Articles
Short, essay-style articles dealing mostly with questions of theory and method in the study of anomalous phenomena. Most are by Jason, but you can visit the contact page for information on how to submit items for publication.
"Are Aliens Racist?" Towards a more Inclusive UfologyGuest article by Olivier
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Statement on YouTube Censorship850 words - Dec 4, 2020To all my fans and viewers, most of you are probably aware that in the last few years, social media companies have become increasingly hostile towards a range of content creators considered too far outside the confines of mainstream thought. I’ve always feared that Think Anomalous would become the target of this new Silicon Valley censorship, and now I’m practically certain that my worst fears have been realized. (continue reading)
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The Myth of “Mass Hallucinations” 1400 words - Oct 27, 2016Anyone who’s ever tried to convince their skeptical friend of that one, irrefutable UFO case knows how frustrating it is to run up against that brick wall of denial that is the the “mass hallucination” theory. (continue reading)
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Discovery, not Disclosure1500 words - Sept 21, 2016This past June I attended the 2016 Alien Cosmic Expo (ACE) in Brantford, Ontario, which pulled together a terrific panel of ufologists for what was billed as “Canada’s first public hearing on UFOs.” The goal, like that of the Citizen Hearings in Washington D.C. a few years earlier, was to increase public awareness of UFO secrecy, and to urge the government to disclose what it knows about the elusive aerial phenomenon. (continue reading)
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What is "Woo?"1200 words - Aug 22, 2016John Horgan recently wrote an article for Scientific American in which he argued that today’s consciousness research is devolving into pseudoscience.(1) Horgan took a monistic, materialist stance on the philosophy of mind, which he made clear enough, but his criticism of opposing views was muddied by a heavy reliance on a particular word that’s become increasingly common in the skeptical literature. (continue reading)
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Book Review: The Holographic Universe, by Michael Talbot1500 words - July 18, 2016Michael Talbot’s classic book, The Holographic Universe, (1) is a seminal work in anomalistics, one that built bridges between ancient spiritual teachings and the scientific knowledge of the twentieth century. When I found a copy at a local used bookstore, I made it a priority to read it over and see what all the hype was about. I was not disappointed, but at the same time, the book was not like I expected it to be. (continue reading)
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Bending Spoons and the Limits of Intellectual Tolerance1750 words - June 16, 2016A few weeks ago, the CARE Program for Integrated Health and Healing at the University of Alberta posted a notice about an upcoming spoon-bending workshop on campus. Participants (mostly doctors, but other community members were invited as well) would be guided through a meditation that would enable them to warp a spoon with the power of their minds - and a certain amount of pressure from their hands. (continue reading)
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Where's all the Physical Evidence for UFOs?1900 words - May 25, 2016When asked about UFOs during a live-audience Q&A session at St. Petersburg College in 2009, Neil Degrasse Tyson, the ever-popular science educator and astrophysicist, took the opportunity to lay out his standard of evidence for a scientific appraisal of UFOs. (1) His answer reveals a great deal about the the way that we approach the evidence for UFOs - and all anomalous phenomena - in public discourse. (continue reading)
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David Paulides in Toronto: Missing Persons, the Limits of Investigation, and the Myth of the "Forest Stairs"1300 words - May 22, 2016Last night, David Paulides, author of the much discussed non-fiction series, Missing 411, gave a talk at the University of Toronto. The talk was organized by the folks at Conspiracy Culture bookstore, a hub for alternative thought in the downtown area which had previously brought the great Graham Hancock to the city. For $20, I thought it could make for an interesting evening. (continue reading)
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Flying Saucers are NOT Real1450 words - Apr 14, 2016The famous Canadian UFO researcher, Stanton Friedman, did a documentary in the early 1990s called “Flying Saucers are Real,” an homage to Donald Keyhoe’s UFO classic, The Flying Saucers Are Real (1950). The title seemed as basic and straightforward a statement as any advocate of UFO research could make. But while I’m certainly an advocate for UFO research, I’d like to argue the opposite: flying saucers, or the disc-shaped craft that supposedly carry extraterrestrial visitors from far away planets into our atmosphere, are a figment of our social imagination. They are not real. (continue reading)
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Seeing is Believing?1050 words - Mar 14, 2016A year or so ago, I came across Michael Shermer’s now famous article in Scientific American, “Anomalous Events that Can Shake One’s Skepticism to the Core.”(1) Shermer is best known as a popular debunker and founder of Skeptic magazine, but this article took a different tone. Shermer admitted to having witnessed an anomalous event that he could not explain; one that challenged his scientific skepticism. (continue reading)
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Think Anomalous: An Introduction550 words - Feb 29, 2016Despite my insatiable hunger for all things anomalous, I find I’m constantly scrounging for good content. It’s not that there’s nothing out there. The internet is flooded with information on anomalies. You could spend days watching video evidence of ghosts on YouTube and re-runs of “Ancient Aliens” on TV. The problem is that very little media content on anomalous phenomena could be called scientific, and the most rigorous stuff is rarely the most visible. (continue reading)
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