Sentry
Paranormal Adept
Let's put aside what may be real for a second, and take a look at what is definitely not. There is a percentage of UFO and paranormal reports that are fabricated. I want to look at those known fakes for cues in weeding out other suspect cases both old and new.
My premise is that when something genuine happens, a witness rarely has a full understanding of the event. They often have only a puzzling fragment of a story, and are not able to fully explain what they have seen.
A liar will typically tell a complete story with a beginning, middle and end.
Liars may have many motives. Attention seeking or just the thrill of telling a whopper are the most likely in this scenario.
A fraud will often put himself in a key role in the story as participant or witness.
The fraud is definitely seeking attention, and possibly also financial rewards.
A hoaxer often presents phony evidence, minimizing his participation in the story.
The hoaxer is like a kid ringing a doorbell and running away, and the goal is often just to watch the stir they causes. The hoax can most closely resemble a genuine event, in that only a piece of the story is told or shown. The imagination of the audience does the rest and their speculation carries the story.
These simple profiles don't begin to cover the complexity of the types, and we don't have to look far to find some examples that transcend them. "Professor" George Adamski may be the champion faker of all time. He put himself at the center of the events, involved other "supporting witnesses", faked physical evidence and photographs, in telling an elaborate ongoing story of extraterrestrial contact and interstellar travels.
Another complex type is the promoter. He can be a liar, fraud and hoaxer rolled into one, but the story is not his own. Ray Palmer and Gray Barker are key examples of this profile. The promoter needs someone with a story to exploit, and the truthfulness of it is not important. The promoter shares characteristics with the fraud, but in this instance, he is pushing a product, not himself. Like the hoaxer he wants the attention focused on the story, not himself, and like the liar, he probably enjoys putting one over. (Not all promoters are fraudulent-some legitimate promoter types who are duped by frauds. Possibly Frank Scully was one of these.)
I just remembered about crop circle makers practicing "ostension", believers creating something as ritual, sort of like tribal types summoning a god by putting on a mask of the deity. The intent is not deception, but an act that blends belief with experience. It's real because you believe, and you believe because it's real.
There are some other types I'm overlooking, as well as some of the key offenders. Let's name some names! The fakes are as fascinating a topic to me as the genuine mysteries.
My premise is that when something genuine happens, a witness rarely has a full understanding of the event. They often have only a puzzling fragment of a story, and are not able to fully explain what they have seen.
A liar will typically tell a complete story with a beginning, middle and end.
Liars may have many motives. Attention seeking or just the thrill of telling a whopper are the most likely in this scenario.
A fraud will often put himself in a key role in the story as participant or witness.
The fraud is definitely seeking attention, and possibly also financial rewards.
A hoaxer often presents phony evidence, minimizing his participation in the story.
The hoaxer is like a kid ringing a doorbell and running away, and the goal is often just to watch the stir they causes. The hoax can most closely resemble a genuine event, in that only a piece of the story is told or shown. The imagination of the audience does the rest and their speculation carries the story.
These simple profiles don't begin to cover the complexity of the types, and we don't have to look far to find some examples that transcend them. "Professor" George Adamski may be the champion faker of all time. He put himself at the center of the events, involved other "supporting witnesses", faked physical evidence and photographs, in telling an elaborate ongoing story of extraterrestrial contact and interstellar travels.
Another complex type is the promoter. He can be a liar, fraud and hoaxer rolled into one, but the story is not his own. Ray Palmer and Gray Barker are key examples of this profile. The promoter needs someone with a story to exploit, and the truthfulness of it is not important. The promoter shares characteristics with the fraud, but in this instance, he is pushing a product, not himself. Like the hoaxer he wants the attention focused on the story, not himself, and like the liar, he probably enjoys putting one over. (Not all promoters are fraudulent-some legitimate promoter types who are duped by frauds. Possibly Frank Scully was one of these.)
I just remembered about crop circle makers practicing "ostension", believers creating something as ritual, sort of like tribal types summoning a god by putting on a mask of the deity. The intent is not deception, but an act that blends belief with experience. It's real because you believe, and you believe because it's real.
There are some other types I'm overlooking, as well as some of the key offenders. Let's name some names! The fakes are as fascinating a topic to me as the genuine mysteries.
