Mysteries of Space & Sky UFO Conference!
Saturday, Oct 29th, 2011

Dr. Peter Resta's One-Day UFO Seminar!

Dr. S. Peter Resta

Welcome and Keynote

Dr. Resta has had a lifelong fascination with UFOs and psychology. His psychological studies culminated in his earning a PhD, enabling him to maintain a clinical counseling practice as well as a teaching career at several institutions of higher learning in the state of Maryland. His two passions have come together for Peter, as he has been able to hold numerous one-day UFO seminar classes at various community colleges, as well as develop an advanced psychology course at UMBC on critical thinking and the paranormal. Whether it's the Pasgagoula abduction case, the Coyne helicopter case, or the latest mass sighting, Dr. Resta continues to argue that psychological theories simply cannot explain away the best cases. Come hear his latest insights.

George Knapp

Hunt for the Skinwalker

In 1996 a team of open-minded researchers from the National Institute for Discovery Science, founded by Las Vegas businessman Robert Bigelow, jumped at the chance to investigate weird phenomena still occurring on a remote cattle ranch. Its owner had been plagued for the past two years by blue orbs, strange animals and manifestations of a shape-shifting entity the Ute Indians called a "Skinwalker." George Knapp ultimately became part of the investigation, co-authoring a book with Dr. Colm A. Kelleher about this fascinating NIDS effort, Hunt for the Skinwalker: Science Confronts the Unexplained at a Remote Ranch in Utah. George was born in Woodbury, NJ, but grew up mostly in Northern California, graduating from high school there. George earned a bachelor's degree in communications from West Georgia College, then a master's in communications from the University of the Pacific, where he also taught speech and debate and served as director of forensics. George later taught speech at California Polytechnic University, coached the debate team at the University of California at Berkeley and taught broadcast journalism at UNLV. He moved to Las Vegas in 1979, becoming a part-time studio cameraman and production assistant at KLVX-TV Channel 10. KLAS-TV hired him in 1981 as a general assignment reporter, where he occasionally co-anchored various newscasts. Since 1995, George has been the chief reporter on Channel 8's I-Team investigative unit. He has earned *four* regional Edward R. Murrow awards and a national Edward R. Murrow. Add to that a prestigious Peabody Award, *17* Emmy Awards, *9* Mark Twain Awards for best news writing from the Associated Press. And in 1990, his series about UFOs was selected by United Press Int'l as best in the nation for Individual Achievement by a Journalist.

Antonio Huneeus

Global Perspective of the UFO Phenomenon in the 21st Century

Antonio is currently the primary investigative Reporter/Editor for Open Minds Magazine. Gifted with fluency in 4 languages, he has always kept abreast of the various historical, political, military and scientific UFO issues going on in the world. Join us as he shares his insights including the discussion of extraterrestrial life by astronomers from the Vatican Observatory and UFO sightings in Rome; the history of the UFO issue at the United Nations; the Laurance Rockefeller UFO Initiative in the 1990s; UFO investigations by the French Space Agency group GEIPAN; the new trend of official UFO agencies and investigations in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and other South American countries; and more. Antonio's articles have appeared in dozens of publications in the US, Latin America, Europe and Japan. He was also the co-author of the Laurance Rockefeller-funded UFO Briefing Document – The Best Available Evidence and edited the book A Study Guide to UFOs, Psychic & Paranormal Phenomena in the USSR. Huneeus studied French at the Sorbonne University in Paris and Journalism at the University of Chile in Santiago in the 1970s. He has lectured at dozens of UFO Conferences all over the world and been interviewed by many media outlets including The Washington Post, the Sy-Fy Channel and History Channel, Nippon-TV, etc. He received the "Ufologist of the Year" award at the National UFO Conference in Miami Beach in 1990 and the "Courage in Journalism" award at the X-Conference in Gaithersburg, Maryland, in 2007. A lifelong friend of the Swiateks, after residing in Brooklyn for most of his life, he lived only a mile and a half from their house in Fairfax for 8 years. During that time he was a favorite speaker at local Virginia UFO meetings.

Don Borton

The Tesla/Carr/Ring Story: The Search for Evidence

Donald C. Borton is the Maryland State Director for MUFON and has long been fascinated with flying machines and energy/propulsion systems. After growing up in Michigan, his military interests took him to the Great Lakes Naval Training Station, IL and the prestigious United States Naval Academy where he earned a sailing certificate to "handle yawls and ketches up to 20 tons." Later Don took to the air and was active in the Civil Air Patrol, becoming Commander of all squadrons in western Maryland. He was active in aircraft Search & Rescue operations and summer Bay Patrol (Chesapeake Bay) for many years. Don retired after 20+ years at the rank of LtC. His educational background was furthered along the way by a BS in Biology from George Washington University and a master's degree in Library Science from the University of Maryland. His biology and library science disciplines made him an ideal candidate for cataloging and sequencing the human genome, which he continued to be involved in even after retiring from the National Library of Medicine (Bethesda, MD) after 28 years of service. He later worked for The Institute for Genomic Research, Celera Genomics, The Center for Applied Genomics, and The J. Craig Venter Institute, all located in Rockville, MD.

Larry Jesse

Mars — The Mystery Planet

Larry's passion for Astronomy and life beyond planet Earth took its roots during the early 50's with Dr.Robert Goddard's rocket experiments and his dream of launching to the moon. But it was the 1952 UFO event in the sky above the Washington National Airport that prompted him to study UFO events. Larry's scientific and technical training in physics and astronomy (Master's, Columbia University) paved the way for his entry into the professional world of aerospace systems and space science. Larry's 36 year career with NOAA, DOD, and NASA Headquarters provided him with skills for the evaluation of conventional air and space systems and anomalous aerial phenomena along with a desire to understand the history of planetary development. Larry retired from NASA in 1999 and is now in his 33rd year teaching Astronomy part-time at a local college. He provides a rational approach to the subject of UFOs and includes this on-going mystery when covering the question of intelligent life in the universe. Retired from government service since 1999, Larry is currently on the Adjunct faculty at Anne Arundel Community College and Prince George's Community College.

Michael M. Hughes

UFOs and the Paranormal: Beyond the ETH

Michael M. Hughes is a writer, DJ, Freemason, magician, lecturer and performer. He has written extensively on paranormal phenomena, UFOs, the occult, entheogens, and other Fortean topics. An avid student of ufology since he was a kid, Michael had a remarkable sighting in 1990 which convinced him that simplistic mechanistic explanations for UFOs missed a much larger truth. He is a student of the paranormal angle on UFOs and synthesizes insights from the work of Jacques Vallee, the late Dr. Berthold Schwarz, Carl Jung, John Keel, Robert Anton Wilson, and Terence McKenna. He lives in Baltimore with his wife and two daughters, and by day Michael is the Communications Manager for The Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing. News of his writings and appearances may be found at: michaelmhughes.com.

Budd Hopkins – in Memoriam

A Tribute to a UFO Pioneer

Hopkins led an exciting New York City adventure for much of his life. From his humble origins in West Virginia to his hip Manhattan abode; Budd's life story is rich with connections to icons of the 20th-century New York art scene as well as players in the most astonishing UFO abduction cases in history. Arguably, Hopkins was THE pioneer in the UFO abduction field. His own UFO sighting played a role in fanning his curiosity, as did bizarre and serendipitous conversations he had at cocktail parties and art show openings. It seems that others had seen things, too. And they experienced strange amnesiac periods which Hopkins came to call Missing Time (the title of his first book). Through the magic of video, hear Budd Hopkins describe in his own words how a nice NY artist (with pieces in major museums around the world) became obsessed with resolving the UFO abduction mystery. Budd has published numerous books and articles, been the subject of a TV mini-series and leaves behind the legacy of the research group he founded, Intruders Foundation. IF continues his work at: Intruders Foundation

Robert Swiatek

From the Rogue River to Colusa — Those Confounding Cases!

Robert has had a curiosity about space, aeronautics and UFOs all his life. From launching rockets as a boy to working as an intern at NASA during college, Robert has only continued to increase his knowledge of conventional space vehicles as well as unconventional UFOs. His degrees in physics and earth science paved the way for a career at the US Patent Office where he is a Physics Examiner in Aerospace Technology. Robert has lectured at conferences throughout the US and contributed writing to numerous UFO projects and titles, especially for the Fund for UFO Research (FUFOR). Robert is frequently seen turning up on the Discovery or History channels in various productions. His aggressive debating style on programs such as Larry King Live has won him accolades from many in the field. He has served as Secretary-Treasurer of both FUFOR (since 1986) and the UFO Research Coalition (URC) since 1997. Robert has been on the Board of MUFON since 2004.

Susan Swiatek

50th Anniversary of the Betty & Barney Hill Case — Do We Understand Abductions Yet?

Susan was born in Washington, DC, yet grew up near Denver, Colorado. Since 1970 she is (again) living near the nation's capital, in Fairfax, Virginia. She is State Director for VA MUFON and is active with the Fund for UFO Research, Inc. (FUFOR). Susan's early years were spent in the Rockies gazing up at the star-filled sky and contemplating the Milky Way. As a child, she read such phenomena based books as Charles Fort's Book of the Damned and Mysterious Fires and Lights by Vincent Gaddis. In 1966, when Betty and Barney Hill's Interrupted Journey exploded onto the pages of LOOK Magazine, she was hooked on the UFO and abduction mysteries. Susan was greatly influenced by the writings of researchers Budd Hopkins and Dr. David Jacobs, both of whom became friends. Susan holds a BFA degree from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore and works in the publishing field. Susan hosted the 1999 MUFON Int'l Symposium just outside Washington, DC and has lectured widely. Her artwork appears in many books such as Ron Story's Extraterrestrial Encyclopedia and Richard Hall's The UFO Evidence-Part II. She has created many publication covers for FUFOR & the UFO Research Coalition.