Sunday, June 15, 2008


Philip H Krapf: What Happened? Part One



It looked like another contactee book but what caught my eye was a key word in the subtitle – The True Story of a Journalist’s Encounter With Alien Beings.

Journalist? Now there’s a different angle. And since it was a book sale, the price was right: one quarter. So I picked up The Contact Has Begun.

According to the back cover info box, author Philip H. Krapf plied the journalism trade for 30 years, from reporter to managing editor. Most of this career was spent at the Los Angeles Times. The photo accompanying the info box shows him wearing a dark hat and suit, very old-fashioned, formal attire. A man in black?

Not really. Published in 1998, The Contact Has Begun describes Krapf’s abduction by aliens called Verdants. He scoffed at abduction stories – until it happened to him. Also, he considered himself an agnostic/atheist – until the aliens told him that they had scientific proof that God was real. In fact, the Verdants had visited Heaven, a precise location in the universe.

An UFO/New Age skeptic. A disbeliever in religion. Why was he picked?

In Krapf’s case the aliens didn’t want him for a physical exam. No nasty needles for him. They needed his help for a plan soon to unfold. The aliens were going to reveal themselves to the people of earth through Ambassadors and Deputy Envoys. Krapf was chosen to be a Deputy Envoy. An Ambassador who worked at the LA Times recommended him.

For a few days Krapf received instructions and lessons while he stayed on a starship hidden on the dark side of the moon. His main mission was to write a white paper to break the story to the people of Earth. When he was abducted in June 1997, the alien agenda was supposed to work out like this:

2001: By the first couple of months Ambassadors from all over the world will have completed their proposed plans to initiate contact with the Verdants. For six months, perhaps more, the Verdants will review the plans.

2002: The story will break. An Ambassador will confirm the schedule of events as detailed by Krapf in his book.

2003: Continuing the revelation process, other Ambassadors will announce their roles in the planning of a summit meeting with the Verdants.

2004: Spectacular events that will convince the staunchest skeptic that the Verdants are indeed real.

2005: Green grassland will appear overnight in the American Southwest. The city of Genesis will be built here, a place where humans and aliens will meet.

2008: Humankind’s training is completed. Earth will join the IFSP (the Intergalactic Federation of Sovereign Planets.)

2010: The Verdants share their technology. Mankind explores nearby stars.

But this agenda was laid out with the qualifier: “…if events happen on schedule…”

So that’s why I won’t be visiting Genesis City this summer to interview the Verdants.


5 comments:

X. Dell said...

This Intergalactic Federation of Sovereign Planets immediately brought Richard Boylan to mind, so I googled the Federation along with Boylan's name, and voila! Commentary on Krapf and his beliefs by, you guessed it, one Dr. Boylan.

The Federation also appears without mention of Krapf on websites putatively citing the Akashic Records.

I obviously am not in a position to disprove Krapf, but I must admit that I'm not inclined to believe him, either (other than the fact that he has been verified by the LA Times to have been a former copy editor on the Metro desk). It's not that I'm inclined to disagree with any outlandish tale out of hand. Rather, I'm skeptical of claims that manage to validate entrenched beliefs or ideologies--for example, I don't believe that Christ told W. that he should be President of the US.

What interests me about such stories are their genesis. I wonder: when you take people like Krapf and Adamski, plot them in a line, what do you see?

You got the book for a quarter? I'd buy it at that price.

Do you have any plans to contact the author?

Ray Palm (Ray X) said...

X. Dell:

ThanX for the info.

I would contact the author but Google so far hasn’t provided me with an address. From what I found Krapf did have a website but that’s gone; the URL is for sale. Even though I haven’t found any verification on the web, it’s possible that Krapf is no longer with us. (I think he was 63 when his book was published.)

Part of my interest in Krapf is indeed in the genesis of his beliefs. I’m also skeptical about his claims, especially when his predictions fail to come true. But that doesn’t mean he’s a liar or hoaxer. What happened to him? Who knows? Maybe some abductees are experiencing the incomprehensible, coming in contact with a different reality and then filtering the event through preconceived alien abduction motifs. Or maybe the human mind can create alternate realities within itself that are semi-real, i.e., the person experiences the event just as if it’s real but it’s not real in an external/objective sense.

Of course, it’s all speculation that doesn’t answer anything. But questions about the actual genesis can be set aside to analyze the story as folklore or literature, seeking parallels or themes.

Ray

X. Dell said...

John Mack considered the semi-real hypothesis that you mention, and agreed it is something worth pondering. Then again, maybe Jung has something, in that the alien contact experience has a reality for the unconscious mind that doesn't translate well into the conscious mind.

I'm fascinated by this facet of ufology because of the cosmic implications, the spirituality, and because it offers us a lot of information (unsorted and confusing though it may be) on the nature of our perceptions, our senses, and the way we interact with the emprical world.

Dr.Alistair said...

the materialist, empirical paradigm is the one we have agreed to experience here on the surface of the planet. who`s to say that elsewhere in the universe things are different and that some here can tune in to that difference......

there is a lot of crap peddled though, some of which is wholeheartedly promoted by church and state.

Ray Palm (Ray X) said...

Dr. A.

After the ETs reveal themselves to us, I wonder what kind of crap they're going to peddle.

Ray