The Anomalist: A Balanced Playing Field

The Anomalist:

“Though we hope to serve as a voice for anomalies, we will not shield any subject from justified criticism. We are not believers. We are not skeptics. We are writers, investigators, and scientists looking for the truth--whatever that may be. And though we are not without preconceptions, we will try to be upfront about them.
At times we may even be critical of science, for its ostrich-like stance in the presence of the mountain of anomalies it tends to disregard, but we are by no means anti-science. On the contrary, we would argue that no subject should be beyond the realm of science.”

The Anomalist promotes true freedom of expression on all types of mysteries on their web site. This is much more important then we may realized in these strange days when all you need is “group think” approval to be right and some groups tend to own their positions as if it was the only truth. The UFO subject can handle any of the debunkers out there in media land. All we need is a balance playing field “The Anomalist” has achieved that goal better then any web site I know of on this subject.

Rick Stokes is the News Editor for The Anomalist, newly hired, I wanted to interview him to find out what type of person becomes attracted to this field. So here is interview with the new kid on the block. Rick Stokes.


1. Rick how did you end up news editor for The Anomalist?

Rick: The night manager's position at the local McDonald's had been taken by an eager teenager, so I decided to look elsewhere. But, seriously, I'm the sort of person
who hates to have too much time on his hands. So, one morning while making my daily surfing stop at The Anomalist, something I've been doing for about eight or nine years, I spotted an announcement at the top of the page seeking a news editor. Since I have a background in newsgathering as a longtime media person,not to mention a year-and-a-half gathering Communist propaganda releases as a U.S. Army Intelligence Analyst stationed on Okinawa, and since I've been a lifelong student of the highly strange (thanks to books by Brad Steiger, Ivan T. Sanderson, Major Donald Keyhoe, Dr. Immanuel Velikovsky, Dr. Barry Fell, Loren Coleman and many others), and since I served a short-lived stint as editor of the print magazine Pigeon Racing Illustrated, I thought this was a job right up my not-so-straight alley. I applied, and through a scientific process involving the flipping of many coins and pulling the petals off thousands of daisies, I was selected.

2. How is it working with the staff over there?

Rick: I'm not sure if there's really such a thing as a "staff" at The Anomalist. As far as I know, author and publisher Patrick Huyghe and I are the only two people employed in keeping the site up and running. Patrick is the driving force behind The Anomalist and keeps everything running very smoothly. He's very easy to work with and for; no small glitch in the day-to-day running of the site is going to faze him. Above all, he is a cultured and well-educated gentleman anyone would be happy to be associated with.

3. Have you ever had an experience which you can’t explain conventionally?

Rick: There's really only one experience of that nature that's ever occurred in my life, and it involved me and my grandmother. I grew up in a small town on the east coast of Florida. Each summer, my parents would take the family to the small farm my grandparents owned outside Lucedale, MS, and we would spend a
few weeks there enjoying a trip to the country and some fairly primitive living conditions. When I was about 9-years-old, the night before we were to depart for my grandparents' farm I had a dream that was so real I could taste the water from my grandfather's well and smell my grandmother's kitchen. It was so vivid a dream that I remembered every detail, reliving every moment as my father drove the family stationwagon at speeds that would have made Jeff Gordon cringe up the narrow two-lane highways of those days to arrive at dark at the little farmhouse in Mississippi. After the hugs and kisses, my grandmother sat me down and told me that the night before she had a dream so vivid she could swear I was already there. Her dream matched mine in every detail. I've never been able to explain that.

4. What is your take on scientists today? Do you believe the majority practice pure objective science or more of a science by the numbers, and they tell you what numbers to use?

Rick: I think far too many scientists today, in every field, are too busy protecting their little turf, the small patch of specialization they feel they've made uniquely theirs, and protect their turf by lashing out at anyone brave enough to step past the gates they've been guarding. They get right down to name calling! It embarrasses me to think these people are so petty they won't even entertain the thought they may have been looking at some small part of their field of expertise from an angle that hid the true breakthrough that was awaiting discovery. In fairness, not all scientists are this way, and it may just be that the ones who are react so stridently when they think their turf has been sullied that they draw attention away from those who can take constructive views in their field and consider them thoughtfully.

5. Most of the people I know have been made fun of for believing in this “crazy spooky stuff” have you had experiences similar to this, If so how did you handle them?

Rick: It's difficult for me to answer this question, because I'm not sure I believe in what you term this "crazy spooky stuff" the same way you and just about everyone involved with this sort of information believes in it. For instance, I don't believe in UFOs the way most of the UFO crowd believes in them. I definitely believe in UFOs, you see, but not that they represent visits from beings occupying a planet or planets beyond our solar system. I do believe they are here for a purpose more fantastic, perhaps, than most UFO believers dare to believe. If you get right down to it, I believe UFOs and ghosts originate from the same source. And I don't think that source has our best interests in mind, otherwise they would have set up a dialogue with the governments of this planet and wouldn't be stealing away terrified people in the middle of the night to do terrible things to them. As far as people making fun of me for my beliefs, you're the first to actually hear those beliefs, and I haven't really gotten too far into them. On the other hand, there are beliefs such as evolution, which is supposedly the scientific way to view the manner in which we humans and all the life surrounding us came to be, and gravity, which is supposed to be a force capable of moving faster than the speed of light and holding things together through the entire universe. The last time I checked, evolution and gravity were still just theories, never proven. To me, as to many others, the simplest answer to the problem is always the correct one. The gravity theory is the only one that's ever gotten me any derision, but that was a case of someone misunderstanding my explanation of the Expansion Theory.

6. In your opinion what areas of research being conducted, on these strange phenomena, hold the most promise of gaining scientific credibility and future mainstream research money?

Rick: It appears to me the area of research most likely to gain mainstream research funds is the study of psychic abilities, such as Remote Viewing. I think I can safely say that, because there's evidence at least two governments have shelled out for such research. As for UFO research, I think the observed ability of these craft to move without any visible means of propulsion, supposedly by counteracting the attraction of gravity (which, as I stated above, may not even exist), is already being researched with mainstream money. As far as credibility goes, if mainstream money has been applied to the study, you can consider it credible.

7. We all have heard stories and reports we believe. What is the strangest story about one these mysteries that you’ve heard, which you feel has credibility?

Rick: I've heard or read so many, it's difficult to come up with the strangest. But certainly one of the strangest is the supposed excavation of skeletal reamains near Mohenjo Daro that show extreme radioactivity as though the dead were exposed to a nuclear detonation thousands of years ago. Who could have wielded nuclear technology back then?

8. Do you ever believe we will have the answers to the UFO question, and how would you, if you had the chance, go about funding that research to find an answer?

Rick: I think we already have the answer, but it's so frightening no one wants to believe it. I believe the answer shows we are being manipulated. I think totally ignoring the presence of UFOs and their attendant phenomena, which I believe include hauntings and spirits of the dead, will force the perpetrators of the phenomena to tip their hand. I don't think that requires funding, but I do think it would be impossible with the large number of people following the phenomena in a blind belief they hold the answer to some New Age dream of a spiritually reborn Earth.

9. Do you believe there is consciousness after death?

Rick: Unequivocally, for those who make the right choice while living.


10. Why do you think scientists are so afraid of even entertaining the thought that some of these powerful mysteries may be worth investigating, even in the face of mounting evidence that some of them may be real, unknown phenomena?

Rick: There are some scientists who are examining these phenomena right now. The real problem with researching in these areas, I think, is being able to design experiments that meet all the criteria of true scientific experimentation. As for those who cast a blind eye to all of these phenomena and refuse to consider them at all, I think they're responding to peer pressure. They might even be secret believers, but they feel, probably not unwisely, that delving into these mysteries could cost them funding on other projects, as well as costing the respect of their peers.


11. Aside from me(married and too old) do any of you guys get any “action with the ladies” or do they think you’re too weird?

Rick: I can't speak for any other "guys" who espouse belief in the arcane subjects we surround ourselves with every day, but the last time I got any "action with the ladies" everyone was dancing the Charleston. That was right after I got through delivering newspapers on my daily route along the Santa Fe Trail and just before I went home to read some much needed scriptures from my autographed copy of the Bible.

Thanks Rick.

The Aliens video that may just be real:




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