Aliens & UFOs : For Entertainment Purposes Only?

reply to post by mirageman


Is Steven Spielberg lying?

Robbie Graham wrote:

“Sorry, Steven, I'm not buying it. Anyone who is even vaguely familiar with the subject of UFOs and the Presidency will know as a well documented fact that Ronald Reagan was extremely interested - obsessed, even - with the idea of alien visitation and that this interest extended to a 'belief' (if that is right word) in UFOs (Reagan even had two UFO sightings of his own whilst Governor of California). The notion of alien visitation so preoccupied the President that it entered his policy speeches on a number of occasions.”

[5 different speeches in fact]

“ Even if Spielberg had not been aware of Reagan's interest in UFOs back in 1982, the self-proclaimed "ufologist" would most certainly be aware of it today and could be confident in hindsight that Reagan's comments were not meant in jest.

Of course Reagan's guests laughed at his remark - how else would they have reacted? With a collective gasp of shock followed by a flurry of pressing questions? And surely Reagan knew they'd laugh, which is probably why he felt comfortable saying it in the first place. But Steven - Mr. Spielberg - when a President who believes in aliens tells you that aliens are real, when he says it "without smiling, without a little bit of a twinkle," and when it seems in no way at all like a joke but for the obligatory laughter that follows, it's safe to assume he's not kidding around.

I don't doubt that Spielberg is telling it as it happened, but I am indeed suggesting that he is being less than truthful in regard to his own personal interpretation of Reagan's comments. But if Spielberg believes - or even knows - that Reagan wasn't joking, why not just say so? Well, because Spielberg is quite a friend to the White House, and has been for decades. He routinely rubs shoulders with the Washington power elite. He's a former Bilderberg attendee. He's a billionaire. He's hugely influential. What he says matters; it rings out. He's smart, and, most importantly in the eyes of his friends in Washington, he's discreet. If Spielberg were not discreet, those regular invites from the White House would long ago have ceased to grace his mailbox.

When you're in Spielberg's privileged position, you don't ruffle Presidential feathers, no matter how old those feathers may be.”

The legend is different of course. That story was told years ago by another Hollywood producer Jamie Shandera who had been working on a film project with Spielberg in Japan. Shandera stated that Spielberg had told him that Reagan had made an even more revealing statement just before the film ended. Reagan leaned over and told Spielberg, “I bet there aren’t six people in this whole room that know how true this whole thing is.”

“Unfortunately, the sudden press of people approaching Spielberg and the President, prevented Spielberg from pursuing the strange comment made by Reagan.”

reply to post by mirageman


Let’s look at how this fits into Reagan’s life:

Dossier : From Lucy to Gorby

"The Reagan’s were expected at a casual dinner party with friends in Hollywood, California. Except for the Reagan’s, all the guests had arrived. They showed up a half hour later quite upset. They stated that they had seen a UFO coming down the coast.

Lucille Ball in her book Lucy in the Afternoon also described the event. In her account of the event she stated, "After he was elected president I kept thinking about that event and wondered if he still would have won if he told everyone that he saw a flying saucer."

The second sighting occurred in 1974 while Reagan was still governor of California. One week after the sighting he related the story to Norman Millar, then Washington Bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal, later the editor of the Los Angeles Times. Reagan told Millar:
"I was in a plane last week when I looked out the window and saw this white light. It was zigzagging around. I went up to the pilot and said, `Have you seen anything like that before?' He was shocked and said, `Nope.' And I said to him: `Let's follow it!' We followed it for several minutes. It was a bright white light. We followed it to Bakersfield and all of a sudden to our utter amazement it went straight up into the heavens. When we got off the plane, I told Nancy all about it.'

The pilot of Governor Reagan plane was Bill Paynter and he backed up the version of the incident with the UFO.

"I was the pilot of the plane when we saw the UFO. Also, on board were Governor Reagan and a couple of his security people. We were flying a Cessna Citation. It was maybe nine or ten o'clock at night. We were near Bakersfield when Governor Reagan and the others called my attention to a big light flying a bit behind the plane. It appeared to be several hundred yards away. It was a fairly steady light until it began to accelerate then it appeared to elongate. The light took off. It went up at a 45-degree angle at a high rate of speed. Everyone on the plane was surprised. Governor Reagan expressed amazement. I told the others I didn't know what it was. The UFO went from a normal cruise speed to a fantastic speed instantly. If you give an airplane power it will accelerate but not like a hotrod and that is what this was like. We didn't file a report on the object because for a long time they considered you a nut if you saw a UFO. Paynter added the UFO incident didn't stop there. He stated that he and Reagan had discussed their UFO sighting from time to time in the years following the incident."

June 1982:
Following a private White House screening of Spielberg's film "E.T", the President quietly commented to Mr. Spielberg. "You know, there aren't six people in this room who know just how true that really is." Unfortunately, a press of people coming forward to congratulate him prevented Spielberg from pursuing the point further. Spielberg reportedly told this to Jamie Shandera shortly after it happened.

Even more interesting in White House records found concerning the Spielberg screening of E.T. were records which showed a strange coincidence concerning the very next event on the President’s schedule after the movie screening. The showing of E.T. was the last event on June 27th. The very next event the next morning, June 28th, was a meeting between President Reagan and James A. Baker 111, Chief of Staff; Edwin Meese 111, Counselor; and Michael K. Deaver, Deputy Chief of Staff; met in the oval office. From there the four men went to the highly secure White House Situation Room where the President participated in a briefing of the U.S. Space Program. Participants included six members of the National Security Council or National Security Affairs and no one from NASA. The absence of anyone from NASA for a briefing of the U.S. Space Program is unheard of. The absence of any NASA people is even more unusual, in light of the fact that a couple days later, President Reagan attended the landing of the U.S. Space Shuttle at Edwards Air Force Base.

December 4th, 1985:
While addressing a group of high school students in Fallston Maryland..." I couldn't help but say to Gorbachev, just think how easy his task and mine might be...if suddenly there was a threat to this world from some other species from another planet outside in the universe. We'd forget all the little local differences ....between our countries....and find out once and for all that we really are all human."

September 21st, 1987:
Before the United Nations General Assembly: “In our obsession with antagonisms of the moment," said Reagan, "we often forget how much unites all the members of humanity. Perhaps we need some outside, universal threat to make us recognize this common bond. I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world. And yet, I ask you," he went on, "is not an alien threat already among us? What could be more alien to universal aspirations of our peoples than war and the threat of war?"

May 5th, 1988:
As President Reagan leaves the White House on the way to Chicago. Talking about the importance of frankness; for a desire for peaceful solutions and wars he goes on to say..."But, I've often wondered what if all of us in the world discovered that we were threatened by an outer--a power from another planet." Reagan said. "Wouldn't we all of a sudden find that we didn't have any differences between us at all, we were all human beings, citizens of the world and wouldn't we come together to fight that particular threat?" The president said.

~

The number of times Reagan brought up the alien threat seemed to mean something more than just a passing thought of the possible existence of extraterrestrials. Dr. Scott Jones, an aide to Senator Claiborne Pell at the time, and a person who was doing work for the Foreign relations Committee in the Soviet Union, saw significance in Reagan statements.

Looking carefully at Reagan's assumptions," said Jones, "they tell us much about the man and about possible government policy on the subject. The most important assumption is that there is a `threat' to the world. Explicitly it is an `alien' threat, from some `other species,' not human. This was the president of the United States speaking publicly for the record, and the subject was confirmed by another head of state...Because it was repeated three times over a period of nearly two years, it has the earmarks of an official statement."

Very few papers anywhere covered the strange "alien invasion" exchange between Reagan and Gorbachev. A reason for this was put forward by Dr. Scott Jones. "The short answer is that the press has effectively been taken out of the loop by the success of a counterintelligence program targeted against the American public and the press. The government wants no restrictions on how it attempts to handle what we are calling UFO phenomena."
~Grant Cameron

In May 1990, after Reagan had left office, and shortly before the fall of the Soviet Union Gorbachev made a second more direct statement about UFOs."The phenomenon of UFOs does exist," he stated, "and it must be treated seriously."

reply to post by spiritualarchitect


Not sure of the veracity of this quote but apparently when asked about a sequel to Close Encounters, Spielberg said this:

The army's knowledge and ensuing cover-up is so subterranean that it would take a creative screen story, perhaps someone else making the picture and giving it the equal time it deserves.

en.wikipedia.org...

Make of it what you will

reply to post by Zcustosmorum


As Spock would say, Fascinating.

Originally posted by spiritualarchitect
reply to post by Zcustosmorum

 

As Spock would say, Fascinating.

Live long and prosper II/

Wow great thread OP S&F for you. Personally, the show X-Files was what opened me up to the world of paranormal, aliens, and government coverups. The show did it so wonderfully and put stuff in that ranged from ghosts to vampires to aliens to the MIB. Of course I did start to wonder after seeing so much freaky stuff and Mulder always being right, why did Scully ALWAYS maintain the skeptic attitude and never believe Mulder's theories about what was going on in each episode?

Taken is another great (mini-)series that really entwines all the stories and conspiracies nicely. It even addresses crop circles.

By the way OP, you forgot to take into account one more great entertainment outlet that can be used the ways you describe, print. For instance this series Area 51 introduced me to the idea of ancient aliens and that humanity's civilizations all arose from one civilization. Following this series, the movie Aliens Vs. Predator also addresses the ancient aliens concept as well as the one original civilization theme.

reply to post by Krazysh0t


"As the massive "mothership" is too large to relocate and so little is known about its alien technology, a secret military base is built around the area surrounding the mothership, known as Area 51."

Just tooo cool

reply to post by mirageman


i know this sounds silly but maybe we make these alien films

so when they pick them up via droadcast which travle the vast ness of space

they think #that they have beat off some formidable alien species but you never know

Originally posted by Krazysh0t
.......
By the way OP, you forgot to take into account one more great entertainment outlet that can be used the ways you describe, print. For instance this series Area 51 introduced me to the idea of ancient aliens and that humanity's civilizations all arose from one civilization. Following this series, the movie Aliens Vs. Predator also addresses the ancient aliens concept as well as the one original civilization theme.

Yes good point and let's not forget computer and console games. Some of which have bigger budgets than movies these days. Alien vs Predator was not the best of either franchise in my opinion. But another decent observation there.

"Taken" would have been a good series to include had I actually watched it. I own it on DVD but really need to get round to viewing it all some time. Perhaps someone else has a view on it?

My general point of the thread was that even though science fiction (and indeed any other form of popular media) is deemed as entertainment it is used by writers, film and TV studios and various governments to influence us all in some way. Even sometimes perhaps unintentionally. David Icke watched the 80s mini-series "V" and was never the same again.

I had made a list of TV and movies that may I was familiar with which included the following:



Alien Nation ,Apollo 18 ,Battlestar Galactica ,Capricorn One ,Close Encounters ,Cocoon ,District 9 ,Doctor Who ,Earth Final Conflict ,Invasion ,Iron Sky ,Men in Black , Alien on Earth comedies -"Mork and Mindy, ALF, Third Rock from the Sun" ,Outer Limits ,Paul ,Predator ,Prometheus ,Red Dwarf ,Roswell ,Sapphire and Steel ,Sliders ,Space 1999 ,Space Above and Beyond ,Stargate ,The TommyKnockers ,Super 8 ,Taken ,Terminator ,The Abyss ,The Day the Earth Stood Still ,The Event ,The Invaders ,The Matrix ,The Tripods ,Transformers ,Twilight Zone ,V ,War of the Worlds



Far too many to include in the OP . Sapphire and Steel was a UK series I was going to mention as it featured what appeared to be intra-dimensional agents with supernatural powers. Despite it's rather odd concept for 1979 when it was first aired it survived until 1982.

There are literally thousands more...the remake of "Race to Witch Mountain" is alleged to have had CIA assistance for instance.

Originally posted by maryhinge
reply to post by mirageman

 

i know this sounds silly but maybe we make these alien films

so when they pick them up via droadcast which travle the vast ness of space

they think #that they have beat off some formidable alien species

but you never know

Been watching "Galaxy Quest"?

Originally posted by karl 12

Originally posted by Zcustosmorum

You've done a lot of research and kudos for that, but you're missing all the actual evidence of real UFOs and possible alien encounters which have occurred, regardless of the entertainment industry, furthermore if anything, a lot of the incidents were inspiration for the movies or series. Close Encounters for example was done under the direction of J. Hynek from the Governments official UFO programme, Blue Book, to me that says there's some factual stuff in there.

Great point mate, there's a good video here of folks on the set of the film discussing Dr Hynek's involvement and, when it comes to the factual stuff, the police UFO chase at the beginning of the movie was based on the Portage County incident from 1966 where cops chased a very bizarre object over 86 miles from Ohio to Pennsylvania - I don't think I've ever heard anyone offer a reasonable explanation as to what that object actually was and Easynow's made a bloody good thread about it below:

"When they started talking about fighter planes, it was just as if that thing heard every word that was said; it went PSSSSSHHEW, straight up; and I mean when it went up, friend, it didn't play no games; it went straight up."

Police officer Dale Spaur

*Above BlueBook* - Ohio UFO Chase , Portage County April 17, 1966

This UFO article which was published in a peer-reviewed academic journal is also a relevant one to the thread as it mentions that the U.S. Department of Defense has worked extensively with Hollywood in exchange for the right to edit scripts for sixty years.

Cheers.

It is a fascinating case and agreed, bloody good thread also.

Just to point out to others, if you read the above thread and then watch the the scene from Close Encounters, you can judge for yourself how close it is to actual event

reply to post by mirageman

i think i may have