I have been to a second event at Conway Hall,
London
in the space of a month; see here for the first:
https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2026/04/strange-central.html.
This new event was on a Friday evening. Despite being billed as just ninety
minutes it was far more expensive than Strange Central which was an all-day
one. It was called "Chasing Aliens" and was set up to launch a new book
of the same name by Daniel Lavelle. The proceedings consisted of a dialogue
between him and somebody I'm very familiar with, Jon Ronson. I used to watch
Ronson's documentaries in the late '90's when I was first getting into the
Conspirasphere. For several years I was a very active member of his forum and I
made a few friends there whom I'm still in touch with. This is all despite
disliking Ronson's early works.
Them and
Secret
Rulers of the World was distorted and misleading, especially the one about
David Icke. I was far more enthusiastic about his later book
The Men Who Stare at Goats and its
accompanying documentary
Crazy Rulers of
the World. However, I was deeply frustrated that at the very moment Jon
broke into something truly revealing and extraordinary, he failed to grasp the
significance of his own discovery and pulled back. The project was reduced to
the level of a joke and even ended up being adapted into a comedy movie with
George Clooney. Now Daniel Lavelle has written a book about his own attempt at
gonzo journalism, probably inspired by Ronson. A few years ago he was going
through a difficult time in his life, suffering from a mental breakdown and
eventually he spent some time homeless and sleeping rough. He found solace and
healing in a strange place, but one not entirely unique. He is a 2017er with no
previous interest in UFO's, but he developed one after reading the famous
New York Times article in December 2017.
His life story reminded me of Steven Cambian who also went through a period of
terrible mental health and addiction. He also managed to cling on to the dregs
of his sanity by watching X-Con videos, see:
https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2023/06/david-grusch-reply-to-steven-cambian.html.
Lavelle's path down the rabbit hole of UFOlogy did not last long. He was pulled
back from complete belief by a disappointingly unoriginal process. He
discovered that the "gimbal" footage merely showed jet engines and
that the "go fast" was a seagull. He also came across and accepted
the theory that alien abduction is just a form of sleep paralysis. All these
propositions are extremely formulaic. They came off the skeptic production line
many years ago from people like Mick West. I am convinced that they are also
completely false.
The evidence of the
Nimitz
footage, including detailed interviews with the witnesses, discredits the
mundane explanation. The idea that alien abduction is sleep paralysis was
comprehensively debunked by many experts, including the research psychologist
Andrew Hodrien, brother of David, see:
https://hpanwo-radio.blogspot.com/2024/03/hpanwo-show-541-podcast-dave-hodrien.html.
As somebody affected by SP myself, I can vouch for that, see:
https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2015/03/sleep-paralysis-and-shadow-people.html.
Daniel is also convinced that the missing scientists mystery is just
coincidence and a misunderstanding of statistics. Again, this is another
off-the-shelf skepper cope, see:
https://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2026/05/ufo-disclosure-2026-may-surprise.html.
I had no doubt by the end of the dialogue that the audience question-and-answer
session would be the most interesting part of the evening. I'm pleased to say
that one of the attendees took Lavelle and Ronson to task for embracing the
Nimitz cop-out. I gave him a long and
hearty clap, which felt strange because nobody else did. Everybody turned to
look at me, but I'm glad I did it. The other questioners were a bit more Ronsonian,
but they did bring up a few interesting points. Why are UFO's primarily an
American phenomenon? The answer is that they are not. It appears that way
because the
US
publicized and popularized UFO's long before any other country did. The
politics of the Cold War emphasized this apparent American exceptionalism. Jon
Ronson unhappily raised the issue of why UFO culture seems to consist of
"mostly white men". I cringed! I have addressed this idiocy myself
before, see:
https://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2021/08/women-in-ufology.html.
There was a long discussion over whether belief in aliens was harmful. They
raised the Heaven's Gate cult, the Q-Shaman and mental healthcare for people
reporting alien contact. Miles Johnston was also there and has published his
own brief coverage, see:
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1354555423243623.
I got to ask the panel a question myself and I simply asked Jon if he'd heard
that Marcus Allen had died. Jon said he knew the name, but hadn't heard. He
said he was sorry to hear it. Marcus took part in Ronson's documentary
For The Love Of... in 1997, see:
https://hpanwo-radio.blogspot.com/2026/02/hpanwo-show-618-marcus-allen-in-memoriam.html.
Miles was also in another episode. After the event I went to the pub with Miles
and Colin Woolford.
Ironically this was the same day that the big UAP file
release happened, see:
https://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2026/05/uap-files-release-livestream.html.
I wish I had stayed at home instead to report on it. The "Chasing Aliens"
event was unfortunately very boring and hackneyed. It was so repetitive that I
could almost have written the script myself. I don't object to it being very
skeptical in theme; what bothers me is that its skepticism was not more
original. It just echoed the mistakes so many others have made. I'm glad Mr Lavelle
has recovered from his malaise though. Even if he found a cure in falsehood,
I'm happy for him. Colin, Miles and I had far more fun going through the fresh US
Department of War data drops over a pint or three. I left early, long before
the others, because I had to get all the way back to
Oxford
and I had work the following day. It was a good job I did because for some
reason the coach left the motorway somewhere just beyond
High
Wycombe and went on a random jaunt through the darkest countryside
before rejoining the A40 just before
Oxford.
I had no idea where it went or why; the driver never announced it. I didn't get
home until almost
one AM.
