SUBJECT: THE PHOENIX PROJECT FROM A GENIE FORUM FILE: UFO2501
PART 4
Filename: Phoenix4.Thd
Type : Message Thread
Author : Trevor Prinn
Date : 08/03/92
Desc : Some History on Jack Mathias
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I was quite interested in the Phoenix Project stuff until I read that
Paranet had obtained it from Jack L Mathias. About a year ago Jack
appeared in the Issues forum on Compuserve (CIS) with a couple of SF
stories he had written under the name Jay Lewis, and was claiming to be
true stories. They told of how he had been abducted by aliens on
numerous occasions and had eventually been informed by them that he was
himself an alien implanted into a human body and was, in reality, the
husband (or something) of one of his abductors. He was trying to get
them published as fiction but I didn't think he was likely to succeed.
In subsequent messages in the forum he mentioned things like having
broken into an underground alien base and getting into a (gun?) fight
with the greys who occupied it. He also claimed to have been taught
some mind control and ESP techniques by the friendly aliens from the SF
stories. The first of these I recognised from an early novel by AE Van
Vogt and when I asked him if it was called the cortical thalamic pause
he confirmed it enthusiastically and near enough asked me which aliens
had taught it to me. When I told him where it came from he replied that
he had never read any Van Vogt, and that that author must therefore
have had some alien contact similar to his own. I didn't believe the
first part of that because I had already noted that the Jay Lewis
stories showed some stylistic similarities to Van Vogt. I thought of
writing to Van Vogt to get his opinion about the second part but
decided that it would probably just annoy him.
Later Jack posted some information about a further technique he had
been taught that enabled him to carry out telekinesis. This also looked
rather familiar and an hour spent poking around my quite extensive SF
collection turned up Jack of Eagles by James Blish. Not only did this
describe exactly the same thing in some detail but Blish also made a
deliberate mistake when quoting the Blackett equation (a formulation of
Heisenburg indeterminacy), which Jack had witlessly copied. I don't
know if it was significant but both of these SF books were inspired by
Count Korzybski's exposition of General Semantics, Science and Sanity.
I posted a reply that included a reference to a scene in Jack of Eagles
so that Jack could, if he wished, continue our game without letting on
to the other forum participants, but he didn't reply and posted no
further messages in the forum. Not long after that money trouble forced
me to reduce my CIS usage to just a mailbox and distribution point for
my shareware business so I didn't know that he had returned with more
of this stuff. By coincidence, I intended to rejoin the Issues forum in
a week or two anyway, so I hope he is still there peddling this Phoenix
stuff - he gave me a few good laughs last time around.
(Sorry if that was a bit long but you know how it is when you are
assigning someone's character.)
Trev Prinn
**********************************************
* THE U.F.O. BBS -
http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo *
**********************************************
