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Philip J. Imbrogno withdrawing from paranormal research!

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trainedobserver said:
My feelings exactly. I am also absolutely appalled that he was using that position of influence to propagate one of the most terrifying concepts making the rounds right now.

He has invalidated his research. How can anyone tell the truth from the lies? Any real work he may have done is lost to us isn't it?

People should expect to get their references checked from here on out. That should be a new reality within the paranormal research community.
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Even worse, he has-by association-invalidated the credibility of his co-authors. And that truly is the tragedy.
 
Xylo said:
Even worse, he has-by association-invalidated the credibility of his co-authors..
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Absolutely disagree! Co-writing two books w/ Phil is NOT going to invalidate Rosemary's 30+ years in the field. You are wrong if you are saying that her 6 encyclopedias and 51 books are null and void. I won't even address the legacy of J. Allen Hynek (his first co-author) ...so careful w/ talk like that, please!
 
Christopher O'Brien said:
It all boils down to motivation and attitude. Lance's (and other debunkers) ARE doing the field a great service weeding out the bad apples. What I was referring too is the pleasure and glee they obviously get as they smear the entire field (and a lot of dedicated hard work) when they occasionally find a chink in the armor i.e., expose frauds, shoddy research, etc. I don't mind the crap getting weeded out-- it needs to be--I don't like their attitude and motivation.
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I think I understand where you are coming from. I don't think anyone with half a brain takes pleasure or glee in the fall of Phil Imbrogno though. And no matter how anyone feels about it, it does deliver a hammer blow of shame to the entire field of paranormal research.

Here is the thing for me. I see skeptics, doubters, and debunkers talked about with such scorn and an attitude of dismissal by so many speakers, interviewers, and posters discussing the paranormal however incidents like this bring home the absolute necessity of such IF the subject of the paranormal is to crawl up from level of the carnival sideshow.

This is a major event in the history of Ufology. The opportunity for paranormal and UFO enthusiasts, researchers, and fans to reassess what and who can be believed, trusted, and taken as reliable is absolutely golden.
 
Christopher O'Brien said:
Absolutely disagree! Co-writing two books w/ Phil is NOT going to invalidate Rosemary's 30+ years in the field. You are wrong if you are saying that her 6 encyclopedias and 51 books are null and void. I won't even address the legacy of J. Allen Hynek (his first co-author) ...so careful w/ talk like that, please!
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I meant to say that it invalidates those books in toto, thus invalidating the work that the co-authors did on the piece. I didn't mean it would invalidates the life's work. I stand corrected.
 
It may put into question Imbrogno's contribution to those books, but not necessarily that of the other authors.
 
Gene Steinberg said:
Well, at this point, his future here is up to him entirely. He'll have to reach out to us to talk about it further.
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Can he post is his posting privileges still stopped? I personally would like Lance to tell us what he found out in more detail. It really pisses me off this happened and phil has many times been pictured wearing MIT tie shirts, no shame.
 
Kieran said:
Can he post is his posting privileges still stopped? I personally would like Lance to tell us what he found out in more detail. It really pisses me off this happened and phil has many times been pictured wearing MIT tie shirts, no shame.
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Hi Kieran,

In early May, Lance started wondering about the MIT degree that Imbrogno was touting so often. As I work in a university and actually handle degree verifications as part of my job, he asked me how to go about verifying a degree. Without consent, at least here in Quebec, you can not tell an outside party what kind of degree a person has. However, you can confirm if they do have a degree. In this case, Lance wrote to MIT and they replied to him on letterhead that there is no record of any Phil, Philip, or Phillip Imbrogno that has ever attended MIT. The last time I spoke to Lance, he did not want to reveal this to the public as he did not want to recklessly hurt anyone's career. I can tell you that I did see a scan of the letter and judging by Imbrogno's reaction, it is true.
As I do believe that he can still post on this forum, I hope he chooses to indicate why it was brought up on The Paracast, and if it was his decision to reveal it or not.
 
HOLY SH*T! I instantly regret posting anything positive about this man...what a charlatan! It is absolutely unbelievable that Phil was never exposed previously!
 
I was surprised to read Chris tell of Rosemary seeing diplomas and a ring in Mr. Imbrogno's home. Why such an elaborate hoax? Why the recent claim of the Phd in theoretical chemistry? Could that really be that big of a strategic advantage in the paranormal book selling game?

I have tried to imagine some scenario where Mr. Imbrogno could be using a pen name, an alternate spelling, or some such but that doesn't seem to be the case. It would be great to hear his explanation. Certainly, if he wants to salvage anything from his research coming clean is the only way to do it. Life being as complicated as it is however, legal and personal complications could place stumbling blocks in the way of that.
 
Always had doubts about him as he simply had too many neatly rounded off incidents/stories that'd personally happened to him.
 
Angel of Ioren said:
Hi Kieran,

In early May, Lance started wondering about the MIT degree that Imbrogno was touting so often. As I work in a university and actually handle degree verifications as part of my job, he asked me how to go about verifying a degree. Without consent, at least here in Quebec, you can not tell an outside party what kind of degree a person has. However, you can confirm if they do have a degree. In this case, Lance wrote to MIT and they replied to him on letterhead that there is no record of any Phil, Philip, or Phillip Imbrogno that has ever attended MIT. The last time I spoke to Lance, he did not want to reveal this to the public as he did not want to recklessly hurt anyone's career. I can tell you that I did see a scan of the letter and judging by Imbrogno's reaction, it is true.
As I do believe that he can still post on this forum, I hope he chooses to indicate why it was brought up on The Paracast, and if it was his decision to reveal it or not.
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Thanks Angel. The failure of Philip to not answer back to this allegation sure those give the impression its true. It just amazing how he pulled this off for so long many of us don't know him personally, but his friends must feel like right fools now having trusted what he told them in the past.

Maybe now looking back in hindsight we should have realised this might have been problem. How long would it have taken Philip to achieve those three degrees? Its would take at least 5 to 6 years of hard graft of full time study to have achieved a masters degree in chemistry from a repectable university like MIT and least another 6 years for Philip to have successfully passed two undergraduate degree courses-12 years long time.

Lance has nothing to apologise for. Philip is the person who lied in this situation. I bought Philip books believing he knew about the sciences, and had certs and diplomas to back up his shit. Many of us were taken in by him and I think we such be honest and just admit we were wrong to do so.
 
Phillip Imbrogno's association with J. Allen Hynek and Night Siege:The Hudson Valley UFO Sightings puts this on a higher level in my mind than say W.C. Levengood's phony doctorate or Butch Wotkowski's fraudulent credentials.

 
Well I am glad this finally came out. It has been boring a hole in my soul to keep my mouth shut. I too contacted the university of Texas to no avail. I spoke with a very nice woman who is currently searching the microfilm for me from 1972-1975 just to make certain. but, it looks like this too is BS. For me personally, I am going to continue to look into this because it really pisses me off to see this happen. This is part of the reason this subject matter doesn't get the respect it deserves.

To recap the claims:

- B.A. in Astronomy From UT
- Bachelors in "Earth Science" from Boston College (Earth and Environmental Sciences)
- Masters from MIT
- Soon to be PHD from MIT

From Imbrogno himself:
espdarkharvest EP. 5 - Philip J. Imbrogno - author

Listen at 55:30 to hear the list.

Apparently I need to pay some cash to the National Student Clearinghouse in order to get detail from Boston College. Which I will do later this afternoon just to be certain.

It's sad that this guy has achieved this much notoriety in the field and nobody ever checked him out. Kudos to Lance for taking the initiative.
 
Part of the problem is that we don't question anyone's statements about having a degree or two or three unless there's reason to do so. It's one of those credentials you just accept without evidence to the contrary. This has to serve as a wakeup call, of course, but I still expect it's a rare, rare occurrence.
 
Well you know, here is the thing, UFO and paranormal frauds never seem to fade away. Like Bill Cooper's murderous limo driver they continue to be taken as gospel by the misinformed and uninitiated. Is Phil going to be the next whistle-blower whose life has been erased by shadowy government agencies bent on preventing people from realizing the terrifying truth and all that jazz?
 
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