The Theme

The theme of this year’s Culture of Contact Arts & Speaker Festival is Mythology Is Reality. Quite simply, Western historians have sculpted our vision of the past along parallel lines: fact and myth. Myths do exist, of course, but any fact that doesn’t fit within the accepted framework is also, erroneously, deemed myth and so we really don’t have an accurate picture of our past or our place in the universe.

Take Egyptology, for example. Most of what we know about ancient Egypt stems from the Pyramid Texts. We consider the Pyramid Texts a factual historical account of this ancient culture…except for the period called Zep Tepi (“The First Time"), which describes beings coming down from the heavens and imparting knowledge to ancient man. For some reason, this account—which is how the Pyramid Texts begin—is considered a myth, while the rest of the very same text is considered historical fact.

Another example can be found in the Native American oral tradition. Some tribes, such as the Hopi, talk about being descendants of star people. It wasn’t until recently that it became clear they meant this literally. It’s not mythology for them—this is who they are.

And so it goes. From antiquity we have these stories of beings descending from the heavens and imparting huge leaps in culture and knowledge upon the people of all countries—ALL countries, think about that—but because we’ve devolved into materialist rationalists in total control of our domain, that fact is completely unacceptable to us, so it is disregarded as primitive mythology.

Our goal is to give life back to the supposedly unreal timeline and show how only the reintegration of this line into factual history completes the distorted picture of humanity. We will demonstrate through artwork, film, and music, as well as talks from alternative historians and present-day experiencers of these beings who descend from the sky, that these “myths” are really factual explanations of nonhuman contact events stretching from the gods of antiquity to the alien abductions of post modernity.

The Speakers (in alphabetical order by last name. More names added as they are confirmed.)

Stephen Bassett
Is arguably the leading advocate in the nation for ending the 60-year government imposed truth embargo regarding an extraterrestrial presence engaging the human race and the planet earth. He is a political activist, lobbyist, commentator, columnist and conference producer. He is the founder of the Paradigm Research Group, the Executive Director of the Extraterrestrial Phenomena Political Action Committee (X-PPAC), the creator of the Paradigm Clock and the executive producer of the X-Conference. His work has been covered internationally including the Washington Post, Washington Times, New York Times, Legal Times, Roll Call, Christian Science Monitor, National Journal, Pravda and the London Sunday Express.

David Biedny
From his earliest memories of childhood, Paracast co-host David Biedny remembers that the paranormal was a constant in his life, always taking the mundane aspects of everyday existence and bending them in ways that made him realize that there was much more complexity to reality than meets the eye. David and his family were part of a mass sighting of an enormous cigar-shaped UFO which emitted three classic disc craft and vanished in front of their eyes. It was an extreme episode, but not the first - or last - UFO or paranormal encounter in his life.

Biedny’s professional career has put him at the top of his field -digital multimedia and computer graphics - and he is recognized as a creative pioneer in the realm of interactive media and digital imaging. He was a Founding Editor of MacUser and Macintosh Today magazines and has written for every other major Mac magazine to date. He wrote the very first book ever on Photoshop, The Official Adobe Photoshop Handbook (Bantam Books), and was the primary author of the most valuable collectible book in computer trade publishing history, Photoshop Channel Chops (New Riders). His deep technical expertise in digital imaging led him to work for Industrial Light and Magic, where he created digital effects for motion pictures such as “Terminator 2: Judgement Day” and “Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Country.” Additionally, David has been a faculty member and lecturer for a number of colleges and universities, most recently Yale University. His image processing knowledge and skills have enabled him to assist various researchers and investigators in the paranormal and UFO fields, and has served as an image analyst for the Above Top Secret website, UFO Magazine, George Knapp, and NARCAP. On The Paracast, David has debunked some of the images from the Billy Meier UFO hoax and, along with Gene Steinberg, has created a place for some of the top thinkers and experts in all paranormal fields to engage in deeply rational, intelligent discussions about any and all aspects of the paranormal.

Dr. William J. Birnes
Is a New York Times best-selling author, pubisher of UFO Magazine and star of the History Channel’s UFO Hunters TV series. Books related to ufology and the paranormal that he has authored and co-authored include: The Day After Roswell, The UFO Encyclopedia, Unsolved UFO Mysteries, The Haunting of The Presidents, and Worker In The Light.

Birnes received his Ph.D. from New York University in 1974 while he was an English instructor at Trenton State College in New Jersey, where he taught structural linguistics and historical linguistics as well as literature and writing. Professor Birnes was a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow, a Lily Post Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, and a grants award judge for the National Endowment for the Arts.

Patricia B. Corbett

Along with Michael Mannion, is co-founder of The Mindshift Institute, which has produced over two dozen events in New York City and at the invitation of organizations, such as the Center for Psychology & Social Change in Cambridge, MA; Friends of the Institute of Noetic Sciences in New York, and member groups of the Institute of Noetic Sciences in California and Connecticut. Patricia is a board member of the Anomalous Phenomena Research Center and a member of Rachel Pollack's Tarot Laboratory. For five years, she was the vice-president of FIONS, the New York City affiliate of the Institute of Noetic Sciences. Previously, for 16 years, she was the owner and president of an international distribution corporation with operations in Chicago and the Port of New York and New Jersey.

Richard Dolan
Is author of UFOs and the National Security State. A professional lecturer who has made numerous television and radio appearances, Richard is currently writing second and third volumes of his original study.

Budd Hopkins

Is considered the forefather of alien abduction research having authored NY Times best-sellers on the subject including the classics Missing Time and Intruders. Hopkins is one of the world's most famous abduction investigators/authors who first became interested in UFO phenomena when he and two others had a daylight UFO sighting near Truro, MA, in 1964. In 1975 he carried out his first major investigation, which involved a UFO landing and occupant incident in North Hudson Park, N.J. Shortly thereafter he began to concentrate on the investigation of the UFO abduction phenomenon which led to the eventual publication of his findings and the coining of the term, missing time.

Phil Imbrogno
A recognized authority in the field of UFO research, he wrote the classic, Night Siege: UFOs Over The Hudson Valley. He has been interviewed by the New York Times and Coast to Coast AM, has appeared on NBCs Today Show and The Oprah Winfrey Show, and has been featured in documentaries on the History Channel, A&E, Lifetime, and HBO. Imbrogno worked closely with many top UFO investigators, including Dr. J. Allen Hynek and Budd Hopkins.

Michael Mannion

Mannion is the author of a number of works of nonfiction, among them The New American Medicine (2002); Frankenstein Foods (2002); The Pharmacist's Guide to Over-the-Counter and Natural Remedies (1999); How to Help Your Teenager Stop Smoking (2000); and Project Mindshift: The Reeducation of the American Public Concerning Extraterrestrial Life (1998). He is also the author of three novels, Death Cloud (1976); Colleen (1978); and Erin's Daughters (2002).

Melissa Reed

Is a renouned artist and art director for Culture of Contact. She is an experiencer who participated in the first Star Nations gathering and for our gathering will play co-host with Jeremy Vaeni.

Jeff Ritzmann
A trusted UFO and paranormal investigator (and experiencer) who has worked with The History Channel, as well as the TV series Sightings, Jeff is recognized as one of the best photo/video analysts in the field today, being tapped for cases by the likes of NARCAP and the popular dot com, Above Top Secret. He is currently working on a book detailing his lifetime of paranormal experiences.

Peter Robbins

Has been involved in UFO studies for more than twenty-five years, as a researcher, investigator, writer, lecturer, activist and author. He is co-author of the British best-seller, Left at East Gate: A First-Hand Account of the Rendlesham Forest UFO Incident, Its Cover-Up and Investigation. Robbins has lectured extensively in States and abroad on topics including but not limited to the Rendlesham Forest incident; suppression of UFO information by the American and British Governments; James Forrestal, first Secretary of Defense and early casualty of UFO secrecy; Declassified UFO-related documents; Dr. Wilhelm Reich and UFOs; the UFO abduction phenomenon; UFOs and aliens in advertising; the media and UFOs, stress and UFO studies. 

Giorgio Tsoukalos
Is changing the way the world thinks about the Ancient Astronaut Theory. Giorgio A. Tsoukalos runs and is the Director of Research of the Center for Ancient Astronaut Research (A.A.S. R.A. - Archaeology, Astronautics and SETI Research Association) and the publisher of Legendary Times, the world's only and definitive ancient astronaut journal.

Jeremy Vaeni
Is author of I Know Why The Aliens Don't Land! and producer of the film No One's Watching: An Alien Abductee's Story. He is a monthly columnist for UFO Magazine and director of the Culture of Contact.

He hosts the free weekly podcast right here at cultureofcontact.com and is currently working on a short mock-documentary parodying the Billy Meier case. That, along with his new book, The Skeleton Key To All Worlds, is due out later this year. Jeremy will play the role of MC for the festival.

Farah Yurdozu
Is Turkey's first female UFO researcher author of several best-selling books in her native land and many magazine articles.

Farah’s gifts as a psychic medium were recently a featured in TLC's paranormal investigation TV series Dead Tenants. She is a columnist for the leading monthly publication UFO Magazine and a journalist/producer at Jerry Pippin Internet Radio. Though her work reflects a passion for all aspects of the paranormal, her main area of study is abductions and close encounters. Farah continues her work as a UFO researcher, writer and lecturer, and appears in major UFO conferences all over the United States from Roswell to California, Nevada to New York City.

Her latest book, Confessions of a Turkish Ufologist, documents her native land’s 5000-year UFO history as well as her own family’s three-generation history of ET contact.

Music, Movies & Other Fun Stuff

Combustive Motor Corporation

Is a New York arts conglomerate that will present an exclusive world premiere of an alien abductee-related documentary short film featuring many of the participants and audience members from last year’s Culture of Contact festival!

The Silent But Deadly Truthvolution of Truth

In April, 2008, alleged contactee Billy Meier's American representative Michael Horn challenged writer/director Jeremy Vaeni to reproduce Meier's flying saucer footage. Vaeni decided to go one better and re-imagine Horn's documentary on Meier entitled, The Silent Revolution of Truth. At the risk of gaining Horn & Meier even more publicity, Vaeni will premiere his comedy mock-documentary, The Silent But Deadly Truthvolution of Truth, which stars some of ufology's best known names.

Is president of Psychic Labs, Inc. and inventor of the IBVA (Interactive Brainwave Visual Analyzer.) He will bring his latest brain tech inventions for public use and demonstration. To see Jeremy Vaeni hooked up to a version of the IBVA, click HERE.

The When & The Where

October 16^th- 18th^st, 2008 at the historic Landmark Loew's Theater in Jersey City! This is the theater where Frank Sinatra first heard Bing Crosby sing and decided to become a singer himself. We couldn't be more thrilled with the venue.

Loew's Jersey Theatre

Advanced ticket sale online HERE!