First comprehensive academic survey of alien contact experience. Please continue to ignore|308|

It is possible that the the hot pixel or stuck pixel is there the whole time but the noise cancelling and edge sharpening software covers it up through an algorithm that works on evaluating the values of the pixels around it. The camera software has to decide if the hot pixel is an image feature that needs sharpening (increasing local contrast) or whether it is noise that needs to be blurred and averaged out with the surrounding pixel values. That's why I say when there is no contrast (flat black) it has little comparisons to make so it might periodically play with the threshold value or other values trying to get the best noise cancelling / sharpening threshold for the picture. During that period when it is "re-evaluating" the standards it is using for noise cancelling or sharpening it might temporarily uncover the hot pixel and then cover it back up. I don't know for sure because I worked with still shots and Photoshop rather than movies, but a lot of the principles carry over, and yes the link you provided was an excellent explanation.



I have done some night photography before with long exposures of the sky on a Nikon D80. When looking at the raw image the noise and hot pixels were awful! The hot pixels were in all different colors. I could turn all the hot pixels white by turning up the color noise cancelling feature.

Another problem with my night shots was that the CCD sensor got really hot after being on for a few minutes causing whispy magenta discoloration in places... especially around the edges and corners.

Whether this is the actual explanation for the "eyes" in experiment 5, I can't say for sure, but I would still lean towards it being an artifact of the image processing. Digital cameras don't work very well in complete dark and the flat black background will make it very easy for any artifact in the image capture or processing to show up.



There's probably dozens of hot pixels that the software is covering up most of the time. My Nikon D80 had dozens and got more as it got older. Photoshop has a feature that will memorize where the hot pixels and dust on the sensor are and then automatically cover that up. I'm sure cell cameras have this automated as well.

So it is probably just that a different hot pixel escaped the noise cancelling software on different occasions.



If these are hot pixels being temporarily revealed, I would think they should occur at a random but fairly average rate (as long as the light conditions remain constant). You could record several hours of (control) video and count the hot pixels (very tedious!) and determine the rate at which they are appearing. Then do the experiments and see if the rate of occurrence is statistically significantly different (determine the average and standard deviation). This would take a lot of time especially if the rate is very low, but I think it would be the only reliable way in this case to tell if something interesting or mundane is happening here.

Also, you could gather as many screenshots of the flashes and overlay them on top of each other and see if any are in the exact same location. That to me would be solid proof it is a hot pixel... (why would aliens pick on just one pixel??? :) )


Thank you for this. I really appreciate you taking the time to put it together. This is all new information to me and maybe it can explain a few of them, Im totally open to that, but it doesn't completely satisfy me. Mainly because I have now seen these thing in person with my own eyes, which I have no way to provide any evidence for, so I don't expect that to mean really anything to anyone. Plus I'm not the only person who has reported seeing these things, its actually quite common with people who try this type of thing.

Also, this is not the only experience I've had with this whole thing. I've had more that are way more strange than this, but again I have no evidence to present, and I don't think they are appropriate for this forum. The only reason I shared this one is because of my attempt to try and understand it as scientifically as I can, and maybe I can have a interesting and productive conversation about it. Or maybe some people who would want to try and replicate what I did just to see what happens.

Why would aliens pick one pixel? I'm not 100% its a pixel (just my opinion) and I basically asked them to respond via my camera. I know that sounds completely silly, but if If we entertain the fact that we might be communicating with another intelligent something, its not to radical of an idea that they would oblige. I can only speculate.

Thanks again for your info :)
 
totally hear you on all of this, but what then are we to do. I mean, take the demon thing as it relates to Christianty, there are a lot of people that will go on and on about the devil, and demons, and come at it from a fear-based Biblical perspective. of course, there's no let up when you point of the known problems with the Bible, they just turn it around and say, "yeah, but look at all this evil." This seems like weak reasoning... it's just fear. And take this one step further -- what about after-death communication... demonic? telepathy... demonic? psychedelic experiences... demonic? or, let's get really scared of the demonic thing and jump over to the other side (as science does [and even many parapsychologists do]) and jam it all into a materialistic worldview.

and while I'm at it, I never quite got the "inviting in" thing. I mean, if I'm summon demons by name with ancient incantations that's one thing, but I'm not willing to believe that all contact with extended consciousness is an invitation to walk on the dark side.

I totally agree with you. I am also confused.

Why don't we move away from the "demon" word and just replace it with "powerful mischievous spirit" (PMS) which is less loaded with cultural baggage. Not sure about the acronym though :)

A few things:
- Until very recently (until I read most of Hungry Ghosts (I'm not actually done reading it)), I really discounted the PMS hypothesis. I never thought of it (not exactly true I did post on this at Skeptiko and learned about Hungry Ghosts then). But now I am not so sure. I am not 100% sold on it either though.

- Potentially, the best example of this is actually Nick Bunick. Nick Bunick has, for various reasons, really done my head it. But if I see his whole thing as a massive PMS "infestation" then it all looks very different. Here is my post about all this: http://www.skeptiko-forum.com/threa...w-evidence-surprising-result.2471/#post-73797

- In terms of inviting, one of my biggest "signs" was the 23 July '13 email (http://www.skeptiko-forum.com/threa...ing-us-messages-sometimes-lie.444/#post-10663) which was preceded by my being semi psychotic and actively "inviting" my spirit guides to contact me. So, I was ASKING for it.

-My whole thing started with the "Aulis" thing (see my first link). I was acutely psychotic then. Did that make me vulnerable to a PMS? Is there some truth to the old, superstitious idea that mental illness is associated with demons?

I don't know the answers to these but I am saying that if you accept i) there are PMSs ii) they can "do things" then that changes your view about many things.

But, again, how does one discern that x is PMSs and y is something else? I don't have an answer and, to be honest, I would really like the answer to that question as it has a big impact in how I think about the various things that have happened to me. And, of course, there is also ordinary coincidence and discerning that from real paranormal stuff is also hard.
 
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I am sure that the standard view of mental illness - that the brain is mis-firing rather like a broken computer - is utterly wrong, and that the experiences people have are very relevant to understanding consciousness. Maybe you will decide to elaborate on your comment.
David

There is so much to say. I could write a book.

First, I don't agree that a mis-firing brain has nothing to do with it. Olanzapine DID quiet down my mind when I was acutely delusional. So, brain chemistry is definitely involved.

Second, I had classical signs of things going wrong i) very stressful job where I think I "broke" my brain ii) staying up late for an extended period etc. So, when I was drifting into psychosis it was about a malfunctioning brain.

Third, while I am much better, it is fair to say that I am not 100%. So, I can feel when I am more and less psychotic.

HOWEVER, on the other side, my whole thing is wound around the paranormal. I was intensely trying to "solve" the UFO thing in the run up to being acutely psychotic. I was reading everything on the internet. And, even today I do feel more psychotic when I think about this crap. So, from a mental health perspective, I should forget about all of this and have nothing to do with the paranormal ever again. But I can't do that because I do feel certain paranormal things have happened to me and I think about these things every day. I want to solve them. And, they stress me out because I feel they point to the Apocalypse coming and to me having a high profile role in the Apocalypse so that stresses me out. By the way, I understand that last sentence sounds pretty psychotic. I agree but please rest assured I am not acutely ill. In a nutshell it is like this:

-Studied UFOs intensely.
-Got acutely ill, decided UFOs are in cahoots with God and that it is the Apocalypse and that I had a role in the Apocalypse. During this time there were some genuine coincidences which "supported" the idea that this was true (or at least were very odd). This was Oct 2009
-Got better. Stopped thinking about that crap. Believed the coincidences were just bad luck.
-Listened to lots of Skeptiko episodes. Read some books - Gary Schwartz. Consulting Spirit by Skeptiko guest Ian Rubenstein.
-Had a minor sign April 2013.
-Had the 23 July '13 email - major sign - set me off on a bad period.
-Since then I have had continuing signs (to some extent) and have also found more "pieces" to the puzzle which support the Apocalypse hypothesis.

So, here I am now. Do I believe the Apocalypse is coming? Not sure. I definitely believe i) paranormal exists and has affected other people ii) some of what has happened to me is paranormal (but what is mischievous spirits and what is spirit guide/Angels/God and what is mental illness and what is ordinary coincidence).

Really I suppose it would be interesting to start a thread and just talk about some of these things (some I cannot talk about but some I can). Now isn't a good time for that as I am away from Wednesday for two weeks but maybe when I get back.
 
I totally agree with you. I am also confused.

Why don't we move away from the "demon" word and just replace it with "powerful mischievous spirit" (PMS) which is less loaded with cultural baggage. Not sure about the acronym though :)
.

Thank you for your posts Alan. I am truly impressed by your honesty and the way you question and analyse your own experiences.

I have just posted my thoughts on this "demon" thing on one of the threads you mentioned in your latest post (my post is #48)

http://www.skeptiko-forum.com/threads/do-the-entities-sending-us-messages-sometimes-lie.444/page-3
 
Something about Mary’s interpretation of consciousness rubbed me the wrong way at first and I tried to dismiss it. However, dismissing something in my head is simpler than justifying it in writing.

Over the years, I had soft contact with aliens in dreams, mediations and visual impressions. All incidences were out of the norm and left such a strong emotional signature that on some level I understood it was more than mere imagination. Nonetheless, I continued to wait for indisputable proof.

What I have come to realize since listening to the interview is that my notion of aliens was formed in childhood. Born into an abusive family, one of my favorite past times was imagining that my real family was out there in the stars, that somehow a mistake happened and I was dropped off on the wrong planet with the wrong family. A fantasy to make a difficult situation more bearable or intuition? It’s hard to tell.

In recent years, with more positive stories of alien contact emerging, my interest is getting rekindled. I too had an experience with the Praying Mantis, that was before I heard them referred to in that manner, and I was comfortable with my own reasoning that it was mostly a figment of my imagination.

Mary shook up my comfort level to a degree and I needed to re-examine my beliefs. I am realizing that my desire to know whether aliens are real is intertwined with childhood notions, a spiritual quest, years of negative media coverage, the ingesting of SF books and movies along with a handful of unexplainable experiences; together making this a challenging subject to untangle.

I do believe humanity has a star family/ies out there and making contact will be invaluable in understanding our own history as a species and come to terms with it. However, I feel that many of us have created our own images and beliefs, not unlike my own, and reconciling our expectations with the reality of our own or other people’s experiences can be quite troubling.

To what degree are we willing to get to know a different life form for who they are, step out of our fears, our needs for a savior, or desire to satisfy a fantasy? The term desensitization makes a lot of sense to me. My lesson seems to be stepping out of my own projections, growing up and become mature enough to handle what getting to know an off planet species might actually entail.
 
But, again, how does one discern that x is PMSs and y is something else? I don't have an answer and, to be honest, I would really like the answer to that question as it has a big impact in how I think about the various things that have happened to me. And, of course, there is also ordinary coincidence and discerning that from real paranormal stuff is also hard.
I agree... this the the crux of the issue.

the issue of evil is complicated (as if any of the rest of this is not :)). I've gone back and forth a bunch of times. Michael Singer's advise in the book, The Untethered Soul has become my resting place-- always look up. It's a very simple idea, but I think it captures so much. I take it to mean, "sure, there's all sorts of evil twisted things in the world, but you don't have to go there."
 
I do believe humanity has a star family/ies out there and making contact will be invaluable in understanding our own history as a species and come to terms with it. However, I feel that many of us have created our own images and beliefs, not unlike my own, and reconciling our expectations with the reality of our own or other people’s experiences can be quite troubling.

To what degree are we willing to get to know a different life form for who they are, step out of our fears, our needs for a savior, or desire to satisfy a fantasy? The term desensitization makes a lot of sense to me. My lesson seems to be stepping out of my own projections, growing up and become mature enough to handle what getting to know an off planet species might actually entail.
very cool post... thx for sharing this. I'm sure you're right... we're looking at a whole bunch of different phenomea that get lumped together. but there sure as heck seems to be some kind of reality to the star people thing. remember:
 
There is a spiritual world,and for me a creator.They say the human mind is more complex than the Milky Way,and there are billions of human minds.I feel if these people are seeing beings they are spiritual in origin eg. like the Nephthalin in the Bible(whether you believe all the the Bible or not,it is an example of some type).Bill Cooper(he may not match your philosophies but has was right about 911 actually happening see:link: may be right about fake alien hoaxes.
I think he was spot on re 9/11, but the facts aren't with him re UFOs. his hypothesis that the sighting are real, but generated from our own technology doesn't fit well with the observed data. see Valle, Richard Dolan, and Leslie Kean. sightings (some of them really good ones) go back a long way... hard to belief we've had this technology for 75 years (or even longer if you believe some sighting accounts).
 
I'd love to read about what her group is doing in more detail but when I click on her Facebook link to http://www.acern.com.au/ I get a "Server Not Found" message.
In the interview, she said www.experiencer.org is the website that will be launched soon (coming in March, it says), but as of today it's still not launched.

Glad you are still doing shows about the UFO issue.
Me too. I really liked this interview, Alex. The two of you touched on a lot of interesting topics.

I don't know what to do with this stuff - when I hear about the topic of these close encounters again, I'm kind of (naively) surprised that it's happening, still, to apparently a large number of people. (Although how many, in terms of the percentage of the population, to really make for "acceptance" of the topic, or the public's acceptance of "ET" When They Arrive, I'm kind of skeptical about.)

I'm not inclined to immediately dismiss Mary's "literal" interpretations, but not inclined to fully embrace them either. I do like that she is doing this work, and especially giving a voice to experiencers. And I'm especially interested in the research on the children.

When Mary reports that these children are talking also about pre-life memories and choosing to incarnate, etc., that ties in with people and children's other paranormal experiences (NDEs, memories of past lives), so I'm inclined to believe there's some kind of truth here. But then when she sounds so convinced that humans' DNA is the result of aliens' work, I think "if this true, why doesn't it come out more often in NDErs' messages, i.e. 'downloads', from what they found out about the afterlife?". Or mediums and stuff. (Although you'll get channelers like Bashar saying something like this as well). So I'm more inclined to believe there are these "alien" being soul to human soul contacts happening, but the whole narrative about our species being alien-engineered less so. But what do I know, maybe it's true.

One thing I didn't quite understand was when Mary was explaining Hopkins and Jacobs' type of abudction experiencers being the result of these people "identifying" more with the alien part of the hybrid. I didn't quite get that, if someone did and cares to explain.
 
yeah... you're right... I mean, the time dimension takes things in a whole different direction. I know of several mystics/psychics who have said almost exactly what you're saying about multiple simultaneous timelines.

This guy is a trip! Dr. Richard Alan Miller... at about 19:20 in this interview on THC he says the same thing.. if we can imagine it, we are creating it... including aliens. The now exists as a "cavitation ball" between past and future.

http://thehighersidechats.com/dr-ri...litary-intelligence-and-higher-consciousness/
 
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