UFO’s, Magic and Mysticism in Hollywood – May 17th, 2008

Thanks to Jay Weider and Christian Meoli of Sacred Mysteries Live, I was invited as a special guest to their panel discussion entitled "UFO's, Magic and Mysticism in Hollywood" last Saturday night. Officially, I was an "invited guest" along with Yvonne Smith (an expert on UFO abduction cases) and Harijiwan Khalsa, an expert in kundalini yoga. The panel itself consisted of Coast to Coast AM host George Noory, who did a masterful job in moderating the panel, Jordan Maxwell, the patron saint of conspiracy theorists, Dr. Roger Leir, the doctor who has removed scads of alien implants from his patients, Whitley Strieber, the author of "Communion" and numerous other books on the abduction phenomena (and a variety of fictional tales of horror), and Jay Weidner, who runs Sacred Mysteries and is the co-author of The Mysteries of the Great Cross of Hendaye.

I got there a bit after 7:30, mostly because I had to park almost a half mile away because the hotel parking lot was full. When I got there, the place was already quite full (they had over 300 attendees) and buzzing with anticipation. The first person I saw was Tom Danheiser, George's producer on Coast to Coast. We've met before and had a nice chat, and I began to notice it was pretty hot in the room.

After that, I circulated a bit and talked to George. He commented that he didn't remember me having a goatee the last time we met. I thought I did. Oh well.

I was glad to reconnect with Harijiwan, who I first met at the Sacred Mysteries 2012 "Shift Happens" conference last March. He's a really joyful and funny guy, much different than you'd expect him to be given his evolved state of consciousness. As we posed for a picture, I pointed out to him that if I studied with him and became a Yogi, my name would be Yogi Bara. He liked that. I definitely have to attend one of his workshops someday soon.

The start was delayed a few minutes because Christian wanted to give those that had to park far away a chance to get in the door. Strieber, who I had not met, was having none of that. After just a few minutes of waiting, he marched up to the podium, took the microphone and announced to everybody that it was time to start. We all kind of took our cues from him and got into our seats.

What followed was a very interesting and free flowing discussion about the state of the world in general, 2012, and the alien presence, such as it is. I found Dr. Leir to be thoughtful and insightful, Jordan to be a master storyteller as always, and Strieber to be relentlessly grim. Jay could hardly get a word in edgewise, but I got the impression he was having a great time just listening to the others talk.

The only real problem I really had with any of them was with Whitley Strieber. He's firmly convinced that world is going to hell in a hand basket; that we're running out of oil, that we're running out of food, that the weather is getting worse and spiraling out of control, that we're all about to die in some unimaginable calamity. Now, to be fair, I think something really bad might happen around 2012 or shortly thereafter myself, but most of the rest of what he said was just plain wrong.

For one thing, the world is not running out of oil. Our current inflationary problems are with energy production, not energy supply. There remain vast reserves of oil all throughout the world, enough for centuries yet if choose to continue to be an oil based economy. That's not to mention all the reachable shale oil, coal for liquefaction, and many other means of energy production at our disposal.

As Jack Kemp famously said in the early 1980's, when inflation was far worse and the world was experiencing the Keynesian impossibility of stagflation, "the answer to inflation is production."

The issues we face today are solely of our own making. For three decades, the Democratic Party in this country has done everything it could to stifle the production of new domestic energy, be it drilling for oil in the so-called "Alaskan Wildlife Refuge," loosening the restrictions on safe and clean nuclear power, or "protecting" land where the aforementioned coal liquefaction plants could be built. Bob Brinker, the host of the syndicated radio program "Money Talk," has some great ideas about how to increase our energy supply cheaply, efficiently and with virtually zero impact on the environment. This latter point is important, because environmental impact is the most commonly used excuse for not allowing nuclear plants, oil platforms or gasoline refineries to be built. Check out his monologue from last week's program at http://www.bobbrinker.com. It was a real eye opener for me.

One other point on this; there is a growing belief amongst geologists that the whole concept of oil as a "fossil fuel" may be wrong. Led by the late Dr. Thomas Gold, there is mounting evidence that oil may in fact not be a byproduct of biological degradation, but rather a naturally produced component of the Earth itself. If this is true and the Earth is constantly manufacturing new supplies of oil, then the reality is that we will never run out of it, and the perception of scarcity is a major component of the high prices we are seeing today. Gold's theories deserve a fair hearing and an honest test.

The point is, contrary to what Strieber and so many in the anomalist community seem to believe, the world is not crashing down around us. We feed and house more people every year, infant mortality rates decline every year, life spans increase every year, and every year we discover new and effective treatments and cures against the diseases that used to ravage us. In short, the human condition gets better every year that goes by, not worse.

If you're getting the impression I didn't care for Strieber too much, you're correct. Not only did I feel he was misinformed on the state of affairs in the world today, I also felt he hated being up on stage and couldn't wait to get out of there. As soon as George started to wind down the panel, Strieber bolted from his chair, collected his wife and was out the side door so fast he left a vapor trail. Anybody who thought they might get a chance to talk to him during the break was probably disappointed. He struck me as having contempt for his audience, which is something I've never seen from George or Richard, or from most of the authors and researchers I've met over the years. They are always gracious and giving of their time and happy to meet their fans.

To be fair, everybody has bad days, and maybe he just wasn't feeling well or was exhausted from a long trip. I don't know. But he could have done a better job of acting like he cared about being there.

After a short break, we reconvened the panel without Whitley and George, but with me, Harijiwan and Yvonne. We took about 20 questions before the night was over, and I felt bad for kind of dominating the mic at times. It's just that there were a bunch of questions that were right up my alley, so I couldn't just sit back and not say anything.

Afterwards, a bunch of us went out to grab a bite, and I didn't actually get to bed until about 4:00 AM. Still, it was fun night and I'm glad I went.

The only real disappointment is that we didn't get too much into the messages in Hollywood films angle, which was actually the advertised subject of the panel. This happens sometimes with panels.

Richard and I are discussing holding a Hollywood themed event ourselves this fall, and we'll definitely keep it more on the subject if we do.