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In mid-May 1999, Peter Gersten, co-leader of CAUS
(Citizens Against UFO Secrecy) circulated an old and
somewhat un-factual article that was published in
OMNI magazine several years ago. He sent the article
out on the Internet by way of his ever expanding mailing
list, claiming he was presenting it as a "cybertrial."
This is Mr. Gersten's latest attempt to stir up
controversy regarding the subject of alien and/or MILAB
abductions. Mr. Gersten's previous attempt involved him
sending out a different debunking article, one written by
Victoria Alexander - previously Victoria Lacas, now the wife
of retired colonel John B. Alexander.[1]
Questions
Questions regarding Peter Gersten's motives and whether
they reflect the beliefs of CAUS are beginning to circulate
on the Internet. Although I am no 'insider,' I have
exchanged correspondence with Larry Bryant, head of the
Washington D.C. office and the driving force behind CAUS.
Mr. Bryant has always been open-minded about the abduction
phenomenon and he has never criticized me or attempted to
debunk my experiences or the experiences of other abductees.
I would like to emphasize to the reader that I do not
believe Peter Gersten's actions and beliefs reflect those of
Larry Bryant or of CAUS in general.
Having said that, I do have to ask: What good does it do to take
old debunking articles and send them out to hundreds
of people on the Internet? Why would someone who claims to be searching
for the truth, continually re-circulate old articles, essays and opinions
written in a clearly debunking fashion? Although there are plenty
of opinions floating around, no one but Peter Gersten can really answer
these questions. This is especially the case in light of what Peter
Gersten wrote several months ago regarding his prediction that a UFO
landing would occur in Arizona on December 7th, 1998. The landing,
of course, did not take place:
"It is irrelevant whether it is a hoax or not. Let go of
your need to only believe what you are told is real and not
real. The (star) EQ Pegasi was a 'signal.' Simply beCAUS it
was possibly hoaxed does not lessen its effect. The Universe
works in strange ways. You are confining your ability to see
through the veil of illusion by only looking in one
direction. Let go of the need to see the land and look to
the skies."[2]
Haley Comments on the Rayl-OMNI Article
The following section covers Leah Haley's comments to
several inaccurate statements made in the Rayl -OMNI
article and by Peter Gersten. Leah is absolutely correct
when she states,
"I think that in a fair trial the accused
is aware that he is on trial..."
Peter Gersten:
"On this Friday, CAUS presents its first
cybertrial with Anatomy of an Abduction, an article about
the Personal Contact Experiences (PCEs) of Leah A. Haley.
Try to imagine as you read this article, that the people
mentioned are also witnesses testifying in a jury trial."
"The sole issue is whether or not Ms. Haley is an alien
abductee. The judge has ruled that all testimony is
admissible and is relevant evidence. You are the jury of
this cybertrial and must decide this one issue by evaluating
each of the witnesses' testimony. Please keep an open mind
until you read the entire article."
"Quiet online. Our cybertrial is about to begin:"
Leah Haley:
"I think that in a fair trial the accused is
aware that he is on trial and is also allowed to testify.
These two things did not happen in this 'so-called trial.' "
"It is important to note that Ms. Rayl spent days in
Mississippi interviewing me. Yet very little of what we
discussed together was published in OMNI, and what was
published was very heavily edited by a person at OMNI who
never even talked to me."
From the OMNI article, by Ms. Rayl (hereafter,
simply Ms. Rayl):
"After undergoing hypnosis, Haley has come to
believe her abduction dreams were real.... "She even
conjured an undersea alien facility, complete with alien
craft and a captive soldier, held against his will."
Leah Haley:
"Some of my abduction experiences have been
recalled consciously, without the aid of hypnosis and not in
the form of dreams. My last hypnosis session was in 1993,
yet I have had abduction experiences since that date, [and]
I did not conjure; I saw!"
Ms. Rayl:
" 'Military Intervention.' During hypnosis
and flashbacks, Haley also recalled her abduction by
military personnel. For instance, she told of an alien craft
that she believes crashed near a beach while she was aboard,
after which military personnel escorted her away. Comments
Carpenter, 'That episode unraveled as vividly as any I've
heard.' "
Leah Haley:
"If you do a sufficient amount of research,
you'll find that there have been witnesses to crashes in the
Gulf Breeze/Navarre Beach area."
Ms. Rayl:
"Haley says Poole extended 'an unusually
persistent invitation' to view space shuttle Endeavor during
its stopover at the base. Armed guards surrounding the
shuttle and signs posted around the spacecraft warning that
Deadly force is Authorized, Haley notes, explain why she
considered the invitation 'a possible setup to interrogate
or kill me.' "
Leah Haley:
"Read the entire story in Lost Was the Key.
This is not a pitch to try to get you to buy my book - you
can check it out at your library."[3]
Ms. Rayl:
"Robert A. Baker, psychology professor
emeritus at the University of Kentucky, who has studied
psychological anomalies says, 'These encounters are really
hypnagogic images, essentially walking hallucinations or
dreams, and nothing more.' "
"Ronald K. Siegel, associate research professor of
psychiatry and bio-behavioral science at UCLA and author of
Whispers: 'Theoretically, Haley could be experiencing an
altered state of consciousness - caused by anything from a
food allergy to a physical problem in the brain - and having
these fantastic experiences in which she has seemingly real
feelings and images associated with being abducted by
aliens, and which can even include physical manifestations,'
adds psychologist Keith Harary, research director of the
Institute for Advanced Psychology in San Francisco."
Leah Haley:
"It is unprofessional to render a medical or
psychiatric opinion about a person without first examining
that person. Furthermore, I have had extensive physical
examinations, and the doctors have found no disorders such
as those mentioned above."
Ms. Rayl:
" 'Military Coup?' Acting as tour guide,
Haley drove OMNI around the Columbus Air Force Base looking
for a one-story building where she believes she was taken
and interrogated. No building, however, seemed familiar."
Leah Haley:
"This conclusion was either an editing error
or mistake made by the interviewer. I had, and still have,
no idea what base I was taken to. It seemed like a short
flight aboard the helicopter, but there were several bases
that were a short distance by air from where I lived."
Ms. Rayl:
"OFFICIAL DENIAL - Have UFOs ever been
tracked over Columbus Air Force Base? According to Sergeant
Debbie O'Leary, Columbus AFB Public Affairs: 'No, there have
been no UFOs tracked here, and we have not interrogated here
any people who claim to have an alien encounter.' "
Leah Haley:
"This was an official Air Force statement.
Need I say more?"
Ms. Rayl:
"Tammy McBride at the POW/MIA office at the
Pentagon, meanwhile, conducted a search for one Larry
Mitchell, a name that appeared on a soldier's uniform in the
underground alien facility Haley described under hypnosis.
McBride found 3 'Larrys' and one 'Lawrence' all with the
last name of 'Mitchell.' All 4 were killed in action in
Vietnam. All bodies have been recovered."
Leah Haley:
"So what? This is a good example of the media
getting their facts confused - or twisting things around to
promote their own point of view. The point is that Larry
Mitchell wasn't dead when I saw him in that underground
base. He was very much alive then. I didn't tell OMNI WHEN I
saw Larry Mitchell there. And I didn't tell them where the
underground base was, either, because I didn't know myself."
"Note how OMNI omitted the story about the time I caught
the 'NASA guy' snooping around my car."
Ms. Rayl:
" 'Body Scoops.' The plethora of unusual
marks on Haley's body would seem to be significant physical
evidence; however, everyone agrees that without a thorough
examination of her environment and sleep patterns, they mean
little in the end. 'Strange marks appearing overnight is not
just that unusual, and without observing Haley close up
during the times these things occur, you cannot draw any
kind of valid conclusion about what's going on,' says
Harary. 'We would have to rule out all conventional
explanations, including, for example, the possibility that
she could be doing these things to herself in an altered, or
even an ordinary, state of consciousness.' "
Leah Haley:
"Try puncturing your own back seven times to
make perfect one-inch circles in two different places. Now
try taking out a chunk of skin from your forehead without
making it bleed and having it completely healed the next
day. Oh, yeah, my husband was available to answer questions
about sleep patterns, but did anybody ask him? No!"
Ms. Rayl:
" 'There's an internal reality that everyone
shares.' Abduction imagery is a manifestation of the limbic
system, not outright insanity, Siegel says. 'Haley is truly
an abductee, BUT THE ALIENS ARE NOT OUT THERE - THEY'RE IN
HER OWN BRAIN. The scary thing is, we all have the same
details in our nervous system; ANYBODY CAN BECOME AN
ABDUCTEE.' "
Leah Haley:
"No, the scary thing is that there are people
out there calling themselves professionals who are so
unprofessional and unethical as to render opinions about
people they have never even talked to, and other people who
are stupid enough to believe them."
Peter Gersten's "Conclusion"
"Despite the fact that some UFO researchers
have called the Haley case one of the most intriguing and
apparently best-documented abductions ever (according to
OMNI), without more data it's impossible to know what Haley
has experienced, and why. There is no hard evidence and no
conclusive circumstantial evidence that proves abduction by
extraterrestrial biological entities. Given the caveat that
this investigation remains incomplete, there is also no
conclusive evidence that Haley has been monitored or
harassed by military operatives."
Leah Haley:
"There's plenty of data and plenty of
evidence. Only a small fraction of my case has been
discussed here. In fact, only a small portion of it has been
published anywhere."
No Justice
The interviewer and writer of the OMNI article,
Anatomy of an Abduction, did not do justice to Leah
Haley, or to those of us who are involved in this
phenomenon. Neither did they do justice to researchers who
have spent decades or more of their lives searching for the
truth. In addition, most readers will see the absurdity in
calling Gersten's latest "updates" anything close to a
trial, even if it was termed a cyber trial.
Of course there is no "hard evidence," and no "conclusive
circumstantial evidence." This was a poorly investigated
case [by Ms. Rayl] and was presented in the form of an
ARTICLE. Did Mr. Gersten really initiate this so-called
"cybertrial" because he was interested in finding any
evidence? Of course not. It was taken from OMNI,
copied and mailed throughout the Internet for one reason,
and that reason had nothing to do with truth or justice.
"The Universe works in strange ways" indeed.
Copyright 1999
NOTES:
[1] Victoria Alexander (using her maiden name "Lacas," )
has also written articles critical of ufology in general.
One example is an article titled IANS Symposium Spoiled
by 'Outrageous Elitism' by Victoria Lacas "writer and
researcher from Fleetwood, New York" (UFO Magazine,
Volume 7, No. 4, 1992) 23-24.
IANS stands for the International Association for New
Science. The organization held their first International
conference for UFO Research from May 22 through May 25,
1992. * * * I recommend that you find a copy of the article
and read it. It demonstrates just how far some journalists
are willing to go in order to get into what they perceive as
the "inner sanctum" of ufology.
Comments regarding the previous article Peter Gersten sent out by
way of the Internet can be read by clicking on:
Debunking "Victorian
Style"
[2] Saucer Smear has documented and saved part of
Peter Gersten's correspondence regarding the alleged UFO
landing. From the January 1999, edition of Saucer
Smear:
"... Peter Gersten, self-appointed director of CAUS
(Citizens Against UFO Secrecy) predicted some sort of a UFO
landing on Dec. 7th, 1998 on Mount Elden, near Flagstaff, in
northern Arizona. (According to another version, the landing
was to be at Constellation, AZ.) Nothing happened, but hard
core believers claimed this was because of unusual weather
conditions, i.e., a severe snow storm on Dec. 6th,
deliberately caused by the Government to prevent the
landing!"
To read the entire article, click on:
http://www.martiansgohome.com/smear/v46/ss990110.htm
[3] For those of you who may not know, Leah
self-published some of her abduction experiences in Lost
Was The Key in 1993. If you haven't read her book, I
highly recommend it. Leah has two Masters degrees and has
worked as an educator and an accountant for a number of
years. She and her husband Marc Davenport own and operate
Greenleaf Publications.
If you cannot locate her book at your local library, you may order
it directly from her by contacting: Greenleaf Publications at
http://www.greenleafpublications.com/
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