Best of Dvorak Uncensored
Reposted from Jan, 2005
A Harvard professor killed in London last week had been vilified for his belief in the ‘third realm’. His theories may not be as mad as some think says Bryan Appleyard
John Mack, professor of psychiatry at Harvard, died after being hit by a car in north London last week. I learnt of the death via an e-mail from the Psychology of the Paranormal Network, an academic group that studies aberrant “anomalistic” phenomena – subjects such as telepathy, ghosts, clairvoyance and alien encounters and abductions.
I never heard of this guy, but began to read his story and found it fascinating, if only because Mack was the professorial poster boy for the UFO cultists in that he was a Harvard prof. It’s so hard to get anyone with credentials to join the cult. And most who start with credentials, soon lose them (if not their job) once they sign up.
Case in point, Joe Firmage, founder of dotcom success USWeb. He’s an upcoming speaker for an event to eulogize John E. Mack. When I was doing Silicon Spin, we had Joe Firmage on a couple of times. I noticed that Firmage, who then looked like a normal Silicon Valley techie, now looks like Svengali. Known for his entrepreneurship he had an encounter with aliens, quit his job as CEO and began floating around the UFO scene. I grilled Firmage numerous times about this and there is no doubt he is sincere. But his encounter, when examined in detail, was of this sort of nether-dimension “third realm” style. Not grounded in reality. It sounded more like a vivid dream to me, than anything else. Vivid dreams are quite annoying if you’ve ever had one. My wife seems to have them all the time and I’ve had one that I know of. Mine was quite funny since it was kind of embarrassing.
It was almost 20 years ago when I was on a book tour for Dvorak’s Guide to PC Telecommunications. My publicist had called me to tell me the good news. A second station in Dallas could interview me. This was a station that we had originally booked and then they cancelled and in the process she booked a different station. The good news was that the other station could now do it too and she wanted to be sure I could manage both interviews that same day. This was no problem as far as I was concerned. She said great. A couple of days later I got the tour itinerary and it didn’t reflect the two interviews. I called her to ask about this as I had already planned to go to both. She had no idea what I was talking about. I argued vehemently about this telling her about the phone call in detail. She had a good laugh and to this day I can not see how this now obvious dream became part of my reality.
I, of course, know rationally that she didn’t call and somehow something that happened in a dream got misfiled in my brain as if it actually happened. But, to this day, if she called and told me that this was all an elaborate hoax and she did call, I would believe that too! The neurological mechanism for this must account for a lot of weirdness in the world.
When I first heard Firmage’s story I asked him if he considered the fact that this could have been a vivid dream. No way, according to him, although he did, in fact, consider it. The way he saw it, the dream-like situation was an obvious mechanism for the Aliens to communicate with him. Maybe so, and perhaps it was the same for me — a way for the publicist to communicate with me. The trouble is there was no booking. I considered my episode an embarrassment. I wasn’t about to decide that there is a second dimension where I actually did get the second booking and then focus my life around this belief. I have enough work to do in this dimension!
The kicker to the Firmage tale is that on his first appearance on the show he said something that you run into like clockwork with people who go off the deep end. I’ve heard it before with another guy I knew who lost it. And the assertion is almost exactly the same each time. It essentially goes like this: The person has been made aware of the fact that aliens travel in new ways, which accounts for the ability to go great distances. Part of this has to do with an anti-gravity mechanism. The person has actually seen the anti-gravity mechanism. It’s astonishing. Moreover, the government (or some shady group) is about to reveal this mechanism in the next few weeks! Firmage said this on the show and when he came back a couple of months later, long past the deadline when the anti-gravity device was to be supposedly revealed, I asked him where was it? He had no answers and skirted the issue. There was, apparently, a delay. Years have now gone by. I’m still waiting.
Before and After pics of Firmage
related links:
Good John E. Mack links
Skeptics Dictionary Entry on Firmage
Interesting Comments About John E. Mack and Harvard
Disinformation post on Firmage with extensive links
For some reason, this story actually has relevant Google ads.
Conspiracy? 😉
I’ve had only one dream in my life that seemed so real that, upon waking, I initially felt that I could not be where I found myself. In the dream, I was caught up in the destruction by water of a major city. The details are still with me, and I occasionally reflect on the experience, because it was unique in all the dreams I have ever had.
For a long time, I would discuss the dream with various people, to get their input. Today, I attribute no significance to it per se, though I find it interesting. I’d just like to know what physically made it different from other dreams.
When one mentions such experiences, it is interesting that occasionally one will find that someone else has some similar episode to recall. For example, one good internet friend who spent many years in China once relayed to me an experience he had while he and his wife were both meditating. They had a mutual, simultaneous experience of oneness which neither had experienced before or since. It was as if they each knew that the other was having the same experience. Very strange.
I found happiness when I quit trying to interpret life’s riddles and just let them be whatever it is that they are.
I have to agree that those dreams are annoying. I’ve only had three of them and my memory is very accurate so the most recent one took a thorough visit to the internet archive to dispel.
The problem I had did not stem from waking up and then dealing with a realistic dream. It was the implantation of this false memory. I sure do not recall any dream. It makes you wonder about false memories. There’s another whole topic of discussion.
I find it especially poignant that Dr. Mack was a professor of psychiatry. When these UFO loons get someone that has a PhD in Physics from a major university, I’ll start to take note.
Regarding vivid dreams, what you are all relating is a simulated reality. It is disturbing to have reality, meaning everything that you use to differentiate reality from fantasy or imagination, be simulated and falsified. This has been a sci-fi topic for quite a while as people ponder what will happen when it is possible to artificially create this experience.
This is funny because I was just trying to recall this morning if something had happened or if I had dreamed it.
This is a normal occurance for me because I’m on psychotropic medications.
Medications frequently induce dream states that are so life-like you believe they are real. And of course, if a medication can do this, it’s easy to believe that a combination of factors could induce it for anyone.
Personally, I consider vivid dreaming (what it’s referred to in the medical community) as a bonus. I get to do all kinds of amazing things, and upon waking, they seem real.
All the adrenaline of your favorite wicked skydive without that nagging possibility of death. Coolio.
“The problem I had did not stem from waking up and then dealing with a realistic dream.” –JCD
Or so you thought… 🙂
FWIW, I like your alternative theory: that your publicist concocted an elaborate hoax and you actually had the conversation in question. If so, she was damn good at her job!
I can assure you that my experience was such that, were I of a metaphysical leaning, I would believe that I *had* experienced the event in another dimension. Only I am not so inclined, and am not even tempted. Like Scrooge, I have faith in what a piece of underdone potato can do.
I assume it’s similar to lose memories……
I still cannot recall one Christmas, and still suspect that my family members have concocted an elaborate hoax….even with photos to “prove” it.
It’s litterally not in my memories…. like how a dream vanishes upon waking.
But, it was after a stressful time, and family death….so I assume that I filed the whole thing under “dream” and left it at that. So, besides false memories…..there is the whole issue of forgotten experiences.
….file this under MISFILED
Psychological aberrations, neurological sleep disorders (Insomnia, Narcolepsy), vivid dreaming (natural or chemically induced), and popular culture fantasy-prone reinforcements from the likes of Art Bell and ilk, give this movement it’s real fuel. I have no doubt that some of the participants are genuine in their belief, but it’s a mirage, a modern day technological secular cult. But the will to believe is strong.
This also explains all the random reports of alien abductions, encounters with ‘Grays”, beamings aboard motherships and other such. After one old college cram exam where I had zero sleep for a long period, if I wasn’t rationally grounded, I might have thought I was alien abducted too. Lack of sleep does cause paralysis and cataplexy, one reason why there are regulations concerning trucker driver hours, and another reason why military personnel need the proper amount of sleep. Also Archaeology exists on the basis of object finds, so you mean to tell me with all the alien abductions going on, no one has brought back so much as a simple artifact? To the next person that gets abducted, please slip something into your pocket as a souvenir, Disney snow-globes not accepted as evidence. And interestingly enough, more than half of the reports of abductions come from people under “hypnosis”, suggestional implantation from someone already inclined in that direction, per se.
And as far as UFO reports, always ironic how most reports are near Air Force test bases. You think maybe it’s some experimental military aircraft being beta tested, maybe? No, it’s always some Alien Tech-Governmental grand conspiracy, always on the verge of being discovered. Of course that never happens, but that doesn’t seem to deter these people. Reminds me of the bloggers mentality actually, ‘you just don’t get it’. Don’t bother me with the facts could be the motto. Only when you become one with the hive mind, can you fully understand. And the more evidence you obtain disproving some of the crazy theories, the more to them it actually proves it, as the ‘powers that be’ have suppressed it all. You can’t ever win. The human condition, or desire to believe in something outside of yourself, is too strong of a force, it overrides all rationality.
Anyone who does not believe that we are being visited or that there is no other intelligent life has to be an IDIOT. I find it amusing to see how many scared ignorant fools there are believing humans are it……lol IDIOTS!!
Jay, at the risk of stating the obvious, whether we are “it” (your term) or whether we are being visited are two different questions. Presumably you must believe that there are many civilizations. Which in turn implies that there are many possible places to visit. What makes you assume that a civilization advanced enough to visit us would choose us and not somewhere else? What makes you so interesting that they would want to bother? I would think that we would be rather far down on the list… law of averages and all that. Or maybe it’s just our good looks.
By the way, why would people be scared by not being observed by aliens? Your logic baffles me.
Well, I am not sure you are very accurate about your facts but i know there is an audience for everything imaginable. Just to let you know, Dennis Barnhart’s ferrari was anything but brand new and he was more than qualified to drive it after being a naval fighter pilot and having driven and owned many other sport type vehicles. The meeting with the yacht salesman was a surprise to him! The fall of the company? Not on his watch! Reckless? Only with his gregarious personality and with his generosity. When will people stop insulting others for kicks that only hurt family members? Thats the real tragedy here.