Jose Escamilla is a ufologist,
conspiracy theorist and crank, most famous for his discovery of the strange
“rods” (related, apparently, to orbs)
over New Mexico; they are insects,
and have been demonstrated to be so (here’s a site on Escamilla’s insect pictures in particular),
but that’s not exactly Escamilla’s interpretation. He calls himself a
producer-director and has edited footage of these rods for the last 20 years.
Cynics may wish to focus on the “edited” part, but there is some evidence that
Escamilla ran crazy with a honest mistake.
His first film, “UFO, The Greatest Story Ever Denied” begins
by talking about the rods, before it launches into Roswell and the Moon landing hoax,
complete with advice for viewers who wish to capture “invisible” UFOs on film
(without actually explaining how to do exactly that). The film is of course full
of grainy and blurred “UFO” pictures, dramatic music, and interviews with a
wide range of village originals.
As for the moon landing thing, Escamilla doesn’t in fact
deny that we have visited the moon, but subscribes rather to the “Moon Alien Belief”,
namely that the moon is filled with alien, intelligent life and that NASA,
instead of making contact, has launched nuclear missiles into space to try to
take them out. It is all described in his movie “Moon Rising”,
which is based on rather glaring factual errors and is, indeed, one of the most
profoundly silly “documentaries” ever made.
In any case, it seems that even the regular crowd of
gullibles are currently starting to see that Escamilla’s ideas are pretty much
worthless, which has left him madly ranting for donations and blaming anyone
and everyone for conspiring against him. The whole thing is in fact a little
sad.
Diagnosis: Arch-crackpot who started out with a splash by
making a real fool of himself, then continued to make it even worse when he
tried to control it. He still seems to have some followers, though.
No comments:
Post a Comment