As most longtime (and some newbie) Paracasters are aware, there are people in this morass of a field (I like to refer to as ufoology), who have no shame. From confabulating cockamamie stories of traveling to Mars w/ Barry Sotero and tales blue Avian aliens or time traveling six-year olds, to supporting and touting hoaxes long after they've been revealed or begging for fame, money or glory when none should be given, ufology has more than enough charlatans to bely the belief of hard working researchers!
One type of scandal involves obvious 'worthiness' issues. Whether it's any number of questionable 'contactee' tall tales, or someone such as Donald Schmidt confabulating his professional background and work history, or examples of fraudulent educational background claims, seldom do you have a number of these all rolled up into one morass of BS and fraud. Phil Imbrogno is a classic example of this multiple offense scenario and (IMO) it's people like him that do the most damage to this emerging proto-scientific field.
As many longtime forum members will recall, The Paracast (along w/ forum member Lance Moody) outed Imbrogno as a fraud back in June 2011. As Moody was able to establish w/out question, Imbrogno not only fabricated his educational background both undergraduate and post graduate (he claimed a Ph.D from MIT!) but he also confabulated his military service as confirmed by friend of the Paracast, Don Ecker. So, not only do we have his fabricated education, but we have a classic case of "stolen valor!" How can we believe a single thing in the books that he wrote—one allegedly co-written w/ non other than J. Allen Hynek!
One would think that this would be enough to permanently ban one's lame-ass from the field permanently, but evidently not. As unbelievable as it may sound, Phil Imbrogno is attempting to make a comeback! I kid you not. I received the following email yesterday. I am contacting Llewellyn for conformation:
I urge all of you to spread the word that this stain upon the integrity of this field cannot be allowed to potentially ingratiate himself back into anyone's good graces!
Thus endeth this public service announcement.
One type of scandal involves obvious 'worthiness' issues. Whether it's any number of questionable 'contactee' tall tales, or someone such as Donald Schmidt confabulating his professional background and work history, or examples of fraudulent educational background claims, seldom do you have a number of these all rolled up into one morass of BS and fraud. Phil Imbrogno is a classic example of this multiple offense scenario and (IMO) it's people like him that do the most damage to this emerging proto-scientific field.
As many longtime forum members will recall, The Paracast (along w/ forum member Lance Moody) outed Imbrogno as a fraud back in June 2011. As Moody was able to establish w/out question, Imbrogno not only fabricated his educational background both undergraduate and post graduate (he claimed a Ph.D from MIT!) but he also confabulated his military service as confirmed by friend of the Paracast, Don Ecker. So, not only do we have his fabricated education, but we have a classic case of "stolen valor!" How can we believe a single thing in the books that he wrote—one allegedly co-written w/ non other than J. Allen Hynek!
One would think that this would be enough to permanently ban one's lame-ass from the field permanently, but evidently not. As unbelievable as it may sound, Phil Imbrogno is attempting to make a comeback! I kid you not. I received the following email yesterday. I am contacting Llewellyn for conformation:
Hello Christopher we spoke a few years ago about the Imbrogno case. You may be interested to hear that he has a book called Strange Heavens which is due to be published next December. The publishing house is Llewellyn which knows him to be a fraud, but appears to be doing it anyway. So he may be coming out of hiding afterall. Any thoughts?
Any thoughts? Are you effing kidding me? Say it ain't so! Evidently some people have absolutely no shame (*wink wink Gene*) To hear that Phil Imbrogno is attempting to insert himself back into the world of publishing is beyond unbelievable. What's even more unbelievable is that Llewellyn is aiding and abetting this person who they know is a pathological liar.
I urge all of you to spread the word that this stain upon the integrity of this field cannot be allowed to potentially ingratiate himself back into anyone's good graces!
Thus endeth this public service announcement.
