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Houston, we have an alien subculture - My experience at Rice University’s UFO conference
dallasnews.com ^ | Will Clarke

Posted on 04/13/2025 5:01:47 AM PDT by RoosterRedux

As a novelist, I am prone to obsessions. These are what I call “creative outbursts.” And as strange or off-putting as my creative outbursts may be to my family and friends, I’ve learned to follow them.

...

So yeah, I’ve learned to follow my creative outbursts, even if that means spending my hard-earned PTO at a UFO conference in Houston, which is what I did last weekend.

This wasn’t just any old tin foil hat convention at a Hampton Inn; this was “The Archives of the Impossible!” hosted by Houston’s brainy little jewel, Rice University.

The speaker list had more Ph.D.s and military personnel than a NASA group chat. The conference opened with Jeffrey Kripal, the avuncular founder of the Archives of the Impossible, dressed like a party magician in a paisley shirt.

Kripal established the program at Rice with Jacques Vallée’s personal archives to create a serious academic home for studying often-dismissed extraordinary experiences like UFO encounters and psychic phenomena. Kripal, a religious studies scholar, sees these not as bizarre curiosities, but as modern expressions of enduring mysteries, legitimizing them for serious inquiry.

The conference kicked off with Kripal welcoming Diana Walsh Pasulka to the podium — fellow convener and author of the seminal American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, Technology, a first-person account of how Pasulka, once a skeptic, began to reconsider everything after visiting alleged UFO crash sites with Stanford’s Garry Nolan and an enigmatic government contractor she calls “Tyler.”

Pasulka was followed by Nolan, who runs the Sol Foundation, a UFO think tank, then by Rear Adm. Timothy Gallaudet, who testified before U.S. House subcommittees regarding encounters with UAPs (unidentified aerial phenomenon — the new terminology replacing UFO) and associated safety-of-flight risks.

(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...


TOPICS: Society; UFO's
KEYWORDS: aliens; fringe; ohsomysteriouso; riceuniversity; uap; ufo; ufos; willclarke

1 posted on 04/13/2025 5:01:47 AM PDT by RoosterRedux
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To: Openurmind; Churchjack; eastforker; Levy78; maddog55; Jonty30; GingisK; Mark17; spirited irish; ...

UFO Ping: “The Archives of the Impossible!” convention at Rice University.


2 posted on 04/13/2025 5:03:21 AM PDT by RoosterRedux (WWIII has begun. It's the Left in the U.S. and around the world against MAGA. )
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To: RoosterRedux

E.T phone home.


3 posted on 04/13/2025 5:06:49 AM PDT by No name given ( Anonymous is who you’ll know me as)
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To: RoosterRedux

https://impossiblearchives.rice.edu/explore-archives


4 posted on 04/13/2025 5:14:04 AM PDT by Openurmind
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To: RoosterRedux

Thanks for posting—the article was much more reasonable than normal journalistic ventures on the topic.

The author did slip and prove they were a newbie—and Leslie Kean sniffed it out.

(Newbies have their own “theories” and “explanations” which have long been explored and debunked—but they do not know that because they are newbies.)

I did go to one of these conferences a few years back—and the trick is listen and learn—and ask open ended questions which do not give away your biases.

Then people will be comfortable talking to you.


5 posted on 04/13/2025 5:14:26 AM PDT by cgbg (It was not us. It was them--all along.)
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To: No name given

E.T. Phones home: “Please come get me, there is no intelligent life here.”


6 posted on 04/13/2025 5:15:15 AM PDT by piytar (Remember Ashli Babbitt, Rosanne Boyland, and Corey Comperatore!)
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To: piytar
“Please come get me, there is no intelligent life here.” ~
7 posted on 04/13/2025 5:19:45 AM PDT by Sirius Lee ("Never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.”)
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To: cgbg
"Then people will be comfortable talking to you."

What are some of the things people felt comfortable telling you?

8 posted on 04/13/2025 6:45:54 AM PDT by yesthatjallen
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To: Sirius Lee

Biff!!


9 posted on 04/13/2025 6:51:25 AM PDT by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the Days of Lot; They did Eat, They Drank, They Bought, They Sold ......)
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To: yesthatjallen

I had folks who claimed that they were abducted by aliens tell me (and my wife who was with me) details about their experiences.

These were “normal” folks who did not write books, did not make videos, were not interviewed on podcasts—made zero money.

When they went home after the conference they had normal day jobs and families waiting for them.

They had their experience and they were happy to share it with anyone who (they believed) sincerely wanted to hear it.

Some of the little details (that were not publicized) were very helpful in figuring out who is larping (lying) and who was speaking the truth in this field.

There are multiple possible explanations for what was going on—but they have one thing in common—the vast majority of folks here would never believe them.

My wife was interesting—she did not change her views as a result of the meeting—except that she now knows that these folks should not be ridiculed as crazy—something real happened to them.

One example: If you listen very carefully to exactly what most (not all to be fair) are saying you will realize they have no hard evidence they were in “space” at all—they could have been underground or just in a closed area above ground. That is what is called a “clue”.


10 posted on 04/13/2025 6:56:52 AM PDT by cgbg (It was not us. It was them--all along.)
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To: RoosterRedux

Commie paywall


11 posted on 04/13/2025 7:18:41 AM PDT by Rich21IE
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To: cgbg

You’d think someone would have stolen an anal probe by now. Or at least an ashtray.


12 posted on 04/13/2025 8:10:18 AM PDT by RoosterRedux (WWIII has begun. It's the Left in the U.S. and around the world against MAGA. )
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To: RoosterRedux

That was good, thanks for the laughs.


13 posted on 04/13/2025 8:40:20 AM PDT by JohnnyP (Thinking is hard work (I stole that from Rush).)
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To: cgbg

So where do you think they were?


14 posted on 04/13/2025 8:49:09 AM PDT by ConjunctionJunction (Vim vi repellere licet)
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To: ConjunctionJunction
"So where do you think they were?"

And from where and how do they believe they were taken?

15 posted on 04/13/2025 9:06:51 AM PDT by yesthatjallen
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To: ConjunctionJunction
Here are some possibilities, if such abductions really occur (i.e, aren't hallucinations, false memories, dreams/nightmares, etc.):
TheoryWhere TakenPhysical or Non-Physical?Common Markers
ETH (craft)Nearby ship or orbitPhysicalMedical rooms, flashing lights, metal surfaces
InterdimensionalParallel realityNon-physical or hybridWall-passing, time distortion
Underground/UnderwaterSecret Earth-based basePhysicalCavern walls, military/UFO overlap
Virtual/SimulatedConstructed mental spaceNon-physicalSurreal scenes, odd logic
MILABHuman facilityPhysicalMilitary presence, drugs, fear
Control SystemMetaphysical planeNon-physicalSymbolic or religious themes

16 posted on 04/13/2025 9:12:01 AM PDT by RoosterRedux (WWIII has begun. It's the Left in the U.S. and around the world against MAGA. )
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To: ConjunctionJunction

https://www.amazon.com/Underground-Bases-Tunnels-Government-Alternative/dp/B019TMAQI0


17 posted on 04/13/2025 10:01:35 AM PDT by cgbg (It was not us. It was them--all along.)
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There’s no doubt that Houston and other liberal cities close to the southern border have an (illegal) alien subculture.


18 posted on 04/13/2025 10:11:55 AM PDT by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
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