Austin MUFON » Experiencer

Flashback: Abduction Researcher Karla Turner

admin — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 02:54:09 +0000

Austin Mufon 9/26/92 with Karla Turner Pt1

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Part One

Central Texas UFO mini-Conference on September 26, 1992. Karla Turner was an exceptional researcher and experiencer of Alien Abductions. This is part 1 of 9 parts. – SMiles Lewis

The following was originally published in the Fall 1994 edition of E.L.F. INFESTED SPACES – Journal of Possible Paradigms:

TAKEN INTO THE FRINGE
RESEARCHER FOCUS: Dr. Karla Turner
by SMiles Lewis

My first exposure to abduction researcher/ experiencer Dr. Karla Turner was on September 26, 1992. She was speaking to an audience of approximately 200 people in Austin, Texas. The mini-conference also featured Ed Conroy and George Wingfield, and was organized by the local Austin MUFON chapter. I have seen very little from abduction researchers that I qualified as being of any significance, so Dr. Turner was a particularly unexpected surprise.

She comes across as very strong willed, a trait she may already have had, but which could have been tempered by her interactions with this phenomena. She admits to not knowing the origin of UFOs or their occupants. She simply reports the data that she gathers and experiences herself (about three hundred cases at that time). Some have been critical of her calling attention to “negative” cases. She admits to reporting on those aspects, but is quick to point out that, a) these reports exist, and other researchers are sweeping them under the rug, and b) there are already a number of sources for cases showing “positive” interactions with supposed benevolent entities. Part of her focus seems to be an attempt to strike a balance. How can we gain an objective perspective if we are not hearing all the data?

This mini-conference coincided with the release of her first book on the subject, Into The Fringe . Shortly after her talk I bought the book and thoroughly enjoyed it. It details the emergence of the UFO and abduction phenomena into her family’s life and their struggle with the ongoing experiences. It is a very personal account which begins in 1987-1988.

Karla earned her B.A. from California State University, her M.A. from the University of Nottingham in England, and her Ph.D. in Old English Studies from the University of North Texas. She is a skeptic in the best sense of the word, but she does believe that something extraordinary is going on.

Her 1992 Austin speech was less about her own experiences, and more about the overall points of interest that she noticed in her research (300 cases she investigated with the help of Barbara Bartholic and others-Barbara had worked with Jacques Vallee on the mysterious cattle mutilations sometimes associated with UFOs). In her speech Karla made twenty specific points regarding trends noticed in the data. These trends are not specifically found in her book “Fringe,” although they are there thematically. The trends reflect darker sides of hidden memory and sexual encounters, which seem to be power plays to dominate the abductee, rather than simple hybridization studies.

These trends continue to be seen in the eight case studies in her most recent book, Taken – Inside The Alien / Human Abduction Agenda. In the book, and during her speech at the July 1994 Annual International MUFON Symposium in Austin, Texas, she made some very important assertions regarding the UFO and abduction phenomena:

“The abductee also learns from experience that the aliens induce an altered perceptive state in humans during every encounter. Employed for control, it can be used to prevent any undesired responses from the abductee. And the altered state also prevents any objective assessment of the situation by the witness. This means that the witness can only report what was seen, felt, and heard, which is not necessarily a reflection of what actually occurred. By inducing and manipulating altered consciousness in the abductee, the aliens assume full control of the situation and thus exert control over the data reported by the witness.

Abductees report alien-controlled information. This is a fact abduction researchers must face. ….. Until the day we can unmask the alien illusions, however, we can at least study the entire body of reported data, controlled though it may be, trying to learn more about why certain images and events are employed and what they can tell us about the covert directors of these scenarios.”

This statement and her coining of the term Virtual Reality Scenario to describe these altered perceptions are the best recent developments within the abduction research field. They enable us to discuss these experiences as REAL, but with the added potential inherent in describing some encounters as non-physical while there are still other more physical encounters.

Another positive aspect of Taken (in my estimation) is the inclusion of much testimony described as “UFO dreams.” Once again we see the flowing together of dream experiences” with “real” experiences and hypnotically retrieved “memories.” The results are fascinating! Though much of the abductee narratives could be seen as particularly negative, the overwhelming feeling that I came away with after reading the book, and which the abductees themselves seem to have come away with, is a deep sense of ambiguity and indeterminacy. Even if this seems daunting in the search for truth it could just be the ultimate result of our encounters with the unknown. Perhaps we can take some solace in Dr. Turner’s belief that these intelligences are truly “physical, finite and fallible.” If this is so, and they are not some aspect of ourselves or God then we may indeed be able to develop defenses against their intrusions into our reality.

For information about ordering her research, write to:
KELT WORKS
PO Box 32
Roland, Arkansas 72135
[Uncertain whether above address is still active or not]

www.elfis.net/elfol2/resfockt.html

History of the Austin Abductee Support Group

admin — Sun, 10 May 1998 21:36:18 +0000

This Group Has Been Disbanded As Of Sunday May 10, 1998

The First Meeting

Founded in the Summer of ’92, our first meeting was on August 2nd. Earlier that year the groups founder, Jean Staffen, had decided to investigate her own UFO sightings and close encounters by contacting Austin MUFON (local chapter for the Mutual UFO Network). Jean found that others were having similar encounters and had no forum within which to explore each others experiences. Jean created the Austin Abductee Support Group and was inundated with correspondences from around the State. About 60 people showed up at the first meeting. Many were simply curiosity seekers and news reporters. Most people were simply interested in UFOs while others had friends who thought they had seen UFOs. Some found the supportive environment for which they were looking to both tell of their own experiences and perhaps find answers to the many riddles of UFO phenomenon. Unfortunately, many of the first attendees who had experience with UFO encounters were frightened away by the sheer numbers of curiosity seekers. Once the initial pandamoneous media attention subsided the groups size settled around a core group of 10 to 20 attendees per meeting.

From Abductee to Experiencer

During the course of past monthly meetings members came to realize that many of them shared not only UFO sightings and encounters but also various other seemingly related experiences of a psychic, paranormal, near-death, and/or spiritual nature. Shortly thereafter it was decided by the meeting’s members and founder to change the name from Austin Abductee Support Group to the Austin UFO Experiencer Support Group. About the same time within the UFO research community debates were raging on the terminology of Abductee versus Experiencer. In some circles the terms Encontrant and Percipient were also common. Sensing that UFO Close Encounters and these other experiential phenomena might be related the group opted for the more general title of Experiencer.

A Change in Leadership

The Austin UFO Experiencer Support Group thrived for a few years under the leadership of Jean Staffen until she felt compelled to move out West to Arizona. While there she learned much within the Constitutional rights and UFO research communities. Before she left we discussed with the other group members her suggestion that I (Stephen MILES Lewis) be handed the reigns as organizer and moderator of the meetings. After a unanimous decision I began coordinating the groups, by then, twice monthly meetings.

From Support Group to Forum & Study Group

Not too long thereafter I considered changing the name of the group once again. This time from the Experiencer Support Group to Forum and Study Group. My reasoning hinged upon the actuality of what the group meetings had become:
a supportive networking point within which experiencers and interested individuals could connect with people and information that furthers their understanding and integration of these strange encounters.

We were also keenly aware that despite the supportive non-judgmental environment we created, some people will always be reluctant to tell there stories in front of strangers and/or non-experiencers. Also, at this time there was concern among researchers that a dangerous guru style atmosphere was developing within some support groups. On these grounds the research which centers around such support groups has been both rightly and wrongly criticized. Another unanimous decision by members changed our name to the Austin UFO Forum & Study Group.

After the second name change attendance fluctuated up and down, eventually leveling off at 5-10 people per monthly meeting. This was during the beginning of the recent exponential upswing of UFO media attention and marketing ploys. Some local attention did come about but only due to the Heaven’s Gate debacle, Arizona flap and Roswell mania. The result? No marked influx of attendees and the continued negligence of uninsightful news reporting.

What we learned most during these strange days of the Austin UFO Forum & Study Group is that you can not please all the people all the time. Many compliments and criticisms were leveled at our group over the years. For some the group was perfect. For one attendee it lacked structure and he preferred the Austin MUFON meetings. To yet another the same Austin MUFON meetings were painfully unstructured and he could only occasionally stand the level of dialogue within our meetings. For some their enjoyment of the meetings was entirely dependent upon the pressence or absence of specific past attendees. Past attendees who tended to over-enthusiastically exclaim their support for one idea or another, dominate the dialogue, randomly switch topics, rant about the same things, over and over and over and over and . . . .

As a public forum for experiences of strange phenomena we must give attendees a platform to express and explore those anomalous encounters in a non-judgmental environment. However, often this is the ONLY forum attendees have. Such persons in an effort to express their ideas, fears, etc. can come to dominate the forum and it is necessary for the moderator to successfully re-orient such out-of-balance communications scenarios.

Our Founder Returns

1998 marks the return to Austin of our groups founder: Jean Staffen. Having recently moved back to Texas, Jean attended a meeting earlier this year and offered to move back to Austin to become leader / moderator of our group once more. Since that meeting she has returned and rightfully reclaimed her place as facilitator of the Austin UFO Forum & Study Group.

Towards the Future

Much needs to be done to improve the current status of UFOlogy. Perhaps it isn’t even ufology that close encounter witnesses need to best live with there strange experiences. These Encounters with the Fantastic are an opportunity for transformation. Like any significant life event, they can positively or negatively influence a single person, a family, an entire community. By dialoging on such sacred and profane encounters we can collectively explore the positive potentials latent within all numinous and luminous intimations of our invisible Others.

History of the Austin Abductee Support Group / Austin UFO Forum and Study Group
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