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Kevin Randle, at his blog, noted a 2008 Fortean Times piece by Jerry Clark [Experience Anomalies] in which Mr. Clark speculates on various paranormal experiences implying that, maybe, those experiences are not intangible, evanescent events but, rather, manifestations with a touchable, tangible reality.

Mr. Randle provides an extensive excerpt, and also pointed his readers to the whole paper (sending me an internet copy to use here):

And Tim Brigham, at his Facebook page, promoted a video about Gray Barker, whose 1956 book, They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers, where Curt Collins asked me to elaborate on my comment about Barker:

“A matter of controlled paranoidal schizophrenia or an actual meddling by government agents.”

Mr. Barker’s books introduced the idea of The Men in Black, with which you are all familiar and Nick Redfern’s books and internet postings have delineated and explored better than anyone else.

I happen to concur, somewhat, with Mr. Clark (and Jacques Vallee, among others) that there is a reality with paranormal experiences which indicates that reality is not hallucinatory or illusionary, even though usually transient.

Lewis Spence, in his book An Encyclopedia of Occultism[University Books, New Hyde Park, NY, 1960, Page 199-200] wrote, “ …the sensory nerves produce(s) an effect of sensory vividness – normally, a true perception – the impulses thus diverted give to the memory images an appearance of actuality, not distinguishable from that produced by a corresponding sense-impression.”

Neurological doctor and noted author Oliver Sacks has dealt with such “effects” in his many writings, but hesitates to say that such effects are tangible.

The topic is confused and convoluted by the ongoing debates about consciousness; what it is and what it isn’t.

My impression is that hallucinatory images, sounds, and manifestations, while usually ephemeral, have a reality that is absolute in the same sense as that reality we can touch, hold, or interact with on a daily, regular basis.

In the case of UFOs, I don’t think they are paranormal but actual physical entities, either an unusual phenomenon or an intrusion of something odd from elsewhere (another dimension or possibly, not probably, from other galactic cultures – extraterrestrial civilizations).

But those entities that show up, for witnesses, in an interacting UFO event, nay derive from a mental, neurological glitch, or hallucinatory contrivance caused by food, drugs, or biological malfunction.

However, some interactions that UFO witnesses have, such as The Men in Black confrontations may be actual contact by real agents or duplicitous individuals operating within the UFO framework, or …

The Men in Black may be paranormal intrusions that become bona fide realities for a moment in time – as Nick Redfern’s accounts of them seem to indicate.

That is, The Men in Black come from a reality outside our normal one (as Jerry Clark’s thesis might have it) or are created by the mind of those afflicted by their intense involvement in the UFO experience.

The demons that afflicted or afflict Christians, removed exorcism(s), are similar in nature as The Men in Black, but removed ceremoniously whereas the MIB often go away with documents or substantive materials in a less vivid departure,

Those having a MIB contact may unconsciously remove or misplace documents and other materials as part of their created “reality” or the MIB actually take with them such “evidence” that subcontracts their reality.

Gray Barker’s experiences were a product of “insanity” by his intense association with UFOs or he was an actual recipient of visits by “agents” from his id or the government or some other concrete, hidden agency,

Either way, Jerry Clark’s “manifesto” should be read and dialogue exacerbated by it.

I thank Kevin Randle for generating links to Clark’s paper and thoughts.

RR