There have been dozens of documented cases where the recipient of a transplant, often involving the heart, apparently take on the personalities of the organ donor. Recipients also report memories of the donor, and memories that belong to the donor, despite never...
science
PEERANORMAL Episode 07: DMT, Psychedelics, Religious Mysticism, and Paranormal Experiences
This episode focuses on entheogens—psychedelic drugs that are known to cause “mystical states” of consciousness. Our hosts discuss Rick Strassman’s work on DMT, but that is merely a subset of entheogen study. Current research in the fields of brain science,...
PEERANORMAL Episode 6: Sleep Paralysis
Sleep paralysis can be defined in several ways. In terms of the experiencer, it can be described as “a visitation by a malevolent creature which attacked its victims as they slept” (Cox). More clinically, sleep paralysis is understood as “a transient, conscious state...
Elongated Skulls and Christian Ethics
Those of you with an interest in the elongated skull paleobabble (that they have something to do with aliens or nephilim) will find this short essay of interest. It's from the Hot Cup of Joe blog. It's basically an overview of the methodological problems of the...
A New Planet Beyond Pluto? Sitchin is Still Wrong
I've been getting emails about the news that some scientists are claiming (note: a claim isn't the same as established fact) that there is a very large planet beyond Pluto. This naturally excites Sitchinites and other ancient astronaut theorists who follow the work of...
The Science and Pseudo-Science of Extraterrestrial Communication
That's the gist of this interesting and informative episode of Exposing PseudoAstronomy. Here's the episode's abstract: Linguist, Dr. Karen Stollznow, discusses some of the communication problems on our own planet and how that translates to the huge potential...
The Cosmos in the Antikythera Mechanism: ET Flunked Astronomy
That's the title of a new, freely accessible scholarly paper on the Antikythera mechanism you can find here. Here's the abstract: The Antikythera Mechanism is a fragmentarily preserved Hellenistic astronomical machine with bronze gearwheels, made about the second...
Immanuel Velikovsky Resources
Immanuel Velikovsky's name is, for many, synonymous with paleobabble. I can think of a few other candidates I'd move ahead of him for such an honor, but Velikovsky indeed belongs to the "modern classical period" of wacky stuff related to study of the ancient world....
The Faux Mystery of Phobos 2
I remember hearing about the Phobos 2 event back in grad school, listening to the Art Bell show. It seemed truly anomalous and therefore something that one might put in the evidence bin for alien contact. But then why did it take the Art Bell show for me to hear it?...
Transporting the Trilithon Stones of Baalbek: It’s About Applied Physics, Not Ancient Aliens
PaleoBabble readers know that ancient astronaut theorists suffer from a fixation on megalithic construction. The “impossibility” of moving stones of great size and tremendous weight appears to them as proof of alien assistance. This argument of course is simply...
Ancient Construction: No Aliens Needed
Yeah ... scholars are so overwhelmed by the building projects of the ancients that they just have no idea how it was done. They're so frightened by the clarity of the ancient alien visitation idea that they remain silent. There's just no way to explain the precise...
How Research Reaches the Public and PaleoBabble is Born
Robert Cargill posted this today on his blog. It's funny because we've all seen it happen, again and again. Although the creators forgot to include the Fantasy Channel (formerly known as the History Channel).
Dinosaur Petroglyphs and a Lesson in Intellectual Dishonesty
I was alerted to a new scholarly article today on the issue of so-called dinosaur petroglyphs. Here is the citation (the article is free): Senter and Cole. 2011. "Dinosaur" petroglyphs at Kachina Bridge site, Natural Bridges National Monument, southeastern Utah: not...
Atheism and Belief in Intelligent ET: Trusting in The Blessed Equation
Over the course of the last couple of days we've been treated once again to the parade of astronomers and astrobiologists pontificating on the likelihood that there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. In the wake of a couple of decades of failure on the...
Intelligent Design Usurped by Alien Astronaut Theory?
As many of you will know, I think the intelligent design approach to origins has merit, since it attempts to bring to light the weaknesses of an undirected, random Darwinism. You may also know that I've been saying for years how easy it will be for those who promote...