Attorney Sentenced to 12 Years in Hypnosis Case

Readers of my nonfiction book, The Greys Have Been Framed: Exploitation in the UFO Community, will recall the circumstances of Michael Fine, an Ohio attorney accused of hypnotizing female clients without their knowledge or consent and sexually molesting them. He recently pleaded guilty to five counts of kidnapping and one count of attempted kidnapping in the case. Fine was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

His hypnotic exploits reportedly occurred by telephone as well as in person. At least one victim began to piece the circumstances together due to her fragmented memories of her interactions with Fine, who she hired to represent her in a child custody case. She would have trouble recalling what the two discussed by telephone, and in person she would find her clothes disheveled and similar disturbing discoveries after departing from meetings. She eventually alerted police who covertly recorded the beginning of one such meeting, stopped the interaction, and built a case involving five more women reportedly exploited and abused by the now permanently disbarred attorney.

The case carries a lot of implications from a number of perspectives. Obviously, the UFO community should give a great deal of consideration to not only the use of hypnosis as a memory enhancer, but the activities of the so-called experts it's willing to promote - but that should have already been clear long ago. It's not as if we should need a police investigation in Ohio to tell us there's a problem when an amateur hypnotist talks to hypnosis subjects, during hypnosis, about his sexual interests and activities, but it indeed appears ufology can't or won't acknowledge it. See the mishandling of the Emma Woods case by David Jacobs and its rationalization by Peter Robbins and Richard Dolan, among others.

Let's hope that changes. Better yet, let's demand it.

We might also consider the extent hypnotic states may be induced, and the ways vulnerable people may be manipulated. Hypnosis no doubt effects people differently, depending on a lot of factors, but it's a pretty big deal when a case such as Fine's adds to the legal precedence. 

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Recommended:

Hypnosis as a Criminal Defense

Classified Science: The Search for 'Truth That Works'

Hypnosis and Memory, an excerpt from The Greys Have Been Framed

Jeremy Vaeni on David Jacobs and Supporters: 'Time for Some Answers'

Emma Woods Files  

Fake News: Propaganda Specialists Maximize Their Reach

The dissemination of "fake news" and related concerns have been the buzz lately. The term might be loosely defined as misleading stories that are indistinguishable from real news. Facebook was identified as one of the leading platforms to spread fake news, but the problem is widespread and the sources are many. Numerous websites have long been known to publish completely fictitious stories and design their sites to resemble authentic journalism outlets.

Facebook front man Mark Zuckerberg has been under fire due to his moderating policies, or lack thereof, and the heat is probably justified. However, the issues Z-berg and his colleagues face are more complex than simply verifying the content of stories exchanged on their websites and media. As explored in a recent post, the propaganda war is in full force, and those waging it are making no bones about doing so on Facebook, Twitter and similar social media sites in addition to the more traditional venues. 

Such circumstances put site administrators and editors in the positions of not only fact-checking the accuracy of material posted or submitted, but they might also get more than they bargained for when trying to verify accounts and, specifically, those who operate them. It's not just amateur hoaxers or clickbait scams that are littering your time lines. Consider:

- WaPo reported in 2006 that hundreds of "news" stories published in Iraqi newspapers were secretly written by U.S. troops. The Lincoln Group, which claimed to have 12 government contracts totaling over $130 million, paid newspapers to print the stories. Rather than term the work psychological operations or propaganda, the president of Lincoln Group preferred to call it spreading "influence," and in spite of the fact the project was contracted by a psyops division of the military. 

- An Associated Press investigation, details of which were published in 2009, indicated the Pentagon would increase its spending by 63 percent, to some $4.7 billion, to win what it called "the human terrain" of world public opinion. It would employ 27,000 people for the effort, which nearly matched the 30,000-person work force of the entire State Department. The massive operation included the Joint Hometown News Service, which in 2009 alone planned to put out 5400 press releases, 3000 television releases, and 1600 radio interviews, among other work, and without informing audiences it was produced by Pentagon staff.

- It's by no means just Americans and their allies who care what you think. Earlier this year, Swedish officials encountered a flood of false stories on social media coinciding with their considerations to enter into a military partnership with NATO. Public appearances were consistently interrupted and sidetracked when officials were questioned on fallacies circulating about how the potential alliance would harm citizens, such as an incorrect claim NATO soldiers would rape Swedish women and not face prosecution. Though the sources of the fake news stories were never conclusively identified, the Kremlin was named as a leading suspect and continues to prioritize the use of "weaponized" information to stir discord and weaken cohesion among nations opposing Russia.

Propaganda and psyops have long been staples of the global intelligence community, but the exploitation of the internet and social media is a relatively new mask in the old charade. The circumstances are complex and have the potential to become more intricate for site admin than simply verifying a corporate account or checking the authenticity of its posts. 

It's not just about whether or not something is true. It's also about who says so, the nature of their relationship with the hosting venue, and the scope of the situation. I would completely expect such circumstances to "influence," as the Lincoln Group put it, the implementation and enforcing of fake news policies on various social media sites.

Facebook, Psy Ops, and 'The UFO Trail' Heads to Roswell

BuzzFeed News reports "renegade" Facebook employees formed a makeshift task force to battle the rampant circulation of fake news among its some 150 million users. The effort apparently includes employees from across the company. They are currently meeting in secret to decrease the possibility of retaliation from senior management, as Facebook guru Mark Zuckerberg is downplaying the responsibility his company has in misinforming the public. Meetings are expected to be formalized with a list of recommendations eventually presented to the FB PTB. The task force reportedly includes dozens of employees who claim hundreds of coworkers share their dissatisfaction with the current policies on fake news.

Senior news editor at The Daily Beast, Ben Collins, alerted Twitter users to the inaccuracy and reach of such stories, including the one below:

This Facebook trending story is 100% made up.
Nothing in it is true.
This post of it alone has 10k shares in the last six hours. pic.twitter.com/UpgNtMo3xZ

— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) November 14, 2016

Numerous websites, such as The UFO Trail, warn readers of the importance of fact-checking information and obtaining it from credible sources. See, for examples, the previous posts UFO Mystery Mongering Uses Satire Sites as News Sources and Put WIT on Your List of Satire Sites, and Somebody Tell Stubblebine and Laibow.   

Fake news sites and hoaxers are certainly part of the problem, but I present for consideration a greater challenge to Mark Zuckerberg, his willingness to effectively moderate his site, and how he will state his policies on the issues: He is fully aware Facebook serves as a psychological warfare tool for the intelligence community, and so is anyone else who has been paying even minimal attention.

In January, 2015, The Guardian reported the British army was creating a special force of "Facebook warriors," skilled in psy ops and the use of social media. The 1500-member unit aimed to join Israel and the United States in engaging "heavily in psychological operations" across social media platforms.

"Against a background of 24-hour news, smart phones and social media, such as Facebook and Twitter," The Guardian explained, "the force will attempt to control the narrative."

It should come as no surprise Zuckerberg expresses reluctance to edit the site of factually incorrect stories. To put it simply, doing so would be in contradiction to its purpose.

The DeLonge DeLusion

Rocker-turned-researcher Tom DeLonge

Writer/researcher Robbie Graham is publishing a series of posts on Tom DeLonge, the intelligence community's involvement in ufology, and related circumstances at Mysterious Universe. Titled The DeLonge DeLusion, we have so far been treated to parts one and two. 

Graham effectively explores the potential of psychological warfare within the UFO community. He illustrates how circumstances as presented above stand to influence us both individually and collectively, among other relevant points of interest.

Roswell UFO Festival 2017 Conference

I'm very pleased to have accepted an invitation from Guy Malone to speak at a 2017 conference in Roswell. The event is from June 29 to July 2, and the theme is "70 Years Later: Modern Challenges to the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis".

I'm scheduled to do a couple of presentations. The first is titled, The Greys Have Been Framed: Exploitation in Ufology and the Intersection of the Intelligence and UFO Communities. The second will be MKULTRA to Gitmo: Correlations Between State-Sponsored Involuntary Human Experimentation, Hypnosis and the UFO Community.

I hope to see a lot of you there. I'd enjoy connecting with so many of you I only know through Cyber Land. 

Additional speakers include Greg Bishop, Dr. Michael Heiser, Joseph Jordan, Guy Malone, and Nick Redfern. Learn about early bird pricing, the schedule, and the event location, The Hi-Q Venue, by emailing guymalone@roswellufofestival.com.

Last but not least, a big thanks to Jeremy Scott of Into the Parabnormal for having me on his show Saturday night. You can give it a listen, where we discuss topics ranging from UFO sightings to ways the intelligence community's relationship with medical professionals, such as psychologists and hypnotists, influences the private sector.