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Philip J. Imbrogno withdrawing from paranormal research!

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trainedobserver said:
Great post Ron. You've expressed much of my frustration with this as well.

Obviously, this is a great chance for anyone interested in the subject of the paranormal and UFOs to take a sober look at their attitudes and approach to it and the researchers, writers, and speakers addressing those subjects. The need for healthy skepticism and critical thinking only seems doubly underscored by this development.
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I heard angels when I read this. Thanks Trained, I completely agree.
 
Even though I have had my disagreements with Lance in the past month i do accept his telling the truth on this one. Angel, told me he has seen the evidence against Mr Imbrogno, so that has convinced me there is something to this story.

Ron has done his own work devoid of Lance in trying to verify another degree Imbrogno claimed he recieved from Texas University, well done on that Ron. I await further developmemts on that, but am I right in this- You have not found out everything yet in your research to be positively damn sure Imbrogno absolutely never went to that university, am I right on that?

I am as pissed off as everyone else on this forum, even more so since I was a fan and supporter of his work in the past. It sucks to read this news.

I am keen as everyone else to find out what happened, but that is the problem in a nutshell. Its hard to comment on this any further without hearing back from Lance to what he found. I have convicted Imbrogno, rightly it seems, but still at the end I'm aware of the fact I have yet to see the evidence in total against Imbrogno.
 
I wonder if he has retreated and does regroup and at some later date starts to get involved again, can he rehabilitate his image? I wonder if this is simply damage control or if he can use it to do some soul searching. I guess that's up to him. But, he could use it as a positive in the long run. Still, it's gonna be hard to ever trust anything from him again. But, I take all of it with a grain of salt anyway.
 
tyder001 said:
I wonder if he has retreated and does regroup and at some later date starts to get involved again, can he rehabilitate his image? I wonder if this is simply damage control or if he can use it to do some soul searching. I guess that's up to him. But, he could use it as a positive in the long run. Still, it's gonna be hard to ever trust anything from him again. But, I take all of it with a grain of salt anyway.
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He could come back at any time he likes, but would any future books of his discussing the paranormal get published? Doe-eyed believers of the paranormal, and new people to this field will probably listen to him again and buy his new stuff? Like facts and credibility matter less in this reality tunnel, its just the way it is.
 
Kieran said:
Even though I have had my disagreements with Lance in the past month i do accept his telling the truth on this one. Angel, told me he has seen the evidence against Mr Imbrogno, so that has convinced me there is something to this story.

Ron has done his own work devoid of Lance in trying to verify another degree Imbrogno claimed he recieved from Texas University, well done on that Ron. I await further developmemts on that, but am I right in this- You have not found out everything yet in your research to be positively damn sure Imbrogno absolutely never went to that university, am I right on that?

I am as pissed off as everyone else on this forum, even more so since I was a fan and supporter of his work in the past. It sucks to read this news.

I am keen as everyone else to find out what happened, but that is the problem in a nutshell. Its hard to comment on this any further without hearing back from Lance to what he found. I have convicted Imbrogno, rightly it seems, but still at the end I'm aware of the fact I have yet to see the evidence in total against Imbrogno.
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Currently I have received verification on 3 fronts.

1) The University of Texas registrars website has an online verification tool that will find any degree earned from fall of 1977 to current. He is not on that list. I have a phone call into the same office to check records previous to fall of 1977. The issue is that I do not have a graduation date or BOD for Philip J. Imbrogno. The search is ongoing.

2) I called the registrar for Boston College. They told me that they participate in the National Student Clearinghouse and referred me to that website. I paid $6.50 to verify the degree he claimed in Earth Science. They have no record of Philip J. Imbrogno earning a degree or attending the University.

3) I also used the National Student Clearinghouse to check the Masters degree he says he earned in Chemistry from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). This cost me another $6.50. They have no record of such a degree or of his attendance.

I accepted the documentation (a scanned image of a letter on MIT letterhead) Lance shared with me as proof of the false PHD claim from MIT. I saw no need to pay another $6.50 to verify it as I have already been told he did not attend the university when I did the Masters search. I have posted the response I got from the Boston College search in a previous post. If you like, I can post the results of the MIT masters search as well. Basically it is the same response.
 
Just to let you know, in Germany it is actually a criminal offense to fake your credentials (for any reason) If you look around, the German defense minister just got fired and is being brought up charges for paying someone to write his Dr degree.
 
And to think I took out all those student loans and took all those classes. Had to really study for the natural sciences and plod through English Lit and Stats and the history of U.S. Social Movements and I could have just ordered one in the mail? :eek: Actually, it makes me prouder to know my ole Alma Mater can't disown me. :cool:
 
Gene Steinberg said:
Originally, yes, and we did. But we have since independently verified what he learned.
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If a Source provides you with information in confidence, do you think it's right to publicly reveal that information just because you independently verified the information?

Let's say a Source tells a journalist that Senator X is cheating on his wife. He says that he's pretty confident it's true because he has compromising pictures of them at the Main Street Hotel. The Source says that he's telling the journalist this in confidence and doesn't want him to publicly release this information.

If the journalist goes to the Main Street Hotel the next day, based on the Source's information, and sees Senator X with the woman, just like the Source said, and also takes compromising pictures of their encounter, does that give the journalist the right to release the information without the Source's consent because he independently verified that the Source's information was true, which he was able to do simply because the Source shared that specific information with him?

If Lance essentially said, "here's what I know, you guys can do what you want with it", the situation is different of course. Was that the understanding you guys had?
 
trainedobserver said:
Of course that isn't even remotely the point here. The point is Imbrogno's trustworthiness or the lack there of.

If UFOs and the Paranormal are nothing more than a carnival sideshow, then it can be assumed that Professor Marvel the barker isn't a real professor and no accountability is needed. However, if UFOs and the paranormal are to be considered something more than that, it requires something more than a dubious guy in a university T-shirt with a spooky story.
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UFOs and the paranormal will always be considered a carnival sideshow no matter how many scientists or professors are involved. The subjects, by their very nature, ensure this. You only have to look at the scorn poured on it by the mainstream media whenever a story pops up. Most people are willing to say that they believe in the possiblity of "aliens", "UFOs", "ghosts" etc. But those same people are unlikely to care much more than that and especially not to immerse themselves into the murky depths of the UFO and Paranormal ocean and its denizens. They have got bigger things to worry about.
I think one of the problems is the fact that the the community is so focused on getting approval from society that it jumps at the chance of "real" scientists and academics working within its folds. So much so that the simple act of verifying their credentials is forgotten in the haste to embrace someone who calls them self a scientist. This goes for radio and podcast hosts as well as convention organisers and TV producers etc, etc. While i portion no blame here it is symptomatic of this community and its goals.
Outside of the so called "UFO Community" i doubt really anyone knows or cares who Phil Imbrogno is.
As disappointing as this whole sorry episode is, i am chalking it up to another in a long line of failed "marriages" as it were and am now looking forward to moving on. Secure in the knowledge that great lessons have been learned from all of this and hopefully not to be repeated. (although i doubt it). If time has revealed one thing to me about this field it is that history certainly keeps repeating.
 
Ron Collins said:
Currently I have received verification on 3 fronts.

1) The University of Texas registrars website has an online verification tool that will find any degree earned from fall of 1977 to current. He is not on that list. I have a phone call into the same office to check records previous to fall of 1977. The issue is that I do not have a graduation date or BOD for Philip J. Imbrogno. The search is ongoing.

2) I called the registrar for Boston College. They told me that they participate in the National Student Clearinghouse and referred me to that website. I paid $6.50 to verify the degree he claimed in Earth Science. They have no record of Philip J. Imbrogno earning a degree or attending the University.

3) I also used the National Student Clearinghouse to check the Masters degree he says he earned in Chemistry from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). This cost me another $6.50. They have no record of such a degree or of his attendance.

I accepted the documentation (a scanned image of a letter on MIT letterhead) Lance shared with me as proof of the false PHD claim from MIT. I saw no need to pay another $6.50 to verify it as I have already been told he did not attend the university when I did the Masters search. I have posted the response I got from the Boston College search in a previous post. If you like, I can post the results of the MIT masters search as well. Basically it is the same response.
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I don't believe any of us including Lance ever envisaged a scenario were it would have turned out to be the case. Philip Imbrogo a prominent UFO Researcher would be shown up to have lied about "Everything" he alleged he achieved with his third level education?

I thank everyone involved in put an ending to this frauds time in this field.
 
Lauren,

I think once Rosemary posted the update to the Vengeful Djinn bio page the cat was out of the bag. The reason for his abrupt departure is a question that begs an answer.

I'm a bit astounded that other than here and the Paratopia forum/facebook nothing is being said about it. I would have thought it would have made it to Open Minds TV and ATS pretty quickly. I think I for one over estimated Mr. Imbrogno's audience and interest level somewhat.

I think this incident and the reaction to it has already been extremely revealing.
 
I don't know anything about his credentials, but I do know what teachers have to go through to get their jobs. They have to show signed and stamped copies of their transcripts (usually have the University mail them), a background and reference check, and a criminal background check.
He was or is a science teacher in high school, right?
How could he get a teaching position with no official credentials? He must have SOME sort of higher education somewhere, maybe not a doctorate or anything, but still....

But I do agree that he has shit on a field already covered in manure by past fakers, hoaxsters, charlatans and profiteers.
It really irks me that a prominant investigator like Phil has made the paranormal investigations area look a bit sillier, and reinforce the idea that all ghost hunters, UFO investigators, bigfoot hunters, etc etc are nothing but hoaxers/crazy/idiots.

And damn it, I hope he shows up with his diplomas, college buddies, transcripts and a "whats all the fuss about" attitude. I'll be in line to apologize.
 
I don't know enough about him and his research, however...can I ask a stupid question? It seems very sad to erase a man's life, with a single brush stroke, because he lied about his university credentials. How can you all just write off every thing this man has researched over the years, surely it doesn't discount EVERTHING he has researched over the years? So now all the years of work goes down the tube?

Does all that hard work count for nothing? He has to have a piece of paper saying he has a degree, so that the sceptics and non believers sleep better at night? I never have understood the whole frothing at the mouth by sceptics surrounding the so called credentials of researchers? Fat lot of good that did Steven Greer and the multitude of 'credible' eye witness testimony in 2001 for the disclosure project? Did it change anything that day when over 100 credible witnesses say they were privy to a government coverup? Answer..a big unequivocal FAT....NO!

So let's go back more than a few hundred years.... what happens if a geeky, pimple faced 17 year old with a crude telescope he made himself discovers that the earth is round and we revolve around the sun not the other way around it goes against popular belief...but he publishes it anyway...we don't believe him...but the priest from catholic church tells us that the earth is flat and we should torture the pimple faced kid to tell us the "truth" and we should trust him because he is a learned man...
 
dr.abbadon said:
How can you all just write of every thing this man has researched over the years, surely it doesn't discount EVERTHING he has researched over the years? So now all the years of work goes down the tube?
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Can you explain to me how to tell which bit is safe to digest and which is not? I am at loss at how to do this myself. If someone writes absolute fiction for their professional credentials isn't it wise to wonder about other things they might say, write, or claim about themselves or their work? If you think that persons ideas are entertaining or even educational you have to acknowledge they are they are the products of someone who plays it fast and loose with the truth don't you? The blurring of reality is so great how do you tell what's what?
 
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