TZUTC: -0400   
   MSGID: 146.fidonet_ufo@1:3634/60 2c919b34   
   PID: Synchronet 3.19b-Win32 master/a2a9dc027 Jan  2 2022 MSC 1928   
   TID: SBBSecho 3.14-Win32 master/a2a9dc027 Jan  2 2022 MSC 1928   
   BBSID: RICKSBBS   
   CHRS: UTF-8 4   
   SUBJECT: MEIER A SECOND OPINION                              FILE: UFO1014   
      
      
   Part 3    
            
         The  1937  best-selling  "Secret  Life  of Plants" includes   
   an entire chapter  on  Vogel.  In  one scene, he attempts to   
   determine whether plants wired  with  electrodes  show a   
   physiological response to "spooky stories." The  book  says that   
   at "certain points in a story, such as...`Charles bent down  and   
   raised the lid of the coffin,' the plant seemed to pay closer at-   
   tention."   
      
         Vogel,  70, said Meier's UFO movies convinced him the farmer   
   had been in  contact  with  "some  form  of  extraterrestrial   
   intelligence" However, Vogel  doesn't  regard  the  metal samples   
   by themselves as proof of extraterrestrials  because he didn't   
   have a chance to consult with other experts before  the  samples   
   mysteriously  disappeared. Vogel added that since his plant  work   
   of  the 1970's, he had founded a psychic research institute in   
   San  Jose,  employed his "mental energy" to bend spoons and   
   studied the use of crystals to cure illness.   
      
         "Light  Years"  also  quotes authorities such as Robert Post,   
   head of the  Jet  Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, as saying:   
   "From a photography standpoint,  you  couldn't  see anything that   
   was fake about the Meier photos...  I  thought,  God,  if  this   
   is  real,  this  is going to be really something."   
      
         Or  is it? In an interview with The Examiner, Post recalled   
   that several  years  ago,  Wendelle Stevens visited him at JPL and   
   requested an expert  opinion  on  the pictures. Post acknowledges   
   he was fascinated by the images,  but  was  unable to perform a   
   scientific analysis for two reasons: First,  he isn't a photo   
   analyst but rather the operator of a photo processing  lab  ("like   
   you take your film to K-Mart", he said); and second, the pictures   
   weren't  originals  but rather copies of originals - perhaps even   
   copies  of  copies  of copies. Such multiple copying tends to   
   obscure delicate  details,  making  it hard to detect evidence of   
   fraud - e.g., threads supporting hubcaps.   
      
         In  addition, when Post examined some images with a   
   magnifying glass, he  realized  "a  lot  of  the pictures weren't   
   really photographs at all - they  were  lithographs,"  or   
   high-resolution ink prints made from photos - and,  hence,  were   
   worthless  for  purposes  of analysis. Furthermore, the photos   
   were  "  a  lot  fuzzier  than  the stuff on the lithographs, and   
   I thought that was a little strange."   
      
         For  that  and other reasons, Post began "to think, `Nuts,   
   maybe this guy  is just a con man.' That's not the kind of guy I   
   want to have anything to do with."   
      
         In  1983,  Stevens was convicted of child molestation in   
   Pima County, AZ.  He  is now serving time in the Arizona State   
   Prison and declined to be interviewed.  But  he  did  send  The   
   Examiner a cryptic letter in which he said  a  "number of high   
   officials...have taken a personal interest in some of  the  things   
   we were doing, but they could neither support nor tolerate them   
   officially."   
      
         Stevens'  conviction  triggered a wave of paranoia among   
   Meier buffs. Some  phoned  Vicki  Cooper, editor of California UFO   
   Magazine in Los Angeles,  and  said  Stevens  "was  `set up,' that   
   certain witnesses were being killed,"  said  Cooper,  who is not   
   unsympathetic to Meier's claims. "I was discouraged and disgusted   
   with the people I was talking to."   
      
         "Its  a  cesspool  out  there,"  she said. "Personality   
   conflicts are rabid  in  this  field...There are hoaxers, there   
   are fraudulent people who are claiming outrageous things all   
   throughout the UFO field.   
   End of report   
      
      
                
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