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EVENTS AND CONFERENCES

 

THE 2005 CONFERENCE

This was our first conference at the new venue of the YMCA in St Annes which we continue to use to this day.

 

The speakers were Peter Grego, Andy Roberts, Marcus Allen and Russ Kellett. The master of ceremonies was once again our former head honcho, Rob Whitehead.

 

Below is a review of the conference by Stuart Miller of the bi-monthly  Alien Worlds Magazine ...

 

God forbid I should ever be on time, so of course I wasn't. I was maybe 5 - 10minutes late and walked in on the first speaker, Peter Grego, who was talking about Transient Lunar Phenomena. That's about things, lights etc that are seen on or near the moon. It is a scientifically recognised happening and even the grumpy old trout of British astronomy, Sir Patrick Moore has seen one. So that makes it all alright then. The subject matter might be interesting but I'm afraid this speaker was not. He went on for far too long and then wouldn't sit down after he had finished.

 

He even spent time on the ridiculous hallucinations people have about seeing a rabbit or whatever on the moon or some other shapes. I know this is a popular pastime among those with sad lives but I have never been able to discern any recognisable shape there at all and what's more, I wonder why people would even choose to attempt to do so? Oh I know. Because it's there.

 

The audience listening to him were stars. They were polite and tried to pay attention but despite their best efforts, he managed to loose them more than once. He could have been better prepared. I did wonder afterwards whether the talk he delivered was what the organisers expected.

 

Next up was Andy Roberts speaking about Flying Saucer cults and the contactee movements of the 50s and 60s. This was a breadth of fresh air compared to the previous speaker. Here was a man who was prepared, his video/slide show was professionally set up and he rattled off his speech at us at a fair old rate. That was possibly through a little bit of nerves but I certainly didn't mind and had no trouble following what he was saying at all. As he began to relax in front of the audience of about 100 souls, he even injected various personal comments and observations. He announced that he and Dave Clarke were working on a history of Ufology which should be published in autumn next year. That gives me a little bit of time to write a book on the same subject and get it out there before theirs (in joke). He covered George King and the Aetherius Society, Phillip Rogers, Cynthia Appleton, Molly Thompson and one or two others.

 

Watching Andy speak was extremely interesting. The first thing that struck me was that this man clearly loves the subject he was speaking about and he spoke with a passion and intensity that you couldn't help but notice. Watching him in front of that particular audience was also interesting. Here was a bloke who is a known sceptic, stood before a room full of believers. He was listened to with interest, so much so that even the one time that he tried to bait the audience by announcing, "That there are no such things as aliens" there wasn't a response, though not through lack of attentiveness or interest. People simply wanted to hear what he had to say.

 

The other challenging thing that the audience had to get their heads round was Andy's attitude towards the subject. He subjectively objectifies it. He loves the subject, regardless of the veracity of a report or not, purely for its cultural context and impact. He's not emotionally involved with it in the same way that an ordinary Ufologist would be which is a clear pointer and explanation for his countless battles on various message boards. His is simply a different mind set which the audience accepted without a murmur. They did themselves proud.

 

Marcus Allen, the editor of the UK version of Nexus magazine spoke next on the moon landing hoax perpetuated on mankind by NASA. I couldn't help feeling that this subject is now passé, that the public have had their fun with it and that it was time to move on. Not so Marcus. It was however patently clear that he had given this talk numerous times before and yet he still spoke with a passion about it and above all, was, I thought, extremely professional as well. This guy knew how to speak to an audience and indeed, how to manipulate them as well. I do not intend that remark in a cynical sense.

 

If you are going to have to listen to a talk on this subject, then Marcus is unquestionably the man for it. He steered clear of what I considered the worst clichés and dealt intelligently with all the points he brought up. Because time was running out, the organisers had to cut his talk short although he had spoken for well over an hour by then. And yet, I would have been prepared to listen for longer.

 

There was a brief question and answer session later and unusually for me, I stuck my hand up to ask one. I wondered how he explained the seismological equipment that is on the moon's surface and that is even to this day, transmitting information back to earth. I might be flattering myself but I thought I detected a slight chink in the otherwise confident delivery so far, as he replied that he wasn't saying that no one had ever been there; just not the 13 astronauts that NASA claimed to have sent. He then immediately deflected the question by dragging in the laser issue and had fun debunking that. I hadn't asked about that and the seismological question went unsatisfactorily unanswered.

 

I also think he made a mistake when he said at one point that there were no pictures of Armstrong on the moon because Aldrin had refused to take any of him. That is ridiculous and indeed, later he showed us a picture of the two of them on the surface together.

 

I enjoyed his talk regardless of how I felt about the subject matter. He does raise questions, interesting ones, but nevertheless one still can't help feeling that this subject has had its day.

 

Finally, Russ Kellett spoke. Clearly a popular man with a following, and a man of the people as well. I had to leave about half an hour into Russ's talk but, except for a brief period at the beginning when he was getting into his stride, he held my attention well. The difference between Russ's talk and the previous speakers was that Russ was speaking from personal experience about the strange and anomalous events that have happened to him. This was interspersed with some of the infamous video footage of his that he has taken. It was interesting to look at, no question, but what you were looking at was indeterminable. You can  though see why folk like to listen to him. There is a slight fragility there which makes his talk a very human experience. You're watching an ordinary person speak, not a robot and it's almost like a one to one conversation. I would like to have listened to the end.

 

Conference organisation could perhaps have been a little tighter. It's easier said than done, I know, and one always runs the risk of spoiling people's enjoyment if one martials the whole thing along as if it were some military exercise. But the first speaker had too long and the others not long enough.

 

An enjoyable experience, definitely, and one that threatens to turn into a two day affair next year. It was also a pleasure to finally get to meet Joe McGonagle and Dave Clarke at last. Make the effort next year if it's within reachable distance for you. It will be worth it.

 

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© 2008 LAPIS

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