This morning Jane-Anne Shaw, a PhD student in Classics in Britain, posted a five-star review of my Jason and the Argonauts through the Ages on Amazon.co.uk. Hers is, so far as I know, the first review of my book, and I’m glad it was a nice one: This is an extremely readable new paperback volume on an old myth. To examine, classify and rationalise the ancient figure of Jason (aka Iason - no ‘J’ in Classical Greek) Colavito has amassed a huge amount of material from the archaic Greek Mycenaean period down to our own era. […] It is not a heavy read - Colavito is clear and lucid - albeit stylistically I would place it towards the academic end of the Classical Studies spectrum. This does not detract from it at all - it is not a specialist book, and I imagine it will be of use to students as well as any general reader interested in the myth of Jason and the Argonauts. A bit of disclosure: Several weeks ago Shaw asked me to put her in contact with my publisher so she could request a review copy. We did not discuss my book or my thoughts on Jason before she reviewed the book. Bigfoot and Flying Saucers Redux Regular readers will remember that last month I made several posts on the history and development of the alleged connection between Bigfoot and UFOs. Therefore I read with interest the utterly baffling ramblings of Jack “Kewaunee” Lapseritis, a self-described holistic health adviser and master dowser who claims that not only are Bigfoots real but that they are inter-dimensional beings who have communicated with him telepathically for more than 35 years. As a result, Lapseritis claims to have developed psychic powers of his own. Lapseritis is the author of The Psychic Sasquatch and Their UFO Connection (1998), which has to be a candidate for one of the best-ever fringe science titles. He followed it up with The Sasquatch People and Their Interdimensional Connection. According to Lapseritis, Bigfoot has a message for humanity: that human activity is destroying the planet. It’s not particularly surprising that a creature associated with the forest is somehow imagined to be concerned about environmental issues. Last week Lapseritis presented a UFO festival and gave an interview to Willamette Week, a newspaper in Portland, Oregon. Some of what he said shocked even me in its hodgepodge of random fringe ideas slapped together into a vast conspiracy. The first thing that was surprising is that Lapseritis claims that he experienced what in another context we would describe as a religious experience and attributed the writing of Psychic Sasquatch to a supernatural command. He says that in 1979 he was on “Native American property” when he encountered a psychic Bigfoot, and this animal served as herald for his almost-theophany: And minutes later, an ET started talking to me, and I said, “I don’t see you.” And he said, “Well, I’m in what you people call a UFO. I’m just above you, in another dimension.” They told me to write a book about it, which I did. I’ve written two now, and they want me to write a third book. The claim is immediately reminiscent of religious claims. Lapseritis claims to be in a sacred, liminal space (“Native American property”) not unlike Moses on Sinai or Muhammad in his cave at Mt. Hira. Like those prophets, Lapseritis claims to have been commanded to deliver a message. Moses, of course, recorded the word of the Lord (Exodus 24:4), while Muhammad was tasked with recording the Qur’an (Qu’ran 96). The invisibility of the ET is a difference from traditional accounts, where Moses met with God on Sinai, Muhammad met with Gabriel in his cave, and Joseph Smith had regular conversations with the angel Moroni. But it is similar to claims that the invisible Holy Spirit visits authors and inspires them to write, as Bill O’Reilly recently claimed for his book Killing Jesus, or as given in the Nicene Creed: “We believe in the Holy Spirit […] He has spoken through the Prophets.” (This is the Episcopal version, but the Catholic translation is nearly the same.) The ET claiming to inhabit a dimension above Lapseritis recalls nothing more than God and his angels in the empyrean above the earth. It is perhaps unsurprising that Lapseritis claims he is a servant of God (“my life is devoted to God”) as well as a faithful “middleman” for the aliens. His self-described role as a man who receives revelations from the aliens, translates them into human language, and redacts them to conform to the aliens’ strict demands places him in the tradition of latter-day prophets, substituting aliens for angels. And like angels, he claims the aliens have powerful healing abilities, curing him of a brain tumor. We might easily ask why the alien-angels would want to reveal their message through a largely unread book when they could more effectively utilize, say, television. It is probably not surprising that Lapseritis claims to have learned about the Bigfoot-ET connection in 1979, right at the time when the claim hit the fringe science circuit, thanks to The Six Million Dollar Man (1976) and nonfiction works by the team of Jerome Clark and Loren Coleman (1977) as well as Leonard H. Stringfield (1977). But this answer really takes the cake: There are many different beings living in our forests, not just Sasquatch. Many different ones. They’ve been here for millions of years but they use portals to go in and out of. [sic] And the ETs use the portals, too. So when the ETs need help doing mining work for different minerals on our planet, they ask the Sasquatch to help because they’re so super-powerful and they can move gigantic rocks and stuff to help them. The incoherence is striking. The ETs have portals but somehow lack the technology to drill for minerals without strong workers to life rocks for them. (And why do they need minerals?) The ETs are concerned that humans are destroying the planet, and yet they are strip mining the earth for minerals! The story seems suspiciously similar to Zecharia Sitchin’s Anunnaki, who similarly have a servant race (humans) to do the heavy lifting and dangerous mining work as they empty our planet of gold.
45 Comments
Mandalore
5/21/2014 06:59:48 am
I'm not surprised that the aliens need Sasquatch help. It's not just moving rocks, but also 'stuff'. Don't dismiss the stuff; that's the key.
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Dave Lewis
5/21/2014 01:52:17 pm
The stuff is what he's been smoking!
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Erik G
5/21/2014 08:27:44 am
Julian Jaynes: "The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind" could be of value here. Perhaps bicameralism without overt symptoms of schizophrenia may still be manifest today in certain individuals. Could these individuals be suffering from bicameralism, hence the voices they hear, the instructions they receive? Some of their claims are so far out -- such as the subject of the blog today -- and at times so utterly ridiculous that they just cannot be interpreted as the product of logical thought or even of a rational mind. Likewise the belief in the origin of the communications they receive, much like the ancients and the gods who spoke to them. This is not my field and so I'm unsure if it means anything, but bicameralism seems to explain a great deal.
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Varika
5/22/2014 12:11:11 pm
Erik G, so does the phenomenon of religious ecstasy, which is not a mental illness but has been supported through EKG and MRI recordings to be an altered state of consciousness. It occurs in far too large a percentage of the samples to be a mental illness, and religious ecstasy throughout history has OFTEN been accompanied by reports of not just voices, but greater/more powerful beings speaking. The claims being made are not less logical or rational than what is produced in dreams, which is something else that seems to--but has not been actively confirmed to--accompany this altered state of consciousness.
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Monsieur Le Personne
2/29/2016 08:55:35 am
Remember too that "love" has been shown to be a visible state within the brain...and termed a "madness" or a "mental illness" by scientists working in the field of research.
Only Me
5/21/2014 08:59:00 am
Is it too soon to hope Giorgio Tsoukalos will stumble into one of these portals, or be escorted to one after meeting his own psychic Sasquatch? Perhaps not, since Sasquatch wants messengers to write books...and I doubt PowerPoint presentations will suffice.
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Mandalore
5/21/2014 10:19:34 am
Didn't Tsoukalos go on a mission to find Bigfoot recently? Maybe he had his psychic Sasquatch encounter and we will get to hear about it soon. But you're right, definitely not in book form. Maybe a nice TV special that others put together for him.
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.
5/21/2014 12:13:13 pm
Cool Review. Just as readable as any TOME by Issac Asimov?
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.
5/21/2014 12:25:51 pm
two classic ascii + voice acted computer games... low budget
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titus pullo
5/21/2014 02:09:22 pm
the real tragedy today was the Senate under old Harry "the hammer" Reid confirming one David Barron..a far left authoritarian as a Federal Judge. This guy wrote up the memo justifying the killing of Americans overseas without due process who were not armed combatants via drone strikes. Now the Executive branch can decide anytime to deep six the Bill of Rights and kill Americans without due process. Liberals are really very intolerant authoritarians...like progressives...individuals don't matter, it is the collective run by the elites which must survive. Very very sad.. Thomas Jefferson is turning over in his grave tonight that this scum Barron is now a Federal Judge and will do everything in his power to destroy the Constitution....time for nullification...
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.
5/21/2014 04:21:37 pm
true, that. william o douglas was both liberal + libertarian.
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.
5/21/2014 04:35:02 pm
http://www.thenation.com/article/tragedy-william-o-douglas?page=0,1
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KIF
5/22/2014 12:37:32 am
Roosevelt did not die a natural death. He was eaten alive by the Loch Ness Monster. Taken to Loch Ness by Flying Saucer.
dang...it --- KIF, you KNOW better! act YOUR age!
5/22/2014 09:30:55 pm
FDR's very normal vices killed him, let alone the stress
.
5/22/2014 10:35:14 pm
seriously... FDR took those "foo fighter" reports very seriously.
.
5/22/2014 10:44:44 pm
KIF --- do you think this "majestic" doc is at all real?
.
5/22/2014 10:16:35 pm
THERE IS A WILDERNESS AREA THAT IS NAMED AFTER
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Mark L
5/21/2014 11:45:37 pm
For such a smart comment section as this site usually provides, having to wade through paranoid rants by right-wingers and garbage from certain Reverends and pretend descendants of Jesus, it's getting impossible to read.
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KIF
5/22/2014 12:38:34 am
There's lots of nonsense from established scholarship.
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KIF
5/22/2014 12:40:56 am
Establishing reasoned argument is a virtue. But never bank on established scholarship as an absolute reference point. Established scholarship can be just as equally flawed as Flying Saucer Philosophy and the belief in Aleister Crowley.
.
5/22/2014 09:35:20 pm
its not a pack of horny hoary long lived Victorians and their high
.
5/22/2014 10:55:54 pm
by slow degrees we are living past the long term harm
An Over-Educated Grunt
5/23/2014 12:21:31 pm
So now you're denying the historicity of Aleister Crowley, too?
.
5/24/2014 05:24:58 pm
in all fairness to KIF he's implying
titus pullo
5/22/2014 10:11:31 am
Being against Barron is hardly a right wing rant....if it's right wing to be concerned about our natural rights and a govt which obeys the constitution...well that shows just how far we have gone off the reservation in the last 100 years...
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Varika
5/22/2014 12:14:50 pm
It's also got nothing whatever to do with psychic Sasquatches. Take it somewhere more appropriate, that's all we want. I didn't even bother to read the crap once I realized it had nothing to do with the blog post, so your rant--right wing or not--is entirely wasted.
.
5/22/2014 09:39:08 pm
if Sasquatches are very real, have evolved to this age cycle
RJR
5/22/2014 10:32:15 am
I certainly understand and agree with your comment. There are some sites where readers have the option of blocking certain commenters. I don't know how this works, but I like the idea and I will tell you that I don't comment on here as often as I would like because I would rather not defend myself from commenters with random capital letter generators.
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5/22/2014 10:35:21 am
Unfortunately, the Weebly platform doesn't allow for individual IP address blocking, so all I can do is manually delete posts. I've complained to Weebly about this, but they don't seem interested in making upgrades to their platform.
RJR
5/22/2014 11:26:02 am
Thanks for responding, Jason. It's not a question of attacking, it's more an issue of sifting through irrelevant comments to get to the more interesting discussions. Many commenters have stated that the best way to rid the blog of trolls is not to feed them. I realize how tempting it is respond, but, like many others, sometimes I just want to slap the keyboard against my forehead when I see some of the inane comments that have nothing to do with the content you have provided. Although, honestly, I do sometimes like to follow along to see how clever many posters are in defending rational construction and reason.
.
5/22/2014 09:50:37 pm
thing is, Jason is going to be a "paper mill" student's
.
5/22/2014 08:17:49 pm
Out killer drones if remotely operated inside the Rockies could
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.
5/22/2014 09:55:50 pm
in all likely hood, if Sasquatches are as real
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Titus pullo
5/25/2014 10:17:34 am
My apologies, it ad off topic and my comment belonged in the wsj blog section. That said it did turn into a very free form responses. What the bill of rights has to do with Bigfoot was well interesting.
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Jeff K
5/27/2014 07:44:55 am
I had the honor (f theys what you want to call it) of hearing him speak at the McMinneville UFO Festival a week and a half ago. Out of the handful of speakers, he was really the only one that was really 'out there'. Most of the speakers approached the topic of UFOs with a analytical and scientific approach. His talk had no visual presentation (except for the end when he shows a few photos of supposed bigfoots) and consisted of nothing more then him telling unsubstantiated stories about his experiences with bigfoots and ETs. His claims were basically what you mentioned except for a few other things. Such has healing some lady from chronic extreme asthma with a single touch through magic energy given to him by the Sasquatches. It seems these bigfoot and ET he speaks with must be always listening to his thoughts because they are always there to speak to him about them. In the case of the lady with asthma, he was called by her husband I believe and asked if he could come over. He said yes, but on the way was wondering what he could possibly do for her, this is when he was spoken to and told to go over there, they would help him to help her. Years later when he spoke to the lady again, she claimed to not have had a single asthma event since she was touched by him.
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David
7/13/2014 03:45:34 am
It sounds like you have some jealousy issues and fears about the truth. The answers are all out there, and Mr. Lapseritis is only trying to share this message with humanity. You are a sad person, Jason, and it is very troubling that you would focus on negative attention and judge others because it doesn't fit your own personal beliefs. Perhaps if you would write positive articles or focused on things that you AGREE on, you can begin to be happy with yourself and share your light with the world. I pray for your soul and for the souls of your lost readers.
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Alexander
10/28/2014 09:19:21 am
So Jack has two more books in the pipeline - excellent!
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shush
1/29/2015 02:40:43 am
Finally someone doubting Lapseritis claims... The contradictions in his story are staggering. So the Sasquatch chse him to spread a message for them and tell him to write a book, or three. BUT: First you´d have to transfer 20 € to Lapseritis account and purchase the book. Apparently the sasquatch want you to receive the message if you have purchase the book. Apparently they don´t want him to put it as a PDF file online- for free where the masses could access it. Interesting...Then his claim that the ETs are mining the earth for minerals and other natural ressources like gold. Thing is, us humans, we can produce gold and also diamonds synthecially. And we´re just monkeys 2.0.. So if we can produce gold, an intelligent species that is millions of years ahead of us shoudl be able of doing it too.
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Can you really blame him for selling a book rather than give it out free? I mean the Sasquatch' message is very clearly conveyed in countless of freely available interviews with him. Besides, he is not the only one having such an unorthodox view of the phenomenon, which at the same time gives an answer to the very many witness accounts of these creatures disappearing in front of people's eyes etc. etc.
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4/22/2015 02:45:45 am
why do people get so upset about somebody who is not doing any harm ? why not use you r anger where it do some good, i.e. aginst the injustices of war and capitalism
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vicki
6/11/2015 04:38:54 am
Kill the messenger...and yes, everything should be non-contradictory, all safe and linear for the little box-shaped minds, shaped like boxes by TV, which is the font of all reality these days....if the talking heads on TV don't say so, it isn't real...if the editor of the Lancet says half of the peer reviewed studies are bs, what does that indicate? Our reality is a fantasy, each has his own version of it...if mass consensus is the arbiter of reality, look where that has taken us, to environmental destruction. Idiots.
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Psychic sasquatch is true
11/28/2015 03:43:11 pm
You no 98% of people just refuse to be open minded,
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KarL Erikson
11/11/2018 04:40:16 pm
I liked your response , I just discovered Kewaunee on you - tube maybe 2 nights ago .... I haven't read any of his books yet , however , it's great to discover that other people have experianced interaction with both sasquatch and grays ( at the same time ) .
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Ted
10/12/2018 12:48:40 am
Him and his wife are so full of shit
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