George Van Tassel's FBI File: Now Available Online

Back in the 1980s I got a copy of the FBI's file on 1950s-era UFO Contactee George Van Tassel. As of yesterday, the FBI have now placed the 300-pages-plus file at their website, The Vault. Here's the link, where you can download the file as a PDF.

George Van Tassel - Documentary

One of the people I met at Contact in the Desert was Jonathan Berman, whose documentary on UFO Contactee, George Van Tassel, was shown at the event. I heard good feedback about it!

A Contactee and "The Government"

Also at Mysterious Universe, I take a look at the FBI's declassified file on famous 1950s-1970s Contactee, George Van Tassel. The article begins...
 
As a follow-up to my article on George Adamski’s “doctored document,” I thought I would share with you some of the highlights from the FBI’s file on yet another famous Contactee who surfaced in the early 1950s: George Van Tassel. He was a man with an intriguing background. In the 1940s Van Tassel worked for the Douglas Aircraft Corporation. And also with both Lockheed and Universal Airlines. In addition, Van Tassel was employed – in an assistance capacity – by brilliant fruitcake, Howard Hughes. In 1947, Van Tassel and his family moved to Yucca Valley, California. Only a few years later, Van Tassel attracted the attention of both the long-haired Space Brothers and the short-haired G-Men of the FBI.

It was out at the near-legendary “Giant Rock” where many of Van Tassel’s encounters of the alien kind went down. Giant Rock also being the location of Van Tassel’s hugely successful outdoor UFO gigs of the 1950s. And, as strange as it may sound, the Van Tassel family lived below Giant Rock in a kind of then-modern-day equivalent of the structures that Fred and Wilma, and Barney and Betty, called home in The Flintstones. Van Tassel’s visiting ETs included “Numa of Uni,” “Ah-Ming of Tarr,” “Rondolla of the Fourth Density,” and “Zolton, the Highest Authority and Commandant of all spacecraft in the Sector System of Vela.”

Here's the link to the article.

 

Contact in the Desert

A few photos from this past weekend, at the "Contact in the Desert" gig, at Joshua Tree, California, where I was speaking. The subject: the extensive, now-declassified FBI files on various Contactees from 1950s-era Ufology, including George Adamski, Truman Bethurum, George Van Tassel, George Hunt Williamson, and Frank Stranges. Plus the declassified files on George King and the Aetherius Society that were created by the British Police Force's Special Branch way back when...

Gorightly on Conspiracies

Over at Red Dirt Report, Andrew W. Griffin reviews the new book from friend Adam Gorightly (Happy Trails to High Weirdness: A Conspiracy Theorist's Tour Guide), and says in part:

"Gorightly, who was first introduced to conspiracy-tinged crackpottery back in the early 1980’s via a lecture on the CIA’s alleged involvement in the JFK assassination, realized this was his calling, leading to writing gigs with Steamshovel Press, Paranoia magazine and The Excluded Middle. And it has been a life, he says, that has been 'infinitely richer and wackier.' Again, Gorightly is a seemingly happy and content crackpot who knows his stuff. He first takes us on a journey of the 'cult mecca'of Southern California and touches upon the Manson Family, George Van Tassel and 'Giant Rock,' and Krishna Venta and the 'Fountain of the World' cult, among others. And then there is Gorightly’s pilgrimage to Santa Clara’s 'Conspiracy Con' where topics addressed range from Kenn Thomas’s lecture on 'Parapolitics' to a talk about 'diabolical Reptilians.' Sounds cool!"

Is this a book you should read? Of course it is!!

The photo above (taken in December 2010 at Giant Rock, as referred to in Andrew Griffin's review) shows, from left to right, author and adventurer Walter Bosley; Andy Colvin (of the series of Mothman's Photographer books); good mate and Project Beta author, Greg Bishop; the deeply mysterious Adam Gorightly; me in hoodie; and Robert Larsen who, with Greg, founded the near-legendary Excluded Middle magazine. 

Mysterious Musings On Misterioso

While hanging out with good mate Greg Bishop at his Los Angeles home last Sunday, I was interviewed for his regular show, Radio Misterioso.

Doing so is always fun, not just because Greg is a mate, but because he has a very refreshing and flexible approach to his show. In other words, just about anything and everything is up for discussion - and it was!

Over the course of about two and a half hours, we dug into such matters as our favorite Fortean books, the state of paranormal TV (total night-vision-dominated crap!), the Contactee movement, and a great deal more.

Greg has now posted the interview online and you can find it right here.

PS: That's Greg, above, in a picture taken by me in December 2010, at the site of George Van Tassel's legendary Integratron. Greg was getting ready to take the skies and make like Mothman, while me and Andy Colvin watched and took photos.