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EVENTS AND CONFERENCES

 

THE 2006 CONFERENCE

Our 2006 conference was held during the world cup (before England got knocked out!) which meant, in line with other conferences of the time, we suffered a much reduced attendance.

 

It was, nevertheless, a memorable occasion for the group due to the unexpected appearance of LAPIS members from yesteryear including the great Joseph Dormer who had led the group for the first 10 years of its existence and was master of ceremonies at our conferences in 1989 and 1994. Master of ceremonies for 2006 was once again our former head honcho, Rob Whitehead.

 

To mark his reappearance, Joseph kindly agreed to write a review of the conference which is reproduced below...

 

REVIEW OF THE 2006 LAPIS CONFERENCE BY JOSEPH DORMER

 

When you've been away from ufology for as long as I have, it's funny how you begin to miss the mythology of it all: the lunatic claims of captured aliens, the transparent hoaxes, the crazy theories, the gossip. . .as well as the serious stuff, of course, where there's always the possibility of finding your notion of reality turned on its head. The LAPIS conference had it all: it was if I'd never been away. There was Philip Mantle, first on stage, with his courageous - some might say `brazen' - volte face on the old Alien Autopsy lark. Phil now believes that the film is a fake. (Well I never, after a!l that!)

 

For anyone still unfamiliar with this case: some time in the early nineties, Ray Santilli, a video trader who had already acquired a reputation as a serial hoaxer, purportedly bought some reels of film off someone from the other side of the Pond. Apparently taken just after the Roswell crash, the footage showed what was claimed to be dead aliens, though most people thought they looked like special-effect dummies. There was some sort of structure bearing `alien hieroglyphics', in which the discerning eye was able to make out the words VIDEO TV. (Hands up those who noticed that what Philip showed us was an improved version of the original?). Insignia on the film that was passed off as US military security coding quickly disappeared after it was shown to be bogus. When experts offered to examine the film, old Rat Face told them that ...er, this was actually only a copy - the real film was in the hands of a wealthy collector who, unfortunately, had requested anonymity.

 

How Philip ever came to give any credence to a case that had FAKE HA HA written all over it has always been an issue more contentious than the authenticity of the film itself. I recall Philip giving his first talk on the Santilli film at another LAPIS conference. There he was able to persuade only one per cent of the audience - four people on a show of hands - to suspend their critical faculties long enough to believe that the Santilli footage was authentic. Yet these same men and women, at this same conference, listen openmouthed to tales of alien dolphins commuting daily from Sirius.

 

As he was up there on the podium, giving us the latest damning evidence against the Santilli footage, it felt a bit like being presented with the latest, most accurate measurements of chimneys to show that Santa could not have descended them. What we really wanted was an investigation into Philip. (it's the sort of thing John Rimmer does quite well - how about it, John?)

 

After a brief demonstration by Philip on how to parry intrusive questions, Mike Hallowell introduced us to the world of imaginary childhood friends. Mike showed us a slide of himself as a child with his imaginary friend, Maureen. You could not actually see Maureen because she was imaginary, naturally. Yet `imaginary' requires some sort of qualification here. ICFs, it would seem, inhabit a sort of twilight realm, a shadowy timeless world of dreams and make-believe which occasionally impinges on the real world, at least sufficiently for the ICFs to actually play games with real balls, spooking out any watching adults. Mike had collected reports from all over the world and was into looking for patterns in the data - something I could relate to. Refreshingly, there was no accompanying belief system to take on board, though Mike suggested that they could be like tulpas (a plausible hypothesis assuming you believe in tulpas). These are autonomous creations of the mind capable of impinging on external reality. Then, what is external reality? (But I digress.)

 

After lunch it was the turn of Richard Freeman, a professional cryptozoologist. (I hadn't known there was any such animal!) Richard roams the world in search of strange beasts: creatures unknown to science, missing evolutionary links, giant serpents, river monsters, creatures alluded to in the footnotes of Fortean mythology... What a way to earn a living! Richard rubbed his nose and launched into a litany of utterly spell-binding encounters ...then rubbed his nose again. It was a mannerism that unfortunately caused me to miss parts of the talk because it too was utterly fascinating, hypnotic almost. I found myself counting the seconds between rubs, then taking an average. These minor distractions notwithstanding, the guy was nothing short of brilliant. His enthusiasm, the passion he had for his subject was irrepressible and infectious. Our host and resident clown, Rob Whitehead, played a cruel trick though, bringing the speaker a pint of ale then taking it away before he could sup it (apparently whenever he was asked what visual aids he needed, Richard always answered: a pint, please!)

 

The final speaker was John Rimmer, editor of Magonia, still going strong after all these years - the journal, that is (though John too looks in not bad shape). His chosen subject -'demolition target' would perhaps be more apt - was the famous Warminster UFO flap. John carefully, tentatively, thoughtfully, skillfully placed the sticks of dynamite in position, then blew the whole thing up. Arthur Shuttlewood, the local reporter who became embroiled in the UFO scene, was the real focus of the flap, we learned: it was he who, by the sheer power of his charisma and personal belief, caused people to perceive UFOs where there were only clouds and stars: there were no UFOs. Hmm.

 

After the conference, some of us bought wine and beers and met up on the sand hills. Philip drifted along too, exchanged a few memories of Harry Harris, then headed back to the hotel. Snatches of conversation about the Philip Phenomenon wafted on the breeze: `People say he's for real, but I don't buy it'... `It's the anthropomorphic argument again, he's just too humanlooking, he has to be fake'... `Anyway, I think he ought to be examined by experts'.

As dusk descended and the mellowness of our mood suffused the day's events with a golden glow, we reminisced about those unforgettable moments of conferences past and pondered on the road ahead for ufology and for LAPIS. `Per scrutationem ad veritatem', as we used to say in BAFUFOS - or was it BUFOS (or SHUFOS or SHUPOO or BUMPOO, or something like that). It means: Onward, through Investigation, to the Truth.

 

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© 2008 LAPIS

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