babies, but how did these ideas manifest themselves almost 60 yeas ago?

Part's of this long-winded essay were recently featured on Robbie Graham's Silver Screen Saucers site. What is linked above is longer and more exhaustive in it's attempt to unravel some elusive mysteries.

Here's a brief excerpt:

There is a central phenomenon and then there is an outlying phenomena. It seems that Budd Hopkins was trying to document and educate on the core mystery within his research, something he did beautifully. I guess I've been trying to make sense of the mess that splatters off from that core. This essay is an example, there are threads that seemingly go everywhere. I am not trying to contain any of this into something manageable like my intellect tells me to do. I am ignoring that side of my brain, and wallowing in the messiness of my intuition.

The problem is that you, the reader, might feel lost in a maze of chaos. If so, you and I share the same response.

For me, this essay was a compulsive piece of work. I really mean that, I got swallowed up in the process of digging and writing. For reasons I don't understand, I pay attention when I'm confronted with that kind of overwhelming fixation on one project.

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A scene from 1974 that I remembered with absolute clarity
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This previously unavailable movie is now posted on youtube. This was downloaded in a high resolution, so it makes for better than average viewing. Embedded at the top of this post.
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Added text: Author Richard Matheson died in June of 2013. He was 87 years old. (New York Times obituary)
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mystical pregnancies, tropes and women

more sci-fi women with mystical pregnancies

Given the content of my previous post about aliens impregnating a woman, this video commentary is insightful. I must add that the original story for the movie The Stranger Within was from 1953. Ms. Sarkeesian's examples of mystical pregnancies all seem to be from the 90's up to the present, except for the 2000 year old reference to Jesus.

This video is part of s aeries that explore gender representations, myths and messages in popular culture media. Created and hosted by Anita Sarkeesian.

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Alien-human hybridization was predicted by Hollywood

see the second post above!

I've contributed a rather long-winded essay to Robbie Graham's Silver Screen Saucers. the post has the screaming headline of GUEST BLOGGER EXCLUSIVE all capital letters, bold red type and it's italicized!

The post is titled:
Alien-human hybridization as predicted by Hollywood (linked here)

There was a made-for-TV movies from 1974 titled The Stranger Within. It stars Barbara Eden (form I Dream Of Jeanne) in a dramatic role. She plays a suburban housewife who is mysteriously pregnant with an alien hybrid.

The movie was based on a 1953 short story by Richard Matheson titled Mother by Protest (later re-published as Trespass). Matheson himself adapted it for the small screen. The short story is essentially the same as the movie, including some word-for-word dialog.

What is positively bizarre is that a story from 1953 could so accurately predict a long list of details that have only recently emerged in the UFO abduction meme. There are presently books filled with accounts of mysteriously pregnant woman and alien hybrid babies, but how did these ideas manifest themselves almost 60 yeas ago?

Here's a brief excerpt:

I dug into The Stranger Within for emotional and personal reasons, there was nothing at all logical in my investigation. Peering into this made-for-TV movie unleashed a flood of synchronistic weirdness. Something palpable emerged and parts of it are aligned with my direct experience. I started this exhaustive essay by saying “bits of that movie have been stuck in my head for the last 38 years.” I was describing a very real itch, and when I started scratching, something elusive showed itself.

Please note:

I now have an even longer version of this essay. It's offered as a down-loadable PDF below.

The Stranger Within Essay

Click on the button on the far right to view in FULL-SCREEN mode.

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documentary on UFO abduction

UFO abduction documentary shown in 6-parts

Intruders-Abductees Speak Out! is an extremely even-keeled, 48 minute long documentary done for Canadian television in 2008. It was written and directed by Michael MacDonald.

The content of the film will be familiar to anyone who has looked into the UFO abduction phenomenon. What sets this documentary apart is how extremely serious it takes the subject, a topic usually reserved for exploitation and derision. Thankfully, this production does NOT have anyone playing the role of debunker or skeptic. Budd Hopkins and David Jacobs speak at length along with a series of extremely compelling abductees who share their emotional challenges.

The people claiming the direct contact experiences include Corinna Sables, author of The Collectors.

Michael MacDonald (left) was also a friend of Mac Tonnies. Both of them worked together on an episode of Paranormal Investigator, a TV series for Canadian television from 2008. I have a DVD copy of this episode, titled Life on Other Plantets.

Michael's resume includes a handful of UFO related topics. That said, he's had his own set of odd life experiences, and one of his stories was featured in Mac Tonnies book THE CRYPTOTERRESTRIALS. I even got to draw Michael as a little boy for one of the illustrations. Michael also shows up early in the genesis of this blog. Seems like we have a few things in common.

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new additions to this blog

There is now a listing of separate blog pages under the masthead at the top of this site.

I've just created two new pages. The first is a listing recommended books, pretty much all of them on the subject of UFO abduction. The next is titled where to start? This is a place for any first time visitor to this site to get an idea of how the whole thing is set up and it lists some of the most relevant posts.

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