Dames is also known as the remote viewing trainer of Professor Courtney Brown, whose 1996 book "Cosmic Voyage" and recent statements concerning a possible "companion" of Comet Hale-Bopp have caused a sensation. Dames has publicly denounced Brown for violating the strict protocols of remote viewing and says that Brown's findings are at best unreliable.
Nonetheless, some of Dames' own remote viewing results are hardly less sensational than Brown's -- most especially a finding he announced some weeks ago on Art Bell's nationally syndicated radio program. Dames said that a cannister of deadly viruses was heading toward the earth from space, and when it landed it would destroy the majority of earth's plant life, followed by a major collapse of human civilization.
Like Brown, Dames has many defenders and more detractors. Like Brown, Dames is complex and undeniably very smart. Coming as he does from a background in military intelligence, some of his detractors assume he's committed to disinformation. Dames staunchly maintains he's committed to the truth.
Ed Dames spoke to a public audience in Los Angeles on February 19, 1997. CNI News asked one of those in attendence, Skye Turrell, to report her impressions of the man and his information. Skye's report follows.]
by Skye Turrell
We packed the February 19 meeting of the Los Angeles chapter of MUFON to see Major Ed Dames. We all knew who he was -- knew he spent years in the military remote viewing program, then founded his own company called Psi Tech -- knew his latest predictions about plant pathogens from space. He needed no introduction.
When Ed Dames strolled out on stage, he took his place next to, not behind, the podium. A good angle for the video camera. This was Burbank, California after all, and a production company called Lightworks was taping. But there's another reason, too: the first thing you notice about the man is that he is extremely short.
This incongruity was striking -- one of my lasting impressions of the evening. Here is a man who spent most of his adult years in the military, a world where muscle and the threat of physical harm is the currency of trade. Yet this man survived in that world, excelled even, despite his stature. The first thing you want to ask yourself about Dames is: How did he accomplish that? What abilities does he possess that constitute perhaps an even more valuable currency? Answer that, and you'll understand a great deal about the man.
In keeping with the "no introductions" spirit of the evening, Dames announced that he had no prepared speech. He would simply take questions, in effect saying, "OK, let me have it."
First out of the box was "Mr. Obnoxious," who dramatically waved a video cassette purported to show Dames declaring his participation in MJ-12. In response, Dames said he was part of a UFO review committee, a group which "met off-campus," and which Dames abandoned fairly early on because the players "held their cards too close." In fact, he denied the existence of MJ-12.
This exchange was quite contentious, and I watched Dames carefully. How would he respond to pressure like this? I saw not a single flash of anger -- no adrenaline rush, quickly reined-in, as I'd expect of most normal humans. This is a man who does not allow himself to react on an emotional level. Not when it doesn't serve him, anyway.
He did say that the MJ-12 documents were deliberately leaked in order to put certain key words into circulation among ufologists. Those words could be tracked, on telephone calls for example, and interested individuals thus identified so they could be further monitored for whatever information they possessed. He concluded by saying, "The government doesn't know jack!"
Someone quickly interjected, "What do YOU know?"
The audience sparked to this. Everyone simultaneously started yelling questions -- in the ensuing uproar, Dames wasn't compelled to address any one of them. The questions became increasingly off-topic. Finally, someone yelled, "Dinosaurs!" and the entire house broke up. Too bad. For the sake of a few laughs, we lost the opportunity to see how willing Dames might be to share real substantive information.
Not all the laughter was in fun, either. There was a lot of nervousness in that room. We'd come to find "the truth," or confront whatever Dames represents, but that endeavor was tinged with more than a little fear.
Eventually, we got around to the really scary stuff -- the plant pathogen. Dames predicts the death of virtually all plants on earth and a rise in human virus epidemics, saying that the effects will peak between 1999 and 2001. Acknowledging that the story sounds far-fetched, he explained that Psi Tech had seen a global economic collapse and, in hunting for the cause of that collapse, they received information about the pathogen. It was not discovered while hunting for the Hale-Bopp "Companion," as those who heard Dames on the Art Bell show might assume.
Dames talked about three "safe" places: British Columbia, Switzerland near Liechtenstein, and a third location that he wouldn't reveal, saying it was a sanctuary for "other beings" and located on "sacred ground." He urged people to do their own remote viewing to determine where to go.
Dames had brought along two Psi Tech graduates. One of them Dames referred to as "my V.P.," often soliciting her advice on what could be revealed. She apparently is Keeper of the Legal Guidelines; I later learned that she is also his wife. The other graduate was a similarly youngish, hip sort of man who would occasionally shout out particularly well-phrased questions, apparently prepared with a laundry list of queries designed to solicit certain "must have" material for the taping. I got the impression that Dames is drawn to people who are more emotional that he and have a certain dramatic flare, intelligent but not limited to the confines of reason.
I wondered how Dames must have perceived the "real" military remote viewers, many of whom (like Ingo Swann) were natural psychics and had dramatic life-altering paranormal experiences. Dames was a monitor in those days, not a viewer himself. I could imagine Dames wanting to emulate such people.
At the same time, Dames is a pragmatist. He recognizes that Psi Tech is stretching credibility with the pathogen story, and this clearly bothers him. He now wants to focus on cases that can be verified, so as to lend credibility to the less immediately verifiable predictions.
One high-profile opportunity has not yet materialized -- a cash reward offered by James "The Amazing" Randi to any psychic who can prove their ability in a scientific format. Psi Tech has contacted Randi's organization several times to officially declare their acceptance of the challenge, but there has been no response.
Psi Tech's TWA Flight 800 crash viewings should be verifiable, for better or worse, but the case remains steeped in controversy. Months ago, Psi Tech sent a written report to the official TWA investigation team, stating that the explosion was due to a specifically described mechanical failure near the central fuel tank. However, a person in the MUFON audience claimed to have heard from a member of the crash investigation team that fragments of a Stinger missile have been found in the debris, directly contradicting Psi Tech's position. [CNI News is not aware that such information has ever been publicly disclosed.] Dames' reaction was interesting. He turned the question around and asked why a legitimate investigator would deliberately withhold evidence from the public. This seemed a rather astonishing statement from one who spent so many years in military intelligence and covert UFO investigation. But no one challenged Dames' response, and he slipped through unscathed.
The issue of credibility has haunted Dames ever since he went public with Psi Tech in 1989. He seems torn, on one hand insisting that remote viewing is scientific and verifiable, on the other hand venturing repeatedly into incredible territory, such as when he publicly described widespread alien activity on Mars [TREAT conference, March 1992], or his latest prediction of the death-dealing plant pathogens from space.
At one point during his MUFON presentation, he mumbled something about his naivete, the shock of transition to the "real world" after his military career. Dames is one who achieved a certain rank and stature, who hung out with super-spooks, tracking the pulse of the nation and the world -- and in that company, one gathers, he was respected and believed.
Now, no matter how scientifically demonstrable his methods, no matter how often it may have worked in the lab -- well, it just isn't the same.
[Ed Dames is scheduled to appear again on Art Bell's radio program on March 6. Check Art's web site for details: www.artbell.com.]
Original file name: CNI - Ed Dames.Skye
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