For those unfamiliar with the history, Brian O’Leary was an astronaut who was selected to go to Mars, because Werner von Braun wanted some talent in the stable for his really
big rocket dreams:
http://www.ahealedplanet.net/brianbio.htm#marsBrian the astronomer was not a natural pilot, and the Mars dreams got scrapped to pay for invading Vietnam:
http://www.ahealedplanet.net/brianmem.htm#vietnamso he bailed out into academia. He had some paranormal experiences that wrecked him as an establishment cog, and he eventually left the orthodox fold:
http://www.ahealedplanet.net/brianmem.htm#remoteHis paths and mine crossed when he investigated what is commonly called “free energy.”
http://www.ahealedplanet.net/brianmem.htm#meetBrian also played around in many puddles, from visiting talented psychics, to crop circles, UFOs, free energy and fringe science laboratories and many other areas beyond the pale of establishment science. During his UFO phase, the USA’s military tried to recruit him into a UFO project (obviously way above top secret classification), and Brian nearly died immediately after refusing their offer.
http://www.ahealedplanet.net/brianmem.htm#attackBrian publicly alluded numerous times to run-ins with that cloak-and-dagger crowd on his journey, but would not give specifics for reasons of self-preservation. Those “run to the police” comments posted on this thread just about made me laugh out loud. Near the end of his life, he became a little more forthcoming about that scene, and wrote about that stuff in the prologue to his last book:
http://www.brianoleary.info/Synopsis.htmlWhat Brian’s friend “Ted” survived is very close to what Brian experienced. In the last year of his life, Brian did an interview where he went into a fair amount of detail about the offer from the military and what happened immediately after he turned down the “offer,” but he had second thoughts and had the interviewer hold back that portion of the interview.
The point of all that, at least with this crowd, is that Brian was not just playing “free thinker” with his doubts about the moon landings. Sure, his buddy Buzz was kind of close-lipped about his lunar experiences, but Brian’s doubts were probably more fueled by all the other stuff he was aware of regarding space and aliens. I did the dive and, with Jay’s kind help, got over the hump on the moon landings:
http://www.ahealedplanet.net/cover-up.htm#paydirtand although Brian was duly impressed with Armstrong’s Leap, I was never able to get him over the hump:
http://www.ahealedplanet.net/brianmem.htm#fox1and frankly, Brian had bigger fish to fry than the moon landings, even though that issue was a thorn in his side until he died.
Because of his stature, many people tried to enlist him in their cause, whether it was Sai Baba, the Face on Mars, the moon landings, etc. And on the moon landings issue, this crowd may be willing to help. Brian was never in the “we certainly landed on the moon” or the “we never landed on the moon” camps, although both camps tried to recruit him. When I wrote his Wikipedia bio, the moon landings issue was already prominent, I told Brian that we could not fight it, that it would always be there, but that we could give it the emphasis it deserved.
I originally buried the original text in his bio’s frontiers of science section (which has been rather inaccurately renamed, and I plan to rectify that during my upcoming edit battles at Wikipedia), but several factions seem to want to keep Brian’s participation alive on the issue, even though he specifically bowed out in his life’s last year. He wrote his “last word” when the Wikipedia “editors” kept emphasizing the moon landings issue. They gave it its own section:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_O%27Leary#Moon_landing_controversyand even erased my link to Jay’s page on Brian:
http://www.clavius.org/oleary.htmlWhen I tried to link to Brian’s last word on my site (while asking for forbearance until I could get it hosted someplace “reputable” enough so that the “editors” could not erase it again):
http://www.ahealedplanet.net/brianbio.htm#statementthey nuked it (somebody joined Wikipedia, anonymously of course, the coward, just to erase it).
What I have found with debunkers is that they nearly invariably defend the establishment. Sometimes it is worth defending, but not often. Attacking or defending the establishment is not necessarily a pursuit of the truth. The moon hoax believer crowd is trying to keep Brian’s participation in the moon hoax controversy alive, and it is not only a disservice to his memory to do that; it is also a disservice to the moon landings issue. If nothing else, I would think that the moon hoax debunker crowd would want to help set the record straight, at least in the interest of the truth, although Brian’s “last word” may not be satisfying for them. It was not satisfying to me, either, but it was how he saw things.
I have a line to the astronauts because of my work on Brian’s astronaut biography:
http://www11.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/oleary-bt.htmlbut I don’t want to play that card unless I have to, and have some other avenues to try before it comes to that. For now, I am just looking for a “reputable” source that can host Brian’s last word, so that those trying to keep his “participation” in the issue alive will have a harder time playing that dishonest game at Wikipedia.
If anybody can help in this area, the assistance would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Wade
