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From the High Desert book cover

From the High Desert

A Cultural History of Art Bell

Thumbnail for May 26, 1999: Flying Triangles, Various Topics - Jeffrey Mishlove | Lawsuit - Peter Gersten

May 26, 1999: Flying Triangles, Various Topics - Jeffrey Mishlove | Lawsuit - Peter Gersten

May 26, 1999
2h 43m
0:00 / 0:00
Art Bell opens with the troubling news that his friend Terence McKenna is reportedly gravely ill in a Honolulu hospital, then welcomes attorney Peter Gersten of Citizens Against UFO Secrecy to discuss his ongoing Freedom of Information lawsuit against the Department of Defense regarding flying triangle craft. Peter describes how the DOD claims to have zero records on the triangles despite decades of sightings, and reveals plans to subpoena Dr. Steven M. Greer for the names of his reported 200 military witnesses.

The conversation shifts to broader questions about technology as a possible "virus in reality," with Peter arguing that advanced technology introduced around 1947 disrupted humanity's natural evolutionary progression. Art shares his own close encounter with a silent, gravity-defying triangle and confirms he has provided notarized affidavits of the sighting to support the legal case.

In the second half, Dr. Jeffrey Mishlove joins to explore consciousness, the nature of God, and whether mass focused attention can produce measurable physical effects. He describes documented quantum-level deviations during events like the Olympics and Princess Diana's funeral, and discusses whether UFO phenomena might originate from human consciousness itself rather than external sources.

Key Moments

  1. Bell's notarized triangle affidavit and DoD's denial: Bell confirms he and Ramona have given Gersten signed, notarized affidavits about their close encounter with a large triangle defying gravity over their home; the DoD has responded to Gersten's CAUSE lawsuit by claiming it has no information at all on flying triangles.

  2. Gersten plans to subpoena Steven Greer: Gersten reveals he is preparing to serve UFO researcher Dr. Steven Greer with a subpoena, demanding the names of the roughly 200 witnesses Greer has publicly claimed to have, since Greer holds no national-security clearance to shield them.

  3. Reality has been infected with a virus: Bell reads Gersten's earlier line that 'reality has been infected with a virus,' connects it to a Lake Michigan story about cancer in plankton, and Mishlove suggests that from a planetary perspective humans themselves may be the virus, given that since 1945 we have had the capacity to wipe ourselves out.

  4. Terence McKenna's brain tumor diagnosis: Bell connects to Don Stiles, whose daughter lives with Terence McKenna, and learns that McKenna suffered seizures and cardiac arrest en route to the hospital in Hawaii, then was care-flighted to Honolulu where doctors diagnosed a glioblastoma multiforme; prognosis is six to nine months at best.