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The penultimate edition of BoA:Audio, Season IV sees us welcome the legendary and iconic Budd Hopkins to the program. Centering around his recently published memoir, Art, Life, and UFOs, we'll be exploring and discussing his remarkable and epic life. The first half of this nearly 2 hours conversation revolves around Budd's career as an artist and his relationship with his father. Budd will extrapolate on observations made in the memoir about the early influences on his artistic career, artists and their disinterest in politics, Budd's near-fight with Jack Kerouac, why he chose to change mediums from paint to sculpture later in his career, why he dubbed some of his work to be 'failures,' the problem with museums today, and much much more.
The second half focuses, of course, on Budd's pioneering work in the field of abduction research. We'll find out how hearing the War of the Worlds shaped the populace who heard it (including a young Budd Hopkins), why the nature of ET interaction seemed to go from 'contactees' to 'abductees,' the concept of 'confirmation anxiety' and how it effects abductees, his take on the 'ETs as robots' theory, the nature of hybrid revelations to abductees and if it is an ongoing process or a one time thing, some insight into the Shirley MacLain meeting that is detailed in the book, framing the UFO/ET questions for the mass public in this modern time (i.e. Ufology's Public Relations problem), the portrayal of abductions in mass media, and much much more.
It's a riveting interview which aims to capture the massive scope of one man's life: Budd Hopkins, artist & esoteric legend.
Full Preview: We kick things off by finding out what made Budd decide to write a memoir and he details the evolution of book as he wrote it over the last decade or so. To that end, he specifically talks about the "Dodging Hits" chapter of the book and why he included it in the memoir.
We then begin discussion on Budd's career as an artist, beginning with how he drew inspiration at a very early age from his art classes and tasks of drawing tropical fish. He reflects on how these fish, along with his experience as a child going to the 1940 World's Fair, would later emerge in his artistic work. Staying within the realm of Budd's childhood and upbringing, we talk about his fascinating and complex relationship with his father and how he handled discussing it in the book.
Looking at another observation from Budd in the book, we discuss how he noted that his artist friends of the 1950's were wholly uninterested in the world of politics, which he found intriguing and surprising. We then contrast this with the attitude in esoterica, where the opposite seems true and interest in politics often far outweighs interest in entertainment. This segues into a discussion on the literal "state of art" in contemporary times, where painting gives way to 500 channel cable systems. Budd smashes the 4th wall and muses about how the content of his memoir (Art & UFOs) fits into this paradigm of shifting interests.
Having Budd share one of the many stories from Art, Life, and UFOs, he recounts his near-fight with Jack Kerouac and how it exemplified the divide between the 1950's artists of NYC and the then-emerging Beat Poets. Budd also shares a remarkably synchronistic coda to the story, which happened just a few weeks ago. We then look at a big sea change in Budd's career as an artist, when he switched from painting to sculpture as his predominant artistic style and we find out what inspired that dramatic shift in medium.
Budd extrapolates more on the story in the book where he tells Mark Motherwell that one of his 'Spanish Elegy' paintings is a "failure" and also what he meant when he said he destroyed 11 of his older paintings because he considered them to be "failures" as well.
Heading towards the close of the art portion of the interview, we find out why Budd's works are not featured prominently in most, if not all, museums that own pieces of work from him. Budd shares some enlightening insight into the shocking state of museums today. Forming a bridge from the art discussion to the UFO portion of the interview, we discuss Budd's observation, in the book, that New Age enthusiasts seem to gravitate towards the darker Egyptian and Mayan art as opposed to the more humanistic, and less rigid, Greek art. Budd speculates on what this says about New Age beliefs and draws parallels between the coldness of Egyptian art and the reports from abductees.
Beginning our discussion on Budd's UFO & abduction research, we start by going way back to the original Orson Welles' radio broadcast of War of the Worlds (which was heard by a young Budd Hopkins) and how it had a profound effect of the belief in UFOs by not just Budd but the vast majority of Americans at the time.
We then discuss how and why Budd's interest in UFOs led him towards looking into abductions, especially since when he first started investigating them, there literally wasn't a field of abduction research and he did a great deal of pioneering work at the very beginnings of that branch of esoterica. We then get Budd's take on the stark difference between the contactee era of Ufology and the abductee era and why he thinks such a change in ET interaction reports took place. Budd does a masterful job of comparing and contrasting the two separate realms of ET interaction. He also discusses the nature of screen memories and how these may be able to be applied to classic contactee stories.
Budd extrapolates on the concept of 'confirmation anxiety" which effects many abductees when they realize that they were, almost certainly, abducted by aliens. Budd provides a riveting example of one such abductee's experience with 'confirmation anxiety.' We also get Budd's opinion on the theory of 'ETs as robots' and his thoughts on why it seems like the abductors sometimes make simple mistakes such as re-dressing the abductees incorrectly.
Looking at another phrase that Budd has coined based on his years of abduction research, we find out if 'presentation memories' (where female abductees are 'introduced' to their hybrid off-spring) are one-time occurrences or if they continue to happen to the abductee. We discuss Budd's meeting with Shirley MacLaine that is detailed in Art, Life, and UFOs and he elucidates a bit more on why there were a number of high ranking politicians with MacLaine during the meeting.
We then tackle the issue of Ufology's PR problem and discuss Budd's poignant and powerful axiom that "the quantity of evidence behind this extraordinary phenomenon requires an extraordinary investigation" as a counter to Carl Sagan's demand that "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." This leads to a discussion about re-framing the UFO question to the general public by asking them to investigate UFOs instead of simply telling them what UFOs are or trying to coerce them into believing the phenomenon is real. The leads to some criticism from Budd for the Exopolitical movement's methods of presenting UFO claims as facts.
Since Budd was at the ground floor of the abduction research community and really was one of the sparks that lit the explosion of abduction interest in the 1980's, we get him to reflect on how he think the portrayal of the phenomenon has evolved over the last 30 years. He responds to the poor portrayal of the phenomenon by the infamous Peter Jennings UFO special and muses about why abductions are a "tough sell" to the public because they are a particularly unsettling phenomenon. We also have Budd reflect on the evolution of abduction research over the last 30 years and why it seems like the next generation's Hopkins/Mack/Jacobs has yet to come into prominence in esoterica as a whole.
Based on his lengthy research into abductions and how they have seemingly evolved over the course of his investigation, we ponder what the 'next step' may be if this is an ongoing program of sorts. We also have Budd contrast the field of abduction research which now, after 30 years, seems to stand beside Ufology as opposed to existing on the peripheral of the field.
Tackling some larger issues and theories that surround abductions, we get Budd's take on the longstanding rumor that the government made some kind of deal with the ETs that allowed them to continue abducting people in exchange for technology. This leads to some discussion on Col. Corso and Budd's problems with his story. We also get Budd to weigh in on the 'alien implant' theory that is often a part of abduction research.
Closing out the interview, we find out what's next for Budd Hopkins, where folks can get Art, Life, and UFOs, and the best way to acquire some of his artwork.
Hopkins' goal has always been to bring an objective, dispassionate scientific intelligence to bear on the UFO abduction phenomenon. To this end, he founded the Intruders Foundation (IF) in 1989. IF is a nonprofit organization devoted to research and public education concerning this extraordinary enigma. They publish a respected journal, as well as offer a nationwide referral service for those wishing to explore their own suspected abduction experiences.
Despite its extremely controversial nature, Hopkins' research has received serious commentary in such mainstream publications as Time, Paris Match, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, Omni, People, and Cosmopolitan. He has been a guest on hundreds of television and radio programs including Nightline, Good Morning America, The Today Show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Tonight Show, Charlie Rose, Larry King Live, The Charles Grodin Show, Sally Jesse Raphael, The Geraldo Rivera Show, 20/20, 48 Hours, Unsolved Mysteries, Encounters, A Current Affair, Nightwatch, The Late Show, The Art Bell Show, Tom Snyder, The Laura Lee Show, Hieronimus & Company, Weekend Edition (National Public Radio), Voice of America, Armed Forces Radio, numerous BBC affiliates, and many other shows and forums.
His website is www.intrudersfoundation.org
The Season Finale of BoA:Audio, Season IV featuring ...
BoA:Audio closes the book on Season IV with one of the more legendary and infamous figures in the history of UFO studies: John Lear. In this ultra-rare two hour conversation, we'll cover the wild days of the 1980's in Ufology including Paul Bennewitz, Bill Cooper, Bill Moore, the 1989 MUFON Convention in Las Vegas, the alien spaceship that allegedly crashed and was buried because it was too big to move, the concept of souls and reincarnation and how the aliens may fit into that, the incident at the Dulce Base between an ET and the Army, 'human mutilations,' UFO disclosure and when it may happen, 2012 as a scam, interesting things on the moon, the secret space program, undersea connections beneath the western half of America, John's theory on 911 that the planes were holograms & the towers felled via space weapons, Bob Lazar and the Area 51 story, the state of Ufology, Exopolitics, why the 'mainstream' branches of esoterica seem to be so far off from John's theories, George Knapp, Art Bell, why Ufology isn't a 'team sport,' and a shitload more stuff.
As I mention during the interview, to newcomers to esoterica, John Lear is almost mythical and certainly mysterious. A lot of contemporary folks dismiss John's material because of the sometimes outrageous things he says, without realizing the massive impact he had on the field, specifically in the 1980's. Both Art Bell & George Knapp have credited him with planting the seed for their future exploits exploring the unknown and, as most people know, Lear was side-by-side with Bob Lazar as one of the godfathers of Area 51. He is most certainly someone who forever altered the landscape of esoterica and, thus, absolutely befitting of the Season Finale spot on BoA:Audio. I hope our awesome listeners enjoy hearing the interview as much as I did conducting it.
His website is www.thelivingmoon.com
Note: There is a halfway decent chance that the posting of this episode will be bumped to the week of Sep. 7th instead of next week. Consider yourself forewarned.